Potty Trained

Yes, it is true. Celie is potty trained now. I am so proud of her. As soon as we got back to Texas we let her run around the house “bottom-less” and that seemed to seal the deal for her. She is great and such a big girl. She is still a silly thing too. Her way of dancing to music now is either having Daddy throw her around in the air or walking in circles with her eyes closed hoping she doesn’t run into anything. Though, I have to say that it is funny when she runs into a wall or a couch. Celie has also adjusted to moving home very well. She had fun playing with her old, left behind toys and when she went to our first playgroup she walked into the house and said very loudly “Hello Friends”. She walked around to each baby and kid to touch their shoulder, greet them with a smile and say hi. All the moms got a kick out of that.

Back Home

We made it safely home to Texas! Celie did wonderful on the drive again. We are really being watched over. Marty was the one that had to endure the pains of the trip. Although I did get swelling in my legs and they hurt a bit. Ok, that is nothing compared to what poor Marty had to deal with. Since the car he drove was without air conditioning he was in the humid heat the whole time. Dehydration! He would barely eat food because he felt sick from the heat. I’m not sure how hot it really was, but we heard that in Oklahoma the heat index (humidity included) was around 110. He was literally fried. Well half of him anyway. We forgot to prepare him with sun screen so his whole left side of his upper body was burnt. It’s pretty funny looking actually.

We also ran into an accident that held us up for a while. With out the wind from the car moving, Marty got extra hot. We did, however, make good time. We left Sat. morning and made it to Oklahoma City that night. We then arrived at home a bit before 3:00 pm. Wow, I was surprised. A day and a half, I can do that. I probably could have made it to Lake Powell for the family vacation with out too much whining, but I have to admit that being with Marty for a nice relaxing week was nice.

Marty’s classes started up and he has taken on running in the evenings. What a motivated guy! I sure am proud of him. He has a good group to work with in one of his classes; which means that the class will be significantly less stressful. I am getting back to my playgroups and projects and I am enjoying it a lot. I missed my friends during the summer, but I guess it just makes me appreciate their friendship even more having been away from them. I am also more grateful for our furniture and the comforts of our fully furnished apartment! Being “without” for a while always helps humble a person. I am glad to be home and healthy. Good luck to Marty as he finishes his last semester! I am sure he will appreciate all of your thoughts and prayers.

Internship Frustration

Marty has impressed his supervisor with his many workplace talents, of course. He has learned a lot about the auditing of controls for a large project called SOX for the company he is with. The other day they had their normal phone meeting from the SOX head honchos to see how their progress is going. There are hundreds of people listening in on this meeting even from a bunch of different countries. Marty said that they were requiring everyone to go back and redo all of their work because they wanted extra data. They blamed it on everyone else for not having it done already and were rude and unreasonable with their due date for the project. Poor Marty, and everyone else working on SOX, has to go over all of their previous work and do it over again. Of course he doesn’t have time to do this since we leave soon so the problem is on his supervisor. What a frustrating thing! I am so proud of the work Marty is doing so naturally we are frazzled about his internship ending on a sour note, but at least he was able to learn a lot about the workplace and handling this big project when knowing nothing about it. On the more positive side, we are able to stay a week longer so he can work. This will be good for us and it will obviously help out the company as well. We will be heading back to Texas on the 19^th of August to start his last semester of school. Yea! Wish us luck with the move.

Funny Habits

Celie has been developing these very distinct and compulsive habits lately. Although sometimes it makes me upset when she does them it does make me laugh and remember how funny this mortal life is. The first compulsive habit I noticed was the “crayon scraping”. Instead of coloring with them she hides in a corner or under a table and scrapes the tip of the crayon until all her fingernails are full of vibrant colors. She has taken this tendency even to another level. I have to constantly remind her in the car “no scraping the seat”. I know I am not the only one with crumbs in the car seat corners so don’t be so appalled at the thought! She knows very well that she shouldn’t be doing this. She even tells me after she has done it saying “Oh no, mamma, I scrape”. Yea, that makes everything better.

Another funny habit is that of the toilet paper routine! We have been potty training and she is doing well. At home she will go when she needs to most of the time. She can even go by herself as well as wiping, flushing, and washing hands. After I started to let her wipe by herself I noticed that she would, with out thinking, pull the toilet paper down a bit, tear it off, and throw it in the potty. Then, she would do it again, but this time use the toilet paper to wipe. I tried helping her to understand that the first piece was as good as the second, but she reacted terribly. It was like the disruption of her routine would simply destroy all comfort she had in life. I think she is getting better now.

My favorite one happens in her daily prayers. This is partly our fault by unknowingly teaching her, but I think she knows better yet does it anyway. She used to give prayers very normal, starting out with Heavenly Father, thank yous, bless this and that, and the name of Jesus Christ Amen. She started to skip saying Heavenly Father and go one with the rest. So as parents do, we told her to remember to say Dear Heavenly Father. Unfortunately we told her after she had finished her prayer. So now she begins her prayers: Jesus Christ, Amen, Heavenly Father and on with the rest. She says it so fast so we aren’t able to catch or correct her, she finds that funny. Just thought I would share some sweet things about our sweet Celie. She is a funny girl and I love her oh so much.

