The Savages

you just never really know

2011-11-27T20:01:00.000-07:00

I don't really know why I'm back here posting. I just feel more comfortable over here, I always come back to this blog, after every single drama that I have. This isn't to say I'm abandoning my other new blog, but I just wanted to come back and just blog about real life again. Probably no one is still reading this. I don't know. Anyway, today was a very interesting day. I went to Church and found on that a lady that is a new member (probably about five plus months) was in the hospital. A friend of mine and I were very concerned as we had not heard anything and immediately wanted to visit her. We then found out that the reason she was in the hospital is that she had tried to commit suicide. I was floored. We still wanted to visit, but I was so unsure as to what we should say. I still don't know if what we said was the "right" thing to say, but she seemed really glad to see us and told us that she felt very loved. The thing that was so sad to me is that the week before she had been in Church and seemed fine and even spoke about how grateful she was for the gospel in her life. Of course I realized that we really really never know how people are doing on the inside. It reminded me of this quote:

You really just don't know. I need a reminder every now and again. How are you (whoever you are) doing these days? I'm available for hugs at all hours, just so you know.

is anyone still here?

2011-09-29T10:50:00.000-06:00

because if so, you should be here.

hi old blog, i miss you a little. i got more comments and all that back here. please come over and visit at the new place.

Last Call, all aboard!

2011-08-31T14:03:00.000-06:00

I know I've missed a few people (and I tried to email you Marion but your email address didn't work for me?) So if you've emailed me and I haven't responded to your request to see the new blog, would you mind leaving another comment with your email address or emailing me again, because I got a bunch while on vacation and don't remember who I responded to and who I didn't. Muchas Gracias. :)

R.I.P. blog

2011-08-14T18:10:00.000-06:00

After having this blog since 2006 I have decided that I need to completely switch over to a new blog. I've got lots of reasons for doing so. Send me your email if you would like to continue on the journey with us. Otherwise you'll see this blog put to private because I don't want to take it down until I have finished making all of it into a blog book. Any nice lurkers feel free to let me know that you're there and if you'd like to make the switch. I don't mind invisible readers as long as they are here for the right reasons.

I'm done

2011-08-11T09:29:00.000-06:00

I was so irritated with the last post that I deleted it. I don't want to fight anymore. I had no idea that this would turn into such a spectacle. It's frustrating and making me anxious. I commented back to my anonymous commenter because I think what she said is beyond silly, but honestly, it's just not worth it, so I deleted the whole thing. I am still battling with a broken a/c and all other sorts of anxieties and don't need to add this one to the pile. I think I'll revert to my private blog for a while. It seems like that's the only place I can't quite get myself into trouble. ha

Here's the dealio

2011-08-07T16:23:00.000-06:00

I think I'll be posting a couple of posts today in all probability, one of which will be my existential crisis with turning 30. Actually, no crisis, just my thoughts on this landmark achievement. ha :)

But first, some photos that I have been saving up. My birthday was on Friday and we re-used John's thirty candles for my cake. Maddy and Grant were entranced by the bright glow.


Maddy tried to blow out the candles over my shoulder, so I had to move fast. I had serious wishes to make, couldn't let that little usurper get my once a year wishes. Here's a close up of the usurper. She's cute so I keep her around.

Here is what is not all that cute: Me, after a hectic day of having not very great air conditioning with two little kids. But wait, you say, you have new air conditioning. I'll get to that. John took me out for a date night on my birthday night. We walked around an outlet mall and got Rita Italian Ices. Fabulous.

Continuing on this journey of a random blog post, this was a night that I made a really delicious dinner and was pretty impressed with myself. One day out of the blue I remembered this glorious flatbread concotion that I once had in Salt Lake from a restaurant named Trio. (highly recommended bytheway). Anyway, I set out to google the recipe based on the ingredients I remembered and found one that was really close. It was great. I modified it a bit and added tomatoes. Even better.

I can't resist a good close up. Look at that luscious sea salt and goat cheese. I bought naan bread for the recipe and have made myself a simpler version of this for lunch a couple days this week. Also, I have to mention that I really strongly dislike feta cheese and thought all goat cheese was like that, but straight up goat cheese is heavenly. So if you don't like feta, don't brush this off, you just may like it. Especially with the balsamic reduction.

