One I actually Like!

Since getting married the vast majority of the photos of myself have been taken by my sweet husband. He thinks I look beautiful without my make-up. He likes it when I do very little, if anything, to my hair. He thinks I look great getting out of bed in the morning. In short, the photos he takes of my look awful. Here's a sample of his type of photography.

Why didn't he look at this one in the digital camera and say, "Tip your head down a little so we don't see directly into your nostrils"?

That is why I was pleasently surprised to see the photo in the camera the other day. I don't even remember taking it. Years from now my daughter will be able to look back at these photos and say, "You didn't always look like a slob when I was little did you?"

Getting ready for church. That head band in Charlotte's hair lasted approximately 10 minutes and then was ripped off.

Chicken

My daughter used to be so scared of the vacuum I had to hold her the entire time I vacuumed. Then we got our new red one for Christmas. I loved it so much I didn't put it away for a couple of days. She played with it, took off the attachments, knocked it over and enjoyed it throughly. Now when I vacuum she's still wary of the thing, but she doesn't insist on having me hold her. Now she plays chicken with it. She will try to get close enough to the vacuum to touch it and then "run" away. She's still slow at walking and turning so it's a slow tango we dance while cleaning the house. This very calculated game of chicken entertains her the entire time I vacuum the house. She knows that if she stops I will go around her and now there are four or five Charlotte sized spots in our house that aren't vacuumed because I got tired of waiting for her and moved away. It is so funny to play with her while vacuuming!

Creative Corner

My newest project is a dress for myself. I love this pattern. I typically like vintage dresses and I've fallen in love with this one. Now I'm just trying to find a good fabric. There are so many good choices out there. Do I want it to be a solid like this yellow or turquois? Do I want a pattern like this tan embriodered one or this red lotus print? But I'm still not convinced that I have the right fabric. Any ideas? Suggestions? Places to look that I haven't thought of? Other considerations?

Mental Health

I'm being so indulged lately! I feel like I just made it out of the dark hole that was my sickness, then my daughter's sickness. Sadly, now Daniel has the sickness that makes you want to die. I know because he's burning up and also because it took him until 9 AM to go study this morning! Also he took four Motrin with him incase he needs them during the day. I've never seen him actually sick before and it kinda freaked me out! He is the hardest working sick person I've ever seen. I hope he takes it easy tomorrow and focuses on getting better because he has a test next Saturday and he needs to be 100% for it!

Because of the recent illness our house has been going through I haven't cooked a dinner for everyone since last Monday! I know, you're wondering how we ate. Leftovers one night. Gift card dinner another, no dinner another, then eating at a friends house another. Now I'm sort of getting ready for cooking again.

The party was great! About 12 women came over and we sat around, talked, and ate. Unfortunately everyone brought a dish and I made dishes to eat so there was so much food that we got stuck with a ton of leftovers. Leftover meals are great. Leftover desserts and snacks can make a person start to feel a little sickly.

Yesterday, instead of cleaning after the party, Charlotte and I went to the zoo. It was so much fun, even though it was cold. We jumped from indoor exhibit to indoor exhibit and saw all the primates. It was great to get out of the house and see the sun! Today we did the same thing and went to the Botanical Gardens (free if you live in the city). I didn't realize how much I missed going outside during the cold winter days! It is such a blessing to have sunny weather days in the middle of winter. It's supposed to get cold again, but I don't care as much now that I've had a little time outside. Do you find that your mental health improves with outdoor time? Mine does.

Sick Day

I was sick the end of the week last week and then all weekend. Yesterday my baby had a temperature all day and through the night. I'm so tired! My house is a mess, my checks haven't been deposited, and my grocery shopping needs to be done, but I can't because she wont let me put her down.

Hosting

I'm hosting our Medical School Wives' girls' night out at our apartment next week. My plan is to just provide dessert and people will come, eat and chat. That's basically what we do when we actually go out to a restaurant so it should work here right? I'm worried though because last week was the GNO for January and I think people might not come to mine. They are just so close together. Oh well, at least that will mean more leftover goodies for me! What goodies do you think I should make? (Keep in mind that last month had around 20 women.)

Birthday Photos

Dan's birthday went pretty well I'd say. Considering he had a test in two days and we didn't have a whole lot of money for gifts, we had a great time. I think he enjoyed his pancake cake and we liked to actually have him with us for breakfast. I only took photos later in the day to share so here they are:

This is her trying to tell us that she has a poopy diaper.

Apparently we didn't get it so she tried her "Please change me now" smile. (What do you think of the side pony? I thought it was funny so I kept it, but I'm not sure I'm going to do it again.)

Dan looks good in both photos though so I kept them anyway. I discovered the poopiness after taking the photos and she was much happier later, but my camera had completely run out of batteries so you only get the grumpy baby shots.

Birthday Eve

Last night I looked at the budget and with a little re-arranging I made it so that we can still eat, get a new alternator for the Honda, and get Dan clamps for his birthday! Hooray! It'll be tight, but I feel so powerful for making it work. Today Charlotte and I went to get the clamps for Daddy and she decided that we should probably let Daddy pick out the clamps instead of getting them ourselves. There were so many of them and they were all so shiny and fun to reach for, but when we almost knocked a pile off the hooks we decided it was time to go. Plus, then he gets to go to the Home Depot even more!

Saturday is his test. He seems pretty confident, but we all still need to have positive thoughts for him.

As it turns out I hate all types of health insurance, not just the government sponsored kind. At least I found a doctor that will see me tomorrow.

New Links

Since I have such a loooong list of links over there to the left I thought I'd take a minute to note the two I recently added. The first is A3 Robinson. These are our good friends in St. Louis (I know! We actually have friends!). Charlotte is in love with their little boy Asher, who is older than she is and also pretty annoyed by her most of the time. Dan studies with Aaron and we live in the same neighborhood of St. Louis. We love to have them over! The other is Voice of Reason. I pretty much read her blog every day and I like it a lot. She's funny and smart. So I figured why not share the joy? So there you go.

A Recipe for Success

Get Up,
Get Fed,
Get Dressed,
Make Your Bed.

It never fails. When I do those four things my day is great and I get a lot done. If I don't do those four things, then I don't get things done and I don't have a great day. Or at least I don't feel like I get things done. Even if I will be spending all day at home doing chores with nobody to see me, if I get ready for the day in the morning my day is much, much better. I always feel better too.

(Does yellow cake with peanut butter fudge frosting count as breakfast? I didn't think so either, but it sure tasted good.)

Because I haven't posted any lately

This is the outfit that Aunt Katie got for her for Christmas. She wore it again yesterday and I love it.
We gave her a "soothing bubble bath" a few nights ago and she kept trying to eat the bubbles!
I realized that I can put two pigtails in her hair. Too bad I also realized that I'm awful at cutting off the top of her head in photos. I'll get a better photo of her new cute hair style next time I do it.

leftovers

Do you eat leftovers?

Before Dan I never ate leftovers, that is, unless my mom cunningly disguised them as something new all together. That means that the leftovers weren't really leftovers they were re-dos. So in the end I never ate leftovers. Dan eats leftovers. Leftovers are part and parcel of our medical school experience and I ate leftovers for lunch and dinner yesterday and lunch the day before. I don't like it. Not one bit. But I do it. Is there anything that you do because of circumstance? Or because it would drive your spouse insane if you didn't do it?

My Year to Shine

Last year I was horrible at getting good presents for Dan. When I say horrible I am not exaggerating. Every single gift that I thought out, planned and gave was a dud. That's why I decided that this year is my year to shine in the gift giving category. I already have a plan for his Christmas present and it will cost a total of about $5 and a whole year to plan. That's how dedicated I am to what I will hereafter refer to as The Gift Glory Year.

