Making a Difference

I have been doing residential housekeeping for the past couple of years, which was a big change from my long history in an office setting. Housekeeping is a very rewarding job despite the fact that it's not glamorous. You spend several hours doing someone else's dirty work and often end up needing a second shower for the day by the time you're done, but when you see how great it looks when you're done you can literally see that you accomplished something good.

Even better is when you can see the difference that you're making in someone's life. This is something I never experienced in a job setting before and never expected to happen in my role as a housekeeper. Sometimes when I take on a new client, their homes are cluttered, unorganized, often with a pile of laundry and a sink full of dishes. Then after they hire me to start cleaning for them, I notice an immediate change- not just in their homes, but in their hearts. They go from stressed and overwhelmed to organized and happy. The dishes and laundry disappear along with the stress and they are able to spend more time enjoying their families and doing activities they love.

I frequently receive expressions of gratitude for the good cleaning job I do, but occasionally I receive heartfelt thanks for making that "difference" in their life. Here are some excerpts from some positive feedback I received after cleaning a new client's house this week.

The house looks amazing! My husband and I were so impressed. You showed attention to detail, professionalism, and pride in your work. You are my dream come true! The fact that we were able to spend quality time with the kids was just the icing on the cake! Each morning since you came, I have been making the beds, cooking a full breakfast, and cleaning the kitchen spotless. I have not even left a cup of water on my nightstand. My house feels so clean and put together! Please know that the time you spent has helped me be a better mom and wife and you have made my life easier and better! I haven't felt this put together in forever. I feel like I have an assistant now, one who cares as much as I do! You have improved the quality of all of our lives.

I began cleaning houses out of desperation for employment and the need of a flexible job where I could determine my hours, but I continue to do housekeeping because of moments like these... the times I know I'm making a difference.

GREAT Grandparents

We took the girlies to see their GREAT grandparents this weekend. They really are great people. Whenever we get a chance to go out of town, going to see Grandma Kathy and Grandpa George is at the top of our list. They are so good to us, and just love their great grand-babies to pieces. I was so excited for this trip, because they haven't seen Liana since she was a few months old and I knew they would love to get to know her and her sweet silly personality. We were hoping she would nap in the car on the way there, but should have accepted by now that she is NOT a car sleeper. Once she had her travel crib set up, she slept like a log. Art spent lots of time in the pool with Keira. Art's cousin Hailey came over and painted kitties and paw prints on Keira's nails. She usually bites the polish off her nails within a day, but she loves the kitties so much she hasn't messed them up and it's been DAYS! We got to visit with lots of the Navarro family members and had a fantastic and relaxing time.

Sweety Sweet

It's been a couple months since I have given an update on Liana (we still call her Sister). She is just the sweetest baby I could imagine. I call her my little sweet shop because she is like an entire candy store bundled into one sweety sweet baby. She is so cute and cuddly, toting her soft white and pink heart blanky around. She brings it up to you to sit in your lap and cuddle and when it's nap time or bedtime she gets her blanky and cuddles up. She practically puts herself to bed when it's time.

Cuddly Girl

Liana learned to walk at the early age of 9 months, and quickly mastered the skill. However, we noticed that she doesn't walk only forward like most babies. She walks all directions- backward, sideways, backward circles. You name it. She would be walking forward, then bust out with a sideways walk, or a backward circle. One day, I was sitting on the living room floor and she walked up to me standing face to face with me then started turning backward and did a complete circle to sit in my lap.

A trip to the park.

She has also developed a love of climbing, which makes me crazy. I can't turn my back on her without finding her on the kitchen counter, up on the back of the couch, or on top of a dresser. I had to move her toy box, because she kept standing on the top of it and it's super wobbly. I'm telling ya, if an object will give her 2 inches more height, she will stand on it.

Climbing on the back of the couch.

Sister gives the best great big hugs and even knows how to give kisses. You tell her "kiss kiss!" and she gives a big smoochy on the cheek. She hasn't quite learned how to stick out those lips yet, they are pretty much tucked in. Nonetheless, her kisses will melt your heart.

Fun at the Mall

Since Liana turned one, she has gained a strong independent streak. She used to ride in strollers and carts without complaint, but those days are now behind us. Even when I buckle her in, she Houdinis her way out. She can no longer be contained, which makes it "fun" to sit through church. She climbs over and under the bench and tries to escape at every opportunity.

