Olsen Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

Christmas

Christmas was a little more fun this year with a kid. I have to admit holidays just aren't the same when you aren't a kid. Life gets too busy. I got very excited buying all of Mitchel's presents but then realized he would care less. Oh well. It was still fun. We spent Christmas Eve at the Olsens and spent the night. Luckily Santa knew where to find us. He was good to us too. I got a sapphire ring and Eric got a mitre saw. We had Christmas dinner with my parents and brother's family. It was a nice Christmas. It was a little weird not spending any of it at our house. Oh well..that means it was just as clean at the end of the holiday as it was at the beginning.

Seriously???

For those of you who have kept up with my blog since its inception, you know I am notorious for messing up frozen pizza. Well I did it again. Although this time I claim it is not my fault.
Do you see there are TWO pieces of cardboard?!?! Seriously!!! I made a special effort to take the pizza off the card board only to find out, after cooking it, that there was another smaller piece of cardboard underneath. I was very irritated. This constituted a trip to Jack in the Box. Stupid!

Happy Half Birthday to Mitchel!

Yesterday was Mitchel's half birthday! Yay! Wow I can't believe it has been 6 months. He is growing up way too fast. We started the fun filled day with a trip to the doctor to have his check up and get his shots. He weighs 17.6 lbs and I never pay attention to how long he is. He is 50% in both weight and height (so take that checker lady at the grocery store that called him "healthy"!) The dr was showing me on the chart that he is 50% and then flipped the page for the head measurement and said "oh wow let me check his measurement to make sure she did that right"..."yup 90%". So he's got a big head big woop! He checked out fine and a few shots later and we were on our way home. Now he gets solid foods 3 times a day and no more night feedings. The dr said to just let him cry...oh wow it'll be a stressful weekend.

The next thing on the list for our fun filled day was a nap. Mitchel doesn't react all that bad to shots except he gets sleepy. He took a 4 hr nap! So I took one too. It was wonderful! He woke up just in time for dinner and luckily he has a pretty nice daddy. I emailed Eric to ask him to pick up a cake for his half birthday. I was kinda testing Eric since we have both been on diets for the past few weeks. I didn't think the cake would make the cut but he was happy to pick one up. What a lucky kid! It was such a festive cake too! I fed him a little frosting and ice cream which he spit up in about 10 mins. Oh well.

We ended the night by lying under the Christmas tree. I think he had a good birthday for having to get those pesky shots!

Thanksgiving....take one

I am finally getting to my thanksgiving post. This year for Thanksgiving we spent the day at Eric's parents house. It was just the usual Thanksgiving except I didn't really have to do anything. His mom is pretty much amazing. We showed up about an hour before the meal was supposed to start and she had everything cooked and the kitchen was clean. I don't know how she does it! All I did was bring my favorite jello salad. I know favorite and jello should not be in the same sentence but this is jello with cream cheese, whipped cream, and nuts so I love it. One of the good things about not spending the holiday with my family was I was able to break tradition which is close to blasphemy in my family. I asked my mom for the jello salad recipe and she said something like (paraphrasing here) "You can't have that salad on thanksgiving....that's a Christmas salad....we only have that on Christmas!" Well lucky for me she wouldn't be at dinner to forbid me and I made it anyway...now I have my own tradition. Dinner was good and everything was there. I didn't get to enjoy it as much with Mitchel because I had to break in the middle to feed him.

We spent the rest of the day perusing the newspaper sale ads and construction our gingerbread house. I think that will be our new tradition...to make a gingerbread house on Thanksgiving. I bought a kit from Costco and it was pretty much the best thing ever. Eric was disappointed to find that it was pre-cooked. OF COURSE IT IS! That is the point of a kit. Next year he wants to make his own mansion...we'll see. We did run out of the kit frosting and weren't able to finish it so when we get it done I will post some pictures. It was a very nice relaxing day.

Oops

About an hour after my last post I was sitting at the computer and turned to look out the window and was totally shocked to see snow! It was crazy! I got this giddy school girl type feeling like I was 8 years old again! I took Mitchel outside for a minute so he could see some snow.

Do you see what I see?

Obviously you don't because I couldn't get the forecast picture to save right.

That's right wood chuck chuckers! It's cold outside in Houston! So cold they forecasted snow for today and tonight. Luckily I'm from the Northwest and know better than to trust the weather people when it comes to forecasting snow where it never snows.

