Recovering

Why does it seem to take longer to recover from being sick than the amount of time you are sick. Todd and I were sick, Hailee had a slight fever for two days and was just fine after that. I think she was beginning to wonder if her parents were ever going to be fun again. While I was sick I asked her to take plate to the kitchen and she responded, "Not right now, I have some work to do." "Please Hailee it will be really quick." "I can't do everything you want me to do." Hmmmmmm, didn't really know how to respond to that. I guess I was asking for more favors since I was sick.


We had a nice Valentine's day. Since it was the middle of the week we decided to just have a family dinner and then to get babysitting for the weekend. When I asked Todd what he wanted for dinner, he responded lasagna. Not really the "romantic" dinner I had it mind, but I guess it's a new tradition because of the three Valentine's we've stayed home for dinner, since being married, he's asked for lasagna. Hailee loved Valentines, Todd got her a new book and got me some roses. She was so excited about both. She thought it was funny to eat to candle light, but overall she thought it was so fun.

We went to the doctor for Todd this last Friday. Todd's still been having too many dizzy spells so he gave Todd some new medicine and doubled up one of his other ones. Now Todd gets to take 5 pills and 4 drops under his tongue everyday. He also said that if this new medicine doesn't work that we'd have to talk about doing the next surgery. I just hope the medicine works for him. He is still dizzy, but he was able to make it to school today. I'm just hoping that is a good sign.

In other Hailee news she is learning how to read. While we were sick she brought in her little sketch book and pointed to the word 'book' and said, "Mom that says 'book'." I was a little surprised because book isn't one of her words that she's been learning with her starfall game. I asked her how she knew that said book. She responded , "Mom the 'b' makes the 'buh' sounds and the two o's makes the 'oooo' sound and the 'k' makes the 'kuh' sounds." I guess she is putting things together now. We have loved playing her little "starfall" game and she is getting really good at her three letter words. When we play she wants to do all of our words as well. She is loving it.

Weekend Highlights

This weekend we had DJ at our house and we had a good time. Hailee loved having sleepovers with Uncle DJ. Only her idea of a sleep over is her sleeping in her bed and DJ sleeping on the air mattress in the front room. She would get so excited when we put it up. Saturday night we also had James over (one of Todd's MBA friends, his wife is out of town.) Hailee was going to bed before James left and she was so concerned that we needed another air mattress. "Mom where is James going to sleep." I assured her that he would go home to his house, which was just so boring in her mind. "Oh mom that s not fun."

Other funny things that happened over the weekend.

• Hailee was practicing her ballet and she wanted me to count for her. When I got up to 5 she said. "Oh mom you really do know your numbers."
• Lately she has been loving the movie Ratatouille, she calls the main guy "Chef Spaghetti" instead of Linguini. The last couple of weeks she has been giving kisses like Chef Spaghetti. It stated one night when she was giving Todd a goodnight kiss and after she said, "No dad, not like that, a Chef Spaghetti kiss." Then she just laid one on him. He was a little shocked, and I couldn't help but laugh. So I've been slightly concerned because she loves giving Chef Spaghetti kisses, images of wild teenage years just keep running through my head. Yesterday we were talking about Ratatouille and she said something about Chef Spaghetti's mom. A little confused I asked her who was his mom. To which she responded "You know mom the girl with dark hair that teaches him how to cook." She though Collette was his mom, maybe I don't need to worry to much yet.
  
• On the way to church on Sunday Hailee wanted to know if we were going to pick up one of my friends kids of church again. My friend recently had a baby and last week we took her older kids to church with us. Hailee has been so excited to see the new baby and has been very sweet with him. The first time we went over there she just sat and held him. He did have to go back into the hospital for an extra day because his belirubin numbers were too high. Hailee was very concerned about it. On the way to church she said "mom, how is the baby doing with his...I can't remember that word...bel...what is that word." "His belirubin" "Yeah mom, his bellyribbon, how is his bellyribbon."
  
• Saturday night I started getting a little sick and Sunday I really wasn't feeling to great. I am trying to be really careful to not share it with Todd and Hailee. Hailee wanted to drink some of the juice I had, but I told her that since I was sick we couldn't share. A little later I found her getting a drink from my cup. I told her again that I didn't want to give her the germs that are in my mouth. She said "Okay mom I will go spit those germs out" so she started spitting them into the toilet. "Don't worry mom, I spit those germs out." Wonderful, I really hope she doesn't get sick. We've been so lucky this year.
  
• Last night after DJ left Hailee asked me where Uncle DJ was going to sleep. I told her that he was going home. She was so sad and said "Oh mom that isn't any fun." She loves spending time with family and bouncing on the air mattress in the morning.
  

