Melissa’s Place

Today is my last full day living in Sequim, Washington and I am sad for two reasons. First Sequim is such a wonderful place to live (besides it being so expensive!) the people are so friendly and it is a really pretty area. I am also disappointed today because it is raining which means I probably wont be able to go to my husband’s going away party at work. He works for the Department Of Energy and they are extremely strcit on who is allowed in their buildings and they told him that if it wasn’t raining they would have the party outside. I am sure that if I don’t end up going my husband will bring me some cake home

I have a friend who is going to watch Sariah and Rebekah tonight while we finish the last of our packing and cleaning and move all of our stuff into our Uhaul trailer. I really do hate packing and much rather clean but my husband is so amazing at packing. He actually fit all our girls clothes, even the ones that are too small/too big into two boxes which I thought would have been impossible. I think he picked up this talent from the Mongolians on his 2 year LDS mission that he served there, a lot of Mongolians live nomadic lifestyles and are expert packers.  However my husband taped the boxes up so much that we will probably need to use a Swiss Army knife to open them!

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Last night ‘the idols’ sang 3 songs each, one that the judges picked, one that they pick and one that the producers pick. I thought that the best song choices came from the producers. During the beginning of the show my husband turned to me and said “do you know what the perfect song for David Cook would be? Aerosmith’s I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing” Sure enough that was the song the producers chosed!

Here are my rankings:

David Archuleta - David’s second song was very awkward - he is not a hip hop artist! However his vocals are amazing and I do hope he wins American Idol.

David Cook - Very talented and versatile. I didn’t care much for his first two songs but his last performance of ‘I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing” was probably the best of the night.

Syesha Mercado - I am sure she is so happy to be in the top 3 and she is a fantastic singer but I think even she is expecting to go home tonight.

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I have tried many times to swallow pills but I have never been able to so when I take ibuprofen or vitamins I crush them so that I can take the pill. I recently learned that some pills can cause dangerous (or fatal) effects if crushed. Make sure to always consult with your doctor or pharmacist before crushing any pill.

Slow release capsules or pills with a special coating that allows the medicine to absorb into the body slowly. This includes ‘once a day’ 24 hour pills including allergy and diet pills like the popular Phentermine as crushing them will cause your body to receive too much medication at the beginning of the day and not enough closer to the end of the day.

If you need to take pills that should not be crushed see if the medication is available in a liquid or patch format.

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My 25 month old daughter knows all of the uppercase letters of the alphabet. She loves to point letters out and let us know what they are whether it is looking through a book, at the grocery store, the computer or TV. The poor little girl gets confused with daddy saying ‘zee’ and mommy saying ‘zed’, though!

Here is a video:

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I took business classes at a college in British Columbia as well as some at a college in Utah and at both schools I had teachers who talked about the benefits of Six Sigma which is strategy pioneered by Motorola that seeks to identify and remove errors within the business and improve its products and/or services. This strategy saves companies millions of dollars a year by reducing costs while improving customer satisfaction at the same time.

If you want to choose a smarter solution for your business; Smarter Solutions, Inc will soon be teaching the Six Sigma Black Belt Training and green belt teaching for those who are interested in learning more about this strategy to improve their businesses.

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After arriving home from taking my girls to the park this morning I remembered that it was the 9th today so I quickly turned my computer on and logged into my online banking account and I found out that I received my $1,200 Economic Stimulus Payment from the IRS! We got the $300 per family member payment since we are in the low income category, I believe the middle income families will receive $600 per family member.

I am so glad that we are moving around tax refund time and for once we wont be completely broke when we move. Which reminds me I need to get onto my husband to find a summer job in Provo.

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One thing that my husband and I learned that we had in common soon after we started dating was that we both hate to wear flip flops. Having that piece of material between our toes just drives us crazy. Many people look forward to summertime when they can wear flip flops and some people even wear them all year round! I am looking forward to summer so I can toss my socks and shoes aside and wear my sandals - which reminds me, I need to buy some sandals!

Which do you prefer flip flops or sandals?

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Watching how terrible Jason’s performances were for the 3rd week in a row made me more upset that Brooke was voted off last week. Now that Brooke has left I have no reason to go online before the show airs in washington and look up American Idol spoilers so I can find out what number to dial to vote for her as my number is still an Idaho number and the voting is over in Idaho when American Idol is over in Washington.

On to my thoughts starting with the contestant who I thought did the best:

1. David Archuleta - David sang ‘Stand By Me’ and Elvis’s ‘Love Me Tender’. Simon summed his performances up very well saying that he didn’t beat the competition he crushed the competition.
2. Syesha Mercado - Syesha sang ‘Proud Mary’ and ‘A Change Is Gonna Come’, a song that was inspired by the Civil Rights Movement. I loved both of her performances, Syesha is definitley the most improved out of the top 4.
3. David Cook - David sang ’Hungry Like The Wolf’ and ‘Baba O’Riley’. His first performance was Ok and the second was better, still not my best performances from him when Rock and Roll night should have really been his time to shine.
4. Jason Castro - Jason sang ‘I Shot The Sherriff’ and ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’. If Jason doesn’t leave tonight I would be very surprised.

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Yesterday both of my daughters took a 2 hour nap at the same time. I was so surprised that Bekah actually napped for more than 15 minutes without being held!

I was able to do so much during that 2 hour period. I cleaned the bathroom and kitchen, mopped the floors and made some fudge for our family home evening treat.

It would be nice if this happens more often!

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While in White Rock, BC my husband ate crab for the first time and had no idea how to eat it and ended up tearing it to pieces and eating it with his hands, it was quite disgusting to look at! I actually didn’t care though, as I am not the neatest eater either.

After you watch this video make sure to visit BeOysterAware.com and learn about the risks associated with raw and undercooked oysters such as the popular Gulf oysters. The website also has tasty oyster recipes!

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We are keeping grocery shopping to a minimum for the next 10 days and trying to use up as much of our food as possible.

• Monday - Vegetable soup. (I love the smell of soup cooking in the slow cooker all day long!)
• Tuesday - Tuna Cassarole
• Wednesday - rice and vegetable stirfry and green salad
• Thursday - Spaghetti with broccoli and cheese sauce
• Friday - BBQ Chicken Pizza
• Saturday- Sandwiches and salad
• Sunday - chicken, rice and potatoes

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I can’t believe that next Friday we will moving to Utah! I am trying to think positively about the 15 hour drive - keeping my fingers crossed that the kids will be good and nothing will go wrong with the car. This week we are getting a mechanic to look at our car and make sure everything is good. I think we may need to get our brakes fixed.

This week I need to call all our internet and utility companies and cancel our accounts (I also need to find out what’s going on with the recycling company, our recycling hasn’t been picked up for 3 weeks!). I also need to get the hitch put on our car for the trailer we are renting. I also want to do a lot of cleaning because having to do a lot of heavy duty cleaning after packing everything up is not fun at all. We have had a few offers from friends willing to babysit for us while we pack which will be so helpful.

One thing that I am happy about moving to Utah is that our utility bills will be lower - Washington is so expensive and the electricity rate even increased last month! I think our auto insurance will increase because our insurance is still in Rexburg, Idaho which is a small town and we are moving to Provo, Utah which is a much bigger city.

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