Riah's Mommy

We started a small sq ft. vegetable garden in our backyard a little under a week ago. We planted lettuce, tomato, carrot, onion, and broccoli seeds. I'm going to try my best to keep everything alive because I've always had a black thumb. I'll make another garden post when things progress. Our broccoli has already started to grow a little, yay!

( Garden pics )

The tree in our front yard fell over. :(

My baby is now 22 months old!

This weekend I went up to Alyssa's bridal shower in Show Low. It was so good to see her and her family again, it's been awhile! She was one of my best friends in middle school. It was also nice to be in the trees, so much cooler than down here. The drive up was so beautiful, through mountains and desert scenery and then through the woods.

I've been so busy trying to get the book for my book club finished (we are reading The Host by Stephanie Meyer) that my house has gotten really messy for the first time. I think that I'll be finished with the book tomorrow, so I'll definitely have to get things clean before they get out of hand. Sariah likes to help me clean, she throws away the trash that is on the floor and puts away her toys (then takes them right back out again. :p)

We went to a birthday celebration for a few people in Curt's family yesterday. On the way home a random lady came at our MOVING car from the sidewalk (we were probably going at least 25mph) and was cussing at us for some reason. We didn't do anything to her, I'm still confused, it was just so random! Sad thing is that she was probably a tweeker, we were in a notsogood part of AJ.


And on another note, we saw The Dark Knight on Saturday night. VERY awesome.

Wow, it's been a little bit since I've last written. I've been so busy getting stuff done here. We're loving our new house, but holy crap, it was so much work to paint everything and get things set up and put blinds up. Everything is pretty much done and set up, and I've been working on decorating. My aunt took me to a really nice decorating store and gave me a gift card, which was really awesome because a lot of the stuff that I used to decorate our apartment with doesn't really go well in the house.

One of Curt's co-workers gave us one of her dogs that she couldn't keep anymore due to renting. His name is Charlie and he's hyper and cute. He's a Chihuahua/Jack Russel Terrier mix, so I guess a JackChi. We lost him the first night we got him, which made us feel like horrible dog parents. We put him out back thinking that he'd be able to run around the backyard and not be cooped up while we went out to buy house stuff. We got back and he was nowhere to be found (we're still not quite sure how he escaped, we thought it might have been a small space under the gate so we filled it in with some rocks), so we went looking for him around the neighborhood (which was mostly dark and half of it still under construction) we finally found him after about a half-hour of insanity. We were also having issues with him going to the bathroom on the floor, but we've since smoothed that out for the most part and learned his cues and know when to let him outside. Oddly, when he goes to the bathroom in the house now it's always in front of one of the toilets (which I still don't like, but it's much better to clean it up there compared to the carpet.)

Riah turned 20 months today. She's starting to use 2 words at a time such as "apple juice", "charlie('s) food", "momma('s) shoe", "thank you", she even says "i love you" and sometimes will sign it. She loves animals and plants and being outside. It makes me wish that we had our backyard finished so that she had a place to play with plants and rocks and grass. It's just a whole lot of dirt right now. I want to start my vegetable garden after the really bad heat lets up, maybe I can get her to help with digging and other garden stuff.

Curt is now running his own store, which he loves, aside from the earlier hours that he is still not quite used to. We're both not really used to it, I'm still up pretty late (yay insomnia?) but I'm happy that he gets to eat dinner with Riah and I every day now.

I forgot to give Sariah her medicine for her ear infection tonight, so I gave it to her in her sleep and she didn't wake up - *phew* - she hasn't been sleeping well lately and really needs her rest. For the past couple of days after she's taken it she wants more, which I don't understand because it's shake face cherry flavored.

I'm so excited. We close on our house tomorrow morning!