The only problem is that his birthday is in January and I have no money to get him glorious gift #1. I was going to get him some wood clamps because he wants to build this beautiful mission style bench for our house with drawers in the seat and a great back. He doesn't have enough clamps of the right size to complete the project. I was super excited to get him the right clamps, but now that's off the table. I need to find him something that he'll enjoy that is cheap or free. The only thing is that my awesome cheap present is slated to be the Christmas present and I couldn't give it now even if I wanted to because it really will take a whole year to put together.

Another issue about the clamp situation is that he can't start the project until we have money to buy the wood for it so it's not like he could start it for a month or so anyway. The clamps would have been there though when he was ready to start. He's been doing all this research on mission style furniture and the woods he wants to make the thing out of. He is really excited about it.

So any ideas? I just want him to know how much we love him and what a great dad he is and how much we appreciate all the work he is doing right now. I know that clamps probably wouldn't have said all that, but they would have made him happy. I think in order for this to be The Gift Glory Year I'm going to have to be much more flexible. I'm too stuck on those stinking clamps!

To Dream the Impossible Dream

It is impossible to completely baby proof your house.














Translation: Charlotte found the toilet paper roll yesterday.

And the People Rejoiced

We finally got our new fridge today! YEAH! It's white, which matches all the other appliances in the kitchen. Another bonus for it is that it closes fully. Also the lack of rust and black stuff makes me very happy. Unfortunately the old fridge is now hanging out on our death trap of a deck. Try as they might the walls wouldn't move even one inch to let the fridge through. (Crazy how that works.) My land lord told them to just try and "shove" it through, but they didn't want to take out a whole corner of wall to get the fridge out. Instead of giving up my land lord told the installers that they could leave the old fridge on the back deck and bring the new one in. I'm just wondering what he's thinking about doing with the old one. It doesn't have the doors on it anymore so the next time it rains it's going to get filled with water which will then grow mold and be gross. He did say something about a sledge hammer and "busting it apart" to take it down "piece by piece." I don't know much about old fridges, but I thought there were CFCs in there or something which you shouldn't let into the atmosphere. I don't really know, but I did bring that issue up with him. His other brilliant idea was to take down one of the rickety railings that I wouldn't even trust enough to lean on and just push the fridge off the second floor deck. Yeah, that sounds like a great idea.

So anyone want an old, rusty, fridge that doesn't close all the way? You can have it for free if you can get it off our deck!

Mom answering cell phone: "Denise *******, something something pharmaceuticals."
Me: "I just wanted to apologize for every time I wiped my nose on your shirt. Every time."
Mom: Laughs

After talking to both my mother and sister yesterday I started to think about my experience as a mom, thus far. Charlotte is officially a toddler. This means that yesterday she walked the entire length of our house to the bathroom where I was taking a shower. Then she pushed the door open (I didn't figure it would need to be latched) and then walked to the shower. She proceeded to open the door and stick her head in and call to me to let her come join the fun. As I was still in the shampooing process and she was fully clothed so I didn't let her. This made her mad. Being a toddler also means that she can make her way to the bathroom all by herself. And that she's strong enough to open the lid on the toilet. All I have to say about that is ick, ick, ick.

After recounting a few stories like this to my mom and then my sister, Katie said that being a mom must be a lot of work. Every little thing that isn't a big deal becomes a big deal when you have to take the baby along. When she said that I replied that being a mom isn't that hard of a job (please don't write hate comments until you read to the end of the post). My reasoning is that for every night of screaming terror or puking disasters there are days of let's just watch Nemo or splash in the ponds. Every job has its positives and negatives. She told me that she was going to remind me of that comment one day (now that I've written it down you don't need to Katie). It got me to thinking though, is that really true? Do I really spend more time just having fun or doing work? I came up with my answer, for now, after a whole 9 months of experience. Granted it's not expert opinion, but it's my opinion, and my blog come to think of it, so there.

Here goes.

I think that the hard things about being a mom are surprisingly HARD. I thought I was ready for them. Whenever I watched Supernanny I thought, duh, of course you have to keep putting your kids back to bed. They need to learn to go to sleep and sleep in their own beds! You'll go insane if you let them stay up all night every night! I still agree with the reasoning in that statement, but now I understand why it was so hard for the moms and dads to do that. I do not blame them for not being able to teach their kids that sooner. Because it is stinking hard to listen to your child wail like a banshee, long enough that they cough. I remember when I would lay in bed just holding my husband's hand waiting for her to sleep so that I could. That was hard, but for us it worked.

It's also hard to not know what your child wants.

It's also hard to know what your child wants and know that they can't/ shouldn't have it.

Breastfeeding for the first two weeks involves physical pain. I don't care how many books I read saying that if you're doing it right it shouldn't hurt. Charlotte and I were doing it right. I went to a lactation specialist and she told me so. It still hurt every time for two weeks.

Going places with kids is hard. Just the physical act of getting them ready takes a bit of fortitude.


On the flip side, the awesome, great, fun things about being a mom are amazingly good. I was trying to think of a better word than good, but that's really what describes them. They are good in every sense. They fill me with joy and I love them.

My baby's first smile, giggle, roll over, anything and everything is exciting to me. I have loads of photos of my daughter sleeping just because I kept trying to get a shot of that little smile. I share every milestone with family and friends because I just can't contain my joy.

I love that I can do things whenever I want to. I remember a day last summer that I decided we wouldn't clean the house we would play splash instead. I filled up a serving tray with water sat her in it and we just splashed together. I can spend all day cleaning and doing chores one day, but the next we can spend going to the park, making cookies, and seeing friends.

On a more selfish, and completely honest note, I know I can count on two hours of alone time just for me everyday. I can do with it what I want (granted sometimes that means mopping the floor without interruption) and I love it.

So I don't know if I would classify being a stay-at-home mom as a hard or easy job. All I know is that it's the best job for me right now.

There's no place like home, there's no place like home

As many of you may (or may not I guess) know a huge storm ripped its way across the Midwest last night. Here in St. Louis the TV had a ticker showing the tornado warnings across the bottom of both the National Championship game and American Gladiator. (Thanks to my husband that was the programming we were watching last night.) Tornado warnings always catch my attention because until we moved here I had never even seen a warning on the TV. Growing up in the west you just don't get the conditions for tornadoes. I guess there had been a few in Washington where I grow up, but they had never actually touched down in my recollection. There was also that weird tornado in Salt Lake while I was going to college, but it seemed more like a weird fluke. Here we see them often in spring and fall, but not often in January. I noticed about half way through Gladiator that there was a tornado watch for St. Louis county and St. Louis city! Since moving here there have been many tornado warnings in the viewing area of our TV station, but not ever for us. In fact, since moving to St. Louis I have noticed a funny trend for the most severe weather. It pretty much breaks to the north or south before hitting the city limits. I like to call this the St. Louis effect (or is it affect? I can never get those two right). Needless to say I brushed every thought of tornadoes to the side.

Another thing to make the weather not such a big deal was that our county just had a tornado watch. In my mind that's a step down from warning. I did however call my mom to let her know, because nothing says I love you like your mom halfway across the US worrying about you. Then, when I didn't get a great reaction from her I called my sister to let her know, but I didn't really play it up since I didn't want her worrying.

As we finished watching Gladiators and the game seemed to be loosing momentum I started to watch the warnings more clearly. This was my first big mistake. Actual tornadoes were being spotted in the county just next to ours. Never mind that counties are pretty big and I shouldn't worry about the one next to ours, red flags started to appear in my brain. Dan wanted to watch a movie since he wasn't tired and there wasn't anything we wanted to watch on TV. I told him then I wouldn't be able to see the weather report. So I decided we could watch the movie and I would put the weather report on the computer. Mistake number two. As Ocean's Thirteen progressed I checked back in with the weather every 15 minutes. Swirling winds (which in my mind meant tornado) would show up looking like they were pointing right at us. Then the St. Louis effect would start to come in to play and they would either lose energy or go to the north of us. All this paranoid tracking got me convinced that our house would be hit by a tornado sometime before 5 AM when the tornado watch was over. Not only that, but we would be sleeping in our beds, on the top floor, in rooms that were exterior to the house and thus we would all be killed.