TonightDec 10
Rain / Snow Showers Early
39°31°
30%

39°F

Life Lesson #1

Do not put your hand in the dryer to pull out a just finished drying load of baby clothes. A million buttons and snaps have just been heated to a searing hot temperature and will give you a bazillion little stings. And if you don't heed my warning and put your hand in...definitely don't try it again and again thinking you won't hit one of those red hot snaps this time or this time or this time.

Juicy Tidbits

Ok so maybe they aren't that juicy but how would I get you to read my blog if I didn't pull you in with the title. Otherwise my title would be tithing settlement...

Yesterday we had tithing settlement and two interesting things happened.
#1 the bishop asked if we were new in the ward this year. Actually we have been here for 2 years and I think that is long enough for someone to know we are not new but the bishop has a lot going on...so I will give him a break. But if we get an invitation to the new in the ward open house for the 3rd time in a row I may be offended. Yes we got new member invitations 2 years in a row but it gave me a good laugh.
#2 I'll try to make this short. The bishop gave us the lesson he gives little kids. The gist of it was we should have faith in Heavenly Father to do the things he asks us to do, like pay tithing, even if we don't understand why at first. His object lesson is what got me. He had a plant in a pot and explained he was a geologist and had to taste rocks sometimes to identify him. They he asked if we would trust him. He then scooped out some dirt on a spoon and asked us to eat it. Now most of you know where this is going but I was clueless. Then he put the dirt in his mouth and ate it. It must have been hard for him not to laugh at my face because I had this "eww gooo!" look on it. I suddenly got a taste of dirt in my mouth. Now I trusted that bishop so much that I believed him when he said he had a real plant and that it was planted in dirt....until he told us it was oreos. Eric said he knew it the whole time but I think he probably was feeling the "eww goo!" feeling inside.

Another interesting thing I will let you in on is that on the way to church yesterday Eric and I decided to make this "Positive Week". I think Eric said it as a joke but I'm going to run with it and hold him to it. To start off the week we had to go a slightly longer way to church so we didn't have to drive by the great and spacious baptist church who bribes the government to stop traffic so that they can cross the street. Seriously...why put up the stop light. Oh well. So we didn't have to curse the cops and the baptists this week even though I'm pretty sure this post will counteract that attempt.

Hopefully soon I can post about our double take Thanksgiving adventures. If grandpa can send me some pictures.

Score One for Me!

I decided I should post something on my blog before I watch one of my new useless shows, Privileged. Ya I'm not even sure why I watch it...maybe because I LOVED Reba and it has the same actress....eh not really I liked Van! Anywhoo I will update ya'll on my most recent accomplishment. I fought the insurance company and lab and I WON! That's right! Eight months later I am $117 richer and feel even better for sticking it to the man! Let me take you back to March 2008. My wonderful husband got a fancy new job and we were both very excited...little did we know the troubles that were lurking underneath with the hassles of changing health insurance during a pregnancy. So he switches jobs and we have new health insurance but no cards for proof...ya I don't know how insurance companies expect us to be ok with "being covered" but no proof. Pretty useless. During this 2 week span of "being covered" but no proof I had one of those wonderful labs for a diabetes test. So what can I do? Pay for it myself and submit it to the insurance for reimbursement. So that is what I do. $117 out of pocket bleh! Fast forward to May 2008. I mail in my claim. Two weeks later it does not show up so I call them. "I don't know what you are talking about." "We never received any claims from you in the mail". Ok so I will mail it again. My motto is to give health care providers 3 trys before I go crazy on them. So many many phone calls later it shows up incorrectly on my account and they don't know what I am talking about. I have the baby and forget all about this mess. Then we come to September and I go on my online account with the insurance company and what do you know?!?! They paid the lab! Idiots! Did they not see my receipt?!?!? Bah!!! So now I am fighting with the lab. Ok so I call the lab and the only number I have for them is the billing questions number. Well I don't have a bill with an invoice number. I have a receipt. Every time I talk to them they ask for my invoice number and I explain that I don't have one and they get all confused. They can't even find that I had service on the day stated on the receipt. "Could you please fax me your receipt and explanation of benefits". Ya sure whatever. So I fax it asking for them to call me with information. Two weeks go by and I am back on their tail. Again I get a lady asking for my invoice number. I explain I don't have one. Finally I give her every number imaginable, including the telephone number of my childhood best friend. Then she says "Could you please fax me your receipt and explanation of benefits". Ok whatever...this is your second chance. I call the lady, I got her name this time, the next day. Apparently she was busy with someone else and this new lady asked to help me. She informed me that all faxes are researched in a few days and to call back in a week. So I ask "is there anyone specific to talk to because this is the second time I've sent in information". "What is your name" she says. "Oh well it says here in the system that we are cutting you a check for $117". Well thank you...thank you for letting me know. Stupid! So for now I have won....but check back in a few weeks to see if I even get the money.

