Signing Baby!

I just thought I would share that I am still trying to teach Grace a few basic signs. She knows how to sign please, all done and more. Of course, I'm not quite sure if she knows exactly what she is saying...but about 75% of the time she does it on cue. I am working on Thank You right now. I'll let you know how that goes later on.

She is still cutting her fourth tooth, which is proving to be a bear. As if 3 weeks isn't long enough, right? Crossing my fingers and monitoring her continuous fever...

Sick Baby

Grace woke up from an extraordinarily long nap today with a fever of 101 degrees! (That's high for her because she is usually about 96 degrees!) She has been wimpery and laying down on the floor all day. I feel so bad for her. She has only ever had a mild fever while teething, but this is something more. So far, no pulling of ears...but I have a feeling she and I will be staying home from church this week. I wish her daddy were here to help comfort her. You can tell she misses him a lot.

Oh, I guess I didn't blog about that yet. Matt is officially active in his unit here on Fort Hood. He is in the field and won't be back until Tuesday. He has a big learning curve ahead of him to learn the politics, strengths and weaknesses of the guys around him (so he says). He also found out that he will be working the Reconaissance side of Armor instead of working with tanks. Which he actually enjoyed more in Kentucky and it will be easier to transition to Military Intelligence in three years.

Matt also found out he will be deploying for 12 months on Dec 18th. He is a bit nervous, but he wants to go serve his country and the people of Iraq. I am proud of him for being brave enough to go. He is definitely a family guy and it will be hard for him to be away from "his girls." I love him so much it's sick!

That's all for now. I am going to go comfort Grace all I can while she is wimpery and enjoy how cuddly she is right now. (The only good thing is the cuddling! She is NEVER cuddly!)

Scentsy Consultant!

I have been thinking about having my own business for quite some time now. I hadn't fallen in love with any particular product until I was introduced to Scentsy through Matt's family. I have been thinking of all of the possibilities for me in Texas and how it would push me to make new friends and venture out a little more often. I am so excited to get started and I have so many ideas for my Scentsy business. If you haven't heard of it yet, you will! Especially if you are reading my blog! Scentsy is offering 10% off this month, on everything but the Double the Scentsy set. This is a rare occassion, so if you want to get started... go to my site and check out the product. www.scentsy.com/mandym If you do want to order, e-mail me at mandyscentsy@yahoo.com and give me your info.

Trust me, if I fell in love with it (and I am pretty skeptical) you will, too! Feel free to ask me any questions, because right now there is a fire inside me just bursting to tell you about it!

Family Time

Our little family arrived home just the other day from a trip to visit Matt's family. He hadn't seen most of them since January, and since I had just spent some time with my family we spent every waking moment with them. (My apologies to my family since we drove straight through town).

Anyhow, we went up to Island Park, ID and spent time with his sisters family, his parents and his brother Mark. Eventually we caught up with everyone in the Merrill family. We had a great time. We lounged a bit, Matt did a few projects at the cabin, we cooked dutch oven style, Matt started HUGE campfires, we played in the creek, went to West Yellowstone, ate ice cream... The list goes on and on.

We also saw a few movies. Matt's parents babysat for us so we could go on a date. We hadn't been on one since Christmas! Thanks a million, Mom Merrill! We saw King Fu Panda, which we both loved. We also saw Wall-E while we were home. We played a lot of dominoes, too.

I must say the highlight of the trip was seeing Matt play with Grace in the pool in Brigham City. She hadn't ever been in a pool before, and we had bought her a big floaty toy. He dunked her under a few times and splashed with her. They had an enormous amount of fun. I am so glad he was able to be there for her first time in the water. I could tell it meant a lot to him.

So, now we are home in Texas. It is blasted hot and humid. We are still trying to get all of our projects done. I spent most of the day cleaning doors and baseboards. Matt has been working on the lawn and planting a tree in our front yard. Grace has been keeping us busy by constantly climbing on the fireplace. We are one busy family. We don't have any of our household goods yet. They will be delivered next Wednesday. I can't wait! Christmas in July! We have so many things we got as gifts for our wedding that we have yet to open. I am so excited to finally use our fancy towels and hang my pictures on the wall.

I am going to wait to post pics until we have everything in place, because the house doesn't really look like a home yet. Just empty square rooms with little personality.

Still alive!

We are still breathing. However, we are waiting to get our internet access set up in Texas. Soon enough we will be in contact with the outside world again. I will write more later. Don't worry, I will post pictures of everything! The house, the baby, etc...