Nauvoo

We were lucky to have Marty’s sister and her family visit from Wisconsin this last weekend. We spent Saturday in Nauvoo. Aside from the tantrums Celie threw all day, we had a great time. It was so good to learn more about the history of the church as they settled and were driven out of Nauvoo. We went on horse wagon rides and tours of the marvelous rebuilt homes and learned about how they made things and supported each other. The temple is beautiful. It stands majestically at the top of the hill and reminds us all about the struggles the saints went through to build it the first time, years ago. People are friendly and giving and I was even able to see some people I knew from Utah. Marty tried a hand at the stick pull and Celie and I danced to the pioneer music. It was fun to be with baby Dallin and be with family at this wonderful historic site.

The pageant was incredible. I felt that the script was perfectly done. Completely informative of church beliefs, full of the spirit, and plenty of real stories to help us understand the saint’s struggles and joys. Even though we got home around 1:00 a.m., we appreciated the opportunity to be there. It was overwhelming to see that sacred place were our church leaders of old walked, talked and built up the Kingdom of Heaven.

Ohio

Marty, Celie and I went to Ohio to visit my Grandparents for the 4th of July weekend. We had a wonderful time. It was good for all of us to get to know each other better and I am so proud to have them as Grandparents. Celie was fairly obedient in their home, which I was thankful for. She did however spend most of her time telling Grandma Doe, as she called her, to come here and go there. Obsessively going over to pet the fake pigeon in their sun room and of course taking Grandma with her. They were patient with her and we all loved to see Celie love her Great Grandparents even as soon as we got there. Visits like these help me remember how important family relationships are. These relationships and our knowledge are the only things we can take with us after we die. I am so glad we had the chance to be fairly close to them so we can learn of their life and their joys. They do a beautiful job of putting new fabric on old furniture and wow are they good at it. Marty and my Grandpa were able to go golfing, which is one of their favorite things to do. We love them so much and are glad that Celie was able to meet them. Families are Forever!

Purse Theif

Marty and I were making our first trip to a Super Wal-mart a few weeks ago to have a look around. After we purchased a few things and were getting in the car I noticed two teenage boys suspiciously pushing at one another like there was something they wanted done, but neither one wanted to do it. They were two or three cars away from us standing next to a large, older car with all of the windows down. Marty was busy putting Celie in the car seat while I watched one of the boys finally reach in the car and pull out a black purse. I had thought that we made eye contact earlier (during their pushing) so I was astonished that they went through with it and then made eye contact again. I wanted to yell out "Did you just steal that purse right in front of me?", but I was too surprised at what just happened that I watched them walk away. To my greater surprise they walked straight over to an expensive, red sports car opened the door, put the purse in and went in the store to shop!! Like I said, they were young teenage boys. Not smart on their part.

It took me a while to convince Marty that I just witnessed theft in the parking lot, but he acted quickly and caught sight of the boys walking into the store. He quickly went to the service desk and told security what had happened. An undercover-looking guy came out to look at the two cars involved and called police, meanwhile the boys are still shopping. Marty went in with the security guy and pointed the boys out in the store and they even made eye contact a couple of times, I think they were starting to realize that we were on to them. They came out of the store shortly after and I watched them walk to the red car and pull out the purse like they were going to put it back, but as soon as it was in their hands and the car door was shut, the police showed up! They weren't very gentle either. They were hand cuffed and put into the police cars quickly. The Wal-mart security says that this has been happening a lot lately, so lesson learned: Roll up windows, lock doors, and just don't leave your purse on the front seat!!!! We felt proud of our little service to the community!

Scary Bags

Celie is so funny some times. Lately, when we are getting Celie dressed for the day near her closet, she will scoot far away from the closet and act like there is a monster hiding in there! It took me a while to get her to show me what was so alarming to her, because she couldn't describe it to me in words. She wouldn't get close enough to the scary object for me to know and she was so traumatized that she wouldn't answer me when I would point to things. Crazy! I thought maybe it would be some bugs hiding in there that she saw crawling around during the day (which would be something I would be afraid of). Finally I decided that it was the pile of bags in the corner of the closet. Bags! Not the metal parts or the mouth of the bags, but the bags as a whole. I hope she doesn't go to sleep scared every night. Also, in the morning when the lights are dim and she is eating her breakfast I will hear a gasp and perhaps a drop of the spoon in her cereal bowl. Of course I come running, only to see her staring wide eyed at my purse which is set on an end table by the door. She gets over the shock very quickly and gets back to life like nothing happened. Now, when she is caught by surprise from these monsters, she tells me: "Mom, I scared. Scary bags!"