Wonderful Day

Ok folks I got my hair cut....and colored. Actually I got it done just before Halloween. Funny thing I finally got an appointment with a referral someone gave me but they the referrer took back their referral and I just made a last minute appointment at a salon near my house. 2 and a half hours and $92 later I came out with this.
I think she did an ok job. I've been happier before but it's a good hair cut. Can you tell I colored it? Eric wonders why I spent $50 to color my hair the same color it is. I like it anyway! Ya I took pictures of myself. It only took about 50 frames before I found something I liked. Pay no attention to the messy closet or the lazy eye.

In other news Mitchel is doing just great. He is really chunking up. Not sure how I feel about that. I don't want a fat baby. I don't people at church to see him and go "oh there's the fat baby" like Eric and I have said about other babies. Now I am regretting all the names that we called other babies. He should be called "handsome baby".

Now my friend and I have mentioned that people don't tell the real story about their babies in their blogs. They just say how wonderful everything is. Well Mitchel has his days and sometimes it is no walk in the park but I am beginning to think he is not all that bad. He was wonderful in church. Usually he fusses when he gets tired but today he just fell asleep on my shoulder. I love it when he sleeps on my shoulder because he never lets me cuddle him anymore. I love that kid! Even though he passes gas fairly loudly in Relief Society every week and kinda embarrasses me. Oh well.

Winter has finally come to Houston. It has been getting down in the 60s during the day and I had to put my sweat shirt on because it was 70 in the house. I remember the good ol' days when we would wear shorts when it warmed up to 70. One of my favorite things about winter is lighting a fire at night. We did that tonight and turned on some Willie Nelson and rocked out. Mitchel enjoyed it as well. It was a wonderful day. I love days like this!

Halloween

Me being the lazy person I am decided I could care less about dressing up my 4 month old for Halloween. The idea sounded cute but then when I though I'd dress him for 5 minutes so we could take pictures I decided against it. Until...my sister in law let me borrow her Robinhood costume.

Robinhood

OR

Gus Gus

Either way he was cute!

Just Tooting...

My own horn that is... Today I took a wild leap of faith and ventured to the craft store since I couldn't get my hair cut, and got some supplies to make hand outs for my visiting teachees. I think they turned out pretty snazzy. Eric was even impressed.

WHOA! Check this out! http://www.devinandbrittany.com/2008/10/28/twins/

What's a girl to do?

Surely you can tell this is not me but it is the best picture I found in google images to describe how I feel. I need a hair cut....bad! It's been almost 5 months...just after Mitchel was born. Let me tell you the sad tale of a girl that could not get a hair appointment. I have left messages with 3...yes 3!...hair stylists that have been recommended by friends and family. And how many of those 3 hair stylists have returned my call? ZERO! I have even left a few messages for each and I get nothing. Ok I will admit one was while I was in Utah and I'm not that burned by it since I don't live there but the other two are here! Utah was my first attempt but when I got back I called a lady someone had recommended and I left a message. One day no return. I called and left another message...no return. I blocked my cell phone number and called a few times...no answers. Well forget her. So I decided hey maybe I'll just try the lady that cut my hair last. She did an ok job but I was still hunting around for someone. I called the salon and what do you know? "She doesn't work here anymore." @%#*@....I mean yea yea nay nay. Ok so I will try the other recommendation. I called yesterday and left a message. No return. I called this morning and left a message. No return...yet. Seriously what am I to do? There ain't no way I'm going to Fantastic Sam's no matter how fantastic he is! Can't a girl just get a good hair cut and color? Oh ya...I decided I needed to color my hair. You know because it is winter and you are supposed to go darker in winter or whatever. Wish me luck that third time third call is the charm.

