Piece of Cake!

Not that I am any culinary genius or anything close, but, I enjoy playing around, and here is the cake I made for my husbands birthday, yes, my husband. He helped, but he could only do what I told him - he listened, for the most part. It was more fun making it together, than seeing everyone's reaction to it.

Breaking the Routine

Things are okay here, pretty monotonous, and to try to break the routine requires an ENORMOUS effort, and is usually pretty exhausting! We have spent the better part of this week trying to figure out what is in our garage. (We, meaning the girls and I -Evelyn is 20 months, and Olivia is 1 month). As you can imagine, OIivia naps on the job, and Evelyn normally counteracts what progress I DO make. But, the garage, with it's new milk and juice spills, and lollipop sticky marks, is still cleaner than we found it! Evelyn even decided to re-fragrance it today, yeah, "throw-up" wouldn't have been my scent of choice, but she was the one to decide. But, really, it's been fun! We go in white, and come out black, especially Evelyn, who manages to get the stuff permanently stuck to herself. She has been wearing the same clothes everytime we go in there, because I am so afraid she will do the same thing to the rest of her clothes, and I just can't afford that!!
Evelyn loves to follow in my footsteps, really, I turn around and knock her down constantly! Sometimes she just hangs on to my pantlegs so that she doesn't fall behind! She even climbs on the stool behind me. She has a great tendency to stand PRECISELY in the way! If I need to move something, she is standing where it goes. Anyway, I am drained after such an adventurous week.

Pumpkin patches & Corn mazes

We recently took Evelyn to the pumpkin patch and went through a rather extensive corn maze. It was quite alot of fun, and took about 40 minutes. Everytime we came to a dead end, Evelyn would just walk through the rows of corn, unhindered by the fact that there was no longer a path. It didn't seem to bother her that it wasn't nice and paved for her. She had quite alot of fun running down the path and rounding corners, nearly running into people, and decided which way to go at a fork. But my favorite part was when she took my husbands hand and simply started walking down the path alongside him.

The new one

"How ya doin'?"

I've heard this question often, of late, as I have been running accross people I haven't talked to in a while. The common answer to this question is to catch them up on the facts of our lives since we last spoke. Newsflashes. Normally about everyone but myself, except that I had the baby and am hoping to return to school in the winter.

But really, I feel as though our life (my small family's) is a leaf floating on the wind, and may be blown in any direction at any moment. It seems as though we are simply trying to keep up. I have observed the manner in which some young toddlers run, and simply put: it is as though they lean forward and then try to move their feet fast enough to stay under them, to keep up with the momentum of their falling body. That is sometimes how I feel. I don't know which direction we are headed or what storms we will face, and some of the potential storms seem awful fierce.
It's almost like waiting with your bags packed and by the door, but as of yet, unaware of the destination.
Jason has recently applied for a police department, and inside of six weeks recieved a reply and taken a physical and written test and an interview. Of 12 people, only 3 were invited back for the interview. Is this really the direction we want to go? It will require an incredible sacrifice of time and will thus put a severe strain on our family. We would have to move in three months. We would have to change some of our other plans. I wouldn't be able to go back to school in the winter. But I would be much closer to my family. We may have to buy another car before we even have the money to do so. But the pay will be reasonably higher than it is currently. And, Jason is still unsure if he will even like it any better than what he is doing now.

We keep trying to place the decision in God's hands, and then are worried that we will miss the signs of direction. And will it really be worth the cost to our family? We are confident that He will see us through; He always has. Unfortunately I am one of those who wants to know all of the details. I like to SEE that whoever is in control has it under control, and I want to know the plan just in case something goes wrong, I can take control to make sure that it works out the way it is supposed to. I have come to see that I do this with God, too. I still have to just trust, though, becuase God doesn't normally see any reason to give me all the details.

"Nesting", eh?

