One Year

This is what happened, 1 year ago (yesterday)...

And then he walked around with this thing on for a while... And what a year it has been! So to answer what most people ask ... He's doing pretty good. He doesn't seem to be in much pain anymore, or maybe I should say, he tolerates pain pretty well when he has it. He's back to doing things like before (and has for quite a while). And yes, he will have rods and screws in his back for the rest of his life. I'm sure he completely expects to be out water skiing this summer. In fact, as I was going through pictures, I found this; last summer he layed some new flooring in our kitchen (which, just happened to be free!)

And then, I decided (in order to save myself some taping) that I'd paint the walls before he put up the baseboards...When I first started puting the paint on I began to freak out thinking how dark it was. If you can picture a milk chocolate bar all warm and melted...that's my color. But once I got it on the entire wall I really like it...now just to get some decor on - well, more than what I currently have on it.
And to think, this is what the ugly place looked like before...

Now, creamy-white cabinets, new countertop, and a stainless still, single basin sink (I hope that's what it's called)...and yes, I LOVE having only one, not the double sink that most everyone has.

Got rid of that stove for a new (well, new a year ago) black glass top one. And, the microwave Lane had just installed on Valentine's Day. Yeah, over a year ago Valentine's Day, the day we began "remodeling" the kitchen. I had just been pulling down the cabinet doors to clean and prime when Lane broke his back. =( I couldn't find any other pics of it's current state besides the ones of me painting (sorry, not going to go take any right now...I'd have to finish cleaning my kitchen! ;) ) We still have one cabinet to paint/build and I'm pretty sure Lane threw away the paint. Still working on what to do about that. And of course, a couple other minor things to do in there as well. But, at least it looks a heck of a lot better than it did before!

Oh-yeah! I've still got a blog!

We are going to play a game. It's called pretend. We're going to pretend that for the last couple months I've been updating you all weekly on all the fun and unique things the Christensen's have been up to. And while we're doing that, we'll also pretend like it's been the most exciting two months and it has just flown by. WOW! Wasn't that fun? OK, it's pathetic really, even Lane said, "you haven't updated the blog since Aige's birthday?" It must be bad if he noticed. Really, though, nothing extraordinary has been going on, besides Christmas, New Year's, anniversaries, new church callings (I'm back in the Young Women's...secretary again!), and everybody getting sick in between. But we did have a little Valentine's potluck/playgroup yesterday, talk about fun! One thing I love about our ward, we've had a consistent playgroup since before we even moved in. We all had lots of fun!

This morning Aige and I finished up the Valentine's for his preschool class party and I thought it turned out cute and took a picture...of course, Aige (in his pj's) wanted to be in it too!

Happy Valentine's Day!! and hopefully it won't be another two months before you hear from us again!

You've Had A Birthday, Shout, Hooray!

Friday was Aige's 5th birthday!! It really does seem like we just brought him home from the hospital. I absolutely LOVE this boy! He is still my cuddly little guy. He loves to climb into bed with me every morning, and many days will come and ask me to come cuddle with him on the couch. He loves to build and create things. And is actually a help when Lane is out working on a car or his sand rail. He figures things out that blow me away. He understands all things mechanical and his preschool teacher tells me he is one of the top two kids in his class! He is super funny and very caring and thoughtful. He's always drawing pictures of me and him with a heart next to us (and I just can't bring myself to throw any of them away, even though I have quite a few). He is such a good kid and hardly ever causes any trouble!

Thursday we took cupcakes to preschool and when I picked him up afterwards he was excitedly wearing a birthday crown his teacher had made him and she had even given him a gift! seriously...love her! She obviously "gets" him and knows what he likes because she gave him a trasformer. He didn't have one (yet...Evelyn was gonna get him one for Christmas) but he's talked about them...a lot. I'm so glad that she made a big deal out of his birthday. Lane and I have worried about it being so close to Christmas and we've tried to not let the two mesh and keep them both as exciting and special as they would be if they were six months apart.

Happy Birthday, Aige!

A little help....please.

This year I decided that I want to make most (remember I said want, not will) of the gifts we give to the kids for Christmas. So far some of my ideas are pjs, bingo, puzzles, fake make-up, hair clips, jewelry and a card table fort (seriously, I've seen so many cute ideas, that the only thing that might be difficult is knowing where to stop). I'm looking for ideas and wondered if any of you had any or have seen anything on some of the blogs that are out there? Thanks, gals! You're all awesome!

duh...duh...duh....HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

So a week late, but, Lane doesn't check our blog regularly so he wouldn't have noticed! But .... it was his big three-0 birthday last Friday! The guys at work took him out to lunch at Hooters (think what you may...he doesn't really like the food... or the boobs:)). I totally wish I would have been there because the restaurant usually has the birthday person do something embarrassing. Lane got to waddle around the restaurant and quack like a duck at all the tables. (One of the guys took a video on his iPhone and so as soon as I get ahold of it it's going online for all the world to see!) Saturday he and some friends spent some time racing go-carts. From the sound of it, it was quite fun. I met Lane when he was 23 and I've been teasing him since that he was almost 30 (when you're 20 30 seams really old...yeah, not so much anymore and i guess i can't use that one anymore). So HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LANE! And HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RENAE! Wish we could have been with you guys to celebrate the day together!

yes, there are 30 candles on the cake, I love how it shines, it also started melting the cool whip!

OctOber!

Oh, My! More than a month has gone by! We've had such a busy month...Aige played soccer, my sister came and played with me for a week while Lane was out of town, then I went to Rexburg to take her back and go to my niece's baptism. Plus we went to Bear World. Lane's parents came for a visit, my birthday, a field trip to the fire station with preschool, and of course, Halloween! I love October! Not just because it's my birthday month, but I LOVE fall! The colors, the smell, candy corn, and all the spooky-ness of the haunted holiday!

