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JUNE 26, 2005
Independence Day Decorations Michael worked hard to get the new flooring installed in our dining room. He's very proud of the finished product. It does look nice. He ordered some tile for the kitchen and pantry, but he's having that done. There is a limit to what he wants to attempt. After he spent all that time installing the flooring, he went home and worked a field for his dad. It's been awhile since he has farmed. His farming luck followed him through the years though. While he was on the tractor, one of the tires blew out. Go figure.
We picked out matching dresses for the girls for Independence Day. Of course they had to put them on today as soon as we got home though. We will spend time with family and friends next weekend for the big holiday. I don't have a lot of time off yet, but I do get the holidays! Bethany was cute yesterday. She will go up to the potty after Emily has finished 'practicing' and say, 'bye, bye pee pee' but it's all jumbled up and you wouldn't know what she's saying unless you had heard Emily do it before. She liked us calling her "cool baby" when she'd wear her sunglasses during play. We did it later when she didn't have them on and she pointed to her eyes and went running to find them. Today as we walked in to Lowes she saw the mowers, pointed and said "Muh, muh!". Earlier she drug out my hair dryer and tore through the house with it saying, "SSSSSHHHHHHHHhhhhhhh!" in imitation of its noise. Every time she gets up now she looks up and blows at her butterflies. She wants us to blow so that they'll move. When she was in bed this morning to rest she started crying like crazy. We went in there and she had gotten her leg stuck through the rungs of the crib and couldn't get it out. Neither could we. I didn't panic though. I had Michael run and get some lotion. When I put it on her leg we were able to get it back through easily. That girl needs to get some fat on those legs. It was stuck on her knobby knees! Emily has been a terriffic poser lately. She loves wearing her dresses that Grandma made for her. She loves all things pretty. She wants her hair done. If she sees me putting on makeup I can't put it away until I've pretended to put some on her too. Bethany has had no interest yet. We'll see.
Bethany & Emily in dresses from Grandma Carolyn 6/22/05 JUNE 21, 2005 We got to go visit Mike tonight. We drove the T-Bird over there. Emily likes the wind in her hair and Bethany, well, Bethany just likes to scream whenever she's in a car seat so she didn't see much joy in the ride. They liked crawling all over Mike and exploring his new place. They are little snoops. He gave them crackers, so he'll be their friend for awhile. He didn't have a shirt on when we arrived, so Emily instructed him to "put your shirt on" right away. This weekend we got pictures taken of the girls again. It's hard to capture Bethany with a smile. It was father's day, so we spent most of the weekend back home in Otis. We saw both dads. Oetkens were harvesting wheat. Emily got to ride in the combine with Grandpa Dellane while he cut a bit. Bethany didn't even last for a minute in there, even with Daddy holding her. We went out to eat with my parents, Joni, and her kids. We were back at the old Pizza Hut where I worked forever.
Bethany offering those beads she loves, 17 months
Emily the 'school girl' posing by her desk, almost 3 yrs old JUNE 17, 2005 My sister just turned 30. That just doesn't seem possible. Jaimee will soon be 21. I'm 28 but I look so very old. Michael says I aged about 10 years over the last 6 months due to my stress. I have to believe it when I look in the mirror. Mom was in town today. She stopped by to visit a bit. Then Carolyn and Dellane came by too. They came to bring the dresses that Carolyn made for them, but then they ended up buying a car while they were here too. We bought some nice wood flooring for the kitchen, dining room and laundry area. Now we just have to figure out how to install it. Isn't Bethany just growing so quickly?
