Trunk or Treat

Last night was the annual "Trunk or Treat" at church.  The girls dressed up as black cats and they were so adorable.  Of course, this was pretty much the easiest costume idea I could think of, and that's why we chose it, but it actually turned out really well.

(And, Ellie has just started "posing" for the camera.... she stands there and says "cheeeee!!" with her face scrunched up in a smile until the flash goes off. Sooo cute.)

(Garrett's pumpkin this year)

You asked for it...

Ok, no one actually asked for it, but I promised to post more pictures from Saturday, so here they are!

 Another family pic

 Abby

 Bocce ball.... yeahhh!!

 Dr. W

 Close game

 I like to pretend that she is trying to give me a hug in this picture.  She's actually just trying to grab my earring.

 I love this one because it looks like she's holding the camera out in front of her.

 Sisters

 An outtake from our other family shots.  I really love this one... Abby is playing peekaboo and Ellie is being reverent.

 He's my favorite.

 And then we fought over who was going to lift who up....

He won.  Don't let that fool you, though... I am pretty buff.

 And then we went home and ate fish for dinner.

It was a great day.

Family pictures

On Saturday we went to a pumpkin festival and to the beach (with our friends Rob and Haley) to take some family photos.  We seriously need to update our current framed-in-the-living room picture (it's from when Abby was just 6 months old!) so getting something to replace that was our goal.  Rob and Garrett each brought their cameras and got a lot of great shots between the two of them.


Of course, not all the shots were of just the families... look at that face!!!  Ahh, I am so obsessed with Ellie.  She is such a doll -- and so hilarious!  Abby is too, of course... and she was very helpful when it came to getting Ellie to look over at the camera.


(*For some reason I think these pictures look a little grainy on the blog page... click on the photo to make it a bigger size.  It looks better.)

 Family picture #1

 Family picture #2

 Family picture #3

Which one is wall-worthy? 

There were a lot more pictures taken... I'll share some more later this week!

Mei Mei (x2)

Even before our kids were born, Garrett and I agreed that we wouldn't give our kids any sort of special items that they relied on to be happy or calm.  You know what I'm talking about: blankies, stuffed animals, etc. Of course they OWN these items, but we specifically didn't attach them to any one thing when they were babies.  I think it's great that some babies have these, but we just didn't want to deal with it.

But when Abby was a year old, some good friends of ours gave her a purple CareBear for Christmas, and Abby was hooked.  She immediately named it "Mei Mei" (pronounced "may-may"), because there was a purple bear on a couple episodes of Ni Hao Kai-Lan named Mei Mei (it means "little sister" in Chinese... cute, huh?).  Mei Mei has been a part of our family ever since.  Thankfully, Abby isn't completely reliant on Mei Mei being around -- she regularly sleeps without her, and Mei Mei doesn't usually come places with us anymore.

A couple years ago, when Abby did regularly sleep with Mei Mei, it was always so funny because Abby always knew exactly where Mei Mei was.  As I would tuck Abby into bed, she would ask for Mei Mei and I would ask her where it was... and she could always tell me.  "She's in the bouncy chair, facing the wall in the corner of the living room."  or, "She's under the couch." or, "She's in bottom of the green box in the toy closet."  Pretty impressive.

Anyway, Ellie has recently taken a liking to Mei Mei.  She loves carrying her around (Mei Mei is the perfect size to be tucked in the crook of her arm), wrapping her in blankets, and rocking her.  However, since Mei Mei is Abby's one special toy, I felt bad making Abby share it.  So, I decided to get Ellie a Mei Mei of her own.  Do you know how impossible it is to find Care Bears in the stores?  And online, do you know how many different versions of Care Bears there are?  And some are really creepy looking!  So I turned to eBay and found exactly what I was looking for: a brand new pink version of Mei Mei... exactly like Abby's, same size, same maker and everything.  Best part? It only cost me $10, including shipping.

