Check Out George-alina

George-alina was just barely a centimeter long when Alyssa brought her home a couple of weeks ago, and we have watched her grow and fatten up until she was about an inch and a half long when she stretched herself out. Over the last couple of days George-alina has been moving a lot less, and I admit there were a few times I was afraid she was dead. I thought that maybe Alyssa's enthusiasm and carrying her little plastic ramekin home around to show George-alina to all of our neighbors had finally done her in, but when I looked closely I could see her little mouth moving. All was well.

Then, this morning I checked on George-alina when we woke up, and sure enough, she is halfway in to her cocoon. Alyssa keeps saying, "Just in time to take her back to school tomorrow!" This whole process has been amazing to watch, especially watching the way Alyssa has taken care of her little caterpillar. The chrysalis George-alina is building for herself is just beautiful. The picture doesn't show the tiny bright yellow dots very well, or the pretty smooth texture.

Baby Nora

Today we visited my sister at the hospital to see her brand new baby girl, Elinore Rose Johnson. She is just the sweetest thing! She weighed in at 9 pounds, 1 ounce, and her face is so round. It's adorable. When I took Christina's other kids to the hospital yesterday, Eliza, who is two, kept saying, "This is my baby," and one time she almost slipped and said, "This is Mom's - this is my baby." All of the kids love her already, and they are all so excited!

Brian and I watched Chris and Nate's other five kids over the weekend, and we had a lot of fun, but I have to say that Christina and Nathan are amazing, because I am exhausted! (Actually, there's one more kid, Emma, but she was in Utah with my parents for my brother's graduation from the MBA program. Way to go, Phil!) You know how they say that when you serve people, you love them even more? Well, it's definitely true. Over the weekend I learned that Megan is the best big sister any girl can be, Michael is rockin' at mowing the lawn, Marian is so kind and patient, Derek is all over the rule of picking up the toys that are already out before you get more toys from the closet, and Eliza is just adorable. But what's neat is that because I was serving their family while Christina was in the hospital having Elinore, I felt a special bond with that baby the second I held her. She's less than two days old, and I love her so much, and she's not even my baby - she's Eliza's!

My Eyes Aren't Itchy Anymore!

This is me.

This is me in contacts.

(dramatic pause)

Any difference?

I know I don't look any different with contacts in as opposed to out (which, of course, is the whole point of contacts), but I feel so much better! (Actually, the first picture is a little blurry, and the second is clearer, so just pretend that the photos represent my vision clarity as well.)

Normally I have horrible Spring and Summer allergies that no eye drop can touch, and I suffer through them the entire summer, but for the last two days while my contacts have been in, my eyes don't itch or feel grainy at all. But once I take them out at night, the itching starts right up. I think I'll be wearing contacts a lot this summer.

Last night I was able to successfully remove them by myself, but I haven't yet put them in by myself. I have these "little, squinty eyes," as Brian says, "which must mean that [I'm] suspicious." It makes it really hard to put contacts in. Luckily, I can pull my optometrist out of bed each morning and ask him to put them in for me until I can do it myself.

Edited to Add: I went in to Family Eye Care yesterday and Ellie patiently taught me to put contacts in by myself! Yea!

Meet George

George is Alyssa's catepiller she's raising as part of her Butterfly class. She is beyond excited! She's been begging to have a pet of her own for the past year and a half, and I am so glad that she thinks this counts. She was able to bring George home yesterday after school, and she has been taking good care of him ever since. George likes to eat the food paste stuff he's living on, and sometimes he sleeps. That's about all he does. Alyssa loves him just the same.

Edited to Add: George is now called George-alina. She has grown twice her original size, and she is molting. It scared us half to death until Alyssa told us, "Oh, I remember now! We have to wait and soon she'll start molting!"

Churches

We're changing our phone number. We just set up our new phone account last week, and we're already ready to change our number. The first wrong call happened when we were out, so I came home to a message for Sister Jessica from a nice lady saying she decided that she would like to go to church that Sunday. I called her back to let her know she had called the wrong number so she didn't think that Sister Jessica ditched her, and if it hadn't been General Conference that weekend, I would have gone ahead and invited her to church with us.

The next calls came from a 1-800-number, which at first I ignored, because I figured it was telemarketers. They called a lot. The same number called us around four or five times a day, and I would just ignore it. Brian finally answered when he was home, and when he told the man he had reached the wrong number, the man said, in an angry voice, "Oh, I've got the right number," and hung up on him. Brian then looked up the number online and found that it was a creditor from Wells Fargo who had been trying to track some people down for a while. No wonder he called so often.

We've gotten a couple of calls to the parents of a girl who has skipped classes at Pasco High. It's just a recording, so I hope they're not getting in trouble for not getting the calls.

The majority of the calls, though, have come from people looking for Sister Jessica or Pastor James, and they all expect us to be a church, so they don't give me any preliminary background when they call, and it completely catches me off guard. Last week a man called and said he had come up to Washington from Sacramento for a job interview. Well, he didn't get the job, and now he needed money to purchase a plane ticket back to Sacramento to be with his wife and family. (I seriously didn't figure out that he was calling a church until this morning. I thought he was just dialing random numbers, hoping to get some money.)

