Just Couldn't Resist!

This weekend Aaron had a neurology appointment in American Fork. I am thankful to say he has been 11 years seizure free and to keep it that way he has to visit the neurologist once a year for medication refill, to check his labs and to get the ok from the doctor so he can drive for another year. Since we were making the trip to American Fork on a Friday G&G T graciously accepted to watched the kids so Aaron and I could go on a date Friday night. It is so nice to go out without children once in a while, however, while we are out it is hard NOT to talk about them though even though we try. We ended up going out to eat down at dairy and egg laden Brick Oven since we didn't have to worry about Daniel being with us and his food allergies--mmmmmm. Being down in Provo it brought back many memories of when we were first married and both students at BYU. Anyway, after becoming uncomfortably full we visited the BYU bookstore where Aaron picked up a BYU Alumni license plate cover for the car since he really loved going to school there. Afterward we went to the 3D movie Avatar (I had some free movie passes we needed to use up). It was a pretty good show. We spent the night at G&G T's house. The next morning we borrowed their Costco card because we had hit critical low levels of chicken nuggets at our house for Daniel and we needed to restock. When we walked into Costco I saw all the cute (and low priced) Easter dresses for little girls. I couldn't resist. Aaron fueled the fire by saying since Sarah will be our only girl I need to enjoy getting her the girly things so I caved and bought a dress and let her wear it to church today. It is so fun dressing her up--I must admit :). Also at church today the bishop cornered me and released me from nursery since he truly believes in maternity leave with church callings. I LOVE IT! I will be callingless from now until a couple months after I have the baby and I am excited. Having a baby has gotten me out of my last three callings, but don't worry I won't be using that excuse again to get out of calling after this baby!! We all had a fun weekend. Thanks again G&G T!

Breakfast of Champions!

Yesterday this is what I had for breakfast and I don't feel guilty in the least--well maybe a little :). It was my glucose tolerance test for this pregnancy and it was doctor's orders! I think it should be doctor's orders every day even though it goes against everything I have ever been taught about breakfast! It tasted far better than the orange soda they usually have you drink! By the way I passed my test with flying colors. They worried a little about gestational diabetes after Josh was born, but I guess Josh was just meant to be HUGE when he was born at 9 pounds 8 ounces and it had nothing to do with gestational diabetes! We did get some good 4D pictures of the baby yesterday. The doctor had to do some pressing and pushing around on my belly to get him to move his hand away from the front of his face, but we got some cute face shots. I still think that is amazing how much you can see! They estimated him to be about 2 pounds 14 ounces already. He is growing fast because my belly is starting to get itchy so I can tell I am growing fast, too. We only have 9 more weeks to go--coming up way too fast for me!Sarah was elated to find her balloons still afloat the next morning. She managed to eat her breakfast and drink her sippy while holding on to both of them without letting go. That's some real talent right there! This is how I found her the whole day walking around with both balloons at all times: She even watched the Olympics with us on the couch last night while holding her balloons. Heaven help the soul who tried to ever take them away from her--like me when I was trying to get her to go bed!

Blue and Gold Banquet

The Cub Scout Blue and Gold banquet was last night. As always we were a little nervous to go because you never know how Matthew is going to react. He did fabulous last night. The whole family was invited for dinner and a program. After we got everyone settled for dinner (no easy task with me holding Sarah, Aaron trying to keep Daniel away from all the pizza and peanut M&Ms, and both of us trying to help Josh and Matthew scoop up their food) we enjoyed the program. Matthew has wonderful scout leaders that love him and work really well with him. Matthew participated in two of the skits put on by the Bears and did great. We are really blessed to be around a bunch of people who are willing to roll with the punches Matthew gives and still have an enjoyable time. They even had some helium balloons that they gave out at the end which made Sarah's night until she let go of the first one and it floated to the ceiling. Her cries were heard all around until they found her another balloon. On the way home she commandeered Josh's balloon too and we had to pry them out of her hands just to get her in and out of her carseat and to get her dressed. Don't come between a girl and her balloons! We had a good night.

