Taking a Poll

Dan and and I are thinking about what to replace our van with. While we are fully aware that the Odyssey and Sienna are head and shoulders above the rest, they are also significantly more expensive. We thought about all that before we purchased our current Mazda MPV. And let me mention how much I LOVE our van. It drives like a car (minus good get-up-and-go), has a lot of fun perks, and it has just been a great van for us. Some of my favorite features are these:

1. The second row captains chairs. They slide forward and backwards to give more legroom. Also, one of them slides sideways as well! This is nice because I can have both seats right next to each other, or I can have space between them. They both come out easily as well. I love the middle seats.

2. The back bench seat folds flat. I cannot tell you how convenient this has been for us. It makes life nice and easy sometimes.

3. The roof rack is fabulous. I'm so glad the van came with one, because we have used it a lot. Long and lengthy road trips have been made easier because we could toss all our stuff on the roof and keep the interior of the van a little less cluttered.

4. There are lovely pockets and nooks and crannies everywhere. I have a great sunglasses compartment in front, and there is a wonderful little hidey hole in the back- that's where I tuck the spare clothes for those unexpected accidents. Oh, and the passenger in front gets a little drawer under their seat. How cool is that?!

Anyway, I love this van. Still, I am going to have to get a new(er) one soon. We're coming up on 100,00 miles, and considering we've never done any maintenance other than oil changes, I think things are going to fall apart fast. What I want from you, my friends, is your opinion. If you have a van, what kind? What do you love about it and why? I admit I am leaning towards the Kia Sedona (after 2007 they get better). What features do you like? What can you not live without? Is there anything you hate? I need some advice here! I need to be ready in case the van has something catastrophically wrong before we are planning to buy something else. And no, we do not intend to buy new! Oh, and we are open to the option of an SUV, since we will be a family of 7 soon.

Mostly Pictures

This is Marian with her homework she did not want to do. Note the happy face she has. Ha ha ha.

This is Marian, giving an evil cackle. You can see her very scribbled picture here. She's a funny funny kid.

There was a Primary Activity on Saturday and it included an Easter Egg Hunt. the kids brought baskets and here, you can see what Joshua was doing with his basket.

Marian has the funniest faces!

Callie got to be a big helper during the lesson portion. It was really well done.

Okay, Joshua was not impressed with the lesson. This was his attitude.

Here is Callie, in her new favorite pink pants, with her haul of eggs.

And here we have Marian, being silly. Notice her super-cool frog basket?! It was a birthday present from Grandma and Grandpa and she LOVES it!

How my week has been....

Well, I always intend to post 2-3 times a week. I'm sure the 3 of you who await with bated breath to see if I have posted will be happy today. It has been a week of high highs and interesting lows. I'll mention just a few things that have kept me busy so far:

The van went into 'park' after Church on Sunday and refused to come out. This was bad. However, I amazed and impressed myself. I read the manual, and figured out how to get it out of its "shift-lock". I then came to the conclusion that other electrical issues could indicate a blown fuse. I discovered that this was the case, replaced the fuse, and viola! The van is working! I think I am so brilliant sometimes! Unfortunately, the next day the "check engine" light came on, and I have to decide if I really do need to get it checked. Sigh.

The oven finally frightened me enough to stop using it. It wasn't always getting hot, yet the house was smelling of gas. Not a good combo. I finally called it in and they sent the fantastic maintenance guy over to fix it. He's my new favorite person, and he fixed the oven in 15 minutes. I had 2 meals sitting in the fridge just waiting for the opportunity to be cooked. I had made Dan go get pizza one night because I was afraid of the oven. So now we're back to home cooked meals.

One of my children, who has been potty trained for a significant amount of time is suddenly having issues. No one likes a smelly kid, and this child has been smelly waaay too many times this week. I have a no-cleaning policy. If one of the kids poops in their underwear, I'm not cleaning it; it goes in the trash. So I'll be buying new underpants for this child. And Dan is getting cross and concerned with the frequency of these accidents. I'm more concerned with the nonchalance of the child towards the issue.

I had the very unpleasant opportunity of going in to have a ginormous sebaceous cyst removed from my back. I had a great doctor who did not mock my neurosis and silly fears and he did a nice job. Still, its not a fun thing, and my back really hurt for about 24 hours. He said I could take Tylenol, but I discovered we had none. I still have stitches in my back, but its feeling fine now and I no longer wake up every time I roll over at night.

I had Activity Day on Wednesday night. For those of you unfortunate enough to have never played the game of "Curses", I will merely say, it was a very entertaining evening! I laughed much and the girls did too. And I still got home in time to see most of Survivor!

Marian had a homework assignment. Part of it was for her to either write or draw workers in our community. She did not want to do it. ( big surprise.) She finally buckled down and scribbled some interesting, yet indecipherable "pictures" and told me it was the post man and the garbage man. I wrote that translation for the teacher and left it like that. She does draw some spectacular pictures, she's just a pill!

Dan has been reading "Amelia Bedelia" books to the girls at night and it is the cutest thing ever! Okay, that actually saves me time, but it was worth mentioning!

I got to go to Enrichment last night. I love gabbing with all my friends. And there are so many cool people in this ward that there are quite a few ladies I would love to get to know better, but there's just not enough time! So I stayed late and talked and had a marvelous time. And, I didn't puke or even think I might yesterday. Life is looking up!

