Spare time

I decided to recruit for familysearch.org on my blog. It's a geneological website that provides information for people to find their ancestors. I've had a lot of spare time when I nurse Elias. I've been reading books, but I have a hard time picking books to read (any suggestions are greatly welcome!). I heard that it was pretty easy to volunteer to index (read microfilm and input the info into a spreadsheet so that people can search for specific names), so I looked up the website (familysearchindexing.org) and signed up. Now I do a batch of names every day, while Kydee does her homework and Elias takes a nap or nurses. I really like feeling like I'm doing something productive and it's so easy! I can do it whenever I want and I can work on it for as long as I want. Anyway, if you're a stay-at-home mom like me, or have extra time (it's amazing how much time is freed up once you stop watching TV--and I didn't watch much before) you should try it!

Our new van

On the way to Cedar City for Christmas, our van broke. Luckily, we were only an hour away from home and we were able to make it back. My parents wanted us to be there for Christmas so badly that my dad drove all that night to come get us. We took our little Kia and between that and my parents' car, we fit us and all our stuff and drove on down to Cedar. We wasted $1075 getting the van fixed and then decided to just get a new van before our old one broke again (it had 185,000 miles and lots of things kept going wrong). We found a really good deal on a 2006 Toyota Sienna. It had about 18,000 miles on it and lots of cool features, like two side doors (I guess all vans have that nowadays, but our old one didn't), a power sliding door, 5-disc CD player, Sto-n-go seats (they fold down flat into the floor), stuff like that. So far, we really like it and we hope that it will last us a really long time so we don't have to go through the pain of buying a car again. That was our first time shopping for a new car--we've always just bought junkers from private parties because we happened upon good deals. Actually, I use the term 'we' loosely. I took Dalan, Elora, and Elias down to Salt Lake to look at vans that I found online, while Kydee was at school and Dale went to work. The prices were so good that I was afraid that they would be gone if we waited until Saturday when we could all go (it was Monday). I turned out to be right, because my first pick was sold already, but I found another deal that was very similar, so everything turned out ok. I just don't want to take three little kids car shopping all day again--well, maybe it was good, because the dealers didn't seem to want them to be there any longer than they had to, so they didn't waste time haggling and trying to sell me junk that I didn't want. Maybe next time I'll buy ice cream cones for the kids to hurry the salesmen up even more!

TAG

My sister, Ariane, tagged me, so here's my answers to the following questions (some of the questions were dumb, like who's taller, so I took them off and added different ones):
How long have you been together? 8 years, married 7 1/2
How long did you date? We were friends for about 6 months, dated for about 2 1/2 after that and were engaged for 3 months after that--pretty quick movers, I guess.
How old is he? 31
How old are you? 27
Who said I love you first? Dale
Who sings better? I do; Dale's tonedeaf, but he has other talents, so that's ok
Who is smarter? hard to say--but I am right most of the time! Just kidding! The funny thing is, I majored in marketing and Dale got a better grade in the one marketing class we took together and he majored in accounting and I got a better grade in the acounting class that we took together.
Who does the laundry? Me; Dale tries to help, but I usually get too annoyed cuz he forgets to use fabric softener and the clothes get all static-y. My kids like to think they help and they're actually starting to become better at sorting and I let them fold their own clothes (if only they would always consider that a privilege!)
Who does the dishes? Dale--he's such a good husband!
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Currently, if you're laying in the bed, I'm on the right, but we switch sometimes if the furniture gets rearranged. I like to sleep farthest from the door (I get paranoid about bad guys coming in and need Dale between them and me. Our last bedroom was very difficult because it had two doors and I had to be closest to one of them. I had to just not think about it--I know, I'm weird.)
Who pays the bills? I do, but Dale does the budget
Who mows the lawn? I do, but I'm hoping Dale will next summer.
Who cooks dinner? I do, and Dale makes lunch.
Who drives when you are together? Me--I love to drive and Dale doesn't; plus I have a really good sense of direction and Dale has a terrible one.
Who is more stubborn? Well, I would say Dale is and he would say I am, so I guess we're both pretty darn stubborn.
Who kissed whom first? I guess he kissed me first,
but I looked up at him cuz I figured he was going to try.
Who asked whom out? Dale asked me out several times; I went as a friend, but when I found out he was interested in a relationship I told him "no way!" It took me several months of friendship before I decided I liked him more than just a friend. He says he was in love from the second time we met.
Who is more sensitive? I get sad easier, but Dale definitely gets mad easier
Who has more friends? Dale; I don't have very many friends outside of family members
Who has more siblings? me - 1 sister, 4 brothers; Dale has 2 brothers and 2 sisters
What do you like to do together? Watch movies, play with our kids, read

I don't know if anyone reads this, but if you do, I tag Darci, Audrey, and Tamra