1987

In 87 I turned 11. I finished up my 5th grade year. When Julie moved back from Texas I was ecstatic. I had a falling out with Amoretta and Rhonda (I accidentally pulled Amoretta's hair when she was lifting me up and she thought I did it on purpose and wouldn't take my apology) so I had no one to play with for weeks. They even convinced my friend Lisa to make fun of me. They would follow me around the playground taunting me. The fifth graders did the President day program and when my family and I showed up Lisa was handing out programs. She told me that she was sorry for being mean but at least Amoretta liked her now. Amoretta didn't really care for Lisa at first. I told her I didn't care because Julie was moving back in a week or so. The conflict eventually resolved itself with Amoretta but after Julie moved back and she saw I had moved on.

I started 6th grade in the fall. Julie was not in my class because her mom insisted she not have a man teacher. I had Mr. Pearce. Notice my lovely liondo in the picture. I was a hall monitor that year.

1986

I think one of the first memories of 86 for me was seeing the Challenger blow up. I was in my 4th grade class and we were watching it on Tv. I think the whole school was at that time. We were all excited because a teacher was going up to space. At this time I wanted to be a teacher and I wanted to be a teacher that went up in space. After it blew up we were all in shock. Mrs. Hanks turned off the TV and we were dismissed to recess while the teachers and principal had a pow-wow on what to do. I don't remember if we were dismissed from school or not but I do remember recess was very somber.

I also had my one and only birthday party when I turned 10. I got to have a slumber party. I invited 12 girls and 9 came. We watched Annie and Gremlins. My friend Rachel was so scared of Gremlins she watched it with her sleeping bag pulled around her and I grabbed her and said "Boo!" She screamed.

That summer I went to California to visit my Grandma and Grandpa there. My sister had gone the summer before and now it was my turn. My parents drove me over to my dad's aunt and uncle's house. I stayed with their daughter that lived next door. Her husband had gotten a job in California but they couldn't afford to move there yet so he lived with his parents during the week and then drove to Idaho on the weekends. He agreed to let me ride with him. He had a little pickup with no air conditioning and I got so car sick on the 13 hour drive that by the time we made it to his parents house I was very sick. It took my grandparents about an hour to get to their house. They knew I was feeling sick so they gave me some sprite. About the time my grandparents got there I was in the bathroom losing all the food I had ate that day. I rode back to my grandma's house that night lying in the back seat. I was pretty much better the next day.

My grandma made beautiful bears that she would sell. I grew very fond of this one and carried it everywhere. About 2 years later I received it for Christmas.

My grandparents lived in Aptos which was close to Santa Cruz. That was about an hour from San Francisco. Here I am at the Golden Gate Bridge. We also went to an aquarium there. We rode the BART train. I had to really go pee but there was no toilet on the train and ended up wetting my pants. My Grandmother learned to make sure I go to the bathroom before she took me anywhere. I attended her ward pioneer day and she made me a cute apron and bonnet and bought me an outfit for that. I got lost in a store for aboutt 10 minutes. I made a friend with the neighbor girl named Pauline. We stayed the night at her house but her dad kind of freaked me out so I ended up going home in the middle of the night. We also would hike through the woods near the house and I got into something I was allergic to and got hives all over my body. A car rolled down the hill in the back of my grandma's house and I was outside when I heard a loud crash. It crashed through the neighbor's fence. If it hadn't turned but jumped the curb instead it would have crashed into my grandmother's fence and probably crushed me since their back yard wasn't very large.

My grandmother took Pauline and I to the amusement park in Santa Cruz. We went to the beach several times. I learned to body surf while there. I went to the beach with my primary class once but none of the girls were very nice to me so I ended up playing with the leader's younger sons.

My grandparents drove us back to Idaho since they were going to attend the family reunion anyway. We went up through Northern California nd I slept through the Redwood Forest. We stopped in a little town called Idaho City on the way through Idaho. It was very old fashioned. We ended up in Rexburg where my uncle's inlaws drove me back to Rupert. The old couple fought the whole way and I felt so out of place sitting between them.