Confessions

1) Some of you might wonder where my blog address came from. Well let me tell you a story of two newly weds. When I married Eric he had recently bought a sea kayak. He was way excited about it (or as excited as he gets) and we figured we could buy me one also, so we could kayak together. Eric had an orange frenzy so we bought me the same one. We took them camping a few times with my parents and my parents decided they wanted a pair. One day Eric was at Academy Sports and realized they were selling a longer "fishing" kayak for the same price as the frenzy. So me being the shrewd business woman I am struck a deal with the parents and hocus pocus Eric got a new kayak, my parents got my new kayak, and I got Eric's old kayak. Not sure I got the best end of the deal but ya know marriage is about sacrifice. So you can see our two kayaks hanging in our garage. There was a time when Eric went fishing in the gulf just about every saturday morning. I wanted to go fishing too but that was just it he went every saturday MORNING, as in leave at 5 AM. So when it all comes down to it I have used my kayak less than five times but I look forward to the day I can use it again. We already have a life jacket for Mitchel.

P.S. Yes those are snow shoes in the back. We live in Houston and have snow shoes. Eric made them in boy scouts.

2) I really really really want laser hair removal. I have checked into it but apparently you can't have it done while you are pregnant or breast feeding and it takes about 6 months to complete all the treatments. So it looks like I will have to wait a few years. (Because I want to have more babies...not because I will breast feed Mitchel that long!)

3) I am obsessively clean. Not that my house is spot less but I cannot sit still knowing that the floors have not been mopped in the past week, or that the bathroom counter may have some hair on it, or, heaven forbid, my blinds have a more than usual dust build up. As you have seen I have a new friend in Hilda, but I also love my magic erase sponge things. They are wonderful. I do not like dirty walls and most of our walls are white so about once a week I inspect them and get any spots off. I am dreading the day Mitchel learns to crawl and puts his grubby hands all over my precious walls. Another thing about my cleaning habit. I don't know why I do it. I will go over and over and over and over a piece of paper or something on the floor with the vacuum hoping it will pick it up instead of just bending down and picking it up.

4) When Mitchel was born I was sooooo happy that he was good looking and not googly looking like other newborns. I kept saying that in the hospital "He's cute right?" "He's a really cute newborn right?" I was deathly afraid that we would have an ugly baby but when he was born I thought he was cuter than any baby I had ever seen. But most moms think that even if their babies are ugly, right? But that's the thing, mine wasn't....until...recently I looked at his baby pictures and thought to myself...hmm I don't think he was as cute as I thought he was back then. Luckily even if he wasn't cute then, he is now, or at least he is until I look back and question myself.

5) I could possibly be one of those parents that wants to live through their children. I really want one of my kids to play the cello and one of my daughters to be a BYU Cougarette. I have always wanted to be a dancer but I just don't feel the talent in me. I have taken beginner Jazz dance, beginner country western, and begginer ballroom dancing. Once in college I was trying out beginner ballet by trying to learn the last dance on Center Stage. I tried to go up on my toes when all of the sudden something did not feel right in my foot. I thought I had just pulled a muscle so I just didn't think much of it. Months later, before I was to leave on my mission I figured I better get it checked out because it was still hurting. Turned out I fractured a little disk in my foot and had to get orthodics. No more ballet for me. When I was in the MTC they decided to use me as a guinea pig for some medical student and called me in to some office and had a real doctor and the student there. Ya the student was way good looking. I was embarrassed. They asked me stupid questions and said "hmmm ok". One of the questions was how did you injure it. I said "dancing" to which the hot medical student replied "oh are you a dancer" to which I replied "nope just trying to learn some dance moves off a movie". Ya it was awkward.

6) Last, but not least, the confession I am most proud of, is that I have only recently started making my bed on a daily basis. Now this is not a slam on my mom because I'm sure she taught me better, but I just never really saw the point. I'm just going to mess it up later any way. I admit there were times when I questioned that theory when I had a room roommate that ALWAYS made her bed. Sometimes I would catch that bug but very rarely. Well recently I read an article in the Ensign, about preparing for marriage. I know, I'm already married, but little did I know the preparation doesn't stop once you get married. Here is the quote from the article:

Preparing Yourself for Marriage
By Elder Eric B. Shumway President of the Nuku‘alofa Tonga Temple; served as an Area Seventy in the North America West Area from 2004 to 2007

As you prepare for marriage, develop a sense, even a passion, for order in your life. Regardless of what else is going well or how patient your future spouse might be, a careless attitude toward order will weigh heavily on your relationship. For example, making your bed each morning is the beginning for order and peace in your universe. Taking a mere 35 to 45 seconds to do this can help produce a whole day of tranquil benefit.

I love this quote and oh how true it is. It is amazingly what big feelings of accomplishment come from little acts!

TA-DAH!!!