The "Not Me" Ghost is Alive and Well

At least at our house the "Not Me" ghost seems to be finding lots of mischief lately. I don't know how it happened nor I don't think I want to know. This is what I found this morning and surprisingly no one knows who did it. This is/was the railing that seperates the dining area from the family room. Someone or a few someones broke the piece of handrail off that holds the spindles in place. Oh sigh...I just need to tell myself I will not be able to have any nice things while I have kids at home. I am going to have to see what magic I can work with carpenter glue and who knows...some duct tape?! I am telling myself over and over again I love my kids, I love my kids, I love my kids... If anyone's interested I have a few kids for sale...;)

Our Crappy Trip to McDonalds

We gave the kids a choice of what fun thing they wanted to do today after we cleaned the house. They decided they wanted to go to a restaurant with playground in it. I had a hard time with this because I don't really care for fast food all that much and also I am a GERMAPHOBE and have a hard time with my kids playing in the playland. To help with the germaphobe part we made a special trip home after running errands just so the kids could go potty since I HATE public restrooms especially with kids who insist on touching everything. I also had some pretty sweet coupons for McDonalds so we decided to go there. I don't know what it is about Josh--he has been this way every since I have known him--every time we step foot in to a playland he has to go potty and it is not #1 we are talking about. This has happened and I really mean EVERY time we ever go to a playland. It was the WORST when he wasn't #2 trained all the way--we had to throw away so many Scooby-Doo (or Scooby-Poo as we nicknamed them) underwear it wasn't even funny. Anyway, we hadn't even gotten our food before Josh came and told me he needed to go potty. I asked him why he didn't take care of it when we were at home not more than 5 minutes ago and told him that he would have to hold it. He was fine for the first 15 minutes and then it became apparent it was a pressing issue. He came back and asked to go again. Aaron went to take him to the bathroom, but after smelling the horrible smell and the seeing the locked door of the McDonalds bathroom (and after some coaxing from Aaron because he really didn't want to take Josh inside there) Josh decided he would try and hold it some more. Finally after being there for about 30 minutes Josh and came and sat down because he just couldn't play anymore. Aaron decided to have pity on the poor kid and loaded him up in the car while leaving me there with the rest of the kids to take him all the way home to go. Afterwards when they returned I asked Josh if he was ok and he said, "I feel like a person." I think he meant like a new person, but I got the meaning just the same. We let the kids play some more when Matthew came back to tell us Sarah was stinky. After that we decided it was time to leave especially when we discovered it was a pretty bad diaper that was so full it was about to burst. We had to change it in the parking lot because it was so full I don't think it would have handled a trip home without leaking everywhere. So that was our crappy trip to McDonalds ;). The kids must have had a good time because Sarah was truly "pooped" by the time we got home. She stayed asleep transferring her from the car to the family room floor. She is still asleep as I write this. Who knew that even with potty trained kids the potty could still be this much of an issue!

Don't Come Between a Girl and Her Balloon!

Yesterday I took the kids (Daniel and Sarah) out to do some errands. We ended up going to a store that gave out balloons to kids. Knowing how much my kids love balloons I grabbed two and gave them to Sarah and Daniel. Sarah LOVED it. I unleashed the wrath of Sarah two times when I had pry it out of each her hands to do up her car seat just to get home. When we got home she just wandered around the house with it in her hand going upstairs and downstairs. She never let it go and if her brothers even looked like they were going to touch her balloon she would SCREAM. I put her in her high chair for dinner and there was no way I could pry it from her hand. Since we did run errands in the afternoon she skipped nap time and was pretty tired. She fell asleep during dinner in her high chair, but she never let go of that balloon the whole time she was asleep. She had it clutched in her hand pretty tightly. When it was bed time she cried and screamed because we wouldn't let her take it bed with her. Even though it was flat this morning she still went and picked it back up again. She's a crazy kid!

Makes It All Worth It!!

When I get stuff like this it makes all the grief, embarrassing moments and messes worth it!! This just absolutely made my day yesterday. Josh did this at school for Valentine's Day without any help or suggestion from the teacher which makes it that much better!

