Stice Family

Last weekend was a Jackman family reunion sort of get together in Salt Lake City. My mom was really hoping we could come because one by one, the siblings who were supposed to be able to go were finding out that they couldn't. I never really made a guarantee that I could go. I knew I wouldn't be able to drive either way because it would require sitting for far too long. And flying depended on prices. The week before the trip I had swelled up so bad that I told my mom to count us out. I could tell how absolutely disappointed my mom was. We have her only grand kids so far and if we didn't go, Rachele couldn't go. We decided to fly there after all, but to make it a surprise to my parents. We had to make it a quick trip because Todd and Rachele had to be to work the following Monday.

We flew out Saturday and got there with just enough time to arrive at my brother, Devan's house and hide in the living room for about 10 minutes before my parents showed up there. It was a good surprise! They were very excited to have two more children of theirs to represent the family. From there we all drove to Sandy to my aunt's chapel where the reunion was. We had a great, but short trip. We enjoyed visiting with relatives, but were bummed how quickly the event passed and was over.

We went to church in my Aunt Janin and Uncle Randy's ward with my parents on Sunday and visited with them all for several hours afterward at Randy's house. It was relaxing and VERY fun for Brielle to play with April and grandpa for hours. We flew home that night.

I am amazed at the night and day difference a car seat can make on a toddler when flying. HOLY COW. Ashton turned 2 THIS month, so he had to have a paid seat on the plane. Since that was the case, and we needed a car seat on our trip while in SLC, we brought the car seat on the plane and buckled him up in it. He was trapped all flight in his chair, no ifs ands or buts. It was normal to him since he travels everywhere in a car with one too. He was the devil on EVERY other flight we've ever been on trying to keep him in our lap or even if there were extra seats to allow him to have his own. He'd never stay in his seat and end up screaming the whole flight because we'd stop him repeatedly from getting away and running all down the isles! I may save up the extra for any future family flights just to take a toddler under the age of two in their own seat so we can always travel with a car seat in the future. Worth EVERY DIME.

Speaking of escaping, Ashton has been escaping out his crib every night and at nap time for some time now. He'd get out, turn the light on, and play with toys until we caught him. We kept a tighter and tighter watch on him until we were checking on him so much it became worth it to stand outside his door to open and bust him every 60 seconds or so. He never tired of climbing out! Up to 20 or 30 times. Spanking was no use, scolding no use, threats, bribes. The kid wasn't staying in his crib. It got OLD. Well, I started taping his light switch to the "off" position to see if he'd give up thinking there was no fun to be had in the dark. He started FREAKING out in fits when he'd try the light. We finally realized the kid was deathly afraid of the dark, but not panicking because he thought he'd found his solution. In a short time, this evolved to him getting out, turning the light on, playing a minute, climbing back to bed, and falling asleep with the light still on.

So after a month or more of head aches, we finally figured out, all he needed was a night light. I know most kids have them, but I read somewhere once that kids won't need them if they never had them to begin with. That worked for Brielle. She thinks night lights are decorations. She never used one. But Ashton slept like an angel last night with his very first night light. (HUGE sigh of relief for mom and dad.) We did buy a crib net online this week too so that if he starts getting out to play with the night light, we can trap him back in.

I helped throw a baby shower for a friend Thursday night. She's 5 weeks ahead of me in pregnancy time. That seemed SO close to me when we first found out we were pregnant, but now that seems like quite the enviable eternity! I figured out all I had to do was panic about not being prepared enough and I'd feel more like it was the end. So I starting adding up in my head all the things I need to do to be prepared; like paint the girls' bedroom, buy/make bedding to match, pack a hospital bag, buy diapers and wipes and bath stuff, paint Ashton's room while I'm at it (he's in Brielle's old PURPLE room), brake out, wash, and put away Brielle's old baby clothes, and get the baby things like car seat, stroller, and blankets out of storage, start tempting Ashton with the idea of potty training so I'm changing two sets of diapers for the least amount of time, buy a new Sunday outfit for going to church once I've had the baby since I think I'll be the biggest I've ever been! ... etc. That should all keep me busy for the next 8 weeks!

I did pick out some bedding for all of the kids since Ashton will be promoted to a toddler bed as soon as he learns to stay IN his bed. But the things I picked out for the girls only came in the fitted sheet for crib sizes. It was all on sale for 50% off so I just bought a couple extra flat sheets to use as fabric and do a crib bedding project- bumper and crib skirt. I've been craving a sewing project, so that should be fun. They had everything I'd need to finish off a twin bed for Brielle, so no sewing needed there. That little turkey (Brielle), ever since I ordered her bedding, she's been finding catalogs around the house that have kids bedding in them and has been telling me which ones she wants, none of which are what I bought. I hope she's not too disappointed when she sees her finished room. I asked her if she liked it when I ordered it, but apparently she changed her mind.