Needless to say, Ellie loves it.  She doesn't need it to be happy, thankfully, but she loves it. Unfortunately, Abby loves it too, but we're working on that. :)

Anyway, I just had to buy it.  I mean, who could say "no" to a cute face like that??

Abby & Ellie with their Mei Mei's, October 2010

October Snapshot

First of all... I LOVE FALL!  I love the crisp weather and the changing leaves (although, it really can't compare to New England!).  Here's a quick snapshot of what we've been up to lately:

Garrett is on his last week of the best rotation so far.  It's a pain management rotation (pretty similar to what his dad does I think), and the schedule has been incredible.  He works Mondays-Thursdays starting around 8 a.m. and comes home at 1pm.  He has Fridays off.  It's been SO nice to have him around so much!  We have been going running or walking at the park nearly every afternoon, I go run errands by myself some days... it's been really nice.  I'll be sad when this week is over, that's for sure.  Next month he's on a family medicine rotation where he'll be on call every 4th day.  Not too bad (apparently the call is pretty easy, and he'll actually be able to sleep during it), but definitely not as great as this last month was.

Needless to say, he's done a lot of fishing lately too, but it's been totally worth it for me because he's bringing home the most delicious striper.  Rob and Haley made striper filets on grit cakes with cream sauce on top... definitely in the top 10 meals I have ever had.  I'll have to share the recipe sometime.  It's incredible.  One striper feeds all 4 of us, and they usually bring home 3 or 4 so we put them in the freezer (by law they aren't allowed to bring home more than 2 each).

We have been spending a lot of time lately with our friends Rob and Haley... Rob is also on a nice rotation so they've met us at the park a couple times, and we have dinner together a lot.  We have really been enjoying that, especially since things are going to get crazy during November/December/January and we probably won't see them as much (crazy rotations, holidays, etc.).  We are really going to miss living near them when we move next year, and I know Abby and Ellie will miss their little girl Janey, too.  She is exactly Ellie's age and they all get along very well.

Abby and Daddy reading scriptures

Abby helps Garrett put license plates on the "new" car

Abby is having a lot of fun lately with her "craft box", a medium-sized tupperware box where I keep all her art supplies.  She loves coloring with markers, gluing shapes to pages, and making cards.  Abby also loves reading books, both with me and by herself.  Her favorite right now are Berenstein Bears, and also her scriptures that she reads with Garrett every night.  She also likes exercising with me, especially doing the P90X ab ripper... it's so funny but she's pretty good at it!

Ellie reads up on Pediatric Advanced Life Support procedures

Ellie and me at the local petting zoo

Ellie is still as cute as ever and walking around like crazy... no more crawling for that girl!  We are still trying to teach her how to say "mama".... she can't quite seem to grasp how to make the "m" sound.  We'll say, "Ellie, say 'mmmmmmaa mmmma'" and she says, "baaaa baaa!".  It's awfully cute but I sure wish she could say mama! :)  Ellie also got her very own pink Mei Mei (pronounced may-may) doll (it's a Care Bear).  I don't think I've ever blogged about Abby's purple Mei Mei but I'll have to do that one of these days.  Ellie's also started resisting her second daily nap, which is always sad!  She sleeps great in the mornings but in the afternoon she's just been playing (or whining) in her crib.  I need to decide if I'll keep the morning nap, or just try to move the one nap to the afternoon.  I'll probably do the latter, so that both the girls can still have their "quiet time" at the same time.

I have been busy making Christmas gifts, eating honeycrisp apples (they are FINALLY back!), teaching piano lessons, and preparing for the primary program at Church (I'm the music teacher there).  I have also been trying out some new recipes lately and a few have been quite tasty.  While we were in Pennsylvania in September my mom and I went to a farmer's market and I bought a huge box of tomatoes for $9 and a very large bag of red peppers for $6, and brought them home with me.  I made a big batch of homemade spaghetti sauce, and then I also made two big batches of this roasted red pepper and tomato soup (the only change I made was that I left out the hot pepper sauce because I didn't have any).  SO good, and healthy too.  I put most of it in the freezer so I can enjoy it all winter long.