Sarah's the Big 18 Months

Sarah turned the big 18 months yesterday. We celebrated by having her 18 month check-up. Here's her stats:

23.12 pounds (around 50th percentile)

32 inches tall (around 50th percentile)

46.5 cm head circumference (around 50th percentile)

She is perfectly and wonderfully average (music to my ears) in every area except speech in which she happens to be the strong silent type. She does use the 4 words purposefully: uh-oh, oooooooo (when changing her diaper), thank-you and hi. In all reality I am not worried because she hasn't needed to talk since her brothers get everything she could possibly want before she even asks for it. In the rare times her brothers don't get her what she wants she lets her wishes be known through her very loud screaming voice, though. She is very socially appropriate, affectionate, loves attention, she understands most of what I say and points to things so I am not too worried. We love her and are very thankful for our miracle one and only girl--scary hair and all!

President's Day

President's Day was Aaron's last federal holiday from work until Memorial Day so we thought we would make the most of it. We took the kids bowling because they really love to do that. I have to say I was in last place the whole game until the last two frames when I got super lucky and bowled amazingly. I ended up winning the game by the skin of my teeth, but hey I WON and that doesn't happen very often. Afterwards we took the kids and grabbed some lunch. My one requirement for the day was to visit JoAnne's the fabric/craft store because they were having a pretty good sale and I needed a few things. Remind me NEVER to take a bunch of boys into the place EVER!! All I heard the whole time was, "This store is so BORING!!", "When can we go home?", "I hate this store!!" and my favorite most embarrassing one "WHO FARTED?" They liked to use that one because it elicited the biggest reaction from us--AWESOME--gotta love those boys! I knew what I wanted so I tried to hurry until I got to the cutting table to find a huge line. I grabbed a number and turned around only to find Matthew had grabbed a few more because he thought the ticket pull tab was fun to play with--grrrr. I was customer #25, #26, and #27 thanks to Matthew and they were only helping customer #1 so we had a LONG wait ahead of us. Matthew didn't last so Aaron had to take him out to the car, but that still left me with three other rambunctious children waiting in a very slow line. Finally it was our turn and I got what I needed then went to purchase the items to find the check out line was horrifically long as well. Unfortunately, we also got behind a very nice gentleman who wore oxygen. That prompted a lot of questions from Daniel. Daniel saw the oxygen tubing and heard the oxygen pump and asked in his loudest voice possible, "Why are you wearing that?" The guy was nice enough and explained he needed it to help him breath. I then told Daniel he wore oxygen for a few months when he was a baby too, but I don't think he heard me because he was too busy STARING at this poor guy. We made it home and I decided it would be easier to start my sewing projects with Aaron at home to corral the kids and keep them busy and away from me while I sewed so I got started. We are reusing Daniel's old infant car seat and it is not the cutest thing so I made a car seat cover to try and hide its not-so-cuteness. I also wanted to make a nursing cover. I bought a neat nursing cover when I had Sarah--one that not only covered my front, but covered my back as well when I nursed her. Unfortunately it was pink and since Aaron is paranoid about any of his boys being associated in any way with the color pink he made me find a new one. However, the company that made Sarah's nursing cover is now out of business which meant I would have to make my own if I wanted another one like the original one. I was nervous because I didn't have a pattern and would have to just eyeball it, but as long as you don't look too closely I think it turned out all right. Really don't look too closely because I really can't sew a straight line to save me, but at least it got done. Here's the pictures of my projects: I used Daniel as my nursing cover model because he is always up for any photo opportunity, but you can get the basic nursing cover idea. The pink one was the original and the brown one is the one I made. Afterward, since I had my sewing machine out I finally got around to sewing on Matthew's Bobcat patch to his cub scout uniform--hey it only took me about 4 months to do that, but now he's official right?!?

