Well, it has been a week and a half since we did laundry. We usually do it once a week but lately it has been getting harder and harder to do it with Marley being so mobile. Plus, I was disheartened by the quarter situation last week. But, you all know that laundry becomes forced when you're on your last pair of undies. So, today was laundry day.
We have a Big bucket of laundry soap, so I scoop a bunch of the soap into a large plastic baggy and then we keep the baggy on top of the bucket. We keep the bucket in the back of our coat closest. This morning when I reached to the back of the coat closet to retrieve the bag of soap, I felt two bags! My heart immediately jumped for joy! It was the bag of quarters!
I'm so glad we had it all the time. I also counted the quarters and we have $7.25 in there. That will almost cover our laundry for today! Hurray!
Thanks for sympathizing with us when we thought they were taken. Thanks for celebrating with us when we found that we had them all the time.
When I searched for some images to post with this good news I found the images below. Lost is one of "my shows." The top picture is one of the pictures made by the show and the bottom picture is a spoof.
AND
Notice the helicopter at the top and the freighter in the background. I love it!
Here are just a bunch of random pictures. Hope you all enjoy!
Marley got a package from Aunt Julie, Uncle Matt and Sam for Valentine's day. The penguin shirt is on the couch in the background, but Marley really loved the hat they sent.
Or maybe she didn't? No, she really did keep it on her head for quite awhile.
Here are a few more pictures of Marley with a hat on. I think she looks pretty cute in a hat.
This first one was taken on Christmas morning.
This, of course, was the rough draft of the hat for Marley's Halloween costume.
Grandma Lynie sent Marley this hat.
Becky's Aunt Kathy sent this hat to Marley.
(sorry, I can't get the picture to turn)
This hat came with a matching outfit that I never got on her while it still fit. So, before I packed the outfit and hat away I had to take a picture Marley in the hat! So cute!
The is the one and only head band that Marley has and I made it. I need to take a class or something.
Nathan and I were finally able to go to the Winter Quarters Temple, a few weeks ago. It was great! I think it was the first time we had been since Marley was born. We are trying to get back in the habit of going once a month.
Homemade Chicken Pot Pies!!! SO good!
Marley is such a big helper. A few weeks ago I cleaned/organized our bedroom closet and Marley was a big helper.
I love our couch! We didn't have a couch for the first 4 months we lived here and it was pretty fun. But, it's SO nice to have a couch. My awesome visiting teaching companion hooked us up with some of her relatives who were getting rid of their couch! All we had to do was pick it up and the Elder's Quorum Pres. helped us with that with his truck. So nice!
Remember back in December when I asked if I should talk to our property manager about our stone age dishwasher? Well, I did and two days later we came home from grocery shopping and we had a brand new dishwasher. ONE of the benefits of renting. ;-)
Inside the old dishwasher. Full of course.
The outside of the old one.
The outside of the new one. You can see me squatting in the reflection. HA!
The awesome inside of the new one!
Marley doing the splits.
"Mom, could you please put the camera down and HELP ME!!!"
I love Christmas cookies. Shalantie and I made these back in December.
Yes that is my bottle of prenatal vitamins...NO, we did not use them to decorate cookies.
This is Marley in my sequin bag.
One night when I was gone with the car, Nathan decided to walk to the library with Marley. Our books were due and we are striving to never pay a late fee. Nathan said he put this puffy coat on Marley and she didn't move the whole time. This coat was her cousin Sam's when he was a little bigger than Marley. Thank you Sam for the warm coat!!!
She also didn't move when we layed her down and unzipped.
This is what I found one morning.
Marley just sittin' on the edge of her bed.
"Mom, put the camera down and help me get my foot unstuck!"
Ahhhhh!!! Legs and arms hangin off the bed.
We love the library!
I LOVE WALKS ON SUNNY DAYS!!!
Marley is passed out in this picture.