That fall I started the fifth grade. I had Ms. Hughey. My bad hair days started around this time. Perming was very popular but it took me several years before I learned that my hair did not like it. Be prepared for the hairdos of the next few years.

Julie had moved back to Texas before 5th grade started but she moved back before it ended and she ended up in my class again. I also became friend with a new girl that moved in Amoretta and her cousin Rhonda.

This is a Test

Yesterday Sheila was home sick again. This time with a cold. I think it might be allergies now though because she coughed and sniffled in the morning and slowly she got better throughout the day that within a few hours she was not coughing and was not stuffy at all. This morning she is showing the same signs of symptoms. I think she is going to school. Yesterday because she wasn't acting sick because she didn't feel sick she and her brother were fighting. They usually play well together but they do feed off each other. If one is doing something wrong than they both are. They are great kids to watch by themselves. Anyway, yesterday they seemed to find every one of my buttons to push.

So I think Motherhood is a test. But I am pretty positive that the good times will always far outweigh the worst times and so I just hope that I will continue to improve on being a mother. Although I know I am far from the best mother I also know I am far from being the worst. I think currently I am passing and hopefully some day will be the top of my class.

1985

My hospital stays were not over in 84. In early 85 while still in 3rd grade I continued to get tonsilitis and strep throat but because of the mono and pneumonia they had to wait until I was better from that before I could have them removed so for spring break I had my tonsils and adenoids removed. After that I didn't get as sick as often.

Since I lost all my friends while I was sick when I got better I started playing with a group of boys. I was always the nurse on a spaceship. So not PC back then. Soon another little girl named Julie moved in and those boys would let her be a nurse too. I got jeaulous and really didn't like her so I started playing by myself. I would swing or jump rope. Sometimes I played with my neighbor and her friends who were second graders. I continued to play with them the following fall as well and was invited to my first sleep over at my neighbor's house.

That fall I started 4th grade. I had Mrs. Hanks. The school had built on a new wing and they brought 4-6th graders out to it so I stayed in Acequia. My sister came back out as well to attend the 6th grade. Mrs. Hanks was an older teacher and probably the meanest teacher I had although she wasn't that mean. She gave me my first B and I cried and cried. I thought I had failed.

Julie was in my class and I really didn't like her. I think Mrs. Hanks saw that and she put me next to Julie. My sister also became friends with her. Slowly we started to warm up to each other and became best friends by the end of the school year.

The Prophet Spencer W. Kimball passed away in Novcmber and Ezra Taft Benson was sustained as the new prophet of the church.

1984

I was baptized in 84. I was baptized on February 4 and confirmed on February 5. We had stake baptisms back then and I think there was around 10 of us being baptized. It was such a big thing that it was held in the chapel and then the individual wards would go back to the baptismal font/Relief Society room. My father baptized me.

My friend Robin moved away after the new year and so I played with a 1st grader named Jennifer. She wore dresses everyday and would give me food out of her lunch box.

That fall I started third grade. Mr Merrill was my teacher. We had so many 3rd graders that they made our class. He originally was going to teach a different grade. Our class was the smallest of the third grade classes and we had a classroom in the basement of the school. The music room was the only other room down there.

I became ill with tonsilitis and strep throat and so the doctor put me on antibiotics. About the same time my dad got a job as a deputy sheriff with Minidoka County and went off to the police academy. I would get off the antibiotics and get sick again. In September (soon after school had started) my mom took me to the doctor again. While we were waiting my mom said she noticed my lymph nodes were very swollen and at first thought I had mumps even though I had been vaccinated. The doctor took one look at me and hospitalized me. They ran a bunch of test. I was put under an oxygen tent. I was very ill. The doctor feared I had leukemia.