Weekend of Failed Attempts

This weekend we wanted to go and do something fun and different as a family. I did some research and found that Saturday afternoons at the Salt Lake City Library they brought in therapy dogs that kids can read to improving their reading skills. Well I thought this would be something different and maybe help Matthew, Daniel and Sarah get over their irrational and total fear of dogs as well as help with reading. We showed up to find that the library is a favorite hang out place for the indigent (or homeless) people of Salt Lake and it was especially busy since it was raining outside. Once we found our way to the children's area riding in an elevator that smelled strangely of vomit (YUCK!!) and we waited for the dogs to show up. We waited and waited, and waited some more. They finally they told us the dog people hadn't shown up for a couple of weeks and it didn't look like they were going to come that day either (Fail #1). So we walked back outside by all the indigent people again to get to our car. That was fun. We then decided we would go look at the aquarium at Cabelas sporting goods store. I knew they were going to feed the fish that day and it would be fun to see. We missed the feeding of the fish by one hour (Fail #2). Oh well we still looked around at the fish and the rest of the store. Afterwards we stopped by and visited G&G Terry since they live right by Cabelas. The kids really liked that. Today for Valentine's Day I wanted to make some brownies the kids could decorate for valentines day. One year for Valentine's Day when we were growing up my mom made huge sugar cookies and decorated them for us. I was trying to recreate that, but only with brownies. Unfortunately, the egg replacer I used to make them Daniel friendly also made them hard as a rock. It was so hard you couldn't even cut it let alone bite it without breaking your teeth. The only way to break it into smaller pieces was to hit it on the counter as you can see I did that by looking at the picture(Fail #3). All I can say is that I tried this weekend--even if nothing really worked out according to plan. Hopefully tomorrow will be better since it is a holiday for the kids and Aaron, and it is another wide open day to fill with new adventures. Keep your fingers crossed they won't be anymore failed adventures...

Sarah's 18 Month Pics

I took Sarah today for pictures. To get her ready I even painted her fingernails, made her a new bracelet and new rainbows (hairbows). It was all for naught because she did not cooperate very well. She refused to wear her shoes or to even stay in one place to be photographed. She also threw a few tantrums crushing and pulling out her hair in the process. I brought Daniel with me to help me get her laugh. When he tried to get her to laugh he ended up accidentally kicking her in the head which didn't help matters either. I must admit the photographer didn't do a very good job. She didn't even try to position her, get her to laugh, or use any props until I asked her too. Anyway, with those things disclosed here's what we got today:

Another Call From School...

Yesterday morning I got a telephone call from school. Upon seeing the number on caller ID my heart sank. It is never a good sign to get a call from the school in the middle of the day. I answered and someone on the other end told me Josh had hurt himself. I was prepared for the worst, but it wasn't too bad. I guess Josh slipped on some icy stairs outside and had fallen hitting his nose/mouth. He got a pretty bad bloody nose and a HUGE fat lip while peeling the top layer of skin off part of his top lip. He went to the office and they put ice on it for a while and got his bleeding nose to stop. I was getting ready to come and pick him up from school, but he decided he wanted to go back to class instead. They were just calling me to let me know what had happened so I wouldn't be upset when I saw him later. They also let me know I would need to wash his coat since he used that to wipe up is bleeding nose--a typical boy thing to do to wipe their messy face on their sleeve :). Again the pictures don't do the injury justice because his lip was sticking way out from a profile view.Josh did complain of a bad headache around dinner time which wasn't like him so I let him stay awake with Aaron and me just to keep an eye on him. That makes me a little more nervous with him smacking his head with his epilepsy factored in. He seems to be doing fine except for that nice fat lip. Good thing class pictures are next week so he can have a nice huge scab for them....he has great timing!!

I got another surprise yesterday (this one more pleasant than the last surprise in the previous paragraph) when Aaron got home from work. I got my Valentine's Day present early. He came home with a dozen of really pretty red roses. We had decided not to worry about presents for each other this year so this came completely by surprise. My flower arranging skills aren't the greatest, but they are still pretty to look at.

Lastly Daniel finally officially received his blue belt yesterday at the belt ceremony in karate. He is pretty proud. You can now officially call him a blue belt without him getting mad at you. He is a funny kid.