Lounging in the Target shopping cart for once instead of trying to escape.

Another skill she learned after turning one is what I refer to as "evasive maneuvers." She learned pretty early that if she's not going to get trampled on by Keira that she needs to stand up for herself. Keira has a habit of taking things out of Sister's hands so now when she thinks something is going to be taken from her, she grips it tight and starts dodging her arms back and forth. She looks like a football player trying to keep someone from taking the ball.

Bowling with Keira

Whenever she is in a restless or grumpy mood, we put on a Tinker Bell movie for her. We have learned that, for whatever reason, she is completely intrigued by any of the Tinker Bell movies and will stop what she is doing and watch the whole movie.

Watching Tinker Bell.

Lately, she has been pretend cooking with a bowl and plastic spoon. She walks around with the bowl stirring and pretending to eat.

Pretend "cooking"

Liana LOVES to eat fresh fruit which surprised me, because Keira doesn't like any fruit. Her favorites so far are strawberries, bananas, watermelon, and grapes.

Eating watermelon at the 3rd of July Fireworks Show

Liana is such a bright, beautiful, and loving girl who brings joy to each of us every day.

Where You Want Me To Go

When I started playing the flute 2 years ago, I came across a choir arrangement of the hymn I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go that had a flute obbligato that played throughout the whole song. I knew it was way above my skill level at the time, but I printed it out and began practicing it now and then. What I love about playing the flute is that each song is a challenge to conquer. I know I will never play "perfectly" without the formal training most flutists receive, but I am happy if I can get to the point where I can play a song without any fingering mistakes, obvious pitch problems, or squeaks. I challenged myself to learn this flute part well enough to play it for the ward choir at church, so I buckled down over the last 6 months or so and gradually mastered the sections of sheet music that I couldn't previously play.

Being the ward music chairman, I suggested the song to our ward choir director and scheduled to have them perform on May 26th. In the weeks leading up to that date, I practiced the dickens out of that song. I probably practiced an hour a day almost every day. I was determined to get it right. I even practiced with the pianist twice. By the time performance day came, I probably could have played the whole song without even glancing at my sheet music. I may have gotten a little obsessed. :)

Sunday morning, the choir gathered in the chapel before sacrament meeting to practice and warm up and I joined them to warm up on my flute part. Keira sat on the step between me and the piano throughout most of the practice so when she asked me if she could go back up there when we perform, I agreed based on the fact that she was well-behaved during our warm up. Boy, was that a big mistake... The moment I started playing (which is immediately when the song begins) she got up and started meandering around the stage knowing there was nothing I could do about it. Stay focused. I did my best to ignore her and just keep playing.

I came to a couple measure rest, lowered my flute, and commanded her through angrily clenched teeth to sit her butt down and don't move. Her buns hit the floor with amazing speed and a look of fear came over her face so I was pretty sure I wouldn't have a problem from that point forward. Wrong again. The moment I resumed playing, up she popped and the meandering intensified. She was walking through the choir members, she was creeping behind the piano, she was grabbing my music stand. Please don't knock it over! I silently pleaded as I continued to play. The song ended and, all considered, I did quite well.

As it turns out, Keira will NOT "go where you want her to go." She knows exactly where you want her to go and behaves in a contrary manner. Perhaps some day, she will take this song to heart and learn to be a little more submissive and heed directions. Until then, I reckon she will continue to provide me with humorous stories like these.

Camping Capers

A few years ago, I began a tradition of getting my family together to go camping annually. My mom, Uncle Mark, and my brothers and sister all get together, pitch a village of tents and have a good time. Last year we didn't get to go since Vivian and I both had newborn babies, so we were excited to take our little ones camping for the first time this year. We usually camp at the beach, the past two times being at a campground in Henry Cowell Redwood State Park near Santa Cruz. This year I really wanted to go back to one of our favorite spots, Montana de Oro State Park (where I have camped all my life) but unfortunately I waited too long to make our reservation and the campground was full. After desperately searching for a seaside campground to no avail, Brent suggested camping at the Wishon Point campground at Bass Lake in the Sierra Nevada Forest. I figured if I already didn't get to go to my campground of choice, I might as well go with what someone else wanted to do. I'm glad we agreed to go to Bass Lake. It was our first time camping there and we had a great time. The weather was perfect in the mid 80s, it only takes just over an hour to get there, the campground was quiet, our double campsite was large enough to accommodate our group of 10 adults and 4 cars and was fairly secluded. It was also just a short walk to the lake and you could even see a sliver of the lake through the dense trees and brush.