Introducing my new toy, a swifter wet jet, in all her glory! I think I'll name her Hilda. I have been wanting one of these for many moons and finally I got a coupon and just couldn't resist. My mom was nice enough to baby sit today for a few hours so I could go run some errands and I returned with Hilda. She is more beautiful than I ever imagined. Now I can feed my cleaning obsession even more...yay! (Ya the picture didn't turn out like I hoped but you get the idea)

Adventures In Nauvoo

Many of you may be wondering what happened to me last week...or many of you have not even noticed. But I will go ahead and say it. We were out of town. Yup we took a trip to Nauvoo. I was so excited to go. I had been asking Eric to ask his family if they all wanted to go together but he didn't. Finally his sister said they were going for fall break and we joined along with his parents and his brother. It was awesome! It was a 9 hour drive to Tulsa where we met up with his sister and then 10 to Nauvoo. Mitchel did so great. He mostly slept with a couple of melt downs. But all in all I was pretty pleased with his actions. Only problem was we started him on rice cereal a few days before and that kinda opened the flood gates for some stuff I'll just say.

Ah I have so much to write about and no patience to do it. We were only in Nauvoo for 2 days and if we would have planned a little better we could have seen all we wanted to but we kinda lost time the first day. The first day we were able to go to a few buildings. Probably one of favorites was the Browning Gunsmith Shop. It was really interesting to see how they made the guns. Here is a picture of the boys on the tour.

Actually first thing we did was taking the wagon tour through the town. It was nice but pretty cold at 10 AM. Here are a few pics.

After the wagon ride we walked around for a few hours and saw the gunsmith and bakery and a few demonstrations at the family living center. That night we took Grandma to the temple to take some family pictures. They didn't turn out great but some were cute. It is such a beautiful temple.

That night we were able to go to the Temple. It was so nice and relaxing. I did have an incident where I almost went into the men's dressing room...darn that attendant why didn't he tell me. I was a little embarrassed but got over it...I guess.


On day two we were much more organized. We started the day with the Community of Christ (formerly RLDS) tour of all the Smith family owned buildings. It was all pretty cool and crazy to think we were standing where Joseph Smith once stood. We also went to the brick shop where Mitchel became the proud owner of a Nauvoo brick as seen at top. We went on the oxen ride for about 3 mins. They just went in a circle. I love the two old Elders running it though. They were great!

We walked down a part of the trail where the pioneers left Nauvoo and we also saw John Taylor and Brigham Young's house. I love those senior missionaries. They were great. One lady was a little off and told us that Joseph Smith approves every missionary that comes to Nauvoo...ya I don't know about that. That evening we went to Carthage to see the jail. That was sobering.

Our last adventure was seeing a musical put on by the senior missionaries. It was quite entertaining. Luckily Mitchel slept through the whole thing so I could see all of it. It was a really nice trip. Hardly anyone was there and we could all go off in our own directions and meet up for stuff without wasting alot of time. Mitchel did really well. I'll just post some random pictures of Mitchel with his cousins.

Just Pictures

I'm kinda tired today. I don't get less sleep on the weekends but I think I run out of adrenaline since I know Eric will be home to give me some relief. I just poop out on the week ends. Our high lights this week were Eric's company picnic and Mitchel start solid foods. Not sure he ate much of it but we're practicing. First Swing
First Train Ride


My cute preppy.

P.S. My rave today is I love love LOVE being Mitchel's mom. Every night when Eric and I go to bed I tell him how much I just love that little guy. He is the best thing ever. Even if he won't let me rock him to sleep anymore.

My New Groove and Mitchel's Lack Thereof

A few weeks ago my mom was telling me about an idea she had to split up activities she did during the day into 30 minute increments. She would do 30 mins each of gardening, cleaning, playing the piano, and whatever she wanted. I thought that was a great idea and turns out to be just what I needed to keep myself occupied and not wasting the day away. So last week, after we got back from Utah, I started on it immediately. There are about a bazillion things I could do but I thought of 5 activities I wanted to do each day on week days. They are 1) read the scriptures 2) clean 3) organize something around the house 4) practice piano 5) exercise. So far I've been doing really well with only one or 2 days where I missed one activity. It's really nice because I can get in a little bit of every thing and not feel over whelmed with such things as cleaning the house or taking on a really big organizational project. Plus the 30 mins of scripture reading have been wonderful. I usually do that first when Mitchel is taking his morning nap. I always pray first that he will sleep for at least 30 mins and I will get in my full time. I am proud to announce 7/8 times my prays were answered :) So that is my biggest news. If anyone has any organizing ideas because I fear I will run out of stuff please suggest. I have organized our pictures into files and inventoried our food storage. Eric seems to love my new schedule. At night he usually tells me something "we" need to do like call the attorney to get a will. The suggestion is usually followed with "you should do that during your organization time tomorrow". It usually works and I usually do it....but I have yet to call the attorney.