What REALLY Happens During Quiet Time

We got the lucky time slot of 9 am church on Sundays and we love it. It gives us time to come home and unwind after church and lunch. To unwind we let (make) the kids have some quiet time for a few hours. What quiet time consists of is they get to choose a few activities and books to read to keep them entertained for about 2 hours in their rooms or they can take a nap it's all their choice. Matthew always chooses the activities because I have never known him to take a nap, Josh naps half the time and reads half the time, Daniel and Sarah usually take naps for the whole time. Since we don't have enough bedrooms for everyone to have their own room, Daniel, Matthew and Sarah get their regular rooms and Josh gets my and Aaron's room. I thought Josh was just reading and sleeping until I started noticing some changes that started last week. I didn't notice last week that Josh had adjusted my clock during quiet time until it was 5:30 am and I startled myself awake because Aaron had missed his alarm and was still sleeping. It wasn't until I rolled over and was about to wake him up that I noticed his clock only said 3:30 am. I also found a half eaten Tootsie Roll on my nightstand that I have no idea where Josh even got it from, but he decided he only wanted to eat half of it and leave the rest laying on my nightstand--YUCK! This week's quiet time was even better. I didn't know all the stuff Josh had done until I was getting ready to go to bed myself. That's when I noticed my perfume body spray which was about 1/3 of the way full before quiet time was mysteriously all the way full again--hmmm. I also noticed the light bulb in my lamp was shattered with glass shards spread all over my nightstand. Since it was bedtime and he was asleep I waited to talk to him about it until today. That's when I found out during quiet time yesterday he wanted to find out what would happen if he filled the spray bottle up with water, turn my lamp on and spray my lamp's light bulb with water. He found out what would happen pretty quickly when the light bulb shattered and scattered glass shards all over my nightstand. He was too scared to tell us anything so he said nothing and left it for me to find when I went to bed. I might have to come up with some more constructive activities for quiet time from now on lest more things get changed or destroyed in my room. Here's a pic of the mysteriously full perfume spray bottle.

The Week In Review

This week has been kind of crazy. First off it was early out from school for Josh and Matthew as well as parent teacher conferences. I am happy to report that I survived the week and more importantly the kids did, too. Josh's parent teacher conference went fantastic which I am not surprised. He loves school especially reading--YAY! When I tuck him and Daniel in at night I usually find Josh reading Daniel a bedtime story and I love it. As for Matthew once we have gotten him settled down medication wise he is doing a lot better at home and at school. However, during the conference he had a really hard time staying in his seat, listening to his teacher and participating in the conference. His teacher couldn't believe how hard it was for him to concentrate and follow along during the conference. I guess at school he listens, stays in his seat and participates--as much as Matthew can. I was wondering if we were talking about the same kid. We seem to have a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde thing going on between school and home. My theory is that he has to hold it all together at school all day that by the time he gets home to do his mountains of homework (yes he really does have a ton to do every night) he has lost interest and is ready to unwind instead of working on at least an hours worth of homework every night. That is understandable since all of us are somewhat like that in needing an period of time to unwind from a busy day's events. It is hard to keep him focused on doing his spelling packet, speed reading test, and reading a thick reading packet and a book every night along with a journal for the weekends. Now keep in mind this homework is EVERY night including weekends and holidays for a special needs kid who is only in THIRD grade. I seem to think it extreme, but the teacher isn't willing to change anything so we work on it every night. Matthew is progressing and seems to enjoy school and he is learning a lot so I can't complain--too much, anyway.

In other happenings we finally sold our van. We sold it to a normal, young family with 3 boys and a girl, too. I had mixed emotions about this. I didn't realize how attached I was to it until I saw it drive away for the last time. We brought home two babies from the hospital in it, drove to Yellowstone, Disneyland and Mt. Rushmore in it along with various other things. Lots of memories, but hopefully, the new family will enjoy it as much as we did.

This week Daniel had a belt test in karate. He tested from his orange belt up to his blue belt. He won't physically receive his new blue belt until the belt ceremony on Tuesday, though. After the belt test I kept calling him Mr. Blue Belt and he kept correcting me saying he is not a blue belt until he actually has the belt. I tried to explain that he was in deed a blue belt, but he was pretty adamant about it to and would get MAD if you tried to call him a blue belt. So until Tuesday you can only call him Mr. Orange/Blue belt just to appease him until he actually physically receives the blue belt.

