Wishing for more heat!!!

Dallan, Jan 19 2009

Jon has spent most of this week putting insulation in the ceiling of the garage. There was insulation in half of it but the other half of which the office sits there was zero insulation. Hence it has been a very cold room. I insisted that the amount of heat we were losing from that big cold room was ridiculous and Jon and I decided that it was in the best interest of our heating costs to make some changes. Lucky for us he is in construction. And one of the guys he works with had just finished insulating a house. The scrap was headed for the dump before Jon intercepted the itchy stuff and brought it home and put it to good use in the space between our feet and the cars. It is definitely much more pleasant to sit here and write a letter to you. My fingers are not blue and my nose is not running. What is the saying that “one mans trash is another mans potpourri” “I don’t know it’s some kind of soup!”
I have been sicker at the beginning of my pregnancies in the past. Not to say I am feeling well. Jon told somebody the other day that I was hibernating. I am so tired that I can barely stay out of bed long enough to make it before I am crawling back in for another nap! Jon has been a truly awesome husband in all of this and has even fixed a few meals this week to help me out. I just wish we could be part of a nudist colony and then I wouldn’t have so much laundry to tackle all of the time. On second thought that wouldn’t work. Since I have a bun in the oven the thermostat is broken and I am freezing butt cold ALL of the time. Jon is always convinced that I am so warm to the touch (he always wants to cuddle up and touch for some reason, got me in this predicament in the first place) but I feel like I am a popsicle! I am usually bundled up in all my snow gear including hat, coat, scarf, and even gloves. But I still feel as if I am going to freeze to death. If you saw how many blankets are on my side of the bed you would wonder how they are not crushing me to death with all of their weight, But as I whine and complain about my miserable state I just laugh up my sleeve that Laura, Cody, and Crystal are all feeling just as crappy or worse!
I made a deal with Stiles and Marcus this past week. If they made their beds the right way ( you know pull up the sheet have everything straight) for a whole week without me having to remind them. Then I would let them move the furniture in their room around. Well I had some beautifully made beds for a week. Then they took it upon them selves to move their beds and bookshelves around, I let it fly for a few days before I put the room back in order again. They also decided they need a desk to do homework. They headed out to the shop to build one and instead they found one! Painted bright BLUE. It weighs a ton and they dragged from the shop over to the house. I told them they could have it if they scraped all of the blue paint off of it and painted it a nice color and then I would let them bring it in the house. They scrapped blue paint all day long. Right in front of the door to the house! I thought this project would entertain their creative genius. Not so, the next morning, They decided that they were tired of having a pink bedroom and began stripping the wallpaper off the walls in their room. Now I have no love for the wallpaper in this house, but their room had by far the best wallpaper job in the entire house. Most of the seams actually lined up! As punishment we required them to continue the wallpaper stripping job for many hours. This of course meant that I spent most of the day Stripping wallpaper with my children. It was not a fun day! However the room is now about 1/3 of the way stripped. Jon threatened that we will paint the walls pink just so that our kids will not get the desires of their hearts but then again I am sure some thing a bit more masculine will end up being the call of the day.
Last Christmas Erica received a little play kitchen which she rarely played with. So to make room for her big bed this Christmas, her kitchen and all of the dishes got kicked to the basement where they have never enjoyed so much attention in all of their plastic lives. The other morning Erica brought me a “meal” I don’t recall what was on the plate but in the cup there was “Hot chocolate” She told me that “It will be soooo good for you mommy! It will make your heart rainbow!” So now I have a rainbow heart. Jon complained that his “apple pie” and his “hot chocolate” needed whipped cream Erica told him she didn’t know how to make that. And So he has been asking her ever since if she has figured out how to make whipped cream. For several days in a row she told him that she didn’t, then one day her imagination kicked in and she said “Of course I know how to make that,.” And served him up some right away.
Hunter is pushing 3 of his 2 years old molars right now. The poor kid. He drools so much with it that his shirt is wet to his belly button half an hour after you put it on him. He has been crying much in the night and all hours of the day. He hates the orajel stuff but I certainly love that it turns off the noise. I just hope all three of them brake through in the next 10 days before Jon and I head out of Hawaii or my baby sitters might hate me when I return. He still refuses to say any new words we have been trying to get him to say milk for two weeks now and he still just says MA and goes and gets a bottle and stands by the fridge. He has added Will to his vocabulary so that It for true is Will and others could understand. He doesn’t say anybody else’s name and I joked that William will learn to talk before Hunter so now all my kids are coming to me all them time with the “words” that William just said.
William does a kicking scooting thing that usually propels him backwards but he definitely wiggles around a room now. Again I am hopeful that his mobility stays to a minimum for as long as possible. I am so scared of how many stairs are in this house and how fast William will try to defy gravity and learn that gravity always always wins. Come to think of it Hunter is still testing this theory often.
Anyway It was great to hear from you. We love your letters and Like I said last time I wrote. Your Christmas letter is like gold. We pray for you always and are proud of the work you are doing. Keep working, the time is short, the days only seem long. And before you know it you will be back here in Idaho freezing your fanny off wishing for some hot Mexico sun. I’m wishing for a little bit of it myself. But I will settle for the Sun in Hawaii.

Love from your Sister, Monica.