I also made this spaghetti squash recipe for dinner last night and it was deee-vine.  The only changes I made were that I used a purple onion, used red peppers instead of tomatoes, and I completely left out the basil because I didn't have any on hand.  It's SO good and also very healthy.  Can't wait to have the leftovers for lunch!  Other meals on the menu for the next two weeks include this spicy chicken soup, this meatloaf, and this butternut squash soup.  Oh, and this minestrone.  And this roasted chicken.  Can you tell I am in a "soup" mood?  I love soup. I have made all of these recipes before, except for the butternut squash soup, so I'm especially excited about that one.  Plus most of these meals make great leftovers, which is key.

What's on your menu this week?

The best gift I ever received

As Christmas approaches I've been thinking a lot about gifts and gift giving.  Besides having my own wish list going throughout the year, I also keep lists of ideas for gifts to give to others.  It's really helpful because when Christmas is right around the corner, my mind seems to go blank and I can't remember anything.

Anyway, I've been thinking about gifts that I've received throughout my life and there is one gift that really stands out in my mind as being the best gift I ever got.

It was given to me just about a week after Garrett and I got married -- so, basically the time in your life when you get the most presents a person ever gets..  We were moving into our house in Provo. My parents generously loaned us a LOT of furniture to fill the rental house (they had just bought it), and my dad even drove a moving truck from New Hampshire to get it to us.  We were so excited (and thankful) for everything, and I was overwhelmed with gratitude to my parents for their generosity.  Sure, there were a lot of things we didn't have yet (a microwave, a TV, lamps, etc), but we had the most important things that we needed, and we were so grateful.  And on top of all of that, my parents paid my next semester of tuition as a wedding gift.  So... yes, we had received a LOT of gifts that week.

Like I said, Dad had driven a truck to Utah to deliver our things.  He stayed only a few days because he had to get back to work, and I remember saying goodbye to him that morning before Garrett and I left for our classes.  Later that afternoon, as I walked to the back door of our house, there on the back porch was a big box: a new microwave.  From my dad.  He had bought it for us before going to the airport to catch his flight home.

Have you ever seen the movie "Father of the Bride" with Steve Martin?  It's one of my favorites.  Anyway, at one point in the movie, Steve Martin gets a wedding gift for his daughter Annie.  But, right before he can give it to her, Annie's soon-to-be in-laws drive into the driveway with their gift for her: a brand new car.  It's glitzy and beautiful.  Annie comes into the house to tell her Dad the great news, and she sees him holding his gift.  She asks what it is, but he's embarrassed to show her because it's nothing like a car, so he tries to convince her to open it later.  She opens it anyway, and it's a coffee maker.  And she kisses him on the cheek and says, "I couldn't love anything more."  That's how I feel about our microwave.

It's hard to describe the feelings I had when I first saw it.  It probably sounds pretty lame to say that I teared up over receiving a microwave as a gift, but it meant so much to me that my Dad had noticed something else that we needed, and had graciously gotten it for us.  After everything that he had done for us -- he had just paid for a wedding, he loaded a big truck full of furniture from NH, drove for 3 days to get it to us, unloaded the furniture into our house, took us out for dinner -- the microwave could be considered a very small gesture, but it was really big deal to me.  It was something that Garrett and I were planning to "go without" for a few months until we could save up to buy one, but here it was on our back porch.

I don't know if Dad even remembers buying it for us, but I have never forgotten that gift.  Even six years later, I still think of him every time I use it - I really do!  I'm reminded how much he loves me and how he always took care of me.  Thanks, Dad, for the microwave -- I love you!

OBX

We went camping at the Outer Banks a few weekends ago.  It was cool and rainy by the time we got there on Friday afternoon, but thankfully the rain stopped long enough for us to set up the tents and for Rob and Garrett to get a little fishing in.