Today, right when Alyssa and I were finishing up her Phoncis test, the phone rang, and I thought it might be Brian, so I said, "Good job, Alyssa! Five minute break!" and ran to our bedroom to answer the phone. It wasn't Brian.

"Yeah," the man said, "I'm wondering if anyone in your church does mechanical work?" I thought for a moment, and said the second thing that popped into my head. The first, which, of course, I didn't say, was: Why are these crazy people calling us? and the second, which I did, was: "You know, we just moved into this house a couple of weeks ago, and we haven't really gotten to know anyone at church that well. We really don't know anybody. I don't know any mechanics."

And then it hit me. DUH! He thinks we're a church. He must think I'm Sister Jessica. I hope he didn't think I was Pastor James. So then I had to explain that we were indeed not a church, and I think I confused him more than he confused me, because he kept saying "We're just looking for a mechanic...We're having problems..." while I apologized and said good-bye.

So we're changing our number.

And speaking of churches, we went to our new ward on Sunday. You would think that having church at 12:30 would make us be on time, but I happened to shut the car door on Marcus' fingers as we were getting ready to leave, and then we had to put ice on it, but he didn't like the ice pack, so Brian pulled a water bottle out of the fridge and had him hold it on the way to church. He drank some of the water, too.

While we were driving to church, I told the kids how important it was to make a good first impression, and that they needed to be good for their teachers. "Alyssa," Brian said, when I was finished, "she's talking to you." (She's been talking back and being quite rude to me the past few weeks, but actually the last three days have been wonderful!) Then Brian started to lecture Alyssa on not talking back and respecting her teachers, and Ethan said, "Look, Alyssa!" as we were passing the soccer fields with fifty gazillion soccer games going on.

"Hold on, Ethan," Brian said, "Wait until I'm done talking to Alyssa. Now you got in trouble this morning for talking rude..." and three minutes later, as we were nearing church, Brian finally said to Ethan, "Now what did you have to say?"

Ethan hesitated for about two seconds, then said, with full enthusiasm, "Alyssa yook out yours window!" It's too bad the soccer fields were long gone by then. We did have a good talk about them, though.

Church was wonderful. Sister Hall (Emily's mom) is a nursery leader, and it would be hard to think of a better person to teach and love Marcus and all the other little kids in there. (There was a boy who fell asleep under the table during singing time, and one of the ladies told me that it was "his table" and he fell asleep there every week. No wonder - church is right during nap time!)

Sister Beck sat beside me in Relief Society, and she was my very first tent mom at Girls Camp. It was fun catching up with her.

As I was taking Alyssa to Primary, a little blonde girl whisked by, grabbing Alyssa on the way. I found out from her mom that Kinzie is the girl Alyssa has been playing with in a yard across the street, and we actually had her over to play today, and then we all walked to the park together. That was a lot of fun! Kinzie is Alyssa's age, and she has a brother a little older than Ethan, and another brother a little older than Marcus. It's perfect! And I really enjoyed visiting with their mom while the kids played.

On Monday a sister who lives in the cul-de-sac over stopped by and invited me to a girls-lunch-out on Tuesday, which was great, and I got to know a few of the sisters in the ward, including the Bishop's wife. She gave us permission to not answer his calls, so I guess we won't have to worry about getting callings for a while. We'll just tell him we thought his number was a creditor from Wells Fargo.

Pie For Breakfast

We had Brian's parents and his aunt and his grandpa over for dinner last night, and yesterday afternoon I asked the kids if we should make cupcakes for dessert. Alyssa asked for something lemony instead, so I looked up some lemon meringue pies on Allrecipes, and found the best lemon meringue pie ever! It is delicious. (By the way, I love cooking in my new kitchen. I love the counter space, and I love that it's open to the family room so I'm not cut off from the kids when I'm cooking.) The pie was so delicious that I'm having the last bit of it for breakfast this morning. (And by "the last bit" I mean two of the three small slices that were left from last night, and when Alyssa asked to have the third slice, I seriously considered saying, "No" to her so I could eat it myself.)

Brian's aunt also brought a beautiful pink Azalea for our new house. She said they usually have problems growing in this area, but to ask Grandma Orton about it, because she successfully has some in her yard. (Our first plant!)

Lemon Meringue Pie III

Ingredients

• 1 (9 inch) pie crust, baked
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1/2 cup cornstarch
• 1/3 cup water
• 4 eggs, separated
• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons lemon zest
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup white sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. Combine 1 1/2 cups sugar, salt, and 1 1/2 cups water in a heavy saucepan. Place over high heat and bring to a boil. In a small bowl, mix cornstarch and 1/3 cup water to make a smooth paste. Gradually whisk into boiling sugar mixture. Boil mixture until thick and clear, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together egg yolks and lemon juice. Gradually whisk egg yolk mixture into hot sugar mixture. Return pan to heat and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in grated lemon rind and butter or margarine. Place mixture in refrigerator and cool until just lukewarm.
4. In a large glass or metal bowl, combine egg whites and salt. Whip until foamy. Gradually add 1/2 cup sugar while continuing to whip. Beat until whites form stiff peaks. Stir about 3/4 cup of meringue into lukewarm filling. Spoon filling into baked pastry shell. Cover pie with remaining meringue.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes, until meringue is slightly brown. Cool on a rack at for at least 1 hour before cutting.