This picture is from the night we moved in to our apartment here in Lincoln. My Aunt Jan gave us a Queen bedset just before we moved. It was from her guest room and I was so excited to set it up on our bed...even after a long hot day of moving in.
It is SO awesome!! It makes me feel like a million bucks! Thank you Aunt Jan!
Speaking of moving to Lincoln...this was our view the whole way. My mom and dad pulled a trailer for us! They are awesome! Thank you mom and dad!
One day, last August I was biking in Park City with Nathan and Jill. I crashed. It hurt. I have NO idea why I'm smiling in this picture. I was seriously hurt. No broken bones which totally surprises me but, my upper legs have never recovered.
Last year we had a garden at my mom's house. This is a stack of the first of the corn harvest. I love fresh corn on the cob. I wish we could have a garden this year...we'll see.
I love to be organized. This is us trying to organize the garage last fall. You should see the garage now...SO UNORGANIZED...it's winter. We just throw stuff in there right now. But, come Spring we'll be organizing it again!!!
When we moved to Lincoln we were lacking REAL salt and pepper shakers. We found these at an antique show in the Haymarket district while my mom and dad were still in town with us and they bought them for us as a new apartment warming gift. We love them! They will always remind us of our time in Lincoln, NE the land of corn!
This is cousin Sam and Marley playing Nintendo DS. This was before we moved...but, it's SO cute!
Ok, that's it for now. I've been trying to post some cute videos but they never work. So, I hope all these pictures are just as fun. We love you all!
Last Thursday we did laundry. When we took our three big bundles of laundry down the hall and up six stairs to the laundry room with coin operated machines, all the washers were in use. Great! We didn't want to carry our bundles back so we left our bundles on the table in the laundry room. No problem, we've seen other people do that before. Besides who wants other people's dirty laundry? We took note of how much longer each machine had (nice that they show how much time is left) and returned at the appropriate time.
When we returned all of the washers had stopped but only two of the washers were open and we usually need about four. No problem. We got two loads started and while we were doing that a young man came in and moved some clothes from one of the washers to one of the dryers, so then we had yet another washer to use. Nice!! We took note of the times again and figured out when we needed to return.
Upon our time to return we realized we couldn't find our bag of quarters in our apartment and questioned whether we had left them in the laundry room. We knew that would have been a bad idea because what is the most valuable thing in a coin operated laundry room? QUARTERS!!!!
We didn't look too hard in the apartment...thinking that we must have left them in the laundry room. But, just in case we grabbed another roll of quarters from our secret stash. Thank goodness we did because our quarters were nowhere to be found in the laundry room. And that young man had come to get his stuff out of the dryer...but, still nobody had come to move the clothes in the other washers. So, we moved our three loads to three of the dryers and then started our last load of wash.
I didn't want to think bad of that young man. I had never seen him before...didn't know him, and though I was nearly exactly sure he was the only one that had been in the laundry room since we had left the quarters in there; I wasn't sure if we still had the quarters somewhere in our apartment.
When we returned to our apartment I looked more closely and did not find the quarters. My heart became distraught because this was not the first time I had inadvertently left something of value in an apartment laundry room, and returned shortly after to find it had been stolen.
[FLASHBACK] On my mission we had a similar laundry room in one of our apartment buildings. There was a lounge area connected to that laundry room and one p-day my companion and I had decided to read in the lounge area while we did our laundry. I had taken my camera out of my bag and set it on the floor near the chair I was sitting in. When our laundry was done we packed up and I forgot my camera was there. We only left the camera there unattended for about 10 or 15 minutes before I realized I didn't have it, but when we quickly returned it was gone. I was SO disappointed!
Back to last Thursday...We finished our laundry with out any other problems but I really think that dude stole our quarters! Even though I tried not to jump to conclusions at the time it really bugged me. If those where our only quarters we wouldn't have even been able to finish our laundry...and that dude new it and took them anyway. Since then I have tried to let it go because I think there was only about $4 or $5 in the bag anyway. That's a lot of quarters when it comes to laundry but, it's not really anything to dwell upon. Right?