Bethany swinging 6/16/05 JUNE 10, 2005 The girls have been driving me nuts lately. Bethany mainly just screams in a demanding way, points at stuff and grunts. She has been spontaneously saying a few more things lately, but it's mostly unintelligible. Emily keeps hurting Bethany any time she thinks nobody is looking. I swear I have turned into my mother the yelling queen. My voice was so sore, and losing my voice is a job hazard for me, so I just let them do whatever they were going to do and just did my housework. Grandma and Grandpa Oetken came to Salina to give Emily the dress Carolyn made for her. It's a cute red one with white dots. Michael and Dellane went golfing. Michael had his interview the other day for his old job in Manhattan. We won't know for a couple of weeks how that will turn out. JUNE 7, 2005 Today was our 8th wedding anniversary. They all start running together and don't seem so very important after awhile, just like birthdays... Michael, Emily, Bethany and I went to eat out, came home, and went to bed early. I've been working long hours lately and am still driving 100 miles a day, so I just feel pretty tired. Michael did get me a card and a book for our anniversary. I got out the card that I add to. This year I didn't add anything though. It's neat to look back and see from previous years though. Emily had a funny thing to say the other day. Michael and I were talking about all the babies in our family over the past few years. Emily blurts out, "Babies, Babies EVERYWHERE!!!" We just had to laugh. The other day she was strutting her stuff around the house. As she was walking she said, "stick out your boobies!" Michael and I both heard that little commen and asked where she heard that. She looked at us, like "what??" and told us a little friend of hers that's a bit older had said it. It's funny what they come up with.
Ahhhh, peace!!! JUNE 4, 2005 There have been a lot of thunderstorms lately. Bethany has been scared to pieces and clings in fear to any adult nearby. Poor thing! These two kids look just like their daddy. I don't see a thing of myself in them until Emily opens up her smart mouth. That's right, she has my bad attitude and smart mouth. Yes, that warrants a 'poor thing' nod too. Maybe she'll have some intelligence to go along with it so that she can decide when to shut that darn mouth so that she won't get into too much trouble when she's older. She's two and we're clashing. That's what happens when you have personalities that are too similar. I can't imagine what things will be like when she's 15. There aren't enough time outs in the world to make up for the instant behavior modification that my dad's belt provided for me.
Emily letting mommy hold her 5/24/05 Yes, that's her towel/cape/Barbie thing she's wearing too. Oh, she's really not all that bad. She lets me love her and hold her- between bouts of exclaiming her hatred for me. She loves to eat pizza and to play outside. She hates to go to bed and she hates to get up. She still loves to dress up as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, but she also likes Barbie now. After she gets out of the bath tub she keeps her towel and wraps it around her even after she puts her nightgown on. It looks like she's trying to wear it like a cape, but I think it's supposed to be a wrap like the Barbie has. She doesn't like her nails clipped, but I can get away with it as long as I primp them and put lotion on her hands or polish on her fingernails. She's quite the little princess.
Emily wearing a flower girl dress that Mommy wore for Aunt Mary's Wedding in 1981. The little blue headpiece with a veil was Emily's accessory choice. She just loves to dress up.5/29/05 JUNE 3, 2005 It's already June. Man, how time flies. Michael and I graduated over 10 years ago now. UH! I see kids at work and have to denote their dates of birth- they were born after 2000. Didn't that just happen?!? When I see people with birthdays in 1905 though- that makes me feel very young, so it works both ways I guess. In my new job I see quite the age ranges. I'm so glad to have steady work and steady pay. I paid off two of our loans in full this week. YEAH!! My boss has given me the option to buy into the practice as well, which I think seems like a sound option. Michael and I are excited that our friend Mike has moved to town. We grew up with him. I remember building 'tornado shelters' with him when we were like 4 years old. (That's right, it's Kansas so we don't build play forts, we build tornado shelters.) He went all through school with me and turned out to be Michael's best friend as he was growing up. We lived with him briefly and he was the best man in our wedding. Then he disappeared to go to school. Well, now