Friends Anyone?

"WAIT MOM!" This is the phrase I'm constantly hearing from my five-year-old recently. He's a very sloooow mover, and apparently his new friends are as well.

I've come to realize that Colin is about two years behind in his not-really-milestone-milestones. His random comments have just started (the latest bedtime one, "Kids love birthday parties"), the MINE phase has yet to end, and now we've gained imaginary friends.

The other day I was in a rush to get out of the house. I had things to do and places to go. I had just locked the front door when Colin said his new phrase for the first time, "WAIT MOM!". I frantically unlocked the door hoping it was an unprompted potty break. The door opened and Colin stood still for a moment. Then he replied, "Come on R2D2. Come on C3PO. Let's go." He looked back as he walked away as if to check on their progress.

The next of several times was when we were leaving the parking lot of Las Brisas. I put the car into reverse, and again hear "WAIT MOM!". I slammed on my brakes. Colin opened his door and encouraged his friends to get into the car. This time he added machinery-type sound effects as if the robots were being loaded into the car.

Our new friends have enjoyed meals with us, shopped at Costco, bath time, and playing with the dogs. So far I think I'm the only one that has been made aware of their presence, and I'm happy to share this friendship with my little guy. (How could you not like friends that share, don't complain, don't yell, and always eat their food?!) Welcome to the family, boys!

I Drew A Blank...

Our new Ward here in Chino is really small. Hardly any kids in Primary or Nursery, and lots of retired people. They've all been so great, but our family has strange names, so people seem to be having a hard time remembering them let alone pronouncing them. Colin is now an icky body part (guess I should have spelled it with two L's), and I'm still Carissa or Teresa, and our last name is all kinds of different guesses. Ron and Blake really haven't had a problem...until recently.

The nursery is small so they have a few ladies that rotate out. The first couple of Sundays it was the same two ladies. Then I met another lady after a few weeks who's the Nursery leader. After Primary (I've already been called to be Second Counselor), I went to get Blake and the new lady greeted me saying, "Blank did a great job today!" I thought I probably had just heard her incorrectly, so I ignored it. Then I got his papers that he colored on and they all said, "BLANK". I couldn't stop laughing and I told the Leader, "His name is actually spelled with an E and no N, so it's Blake." She looked confused but said, "Oh-okay."

I'm not a celebrity-I could not name my child a stupid name like Blank!

Happy Holidays!

I hope everyone has enjoyed their holiday season. We have enjoyed some nice, quality time together. Ron had Christmas Eve and Christmas day off this year! A first in almost seven years with Disney. Whew! I'm off from Christmas Eve until January 6th and I've been enjoying every moment of my free time with the boys (despite the colds running throughout the family).

My grandmother always spends Christmas with us. Whether she's in Washington or California, she's always at our house on Christmas. I've never had a Christmas without her and would never want to spend a Christmas without her. Due to the ginormous amount of snow Washington got just before Christmas, she was unable to spend this Christmas with us. I was sad, but felt worse that she had to be all alone on Christmas. However, she will be making up the lost time and come to visit sometime in February hopefully.

This Christmas was also a tough one. My close friend and co-worker's husband has been battling kidney cancer, recently had surgery, only to find he was also battling heart problems. He had surgery to place two stents in his heart on Christmas Eve. My sister-in-law Kelley has been dating a guy named Mike for the last couple of years and has gotten very close this his family. Mike has a sister who's boyfriend was the recent victim from the "Santa killer" on Christmas Eve. The boyfriends parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and nephew (9 in total) were brutally murdered on Christmas Eve. Instances like these all make me so grateful for the small amount of family I do have, and especially for Ron's family that graciously make me feel right at home.

It is my hope that 2009 is a great year for everyone. Enjoy the new year and be safe!

Not that I'm bragging....

Kids....

Random Thoughts

Every now and then Ron and I laugh at how some kids have random thoughts they share with you regardless of their relevancy. Sometimes Ron will say out of the blue, "My neighbor has a dog named Mud!" and it always makes me laugh because I know exactly what he's talking about. Blake doesn't quite talk clearly enough to have these moments, and Colin hasn't been talking for very long so he hasn't had many either. But TONIGHT was his night!

I was putting the boys to bed (Blake for the second time) in their bunk beds, and Colin was quietly snuggling with his bears. Blake was not-so-quietly complaining about bed time. After I sternly told him to stay in bed I walked away to close the door when I heard Colin say, "Mom....". I reopened the door and replied, "Yes, Colin?" He paused for a long while and then said, "Elephants love peanuts." I couldn't help but laugh. He's made it to that stage in his life and I (we) SO appreciate it.

I'm baaaaack!

SISTERS

My sister and her boyfriend, Bo, decided to take a long vacation a few months ago. Bo worked on a tug boat in Alaska and was rarely home while Katie worked in the hospital's lab. They decided it wasn't any fun to have money if you were never home to spend it-so they took a brake and drove down the West coast. On the ferry boat ride down to Washington state, my sister slipped in some water that the boat's washer was leaking and has had more and more problems with her neck since then. She's been to countless doctor visits (and was uninsured since she was between jobs), has had plenty of x-rays, MRIs, CT Scans, and many days of physical therapy. Now she needs surgery on her neck due to a slipped disc and a few other problems. She had the opportunity to be operated on in Seattle, and then flown to Alaska where my mom and other family members will be able to take care of her during her long recovery. So she and Bo packed up their things after only a few months. It was nice to have a family member living near by, and the boys loved seeing them often. Kate-you're in my prayers, I love you, and will miss you. (of course that includes Bo as well!)


The Family


We are nearly settled and doing well at Ron's parents'. I was so excited to live in a house, but I've found it to be more difficult since the boys have so many other places to go! At the same time, it's nice to be able to spend time in the back yard, or bake things with Colin in a larger kitchen. We have two dogs and two cats as well. Dolly is the new Golden Retriever puppy, and Bella is a tiny doodley-mixer thing all white and fluffy. I've really enjoyed having animals again (the boys do too), yet Ron doesn't appreciate Phoebe the cat stealing his spot each night in our bed.
A co-worker pointed out that it's probably much easier for me now since I don't have majority of the responsibilities with my own home-and it really is! So far everyone has worked together really well which cuts the work in half. Plus we have a washer and dryer and a dishwasher, so that frees up so much time!! I've already had the time to read two books from the Twilight series and am in loooove!

I also finally got to go to Disneyland yesterday. Everything looks so beautiful for the holidays, and It's A Small World has finally reopened (no changes on the inside-just new boats) and looked beautiful with all of the lights on again. The place was packed so we did more sight-seeing than riding rides. I was so excited for the parade I saved a bench an hour and a half ahead of the start time only to have both kids fall asleep just before it started! Oh well...I enjoyed it!

I hope everyone is well and we wish you all a safe and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

I'll Be Back!

Sorry I haven't been very faithful with posting. It all started when my hubsters took the card reader back to his parents and left the photo card in the reader. So now I have nothing to take pictures with, and personally I like blogs with pictures.

Also-we're moving for those of you who haven't heard. We are just moving down Central Ave. a few miles. We will be residing in Chino with Ron's parents just for about a year so we can really scrimp and save for a house. With the market the way it is, we might even get a nice house in a year! How exciting! Colin and Blake are really looking forward to living with Nana and Papa and the animals-and so are we! I couldn't be blessed with nicer in-laws.

I hope you all have had a HAPPY HALLOWEEN, and I will be blogging again once we're moved and settled after November 8th-ish.

Bye for now!