That first night my mom had our home teachers come to give me a blessing. My dad was still at the police academy. The doctor told my mom I would be under the tent for about a week and then another week in the hospital if I recovered quickly. The next day they removed the oxygen tent and on the fourth day I was allowed to go home. I had pneumonia, mono, tonsilitis, and strep throat all at the same time. I stayed out of school for almost a month and then was not allowed to go outside until January.

During that time I had to spend recesses inside. I got to choose someone to stay in with me. There was one girl that seemed willing although she wasn't always nice to me. We became good friends and played together every day. She was in girl scouts with me as well. Then when I got to go outside I really wanted to and she got mad because she wanted me to stay inside to play (she had to go out as well since I no longer had to stay inside.) She never talked to me again.

1983

My grandfather Egelund died of Cancer in January. He was fairly young. I remember going to his funeral. A lot of people from our ward in Rupert also went down to Utah for it. My grandparents had lived in that same ward when my mom was younger and many of the older people in the ward were friends with my grandparents.

I started 2nd grade in the fall. My teacher was Ms. Graham. I got the chicken pox that year. I remember my stomach was itching and I saw that I had a sore on it. A little bit later I noticed I had two. I showed my teacher and I was sent home. Some of my siblings had it and so we all got it about the same time. Five little kids with chicken pox, my poor mom.

There was also a huge drought that summer that hurt a lot of the farmers. My father was a self employed tractor mechanic. When the farmer's couldn't pay him his business went under and we really struggled for several months.

1982

In 1982, my grandfather Egelund took all of us to Disneyland. It was in May since we celebrated my oldest brother's birthday while we were there. My grandfather was dying of cancer and that was his dying wish to take us all to Disneyland. I don't remember too much of the trip except the Small World ride and then some sort of tram ride. I remember taking naps in my grandparent's big van during the drive there. I also remember every one got Mickey ears but I wanted a coloring book and crayons. I also remember having M&M's melt in my hands (it's not true that they don't) and getting it on my grandmother's coat. She was not very happy about that.

Right before the trip down to Walt Disneyland we moved from our house to a new house next to my Grandparents (dad's parents.) We had to live in a travel trailer for about 6 weeks in my grandparents lawn. When the house was finally ready we slept in it without any power or furniture the first night. We were just glad to be out of the travel trailer.




The last of my siblings was born. My mom went into labor 12 weeks early. They were able to stop it and put her on bed rest for 6 weeks. My grandmother came to take care of us and my mom. I would sit on my mom's bed and play with her. My grandmother, my mom's mom, scared me when I was little. She seemed very brash and would yell a lot. I love her to death now and know that is just her. After 6 weeks of bed rest my mom had my little brother 6 weeks early. He stayed in the hospital for about a week. His name was Jeremy but he got the nickname Jerm because my dad said he would be germ free when he came home.

I started 1st grade a few weeks after Jeremy was born. I attended Acequia Elementary. My mom took me registration day and showed my my class and introduced me to my teacher, Ms. Fraham. The first day of school however another teacher claimed I was in her class. Come to find out I was on both class lists and I got to choose. I didn't want to hurt anyones feelings but finally decided on Ms. Fraham because I had already met her.


I peed my pants once in class. I had to go to the bathroom and went up to the teacher's desk to ask her if I can go and she was telling some boys they had to wait until recess. I thought that applied to me too and sat back down. About ten minutes later I really had to go and raised my hand. She was in the middle of teaching something so didn't call on me right away. I started waving my hand frantically and the moment the bell rang it escaped me and she called on me and I cried, "I peed my pants." I had to wear these really stiff boy pants they had at the office without any underpants until my mom got there with clean clothes. I was so embarrassed. My teacher felt bad since my mom told her I had a weak bladder and when I have to go I had to go. She told me no matter what whenever I had to go to tell her and she would let me go.

I made two best friends in First grade, Robin (who is next to me in the picture) and Amanda (who is on the other side of the sign) Maria (who is next to Amanda) also became a good friend a little later on. Both Robin and Amanda moved away within the next year.

I joined brownies that year as well. I was in the girl scouts for about 4 or 5 years. I was very shy and so my mom pretty much sold my cookies for me. My sister was also in girl scouts and she always got more sells then me because she had no problem talking to people.