I bought myself some sunny yellow mini roses to cheer myself up about the air conditioner. Yeah yeah, I'll get to it.

She painted (with watercolors thank goodness) and made her dress a masterpiece instead.


We got a new air conditioner. It's more effecient than our old unit by a huge amount. It is larger than our old unit. It also happens to hardly work...just like our old unit too!


Let's say it all together. UUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH. I'm so over this people. They are working to figure out what the issue is. They have been doing so for the past week. They have determined it is an issue with one part of the duct work and haven't been able to schedule us to fix it until tomorrow. That will make a week since we had it installed. My blood pressure has risen so much because of this. That is why I have been blog absent mostly, because I am so tired of this air conditioning drama that I didn't even want to write about it. If they don't fix it tomorrow, I think I may be telling them a few choice words, such as, "larger unit," and "your dime."

John got me a little contraption for my birthday called a light scoop. It bounces your flash off of your ceiling and makes indoor shots much more natural. Here are a couple of really fast examples. Above is using a flash.

This is using the light scoop.

Flash

light scoop.

I need to play around with it more, but so far I like it. It's that black thing above.

He also got me one of these. You know, a toast rack. It was love at first sight. I've already used it of course. It's amazing. I also got breakfast in bed with my favorite eggs benedict and orange juice. I definitely got spoiled on my birthday. Now if only I could get spoiled in the "my house is too cold" department I could probably die a happy woman. :)

this post may not be as cool as my cold medicine tells me it is

2011-07-31T15:17:00.001-06:00

I have a head cold in the middle of summer. Well I guess technically it is nearing the end, but summer here lasts a lot longer than most places, so I still call it the middle. Here is one upside to having a cold right now: our house has some sort of unholy smell to it and it is strong enough that I can barely smell it with my cold, so I know it must be horrible in real life. Not sure what it is, it started in the laundry room and is spreading. I can't describe the smell to you accurately, and every time I ask John to describe it he says, "Um I dunno, it just smells kinda...sour?" He answers it in a question form which leads me to believe that he doesn't have the word to describe the putridicity of the smell. I am hoping it is a mouse and that the smell will go away by the time my nose is working again.

Also other pluses to being sick today instead of later? Hopefully this means I will not be sick on my birthday (this weekend), and hopefully it means that I will be hale and whole by vacation time (end of the month). I read in my Parade newspaper magazine today that half of the pleasure--or something like that--comes from the actual planning and anticipation of the vacation. At this point, I would believe it. I go to a pretend happy place in my head at least once a day. The real vacation won't have anything on the vacation I've been having in my head. And that's okay honestly, it has given me a little escapism during a few hot and muggy days.

Speaking of muggy, we are replacing our air conditioner. Yes, that's right, after hearing me mope and whine about it for over a year, we are finally replacing it. The angels are singing, our bank account will be weeping, but we figure we have to replace it to eventually sell the house, so we might as well enjoy it a bit ourselves. Maybe it will convince us to stay a bit longer. To say that I'm excited is an understatement. I plan on keeping this house a bit warmer than our fridge. It will be heaven. All of my dreams will be coming true......wait for it.....tomorrow!! I can't wait. No really, there is a heat advisory for today and our house is cooking me and my head cold like a honey baked ham.

Meanwhile I have decided that I have been whining way too much lately and I'm sorry about that. I know that we are so very lucky for the "problems" that we have, and I'm sorry if that doesn't come across. Some days a girl just has to vent, you know? Either way there are some exciting things coming our way--a/c, my birthday, vacation, and then for every six weeks after that there is something out of the ordinary--mini-Orlando trip, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas!! Seriously I know that sounds funny for someone to say that Christmas will be here before you know it, but I know that it will be. I've already started (and hopefully finished) the kids christmas shopping and am working on finishing our adult family shopping too. I like a stress-free holiday time, and nothing says stress-free like getting your gifts early and at good prices. (I'm really excited about the gifts I'm giving the adults of my family. They are all similar, but unique to each specific person. I hope people like them!)