I was very nervous when I went to bed. In fact I told Dan that we should sleep with Charlotte in our bed so that she would be safer. Also that we should sleep with the radio on so that if anything was coming we would know. Turns out that Charlotte doesn't sleep if she's in the bed with us. She plays with our mouths. After a good 20 minutes of mouth playing she went back into her own bed. Plus, I decided that Dan was right and we didn't need to sleep with the radio on. At 1:49AM I awoke to the flash of lightening and crash of thunder very, very close. Then I heard strong winds and driving rain. So in my panicked state I went to the front room and turned on the TV. Turns out that the St. Louis effect is very strong and all the station showed was thunder storms for the whole viewing area. I went back to bed and slept very soundly. I didn't even notice when Dan tried to get up at 6 AM. He said that there was still lightening, thunder and rain at that time so he went back to bed until 7 AM when it had passed. What a storm! Too bad we slept through the whole thing.

Back to Comfy

We got back from WA last night. Our amazing friends not only picked us up from the airport, but they also cooked dinner for us. It was awesome. The only thing marring the evening is Charlotte burned her little finger on the oven. YIKES! She's OK though.

Updates on Charlotte was that she's now decided that she can take several steps in a row without any help! She can officially walk on her own at 9 months old. She's really slow at it though so I'm still not having to race after her.

Today it's a good 60 degrees in St. Louis. I can't believe how warm it is on the first Sunday in January! We took a walk around a neighborhood in our area with beautiful houses and it got me thinking how much I enjoy just getting out. I know it'll get cold again before spring really happens, but I do plan on taking as much advantage of this warmth before it's done. I have got to get myself moving again. It seems that since mid November I haven't really been doing a whole lot of physical activity and I'm so ready to get back into it. Here's the thing though, I get bored of doing the same things. Plus, I have to find activities that I can do with Charlotte. Also, I have to do them for free since I don't really want to spend money on it. That makes my options go down dramatically. I'm for sure going out running as long as this weather keeps up though. It's supposed to be in the 70's tomorrow!

Our two week break was awesome. We tried to fit in everything and everyone we possibly could, which made for three really tired people when we got home yesterday. I finally feel normal again at 2 today. We went sledding while we were in Washington and it was alternately fun and terrifying. Dan's sister's in-laws live a ways into the country in an area with rolling hills so we had the best runs that weren't covered with people. It was awesome. It wasn't awesome when Dan and I went down the hill on a tube going backwards and then hit the jump at the bottom and landed on our heads. I've decided that I've got to get a whole lot braver when my daughter is old enough to notice because I don't want her to be scared of everything.

Hope everyone is having a great New Year!

Let's Hope

The window in front of my computer looks onto the street in front of our house. Our neighbors below us just came home with a few friends. They were in really scary drag outfits. Blue eyeshadow, slinky dress, greasy looking hair-let's just hope I don't have to explain this to my daughter someday.

Recipe I love

Last night I made a recipe I love, love, love. I wasn't going to post about it, but then I saw Heather's posts about food and thought I'd share. I got this one out of the Phillsbury complete cookbook:

Chinese Sweet-and-sour pork

Wow, I just looked at the recipe in the book and that's a lot to type, if you want the recipe let me know and I'll put it up. (It's not hard, I'm just lazy and I'm not sure anyone would actually use it.) The reason that I like the recipe isn't just because it's yummy though. I really like all the chemistry that's going on when you're making it. Maillard browning, starch gelatinization, denaturation of proteins, mingling of flavor compounds, and much more. It just totally reminded me of some of the experiments that I did during school. It made me feel smart and I loved it. Plus, this time I didn't make the oil too hot like last time. The batter browned perfectly.

Another benefit to this came in the entertainment Charlotte had today with the leftover brown rice. I decided to eat some for part of my lunch and she decided that she wanted some too. So I fed her some. Then she decided that she wanted to feel the rice between her fingers. I figured we could have a messy lunch time (occasionally I think it's important to get dirty when learning new things). Then she decided that it would be really fun to empty the whole rice container on the floor. Well, at least she had fun.

Slow on the Uptake

Have you ever thought of a great response to something awful someone said to you after the fact and really wished you could have said it right then? That totally happened to me last night. Only instead of the situation being a few days ago it was several years ago. I have no idea why that situation popped into my head, but I thought of an awesome comment. At first I wished I had said it. Then I realized that I wouldn't chose to go back and say it because then I would have to be back to where I was back then. I'm so much happier now. I was really in a negative spot right then in my life and I'm so glad to be past it. So maybe the best response to that comment/situation was going on to live a happier life. That realization made me smile.

munchkin mischief

I was doing the dishes from when I made cookies yesterday. I had different bowls of colored frosting to clean and I just thought I'd put them in the dishwasher. After rinsing off some other dishes I looked to put them in the dishwasher and saw this:

She was sad when I immediately took it away from her.

Another cute picture I took of her was this morning just before she got up. This is how she's decided to sleep in her crib right now:

Notice the little feet through the bars in the back. So funny!

Christmas Projects

I'm finished! I finally finished all my Christmas present projects! I'm very proud of how they turned out, but I can't show you any photos of them since they're presents and that would ruin the surprise. So instead I'll show you close ups of the mantle runner I made last year. Also, I was so excited about being done with the presents that I stayed up late finishing the ornaments that I started earlier. I think they turned out quite nicely.

I included this shot so you could see that, no, I didn't iron it when I took it out of the box. Yes, it has bugged me ever since, but not enough to take the nativity off it and iron it. Oh well.
Here's a shot of the six ornaments. You can't really see the detail in them though so I included close ups.
I didn't use all the fancy buttons that the pattern said to because they were super expensive and I told myself that the ornaments were strictly to be made from scraps from other projects. I am now really happy I kept all those buttons from off clothing. I kept the sequins from my graduation dress and they look great on the angel, elf and reindeer. The ribbon was just what I had around (I'm not sure what it was originally for). The white and black buttons were leftovers from the Santa's eyes in the mantle runner. All the fabric was scraps and the floss was from the Christmas projects this year.

My sister, my baby

Ways in which my baby is an awful lot like my sister:
She sleeps in the car. A lot.
She likes to eat Panera bagels.
She likes to go shopping with me.
She's better dressed than me.

She likes to be in control.

She loves me. A lot.

It made me laugh yesterday when this occurred to me. I thought I'd share this little treat with everyone today. Now I keep thinking of more things to add to my list.

Online Prints

I am a user of Costco photocenter. I have absolutely loved this service in the past. When I usually order my prints online I love that they show up in the mail within a week. I did not, however, appreciate how long it took to get my current order. I decided to include photos of my daughter in our Christmas cards. I ordered prints on November 25th. I kept checking back in to the web site when the photos didn't make it. I contacted customer service and all I got was that they had sent them. If they had sent them they'd be here by now! After almost three weeks of waiting I finally decided to just send the cards today without the photos. Guess what showed up after I sealed all the envelopes? Great.

RIP

When we got married my mom bought me a cute little vacuum cleaner. I loved it. It was green. When we moved to St. Louis, our apartment had new carpet. They put it in the day before we moved in. The new carpet was just too much for my "little green vacuum that could" because after four months of living here it no longer could. Dan fixed it three times and it kept breaking, plus when he fixed it, it was still really loud and sounded wrong. I mourned the loss for several days before I told anyone. Then when I told my mom she decided to get me the best Christmas gift, a new vacuum! The new vacuum arrived two days ago and I've been in vacuuming bliss ever since. It's red and it has a cord retraction button. I don't have to wind up the cord ever again! My new vacuum floats along the ground with the slightest push and it gets every little bit of cheerio, graham cracker or dirt clod from winter shoes. I felt bad for my old vacuum because now it seems like it was just never going to cut the mustard, but this new one is amazing. I'm in love and I don't care who knows it.

Isn't it funny that with everything that seems to be keeping me busy lately as we count down to Christmas, what I chose to write about is my vacuum. I guess I just love good cleaning supplies.