Anyway, I have decided to forgive that dude...if he took our quarters. He must have thought he needed them more than we did. And I think he MUST have needed them more than we did if he was willing to take what was not his.
SO, why am I bloggin about it...who cares? Well, I just felt like it. And if I can warn the public about how risky it is to leave valuables unattended in a laundry room than it was worth bloggin about.
So this is not only mine and Nathan's favorite commercial...it's a commercial for one of our most favorite shows. Enjoy!
Yes. We love Psych. It's so funny and the characters are quarky...and it's a good clean tv show...imagine that...oh wait! You don't have to, they post the episodes online!
Here's the low down...according to Wiki. I'm trying to convince Nathan that naming our first son Wiki is a great idea.
They also have a great theme song. A number of times, I have thought about looking up the words to the theme song...so for this post...I did! Thank goodness for the internet...SO much great "research" information at our googley and yahooy finger tips.
The song is "I Know You Know" performed by series creator Steve Franks and his band, the Friendly Indians. Again, Enjoy. And make sure you enjoy it more than once. Once to read the lyrics with the song and once to watch the video with the song.
These lyrics are from Yahoo answer's "best guess."
yes, In between the lines there's a lot of obscurity, I'm not inclined to resign to maturity, If it's all right, then you're all wrong, But why bounce around to the same down song? You'd rather run when you can't crawl.
I know, you know, that I'm not telling the truth. I know, you know, they just don't have any proof. Embrace the deception, learn how to bend, Your worst inhibitions tend to psych you out in the end.
I know, you know, I know, you know, I know, you know, I know, you know.
One thing I noticed since, now I know the lyrics...everything that is going on in the clips from the show go along with the lyrics! GENIUS!
One more aspect that I TOTALLY love about this show. Shawn always comes up with some crazy off the wall cover name for Gus. Below is a clip of the nicknames. And by the way I LOVE the way Gus says Shawn so the last half is a bunch of Shawn's by Lavender Gooms...I mean The Candy Striper Nicknack...I mean Gus.
Anyway, so I could go on all day about this great show...but I think that's enough.
I've never seen this blog post before but just read it on one of my friend's blogs. So, here it goes...
"The Pay It Forward Exchange is based on the concept of the movie "Pay it forward". I will send a hand made gift to the first three people who leave a comment to this post on my blog requesting to join the PIF exchange. All the gifts will be made and posted out sometime within the next month (I changed that from "year". A year is too long. But it would make the next sentence make more sense). How exciting to not know when your surprise package will arrive! What you need to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog. This Exchange is only open to those with active websites or blogs. ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS PROMISE TO POST THIS SAME 'PAY IT FORWARD' MESSAGE ONTO YOUR BLOG, WHICH MUST BE ACTIVE IN ORDER TO PLAY. YOU WILL PAY IT FORWARD TO THREE PEOPLE WHO COMMENT ON YOUR BLOG. I'd love for you to join me! Will you? Other comments are welcome, but only the first three will be my Pay It Forward recipients."
Marley is a good eater. She'll try ANYTHING! And even if she doesn't really like it she will try it again, right away, though hesitantly, she will try it, right away.
So far her favorites are apple sauce and meatballs. Not necessarily together but those are her favorite foods.
She is really into grunting and dancing and performing any other gestures to get us to get that next spoonful in her mouth. I tried to capture some of this on video but as usual, once the camera is on her, she acts differently. She is eating meatballs, and boy does she love them. Before she even swallows she is anxious for me. You can hear her sort of growling. It's cute.
I tried to post another video but, it is having troubles. I'll try to post it right below this one.
Nevermind. I can't get it to post. Maybe I'll try another day...but, today I'm just going to be grateful this little 25 second video posted.