Okay, this is just me rambling. Or it's the cold medicine talking. That stuff is like truth serum.

Maybe you've wondered

2011-07-24T22:03:00.000-06:00

Maybe you've wondered why I have not posted more photoshoot type of pictures of my adorable little baby boy. Well the fact of the matter is that I find it tricky to photograph my own kids (they get annoyed that I'm not holding them and they don't like that camera thing in their face). I need a helper, and usually John isn't around when I think to do it. Well I decided to get him some cute shirts and make an effort before this kid learns to crawl. I want to take even more, but I did get a few good ones. I have to warn you, I have an EXTREMELY handsome boy. You've been warned.

We get comments on these eyes all of the time. Just like we did when Maddy was a baby (well we still get them about Maddy too.)

Every baby boy needs a cowboy shirt.

Y'all already know about my baby feet obsession, right?

It's a serious love. Look at those wittle bitty feeties!!!

And I love how he grabs them. He doesn't sit up completely unassisted all of the time, so this was an angle that was fraught with danger.

Do you see why I simply stay home and kiss his cheeks all day???

This makes me laugh just looking at it. My sunshine boy.

jane austen delusions of breakfast

2011-07-24T17:24:00.001-06:00

While I am waiting for my pictures to upload, I'm adding to my weird birthday list.

Other stuff I would never buy myself but love because of the delusional dream world I live in where I pretend like my house can look like one of the houses from a jane austen movie (just with indoor plumbing).

toast rack. But I want a vintage/antique one. This looks too shiny. But the toast looks good

blue and white plates and platters. But not the obnoxious bright blue. I like this fadey blue

i like old school milk bottles. I think I would get a bunch of little ones and have a milk and cookie party annually.

I have always wanted a silver platter with the lid to lift off. I would probably put really funny stuff like Eggo waffles in there, just because that appeals to my sense of humor--which is extremely cheesy obviously.

I like pretty (and kinda useless) stuff. But the good part is that I know myself and that I actually would use this stuff. My life is all about pretend fancy. I coined that phrase, and intend to live my life out to the mantra.

So, what have I missed? What else do I need to make my british breakfasts (besides the food which I hear is not that appetizing funnily enough) come true? Or my jane austen love affair come to life? Better yet, what sort of strange stuff do you want but you are too cheap/poor to buy yourself? If I were saying something I'm too poor to buy myself, I would say a movie projector. I always want to have outdoor movie parties too.

I'm cuckoo for this

2011-07-18T14:53:00.000-06:00

Call me crazy, but my birthday is coming up and I've been thinking of random stuff that I love that I would never buy myself. This is one of them:

I want a cuckoo clock that has little dancers and a bird that pops out with music. I thought I would find a cheap one since really, who else wants a cuckoo clock besides me? Turns out, everyone. They are pricey! The best priced cuckoo I found with the things I liked was on ebay here. But even still....

Have you ever wanted something crazy/strange for your birthday? I'll be updating my list in the weeks to come, it's kind of a fun game.

some more back and forth

2011-07-16T14:37:00.000-06:00

and some cute pictures because blogs get boring without pictures. This is Maddy and Grant hanging out. Maddy with her face in the Ipad, and Grant stuffing his with a giraffe.

So in usual Jenn style, I am wondering if I will be able to sustain this blog and figure out where the line will be between what I share on here and on the other. I'll figure it out. I just jump into stuff before I look. But lately I've been feeling kind of forgiving of my faults like this one. It doesn't usually hurt anyone, it just ends up making me look flakey and a little crazy, but that's probably because I am flaky and a little crazy, ha.

My latest thoughts have been those of a person living in some good wholesome denial. I got our garage sale all set up and done today. We didn't make a ton of money or anything, but we got rid of some more stuff and donated the rest to Goodwill and a neighborhood lady who works for a ministry helping poverty stricken families, so I feel good about that. I also feel great about a fairly cleaned out garage.