In other news Eric started another 10 week class last week. That's all I have to say about that. He also made me this quilt hanger/shelve to hang the quilt his mom made us on. When we get it all together and hung I'll post a picture.

As for the second half of the title....Mitchel has been all off schedule since our trip. He won't nurse half the time and is getting up around 3 AM. Last night he woke up at 12 AM, 2 AM, 5 AM, and then 7 AM. Not fun. He used to just get up twice. Oh well. Two more months until solid food. Everyone tells me then he will sleep better. I hope.

P.S. I've always wanted to start a rant and rave post theme but have never been able to think of as many raves as rants and I don't want to sound too negative but I gotta tell this rant. Our ICE MAKER. It should have a automatic timer shut off because every time I run it, it never fails to dump ice in the middle of the night making a loud racket and scaring the BA-JEE-BERS out of me! I guess I'll never learn my lesson. Next time I will be sure to come up with a rave!

Last Week

So it is true. Last week we had a last minute trip to Utah. On Monday Eric found out he might get to go to the career fair at BYU and do some recruiting for Baker Hughes. I was totally excited. I have been bugging him to go on a trip. So all monday night I was giddy thinking I might go. And then all tuesday morning I bugged him to see if he had heard anything. Well 11 AM he found out he was going to be on a plane at 4:45 PM that day to SLC. His company was only letting him stay until Friday morning. The career fair was only on Wednesday. I debated whether Mitchel and I should go or not. I wanted to get out but was it worth it to take Mitchel on a plane all by myselft and be with Eric for one day? My Houston fever got the best of me and I booked my ticket for 9:15PM Tuesday. I gracefully (not really) quit my job since I was supposed to work all that week and ran home and packed. I had just finished packing us all shorts when I read the forecast and it said it would be in the 70's. So I repacked and Mitchel had all clothes a size too big. It doesn't get that cold here that soon! And we were off.

Mitchel did really well on the two plane rides. Only problem was he had a massive incident on the way home and there was no changing table in the bathroom. It was a little complicated but we made it through. Going through the airports I had him in the baby bjorn, the diaper bag on my shoulder, and a rolling suit case in one had and the car seat in the other. We were troopers. Mitchel was just busy looking around at everything. I guess he never gets out.

We got to Provo at 1:30AM and crashed in the hotel. To sum up our trip we ate at all my favorite places in Utah: Kneaders, Ottavio's, Taco Time, Gandolfo's, and Pudding on the Rice (a little shout out to my school mate the owner). They were all sooooo yummy! We also went up American Fork canyon with Devin's family to have a cook out. It was fun, cold, and beautiful. The leaves had started to change. Eric and I took a few hours to walk around campus and see all the changes. There were alot. Eric has not been back in quite a while so I think he was a little shocked at all the changes. We even visited the new alumni building and saw our $25 a year donation hard at work. Still not sure what they use that building for. I thought we should have gotten free cookies there since we are alumni...oh well. For old time's sake and for lack of better parking places I walked up the RB stairs with Mitchel in the baby bjorn. When Britt and I got to the top I said "I'm gonna die" and this guy next to me says "it's quite a work out huh". I then told Brittany "you know I used to be able to do this without breaking a sweat"...oh the good old days.

I was also able to visit a few friends while I was there. Unfortunately it happens so quick that we couldn't really plan a whole lot so we spent a lot of time just hanging out. It was a really enjoyable trip for us. I'm glad I went!

One more thing....while we were waiting on the curb at the airport for my dad to pick us up this very friendly guy started talking to me and commenting about my baby. He was asking our names and ages and of course I lied about everything. Then he asked our last name and I said "I'm not going to tell you that" and he said "why not" and I said "I don't tell strangers that!". So I think I have decided to follow Traci's lead and make my blog a private one. There are just too many wierdos out there and I don't think I want them finding this blog. So send me your email address' to cariannsal@gmail.com and I'll see what I can do.

Mitchel enjoying some REAL grass.

Mitchel and Daddy enjoying some REAL grass.

My cutie-pa-tutie!

Family picture in American Fork Canyon.

My little pooter rooter.