We bought a new car yesterday. A 2000 Kia Sephia. We got a pretty good deal on it, and it's the newest car we've owned. ( Wanna see it? )

On the way home from buying it I got pulled over by a cop. Curt drove the new car home because he wanted to see if it had any problems and I drove the old car home. I got pulled over because we have a crack on our windshield. We don't really think about it because I'm short enough to see under the crack and Curt is tall enough to see over it. Anyway, the cop wrote me a warning/fix order for the windshield, and then laughed at me because I was driving with a bottle of laundry detergent behind my back. He asked why I had it behind my back and the reason was because the seat broke a couple days before and is stuck in the farthest back position (I think Curt broke it :p) Curt drove us out to buy the car and I had to drive back so I put the bottle of laundry detergent that I bought earlier that day behind me so that I could reach the pedals. He also asked for the registration of the car and when I went to get it out of the glove box, the glove box fell onto the floor of the car. I'm glad we got a new car because our other one is kinda crappy.

We also took my dad out to dinner for his 50th birthday last night, fun times.

Yesterday night, after watching The Terminator, Curtis and I went out for McDonald's. In a car across the street from the house there was a man with his window rolled down. We got into our car and I started to drive. I noticed that the man in the other car was coming up behind us at the stop sign just next to the house. Curt jokingly said to me "oh no, he's following us!" We drove a little bit more, with the man coming in the same direction. Not a big deal, I thought, he was probably just headed the same way we were going. We turned into McDonald's, and so did he. At this point I was really starting to freak out. I drove around in the parking lot just to see if he was really following us, and he was! I drove to turn out of the parking lot and he followed us out. I drove into a nearby parking lot to make a u-turn in the other direction and he tried to cut us off. I was able to get out of there before he made it in, and got on the main road again. I drove for a little bit longer, trying to lose him, but he kept following me, trying to cut me off. It was so scary! I drove into another parking lot to either try to lose him or get help. We saw an open sign on at a pizza place, so we parked the car and made a run for it. The pizza place was locked, open sign on and all. The man was pulling into the parking lot around this time so I threw the keys to Curtis so that he could drive because I knew he'd be better at getting away. We got back into the car and drove off, the man still following us. Curtis drove away, onto the main road, and made a few turns. We turned into a residential area and mazed our way through until we found a good place to hide out for a little while. Just then I got a call from my sister. The timing of the call seemed like too much of a coincidence to me, seeing how we just lost the guy that was following us. Was it her following us? She played innocent but I could tell that it was her. I told her that I knew she was the one following us. She laughed. Apparently she was ducking down in her friend's car every time they got close. So now, I just have to get her back for this. Any ideas?

I'm so glad, everything is okay in the breast department. I had to stay a little bit later at the ultrasound appointment to get the results, but they let me know right then and there that everything was fine. The problem was that I have pretty dense tissue. I had to get a mammogram though, and owch!

Thank you all for being so supportive, I was a little freaked out and worried yesterday. I love you guys! *hugs*

I had my annual well woman exam today. The doctor found a lump in one of my breasts. I go in for an ultrasound and possible mammogram tomorrow morning. I'm kinda terrified but crossing my fingers that it's just a benign cyst or something of that nature.

Curtis is a wonderful husband. He took Riah and I to the park to help get my mind off of it, since there is nothing I can really do but worry until tomorrow.

We went to the design center to colorize our house yesterday. We did good, there were so many things that we wanted there but they were way too expensive and we want a really affordable mortgage so we'll put those kind of things in later ourselves (tile, better faucets, those kinds of things). We got a lot of the standard items that come with the house, but got to choose from a few options with those. We were able to get a standard carpet, kitchen countertop, and cabinets that we really like. We got a few things that weren't standard, but we kept those to a minimum, we found some really inexpensive light fixtures and we got an appliance package that we really wanted. We also went and got our landscaping package picked out, it was pretty exciting and I'm really glad the builder includes free front yard landscaping with the house. We're putting in desert landscaping. I wanted to get plants that are indigenous to the area so that I don't feel like I'm wasting water keeping them up (we're in a drought) and I also feel like grass is too high maintenance for me (although it is really pretty). Now I'm just excited to move in soon.

