memories

About a week ago, Brian was flat on the floor and said, "Quianna, how would you get me out if I was unconscious?" We set up this scenario, "If the house was on fire, and Daddy was unconscious and you needed to get him out of the house, how would you?" She spent about a half an hour trying to push him, roll him, pull him, lift him... and whatever else she could think of, but he did not budge. Then Brian asked if I could move him... I failed. As I was trying I kept saying, "If the house was on fire I would run out of the house and tell the fireman that you were here and they would come and get you." Then he had the wonderful idea of both of us trying to move him to get out the house (we live in a split level house so the task included getting him down the stairs). Finally when all three of us, Elijah, Quianna, and I pulled our resources together we were able to get him over to the stairs- head first. I then stood down the stairs, wrapped my arms around his chest and pulled him down the stairs...slowly...ever so slowly. I finally got him down to the door and I was done. I was so tired at the end partly from moving him but also from laughing a whole lot because his pants were sliding down his body as I pulled him down the stairs and it was just hilarious with me pulling him only an inch at a time. As I had opened up the door and sat on the porch laughing Brian got up- who at the time had only his head and upper body on the floor, the rest of his body from his rear end down was still up the stairs. He declared with all of us laughing, "well I have learned something tonight".

"What? That if there was a fire and you were unconscious we couldn't save you?" I replied.

"Yeah that, and if I do want saved i need to lose some weight." It was a fun night.

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Elijah said the word "folks" a couple of days ago. We were walking up the hill to school and a couple of girls who live down the street from us called his name. We turned around and they started running toward us. Elijah then said, "Oh, I thought it was the other folks (talking about the other group of kids he walks with)... hey I finally said folks!" It was cute.

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While getting ready for church and making dinner so it would be ready for when we got home, Quianna asked me if she could play Mario Kart on Wii until we left. I asked her, "Does that help you prepare to get in the spirit of church?" She answered with, "Yes. Because when I get hit by the bad guys, then that's like when I sin and then I have to repent and get back up to first place which is like heaven." I chuckled and said, "you are so much like your father" and since there was only 10 minutes left I let her play.

Update

Life has been wonderful since we got married- not that it wasn't before, but it's just so amazing. I remember hearing things like, "marriage isn't as great and easy as you think it is"- but it is! Yeah, it's hard with bills, and jobs, and laundry, and disagreements. But dating was the same thing. I guess because of the relationship that Brian and I had before we got married helped with the transition. We helped each other with life so much that it made it easier when we got married. Since I didn't have a car after my accident in February, I was borrowing his car to go home at night, and then taking it back in the morning so he could go to work. He was helping me with bills and food. I was going back and forth watching the kids, or they would come to my house after school and he would come pick us up. But now, we have the same bills, we live in the same house- with one kitchen to clean, one place to have all my stuff (instead of it being spread everywhere), we eat the same food (which was about the same before) we live close to the school. The most wonderful thing is that at the end of the day- I'm home, I can cuddle up with Brian, watch the movie and not worrying about driving home at the end of the day- it is my home. It's our family, it's our home, it's our yard, it's our bedroom.
It's wonderful to look across the room and see Brian and think, "he's so handsome... he's my husband"
Immediately after New York, we had Jazz Camp for two weeks and then met Brian's parents in Ritzville to pick up the kids. Since then every other weekend we went back to the Tri-cities. That has been busy, but nice because I've felt closer to my family and together as a family as we go and visit our families.
Now that school has started for the kids, we've been getting into a schedule of Brian going to work and I walk Elijah to school.
Last night we had some of Brian's and my friends over- Kyle and Jessie. They bought us really good BBQ sauce for our wedding so we had dutch oven pork ribs with some of that sauce. It was really good. They brought over Mario Kart for the Wii and we played that for hours. Brian and I set up the tent in the back yard for the kids and they had a camp out. I woke up this morning and thought- wow, that was the easiest it has been to put the kids to bed- EVER! They went and made their beds and then about 15 minutes later they went outside and we didn't hear from them until this morning. Brian and I went to check on them after Kyle and Jessie left around 11:30 and they were out. The tent was silent except for some heavy breathing.

I was reading my sisters blog this morning and I got inspired to continue blogging. She writes about what her family does as if she is writing in her journal. I don't think a lot of people read it because she doesn't advertise much, but she writes everything down so they have it for their family memories. There's been times this week where I have thought, I should blog about that. Then I think, "I haven't blogged in ages, nobody will read it." But reading my sister's blog has made me realize that it's for me and my family- recording memories and thoughts. So I am going to try and do better and blog more- even little things, so I can look back a month from now and think oh yeah, I remember that!

Update

I have some couple minutes of down time... finally... so just to let you know what's going on....