Ketchup

• It took a few days longer than expected, but we finally got keys to our house and moved in. The Realtor told us that we should be able to get the keys when we signed the papers, but things got a little messed up and some of the companies we were working with for the title put things behind a few days. I spent an entire day saying to anyone who would listen, "If the email they sent us says that the signing is complete, why the heck do we not have our keys yet?!?" I was very impatient, and the minute we got the call to pick up the keys, I stuffed the kids in the car and headed over to pick them up. Then I drove immediately to our new house and started painting the kids room. The boys room is done in Charm Blue, because, obviously, they're charming, and Alyssa's room is done in Purple Slush. Brian calls it Purple Flurp, from Jimmy Neutron. It is quite purple. I've put purple curtains in her room, too, and I think we're going to take them back and switch to white. It really is quite purple in there.
• We got the keys on Wednesday afternoon and frantically painted and moved in until Friday morning. Back in January, Brian signed up for a Continuing Education conference in Seattle for the 27th and 28th of March, and at the time, we thought it would be a great idea for me to go with him. But as things were going, with only two days to move, we didn't think it would be a good idea for both of us to take the weekend off, and up until Friday morning we didn't think that even Brian would be going. We had already set up babysitting for the kids, though, and I completely blew out my knee while moving furniture and wasn't doing very well because of that, so we ended up taking the weekend off anyway.
  
• So just after lunch, we called my mom and Tallia to make sure they were still okay with watching the kids, and Brian and I took off to Seattle. I slept and watched T.V. at the hotel while Brian went to his classes. When he called me during one of his breaks, I answered the phone by saying, "This is the best week of my adult life!" We went out to dinner with Mark and Becky, since we didn't get to see much of them at their wedding. We were right about Becky: she is just as nice as she seemed to be! We loved being able to go out with them and get to know them better.
• We finished getting all of our stuff out of the old house, and spent an entire day cleaning. My poor nails are destroyed from all the cleaning and scrubbing. I'm not entirely picky about my nails, too. My idea of a manicure is just making sure they're clean and shaped nice, and putting on a coat of clear nail polish, so you know that they're destroyed when someone like me says they're destroyed.
• Last week was Spring Break at MCP, so we took the week off at home as well. Alyssa made friends with the kids across the street, who were also on Spring Break, and I organized the new house. It's amazing how fast and easy it is to move in when there's enough space to put everything. When Brian and Nathan (brother-in-law) and Michael (brother) were moving things in, they put all the furniture on the right rooms, which made it so easy to put the beds together so we could sleep well. Mike and Nathan even carried a filing cabinet up the stairs that took two guys carrying each drawer and then the cabinet to get it out of the old house. When they made it to the top of the stairs, almost dead from exhaustion, I said, "Wow, you guys are awesome!" I was really impressed.
• The Easter Bunny came on Saturday. Marcus went downstairs before coming to our bedroom (which he never does) and came back up the stairs with a Cadbury egg in one hand, saying, "Zandy! Zandy!" Apparently he had attacked Alyssa's basket and eaten half of a Cadbury Caramel egg before coming upstairs to tell us of his find.
• We didn't dye Easter eggs until Saturday night, when Brian was at the Priesthood session of General Conference. The kids loved it! Then they ate about 15 eggs between them. At first Marcus wouldn't let me help peel his eggs, and he ended up eating and choking on some shell. It didn't stop him from having fun, though, and soon he let me peel his eggs for him.
• Conference was wonderful, like always. I liked the theme about love that seemed to run through all of the sessions. God's love, love in our families, Jesus' love for us - I loved that. Conference was tough this year, because the kids are still young enough to not sit still, but they're getting old enough to be decently noisy. I spent the entire weekend saying, "Sshh!! I'm trying to listen." Alyssa sat through a couple sessions, though, which surprised me. She did great!
• We had my family over Sunday afternoon. Brian and I were talking afterward about how crowded it was to have anyone over at our old house and how it was so wonderful to have the room to enjoy having people over.
  
• We're back to school today. It's a new Trimester at MCP, so Alyssa starts her new classes on Thursday. She's taking a butterfly class, Hands on History (which she is thrilled about. She loves History!), and she's still in P.E. it Mr. Jolly, and all of the kids love Mr. Jolly. Right now Alyssa is finishing up with Math. It's wonderful to have a school room! The kids are away from the toys and the food in the kitchen, and Alyssa is doing a fabulous job of trying to stay focused.
• I love our new house!