Welcome!

Well I finally did it. I gave our blog address to a few other people besides my immediate family. I think my family has become bored of reading about Jenna all the time so they don't come to the blog anymore. Don't worry, you'll become tired of it too! I don't update this thing as often as I would like to, only about once a week. It's amazing how addicting this thing is. I wish I had more time to work on it. Joel thinks I am crazy. I am always checking other people's blogs. I am a full fledged stalker now. Anyway, I hope you enjoy looking into our lives a little. I hope to hear from any of you!

Basement Update

So we started working on the basement more than a year ago. We had all the money saved up and the desire to get it done. Well, that desire started to slither away about two months into the project. Don't get me wrong, we wanted it done, but didn't really didn't have the time to do all the work necessary.

Well, we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Joel finished up insulating and figured if we didn't at least get help to do the drywall, we would never get it done. We decided to just hire it out. So the guys showed up this morning and pretty much finished hanging all the drywall by lunch time. They are coming back tomorrow to mud and tape. I can't believe how fast it is all happening (and how fast the money is draining out of our account!). There is finally some definition in the basement so I have a better feel for what the whole thing is going to look like. It will be really nice when it is all done. Unfurnished, but nice. Joel and his Dad (and the hired help) have done a nice job on everything.

I couldn't get good pictures of everything, but here are a couple of okay ones.

The bedroom from the back corner. We are putting in a huge closet. I can't wait. (It's the picture that is crooked, not the room).

The entertainment room from the back corner.

The entertainment room from the doorway.

Mother's Day #2

So Sunday was my second Mother's Day where I was actually a mother. It was just another day.

I picked up Jenna from day care on Friday and saw that all the kids had made Mother's Day cards--all the kids except Jenna that is. I didn't ask why, just went home and pouted. She had taken a really long nap that day so figured she slept through card making time. Oh well. So she still has until Sunday to do something, right? They always do something in nursery.

I was wrong. The nursery leader was out on Sunday and nobody really knew what was going on. The men took over the third hour so that the women could all go to Relief Society. Their lesson was on hands and sign language. Jenna brought home a sign language sheet that she had barely colored. Pfff.

So we came home and I told Jenna it was Mother's Day so she was supposed to be nice to me and give me hugs and kisses. She then proceeded to give me about a hundred hugs and kisses. That was much better than anything else she could have given me.

We spent the afternoon at Mom & Dad's house. They fed us a yummy lunch then we talked about Australia for a little while. It was a lot of fun although Jenna is still freaked out by Dad for some reason. I told her to take a toy to him and she just threw it at him so she wouldn't have to get close.

After we left Mom & Dad's, we went to Joel's Dad's house where we sat around and chatted while eating dessert. It was fun.

All in all, I thought it was a good Mother's Day although some people wouldn't think so because I didn't get any "things". It is a little disappointing that I can't bottle up those hugs and kisses I got from Jenna and pull them out ten years from now in remembrance of my Mother's Day. Oh well.

Grandma Lamb, Mom and Jenna

How cute!

Nursery!

Today was Jenna's first day of nursery. It was pretty bitter-sweet. It was nice to not have to entertain her for three hours, but sad because I like being with her. She did pretty well. She cried when I left but I guess that was short lived. They were saying that there were 18 or 19 in nursery right now so there were plenty of kids for her to play with. When I went to pick her up after church she wouldn't stop hugging me.

Getting ready to go. (The picture is kind of dark; it was bright outside)

"Let's go!"

"I'm not so sure about this..."

"If I don't look at her, she's not really there."

Swim suit Model

Jenna's day care has "water day" every Friday starting in a few weeks. We were out shopping yesterday, so I thought I would get a head start in getting her a swim suit. Good thing I did, because this one is too small. Doesn't she look too cute?! She is going to need to learn how to wipe her mouth and not draw on herselft if she really wants to pursue a career in modeling though.

Guess what we did tonight

So I am sitting at the kitchen table looking through the junk mail when Jenna comes up to me, grabs her bum, says "poopie" and runs to the bathroom. I thought it was going to be just like last time, where she would freak out when I try to sit her on the potty and that would be the end of it. So I tried to put her on the potty fully dressed, but she didn't want to sit down. I took her off, but she wanted to get back on, so I tried one more time. To my surprise, she sat there! And she continued to sit there for like 5 minutes. I decided to take advantage of the opportunity, so I stripped her down and set her down. Within 30 seconds she piddled a little. What a nice sound! Anyway, we spent the next 10 minutes playing in the bathroom. It was the most fun I have had in a bathroom for a long time. I am not getting my hopes up that she will be potty trained any time soon, but it sure would be nice!

Here is Jenna praising herself. She kept clapping and saying "Yay!"

I told Jenna to go poopy, so she made this face. She did manage to push out a little toot.

Mental Health Day

So Friday I took the day off of work. I called it a "mental health day", but my friends called it a "Me day". Either way you look at it, I took the day off. The weather has just been so nice and we are kind of in a slow time at work, so I have just not wanted to be there for the last few weeks.

I had a great day, but it was much too short. I didn't tell Joel I was doing this until Thursday night so he wouldn't be tempted to take the day off too (not that I wouldn't love to spend the day with him, but I needed some time to myself). So I got up early and went to the temple. After, I came home and paid some bills and tried to clean up a little bit. Then I had a hair appointment. It has been several months since I have had my hair cut and the good ole Fantastic Sams, and much longer since I have had anything besides just a cut done to it. I decided to splurge and went and had my hair cut and colored. I got tons of blonde highlights. I am still deciding if I like it or not. I left the salon loving it, but now I keep going back and forth. I didn't get a funky cut or anything. It's still pretty much the same even though I told the girl to do whatever with it.

Anyway, by the time she finished my hair it was 3:00 and I was missing Jenna so I went to pick her up from daycare (hey, we had already paid for her to be there for the day, so I had Joel take her in). We came home and played for a little while, then went to the grocery store. I had to laugh while we were at the store because I walked down the rice aisle and all of the shelves were empty. They have been talking on the news lately about the wheat and rice shortages around the country, and I guess I got to see some of it first hand. There were a couple of couples there that were taking one or two carts around and filling them full of food storage stuff. I laughed at the time because I was planning on going to the cannery Saturday morning and was thinking that I was going to pay 1/2 the price these people were paying.

Well, I went to the cannery and guess what. They were nearly out of food! I couldn't beleive it. Apparentley they had a run the day before and had to close early because they were running out of food. They said they sold $25,000 in wheat on Friday alone. They didn't have wheat, beans, rice, or oats left. What a joke! The missionaries there were a little upset about it. They were saying how it wasn't fair for us who had signed up 6 weeks in advance to go work to not be able to buy anything because people who had been freaked out by the news had come and bought everything up. I have to agree with them. I felt kind of bad for them, though, too because there was a guy there who went off on one of the missionaries because they didn't have what he wanted. Like it was her fault. What a jerk.

Anyway, a little side note about Friday night. Jenna and I are sitting there playing when she jumps up, grabs her bum, says "Poopy!" and runs to the bathroom. She went straight to the toilet and lifted the lid. I thought, "This is awesome. She is going to potty train herself." No such luck. I put her on the potty and she freaked out. I put her diaper back on and she ran to the corner to do her business. I know she is still pretty young to be potty trained, but we went out on Saturday and bought a potty for her (It's called the "Cushy Tushy", isn't that cute?). We thought we could have it on hand just to get her used to it I guess. She wanted to play with it last night, but freaked out again when I sat her on it. I am not too worried about potty training her quite yet, but I guess I'd better start thinking about it. I don't even know where to begin, so any tips would be greatly appreciated!