This is a picture of us with my grandma, my dad's mom. She lived in California and this was taken at an airport when she flew in to see us that winter.

My birthday

Yikes these are horrible pictures. I could have made myself up a little bit. But here are some pictures from my birthday. We went out to lunch the Monday before since school was out, Ray was off, and we could get the neighbor girl to watch the kids. Then that evening we got the cake and I opened my presents.

I got a boxful of Sizzix dies.

And the Cricut Design Studio. I am going to put this on our laptop since I can put that right by my Cricut machine on my desk and not move my machine over to the computer desk. I will try it out probably when we get back from vacation.

We celebrated my birthday and Ray's dad's birthday as a family on Saturday the 24th at Chilis. Oh, and Ray said he will pay for a massage for me at some point but he better make the appointment for me since I am horrible at calling people.

1981

In the fall of 81 I began Kindergarten. I went to Smith Kindergarten. This was before public kindergarten existed so it was a private one. Both Raydon and Michael had gone to the same one. Two kindergartens met in the old Lincoln school in town. In this picture I am in the second row fourth from the right.

I made my first friend in kindergarten. Her name was Katherine. She lived right next to the school. I went to her birthday party and wouldn't take the balloon they gave me to take home.

I also had another good friend in kindergarten, Lee. He's 2nd from the left on the top. Later I was in his ward for a few years although we didn't go to school together again until 7th grade, Junior High.

Mrs. Smith was my teacher and Mrs. Aikens (the one in the picture) was the aide, or secondary teacher, or something like that. I was too young to really understand. Mrs. Smith was sick and died that year. My class attended her funeral. That was my first funeral that I remember. Afterwards Mrs. Aikens took over the class. I didn't like Mrs. Aikens at first because I thought she was mean. It might be because when some boy scribbled all over my desk she made me clean it off. I sat there bawling and bawling. Another little girl told me to tell her who had done it but I wouldn't so she did for me and got me out of trouble. I later became good friends with Mrs. Aikens older son Adam (in high school) and found out she wasn't mean.

The Jordan River temple was dedicated that year.

World events: First launch of the space shuttle. First female Supreme Court Justice, Sandra Day O'Connor. Prince Charles and Diana marry. The birth of MTV. US Department of Agriculture tries to make ketchup a school lunch vegetable. Pac-Man is introduced. First reports of AIDS (not named at the time.) American hostages released from 14 months of captivity in Iran. Assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan.

Isn't He Handsome

Here is my cute little man in his new suit. I just thought he looked so adorable I had to share.

1980

In 80 I started to have more memories. Three days before my fourth birthday my first younger brother, Mark, was born. I was mad. If Heavenly Father was going to take my little sister away I better be getting another one. My older brother and sister were thrilled. They wanted a little brother. Then he came home from the hospital and he was just so cute that I couldn't help start liking him, especially when my older siblings started picking on him too. We had to team up. I am glad I changed my mind about him. We were always close growing up and we are still close now.

That year I also smashed my thumb in the mail box. That is when I noticed it would not straightened and ran to my mom. Later in life I found out it was starting to be that way for awhile. Anyway, I had a trigger thumb and I had my first surgery to repair it. I remember after the surgery the doctor took me down to the vending machine to pick out a candy bar and I picked out a Butterfinger because it had a yellow wrapper. Yellow was and is my favorite color. You will notice this a little later when I start posting school pictures. Then either the doctor or nurse blew up a rubber glove for me. The fingers made spiky hair. They were drawing a face on it when it popped and I decided I really didn't want one. I still do not like it when balloons pop. I never was good at the game where you had to run and sit on a balloon to make it pop. I never could make them pop from my cringing so much.

I also remember watching the Presidential election for the first time. I liked seeing the states turn to red or blue. Even at 4 I was rooting for Reagan and I didn't even know who he was. I have watched every election night coverage since then as much as I could.