he's done. He just met our girls the other day. Emily wanted to climb all over him and loved him from the first time she saw him, but he scared Bethany to pieces. (Of course, she is scared of everyone and everything.) We're so glad to have him around. He's a pharmacy manager. It's so funny to think of that prankster dishing out drugs. His girlfriend has a little girl with Emily's exact birthdate. It's nice that she might have a little friend to play with too. MAY 30, 2005 Bethany has become a little copy cat talker this week. Finally that girl is saying something! She has copied saying momma, dadda, two, more, all done, shoes, bye, hi, papa, cookie. She has copied the intonation and said some jibberish that sounded similar to Emily when Emily was saying, "follow the yellow brick road". She really likes to sit on the potty chair. We didn't make her do it. We've been working hard with Emily and haven't even pressed Bethany. She goes and sits on it with her clothes on and makes a "ssssss" sound. Emily is fixated on 'being borned'. She watched the video of her birth, which is quite mild with no editing needed. However, she got stuck on the blood. She will go up to anyone and tell them, "I had the blood, then the doctor got my head, and I be borned. I cried. The baby wants her momma. They got the bath and got the blood goned." She goes up to everybody and asks if they are "borned". Tonight we showed her the Bethany birth. That one did have to have some editing. Since it's never been taken from the original tape, the editing consisted of Michael standing in front of the TV and pressing fast forward. She mostly enjoyed watching herself coming to visit sissy in the hospital. It was cute to see how Emily acted when she was 17 months old. We spent the Memorial Holiday with the family in Otis. We had a picnic at the park in Great Bend with the Oetken side of the family. That evening we saw the Landers side at my parents' house.
Michael and Bethany at the park 5/29/05 MAY 27, 2005 See my crazy Bessie-Boo below. Michael enjoyed giving her a nice mohawk and made me run to get a camera while he tried to keep her from messing it up. Poor Emily screamed in fear over the darn hair-do. Silly kids. We have updated the pictures and journal for the month as well so you can see more of our girls. Emily is getting very close to 3 and Bethany is nearly a year and a half. They are our joys and our terrors all wrapped up into two wiggly bundles.
Bethany with her mohawk 5/27/05 MAY 23, 2005 My girls are such dollies. I love them a lot. I'm going crazy with this wait and not knowing how things will be changing. There's too many changes right now. I'm in charge at a brand new job. I did an interview today to hire someone new as well. I'm no stranger to hiring people, but not for this company. It's frustrating thinking about leaving my house where I thought I'd be for a long time. I can't imagine finding someone as wonderful as Pam again to watch my babies. My sister is still living with me and I don't want to leave before she is finished with school. In fact, I don't want to leave before I am finised with school. I have three classes left and I don't want to drive back and forth to complete my MBA. Too much! Hey, at least I'm losing weight again. That's a step in the right direction.
Emily, Bethany, & Momma 5/23/05
Bethany 5/21/05
Emily playing at the park in Great Bend 5/22/05 MAY 16, 2005 Man, we looked at houses in Manhattan this weekend. I looked in Junction City today. Tonight we spoke with a realtor about our house. We are still waiting to see if Michael will be going back to main campus in Manhattan. We're just trying to be prepared in case it does go through. We don't want to leave our pretty house in Salina and we really love 'Grandma' Pam, but Michael is really hoping to get to work back with his old coworkers again. We'll just have to see how it all works out.
Good Morning Bethany & Emily 5/11/05
Daddy fixed a ponytail in Bethie's hair 5/13/05 MAY 9, 2005 Emily said, "I want to wear the RED ruby red slippers to match the red flowers on my socks." Mommy fixed her hair in two braids and she was off to Pam's in her complete Dorothy attire, again. MAY 8, 2005 Today is mother's day. We spent the day visiting my mom and Michael's mom. I got to spend time with my own babies while they enjoyed family time. I'm glad we are close enough to see them.
MAY 7, 2005 MAY 4, 2005 Emily is having tea parties under the kitchen table. With cues she can say first and last names for momma and daddy now and can give her and Bethany's first and middle names too.
"WHAT?!?!" at the top of her voice instead of listening to what mom or dad just said
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