Merry Christmas

Yesterday was our church Christmas party. There was a talent show and I convinced Dan to perform with me in it. He played the banjo and I played the mandolin on one song and the fiddle on the other. It went.....well, at least it was quick. My opinion though is that the church talent show is the perfect place to start playing something you're still figuring out. Everyone will still be very supportive. So next time it'll be better.

I think I'm really getting into the Holiday spirit now. I've been thinking a lot about what someone told me a week ago. The home she grew up in was culturally Jewish, but she said they were really agnostic. Later in life she converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. In other words, she became a Christian. That gave her a whole lot of freedom to decide what traditions she wanted to have in her family for Christmas. While she still lights the menorah with her parents and siblings, she chose Christmas traditions that brought her family closer to Christ during this time of year, and, in her words, "Christmas cards were quickly ruled out." It just got me thinking about all the traditions Dan's family and my family have. Which ones do I want to emphasize? Which ones do I want to take out? What do I want the feel of the Holidays to be? Do we really need to have our counter constantly replenished with homemade candy from Thanksgiving to New Year's?

Already because of the financial restraints of our situation, gift giving has been kept to a minimum. That's a mixed bag of sorts because there are so many positives and negatives. It has helped me see the world through my husband's eyes. He truly has been a real teacher to me about being less covetous and materialistic. Yes, there are things that I would love to have. Yes, I love to get gifts, but that's not really what our home has been focusing on right now. The negative side is on the part where I would love to give more. Oh how I wish I could give all the things I'm seeing that I think my family would love! Although now that I come to think of it, what I am giving them I'm making with my own hands. I think more love has gone into my gifts the past two years than ever before.

My husband and I have decided to do a 12 days of Christmas with the family. I'm really excited about this one. Our plan is to have Christmas envelopes with a family activity in them for each night of the 12. We take turns picking an envelope and do whatever is in each of them. This way we spend more time together as a family this time of year. Also, some of the envelopes will be based on the spiritual message of the season. I was going to have it be an advent type thing and go for the whole month, but thinking of 12 things is much easier than 25. Even though it's Christmas, I'm still a slacker. Oh well. This is a tradition I hope we will keep.

There are others I've been thinking about, but I'm tired and I have to go do the stinking dishes now. YUCK!

Oh, and one last thought before I finish. When I got married and realized that I would be spending at least half my holidays with my in-laws, I never thought I'd be so excited to see them! While it's not the same as the Christmas that I grew up with, it's still a place where I love and am loved. I missed seeing Dave at Thanksgiving and I was super tired the night I saw Heather and her kids so I'm glad I'm going to get a chance to see them while I'm actually awake!

Unexpected Advice

Today I was waiting in line at the post office (why is it that there's always a line at the post office?) and I overheard this man conducting some sort of home buying financing business over his cell phone. By the way, everyone overheard it because the man was really loud. When he got off the phone he proceeded to tell all the people in the post office that you're poor if you pay for things with cash. Credit is the way to go to get rich! He has purchased his home, car, and big rig truck all on credit cards! Don't get a mortgage either, because you'll just end up being poor. The only way to buy things in America is with Credit Cards!

Last week, while waiting at the doctor's office with my baby a youngish gentleman started talking to me about his daughter (now five and living with her mother). He raised her on his own until recently and it sounded like he was a great dad. Then he said, "I didn't want my daughter to have any resentment so I didn't beat her, until I thought she really needed it, because sometimes they just really need it." I'm sure he meant spanking. I hope he meant spanking rather than beating. I'll never know. I just smiled an nodded until the nurse called my name.

PS. Neither of these stories were the ones I was going to share, but they were just such odd experiences I had to share them.

The Evidence Keeps Piling Up

I am married to the most thoughtful and wonderful man!  First, he made the chili for dinner.  It started with using the garlic press and then he did the whole thing.  Later in the day, I fell asleep.  He let me sleep and made the cornbread and got the baby ready and fed her and just let me sleep.  He is so awesome!  I have tons of stories to tell, but no energy to tell them right now.  

Christmas

Well, we got our tree up and also our nativity. It looks really good. I put on some popcorn garlands and some ribbons. Dan called me Charlie Brown because of the popcorn garland, but I really like it. We also have our s'more ornaments and our blown glass ornaments and the snowflake and gingerbread ornaments. We love it. We put it on the bin so that Charlotte can't reach it. The bottom branches are about one inch above her head.

Here's our mantle with the Santa mantle runner I made last year and the new nativity scene. It looks really good next to the dark wood.

Also today was the first time I've actually been able to do Charlotte's hair! It looked so cute!

Check

I really should have known better!  A word to the wise, when you're running late to catch your flight home from vacation at your parents' house, your husband should always check the areas that you packed and you should always check his.  If, say, you are in charge of packing the things we left in their office and he doesn't do one last check before you leave you might have your glasses left behind.  That's OK, I think I just wear contacts or squint for four weeks until we go back.  If, then, he is in charge of packing the bathroom items and you do not do a final check before running out the door you might find out once you're home that he left:

• your facial cleanser
  
• your razor
  
• your favorite lip balm
  
• your hair spray
  
• your mousse
  
• your hair dryer
  
• your curling iron
  

It's going to be an interesting four weeks.  Does anyone else realize that it's just my stuff we left?  Luckily I have some cleanser (which I don't like as much), and we can have a designated blade for me on my husband's razor, but I think I'm going to have to go buy more mousse and hair spray.  

Teething

Charlotte's been acting like she feels horrible. This is the same way she acted when getting in her two bottom teeth. Dan just got home from a run to the store for motrin. Hopefully it helps her calm down and get to sleep, since she's not been sleeping for the last hour and a half.

I wish I had something awesome to write since it's been a while, but I really truly don't.  We got back from Thanksgiving last night and today we're just taking it slowly.  My husband turned the hot water heater on last night so we would have hot water this morning, but he must not have turned it high enough because when I tried to give the baby a bath I used only hot water and it was still cool enough to make her cry.  So the bath was forgone and now she's napping.  

I loved seeing my family and spending time with my mom.  Just Mom and me.  It felt awesome.  Not only because I had a little adult time, but because Dan was with the baby so I knew I didn't even need to think about her.  She was taken care of.  

Also, Dan and I went out on a date!  We've spent "date" time here at the house after the baby's asleep, but we haven't gone out on a date since she was born.  It was so much fun!  Home dates are good because they're cheap and simple, but it's fun to go out.  

Charlotte did so well with other people this time around.  I think all this vacation time has taught her that I'm not the only person that can love her.  (But I think I'm still her favorite and I like it that way.)  On the plane ride home Dan held her while she was napping and I looked over and saw both of the people I love most in the world sleeping.  There's nothing like a Daddy and his daughter!  No wonder we have so many photos of the two of them asleep!

My sister and her husband didn't come until late Wednesday night and we left Friday so we really only had a day together.  I got really sad when I realized that we wont be seeing each other at Christmas either so that was it for a while.  Oh, but I do love them both.  They both also had tons of fun with Charlotte and I think my sister got a sore arm from bouncing her so much.

We missed seeing Nate, Jenny and their kids and both Dan and I sincerely hope they will be able to make it up the day after Christmas.  Although if they can't we understand, we don't want to put too much pressure on them.  It's just that a whole year of living close to them has spoiled us, we miss them too much!

On the Charlotte front she's gotten a whole lot more brave this past week.  She has realized that if she really wants to get around she's going to have to figure out how to let go of the sofa and still stay upright.  Now, if there's a gap between furniture that she can't quite reach across she's just letting go and hoping that she lands right.  It's pretty funny.  I think she's getting one or both of her top teeth in right now.  On the plane we put an ice cube in a flannel blanket and had her chew on it and she really liked it.  Plus, nursing is getting increasingly uncomfortable.  I think we are seeing the end of the nursing days soon.  She loves bouncing and shaking her head no.  Both are games she likes even more if someone plays along with her (as both Aunt Katie and Uncle Garrett would do.)