Maybe it's just me (but I kinda doubt it) but I am positive that I think more clearly when I have less stuff. I also think more clearly when the stuff I do have is organized and clean. It makes me SO crabby to have a messy house. I feel like I am not getting anything done. Unfortunately for me, my house seems to be messy most days as I have a toddler who seems to think better when the house is messy. We are each other's kryptonite.

As for the denial, well I just did the garage sale, and I just tried to pretend that it didn't mean that we are putting our house on the market again for the five millionth time of our marriage. I don't want to keep my house clean for stop-bys. I don't want to mess up my kids schedules for someone that probably won't buy our house anyway. I don't want to stress over the fact that we are losing a large amount of money.

And I don't want to think of where we might go next. This whole time we have told each other that we want to end up in North Carolina. I don't know exactly why that has become our Mecca, but it has. Well, I do know a few of the reasons, but suddenly they don't seem all encompassing like they did. Mainly there are a lot of computer jobs up there and it is closer to my family and not as southern (so hopefully not quite as hot).

So I just spent a huge amount of time looking up the plus sides of North Carolina and I think I have calmed back down again and will not freak out so much about possibly moving. After all, I can't go twelve steps ahead before we've even put our house on the market. Why do I always tend to do that? Please tell me it's a girl/mom thing. Ok, better go, have lots to get done.

Let's Wander

2011-07-14T18:20:00.000-06:00

around my house. I love doing these kinds of posts. Call me weird. Here's something I got John for his 30th birthday. Want to see the birthday boy???

He got his requested ice cream cake. Yum

The big 3-0.

I bought his mickey ears from the party store as his party hat, because he's a big time disney lover.

He's adorable. Truly.

Happy birthday pumpkin!

My latest obsession. The dome part of this water bottle comes off so you can put ice into it and sip out of the normal lid. Genius!!

Bought a few toys for our beach vacation. I'm getting a little TOO excited. I'm sure you can't tell.

Our vacuum sorta got clogged and so there is still confetti on the floor from John's party. I bought a 2 dollar confetti gun and we had a TON of fun with that thing. Who knew they even made them? Not me. But I do now!

I think I neglected to mention that I got a breakfast table for this area. We got it off of craigslist and it fits much better than the other table. And we actually do use both tables. Maybe we're weird? Dunno.

Good deal alert. I got these feather filled pillows from Target for 4.89. That's a great deal. I have two of these same pillows already so I'll probably re-cover them, because you can't buy pillow forms for that good of a deal.

Sorry about the lame lighting, but this is a giant G I put into Grant's room. I bought it from Joann's (online because there isn't a Joanns in Charleston, weird right??) and I painted it that orangey red color. I love it. It's like two feet tall. It's big.

Maddy's art. it makes me happy

The shower curtain that I cut down the middle and made into curtains for the playroom. Isn't that the perfect fabric for a playroom??

John's recent obsession: pistachios.

Maddy's obsession? Still ponies and now barbies.

Mine are Starbursts, Peanut Butter M&M's, and that lotion made by Dial that smells AMAZING (like a really nice clean soap actually).

Oh and don't forget the lone twisty straw I found while walking around. I bought a pack of them for John's birthday in rememberance of the time we were on our honeymoon and went to a really fancy restaurant in Disney (they do have several dress up types). We ordered really fancy meals and then John spies a little kid at a neighboring table with a twisty straw and asks the waitress for one as well. That's when I knew I had married well. :)

Get Ready for this

2011-07-14T17:51:00.000-06:00

It's the post I've been waiting and waiting to post because I had to try and convince my brother that his trying to hold my camera hostage would come to no good (okay I technically left it behind, along with a load of laundry and a My Little Pony), but thankfully we have our little camera back (and got some homemade jam in the package too, totally worth it! I recommend leaving stuff at Bryan and Melissa's on purpose now!). So because I have some family that lives far away and has been dying to see pictures from this really wonderful event, I have posted a million pictures. I don't apologize, it was a really awesome time and I am SO grateful that I was able to go and spend it with the Fisks. It was really amazing to see Bryan get his Master's degree, and even though I'm just his sister and didn't have anything to do with it, I felt so proud of him and what he has accomplished--all while having three kids and hard church callings. My Mom got teary-eyed at the actual ceremony because I know she was feeling the same way, and felt like her Dad was there and very proud of Bryan. Congrats again Bryan, we love you! (and p.s. I am totally bummed, I gave Bryan the coolest gift, a giant Gummi Bear--as in the size of 88 gummi bears--on a stick and it was red because Cornell's mascot is called The Big Red Bear. It was awesome! But I am bummed because I didn't get a photo. Darn me!) Anyway, on to the photos!