US Soccer

Hailee and Todd watching soccer. Yes Hailee picked out her own outfit. I had her all dressed and then she decided that she needed to wear her yellow dress so she just put it on over what she was already wearing. Todd just loves it that Hailee gets into playing and watching soccer. The other day where there was a foot of snow outside, she had her soccer ball in her hands was trying to convince me to get her soccer goals out from under her bed so we could go play outside. Summer will be fun, and yes, I've already checked the Portland area to make sure we can get her back in to soccer lessons, and they have a nice little program just like they did in Corvallis.

Well there is not much that my family enjoys more than watching a great soccer game. Wednesday was the US vs Mexico game, and I have to say it did not disappoint. Of course we would have liked a win, but a 2-2 tie with a young team was not to bad. It was full of exciting goals, controversial calls, and of course some great theatrics. My grandpa (who is from Mexico) always says the best theatrics in Mexico are found on the soccer field. I love watching the National team play because I get to watch my favorite players together....Dempsey, Gooch, Donavon, and Adu (who is now playing for Benfica, which was my last area of my mission). I t's always sad for me to see my favorites retire from world play. I still miss Brian McBride (he still plays for Fullham, but it's nearly impossible to get those games on tv). But this time I also found a couple of new players I'm excited about. One is Jozy Altidore, he's only 18 and he is definitely showing some promise.

I have to say that initially I didn't really know a lot about soccer. Serving a mission in Portugal, especially my last area where the Benfica stadium was located, helped some. But even then I really didn't have time to watch (unless you count meetings with my first branch president where he left a soccer game on and just turned the volume down). I was first really introduced to soccer when Todd and I started dating. It just happened to be the summer of the world cup in Korea (two things Todd loves, soccer and Korea). The games were at such crazy times as 2:00 am, 4:00 am, and 6:00 am. I really was just going to spend time with Todd, but that summer was the time I really started enjoying watching soccer. It's fun to watch the games with Todd because he is good at explaining things (without being annoying), and now I kind of understand what is going on. By the time the next world cup rolled around I was hooked. This one was in Germany so we had much better game times. Todd was working, but I recorded them and we watched them later. (I have to say the highlight for me was the Portugal vs England game....so sorry to my England friends. The US had a rough World Cup so I had to choose someone to go for.) Soccer is just such a great game to watch. Todd only has one request after graduation and that is the FOX soccer channel. I think that can definitely be arranged. Now if we can just figure out how to get BYU football in Oregon, we'll be set.

Family Updates

h a i l e e :

Hailee is always on the go and busy. Sometimes she is busy taking pictures (I always love seeing what is interesting to her in her world). Other times she is busy in her kitchen cooking, todays menu is beans and chocolate and shortcake. I've never made any of those things with her, so maybe she is watching the cooking channel while we are sleeping. The rest of the time she just keeps busy playing pretend and playing games on the computer. Her favorite at the moment is Super Why. Just today she packed her backpack and told me that she was going to school. She said "I will miss you so much, but I have pictures of you I can look at all day." She gave me a kiss and off she went to the bathroom, which she informed me that the bathroom was now her school. Every time Todd goes off to school and Hailee is having a hard time he always tells her that he will miss her so much, but that he has lots of pictures to look at all day. What a sweet kid.
Hailee's picture. Her new favorite dog of the moment. She has about 6 different little dogs and she rotates through them. As long as she doesn't want 6 real dogs later we should be just fine. I am still being reminded that when we move to Oregon we are getting a dog.

Another one of Hailee's pictures. Todd was trying to study at home and Hailee was just trying to capture the moment. Her little finger got in the way this time.

t o d d :

Todd's biggest news is that his manager from HP called him two Sunday's ago and wanted to hire him. Unfortunately we've already committed to Intel, but Sue is going to keep Todd on her list for later. We loved HP and would love to go back. But at the same time I'm sure Intel will be good. For us right now Intel is just the unknown, and we know we like the people at HP. We had a good feeling about Intel so I am sure things will work out. Todd's health hasn't been great this week, but today he is feeling better. We hope things will continue to improve.

n i c o l e :

A few months ago I got this crazy idea that I wanted to grow some flowers. I was at lowes and they had bulb kits on sale. So I picked up the Calla Lily set. I didn't like the plastic pot they provided, but a quick trip to IKEA solved that problem and now a few months later I have my very first flower. Being kind of new to growing blubs I had no idea how to plant them and the instructions on the box weren't great. I didn't know which way was up on the oval shaped bulbs, not wanting to plant them upside down, I planted them sideways. Todd thought I was a little nuts, but it all turned out well in the end. Our room doesn't get great light, but the calla lily seems to be okay, and I love having some green in my room. I also love the fact that you can see the roots through the glass pot (an unexpected teaching moment for Hailee).

