UPDATES...

Sophie has learned to pose and smile for the camera. She is starting to actually play a few big kid games with Melia and seems less baby every day. She is starting to care for baby dolls, play kitchen, look at more books, color, and play pretend. Her vocabulary consists of four words: Dah (dad), Daw (dog), muh (more), and haah (hot). I think she is pretty slow to talk but I don't care, I know she will do it eventually. I just love her stage in life right now. It is my favorite!!! She is a total doll!






Melia has been quite obedient and a good listener lately when I tell her what to do and not do. The other morning she woke me up, wide awake, at 5 am. I told her to sit and watch her show and that she musn't dare wake me up again. So when I was still sleeping (in) at 8 am, she asked Danny to make her some strawberry milk and then whispered in his ear("because I'm not supposed to wake up Mommy"). She eagerly attends any social event, particularly the cowbus preschool or trips to the library for books. She took a nap the other day, it was heaven. Both girls ASLEEP...simultaneously...during the afternoon...for almost two hours!




Danny is so bright and creative. He is so fun to talk to. He has many ideas about business and artwork and music. And he doesn't just think about it, he does it! Life with Danny is very exciting. He discusses news with me because he follows it so much better than I, and he really enjoys doing his blog. It is very much him. He and his brothers have a good thing going with that. As for his side business ventures, still pending. Success is awaiting closely, I know. He is liking our three-month long P90X bootcamp workout program, and is amazed that he hasn't gained any weight, even by doubling his calories over the last six weeks, including a 500-calorie milkshake right before bed each night. He is as handsome to me as ever, and I love cuddling up to him at night.



Let's see...it is my turn. I have been enjoying my perfect eye sight, cooking a lot and eating well, and taking it easy with my children. They are so fun. Our lives are quiet, simple, at times too quiet (I need to call friends more!), but very rich and wonderful. I know that sounds overly colorful and happy, but I really feel that way right now as I type this. I feel really good. I have purchased some vegan cookbooks to help me make family meals we all can eat, without any meat or dairy. I am sick of so much meat; it is unnecessary, a waste, and expensive. Sophie is still as allergic as ever to any hint of dairy. I am working to complete my interior house decor, at last (well, for the most part). I've swapped stuff out, rearranged, repainted a couple of places, and stayed up late a few times. I've done it for cheap, too. Maybe I'll post pics in the next couple of weeks. I wear high heels more often and apply makeup every day. I wear my cute shirts on average days and put my t-shirts away in a drawer, only to be worn when working or exercising. And exercising! We are rounding out week 5. It can be such a pain, especially when we start working out at 11:30 pm, but it doesn't matter. It is great fun to do this together, we don't usually work out that late, and we both feel quite healthy.

Note:

You are all very nice friends...but really, the reason I want to give that certificate away is because I am going to Hawaii with Danny (no kids) next month for 7 days! So we are getting our away time, believe me!

Double-4 Folder Photo Tag

I've been photo tagged by my sister, Beth!

The tag: Go to your pictures, open the 4th folder and upload the 4th picture in that folder...and explain!

This is a river running in the Hyde's back yard, the one that Danny and his siblings grew up playing in over the fun-filled years of their Tom Sawyer-like childhood. He says he used to ice skate on it, and I am sure he did. It is a fairly shallow river and the winters in Fallon can be quite cold, though I do think the weather is slightly milder than in Utah. The biggest difference between Northern Nevada's winters and those of the Wasatch Front is how we will we get weather that is relentlessly overcast and gray for weeks at a time, with no sun at all. Each day, the "pogo nip," (or "white death" or "cloud," as dubbed by the Shoshone Indians) grows thicker and heavier upon every blade and branch. The pogo nip pictured above is only moderate. So, as you can see, though the long spells of gray can be dreary, they are still very beautiful.
P.S. This picture was snapped by Anne Hyde and copied by me.

I tag: Hayley, Shelly, Karen, Christie, Anne, Kristen, and Candy
(and my dear husb, Danny, except you have to paint yours!)

I HATE MY HAIR!!!