As I mentioned previously, Liana doesn't like to nap anywhere besides her crib and she will reluctantly nap in the car seat. I was hoping that she would take a good nap in the car on the drive there, but after she had only been asleep about 30 minutes, I had to put on the brakes pretty hard for a light that turned red on the highway and it woke her up. She spent the rest of the day pretty grumpy and tired. My mom finally got her to fall asleep at about 9:30 by walking her in the pitch dark. She said any light she saw would keep her awake so she even had to stay out of the moonlight. Then she slept solid as a rock all night in her crib in the tent. Keira is a seasoned camper and had a great time hiking around, putting sticks in the fire, tossing the Frisbee with Grandma, and swimming in the lake with Daddy.

My mom and I prepared our foil pack or "hobo" dinners for the first night. We used her yummy chicken, broccoli, carrot, cheesy casserole recipe of deliciousness, wrapped in foil and cooked on briquettes in the fire ring for about 20 minutes on each side. It came out very good, except for the couple of foil packs that didn't get sprayed with nonstick cooking spray before we put the food in. For breakfast, we just warmed up some Costco muffins and pastries on the fire. At lunch time, Brent and Vivian rented us a patio boat on the lake and we barbecued hamburgers on the gas grill. It was a fun experience trying to cook on a moving boat. Every time a ski boat went by, moments later the waves would hit our boat and rock it back and forth. Everyone had a good time on the boat, snacking, eating burgers, and riding around the lake. Once again, Liana, who only likes to nap in her crib, was pretty grumpy on the boat because she was so tired and toward the end, we laid her on the seat in the boat and she finally fell asleep for maybe 30 minutes. Crazy girl. I guess I can't blame her though. I'm not the type to fall asleep anywhere besides my bed either.

At the very end of our boat ride, we saw an eagle fly across the sky and land in the very top of a tall pine tree. We could see it's nest and at least one more eagle in the nest. I don't think any of us had seen an eagle in the wild before. That was a very cool ending to a very fun trip. We may be adding Bass Lake to our list of regular camping spots.

Vivian, Braden, and Brent

Arthur setting up the tent.

Me and my sleepy Liana.

Grandma and Sister

Playing card games.

Our foil dinner.

Grandma and Sister eating dinner.

Breakfast by the fire.

Me and my perpetually sleepy girl on the boat.

Uncle Mark and his dog Neesaa on the boat.

Arthur burning the corn on the cob.

Daddy and Keira taking a very brief swim in the cold lake.

We never did get a picture with all four of us.

 Patrick and Lauren

Captain Brenty

The Eagle

Baby Goodness

Liana just turned one year old! As exciting as it is to watch a baby grow and learn at this age, I am SO sad that she won't be a baby anymore before I know it. I love Liana so much exactly how she is now and I try to bask in her baby glory every day. I cherish her sticky baby fingers and toes, her sweet chubby cheeks, her baby cuddles, fuzzy head, baby smell, every dimple on her chubby little body- knowing she won't be a baby much longer. It is so amazing how much a baby grows and changes in their first year. Even more amazing is how at first, they are this new little stranger in your arms and by the end of one year, you know them SO well. Liana is full of baby goodness from her toes to her nose and has filled our home with joy and love from the moment she was born. She has grown right before our eyes... and deep in our hearts.

Liana's First Year

Liana has 7 teeth now. She got her teeth in such a random order and looks rather snaggle toothy, but she finally got one of her front teeth and the other one will probably poke through tomorrow. She has three visible teeth on bottom and the fourth just came through a few days ago.

Random Teeth :)

She loves to chase the vacuum around, just like Keira did at her age. When I vacuum I have to stick her in her jumperoo or else I am forced to vacuum in an erratic pattern to evade her.

Car Wash Cuties

She has always been ok with bath time, but she is all business. Wash and get out. So she really surprised me one day at my mom's house we decided to put our feet in the pool and she was kicking and splashing and laughing trying with all her baby might to jump right in. I thought maybe after having so much fun in the pool, she would decide to have more fun in the bath, but she was right back to business as usual the next day.

At the movies watching Croods - the girls were SO good!

Liana has always been very mellow and fairly straight faced. She has a very particular and random sense of humor. One day, she held her bottle up to her ear like a phone and giggled to herself, because she knew she was being particularly silly.