First Hair Cut and Airplane Ride

Last minute we took a trip to Utah this week. More details later, but while we were there Mitchel got his first hair cut. I think he looks pretty darn cute.

We Thank Thee, Oh God, For A Prophet

To Guide Us In These Latter Days

It has been about a week since our life kinda went on break. I will start from the beginning...

Thursday September 11, 2008 1700

Eric was in Chicago on business this week. I hate being home alone. Every little sounds spooks me out and I have the hardest time sleeping. That is the side note. He was supposed to be gone from Monday to Friday, but since Ike was looking more and more possible he rescheduled his return flight for Thursday at 5 PM. Originally I was not happy about this since that would be dead in the middle of rush hour but everyone was getting off early because of the hurricane. Neither I or Eric went to work on Friday. Oh ya...did I mention Eric brought home a nice cute little cuddley bug called a cold...well we'll get to that later. Before I went to the airport I decided to top off the gas tank. I had kept both cars full all week but after driving to work a few days I thought it best to top it off. Gas stations were crazy! Already long lines. The gas station I went to only had premium and the one across the street only Ethonel. Again thank goodness for a husband who had prepared with 10 gallons at home!

Friday September 12, 2008 0800

Even though Eric was sick he was up preparing everything. He packed our truck with our gas and some water and clothes and formula and 72-hour kits and pretty much everything but the kitchen sink...you know just in case we had to make a run for it in the middle of the night. I make light of it but seriously I am so thankful that he is on top of it! Meanwhile I washed all the clothes and went grocery shopping for a few last minute needs...i.e....my birthday cake cake mix. Happy birthday to me! Wow the Kroger was a bit of a mad house. Canned food isle was cleared out! Apparently Walmart closed that friday (before the store came) (thanks for seeing us through in our time of need eh?). Luckily people we very friendly. This brought me to the first thing I put on our food supply list of needs: something sweet. We didn't really have any sweets in our food supply and I could not live without those so I stocked up on pudding...ya kinda a random choice but I figured it was healthier that chocolate.

Friday September 12, 2008 1500

The hatches were battened! We had finished securing everything we needed. This was probably the longest afternoon ever. I felt like I was just waiting for something huge to go boom. Eric took a nap while I watched the trees blow outside. It kinda reminded me about the beginning on War of the Worlds. Eerie stillness outside. People we just sitting outside waiting. Also during this time I got to open my birthday present. I got some sweet purple tennis shoes and a purple sweater/polar fleece jacket thing from REI. Eric went all out. I would never buy myself something that expensive. I'm lucky he did it for me.

Friday September 12, 2008 1800

It was getting a little breezier but nothing really big was happening. We gave Mitchel his bath and started his bedtime routine. Soon he was asleep and that left Eric and I watching the news and still waiting. 11 PM came around and we finally went to bed...way later than normal. Bytheway...Mitchel slept in a make shift bed in the hall to keep him from any harm.

Saturday September 13, 2008 0400

The hurricane finally hit...or atleast I finally heard it. Eric said it had been blowing and raining hard for a few hours but the power had just started flickering now and the fire alarm woke up Mitchel. I didn't hear a thing. So I fed Mitchel and put him back to bed and then we lost full power. It was kinda scary hearing the wind and rain. But seriously if you are prepared you shall not fear. We had everything we needed so I felt safe. I fell alseep and slept through most of the store.

Saturday September 13, 2008 0800

By the time Mitchel and I woke up again the hurricane had calmed down a little. It was still raining and blowing hard. Eric went out to save our little tree in the front yard that was leaning at a 45 degree angle.....a few hours later he had to go switch the support side because the wind direction switch...I guess we were on the back end now. And then came the second thing to add to the emergency story list...rain coats for everyone!

Saturday September 13, 2008 1030

And there was power. I was amazed. We don't get power this soon in normal thunderstorms. We both showered right away just in case. On the news they were saying Houston should boil water. We weren't sure if that included us but luckily my in laws brought us a case of bottled water and I had froze some of it. We do have a 55 gallon drum of water but it is warm. Now comes the 3rd thing on the new list: bottled water. Just a little to get us through small emergencies.

All in all our family was blessed and kept safe during the storm. We all had our food store and emergency storage. My parents lost power and water for a few days. Bryan and Tara lost power for a few days. Unfortunately they got it the worse. Their fence blew down, their a/c moved 2 feet, and their roofing is leaking all over. This led me to the final addition to the list: tarps. But we are all safe. We only lost a few shingles on the roof that Eric fixed the next day.