Thank you to everyone that eased my fears and made this blog possible. I'll just jump right in. Again, sorry for the pictures...they are ALL out of order as usual.
This is Marley with her first attempt at eating spaghetti. I think next time I will cut the noodles smaller. But, she liked noodles!Oh! And you can see our handy dandy new "high chair" it clamps right onto our table. It's nice with our little apartment. We figured this kind is good for now and when we have another in the future we will just buy a booster type "high chair" that straps on to our chairs. Here is a picture of Marley's new Christmas pj's. They are bright pink and they have curious George on them. Appropriate for her in every way.
Here is Marley with her pink Pooh hat on and she is the boss of under the table. I'm convinced she has special conferences under there with all those little tables (chairs).
Here is the cupboard. I've shown you pictures of her digging through this cupboard before but this was the first time she has ever actually climbed in and sat. We put yogurt and butter tubs in this cupboard so it can be HER cupboard. And she loves it! You can also see that our rice maker is in there too. Our kitchen is too small for Marley to have a WHOLE cupboard to herself.
She loves the exersaucer but mostly just to walk around it and play with the toys. She doesn't like to be IN the seat anymore...just around or under.
This is a picture Nathan took. I liked it a lot.
Nathan's mom gave him a disc shooter for Christmas and Marley loves to put the discs in her mouth and go about her business. It's super funny. I know, I know...it's probably a choking hazard so we took pictures and then put the discs away. But, oh so cute.
While we were in Utah we got to see just a few friends. This is Marlayna and Marlayna!
Here is Leah and Marlayna.
Here is Sam (my nephew) in a predicament. He tried to walk across my parent's yard, in the snow. Well right in the middle of the yard he lost a shoe in the snow. He hopped around and tried to pull his shoe out. It was quite a sight. He was pretty mad that Julie and I were laughing. We're jerks.
Marley loves to try and help with everything. Here she is helping her dad push the grocery cart. She gets so proud of herself when she does big people stuff.
This is Sam, Julie and Marley enjoying their craziness.
Yeah, out of order. Sorry. Here's the tale end of her proud face. Look at me! I'm doing something big!
Here she is Christmas morning with her toys and the Pooh hat on. Grandpa Alger gave her two little hats. They're so cute!
Daddy and Marley opening up presents! I really thought she'd be all into ripping the paper and stuff, because she loves ripping paper out of books.....not that she has done that a lot but, she tries! She wasn't really into the whole present thing. Maybe it was just too early...even though we let her sleep in.
I just thought this picture was hilarious. I can't remember what was going on or why I was taking this picture but Marley kinda looks disgusted or something.
We took a few pictures of Marley with this nutcracker in front of my mom's tree and then we used the pictures for some presents we made. This one was my favorite but, it's kinda fuzzy.
This is a picture of Marley on her second airplane. Her first airplane was from Omaha to Denver and it was full so we had to check the car seat and Nathan held her. She did great! There was a kid that sat next to us that was about 15 or 16 and it was his first time flying. He was flying to Denver to go snowboarding with his cousins. He was way excited. He totally reminded me of my cousin Steven. Steven is in Spain on a mission!
Anyway, back to this picture of Marley on her second airplane. She did great on the second airplane too. She liked being in her car seat and looking at both of our faces, right next to her. And this picture is full of binky! Marley said bye bye to her binkies this past Monday. It's been a little rough but she is pulling through.
Here is the picture of Marley on her first airplane ride. And you can see that kid that sat by us. He was a nice kid.
Well, that's all for now folks. Natasha, I haven't forgotten about the Renaissance Man post...it's coming. It will be about Nathan again, so I'll wait a little bit. Thank you again for all the good suggestions and encouragement. We love you all so much!!!
This, of course, was the rough draft of the hat for Marley's Halloween costume. 
The outside of the new one. You can see me squatting in the reflection. HA!
She also didn't move when we layed her down and unzipped.