Oh our break was good.  It was so short though!  My only consolation is that it's only four weeks until the next one!  I have so many projects to complete before then!  I'd better get going!

YIKES

We went to the mall the other day.  After living in two different places that don't have a mall for two years (a year in each place, not two years in each place) my head started to swim with sheer magnitude of all the stuff you could buy.  Then I went into the Anthropology store.  As I was walking around admiring things I would never be able to buy for myself, I happened upon some of the Christmas items.  A lady next to me picked up a Chocolate bar and asked the clerk if the price marked on it was right.  It was a $12 chocolate bar the size and general shape of a Hershey's bar.  My jaw dropped.  The clerk's response, "Yes, it's $12, but it's really good."  That's right it better be good, for $12 it better be the best chocolate bar I've ever tasted!

Hallelujah Chorus!

Months ago I taught Charlotte to put her pacifier in her own mouth.  It was really fun to watch her go from not figuring it out, to feeling for the right part in her mouth, to the expert she is today.  I did this with the idea that she would learn how to put it in at night so that she can go back to sleep by herself.  Up until now she's not been doing that.  There have always been a few times when one or the other of us has to get up to put the pacifier back in and then go back to sleep.  Not that this is a big deal, because you don't really need to be awake to find a pacifier, but it was becoming a hassle.  

Then came last night.  We did all the same things.  She went to bed at 7 and then I nursed her right before I went to bed.  Then, the next thing I knew it was 6:30 AM and my husband was leaning down to kiss me good bye!  Hallelujah!  She's figured it out!  She can put herself back to sleep!  This is so amazing!  Now if we can just keep this trend going.

Helmets part 2

Thanks for all the great comments.  I just want everyone to know that I'm not the helmet wearer in question here.  I don't own a helmet, but then again I don't really ride my bike so it's a non issue right now.  This is just a question that has come up lately in our group of friends.

To clarify, the question at hand is not whether an adult should wear a helmet.  The question is whether said adult should be made to wear a helmet if they would rather chose not to.

Helmets

Do you think that grown adults should have to always wear a helmet when they ride a bike or are they old enough now to asses the dangers and make that decision on their own?

Live and Learn

This weekend we went to Washington for the wedding of my husband's friend.  I definitely learned a few important do's and don'ts.  I figured I'd write them down so I can remember them as we will be travelling a lot this holiday season.  

Do: Have most things ready when your husband gets home from school
Don't: Take so long getting the last few things ready that you start to be late to the airport.
Do: Go to economy parking, even though it's about a mile past the airport.  It's the cheapest parking lot, cheaper even than the other private parking areas.
Don't: Have your baby get her six month shots the day before you leave.  She might get a mild fever and be achy and cranky.  This isn't fun for anyone.
Don't: Sit in the middle of the plane.  Someone will sit in the third seat in the row and then you don't have any room for the cranky baby to move around.
Do: Bring things for your baby to eat.  When she eats she's happy (which is a lot like her mom).
Don't: Forget to bring food for yourself.
Do: Remember that EVERYONE loves babies!  Especially grandma aged women.  If you feel like talking that's great.  If you feel like sleeping, that's not so great.
Do: Stay at your cousin's house.  He's so awesome and seemed so happy to see us!
Don't: Forget Tylenol.  If you take your baby two time zones away and then make her be in pain so wont sleep.  period.
Do: Spend time with Grandma Whiting.  She is awesome with the little ones!  
Don't: Wait to get Tylenol because it might cost a lot.  Get it anyway.  It'll make a huge difference.
Do: Take turns staying up with the baby when she wakes up at night.  Preferably have a good video.  In our case it was Finding Nemo at Dan's friend's house.  We stayed up and watched it with her at 2 AM until she fell asleep.  Then when she woke up at 5 AM we switched places and the other one watched it with her until she fell asleep.  It's way better than fighting with her to go back to sleep in a place that she doesn't know.
Do: Sit next to a grandma/grandpa couple while waiting for your flight to take off.  They may just give your baby a banana to eat.  Your baby loves bananas.
Do: On the flight home remember to give her Tylenol before the plane takes off and give her juice.  She'll fall asleep for half of the flight and play quietly the second half.  If you can get a seat free in between the two of you for the baby it's even better.  She can sit in that seat.  Or she can look between the cracks and play with the two grown men behind her.
Do: Bring teething toys.  She kept biting everything she could fit in her mouth.  I thought she was only getting two teeth, but those two have broken through and she's still biting everything.
Don't: Just assume that since she's in her own crib the damage done by the two time zones and no schedule will go away.  You will have to reteach her to go to sleep alone.  

All in all the trip was good.  I just would have done things a lot differently.  I don't really like waking up at 5 AM, but I don't think that can be avoided.  

Honors

Yes, that is what Dan received in Anatomy!  Woohoo!

The secret I've been keeping is that Dan's two buddies that he studies with dressed up in costume as him!  The night before Halloween I asked Dan if he was going to dress up and he said, "As myself."  I told him that was a good costume, but I didn't tell him that his costume was going to be stolen from him!  On Sunday I took his belt with his buckle and it was a good thing that I was asleep when he was getting ready in the morning.  I totally would have blown it.  He told me he was totally surprised.  YES!

My morning

I now know why my mom only takes 8 minute showers.

When I went in to the shower the box of Cheerios was completely intact.  The books were in a neat little stack.

Halloween Costumes

Since Charlotte is too little to go trick-or-treating I decided that she would just wear her costume all day today.  First we went to the library and she was a princess.


Later I decided that we should go to the zoo since the weather was so good.  Since we were going to be around the animals I decided I'd dress her in her bear outfit.  

I did have a cute little pink nose, but she rubbed that off before we got to the zoo.  Also there are paw prints on the bottoms of the feet.  She was super cute!

Budget

Aargh, I hate to do the budget.  You'd think that since I have my degree and I stay on top of it, doing the budget wouldn't be that hard for me.  Apparently my simple math skills need a lot of work!  Also my saying, "No" skills at the fabric store.

Home Decor

Here's the fruit of our labors.




A rug for a penny!  Awesome!



Dan built me this TV stand.  I think it's awesome, but he told me that it's, "far from perfect."  He's always harder on himself than anyone else!



This is our hall of family photos.  The hall is skinny so I couldn't get a shot of them straight on.


This is our other new rug.  I thought it was sufficiently masculine enough for Dan to like it.  


Here's our fireplace with the mantel all decorated.  I like my Halloween pumpkins I've painted on the hearth there.


These are the drapes that I made from fabric I used in our two previous apartments for drapes.  I just reworked them here.


I think I finally found a way to display Dan's horns that I like!  I never, ever thought that this day would come, but I think they look good on the wall like that.


These new curtains in our bedroom look really good.  Dan likes them too because they block more light at night.  We've had a really hard time getting used to light coming through the window at night here.  In Clarkston everything was always dark at night.

The New Term

I thought since my husband's life hasn't gotten much of the spotlight here lately I'd catch everyone up. He made it through first year anatomy! YEAH! We don't know if he got honors until the middle of this week though. He doesn't think he did, but I say wait and see. Now he is taking cell biology and...um...I can't remember the other one right now. I'll post that later. At any rate they seem to be much less intensive than anatomy. He seems to have a whole lot more free time to spend with Charlotte and me. Which is so great since Charlotte's first tooth made an appearance today! YEAH! She hasn't slept well the past couple of nights and I'm so glad Dan has been around to share the responsibility. I would go crazy trying to do it on my own.

In other Dan related news his study buddies are going to surprise him on Wednesday and I'm in on it. Given my lack of ability to keep a secret I think this was pretty bold of them although they don't know that I'm horrible at secrets. I'm trying super hard not to give it away, but it's just so good that I want to laugh with glee every time I think about it! I'll let everyone in on the secret on Wednesday, but since I'm trying to be a good secret keeper I wont tell yet.