Abby really likes camping and sleeping in a tent.  Unfortunately, it was so windy all night that we didn't get much sleep.  Imagine having about 6 people standing around the outside of your tent and shaking it as hard as they can, all at the same time.  That was pretty much how it was for us, all night long.  Finally around 12:30 I took Ellie into the car and we spent the rest of the night trying to sleep in there.

The next day was still windy but the sun was out, so we spent the morning on the sand.  Sat in the shade of Rob's car (you can drive out on the beach at OBX, it's pretty neat) and played in the sand, had a picnic, and watched Garrett and Rob fish.  We played some bocce ball too, which is really fun on the beach when you have the right sort of sand.

Abby swam a little bit, but the waves were so huge that we didn't let her stay out there for long, and didn't let her go in past her calves.  One wave completely knocked her over and that was the end of that.  She snuggled in a towel on a chair for a while.

Ellie really enjoyed playing in the sand and getting dirty.  We really had to keep an eye on her because she also liked to take off crawling toward the water, full speed.  She's such a fast crawler!

It was a fun trip with friends.  The fishing wasn't very successful, probably because the waves were so big from the storm that had just passed through, but we all had a good time. Someday I would like to visit the Outer Banks again, when it's warmer outside and when we have a bit more time (and more money to do things, like rent a jeep with 4-wheel drive to take onto the beach.).

New wheels

Well, in "hopes/dreams/plans" post from last week I said that my plans for last week and this month included cleaning out my pantry (and organizing it), and buying a second car.  We did succeed at one of them.... and let's just say that my pantry is still a mess.

Yep, we found a car for Garrett!  Here's the story.

We had been searching for a car pretty diligently for about 6-7 weeks.  There are so many steps to buying a used car: contacting the seller, going to look at it, driving it around, buying the Carfax report.. and if that all checks out, taking it to get a third party inspection (of course this is not all required, but Garrett is very cautious and it's a huge purchase, so we decided that paying $120 to get an inspection was worth the peace of mind to ensure we wouldn't buy a lemon.).

Many cars for sale around here are in Virginia Beach, which is about 25 minutes away, so that added to the hassle.  It was also really difficult for us to get a decent loan.  Of course, we would have loved to pay cash but we really needed to get a car, and we just couldn't wait long enough to save up the money.  Our bank was advertising 3.9% car loans, so we applied for that, but we didn't qualify because of Garrett's student loans.  We also applied for a physician loan, but Garrett didn't qualify for that either because apparently he doesn't have sufficient credit history (I guess paying off your credit card on time every month for 6 years doesn't count??).

So, we went to dealerships and told them what we could pay  - X amount for no more than 42 months.  Many could work with us on the "x" amount per month, but the payments were 60 or even 72 months, even with our substantial down payment.  No thanks!! It's amazing when you can end up spending on a car when you add up all the monthly payments.  We calculated the payments that one dealership offered and when all was said and done, we would have ended up paying twice as much as our original car budget.  So we tried and tried (and prayed and prayed) to get a private loan so that we could go into a dealership and say, "we already have the cash, so just work with us on the final price" instead of working on the monthly payments.  Finally we secured a great loan with the best interest rate we could find.  This also gave us the option to look at private sales.

We were looking for a Toyota sedan.  Hoping for a Camry, but willing to look at the Corolla (smaller).  The car is mainly just for Garrett to commute to work, but we also wanted the option of putting the carseats in the back and using it for longer trips, or just as a back-up car.  We were looking in the 2005-2006 range, but even then the cars were a little out of our price range and most had pretty high miles (over 100k).

At times it felt like maybe we were asking for too much.  We started looking at '03's but again, the mileage on those cars was just so high.  We finally decided on a firm price that we would offer for any car that we found, and kept looking.  Last Wednesday night, after a particularly stressful day of looking online and making phone calls, we decided that we'd put the car searching on hold since we had a really busy weekend ahead of us.

