baby reminders

Sometimes when I get home from work Ryan has already eaten dinner, which means that Evie and I eat dinner together. This past week I had made her some noodles and had put them on to her tray and had turned my back to her to put the dirty pan in the dishwasher. When I turned back around to look at her she was sitting in her little chair with her arms folded waiting for me so that we could bless the food. What a little sweetheart. She knows that we bless our food before we eat it and was waiting for me to do it. What a cute little reminder to do what I should because someone is watching. ;)

Krispy Kream

This morning I had to be at work at 6am. Because I live in Provo, but work in American Fork this means that I drive through Orem on my way. This means that I pass the Krispy Kream... and I brought in 3 dozen donuts to work today. Old Navy paid for them, but still. So I saved a dozen in the office for the managers and one of the other managers was telling me that she couldn't tell if the one she ate was cinnamon or wheat. What?? How could you not tell those two flavors apart? She said, "It had brown flecks in it." Oh, boy. Seriously... I don't know it I'd want to eat a wheat donuts. I was laughing pretty hard. "I couldn't tell if it was cinnamon or wheat." Hahahahahaaa. :)

It's just another manic Monday...

"It's just another manic Monday I wish it were Sunday 'Cause that's my funday..." Oh, what the Monday I have had! It all started this morning, like most days do... with a morning. I woke up feeling slightly less congested than I felt the night before and realized that the lady who manages our apartments was going to be coming over with a fellow from the city to check out the plumbing. All because the owner of the complex needed to renew their contract or whatever with the city. So I got up and noticed that nothing had been cleaned after I went to bed. So much for hoping that it would. :( I cleaned under both sinks, the bath tub, the actual sinks, and kitchen in 45 minutes. I then vacuumed and got dressed, with about 5 minutes to spare. We were told they would be at our house at 10am. At 12pm, when Ryan came home from work they still had not come, or called or emailed anything about why they were late. So I got ready for work quickly, because I had been waiting for the people to come over before I showered and so now had to rush to be at work by 1. I got to work just fine, but got a flat tire on my lunch. :( Plus I was wearing my whitest pants today! AND I didn't have the right tool to unscrew the bolts from my tire so that I could change it. A co-worker had to drive to his dad's work to get a bunch of tools and then we were finally able to get the wheel off. We were seconds away from calling a tow-truck when we were finally able to get the flat tire off. So that worked out... I drove back to work and began to get things ready to close. I began to count the drawers and the printer to the money counter wouldn't print!! I had to write out all of the totals by hand. It was very bad. My white pants got even more dirty because I crawled under the counter a bunch of times trying to figure out what was wrong. I plugged and unplugged everything and nothing worked. :( :( And then, when I went out to my car at the end of the night, the sprinklers were going on the patch of grass that separates the two parking areas. So I had to run through the sprinklers to get to my car. :( :( :( And the founder of Gap/Old Navy died today. He had cancer and I know that he's happier now, but I bet his family wishes he was still here. It's so hard to loose a family member. My heart and prayers go out to Doris and the rest of their family... sounds like their Monday was a little rough too. :/ But, I'm blaming my bad day on these stupid white pants!! ;)

My dad's conversion story and Peggy :)

So a few weeks ago I went home for Tricia and Ethan's wedding, which was beautiful and well worth the trip. :) While at home I noticed a wedding invitation on the kitchen counter for someone I didn't know. Which is pretty rare because everyone getting married recently from the Fairfield stake is someone I either went to school with or my sisters did. I asked my mom who the people were and she said, "That's Peggy's daughter." "Peggy? Who is she?" I asked. "She's the one who got your dad into the church." Mom answered. "Oh, wow." I replied.

I have thought about this woman many many times in my life when I have thought about all my blessings and how much I have received as a result of my dad joining the church and my being brought up in it. I think that for you to fully understand this I need to explain exactly how my dad and Peggy met. It all has to do with an A's game, Star Wars, and Jack 'n the Box, and in that order. :) My dad and his roommate from Sonoma State had decided to spend the day thus: Catch an A's game in the afternoon, go see Star Wars (Empire Strikes Back, I believe) in the evening and then see what we can do after that with the little money we have left. Well, after the game and the movie, my dad and his roommate decided to go to Jack 'n the Box. Cheap, yes. Well the girl that took their order caught my dad's attention. Seriously, she did. He didn't know what it was about her, but he needed to get to know her better. He asked her for her number and she turned him down. Poor guy. ;) But my dad knew he needed to get to know her. So he applied for a job there. He was hired on and the funny thing is, when he started Peggy was on vacation with her family and so when she returned to work, there was that guy who asked her for her phone number working there. I can't imagine what she thought when she saw him there. But, she was nice, and talked to my dad about herself and her beliefs and because of her and her example my dad took the discussions and joined the church. He later served a mission, moved to Provo to attend BYU where he met my mom and they were married in the Oakland Temple. When I think about this story I can't help but think about Peggy. My dad knew from a very short conversation with her that he needed to find out more about her. You always hear in Sunday school lessons that the way you live your life will be an example to others; That people will be able to see what you believe by the way that you talk, act and even dress. I know that was the case with Peggy, and I cannot thank her enough. I know that my dad's membership in this church has blessed his life greatly and it has blessed mine and my own new little family tremendously. As I looked at the wedding announcement and saw that she too was being blessed with the marriage of a daughter in the Las Vegas temple I thought of the blessings that must have come to her and her family too as a result of the way she was living her life. Doctrine and Covenants 18:15 "And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!" I hope with all my heart that through the years Peggy has had joy in her life for the blessings her life has brought to my family and that the years to come will be filled with joy and happiness as well.