Also Dan related, this weekend we are going to go to Dan's buddy's wedding. This is a friend he's had since kindergarten so we're pretty excited. We're flying to Washington for the ceremony and it'll be the first time in a plane for our little one. I'm bringing an extra bottle, both pacifiers, finger foods, and some toys, but beyond that it's all about being lucky. We're flying out Friday and back on Sunday. Oh what a weekend. Well, that's all I can think of for now!

Your House in Order

Well, last weekend was a BLAST! Not only did we get to go see the Botanical Gardens, the St. Louis Basilica, with and entire mosaic ceiling consisting of 1/2" pieces of tile, but we also got to go to Daniel Boone's house. It was awesome and it made me realize how my Daniel is much like Daniel Boone in his thriftiness, and hard work ethic. Mom and I also spent some time getting my house decorated while Dan went to class. It was tons of fun because I wasn't doing it alone while trying to take care of the baby. Curtains are up, photos are hung, rugs are down and it feels a whole lot more like home. Mom bought us two new rugs. Which brings me to a great little tidbit. We purchased the two rugs at The Home Depot where one of the rugs was on clearance. It was originally $57 and can you believe that we bought it for $.01!? Yes, that's right! a penny! And it looks every bit of it's $57 goodness at the top of my stairs. Also Charlotte started to try and walk around while holding onto the sofa. She's not too fast at it, but she eventually makes it to where she wants to be.

This morning, while taking out the garbage I discovered another little exciting project was done. Dan bought us storage shelves for our food storage and other things in the basement so I will actually be able to see what we have. Today I found that he's put them together! I was so excited that I organized them then and there. I then decided to inventory what we currently have. Then I looked up what we needed for one year. Oh boy! We are gonna need to get crackin on this whole food storage thing. As far as grains go we're gonna need about 600 lbs of them for a year for all of us and we have a total of 15 lbs. Well, it's something to work on. My only concern is that I couldn't find a solid numerical target for food storage of things like sugar, salt, fruits, baking soda. I found concrete numbers for grains (including wheat, rice, and corn), legumes, and water, but that was it. How am I supposed to get a year's worth of food storage if I don't know how much we'll need? Frustrating, very frustrating. Oh well, I'm sure it's just because I've never really thought about needing it before. (We actually have absolutely no water stored which seems really dumb now that I think about it.)

no news

Charlotte fell asleep during my run this morning. Grrr! She usually falls asleep right when we get home. That way I have the optimal amount of getting ready/doing chores time available. It was tricky getting her up to her bedroom from the street and she woke up. I put her in her crib anyway hoping she'll go back to sleep. Now I have to stay in the front of the house for a while killing time until I think she's back to sleep. If she hears me moving around before she's really out it just wakes her up. Little stinker! Oh well.

In good news I tipped the run/walk ratio in favor of running yesterday! Exciting huh?

I was wondering during my run today, what percentage of people run/exercise while listening to their ipod? If they do that then when do they have time to just think their own thoughts? I have found that my run in the morning is my favorite time to think about the day, the future, funny stories, lots of things. If you're listening to music how do you do that and think at the same time? If you don't, then when do you get a chance to just think?

YESSSS!

A man from the St Louis Water Division just came to my door and told me that they will be shutting off my water for a while for a scheduled maintenance check-up. I guess this means I can't do the dishes in the sink. Or the laundry. Oh darn.

Babler State Park

Well, I got Daniel to come home early from studying Saturday and we drove a little ways out of the city to Babler State park and walked around. I would say hiked around, but there weren't any hills or anything so it was more of a walk than a hike. Here are some photos of our trip.


This was the bridge that we started on. There wasn't any water below it though.

Don't you like her jacket? It has little pants that go with it that have feet with paw prints on the bottom. We decided to forgo those though because I let her get down and walk around a little after the walk and it would have gotten those really dirty.

We did have to stop part of the way through because mommy and baby both got hungry. I had a really yummy chicken salad sandwich and Charlotte had really yummy mommy's milk.

Here we are at the end of the hike. I just realized that not only are we both wearing pink, but we are both wearing clothing that Aunt Katie got for us! Kinda funny huh?

Charlotte figured out that her tongue doesn't always have to be inside of her mouth. In fact she finds it very fun for it to be outside of her mouth now!

In other news, remember those "allergies" that Charlotte and I caught of Dan's a little less than a month ago? Well, I got the cold and got over it, but Charlotte didn't very well. She's all over it except for this cough. A persistent cough that is deep in her chest, but doesn't really do a whole lot except for keep us all up at night. I'm thinking about getting a humidifier. What do you think? Is it worth the investment or should we just tough it out for a little? She's going to the doctor as soon as possible (hopefully next week) since she's now almost 7 months old and still hasn't had her 6 month appointment. If she's still got the cough then I'll bring it up, but I really hope she's over it by then.

Free Time

When we moved here Daniel's faculty group leader gave each member of her group that was married and/or had kids (which was 100% of us) a small book called, "Favorite Places to go with Kids in Saint Louis." I know it's a very catchy name. My mother is coming into town next weekend and I've been perusing the book for a few days now so that her whole trip will be loaded with fun for the whole family. I'm so excited. I wasn't thinking about planning anything, but then Danny Bobby kept asking me if he thought my mom would like to do x, or wouldn't it be fun to take her to y so I figured I should get a plan together. We don't necessarily have to go by the plan, but things always go better when there is a plan. Good news, the forecast for next weekend has Saturday and Sunday sunny and mid 70's. That's still a ways off, especially since both Friday and Monday are supposed to be rainy, but I'm still making plans. It's gonna be good.

So here I was looking at my booklet thinking that some of these things would be fun to do today. The only hang-ups were that (1) my baby cried for a solid hour today and I had no idea why or how to stop it. She cried until she passed out with exhaustion. Hopefully she'll wake up totally over that whole I'm mad at the world attitude. (2) My husband is studying today.

Well, I can't do a whole lot about (1) but hope for a better future. As far as my husband studying I decided I'd call him and see what he's up to. When I asked him how long he'll be studying for he said, "A while still. Why?" I told him that if he studied until around 2 or so then we could still go out hiking or something and wouldn't that be fun? But if he had to keep studying I totally understood since next Friday is his anatomy final. He's so awesome. He said that 4 more hours of studying would probably do him pretty well and then we could go. Now my only question is where to. Choices, choices, choices. Oh I do love free time!

The Hill

So there's a part of St. Louis called the hill. It's where all the Italians live. I know this because the street signs say, "The Hill" with an Italian flag on it. My only question is that where does the hill start? There isn't really a hill so I can't figure out why it is called that and where the geographic location starts. There's a commercial on TV that says this car place is, "right at the enterance to the hill." I just don't get it.

I remember going swimming with my next door neighbor, Kim, when I was younger. She had these snorkeling goggles so we would take turns putting them on and swimming upside down on the bottom of the shallow end of the pool. It was so surreal looking up at people, the room and the lights through the top of the water. Eventually we got up our nerve and swam with them to the deep end of the pool, which I'm sure was around 5 feet, but since we couldn't touch it was deep. I remember looking up at the shallow end and thinking how silly I was when I thought the bottom of that was deep.

The past couple of days I've had that same feeling, only not been able to quite put it into words. That's why I haven't really been posting all that much. I've thought it through now so I figured I'd try to share it. This next part is going to sound really, really silly though. I feel that the pool I am swimming in is my love for those around me, and specifically my family. I was swimming around the bottom of the shallow end of the pool gazing around thinking I had this deep love. It seems that in the last months, and probably triggered by having my baby, I have finally ventured out into the deep end of the pool and my love for them is so, so much more. The funny thing is I don't really think it appears to be any more than it was a few short months ago. So here's what I've been thinking I want to say to my family.