I have been looking for changes in my life lately...For example, in the last couple months I did Lasik on my eyes, changed my living room, started eating healthier, and I work out every day now. I also changed my hair.
First I got shorter layers cut in, which looks fantastic, but I also got highlights, which didn't work for me. I guess I just didn't know what else to do. I knew, as I was asking her to do them, that I didn't want to have her color my hair in any way that day. I had a bad feeling about it. But because she had reserved two hours for me, I felt like it was unfair to her to change my mind, only get the haircut, and walk out over an hour earlier than had been planned. So I just went ahead with it. I haven't really colored my hair before and figured it was a mild way to go anyway. The highlights weren't so bad, Danny liked the blonde with my complexion, but they just turned out a little bronzey along the top of my head, and too chunky, which bugged me, because I like natural looking hair on myself. So I asked my stylist to try her best to change it back. Now my ends look rich and fantastic and I love them...but my roots and the top three inches of my head are, well, RED! I am not comfortable with this! NOW I HAVE TWO TONE HAIR THAT IS FAKE RED AND DARK BROWN! I might as well start dressing gothic and put purple highlights all over in it, with a strip of scarlet down the front, too! I hate it! And I no longer trust my hair lady and am not sure who to turn to!
I know this is whiney and vain and ridiculous, but I have been mourning for my old hair for days now. I had decided two weeks ago that I wanted to keep my long hair into my thirties...now I am worried sick that I must cut it, short, which is the last thing I want to do! (deep breath, sniffle) This is why I have stayed away from coloring it all my life! Oooh, I just want to cry! What do I do?! Help!

Squeeker Shoes

Grammy gave these little kicks to Sophie awhile back. Sophie loves them. We love her.

STUFF, lots of it

messy messy messy

Sometimes I get doing a project and whooaa!-- my house becomes destroyed! Above, are piles of the stuff I picked up off the floor from around my entire house after a couple days of "project time."

And here are my personal calculations of just how much crap I pick up off the ground over a year. Dedicated to all you Mighty Mothers and "Super Sorters" (err, Americans) out there...

These piles of mine each had about 300 items in them! Shoes, toys, a bunch of little hair clips, tools from the garage, clothes...etc. I figure that means there are about 100-200 items each day that must be put back in their proper place. If that is true, each week I sort through at least 700 items of crap and each year, in my little 1500 sq. ft. house of four, I sort through and put away around a half million items!
Goodness, me!
And this doesn't include papers, food, dishes, laundry, closets and drawers, etc.

I either better get rid of some crap or teach my kids how to do it as soon as possible!

Lasik Surgery

I have a flash news update... and it is not from ABC!

I have 20/20 vision now!

I am love, love, lovin it!

I see: the leaves on trees, people's facial
expressions from afar, the beautiful
night sky, and the digital clock on my stove!

And the doctor tells me it will get even better! YAHOO!

Also, since I have very dry eyes, I got permanent plugs put in so that my eyes will be more comfortable from now on, too! Thank you Doctor! Thank you Danny! Thank you life! Thank you world! Thank you thank you thank you! Oh, AND Happy Awesome Birthday Present to me!

Six Years Together

We celebrated our Sixth Anniversary last week! This is an awkward shot of us at the movies together. What fun! We saw Ghost Town. It was a great show, very funny. We spent the night in Reno and tried to feel okay about not going home to our children at the end of the night! It was so fun to be together. It got us even more excited for our upcoming getaway to Kuaii in December. Thanks to Scott and Karen for watching the girls, they had a great time and didn't even miss us.

While we were away, we were laughing about the "misrepresentations" we exchanged when dating...and the harsh realities we have faced since! Haha, I don't think we had a clue of how much we were stretching the truth! Love you, Honey!

FABRICATIONS:
Danny: "I like to cook."
Annie: "I like sports."
Danny: "I believe in sharing duties around the house."
Annie: "I don't suffer from pms."

FACTS:
Danny: "Hey, I cook...I've done it at least twice."
Annie: "I will allow Danny to watch sports and won't complain (too much). I bought him TV headphones and they are fantastic. He gets surround sound, and I get no sound!"
Danny: "I don't like house duties."
Annie: "I do suffer from pms."

Oh, Danny! You are my man, and I love you!

I have a hard time breaking doing the frills

A week with Moi!

What kinds of things am I up to?