Brian and I started our business a couple of weeks ago. He has been contracting musicians for the Northern Quest Casino for that past few months so we decided it would be easier to keep track of taxes if we oficially created our business that we have been planning for the last year or so. (wow, was that a run on sentence? it was pretty long... oh well, that's blogging for ya) Our business is called Compass Entertainment. When we had been talking about creating one, we wanted to make sure that we did it right- with the Lord guiding us. Brian came up with the idea for Compass because we are letting Him be our guide. With that idea I thought of ships using stars to find their way so I wanted to play with the idea of the compass looking like a star. This is what I came up with...
It looks better if it were printed using photoshop, but this is coppied from a digital print and on then saved on powerpoint because Brian's computer (which I'm on) doesn't have photoshop.

I have been pretty swamped with things... Last week was hard, this week is slightly easier because one of my classes is canceled tomorrow. I have been working on projects and papers, trying to get my house leased for June so I don't have to pay for the utilities, planning a wedding, working on business stuff, and oh yeah... I'm a human being who needs sleep and some play and needs to nourish relationships...? "oh great" was my thought last week. I also had the thought of, "why did I think going to school, being an almost step mother, and planning a wedding would be possible without going crazy?" ... it's not working well... Poor Brian (and the kids) have been taking the brunt of it. It's really wonderful to hear Quianna say in her prayers "Please help KimKim so she wont be stressed with her homework" I'm really lucky to have all of them and them being patient.

The wedding planning is going well. Brian and I had a joint meeting with our parents this last weekend and I think it was quite successful. We figured out a lot of things. I'm very thankful to not have so much to thinking about... it feels weird though. We also had our engagement/family pictures done this weekend. My sister-in-law is a photographer and did a great job. Well, we don't know what the final product is, but I'm sure they are great. She worked really well with the kids and had some cool ideas for Brian and I. As soon as she is done photoshopping them I'll post them... (thank goodness for photoshop. we ate right before pictures and the kids had spilt their dessert on their clothes!)

We started registering at places this weekend. If I would have known that we could do the whole process on the internet, I would have done that a long time ago. I think we will still go in the the stores to register our linnens and such so we can get the right coloring.

We also are working on our honeymoon! Brian's parents bought our air tickets to New York. We were shocked and very, very, very... very grateful for their help. Last night we also booked our leavenworth hotel for the begining of the week. We are still looking for a good hotel for a good price for our stay at New York. It's been fun!

Quianna created an email account tonight. It's Quianna77@hotmail.com ... just to let you know :-)
Elijah also wanted one... we haven't got permision from Brian yet, but we'll get it set up... it'll be ElijahMcCann@hotmail.com
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I just put the kids to bed and asked them what they would think of having "summer home school". They were really excited and started giving me ideas. Elijah even gave me ideas of how to discipline them... "one is a warning... next is a time out... three is going to the room for 5 minutes...next is..." I butted in at that and decided that I would be making it much simpler... "one is a warning, two is time out in the room, and three is call daddy". Elijah wanted to add to that but I put my foot down.
Anyways, they were really excited- even to do math sheets and such. We'll see how long that lasts. I figured though that we'll do it for possibly a little bit of june, but we'll kick it in for August. Quianna liked the idea of staying fresh for the next school year.

Well, that's been about it what's going on... Thanks for reading! Pictures will be soon!

Blog Update

I am sorry, it's been a while since I have posted pictures or anything. It's been busy getting back into the swing of school.
Yes Aunt Jean, Brian and I did go to Seattle, a couple of Saturdays ago. It was a lot of fun to have some time together and get out of normal every day life. Here are some pictures of what we saw:

It's a ship, made out of.... food? It was really cool.

It's an exact replica from the real mask mold. Isn't that awesome!?! This was in a comic shop that had so many original things.

This Gummy Bear is huge! It's made out of gummy bears to make a gigantic gummy bear... I was in a conflict between aww and wonder and wanting to take a giant bite out of it's ear.

I love this dress. It's so vintage. Looking back on it, I wish we would have went into that store but the thought didn't occur to me, or rather my stomach since we were walking on our way to food.

----------------------Quianna's Birthday-----------------------------

We had a birthday party for Quianna at Brian's house. We had Brook, Cecily, and Alex over as well as some friends she invited. Amanda, Elijah, and I decorated the house with balloons and blue and green streamers before they came over. We had chicken fettuccini- her choice of meal- with garlic bread. The cake was a rat that Brook had seen at Rosauers, which was absolutely perfect! There are only 8 candles on the cake because we had forgotten about candles, so we used left over ones, and lit two of them twice.

Here are some pictures of opening up some of her presents.

It's a shirt from Grandma

and Pappa... I think it looks better on Brian

It was a great day. I think that she had a wonderful birthday. Thank you to All- for the presents, the loving cards, and the part that you have been of Quianna's 10 years of life.