Friday was a big day for Todd at work. No, he normally doesn't work on Fridays anymore, just on Fridays when I purposefully scheduled some sort of appointment thinking he'd be home to babysit for me. I hadn't had a pedicure since right before Ashton was born, a Christmas gift from my mother in law, and I haven't been able to reach my feet, again, for a long enough time to cringe at my own feet. So I got a pedicure that day. It was wonderful.

But TODD on Friday was in charge of assigning company cars to the employees who qualified for one and wanted one. Heart 'N Home made the business decision to do company cars for their traveling staff, especially the nurses who travel from patient home to patient home. The government has a set requirement on the amount of money they have to reimburse their employees and volunteers for gas expenses. With gas being high and unstable in prices in the recent past, they discovered that they would actually save money by leasing highly economical cars and paying for all of the gas used in them on top of that. Plus they would be providing reliable cars for all of those employees, where some have not always owned a reliable or safe vehicle. It's crazy how much they are saving by providing MORE, and benefiting in every way.

Todd was the one in charge of the production since, as the finance guy, it was his idea. He was so nervous to deliver all the cars to their office parking lot and then to hand out all the keys. But he's back to sleeping at night again. They're being leased for 5 years so they'll make it a trial time period and go from there, but they feel like it was a great business decision and their employees are ecstatic.

Todd's first class for school met Friday night and Saturday. He's been reading tons to be ready for it. He LOVED the teacher and the discussions held in class to kind of broaden his understanding of the material he read. In case anyone reading hadn't heard yet, Todd is working on a masters in Liberal Arts, Political Economy at George Wythe University. They don't use text books, they read all of the original books usually found in the index of text books. They read TONS. Classics, Plato, Socrates, books written by or about founding fathers, all kinds of stuff. He typically reads each book with his new massive oxford dictionary by his side but I can tell his vocabulary is growing intensely.

Anyway, the university uses mentor style teachers who are impressively intelligent with doctorets in education and liberal arts who come here once a month for a weekend and also communicate one on one with students via the Internet. There are 17 people that they rounded up from our area to be in the class (you have to have at least 10 students in order for a teacher to come to you), most of which already have degrees, but want to have this style of education. Doctors, lawyers, etc. The school does not give tests, and is firm about not teaching WHAT to learn, but HOW to learn. They grade based on the student giving oral presentations entirely on what they have learned from each book and how it will change their thinking or their life. It was fun for me to hear all that Todd learned after he came home from the first group class and described it all. I'm liking playing that role of bouncing ideas off of each other and being his "student" to turn around and teach it all to.

Saturday night we had some friends over for a few hours. We feel like we can be less bashful about having company over now that our carpet isn't SO embarrassing! So we've got the company bug now.

Sunday we went to the Arnett's house to celebrate their little boy's birthday with them. They are a neat couple, our age, and have three kids; a girl that is Brielle's age and great buddies with her, a boy that is a little less than a year older than Ashton and they LOVE each other, and a baby girl, just like we're having. Needless to say, our family really enjoys spending time with theirs. Marcee is the wife and she is my singing partner in church. We usually get together frequently to do song practices for fun, and we sing in church several times a year. But we haven't in while since she had her baby. We talked about some songs that we want to sing and I'm excited to get back to singing with her again.

Also last week, I finally called the lady I ordered some buckets of red wheat from at least 6 months ago. She told me there would be a wait on it, but half a year!??? I guess she'd had it there waiting for some time but hadn't gotten out this way to deliver it. So I offered to come out there that day and pick it up. I'm so excited! I had hard white wheat before and it's just not the same. It makes a yellowish bread, better for bread sticks and garlic bread types. But I miss regular old red wheat that I can now get to using!

Also, if anyone out there ever struggles with knowing what to make for dinner, knowing they CAN make things, but drawing a blank when the time comes to cook, MAKE your own recipe book. You've probably thought about doing it several times before, like I had, but never gotten around to it. I can't even begin to explain how happy I am that I finally did it. What made me do it was doing a cook book for all of the women in Todd's family as a Christmas gift. Rather than submit just a few of my recipes, I went ahead and typed them all up and told the women they could keep what they wanted of mine and submit as many of their own as they wanted as well. I've now typed up many of theirs too for them. It is so nice to go to one book, and one only, and see nothing but likable recipes, and use eenie meenie minie moe, to make a quick meal plan each week and then hit the grocery store. No recipe hunting, no blank stares in the pantry when I'm already hungry. Anyway, take the plunge, make a mess around the computer for a few days, type them all up, and throw all those random recipe books filled with mostly bad recipes away!

Here's a few pics. that include the cookbook (it's getting chubby!), time with my family in SLC, the car lease ribbon cutting, and then there's one of Todd's company Christmas party that I was just finally given a copy of...