Princess Hailee to the rescue

Yesterday Hailee was wanting to play princesses in her room. Once we got inside she locked the door and said "Oh no that mean dragon locked us in mom, what are we going to do." I told her I didn't know. Then she said, "Our prince will come and save us....oh wait our prince is at school." Not sure what to do about this dilemma she decided it was lunch time and we better make some food. So after making a delicious meal she got back to thinking of a solution to getting out. Deciding that our prince would take too long to come home and rescue us (it was still a couple of hours before Todd was due home) she set to work finding stuff around the room. Once she found the wooden dowel used for our Halloween costumes she was ready to go fight the dragon. She found a key to "un-lock" the door and she was off fighting with that dragon. What a smooth little rescue from my little princess. Hailee's not one to sit and wait around for long. I love seeing her imagination and her independent spirit at work.

Cooking Fun

Hailee has always enjoyed cooking with me, but she is now wanting to do more and more while we cook. The other night we made Portuguese Pasta and she helped me chop up the green pepper and chicken. I cut it in strips then she used a butter knife to cut it up in small pieces. It has always been fun to cook with her, but now she is getting more helpful.

My sister Deneille and her husband Patt came up this past weekend to work on some projects with me. We, of course, had to have some fun as well. We went to IKEA and made a fun Korean dinner. While we were checking out at IKEA Todd and Hailee went to go get ice cream. Todd asked if Hailee had fun at IKEA to which she responded, "Yes, my mom loves IKEA." She is so sweet to love doing the things I do. So after our fun deals we found at IKEA, that night we made Korean food. Patt said he just came up for the food, so I hope he liked it, we were working on a school project for Deneille. We made two things that I already knew how to make, but then I tired a new dish. It's a potato noodle dish called Japchae. I was excited that it actually turned out and tasted okay. Todd said he would marry me all over again because it tasted so good. So if anyone is interested in a great asian pasta let me know and I'll send the recipe. We had a lot of fun with Patt and Deneille. Later Sunday we got to go up to Kristy's house to have dinner with her and Ruthann and Todd's cousins Jeff, Susie, and Rachelle. It is always so much fun to get together with family.

On a sad note, President Hinckley passed away last night. He was such a sweet and amazing man, as well as the prophet of our church. I never got to meet him personally, but in listening to him speak and reading his words I really felt the love he had for me as well as everyone, whether they were members of the LDS faith or not. I am sure there was a very sweet homecoming for him on the other side. That is a very happy thought indeed, he will be missed, but I am happy he is reunited with his sweet wife.

Favorite moments

My grandparents from Mexico have been up here visiting for a while. They have been on a mission for the last 4 years, and we are so excited to have them around again. Hailee had such a great time getting to know them, chatting with Grandma and playing with Grandpa. My favorite was watching them play basketball, horsey, and tickling each other.


I just love how having a child around is just constant entertainment. There is never a dull moment. Here are some of the highlights.

• I was trying to bribe Hailee to go to the bathroom when we were at the doctors office (she was dancing around like crazy, but not wanting to go because she was sure that she would miss something). I told her I would give her a dollar, to which she responded "Mom, I already have a dollar." Later when I was filling up her bath she wanted more bath water so she said "Mom I will give you a dollar." I guess turn around is fair play.
  
• Speaking of turn around. One night when she was getting ready for bed she was playing "farm" and she had to get all her animals to bed before she went to sleep. She started running around crazy and saying things like "I don't have time for this." I had to think for a minute of where she was getting that from until I remembered I say that all the time. When I am in a hurry and trying to leave and Hailee is doing her best to be slow I always say "Hailee we don't have time for this, we need to hurry." Looks like I need to be really careful about what I say.
  
• One night in the bath we were talking about how Hailee got her dad's hair and her mom's nose etc... After her bath she went streaking in to Todd so excited and exclaimed "Dad I got your skinny legs." She then gave Todd a big kiss and then teased him about kissing a naked girl. "Ooooh dad, you kissed a naked girl." Then she proceeded to dance around the room until I could get her dressed. I think she also got her dad's love of teasing.
  
• One day when Todd got home I was giving him a hug and Hailee ran over and said "Hey wait for me, I'm part of the family too." She definitely thinks her place is right in the middle.
  
• Another day when I was running around cleaning and working on things Hailee came over and asked for a hug. I was busy so I just put one arm around her quickly and kept going. She then said "No mom, I need two arms."
• Friday I noticed that Hailee had a canker sore. She was horrified to find a "cranker" sore. She asks me every morning how it's looking. Last night when I asked her if she wanted a cookie. She said "Yes, on no wait, I have a cranker sore, I can't." I have no idea where she got that idea from, I guess she thinks a cookie will hurt her cranker sore.
  
• And my favorite comment from Hailee this week was when I was complaining about getting old Hailee responded. "But mom you have to be old because your husband is old." I guess she is right.

Hailee playing with her play-doh. She loves making all kind of things. She was most excited when mom was gone to Enrichment and she got to stay home and play with her play-doh with her dad. Dad is much more fun when it comes to play-doh games.