-------------------Our Engagement!---------------------------

Brian took me out on a date last night and he proposed! Amanda (she's my best friend and roommate) and I made a skirt right before our date because I had been trying to figure out what I was going to wear all day and 2:00 came around and I wanted to wear the polka dot skirt that I had been planning on making. So finishing the cutting and starting the sewing a little before 3, I stopped working at 4:50 so Amanda could finish up the hem while I did my hair and make up to meet Brian at 5:30.

Brian took me to Mongolian out in the valley. During dinner he asked if we could go to the church bookstore. I said sure and mentioned we should go walk around the temple grounds since it is close to the bookstore. The bookstore was closed, but we went to the temple any way. We had walked around once and I was cold- it being 7:00 and me wearing a skirt (who's idea was that?) so we were going to go back into the car but at last minute I decided I could brave the cold one more time around. On that time around the back of the temple, we stopped and he pointed out the sunset to me. It was beautiful! My one regret about this night is that I had left my camera out in the car and I want pictures to be able to show this night. Anyways, while looking at the sunset he said, "I love you so much" and I replied with "I love you so very much." Then the truth came, "I didn't really want to go to the bookstore, in fact I knew it was going to be closed. I wanted to bring you to the temple though, and so I am glad you suggested it." and then he got down on one knee, held out a box with a stunning ring and asked, "Will you marry me?... I want you to be my wife" I had a huge smile on my face and was shocked- not at the question, but at the ring (it was eye capturing)- and then I said, "Yes". He got up and I looked at the box and said, "that's a pretty box" which Brian thinks is comical that I mentioned the box and not the ring. I looked at the ring and said, "Do I have to put it on myself?" and he put it on me and I kissed him. The funny thing about smiling a lot and really big, is it's really hard to kiss someone. We walked back to the car and said, "7:41" and I thought, 'you know what time you proposed to me?' and then he continued, "is when the sun sets in Spokane". He planned that whole thing! It was perfect, He's amazing. After our night, we had returned home and watched an episode of Commander and Chief with Amanda who was babysitting for us that night.

When Amanda and I got home, she wanted to take a picture of me because she said I looked "hot". so here I am:

and here's a picture of the ring:

It's absolutely brilliant. I woke up at 6:00 this morning and couldn't get to sleep because I was so excited. I kept on thinking, "I'm engaged, I'm engaged" Then around 6:30, I texted Brian, and then I waited for a couple more minutes and I went into Amanda's room who was half asleep and I kept saying, "it sparkles.... I'm engaged..... I'm going to marry Brian- and I have proof." For the last couple of weeks when I would say "I'm going to marry Brian," Amanda would always say, "prove it" and I couldn't, but now I can. this deserves a big smile because I am so excited.

see... it is a pretty box...

50's Sock Hop

Ok, I know all of you want pictures... so here ya go :-) Brian and Quianna went to a 50's Sock Hop for a daddy/daughter date at church last Saturday. The night before, I put together a "poodle skirt" for her although I chose cool flowers and butterflies to put on it instead. At the Sock Hop they had hot dogs, hulahoops, and a bubble blowing contest.

Brian bought some steaks and tater tots (Elijah loves them) so Elijah and I can have a special night also. Then we picked Quianna and Brian up at the church and I was able to get some pictures.

Afterwards, we were invited to someone's house to play/sing. This picture is when the kids wanted to sing a church song for them while they played along.

Work at Sierra

I went and surprised Brian at work today. :-) It has been a busy week trying to get ready for EWU's Open House (which is tomorrow) and finals (next week) but today I didn't have much to do so I took the opportunity after getting stuff done in Cheney, to get some lunch and meet Brian at work. I thought all morning about what kind of lunch I should bring him and I finally remembered he loves Taco Del Mar. So I went to Google to find the closest one to where he works, printed out the directions and went on my way. I arrived there around 1 o clock which gave me a bout an hour and a half to hang out there.
I didn't tell- or even hint to Brian that I was going today, so when I walked in he was really taken aback. He heard the door close, looked over and shook his head, and then took a small step back. It was really cute. He said that his thought process was "What's Bob doing back?" and then he looked and thought "That's not Bob.... That's my girlfriend!"
It was lots of fun to chat with him and have a "little date" during the day. One thing that we did was created a blog. I've been wanting to do this for a while so we can put pictures of our adventures and share them with all of you! While he was working we were shooting back and forth ideas for a title- one of which was "3+1". Which we laughed at that one, and tried to come up with something else, and so far we have "Brian, Kimberly, and the Kids". When I first typed it, I typed "Kimbely" and we thought it was funny. Anyways, we are in the process of thinking of a cooler title, but so far this is what we have.

Thanks for stopping in! Coming soon... pictures of the 50s Sock Hop!