She dances every time she hears a song play on tv. She doesn't do wild dance moves like Keira used to, just two basic moves. With her feet completely planted, she sways her buns back and forth and sometimes she bends her knees to bounce up and down a little but she never moves her feet or arms. She also hums- trying to sing songs.

Liana, just like Keira, won't sleep anywhere but her crib or the car seat. If she falls asleep in the car, she will not stay asleep during the transition to the stroller or to her crib. She and Keira are exactly alike in that regard. Neither one would fall asleep in our arms either.

She has added thank you, duck, cat, hello, and bye to her vocabulary.

Going to Dr. Jones' Office

At her one year checkup she weighed 22 lb 8 oz (50th percentile) and is 29 1/4 inches tall (50th percentile). She's my little teapot- short and stout. :) He also said she has the biggest head around... Yeah, runs in the family. Good thing it's a cute big head.

For Sister's birthday, I decided to have a Wizard of Oz theme. That was the first movie that I noticed her paying significant attention to. It seemed to amuse her. So I found this adorable Wizard of Oz digital scrapbook kit that made the theme very age appropriate for a one year old and I designed some super cute invitations and decorated our house in cornflower blue gingham, red satin bows, cute quotes from the movie, and changed the characters on my My Little Pony birthday banner to Dorothy, the wicked witch, and Toto. I even had a "Bell Out of Order Please Knock" sign on the front door. Everything was very cute and festive, complete with rainbow streamers and a rainbow cake.

She had a tooth come in the day before her party and the day after, so she had been very grumpy and tired in the evenings and had required an evening nap for several days leading up to her birthday. As I feared, she also became very tired and grumpy about an hour into her party. She looked SO TIRED and it was pretty hard to keep her focused on opening her presents, but she made it through the party and had a good time. Keira did an awesome job keeping up with big sister responsibilities like helping her open presents and blowing out her candle. :)

Liana and Grandma

Keira with Uncle Caed

Aunty Vivian, Uncle Brenty, and Cousin Braden

The Cake Table

Keira insisted upon a rainbow cake.

Me and my Sweet Birthday Girl

Keira in a Photogenic Mood

Great Grandpa Don and Great Grandma Marietta

Grandma Suzy and Cousins Elena and Nick

Liana with Daddy and Grandpa Art

My Good Friend, Jazmina Peterson

Eating Cake with Daddy

I'll love you forever,

I'll love you for always,

As long as I'm living,

my baby you'll be.

You are My Sunshine

My Little Liana is 11 months old! She is so beautiful, bright, sweet, and perfect in every way. She is our little ray of sunshine, who can brighten our most dreary days. We are so blessed to have her in our family. She has been walking since 9 months, so now she is practically running which has made playing with Keira even more fun. They chase each other around the living room and tackle each other, giggling and squealing the whole time. They are still absolute best friends, and I know they will always be. Sometimes they don't even have to be playing to have a good time. One day, Liana came up to Keira who was sitting on the couch and they just started laughing at each other back and forth. Like their own language of laughter.

Liana hasn't added much to her vocabulary over the past month, but she has developed a beneficial use of the word "non." We call her baby food "yum yums" and now when she's hungry she says "non non non" which I figure is the best she can pronounce yum yum. She has even taken it a step further and when she is tired she says more of a "nigh nigh nigh" which is probably the best she can pronounce nigh-night (what we say to her when we lay her down in her crib). So, around our house she is famous for her non-nonning all day long. The other new word we've heard a few times is Hi.

So many people say that they think Liana looks just like Keira did as a baby, I usually just agree, but I have noticed striking differences from the moment she was born. They are the exact same coloring, and they both have the trademark big head that runs in my family, but besides that they are pretty unique. Keira- straight eyebrows Liana- very arched Keira- almond eyes Liana- round Keira- round nostrils Liana- pointed nostrils. They have different mouths and ears as well, and Keira has always been tall and skinny where Liana is shorter and more curvy. At this age Keira was wearing 9-12 month clothes. Liana wears mostly 24 month now, some 18 months still. By this age, Keira had 8 teeth and right now Liana only has 4. Instead of getting the middle two, she got the lateral incisors. My kids get their teeth in such random order. Despite their physical differences, I don't think either of them could possibly be any more beautiful than they are. I think Art and I were very lucky to have kids more beautiful than both of us combined.