Two more temples were dedicated, Tokyo Japan and Seattle Washington. The latter would become special to me later in life.

World events: Post-It notes are introduced. Summer olympics in USSR and the US boycotts them. John Lennon is assassinated. Mt. St. Helens erupts killing 60 people. CNN is launched.

1979

In 79 my mom had my hair cut for the first time. She said my sisters hair was so cute cut short she decided to have mine cut the same. I didn't look that good with short hair then (my hair is really fine compared to my sister's thicker hair) and certainly doesn't look good short now. I only cut my hair short one other time and it wasn't pretty.

World events in 79: Iranian students stormed the US Embassy and hold 52 people hostage for 444 days. The sony walkman is introduced. Margaret Thatcher becomes British PM. Three mile island has a partial meltdown. Mother Teresa wins Nobel Peace Prize.

See what Sheila did

If you notice Sheila now has a little strand of bangs. She cuts with scissors all the time and has never tried cutting her hair but on my birthday she brought me a strand of hair that she had cut off. I decided to leave it for now since it isn't too much and not too noticeable. Hopefully when it grows out it won't be too hard to control.

Sheila's school called me Wednesday and she was sick I picked her up. She got sick that afternoon and then was fine all day yesterday. They called again today to come and get her again. She must have a little bit of a stomach virus although right now she is again acting fine.

1978

78 was a happy and sad moment for my family. My little sister Sheila was born March 7. She was only with us for a short time before she was called home by Heavenly Father. She died May 13 from pneumonia. As a child I always felt close to her and decided then that I wanted to name my first daughter after her. My second memory was begging my mom to let me hold her. I was two and she finally relented. I sat with Sheila in my arms on the couch for a few moments. That is the only real memory I have of my baby sister.

The 17th temple, Sao Paulo Brazil, was dedicated that year.

World events included Jonestown masacre. Ultrasound was first used. And Garfield the cat syndicated.

1977

I turned 1 in 77. I learned to walk and talk. My earliest memory comes from this year. We had a wood burning stove in the living room and when I was about 18 months old I was walking along and started to fall. To stop my fall I grabbed the stove and there was a fire in there. I burned my little hand.

President Jimmy Carter was inaugurated on my 1st birthday. He established the Department of Energy where I later worked. New York City had a 25 hour blackout that led to mass looting.

1976

I was born January 20th in the Cassia County Hospital in Burley, Idaho. I was born to Tim and Deelyn Dudley. I joined a brother Michael, 4, and a sister Raydon, 2. It was the country's bicentennial year. My first home was a bi-level home on the outskirts of the little town of Rupert, Idaho.

There were 16 operating temples. Spencer W. Kimball was the prophet.

Prelude

I have been working on a post for today but unfortunately my internet connection started giving me problems yesterday so I will have to postpone it for tomorrow or the next day. It is a special one for my 33rd birthday.

Update: I have decided to post 33 special post over next few weeks since the project got a lot bigger than I expected. One for each year I have been alive.

Friday Fill-Ins

1. Enough with the economy. I think the media is doing more fear mongering which exacerbates the situation more than it needs to be. Sure it's bad but it will recover and will recover a lot faster if it is left alone.
2. Traveling with family causes me to be conflicted. I love to have them along but sometimes I enjoy just having our little family together. A lot less stressful at planning stuff.
3. I've been craving ice. I think I bruised my teeth but couldn't give it up so now I have been crunching on crushed ice.
4. My children makes me laugh. Last night Sheila shared some of her Hershey kisses with Timmy since he had ate all of his earlier and after he was done he was covered in chocolate. Wish I had grabbed my camera before Ray started cleaning him up because it sure was cute.
5. I wish I could go to Idaho next week.
6. Babies have been on my mind lately. No I am not pregnant yet but we have been trying for 3 months so I am hoping soon we will be.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to no plans, tomorrow my plans include going to Joanns sale and Sunday, I want to enjoy church although I most likely will go to Sunbeams with Sheila again.!

