Almost May

So this last week was interesting. Many things happened, and though I did make many posts I didn't share everything that happened here.

Stephen's "bad days" were from the previous week, so I guess it was only fair that mine should follow. On the same days that Franklin chose to be more difficult, so did Rizzo. On Wednesday Franklin was absolutely refusing to take his naps. Because of teething, and growing he hasn't been the greatest sleeper. So I had been fighting with him all morning, while Rizzo was constantly under my feet, and getting into, and on things that he isn't supposed to. Rizzo is still young enough that some things aren't sticking in his brain, as well as he's being rebellious.

Finally I got Franklin to sleep, after having him yell and scream at me for the last 3 hours. Rizzo was still getting under my skin. He went to Franklins' door and was scratching at it. Just so you know he scratches at all doorways, no idea why. But he and Osgood both love Franklin's room. Often they get shut in there by accident. Osgood whines to get out, which we hate because it sometimes wakes Franklin up. Rizzo will be in there all night, and not care at all. But now that I struggled to get Franklin to sleep, I didn't want Rizzo clawing at the door. So I shut him in the bathroom.

Later I was cleaning out the cat boxes, and if you have a cat you understand this part (unless you're lucky and you cat doesn't do this). Rizzo wanted in the box I was cleaning, he also wanted to know everything I was scooping out, as well as making a bigger mess with the litter that got on the floor. He needed to check out the area where the cat box was, and of course he had to try and play with the broom as I'm cleaning up. He also wants to play with, and tear at the bag that I just put his mess in.

Two days earlier he knocked a plate off the desk and broke it. So he has been on a roll all week thus far. Now I'm gathering up all the trash around the house. He LOVES plastic bags, particularly if it has trash in it. Finally I've had enough so back in the bathroom he goes. Just as I get outside our door I slice my right big toe on a piece of plate that was sticking out the bottom of the bag, silly me I didn't see it. Luckily Stephen was coming home at that time anyway. He quickly got some things to help it seal better so we didn't have to take me in to get stitched. Plus I didn't want to wake Franklin up for anything.

Now on a happier note; Rizzo LOVES even more than anything in the world, to play fetch. We still have yet to capture it on tape. He will bring these toy mice from anywhere in the house to play with you. On Sunday (April 27th) my friend Whitney and her husband were over for dinner, and Rizzo was all the entertainment. Blaine even asked how much we'd take for him. He played fetch all night. Finally when they left, Rizzo sat himself by the door for a while. Today he followed me all around the house as I was cleaning, and later as I was trying to get Franklin and I ready to go out for a walk. Whenever I paused at a spot, he'd drop the mouse at my feet. When I moved he picked it back up again and followed me. It was too adorable.

p.s. If you haven't had a chance to vote for me yet, please, please do. I'm really trying to have a shot at this one, and I would love not to have to wear glasses anymore. Franklin makes it frustrating to have glasses, and when I take them off, Rizzo chews on them (seriously, I can't win with that cat, not yet anyway). And a huge THANK YOU to those who have voted for me, I super appreciate it!!!!!! Thank you :)

*Somebody's birthday is coming up soon!
And don't forget to check out our Picasa Web Album for new pictures and videos.

VOTE FOR ME!!! Pretty Please

The local radio station is doing a Lasik give away for Mother's Day. All you have to do to vote is click here . You can either view the photos of all the contestants, that's how you find out their numbers before you vote (I'm 11) or just go straight to voting. I'm inviting you to vote for me, but you don't have to if you don't want.

Now I can't ask you to vote for me without me letting you know why I entered myself. True I think anyone who has ever had to wear glasses probably wished they could have lasik and be done with glasses forever; I'm the same. But for me, things are different. I haven't been able to wear contacts since the summber of 2005. Some odd, and unusual thing plagues my eyes when I wear contacts. It didn't use to be so awful for me. But the last few times I tried wearing contacts my eyes burned and immediately dried the moment the contact touched my eye. I did see an optomitrist in Tucson when we lived there, and after trying a few new "revolutionary" contacts she and I both agreed that it just wasn't worth it. She did however tell me I would be a great candidate for Lasik. I thought to myself, "sure, I'd love to, but when would we ever afford it."

So please, vote for me if you believe I am deserving of it.

New Pictures

He would dip his face in the bath trying to eat the bubbles.
Osgood wasn't too happy about this, but Franklin sure loved using him for a beat.
Two boys just chillin' out.
This is what he'll look like with a goatee.