Charlotte
I love you so much that every time I think about it tears just start coming. You are so, so amazing just because you are you. I think you are beautiful and strong and funny and smart, but I want you to know that's not why I love you. Even if you were none of those things I would still love you because you are my baby and you are amazing. I thank Heavenly Father everyday for the blessing it is to be your mom and I pray for the knowledge of the skills I need to meet your needs mentally, physically, spiritually and emotionally. I feel that because of you I have become a stronger, milder, and more open minded person. I love you.

Daniel
I love you more than I can ever express to you. Sometimes I just burst inside to try and get that across to you. I can't imagine being any happier with my chosen partner on our path as husband and wife. You truly are smarter than the average bear and I am so, so, so proud to be the wife that stands next to you. I think you complement me so well--at times holding me up and at times being held up by me. You are smart and handsome and strong and truly gifted, but again, like Charlotte, that's not why I love you. I love you for just being you, and for letting me see all of you. There are somethings I want you to never stop doing because I cherish them so. I want you to never stop making up silly songs to sing to our children, I love hearing them from the other room as you sing them to Charlotte in the tub. I want you to never stop being, "funny, funny" even though sometimes I don't laugh right away. You always know how to make me laugh. I want you to never stop trying your best to make me feel protected and provided for. I love that about your masculinity. We had heard that the third year of marriage is a hard one, which may be true for some. We have also heard that the first year of medical school is a hard one, which may be true for others. I just want you to know that I am proud of what we are doing and I am loving you for your efforts more and more each day.

Daddy
I love you and I can't thank you enough for being my dad! I feel like I won in the daddy lottery! Thank you so, so much for being my dad and giving me so much of yourself! I am learning more and more each day how hard it is to raise children in a righteous way. It is hard, but you have also taught me that it is worth it and it has plenty of perks along the way. I am so sorry when I think about how hard on you I was when I was in high school. I just want you to know that I appreciate and value you as an amazing man and a wonderful father. You are strong, patient, smart, spiritual, and funny. That is not why I love you though. I love you because you loved me first. I know that you worry about me because I know I will never stop worrying about my baby. Thank you for your love and support.

Mom
I love you and I can't believe how shallow my love for you has been until now. Now that I understand what it means to have a mother's love. Now that I know what it's like to worry over every choice I make and my child makes. You worked so hard for Katie and me! And now I realize that your job is not over, even though both of us are out on our own. Being a mom is forever and I am so glad that you are mine. You have taught me so much about what that means and I am realizing more and more each day how carefully you treated your job. Nothing good happened in our home by accident. You and dad had plans for us and I thank you for that. I don't know if I have ever told you this before, but I was always so proud to have you come to my school when I was in elementary, to pick me up, to give a presentation at career day, to go to my performances. I just want you to know that 100% of the time I thought you were always the most beautiful mom there. You are beautiful, strong in mind and personality, humble, and spiritual. I love you mom!

Katie
I love you so much! You are my exemplar. Thank you so, so much for being there when I needed you. I know, and have always known, that I can turn to you for any help that I may need. I really do have the best sister in the whole world. You never acted too cool to be around me and I love you so much for that. I hope I can teach Charlotte to be the kind of big sister that you always have been for me. You are S-M-A-R-T! And you are also sincere and loving. Thank you for showing me yourself. I love you so, so much.

Garrett
To the newest member of my family I just want you to know that I love you so much! You have made my sister more happy than I have ever seen her before and I cherish that about you. I want you to know that I think you are amazing both in action and in word. I hope that my children will look to you as another shining example of what it means to be a good man in our society. Thank you for that, in advance. I love you.

Nathan and Jodi
I love you both so very much. You have taught me what it means to be a newlywed and be poor and be happy. The two of you are the first examples that I actually was aware of outside of myself. Thank you so, so much for that. You both are also my first examples of good and righteous people that weren't raised by my parents. You taught me that different ways of doing things are ok and that I need to figure out what I'm going to do as a parent. Thank you. I love you both and I love your girls!

LeAnn
I love you so much more now than I ever have before! I love you not only for being a wonderful mother to my husband and a great grandma to my baby, but also for being a great role model for me. It is such a comfort to personally know, someone that has done the exact same things I am doing right now. I love that you support Daniel and me so very much. I am very fortunate to have such a great mother-in-law. It feels so good to be understood about where I'm coming from. Thank you. I love you.

John
To the father of my husband, I love you. Thank you for teaching my husband what it means to be a good father. I think that many of the things he does in our family are because he saw you doing them for him. Thank you for teaching him to work hard and to be honest. Thank you also for your continued love and support for all three of us right now. We love you so much. I hope that my children will also look to you as an example of a good father, husband, leader, and man. I love you.

There are many more people I have been thinking about lately and many more that I love very much. This post is getting long though so maybe I'll just call them and let them know. My love for each of my family members and friends has deepened so very much in the past few months that it amazes me. I thank the Lord for each of you daily.

The Explosion

Since the beginning of the week our baby girl has had a little bit of constipation. (Yes, this post will be about poop so if you don't want to hear it stop now.) She's still been going, it just takes her a long time of hard pushing. She would get this sad little worried look on her face and then push until she was red in the face to get it all out. I told Dan about it and he was a little worried so he said we should make sure she nurses enough on me and make her rice cereal with more pear juice than normal. Well, I'm here to declare operation roto router a success. Yesterday she again got the worried look on her face and my heart sank. I was worried I'd have to take her into the doctor for this problem since it had been going on for a few days. After 5 minutes of red faced pushing I figured she was done so I took her in her room to change her. We don't have a changing table, the floor works just fine for me, so I plopped her down on the changing pad on the floor and took off her diaper. I started to clean her up when she began to push again. I panicked. She pushed out a "plug" of harder poop.....and then.....the explosion of liquefied poop shot right out of her onto my front. All over my shirt and shorts and socks and the changing pad and the rug we have on the floor and her and the diaper I had under her. It was everywhere! And it was disgusting.

Her attitude changed amazingly after the incident. She must have felt better because she acted happier all day than she had for the past few. I was completely covered in poop, and, amazingly relieved by it.

PS. Sorry if this grosses you out. It was the only thing I could think to post about today.

A New Project

So for a while now I've been working on a new project that I've been reluctant to let out of the bag. I'm just so excited about it that I don't want to let fly into the unknown and then get rained on and me be sad. Well, I'm going to take the leap tonight.

I decided that I'm going to sew my own baby/little girl dresses and sell them. I decided this because I went to a children's boutique here a few weeks back and was shocked to see the prices on baby clothing that I knew I could make just as well for a whole lot less money. Ever since I committed myself to the idea it's pretty much taken hold of me. I take this as a good sign. I came up with a design that seems really cute to me and I love it. Now I'm stuck. For the past three nights I've been unable to sleep because I need to chose fabric and accents for the first dress. I have so many ideas and I just don't know what I want to do. Then it's a matter of matching my ideas to my available materials. I lay in bed just thinking about what is a good idea and what isn't and how I'm going to get things done. I have found that planning things takes much longer than actually doing them.

Another thing is in the past few days my eyes have been opened to the seemingly limitless possibilities of fabric that can be found at the click of a button. What to do, what to do. So now it's 11 pm, my husband went to bed a half hour ago, my baby went to bed 4 hours ago and she will get me up at 6 am whether I spend more time at this computer or not. I really should go to bed. Charlotte and I have a big day tomorrow at the Botanical Gardens. Plus, with this cough that she has now developed I know I wont sleep very well tonight. I should get to bed now so that I can jump start my sleeping. I can't though. I know if I go to bed I'll just lay there......thinking.

This really should be an easy decision. It's not like it's going to be the only dress I make. I should just go ahead and chose one and then move on to the next. It's just that I want to chose the best one. I want to fall in love with the one that I'm making and not think that I could do better.

Well, there it is. My new project. I am so excited!

Six Months

Happy Six Month Birthday! Oh she is so big!

Differences

Lately I have been discovering many differences between my husband and myself. Mostly I think these are funny and interesting. Here are a few:

I was measuring something to sew and I only wanted to round the measurements to the nearest 1/8 inch where the math came out 3/16. I told him I was rounding it and he said, "You can't build a house off 3/16 an inch." And I thought I was picky about being exact!