All I have to say is Sarah is ever the opportunist! Thursday morning I had my OB appointment right after I dropped Josh off at school. That meant I had to gather all my things together BEFORE I dropped Josh off at school so I could go straight to the doctor's office. While I was gathering my stuff Josh decided it was time to open the garage and get in the car. Most mornings this is fine, but I prefer he tell me before he does get in the car so I know where he and Daniel are. Well Thursday morning Josh didn't tell me he was opening the garage and supposedly getting in the car. He just went into the garage with Daniel, opened the garage door and instead of getting in the car went out in the front yard to mess around. He didn't close the house tightly to the garage so Sarah seeing her opportunity escaped. Now I had no idea that my kids were running rampant and unsupervised outside because I was still gathering my stuff together for my doctors appointment upstairs. It wasn't until Josh came running in from outside and yelled, "Sarah's in the street, Mom!" that I knew she had escaped. Luckily, the neighbor kid saw Sarah in the road and grabbed her and brought her back. Why Josh came running inside to tell me she was in the street BEFORE grabbing her I don't know. At least we live in a relatively slow cul-de-sac so no cars were coming at the time. After Sarah was rescued Josh told me, "Wow, mom she almost made all the way across the street!" Really Josh? I told him if it ever happens again to get her FIRST before telling me anything. I am sure my neighbors think I am the worst parent because I let my 18 month old play in the street while my other two kids age 6 and 4 watch playing unsupervised in the yard. I really had no idea they were even out there until Josh came and got me all the way upstairs in my bedroom. I keep thinking to myself the nursery rhyme, "There was an old lady who lived in a shoe. She had so many children she didn't know what to do...." I can't wait to see what happens when we throw one more kid into the mix in a few months. It should be interesting.

Definite Proof

I had the big ultrasound today where they look at everything on the baby. I am very happy and relieved to report everything is just perfect. We even got to see some 4-D images of the baby. He seems to have the same nose as Sarah, but it is still hard to tell with the ultrasound images. It is getting me more excited to meet him, but hopefully we won't meet him too soon. He is currently about 1 pound 10 ounces and growing great. I will be 25 weeks along tomorrow and it is going by pretty fast.
And this picture erased any doubts in my mind about the gender of the baby. It definitely is a boy. There is nothing like seeing the boy part in 4-D ;). Now as for names we have it narrowed down to a few. To keep the biblical name theme going, here's what we have: Noah, Benjamin, Adam, Timothy, Andrew, Michael and Jonathon (John). Which one do you like?