Once Aige figured out the game of soccer we had a blast! Our really awesome friends, the Fleshers, were the coaches. We've been friends for forever! Met them while we were in school and ended up living in the same apartments for almost a year in American Falls, and we are lucky enough to end up here together! I think I can safely say that Aige and Malee have been each other's oldest friends! They are only three weeks apart in age and many of the pics I have back in Aige's baby days have Malee in them too! So it was so fun to have them on the same team! And Aige even scored a goal! (of course, I got sick of recording and then he scored, but at least Rick and Terry were there to see it! )

Aige and Malee -we've been asked many times if they were twins!

Lane's parent came for a visit! We were so excited for them to come! I absolutely love Rick and Terry and we had so much fun while they were here! We carved pumpkins, and Terry made me a birthday cake!

And then half my month was consumed with making the costumes! That's right, this year I finally made them! I've been wanting to do it for a couple years. Aige was none other than Speed Racer! I wish you could see the "M" on his back. I think it looks better than the "M" on the helmet (which was purchased and a whole other long story).

Evelyn was dancing princess. Her favorite movie is Barbie and the 12 Dancing Princesses, and lately she has been all about being a princess. I kind of tried to copy parts of the dress of the main character on the show. This dress was quite a learning process for me. It's the first dress I've ever sewn, it's satin, and well, it's the first dress I've ever sewn. It did give me flash forwards of sewing a wedding dress....crazy, I know. But, I did it, and she looked beautiful! Just as I was about to take the pics and head us out to the ward trunk or treat the elastic on the sleeve broke, so I pinned it up and took the shot and fixed it later. Now I don't think she'll ever take the dress off. Oh, and can I say how fun it was to put make-up on her and curl her hair!

So, after all that, I'm ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas...and hopefully a little break from all the sewing!

Fear Factor!

Warning, it's a bit of a rambling type story, and a little long...

Well, a couple days ago I went out and picked our grapes. Actually, I attacked them because, mostly since it would be easier than trying to get through my massive tomato plant (no joke), and also because I knew in that area of the garden/yard there have been lots of spiders. And, as I had started cutting the grapes off, I'd noticed quite a few spiders nests, which, thankfully, must have already hatched. So, being somewhat already creeped out, I left the grapes in the garage during the night as my "just in case" plan. Yesterday, I went out to the garage to get the bowls of grapes to juice them and was happy that the garage wasn't covered in baby spiders. So, I brought in my first bowl, dumped them into the sink and started washing them and taking off the stems. I only had a couple of earwigs and a few lady bugs. I got the first bowl juicin' and brought in the second bowl and dumped them into the sink, when, I see big black movement, plus more movement. So, standing there at the sink trying to figure out what would be the best way to finish the grapes without getting attacked by a big black furry spider. I decided to fill the sink up with water, and hopefully, let all in it drown. I used a wooden spoon to get the drain stop turned and then watch it fill up. And then I see quite a few earwigs emerge, a few lady bugs, then a few more smaller spiders, and of course, the big black furry one. I slowly began to panic. How do I get rid of all these bugs? Then as each of them get closer to the sink wall, they try to climb up it! So I shoot them down with the sprayer. Then the spiders get near the earwigs and attacks them, and that would be the point that my rational mind left. I called my mom hoping that she knew of some type of chemical that I could use to kill the bugs and spiders but leave the grapes OK. But of course, she didn't. I call Lane, really hoping that he could just come home in the middle of the day to save me. Which, was completely unrealistic. Plus, to make it all worse, I notice in the garbage a spider trying to climb out. That means, that spider was at one point in my hands! Now, if you could all just picture me, standing in front of my sink, big wooden spoon in one hand, the other clutching the phone, staring at a sink full of grapes (I no longer care what happens to them) and earwigs, spiders, and poor little lady bugs. It feels like my skin is trying to crawl off my body. Have you ever heard of the fight or flight response? I did think maybe I could scoop out the insects and toss them in the garbage. That would be fighting my fear. My instinct when it comes to lots of spiders is flight. Yeah, I just want to run away. The more I stood there and watched the sink, the worse it got. But I couldn't just walk away as then they'd all climb out of the sink and then I'd be in a worse mess if I didn't know where they were. Realizing that I needed to talk to someone, I then call my sister, Ann, she doesn't like spiders and bugs either. And of course, since she is my loving, big sister, I start to cry. I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to do anything, but I HAD to do something. So, in talking with her, we came up with saran wrapping the sink, trapping everything in it until Lane could get home to take care of it for me. I also taped around the edges, but since the counter was wet from the first bowl of grapes it wasn't sticking very well, so I put knives around the sink to hold down the plastic. As the first stretch of saran wrap went across the sink, I immediately started to feel better. And of course, in the middle of this bug/human war, I thought, I should go post something right now! So now you all know my secret that has really never been a secret. I'm an arachnophobic person. I absolutely hate spiders. Now I'm a little more crazy about it. I told Lane that if he ever chased me with a spider on a tissue that would be our end (told him that when we were dating, and he is probably the only boy I know that has never done that to me!) So, here is my hero, saving me from the scary sink:

(isn't he cute! and yes, i need to update our kithcen project)

He thinks I'm silly. Maybe now he really knows how much I hate them. And look at him! With his hands in the sink full of spiders and earwigs! AGH! I could only stay in the kitchen to take the picture and then I had to leave. Oh, and that's not the end of my traumatic day. Cleaning up after dinner, I turn around to find a big black furry spider on the floor, that decides to then go into an offensive position! And, yes, there's an and, a little later, I find another earwig! At least I know these were brought into the house, and not just finding ways in! *sigh* I now have 9 cups of grape juice.