Last week, just after I had changed the sheets my husband asked, "How often do you change the sheets?" I just had to laugh when I told him, "We've been married for two years and you haven't noticed that I change the sheets once a week?" We both had a good laugh over that one.

The creative process is so much different between the two of us. My husband's process is completely inside of himself. He loves to create things, all on his own. I am the opposite where I love to have the creative process be collaborative. I know I have some ideas, but they get so much more defined and refined when I share them with others. Also, when others share their input I think it gets so much better.

My husband is so great at understanding this difference. He will always be my collaborator when I want one with my projects. Keep in mind that most of my projects include sewing. He is so awesome. Although he does tend to want gingham and plaid, for everything.

Just In Case

In case I ever fool myself into thinking I'm a tidy sewer:

Now I have to go clean that mess!

Last Night's Dinner

Last night we had pepper steak with a blackberry glaze. I broiled the steaks because we don't have a grill. This was my first attempt at broiling meat all by myself and I am so proud of myself because they turned out sooooo good. Plus, it was super easy. So now I know a good easy recipe that's impressive to serve people when they come over.

Yuck!

It really stinks when you and your baby both catch your husband's "allergies" at the same time. Luckily she's sleeping. I should be doing the same.

Jinxed

Well, I was sure I jinxed myself because the night after that last post she woke up five times! I don't want to jinx myself again so I wont tell you whether or not she slept the beautiful sleep of bliss last night. I wont tell you if I got a whole night's uninterrupted sleep and woke up well rested and happy this morning. I really don't want to jinx myself again.

Speaking of things that change when you have a baby I realized a few days ago something that I never thought would change. I actually run now! I was taking a two mile walk everyday, but the baby would always start to cry about 4 blocks from the end of the walk. So I adapted. Now I walk two blocks and run one for the whole two miles. It's great because she doesn't get mad about being there too long. Today I realized that walking two running one was getting pretty easy for me. I guess I'll have to switch things up a bit. I can't believe how much having a baby changes things!

In A Row

Now I don't want to jinx this, but I'm just so excited about it I have to say something. For the past two nights I have been able to go to bed at 10 and sleep uninterrupted until 6! Isn't that super exciting?! Charlotte has gone down to bed around 7:30 in the evening. She does wake up on and off before we go to bed at 10, but after that she stays asleep! For two nights in a row! Anyway, now that I've said something about it I'm sure she wont want to sleep at all tonight, but I'm excited at the progress she's making.

On another note, my husband is so funny! If any of you know him in real life you wont believe me about how silly he is, but he just is so silly! The other night he spent the whole evening talking and singing in a french accent. And by the way his french accent isn't really very good. He's just so funny! I just love being around him! I sort of love that he's only really silly inside his own home with his little family. It's like a secret awesomeness that Charlotte and I are let in on.

My New Favorite Photo

At least for today.

Isn't she awesome!

On another note, thanks for all the encouraging comments. I feel much better now. The freak out has passed.

Charlotte Sweb

I love my baby's name. It was my husband's idea to name her Charlotte, but when he suggested it I loved it so there you have it. I pretty much figured we were having a girl since we could agree on a girl name and would have had the fight of the century over the boys. Now I'm a little worried though. Every child that hears her name responds, "Like Charlotte's Web?" Now I know they're just excited to make the association and it doesn't bother me one bit. I'm just worried that eventually it might bother my baby. So what I'd like to hear from anyone that would like to tell me is something along the lines of, "It's OK, her name is awesome and she'll love it!" If you have any disparaging comments please keep them to yourself. Thank you for your support.

Pooped

My husband is so cute! He came home early from studying today because he said he just couldn't study any more. When I feel that way before a test I usually enjoy it and just give in and stop studying for good. I found that studying past my terminal capacity never really helped much anyway. Not so for my hubby! This is what he looks like right now:

And I'm sure he'll get up and review more before bed tonight!

Rainy Day Reds

Well today is day number two this week that I've spent the day completely in my apartment. The first time was becuase USPS took until 3PM to deliver something they told me I had to be present to get. Then they just threw the box onto our front porch without even knocking on our door. Maybe they knocked on the door to the people below us. Today it's been raining on and off all day. YUCK. Although with all the heat we've had I guess the rain is a good thing and I shouldn't complain.

On the plus side my baby learned two new "tricks" yesterday. She found out that she could pull herself up. Kind of awesome, kind of really scary. I don't know if I'm ready for a mobile little one especially since we haven't figured out what we're doing with the front steps to our place. The other trick is that when I'm holding her hands she figured out that not only can she raise and lower her feet individually, but she can move them forward to step. She would look at them as they went forward like it was so surprising that her feet were doing it. The success rate of this one is still very low, but it was something fun to show Dan when he got home yesterday.

Speaking of my husband his first test is tomorrow. He is working himself to the limit studying for it too. His drive to excell amazes me. I'm confident he'll do well on it, but you should all think good thoughts for him tomorrow.

Talents

All I can say is that it's a good thing my husband isn't vain at all. When we got married he suggested I buy clippers so I could cut his hair. I bought a set of clippers. I proceeded to be the sole person that cuts my husband's hair. I have absolutely no training, but I got a video tape with the set. (You can easily see where this is going I'm sure.) After watching the tape (which was produced in the 80's and had little to no value in teaching me to cut my husband's hair, that is unless he wants a flat top) I started in on his head. The first year of our marriage was a bad hair year for my husband. On the plus side we did find out that about a week and a half to two weeks later his hair looks just as good as if it were cut by a professional.

Now I would like to say that I think I'm pretty ok at cutting my husband's hair. I have developed my own system that I use every time. My idea is that with repetition I might just perfect the system. Here's how it goes:

1. Use the clippers on the bottom 2/3 of his head.
2. Get his whole head wet.
3. Realize that I still haven't shaved his neck and around his ears so towel dry is head.
4. Use the clippers on his neck.
5. Get his head wet again.
6. Get out the scissors.
7. Accidentally scrape the comb across the top of both ears while combing it out.
8. Cut a T to divide the top of his head into 4 quadrants. This I will use as a guide later so that it's all even.
9. Lose where the T was and make another one.
10. At this point I get sort of confused about the two different T's because of course one is shorter than the other. Since I can't make hair longer I use the shorter of the two T's.
11. Fill in the rest of the four quadrants so that the hair is longer on the top of his head than on the sides.
12. Proclaim the job finished.
13. Spend the rest of the night looking funny at him because I cut one side longer than the other.
14. Decide to do something about it the next night and cut the other side even with the first.
15. Spend the next two weeks finding spots that I didn't cut as short as others.
16. Call them "texture" when husband asks me about it.

All I can say is it's really good that my husband isn't vain. He honestly thinks I'm good at cutting hair! I think I'm better at cutting hair than I was and one day I might be good enough to get it right on the first try. By then though, he'll probably just go to the barber again. Sometimes I just have to laugh at myself!

Red Delicious

In case you didn't grow up in the apple state permit me to let you in on a little secret: Red Delicious apples are the worst kind of apple you could buy or snack on ever. If anyone tries to tell you that they love red delicious apples, they just haven't had any other kind before. Let me introduce you to the braeburn:





Or perhaps the gala:


Or really my favorite the pink lady:

I'm only showing you these three because they are my personal favorites, there are many, many different kinds of apples out there.







This little fact makes me think that there's got to be the same type of thing out there with all kinds of fruit that I don't know about. What about bananas I only know of two types, the regular yellow type and the plantain. Are there others? Would anyone recommend a different type than the classic yellow banana? What about oranges? Are navel oranges really the best type of orange? What I would really like to know about is grapes. After learning a tiny bit about viticulture I know there are about a bazillion types of grapes and the ones I usually buy in the grocery store don't really cut the mustard as far as fruit snacking is concerned. Any ideas on what the best type of grape is? How can I get my hands on them?