The Vacation Day that was Anything BUT a Vacation

When we got our suburban we decided to try and sell our van ourselves instead of trading it in since the trade in price they give you is absolutely ridiculous. We had never sold a car ourselves, but we didn't think it would be too hard to do since it was only about 4 1/2 years old, with low miles and in great condition. We went ahead and listed it on the local want adds online, parked it over on a car lot they have on the airforce base and just waited. We had one lady who was very interested and it got down to the exchange of money and she backed out last minute. Then the kicker of all kickers has happened in the last few days. Aaron got a call from an older guy who wanted to test drive it. Aaron had to take an hour off of work to go with him to let him look at it and drive it with his wife. Meeting them for the first time Aaron thought they were on the stranger/crazy part of the normal person spectrum, but he just figured it takes all kinds of people. Aaron rode in the back seat while they took it around for the test drive. It was a little nerve wracking for Aaron because they just wanted to play with all the buttons instead of watching how they were driving. Aaron was never so glad to get out of the car safely after that experience. However, the couple decided they liked it and wanted to get it. Since we wanted just to sell it and the couple couldn't quite afford the asking price so they wheeled and dealed until it was a steal for the couple just because we didn't want to own four cars anymore. They decided to meet at the bank the next day for the exchange of money and title. The husband had told Aaron he had gotten pre-qualified and everything was ready to go so Aaron planned on leaving work yet another half day of vacation just to get everything taken care of. The night before the bank meeting the husband called up and wanted proof of all the maintenance we have performed on the car during the time we have owned it. Well that's a lot of routine maintenance between oil changes, timing belt replacement, serpentine belt replacement, etc. We have not had any major problems with this car ever, but if that's what would make them sleep better at night then we would try to get the proof he wanted. He also told Aaron that his wife wanted the whole car vacuumed and detailed again--a little annoying since I had just done that. We just thought whatever and that we would take care of it. Aaron headed down to the dealership we bought it from and where we got all the routine services performed to see what maintenance records they could print out as proof. The next day Aaron got all the records and headed down to the bank to meet the couple. On the way to the bank the wife called Aaron 3 different times and told him to take it to a transmission place to get the transmission looked at to make sure it was running smoothly. Aaron just trying to please the couple did their bidding. The first transmission place the mechanic wasn't there so they had to try a different shop. There the mechanic with Aaron took it out for a drive and deemed it in good condition. However, the mechanic talked to Aaron during the test drive (since the wife decided to stay at the shop instead of going on the test drive with them) and told him how crazy and very high maintenance this lady was because he had dealt with her a ton before. Aaron wasn't too worried and just figured that once they bought the car he wouldn't hear from them again. Then from there Aaron drove it over to the bank to finalize everything. When Aaron got to the bank, the husband was no where to be found. During the time the wife and Aaron were waiting for the husband to show up, she went off about how many things she didn't like about the car and about how it was not going to meet her needs. Aaron just nodded wishing the husband would just show up and he could just get out of there. Aaron showed the maintenance records to the husband who finally showed up only to have him say they weren't very good proof. What?!? They then wanted to talk to the dealerships mechanic instead to hear it from him. Unfortunately, the mechanic was at lunch and was not going to be back for a couple hours. They decided to proceed with the sale anyway. Aaron then provided the title to the loan officer and when it came to the financing part Aaron left the room so everything could remain confidential for the couple. What was supposed to take five minutes and remain confidential ended up taking a lot longer and wasn't so confidential. The couple got into a big heated, knock down, drag out fight about financing. The screaming match got so loud Aaron could hear out in the lobby as well as the shoppers at the grocery store since it was at a bank branch inside a grocery store. The couple screamed at each other for quite a while trying to get the loan officer to take a side as well as anyone else who was within hearing range. Aaron was really uncomfortable, but was just hoping everything would get resolved. Unfortunately, the couple carried the argument out into the lobby having the husband storm off yelling and the wife uncontrollably crying and yelling with the tellers and shoppers gawking with Aaron standing awkwardly right in the middle of it all. The loan officer then awkwardly handed Aaron back the car title and told him sorry that the sale was not going to happen. After all that the loan officer pulled Aaron aside and basically told him this couple wasn't the easiest to work with (since she has had multiple run ins with them) and basically advised him not to sell them anything at all, EVER, even if they resolved their differences. After all that Aaron can see the wisdom in her advice. Now we are back to square one again minus the maintenance records because the husband took them when he stormed off. So much for that fun waste of a vacation day for Aaron. I think it is a little funny, but Aaron is not quite seeing the humorous side of the event yet. Is selling a car really this HARD or did we just get caught up with a bunch of crazies??

A New Budding Artist

Sarah has found the joys of a pencil. She has left her mark on my table, floor and walls. I try to keep all the pencils up where she can't get them, but having two kids in school it is nearly impossible for me to keep them from her reach at all times. I caught her red handed this morning doing her handiwork on my floor. I guess if I try to be positive, it shows her great fine motor coordination, but I would rather see that in other ways. And of course I have to add the pictures don't even do her masterpieces justice as they are larger and darker in real life.

The floor masterpiece. The table masterpiece.

The guilty party caught red handed (or pencil handed).

She has also discovered that whatever we are eating it has to be much tastier than her food (even though it is the same thing most of the time). So if she sees we have food we have a mooch very close by. Here is Aaron having some ice cream the other night. As soon as she saw what he was eating she became his bosom buddy--that is until the ice cream ran out then she wouldn't have anything to do with him since she has turned into a true momma's girl. She is a crazy kid.