Combat Crawl

Franklin's been yelling at me for weeks because he couldn't crawl. Even when he firgured out how to go backwards it was still my fault. Last week he started to figure out that moving forward can be achieved. Then over the weekend he perfected his combat crawl. Last night he officially began to actually crawl on hands and knees. This video is a short clip of his combat crawl. It happens very fast so you might need to play it a second time. Enjoy!

The Dust

So I have finally came to a conclusion, and no longer a theory, of what the dust is. We run a humidifier everytime Franklin sleeps, it's pretty much a must with a baby, and helps with white noise for Franklin. Well I have recently destroyed it when I last cleaned it. Periodically I have to clean it very thoroughly because of the sediment build-up from our water. I thought Arizona water was bad.

Now that I have recently done some much needed dusting and now the humidifer doesn't work, my theory has been confirmed. We had a whole-house humidifier set up for a little while, and that was when the dust was a problem all over the house. We got lazy and didn't replace the filter, so we got out our smaller humidifier to use in just Franklin's room. The dust problem around the house got better while the problem in Franklin's room got worse. So last night Stephen and I agreed that it's from what is being evaporated in the air from the water. Oh boy do I wish more than ever that we could have a water softner, but alas, it's not our own home.

Can't Complain

So Stephen and I have been praying for weeks now that he would be getting more work from work. Let me explain what I mean. Stephen's job depends on him having appointments throughout the day. If no one calls the office saying they need a technician to come fix a problem with their furnace or A.C. unit then the receptionists are supposed to fill his day with "member tune-ups" and "warranty calls". Stephen is paid strickly by commission except when he goes on a warranty call, then it's hourly (which sometimes is more of a bummer as far as pay is concerned).

All of the receptionists in the office are new hire's. Some of them have been there a few weeks, or as long as 2 months. They haven't been on their toes as much as the original receptionists were. It also hasn't helped that the weather hasn't been able to make up it's mind if it's going to be warm or cold. At this point people decide they want to go without fixing their furnace because it should be getting warmer. As well as it's just plain stupid to turn on your a.c. right now. As a result all 4 of the technicians are getting less pay from a lack of jobs.

So we have been praying for weeks now that Stephen would be getting more work. On Friday (April 18th) he didn't come home till 10:30 at night, and he worked a 10 hour day on Saturday. He also got a call on Sunday. We can't complain because #1 we wanted him to have more work, and #2 he is on-call this week.

Meanwhile for me I've been trying to dust around our house. We have this mysterious white dust that is everywhere, and builds up very rapidly, especially in the nursery. I'm sure the only reason we see it so well in there is because the walls have paneling (so they are darker) and where ever the fan is, there is a path of dust where it has blown on the walls, or crib, or anything else that it collects on. Luckily for us Franklin's crib has solid sides, so the dust never gets in to where he is. Unfortunately for me I am allergic to dust, but whenever I sneeze it does make Franklin laugh.

Franklin is really starting to understand how crawling works. I finally figured out a hand walking exercise that I can do with him. So he'll make one move forward and then forget what comes next. He is also figuring out how to get over my pillow barricades when he's on the bed. This little guy is pretty smart, you can really tell when he's trying to figure something out.

Warm weather and Animals

We have been enjoying very nice weather. Franklin and I have been going on walks everyday, taking in the warmth and sunshine. On Monday evening (I love that the sun goes down after 8:00 and it's only April) Franklin and I sat in our front lawn while Stephen was working on organizing some shelves on his work vehicle.

Of course Tuesday had to change everything (April 15th). The winds came in late Monday night, and on Tuesday we were given snow. None of it stuck to the ground, which was very surprising because of how much fell all afternoon. We get this "Lake Affect" up here, due to the Great Salt Lake. At first we thought it was bogus. We learned very quickl over the winter what it really is.

Franklin has LOVED being outside. He gets very quite on our walks. He'll only make quiet noises if he gets tired. Dogs don't bother in one bit, which makes us very happy since one day we hope to get a dog. Of course not while we live at this apartment. We walked by 2 Mini Schnauzers, which is the only breed of dog I hate. Just as those little terrors do, they were barking annoyingly, and ferociously. Franklin really didn't care that they were 2 feet away, thank goodness for fences. I don't even think he bothered to take a second look.