How thankful I am for a Heavenly Father who told His prophet to tell us to prepare for such emergencies. I saw people scrambling the last second and even though I ran out and bought a few things I was so thankful that I didn't feel anxious or worried that we wouldn't have what we needed. It was the greatest feeling of calm ever!

Now as for that cute little bug Eric brought home...I got it. On Sunday and I'm still getting over it. It stinks. Mitchel is getting it a little bit too but I really hope he doesn't get it as bad as me! Eric and I have been off work all week. Eric painted the outside of the house yesterday. Crazy guy! Oh well it takes a load off his shoulders.

Mitchel is still getting cuter and cuter. He is so smiley the past week. We'll post some pictures sometime soon.

Maternity or Eternity Clothes?

Well folks it is about a week shy of 3 months since Mitchel was born and I still have 8 lbs to loose before I am back to my pre-pregnancy weight. I was really hoping I would be back to it by the time I went back to work but no. Working out has been harder than I thought with a boy who didn't start napping or letting me put him down until about 2 weeks ago. So I am working out still but not loosing what I want...anyway back to the point. Just when I think I have packed away my maternity clothes one of them sneaks out and gets me.

About 3 or 4 weeks ago I packed up my maternity clothes with the exception of my jeans and my pink sweater I'm wearing in our blog pic. It doesn't look very maternity. And the jeans....well they are so darn comfortable and I'm too scared to try my old ones on. These were the only remaining clothes. Friday I went shopping with my mom and I was wearing my maternity jeans. I wish I could remember exactly how the conversation started but it ended with her saying...."you need to buy some new jeans today". So I did and I love them! They are Gap jeans...I haven't had Gap jeans in forever! So I washed my maternity jeans to pack them away and that was the last of the maternity clothes....or so I thought....

Well Labor day came up and we all (Bryan's family, Tara's sister's family, Tara's brother's family, and my parents) went to the pool and had a bbq. I was looking forward to going swimming until I realized that I didn't have a swim suit that fit. I was telling my mom my predicament when she said "just wear your maternity one...it doesn't really look like a maternity swim suit". So....I went back to my neatly packed box'o'maternity clothes and pulled it out. And....ya it was depressing...I think I even looked a little pregnant in it. That experience convinced me to get this weight off....now!

Hopefully for now the swim suit will go back in the box never to return for atleast 9 months. While writing this I find it amusing that the same person that was telling me to get out of my maternity clothes suggested I get back in them. In her defense...I do not wear the swim suit everyday like I did the jeans. It was a very good thing she urged me to get out of them.

Time for an update

It's been a while since I posted everything. I guess when we had Mitchel everything was so new and exciting (and stressful) and now that things have calmed down I have had more time for my love of cleaning :).

Today was Mitchel's 2 month check up. He is doing great. He now weighs 11 lbs! He is in the 50-75th percentile for all the measurements which puts my mind at rest for wondering if he is eating enough. He has gotten a little cradle cap (or cradle crap which Eric calls it and I had to keep reminding myself not to say that to the dr) much to his dad's chagrin (probably not the right spelling or use of the word but I just had the urge to throw it in!). It's not so bad but it seemed when I first discovered it that he was loosing enormous chunks of hair but he just has a little bald spot on his natural missionary part. Maybe I'll get some pictures up soon. He also got 4 shots. It was awful the scream he let out. Oh I just wanted to hug him and cuddle him all day. But he seems fine for now so I will say my hugging and cuddling and patience for the really fussiness. Otherwise all is well and healthy.

I have to admit the first 2 months threw me for a curve. I felt so stressed and on edge all the time even though I was getting at least 5 hours of sleep at night if not 7. Now Mitchel will play on his play mat for 30 mins after he eats and I can get some things done. He also goes to sleep around 7:30 and with one feeding at 10 sleeps until 4 or 6. He's a wonderful night sleeper.
Other than that Eric is still surviving his finance class. It ends in a little over 3 weeks and we will both be very happy.




Ok so these came after I wrote this post. We had special bath time tonight. After Mitchel took a long nap he wasn't feeling so well from his shots. It was both cute and sad. He just kinda laid on my stomach whimpering. It was cute because he is never cuddly like that. So we gave him some tylonel and he perked right up. He got a special lavendar bubble bath and crazy hair!

Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em...

....or just enjoy it while you can. Yes it is true. It has been in the mid 80's for the past few days and will continue for the next few days. I am in heaven with a 78 degree house and the a/c barely running. Oh I cannot wait for fall.