severe senior citizens, vacillating van vixen , missing missionaries, and the easter bunny part one

a lot has been happening the past few days. luckily for you, it all fits into a nice alliterative title. unfortunately, in order to keep a nice flow, the title has the events out of order. it may take a little more effort, but i think we can keep it all straight.

so, as you know if you've read the previous post, we're looking for another vehicle. i found one on craigslist that seemed promising. it was only two years old, less than 100K miles, deluxe edition that was within our price range. better yet, it's privately owned so i don't have to deal with tiresome dealers. so i email the lady who posted it to make sure it was still available and she said that it was and to call her that night (yesterday) if we wanted to see it. so fai called. she said she'd have to ask her husband and call us back. then the internet went out, so the number we gave her wouldn't have worked (skype). so after dinner, fai fixed it and called her back (45 min later) to see if she'd gotten hold of her husband. she says no and wants to know why our number shows up funny on caller id. fai explained how skype works that way. she hedges a little, saying she out of town and her hubby's not answering...and then says abruptly that she's not comfortable dealing with someone who doesn't show up on caller id, and hangs up on him!! what?! are you kidding me?! then she immediately sends me an email to tell me that the vehicle is no longer for sale. we were so mad! so fai emails her to tell her to take the ad off of craigslist b/c it's wasting our time. then we decided to go to a dealership instead. well, we get back (the dealership was closed), she had emailed me again to say: "we were thinking of keeping the vehicle...my husband hasn't decided yet. sorry for your inconvenience. if you're still interested, contact me via email before saturday and we'll set something up." um....no. so i replied to ensure her that we were no longer interested in dealing with someone who can't decide 1) if their car is for sale, and 2) which voice in their crazy head to listen to. i said it with a great deal of tact.

as most of you know, we have been houseing the missionaries for a couple of months. depsite my concerns at the start, it seemed to be working really well. we enjoyed it, really, and really liked the sisters. well, the powers that be decided that our sisters were needed elsewhere and transferred them both out of our ward. they left early this morning. we're really bummed about it! it was so strange going into their rooms to clean and organize. hopefully they will keep in touch and the next missionaries (due in two weeks...and will only be staying with us for a few weeks) will be as cool as they were.

after the missionaries left, a friend called to invite the girls and i to go to an easter event with them. it was pretty nice for the kids. they had a story, a puppet show (with care bears and the care cousins...am i old because i remember those so fondly?...don't answer that), a bunny for the kids to pet, the easter bunny for them to sit on for photos, a craft, candy, and all housed in a really neat victorian house. niether of my girls would go near the easter bunny, but i got pics of other stuff to share.

after leaving that event, we went to lunch at mcd's (of course...it's only the third time this week). this was the worst mcd's i've ever been to, though! it was clean and the counter people friendly, but the customers left something to be desired, and it was the most un-kid friendly mcd's! there is nowhere really for kids to sit, so we let skyla and noe sit at the counter on those "tall spinny chairs" as they called them. then preston and mali sat in high chairs. but there was nowhere to put the high chairs where they wouldn't be blocking an aisle. there, of course, was no play area, either. so the two older girls, in order to keep themselves entertained, start swinging in their chairs (obviously...who wouldn't?). the sides would knock against the counter with a satisfying thud. karma (skyla and preston's mom, for those who don't know) had already told them to tone it down, and they really had. but about half way through lunch, this older "gentleman" at the table behind us, says to her: "do they have to do that? there are senior citizens over here and it's driving them crazy." and he doesn't say it in a nice way. how horrible! they really weren't being that loud, and surely these people remember what it's like to have little kids?! granted, they may have trouble remember yesterday, but most remember their younger years quite well! then i see him giving our kids glares the rest of the time he's there, even though there was nothing he could complain about! okay, there was the time preston thew some food at him, but it missed and he really did deserve it.

when i got back home, i started cleaning and organizing the house. with sister ram gone (much as i will miss her), i have my basement play room back and wanted to make use of it as soon as possible, which requires sorting through the toys in the living, family and bed rooms to shift them down there. this, of course, led to the cleaning of the house as i rearranged. somewhere in there, i did laundry (washed, folded and put away, thank you), played with kids, talked to a friend who stopped by, cooked dinner and fed the girls, bathed them and had them in bed half an hour early. i would say i am going to start making this a habit because i'm so impressed with myself...but i'm so pooped that i think it would kill me to do it more than once a week. tomorrow, i'll pace myself again.

enjoying the nice weather...you'd never know it snowed two days ago

she has her daddy's smile

taste test #138

"what's wrong, mommy? what's wrong with bird?"

she wouldn't got near the "real" easter bunny, so this is the best we could do.

making her easter bag

"the bunny's okay...but you're really freaking me out."

noe's version of taking turns...to let others pet the bunny at the same time as her.

pretty impressive, preston.

mali slept in the van, stayed sleeping being carried from the van into the house and through story time, through me handing her to karma, until the clapping started for the song. why doesn't she sleep that well at night?

watching the care bears with skyla

i'm pretty sure that's not safe...crazy women drivers.

"i think i hit something"

"picture me rollin'"