He does love animals though. Our cat Rizzo loves to be where I am at all times. Typically that means he'll perch next to Franklin. Now that cat can really take a beating. Franklin pulls his ears, fur, tail. He'll pinch, and grab, and Rizzo really doesn't care. In fact he'll rub on Franklin for more. Talk about tough love.

Rizzo and Osgood have these toy mice, and they love them, of course cat nip helps. They'll put them in their food dish, in their cat perch. . . Rizzo even plays fetch. He'll bring it to me, more often than he brings it to Stephen, and drop it right in your hand. Once you throw it, he'll bring it right back. Sometimes he'll take it to Franklin. Of course Franklin would rather play with it himself, perhaps put it in his own mouth, than throw it for Rizzo. At that point we end the Fetching game. Soon we hope to have Rizzo declawed and then the scare will be gone.

As for Osgood and Franklin, well, Osgood can only take so much. He usually doesn't ask for it, like Rizzo does. Osgood knows to just walk away when he's had enough. However, he's not at all afraid of Franklin. He is afraid of everyone except for Franklin, myself, my mom, Whitney, and of course Stephen is his absolute favorite person in the whole world.

Rizzo

A few days after our move Osgood became very down and out. He moped everywhere. Luckily for us, but not for him, our front door doesn't lead directly outside so his transition to an indoor cat has been easy. He hated it at first, but he never tried to run out because he didn't know where to run out from.

We began looking for a companion for him. Our preferences a younger (not neccisarily a kitten, just younger than him) female cat. His Top Cat possition was challenged when we lived at my parents by a younger male cat (whose aspirations were to be like our first cat, General) Max. Another preference was a non-black cat. We've had two, and loved them both dearly, and we never want to replace them.

One day I did see a very beautiful white kitten, that was female. The very next day we went back to get her, and of course she had already been adopted. I couldn't believe how hard it was to find a female cat at this point, and one that's under 2 years old. Anywhere, and everywhere we saw a pet store we went and checked. We constantly checked in the Petsmart in Orem because those are always rotated around because they are from the local petshelter.

Finally, we saw a very different looking, and slightly exotic cat. She seemed perfect! We adopted her immediately (always kept the cat carrier in the car just in case). We named her Daphne, it seemed to be a perfect match for the name Osgood. Boy we didn't realize just how perfect that name was. A month after we brought HER home, we discovered she was a HE. I couldn't believe it!!!! I've NEVER been wrong, and I've had many cats since I was born. We changed his name to Rizzo, named after Rizzo the Rat from the Muppets. The name Daphne was from Some Like It Hot; the name of Jack Lemons character pretending to be a woman (to escape the mob).

A Blog at last!

So finally I've sat down at the computer with the full intent to start and complete a blog about the Springville Quinns. I should have enough time now that Franklin is happily taking his afternoon nap. Now lets begin. . .

Stephen, Franklin, Osgood and myself moved up to Springville, Ut on October 6th. Springville was not our destination when we left Arizona on the 4th of October, it was Provo. I know that it's all the same to some of you, but we had an apartment all lined up for us to call home. Alas, when we arrived to the complex at 5:50 p.m. on October 5th, it wasn't going to be our home. Because the office was to close in just moments, they quickly walked us through the apartment.

It had a stench, like the toilet had backed up. We were told that they were working on the smell, but not to worry about it further. Osgood couldn't be shut in his carrier anymore, and Franklin was sick of being in his car seat for the past 2 days. It was raining outside, so I stayed in the empty, smelly apartment while Stephen moved the vehicles. I took off my shoes to happily walk around our new place bare foot. I was disgusted.

To shorten this part of the story there had indeed been a sewage pipe leak, and every room had soaked carpet. We got our deposit back the very next day, and were frantically in search for another place. The moment we saw this basement apartment we are currently in we fell in love.

That very night Stephen moved in every last bit of our belongings in from our rental truck that needed to be returned the following morning. Our new landlady held Franklin so I could help Stephen. It took us a few hours to unload, and it was very cold because the rain from the day before had turned into snow that night.

Everything seemed too good to be true. Unfortunately the very next day we were introduced to our landlady's roommate; Toni. Our first impression of her has been complete accurate. For those of you who don't know this part of the story you're just going to have to ask us. There is too much to be said.

The problem has been removed, and once again things do seem too good to be true. We still see Toni occassionally which is why we hope in May to move to another home. We will definitely keep you posted on that.