My Skinny Boy

Timmy was a big baby. Starting at 2 weeks he was in the 90% for both weight and height for awhile. Then one slowed down to 75%. Sometime between 6-12 months he just stopped growing at a rapid rate. He weighed just over 19 pounds at 6 months and was only 20 at 12 months. His height also slowed down. Since 12 months he has been 25% or less for his growth. Today he had his 2 year check up. His height is at 25%, up 10% from his 18 month check up. But his weight, 5%. He can't were any pants over 18 months because they fall down and then I have to safety pin most of his pins anyway. He's gained all of 3 pounds in the last year. He is not a picky eater either and eats very good so he just must be running it off. Both his father and I were very thin growing up.

Update: I failed to mention that the rash on Timmy's cheeks is still baby acne. It is rare for them to have it so long but it does happen and he might have it through his toddler years.

No Pictures Please

Today we attempted to get Timmy's 2 year old pictures taken. It was an ordeal. First of all we wanted to go in the morning but they were booked until 4:30. So that threw all our plans out the window. I knew the kids would be worked up at that time. We got there a little early so we did a little shopping first. Showed up about 5 minutes before our appointment and they were running late so we had to wait about 20 more minutes. Then Timmy would not sit for the picture. He sat up there once for a picture with Sheila but then daddy tried to move him back a little and he started screaming and then would not let go of us for anything. We tried several things. Finally daddy held him, the photographer draped a black cloth over daddy and then just zoomed in on the Timster. He actually smiled a couple of times and we got one really good shot (some other good ones but one where Timmy was really smiling) and so that is the one we ordered. We did get a free portrait sheet with the package. We plan on taking our family picture in about a week. I hope he will be okay in those ones.

Friday Fill-Ins

1. It's January; my birthday is coming up. I usually don't look forward to my birthday but I always have hope that it will be a good day.
2. Triscuit crackers and slice cheddar cheese and chunks of ice is what I crave most right now. For the past few months I have been craving those crackers and cheese and that is my snack most of the time. I use to chew ice as a kid and lately I have picked up the habit again. Timmy has started up on it too. No I am not making any announcement, wish I was.
3. Cork and wine go together like I don't know.
4. Laughter is so nourishing.
5. Let us dare to dream.
6. Bless my home.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to reading, tomorrow my plans include getting Timmy's 2-year pictures taken and Sunday, I want to attend church!

My Timster turned Two

For Timmy's birthday Uncle Jonathan was still in town and wanted to go out to Seaside. So we went out there for lunch. Here are the kids playing on the green there.

After awhile we got ice cream and here is Timmy with his. Afterwards we headed home to get his cake and then back to the house to open presents and have cake and ice cream.

Oops one of the pictures disappeared and since they take forever to upload I will just leave it off. Timmy got a lot of neat toys. He got a riding trike for outside (still need to put that together,) some wooden blocks, a big bag of mega legos, a little people construction truck to go with the set his sister gave him for Christmas, a firetruck to go with the ambulance Santa brought him, and some clothes. Oh and his stretchy Elmo that he "don't want it" because it talks. I turned it off and now he is warming up to it a little at a time.

Timmy picked out this cake himself. It came out saying "Happy Birthday Penny" so we made them fix it. The picture at least doesn't show how horrible it really looked. He really liked it thought and had fun tearing into it. He did better this year than last year but those pictures must be on my 35 mm because I didn't have many on my digital camera.

In all it was a good day and Timmy had fun.

It's Here

Here is my new dryer. Because the door opened the opposite way they pushed over my washing machine and that was a-o-k with me since I have wanted them to be switched anyway since I was tired of lifting clothes over the doors. I have the first load in the dryer right now and so far it is working great and quietly, hardly can hear it.

Opening Presents

After we saw what Santa brought it was time to start opening presents. I love this picture. Notice where the bow is on Timmy.

Sheila really got into opening presents. She even liked the clothes when she opened them. Last year she would just ignore the toys and go to the next present.