I am always interested in the day to day TO-DO's of my friends, even the boring and tedious stuff. A week of TO-DO Check-offs tells a lot about a person. I am hoping everyone who sees this blog will do something similar (and PLEASE! Put some of the boring stuff in!).

Here is my list. I:

-Went to our weekly Sunday night dinner at Danny's parents--LOVE it!
-Held Danny and my first official weekly Sunday night meeting which we are going to do from now on in order to get ourselves a little more organized and directed.
-Did laundry, went grocery shopping at Wal-mart where everyone there that day was sixty years old, cleaned cleaned cleaned cleaned...oh and my house is a total mess right now.
-Purchased soil test kits from the hardware store and tested FOUR areas of my yard for pH, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (though I still don't understand what the phosphorus and potassium tests were, I just did those because I could, I guess).
-Went boating with the Hydes because Danny's fun and smart sister, Christie, and her daughter, Jaydenne, came into town for a visit. It was one of the funnest lake trips this year. The highlight was the end of the trip when Mark unknowingly dumped Scott and Danny (who was dry) off the ski deck into the water. They were at the back of the boat cleaning some stuff up, Rob told Mark they were done when they weren't, and he gave let the boat go from neutral to full throttle. The boys were gone! The look of confused shock on their faces as they went flying into the water was hilarious!
-Got my teeth cleaned while Karen watched my girls. Melia loves to be there so much.
-Paid bills online (I finally started doing this, go me!).
-Went to Melia's preschool orientation.
-Went to the eye doctor to see if I qualified for LASIK. And yes, I do! I can get it done as soon as I am ready! Then I met Anne and Christie for dinner and after bought some things at Saver's Thrift Store. I wish I went to thrift stores more often.
-Went swimming at Mark and Anne's with the girls one night just to hang out with Christie a bit more.
-Loved on my girls.
-Went to YW and watched a Jon Bytheway talk on standards. I was a better person after that.
-Talked to my sister, Heather on the phone for a long time while I weeded. It felt nice to unload a few of my thoughts on her and find out how she was doing.
-Made dinner a few times.
-Ordered a few summer clearance swimsuits that I hope work out! Danny and I are headed to sunny Hawaii in December and I must prepare myself!
-Blogged and e-mailed.
-Watched Kiersten Lewis's kids while she went to Reno.
-Got really sick Thursday through Friday. It came down on me in a matter of 5 minutes and I didn't recover for a day and a half. Missed a picture appointment at JC Penney's for my kids because of it.
-Took care of my sick family (they all came down with it, too).
-Got a prescription for Sophie, who has a sinus infection. The doctor is probably going to remove her adenoids next month. He says on a scale of 0-4, they are a 4.
-Danny's ear infection cleared up and at his check up the doctor and he decided to get his deviated septum fixed soon.
-Fixed and updated the YW Personal Progress Chart/Bulletin.
-Talked with my neighbor friend, about her new life with her first boyfriend, her first driver's license, and her first car, all at the age of 24! She has finally made it to this phase of life! Wahoo!
-Fixed a logo Danny made for my friend and made up some jar labels and business cards.
-Watched my neighbor's little boy while she taught one of her college classes.
-Nursed a few bruises, cleaned Sophie's rashy bumb often, read books almost every day to Melia, let Melia change her clothes like 4 times every day, started Sophie on Malt-o-Meal, and trimmed Melia's hair.
-Tried to get my September art classes scheduled, but failed. I hope I get them figured out next week.
-Reseeded the front lawn.
-I think I brushed Melia's teeth twice this week. I don't know why, but I can't seem to nail this important ritual into my daily routine.
-Did Primary To-Do's like getting subs, organizing my folder, getting calling assignments submitted.
-Went to a Scouts Planning Meeting and missed out on a fundraiser fashion show with Anne so I could stay home and get feeling better.
-Had my weekly "Annie-Time," that I CANNOT go with out. It occurs every Sunday morning for about an hour, in my car, somewhere away from home. I read, pluck my eyebrows, make goals --- it is Heaven!
-Prepared and taught Sharing Time for Primary. It was less fun, more challenging, more scripture-driven than my usual lessons and I felt unsure about it. One of the teachers called me to tell me her kids loved it. Wow. Who would have guessed? Not I.

...This was a sample week of my life! I tag all my friends and family! Go!