More like countdown. I think the concept of 'nesting' is just an over-glorified term for trying to hurry and make sure that everything is done and prepared for the baby's arrival. It hits whenever, but for some of us, it intensifies in the last couple months as your realize that your TO DO list is longer than your remaining days!! In my case, the list also encompasses those many things that I know that I will not be able to do anymore once I have 2 kids. You know, those silly things like sewing, sleeping, cleaning, showering, painting, scrapbooking,...did I mention sleeping? Just when am I gonna find time to do these things? Oh, and then there is that little matter of a small business that I own and pretend to run! And of course since there are so many things to do, I can't remember anything else. I can't focus on a movie long enough to follow the storyline because new additions to my to-do list keep popping into my head! I finished a nursing shall, and I made sheets for both of the girls (blankets are just too hot), and I am about to finish a diaper stacker. I started a puzzle that I would someday like to finish and hang in the girls room, but for now it is just sharing the kitchen table with my sewing machine. I have been working on scrapbooks for both of them, while also trying to get some jewelry made.

Don't get me wrong, I am WAY excited to meet my new little one, but I am just not in a hurry for her to arrive - but I don't really want her to be later, either. She is supposed to arrive 2 weeks from today, September 16th.

So, for now, I am planning on going with my momg to a Women of Faith Conference this weekend, down in Anaheim, and I'm excited about that. And on the way home, Jason & I are going to a Gem Faire (it only comes conveniently close once a year) and hope to be able to get a few things.

Today is Jason's first day back to school, teaching in his OWN classroom, too. I can't say that I am looking forward to the lonely days, but at least he is done with school and doing what he studied for.

Well, that's my little blurb. Don't know if I mentioned that we are planning on naming the baby Olivia Dawn (Stever).

We

Liquid

Pictures

You have to click on the picture of Evelyn to take you to her other pictures. Silly.

Keeping up...

There are so many weights on our time. We all mean to sit down and send an email, or make a phone call ...tomorrow. So I thought I would make it a little easier. I would love to drop everyone a line and let each know how we are doing and what is going on in our lives, but lately it seems that I only have time to do homework and chase Evelyn.

So, here's the scoop: Spring Quarter ends next week (2nd week of June) and Jason will be finished with his credential. He will have to participate in a program for 2 years at whatever school he is teaching at in order to actually recieve his credential. In other words, we can't leave California for 2 years. He has had an offer to teach Social Science at Barstow in the Fall, and everything seems to moving ahead. For the first time in 5 years, Jason will get a short reprieve from school: he gets the summer off! He doesn't have to take anymore classes. He will soon have to teach them, though...

I, on the other hand, do not yet get a break. I have 1 week between finals and the beginning of the Summer Quarter. Yeah. For those of you who do not know, I have not had a break since I was pregnant with Evelyn - I took classes through my pregnany and delivery and post-partum. Anyway, I think that I get to take the Fall quarter off...

So, on to what most of you are wondering about: what is Evelyn doing? She has been walking since 11 months, and is experimenting with differing paces.......yeah, fun. She is quite a mimic. There are a sleugh of words that are in her vocabulary - whether or not she chooses to use them is of a different matter. She CAN say please and thank-you. She can also say: more, up, down, done (w/ hand gestures), ball, book, baby, mommy, daddy, grandpa, eye (know's where it is, too), nose (knows this one as well), milk, bye-bye, pretty... and if you catch her in the right mood, she will try to repeat any word you give her. Like I said, she is quite a mimic.
Let's see, she has a pool that is 6-feet long, and 3-4 feet wide and about 2feet in depth capacity (although they never want you to fill it that full). She thinks that this pool is the greatest thing, and even if she has chills and her 9 teeth are chattering, she continues to roam from end to end chasing the ball and saying "Wee!".
If you are wondering about personality, you should all be ecstatic to know that she is her mother's daughter. Which means that she is very willful and headstrong, she is persistent and determined (notice the terms I use, rather than stubborn). She is a tough one, doesn't cry unless it really hurts, which means that I often find unexplained scratches and cuts. She like to play in the dirt, and always likes to find where her boundaries REALLY are. Many of you may be snickering as you read this description, although I haven't the foggiest idea why! Evelyn may be a challenge at times, but that is because she will be a challenger. She is already quite charismatic, and I have no doubt that she will grow up to be a interesting as her mother. ;) Anyway. There should be a link to some pictures somewhere around here...