I'm happy to be done with CNA class. I was so sick last week, and didn't give myself much of a chance to rest because I went down to the school to study with people from class almost every day last week for a pretty good chunk of the day. I lost my voice completely the day before the boards and had to rest up so that I would be able to speak during the skills portion of the test. It's all good now though, hooray for being finished!

I passed my state boards. I'm now a Certified Nursing Assistant! :)

I think Riah is a clean freak. It's funny because both Curt and I aren't so much. We like things clean, yes. But it doesn't bother us too much to let the place get a little bit messy. Riah likes to put her toys back into the box. A few nights ago when I was showing her how to color she would use a few crayons and then put them back into the crayon box. The reason I wrote this post, is because just now she got into her wipes and started using them to clean her high chair tray.

I feel bad. We bought a fridge for our new house from a man on craigslist and he delivered it to us. My dad and Curt were moving it off his truck and my dad fell and sliced his middle finger open pretty bad, enough to leave a trail of blood to the sink and have to get stitches. Poor guy. :(


Happy Super Tuesday.

Yesterday was my first day of clinicals for my nurse assistant class. It was so interesting. I got to work in the long term care wing of the facility. Next week I'll be working in the rehabilitation wing. I got to dress residents and do their hair. I helped lift and ambulate residents. I had the opportunity to feed people who have had strokes. I went into the rehabilitation wing for a little bit while the CNA that I was working with went to lunch and helped a lady get ready for her husband to visit. I was both an exciting and exhausting day and I am still a little bit sore from lifing patients and being on my feet all day.


I was so sad to hear about President Hinkley's passing away yesterday. He was the Prophet throughout most of my life, through my teenage years he was a rock to me. I'm happy that he will be reunited with his wife, but sad that we wont be able to hear any more of his wonderful talks.

So, it seems that they are pouring the concrete slab under our house sometime soon! This should really get the ball rolling on the building process. As much as I love living with my family, it's getting pretty cramped here, and I feel like we're putting them out. I'm grateful for my parent's willingness to put up with us. I think they just like seeing Riah every day.

I had a huge, 20 minute presentation that I had to do in front of my class on Saturday - it was on the Urinary System. One thing I learned while doing research for the presentation is that kidney stones can be rather beautiful. Other than the presentation, I'm learning a lot and really enjoying my class.

Riah was sick over the weekend, she was throwing up. We fed her the BRAT diet(Banannas, Rice, Applesauce, and Toast) for a day afterward. And due to this, the vomiting stopped. It did, however, come out the other end almost as forcefully. Yuck!

We're thinking about having another baby. I figured out a way to be able to do nursing school that would help us in not having to put Riah into day care and it would be an easier class load for me. I could easily handle having another baby while going through school and there will be a slightly longer wait on the waitlist before getting in, which will allow us time to get pregnant.

I'm watching a girl in my class' children for the next few Thursdays, they are pretty cool kids. They have a one year old that Riah loves hanging out with, they play with dolls together.

I found out yesterday that my bank is picking up the tab on one of my purchases as a promotional sweepstakes. The purchase they chose was $26 in gas - yay free gas!

I just finished Firefly, it was so gorram good! Now to watch Serenity.

I hate being sick! Especially since I start my nurse assisting class in two days, bah!

I really need to clean, I just don't have any energy to do it at the moment. I need to practice being organized and all that jazz. It's kind of my new year's resolution - even though I don't want to call it that, if I do I will never go completely through with it. I want to be prepared to keep the new house nice and clean. I love the feeling of being in a clean place. On a related note, It's getting slightly hard to follow Riah's mess, she leaves a trail of food and sometimes sticky handprints everywhere if I give her a snack. She also likes to pull things out of baskets and drawers. I really don't mind though, it's kind of cute.

She walked around a lot today! She's well on her way to walking as her main mode of transportation.