That night I couldn't sleep, so I decided to get up and work on some posts for my other blog.  I randomly decided to pull up Craigslist and see if any cars had been listed in the last hour.  Interestingly, someone had just posted a Corolla for sale.  It was a 2008, but it was priced exactly what we had decided our firm price would be.  It was borderline sketchy, though... only 20k miles on it.  And a 2008 for that price?  It was easily $2k under blue book, maybe even 3k under.  Even the color was nice (white/gold-ish). I tried not to get too excited.  The seller left a phone number on the ad, and of course I couldn't call him in the middle of the night, so I went to bed.

I couldn't sleep at all that night.  I wanted to wake Garrett up and say, "I found our car!!"  I knew that lots of people would be calling the seller the next day, and I knew that we had to act very fast.


Early the next morning I told Garrett what I had found.  Of course, when I told him the price he said, What's wrong with it?  I finally convinced him to call the guy just after 7 a.m., but he didn't answer the phone so Garrett left a message.

Garrett tried all day to get a hold of him, and finally around 4pm the guy answered his phone.  He told Garrett that at least 30 people had called about the car, and that he would be showing it the next day.  Garrett hung up the phone and told me the news, but I knew we couldn't wait.  Call him back, I insisted, and tell him that we will buy this car if it's what he says it is.  Ask him if you can see it tonight.


So, thanks to my nagging, Garrett called him back and convinced him to let us see the car that night (we only live about 5 miles away from him).

To make a long story even longer.... Garrett test drove the car that night and loved it.  It turns out that it's so cheap because the car was originally stolen last year.  The owner claimed the insurance on the car (making it a "total loss" car), and after the insurance company paid the person, the car was recovered.  So, the insurance company then owned the car.  The guy we bought it from is licensed to buy cars from insurance companies and resell them to the public.  It all still sounded a little sketchy to us so we bought the Carfax (and called the DMV, and our insurance company) and everything in his story checked out.  We read up on the internet about buying "total loss" cars and apparently it's a pretty popular way to get nice cars at a great price. Early the next morning I took the car in for an inspection.  Just as the seller promised, the car was in perfect shape.  Everything was original (except for the new tires), everything was in mint condition.  It looks (and drives) brand new.  Just as you would expect from a car with only 20k miles. :)

So, we are very excited to finally have two cars again.  We are so thankful.  And, I'll admit that I'm excited to own a Toyota.  We are not "car people" by any means (we don't really care what our cars look like), but I am a bit of a "Consumer Reports" snob so I've been wanting a Toyota for years.  We need the reliability.  Too bad the U.S. doesn't make cars like that.

So, thank you Japan, for the Corolla.

(Now, somebody please steal a brand new Highlander so I can buy it when it gets recovered.  Thanks.)

50 Day Challenge: Wrap-up

In case you missed anything.... here's a link list to each post from the 50-day challenge:

Day 1: Introduce yourself
Day 2: A bulleted list of my day
Day 3: Favorite movie
Day 4: A photo of me taken over 10 years ago
Day 5: A letter to my crush
Day 6: What I ate today
Day 7: A funny youtube video
Day 8: A recent photo of myself
Day 9: My favorite blogs
Day 10: Someone who has caused you pain
Day 11: Favorite recipes
Day 12: Self portrait
Day 13: Free day - Opinions, please
Day 14: A song from my childhood
Day 15: Someone I wish I could meet
Day 16: Five celebrity crushes
Day 17: A photo that makes me sad
Day 18: Share or set a goal
Day 19: Free day - Happenings
Day 20: Someone that changed my life
Day 21: Favorite television programs
Day 22: A photo that makes me happy
Day 23: Share a favorite tune
Day 24: Face morph
Day 25: Someone I judged by their first impression
Day 26: Favorite books
Day 27: A talent of mine
Day 28: Favorite places to shop
Day 29: Color spectrum test
Day 30: The friendliest person I knew for one day
Day 31: Free day - money talk
Day 32: A photo you took
Day 33: What you're craving right now
Day 34: Your favorite quote
Day 35: A letter to an ex
Day 36: Some hobbies
Day 37: A song I like to dance to
Day 38: A photo of my parents
Day 39: Zodiac sign, does it fit me?
Day 40: A deceased person I wish I could talk to
Day 41: Free day - Rush
Day 42: A bad habit
Day 43: My favorite place in the world
Day 44: Something that fascinates me, and why
Day 45: A letter to myself a year ago
Day 46: Photos of personal things in my life
Day 47: Birthday/Christmas wish list
Day 48: A photo of me right now
Day 49: Hopes, dreams, plans for the next 365 days
Day 50: A letter to my reflection in the mirror