Happy after opening some graduation gifts

I actually don't recall what this was about, but I am SO GLAD I caught this moment on film for posterity's sake.

Grandpa G. hanging out

"I am SO SURPRISED you are taking my picture Mom"

this is just to show how it looked most of the time--aka Melissa was a blur of motion and activity. That lady has some serious reserves of energy. You know she had to in order to have put her husband through school while he had a full time job too. I think of it as a co-masters degree for both of them.

Cute Katie. We can see in this one that Katie must get it from Melissa. LOL j/k

This was the shuttle to get onto campus. We took up a bit of room with the strollers. We missed the shuttles on the way back and had a long hike. We were glad we had those strollers by the end.

I think these two are cute.

These two are cute too

The entourage. Everyone had a stroller. And no stroller was left behind. We get an A+ for that.

Cutie patootie Grant was awesome during the proceedings.


We took a brief break while Bryan got his cap and gown. That meant pictures of course!

Melissa wearing Cornell's school colors and looking very cute

I finally got Robyn to smile at me! Yes!

Bryan feeling a little like Batman with his prodigious sleeves

See, so pretty!

They should have gotten a degree just for figuring out that sash thing. I like Bryan's contemplative stare here.

He's official folks!!

I might have gotten a little emotional at this point. Don't tell.

I got to sit behind him and resist the urge to throw stuff at him.

One of Bryan's buddies. This face actually looks like something my other brother would have pulled, so I had to post it for that very reason.

I LOVE this picture.

And this one even more. Here are the reasons Bryan went through all of that trouble. And I know he thinks they are worth it.

Sometimes it hits me that my little brother is a dad of three little girls. Crazy how times goes by so quickly.

This one is another favorite. Now Bryan and I may have our kurfluffles, but I think he knows that I have always loved him a ton. He was often my partner in crime growing up. This picture makes me happy because I feel like it captures him so well.

and here's a gratuitous photo of me to prove I was there wearing Cornell Red too.

Amber, looking at me doubtfully

Katie and her topsy tail. We celebrated her first birthday while we were there!

Now here come some awesome pictures of Cornell's campus. It is seriously gorgeous. As for this clock tower, ask Bryan to tell you a story about this tower and a pumpkin. Pretty awesome.

It was a hot day and so we got the girls some popsicles.

This is the library, and so I got all excited and took a bunch of pictures. I had no idea from the outside what was waiting me on the inside.

Oh, before we get to the inside, Cornell has a bunch of bikes all over campus and if you sign up for a bike card, you can basically ride their campus bikes wherever. Isn't that cool?

Then Gordon spotted a rogue hive in one of the window sills. Because that's what beekeepers notice about libraries.

Me? Well I notice the BOOKS!!!! I thought I had died and gone to heaven.

Look at the view from the library. I might not have gotten any studying done in there. (the river is in the distance)

Yes, I made Bryan pose for that picture. I told you, partner in crime.

I could not get over this library.

They don't call this an Ivy League school for nothing. It has history, and it is fancy.

These steps reminded me of the library from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Wowsers.

I made him pick up that book for a picture too. awesome

We only had a few minutes in the room before the library was closing. That's me being told by the librarian that we had to leave lol.

Cornell has this cool thing on the roof of one of the buildings where they let people throw rocks on the ground and it makes musical notes (kinda). It is really cool and the girls LOVED it.