I checked on Delaney last night at 10pm, before I went to bed. She was sleeping sweetly. I went in to wake her up at 8am and she was nowhere to be found. Almost as alarming was the stench of vomit, and the copious amounts of that nasty stuff all over her bed. I looked all over her room for her and finally hollered for the other kids to see if they had seen her. Then I heard a sad cry. Poor little Delaney had apparently removed her clothes and crawled under the bed after emptying her tummy. It was so sad and pathetic. And gross.

So, that's what I have been up to. And now it is 9am on a Friday and I am unshowered and in my PJs still. Good thing I have absolutely nowhere I need to be today!!

Birthday Girl!

This week Marian turned 6! I can't believe it. When did I get so old?! It doesn't seem like it was that long ago that she was born, 8lbs 3oz and 20 inches long. She was an adorable, beautiful baby, who refused to nap, but looked so sweet.

Six week old Marian.

That's my girl, almost 18 months old, and look at that face! Delaney sports that look a lot lately.

At 2 1/2 years old, she was something else. Lots of fun and a neat kid. She threw some colossal tantrums, but mostly was sweet and easy-going. She is still a lot like that!

Marian wanted a lion cake for her birthday. I made a decent attempt at it. I was short on time to get everything done, and I did not notice till I got started frosting, that I had orange gel frosting, NOT orange frosting coloring. So I tried to wing it on the orange thing. It was fairly unsuccessful, but Marian was pleased with the cake.

This picture was facing the correct way when I uploaded it. I don't know why Blogger flips some of them. But yes, this was the lion cake. Mock it not! It was delicious!

The birthday girl was happier than she looks in this picture. By the way, that is the crown that she got in school on her birthday. She refused to take it off, even going to bed with it on!


She had a good time and the cake was a hit.

She liked the presents even better. And in case anyone is wondering.... do NOT buy anything labeled "sidewalk paint"! Its messy, messy,messy. More than that, its not very user friendly.

And that was Marian's birthday. We did have a few neighbor friends stop by for cake, but I did not want to do a full on party. It went well, and Marian was happy with her day, other than she wanted an Easter Egg Hunt and I didn't do one. I figured that can wait till Easter!

Life with Delaney

I know, Delaney gets the most pictures and posts. That's partly because she is home all day with me, every day. And mostly because she is the most interesting child right now. And I do NOT mean that in a good way. Let's take a look at how our week has been so far....

Monday we had to stop by the grocery store for a few items. Delaney pawed through the diaper bag, saw the camera and demanded "picture!". So I obliged. This is her new pose. You may recognize it as the same one her sisters like to do.

Later that afternoon, after 2 changes of clothing, we had lunch. You can see how much she ate and how much more she played with her sandwich. And then she put her feet on the table and laughed hysterically. I tell ya, she is trouble!

Tuesday morning I got out of the shower and it was quiet. Too quiet. I didn't even get dressed, just wandered out in my towel to see what the girls were doing. Delaney had used a chair to climb up onto the shelves, discovered paint I didn't even know we had. She then dumped it (and the change jar) all over the living room floor. Callie was in a panic, trying to be a helper and clean it up. That's why the green is smeared. Callie was running over there with a (totally saturated) washcloth, trying to clean it up.

This is the tear streaked, non-repentant face of Delaney before I cleaned her up (still in my towel. I then plopped her in her room and left her there till I was dressed and mostly done cleaning the carpet. It was "water-reducible" paint, which is not the same as washable. It did not all come out. (Sorry Kirsten, I tried, really, I tried!) My wonderful friend Raina came over with her carpet cleaner and used that on the spots, but they are still visible. The green blends better.

Yesterday I had the horrific experience of driving Delaney to Walter Reed Medical Center. Delaney enjoyed the trip. I did not. The GPS sent us smack through the center of Washington DC. It was a rotten drive. Then there was no parking. And although we left 90 minutes before our appointment, we were still late. (Dan asks why I do not like DC. THIS is why!! 90 minutes to get somewhere less than 20 miles away? Ug!)

Delaney screamed whenever anyone touched her. Oh, she was there for her annual Kidney screen. Since she only has the one kidney, they like to check it. This still ended up being a pointless appointment, that took over 5 hours of my day, but at least I jumped through that hoop to ensure the good health of my kid.

After the appointment, they wanted a pee sample. Um, I've been there 2 hours already, and the one juice box I brought was drunk a looong time ago. They attached a collection bag under Delaney's diaper and we went to play in the waiting room. Delaney had a blast ans was perfectly content with her day. I eventually hauled her up to the third floor and discovered the mini-mart, where we bought juice. It took 45 minutes to get her urine sample. And then another hour plus to get home. Ug. Not my favorite day!

This morning I was checking email at 8:30. I asked Callie where Delaney was, because she had been so quiet. Callie came back and said, "I don't know.". Hmmmm..... I was getting ready to go look when Callie raced down the stairs, shouting "Delaney is in the middle of the street!" Oh shoot.

Yep, the little stinker snuck out when Joshua ran out for the bus. She had been outside about 10 minutes. That was long enough to sneak to the next door neighbor's, steal the girl's trike, and go riding it down the center of the road. I dashed out to get her.... still in my PJs.

Later this morning, I again enjoyed an interruption-free shower. Once I was dressed, Callie came to tell me that "Delaney's in trouble". Yes she was. Here she is, reveling in her trouble! She climbed up on that counter, got into the candy hidden on the top shelf, and opened as much as she could. Then she ate as much as possible.

Defiant and quite happy with her efforts. What am I going to do with this kid?!! She's going to be the death of me!