I got the Cricut jukebox and the Disney Cars cartridge from my dear husband and my kiddos.

Timmy really enjoyed opening presents as well. He wasn't as patient as Sheila and got tired of it after awhile and said he didn't want to open anymore.

Santa came to Our House

I guess we had good kids because Santa came and visited us. Timmy got a basketball hoop and ball, a pillow and homemade pillowcase, a carebear (he didn't have his own) and then some little stuff like playdoh, coloring books, etc.

Sheila got an artist desk. The middle piece is a dry erase board on one side and a chalkboard on the other. She then got coloring books, markers, crayons, chalks, etc to help her artistic flow. She also got playdoh.

Timmy knew exactly what to do with the ball. He immediately grabbed it and started to put it throught the hoop.

Sheila went straight for her stocking. She liked pulling everything out and seeing what she got. She got hair stuff, socks, toothbrush, and candy. Santa brought them a tootsie roll bank just like mommy use to get on occasion from him.

Timmy finally got to his stocking. Besides the bounty of candy he got a ton of matchbox cars and a toothbrush in his.

Happy New Year!

Wow, 2009 already. I remember back in the 90s and thinking "In 2000, I will be 24 years old." Now I am way past that. My birthday is quickly approaching and my birthday presents are sitting on our table. I picked out most of it but Ray has a little bit to surprise me with.

Anyway, I hope 2009 is good to us. All the past years have been. Two big things I hope happen to us this year. One, is we hope Ray gets a tech sergeant slot at work. Currently there are five openings and he will be putting in for most of them Monday when he goes back to work. He may not get any of those but that should set him up to hopefully get one of the next slots. Second, I hope to add to our family this year. Time will only tell if that happens.

Some of my new resolutions include:
1. Read the Book of Mormon again.
2. Finish the Bible finally. I have read the New Testament a few times but have only gotten to Judges or something in the Old Testament. I will press on this year.
3. Get back in shape regardless if I get pregnant or not.
4. If I don't get pregnant, lose 15-20 pounds. (I plan on doing #3 & 4 by having Ray put the trailer hitch on my bike and taking Timmy for bike rides every day while Sheila is in school until it gets to hot to ride during the day. Then after that go early in the morning or start working out to my videos again.)
5. Organize my craft stuff and use up stuff by crocheting, sewing, knitting, and scrapbooking so I have more room to store everything. Currently I have about 8 containers worth of yarn, material, and other such supplies (not to mention my cabinet and two stacks of storage cubes of scrapbooking supplies.) My goal is to get it down to 3 bins (one for material, one for notions, and one for yarn) that I can easily store in my bedroom and get it out of the nursery.

Luckily, financially I think we are pretty sound so no resolutions there but I hope to keep us going on the right track and if something comes up that we need to get I can easily adjust the budget to accommodate that.

Which leads to my next thought. Okay, so we did it. We got the new dryer. And lucky for us when the salesman went to the back to check if they had one in stock he found one that had been cancelled from someone's order so never was delivered and it was clearanced at 30% off and also the pedestal was as well. That saved us another $200. It's the sister model to the one we picked out. He showed us in the book and both model numbers were under the same picture so they should be exactly the same or maybe just a slight difference. We got the steam version. I have been wanting the dryer since before we got the washer. I have always hated my dryer. When I bought it they did not have the one I wanted in stock (and I desperately needed them)and so I just got the cheaper version. The signal never turned off and was so loud. I couldn't wash clothes at night because it would wake me up. (In my apartment before I got married the washer and dryer was in the master bath and there was no door to the bathroom.) Then when we moved here the signal wasn't as bad behind a close door but it was still loud and woke the babies on occassion. Also the dryer always seemed to get too hot so I never used the time dry. So anyway it wasn't too much arm twisting to get me to agreed. I feel good about our decision so I think it is going to be okay and hopefully this pair will last a lot longer. I don't plan on moving them across country any time soon and if we do move again like that we will get movers so they shouldn't get banged around as much in a Uhaul.