Grandma and Melissa were so nice and picked up rocks for the girls to throw and made sure they didn't brain someone else with their rocks. Me? I just took pictures. What can I say? :)

So there you go, you made it. I, for one, enjoyed this trip back down memory lane. Congrats Grad!

rainbows and reunions

2011-07-02T21:06:00.000-06:00

The last post my friend Kendra teased me about saying how busy I am and yet I still have time to blog. Ha! I had a good laugh at that. So true. But she knows me well. But I also know that she knows that my blog is my fun and my detox. I miss it if I go too many days without writing.

So, having said that, we've been really busy lately. :) I feel like I can barely recall what we've been doing because it's been all of a blur, and funnily enough, we've stayed home quite a few of the past days. Maybe I just feel busy because I'm still getting used to having two kids and being "on" all of the time? I don't know.

Grant was sick and we found out that he (and me too) have had salmonella. This can be very serious in babies, so we have been really fortunate that Grant has kept up his appetite and done really well. I was sick for about two weeks, so I really wouldn't recommend salmonella. If I were you, I'd just stick with your normal everyday stomach flu.

I've also been busy washing lots of cloth diapers. They are cute and they have helped his diaper rash a TON. Definitely worth the money and the extra work. Within a day his rash was already getting markedly better and within three days it was completely gone. We don't even use completely cloth diapers. We use Gdiapers, which is a cloth liner and a disposable liner. But even the liners (which can be flushed) are much easier on a baby's skin than normal diapers. So if you're a cloth diaper wimp like me, you might try it. I really like it and am considering going over fully to cloth. We'll see how long I keep it up. I consider myself a notorious "when the going gets tough the girl uses disposable."

Anyway, who cares about all of that stuff. I'll just get to the pictures and the stuff we did today. We had one of my old BYU roommates Allison and her family to visit and we had the best time. We caught up on each others' lives and held each others' babies (we both have girls and boys, and our boys are only four months apart in age). I love to have fondue when people come over--it feels like something out of the ordinary, yet casual and fun--so that's what we made for them. (cheese for dinner, chocolate for dessert, yum). I made Allison take a picture with me and our two boys. She looks as amazing as ever, and I look like I had a lot of chocolate fondue, but either way, I had to have a picture of the two of us together again. Oh my the stories I have about this girl. We had some GOOD times together. Love her.

Also, guess what? I uploaded my five bajillion birthday photos. Wanna see? Oh good. Here they come. I present Maddy and her friend Natalie's rainbow birthday party (just like everyone else recently in blogland apparently ha!) Still super fun. and bytheway, when I save five bajillion, I'm being serious. My Mom really wanted to see the party, and Natalie's Mom wanted copies of my photos. So if you skip some of the following photos, yo comprendo.

The rainbow treats speak for themselves. We also had a fruit platter with fruits all of the rainbow colors, but I didn't get a picture.

We had the stuff to make snowcones, but then I got lazy. The kids were too busy playing outside anyway....

The rainbow wands I made. They were a hit.

Those barrel shaped drinks of my youth.

Even the fish were rainbow. Fancy.

Natalie's Mom Kellie made this awesome tablecloth.

I got a little too into the theme and did Maddy's hair in rainbow. She loved it.

The baby brother could only last a few minutes. He was too sick to stay. So he and Dad went home.

The goody bags. Complete with gold "end of the rainbow" chocolate coins.

I kinda made those crazy birthday girl bows.

You can tell by the way they both avoided eye contact with me that they loved them.

Lunch on the patio

then sidewalk chalk with, what else, rainbow colors of chalk!

I thought about making one of those amazing rainbow cakes, and then I realized that I already made Maddy a cake and I was tired and so we ordered one. :) I love how Rapunzel's hair wraps around the cake and is made of frosting. So cool.

Maddy and one of her cute friends.

So excited to blow out the candles!

Watching Kellie light the candles!

Singing Happy Birthday

This picture cracks me up.

Make a wish! (I always wish for more wishes...)

next time I'll wish that I get a piece of cake that Maddy didn't spit on from blowing so hard

Then on to the pool fun. Squirt guns too!

and a sprinkler. this was an awesome party, I told ya

Her face is AMAZING in this one. Pure Madeline.

Birthday girl Natalie.

She was moving around so much it was hard to catch pictures of her!