Oh, you're perfect? How nice for you...

Sometimes I feel like a week flies by and before I know it, it's Sunday again. Or, Saturday or Monday for that matter. I think that most of that comes from just trying to do the best that I can one day at a time. Everyday it seems like I have just enough energy to get through that day and only a small amount left to think about what the future will bring. The funny thing is, is I don't really like surprises. I like to know what's going on in advance and be prepared for it. But, how do you do that when you're barely making it from one day to the next? I think this trips me up sometimes and stresses me out. And I hate being stressed out and I especially hate it when people tell me I'm stressed out. Like I didn't know already. I feel like this stressed out thing is a fault of mine and I have been working on it over the years, but it's hard; It's part of who I am. But, when someone feels the need to point it out to me I feel like they think I need to know, yet again, that my stress-out way of living is a fault and needs to be fixed. Because obviously I didn't realize. I'm sorry, but after 26 years of living with myself, I think I have a pretty good idea of what I suck at and I don't need someone else constantly pointing it out to me. Are you perfect? I didn't think so. So before you start getting on me about my faults, maybe you should take a look at the things you're not so good at. And leave me alone, so that I can focus on getting through this day and onto the next. ;)

Evelyn Mei Watkins

Evelyn Mei Watkins was born on June 14, 2008. We arrived at the hospital at about 11 am and she was born at 10:58 pm. Yes, she took her sweet little time getting here. :) As you can see she was born with lots of hair and although you can't see it from this picture, a slightly smooshed nose. We named her Evelyn, after my Dad's mom and Mei is Chinese for beautiful- Ryan learned Mandarin Chinese while on his mission to Taiwan. Little Evie as we often call her, has brought much joy to our lives as we've watched her grow and learn many new things. She will be a year old in less than 2 months and it's hard to believe that much time has gone by. She's walking now, she says mama and dada (or dado), and she loves to smile, wave and say "hi" to everyone we pass in the grocery store. She truly has a sweet little spirit and we're overjoyed that Heavenly Father has trusted us with such a precious little one.

"Please watch your children"

Today Ryan, Evie and I went to the local dollar store to look for some more books for Evie. She loves, loves, loves, to be read to and we thought the dollar store might be a good place to find a few more to add to our small collection. As we were checking out the manager of the store got on the intercom thing twice asking all the parents in the store to please watch their children. What is it about people in Utah and thinking that they don't have to watch their kids?! I told the manager as we were leaving that I agree that people should watch their kids. I think it's ridiculous that people come into a store and let their children run wild all over the place. It's almost like they expect the store employees to keep an eye on their kids for them. Seriously. My store has had sooooo many Code Adams where the parent has lost track of their kid(s). I don't get it. Either the parents have a false sense of security and think that nothing bad happens in Utah county, (except remember Elizabeth Smart??) or they're not teaching their children that wondering away from them is dangerous. I really don't get it.

Well I thought I would start a blog. I figured since our little girl is doing so many new things every day it would be a fun way to keep people informed about what's going on in our lives and in the life of our little cutie bug, Evelyn.

Evie and the lid

After watching my daughter play on the floor for over 15 minutes chasing the lid to a bottle around the room, I decided that this would be something fun and cute to share with those of our family and circle of friends who live far away and wish they too could be here watching Evie play. The lid grabbed her attention after she hit it with her little hand and it rolled in a circle right back to her. She hit it again and it went to her left side, just out of her reach. She then leaned over to her side and hit the lid again and as it rolled farther away this time she assumed the crawling position and chased after her new toy. She followed the lid to the rocking chair, back over to the front door and finally to underneath her high chair. This may not seem like anything special to you but for me it was so funny to see something catch the attention of my daughter for so long who seems to have the attention of half a second most days. I guess my little Evie babe is growing up. She's been crawling since the second week of January and will probably walk soon in the coming weeks and she's just barely 8 months old. I'm glad that she has an active personality and such a sweet spirit about her.