Monday, June 23, 2008

For those with boys.

So the Boy and I are trying to potty train. It was REALLY hard for the Girl, probably because I was doing it all wrong. She would go everywhere BUT the potty. Good times... But, the Boy's problem isn't that he won't go on the potty, he just HATES underwear. Even though we bought him special Cars underwear. So, what do I do? Do I let him run around naked? Do I force it? I'd love it if he was trained before the baby comes, but that's 9 weeks away and I think he may be more stubborn than that.
Help?

Monday, June 9, 2008

Our little Graduate



So, the girl is graduating from Kindergarden and they had a celebration party last week. They sang us some songs and the girl even got to announce the last one. Her line was, "We're going to knock your socks off with 'I am a Promise'." Even though we practised all day she STILL asked her teacher for help! It was really cute.


On another note, both kids went to the dentist the other day. I was really concerned about the Boy because he HATES to brush his teeth and this was his first visit. But, our dentist is OUTSTANDING!!!! The hygenist let him help with the Girl's cleaning, wear a mask and glasses so he felt like a real dentist. Then he was scared of lying down on the chair so she put him on her lap and did his cleaning while holding him. The Boy LOVED it and was laughing and happy, which is the exact opposite of what I expected. So, I don't know if this kind of treatment is normal for children's dentists because the Girl never had any problems, but I was super impressed.

And, no cavities for either of them.

Yippee!!

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

On the road again...

So, May was a busy month for travel... We went to Abbotsford, BC to visit M's family. That was a lot of fun and we saw Iron Man. (Awesome movie, btw.) A couple weeks after that, we went to Cardston, AB to see my family. (The only movie that was playing was Speed Racer... No thanks.) We did both drives at night and I must say that Washington State has way better roads than BC.

While we were in Cardston, I was able to see my brother and sister and their families. I also met my new niece who is three weeks old. She is really cute and seeing her made having our own baby that much more real. I must say that I'm pretty excited about our upcoming addition to the family.

So, we came back from Cardston on the Sunday before Memorial Day and I am glad that we did. I ended up spending all day getting ready to go to Bethlehem the next day for work. (You may be thinking that I am lucky to get to go to Bethlehem, but this is in Pennsylvania, not the Holy Land.) The day we left for Cardston, my car would not start after work. I wasn't sure what was wrong, but I thought it may be the battery or the alternator. It would cold start, but the more I turned the key, the stonger the battery got so I thought that was really odd. I cleaned the contacts to the battery, but it didn't help. So, I took the battery to Napa and they tested it and said it was good. I figured it was since it wasn't that old. I bought a brush to clean the contacts and then it worked perfectly. A few months ago, I was having the same problem with dirty contacts, but it was also freezing outside so I really did think it was cold starting. A guy at work told me to clean the contacts and put vaseline on them. I did that, but all I had was baby powder scented vaseline. I guess that is not a long term solution for battery maintenance.

Anyway, off to the corporate holy land... at 4:30 AM. I have done this flight before, but it still isn't very much fun. Spokane to Chicago, Chicago to Allentown. The nice thing about travelling is that I am on per diem. I always go to Starbucks in the airport and by an Odwalla juice puree and a banana nut muffin. Thre trip was okay and the meetings over the next couple of days were good too. I met some of the other graphic designers that work for sister companies and we had a good speaker come in from Canada.

On the way home, my flight to Chicago was delayed and I missed my connection to Spokane. I spent the night at the Crown Plaza hotel. I didn't get to see much in Chicago, but it did make me feel like a small-town boy. Everything is so BIG. We don't have a lot of tall buildings in Spokane. So, I finally made it home on Friday at 2:00 PM. I immediately had to turn around and head to the community college because my company had a team in the Relay For Life. I did this event last year and it was a lot of fun. I ended up walking a lot and getting a chance to talk with people from work that I normally don't a chance to talk to. I fell asleep after being up for 24.5 hours. I slept on a cot in a sleeping bag with a sweater wrapped around my head. The bad thing is that when I am that tired... I drool. (The sweater has been washed.)

It has been a crazy few weeks, but I have had a lot of fun. I have had a couple days of routine and that has been nice. It's good to see the family again. Below are some photos to show what we have been up to.

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The Boy playing with the same car set I used to play with

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The kids on the new swingset that The Girl and I built!

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Aww... us at Waterton (PS: Rain sucks)

This is a really funny video a guy sent around at work... These two guys go to Gonzaga in Spokane.