I really enjoyed doing this 50-day challenge and would love to do something like it again soon.  It's nice to have set blog topics to write about, rather than trying to just blog about what we are up to (although those posts are good, too.  A nice mix of both, perhaps?).  These posts really made me think and I hope you all enjoyed reading them and getting to know me a little bit better.  I have enjoyed reading my friends' 50-day posts as well.

So now I'm on the lookout for another blog challenge... if anyone has any interesting or fun post ideas, let me know!

Day 46, Revisited

I skipped day 46 of my 50 Day Challenge because I just didn't have a chance to take all the pictures.  I decided to share some pictures of my house.  As it stands now, I haven't taken pictures of the bedrooms but I'll share the front room area.

Here's your viewpoint when you first walk into our apartment.  The entryway is just a little hallway.  Directly to the right is a little hallway area with three doors - one to a closet, one to the girls' bedroom, and one to the guest bathroom.

Here's a closer shot of those pictures on the wall.  Aren't they cute?  Garrett took them.

Here's our kitchen.  It's small but I like it and I love how open it is to the rest of the living area.  Beyond the kitchen (in that little alcove past the fridge) is our laundry room.  I love that we have a laundry area in the house (rather than having to go somewhere to do it).  That was definitely on our list of "must-haves".

Here's the dining room, just past the kitchen.  Those two pictures are from the places we have lived.  One is a picture of Mount Timpanogos (in Provo), and one is a picture that Garrett took of rural Georgia.

Here's the view from the dining room looking over to the living area.  If you look carefully, you can see that Garrett's bike is behind that chair.  There is also a ladder, a few boxes, and a filing cabinet.  We have no garage. :)

Here's the same view... that quilt on the floor is one that I made and actually kept for myself (finally!).  I made it from fabric scraps of other quilts I have made.

The girls love to play on it.

Here's the couch.  I'd like to take down the frames we have on the wall behind it and make a gallery wall with 6 or 8 large-ish square frames.  Not sure what pictures I would put in them, though.  As of now we have some pictures that Garrett took in Hawaii, and then in the middle is something we bought in Hawaii.  It's a piece of tree bark that has been pounded flat and painted with ink made from berries.  I think that the lady we bought it from said that the pinwheel pattern in the middle meant "family" or something or other.  Anyway, we like it.  When we went to Hawaii we wanted to bring something back that wouldn't be a knickknack and this fit the bill.

Here's a view from sitting on the couch.

Oh, there's our laundry room.  I thought about getting a curtain to separate it from the kitchen (and to hide the mess!) but as you can see that hasn't happened yet.

There's our piano, front door, entryway.  Some toys on the floor. :)

Here are the girls at mealtime.  Abby insists on sitting next to Ellie for every meal, but it's not good enough for her to sit where the chair usually is.  She scoots over as close as possible.  Sometimes it causes problems (Ellie grabs Abby's food, plate, or hair), but it's usually fine.

Here's the view from our back patio.  Gotta love that huge electrical box blocking the view. :)

I'll post some pictures of the girls' room another time - it's pretty cute.