It was a great birthday party and we had lots of fun. The end. :)

the post where you learn about our secret lives of crime

2011-06-27T19:51:00.001-06:00

Here's a random post for the day. Random and numbered.

1. I have not been posting because I have been SO busy that I have literally not had a chance even during the alleged down time. The following numbers will probably tell you why this has been the case.

2. Grant has been pretty darn sick for about eight days. He has been to the doctor twice last week, and we had to take him into the dang ER today due to our pediatrician's recommendation that we do so. He is doing fine and back home with us, but it would be great if he got better soon. This means that he won't be having his surgery tomorrow either. Poor little guy. Sick baby=attached to Mommy's hip no matter the hour=little sleep, short fuse.

3. I have been working on finishing my friend's photos. No end in sight. I'm a glutton for punishment.

4. The dog doesn't want to learn how to go to the bathroom outside. I am not his friend today.

5. Maddy had her second birthday party. Fourteen kids showed up (more than expected) and it was kinda crazy. Super fun, but a little chaotic. I have pictures to show, but haven't had time to hook my camera up to my computer to upload them.

6.One of the side effects of Grant's illness if a really raw little bum. In an effort to help his bum heal, I went out and bought a bunch of cloth diapers, because I feel rather helpless about his sickness (there sure isn't much medicines they can give little babies his size). In doing so, I accidentally shoplifted a pack of said cloth diapers because they were hidden by Grant's car seat. I only realized this after I put the kids into their seats. I refused to go back into the store with a sick crying baby, so I am going back another time to pay. Also, John accidentally stole someone else's baby toy from Church. We are not doing so well with the "thou shalt not steal" commandment this week.

yes, when I think of thief, I think of the most dastardly thief of all. The hamburglar. If you're going to be a thief, I recommend following his lead and stealing something actually good, like hamburgers. Not diapers.

7. I taught my Sunday class again on Sunday and had some major insights into the importance of the Sacrament. I love teaching for that very reason. I don't know if my class learns anything, but I sure do.

8. The world's best ice cream is sitting in my bowl. It is Blue Bell's Pecan Pralines and Cream. It is divine.

9. I think I may have convinced my Mom to come on vacation with us to Hilton Head. Now we just have to convince Gordon....

10. We are headed down to Florida in October to visit my awesome aunt and uncle and cousins and be volunteers during a marathon so we can earn free Disneyworld tickets. We will also be indulging in the best chocolate fondue party ever. It's a yearly event, and now we get to go too and we are excited. Good things are coming! We just gotta get this baby better.

Cuatro!!

2011-06-24T08:37:00.001-06:00

That's right, this girl is finally four. After talking about it for months, the big day happened. So I made her a birthday hat because I was feeling artsy. It was actually really fun to make. I should make myself one to wear to church or something.

Cause nothing says Sunday best than a hat with polka dots and glitter. Ooh la-la!

I post this photo to prove that I have little to no artistic ability. My Mom used to make us the most the amazing birthday cakes. I tried something else for Maddy's cake and it failed miserably. Yes, that's right, this version isn't even the failed miserably version. You can just imagine what that version must have looked like if this was the final draft. Haha! But Maddy loved it. That's all that matters to me.

This My Little Pony barn was the inspiration. It's Applejack's barn, don't you know? What, you don't watch My Little Pony until your head is spinning, that's just us? hmm. (barn was a bday gift from Grandma Jane, Grandpa Terry and all of John's brothers. She loved it, thank you!)

This picture deserves to be BIG because it's so happy.

This one too. The loot! and the birthday girl.

Birthday girl's handsome little brother. Isn't he getting so big and dashing? Poor little guy has been super sick these past two days. We've been to the doctor these past two days trying to figure things out. I just feel so sad for him. He'll be happy, and then really really sad. Poor baby.

I always extra large the pictures I really like. I just love seeing those big eyes. I can see a little baby Maddy in that face now.

Can't believe little baby Maddy is now four years old. She is the funniest and funnest girl. She loves My Little Ponies, pirates, princesses, horses, computer games with Daddy, playing at the park, swimming, bubbles, her new dog, the Ipad, ichatting with her Uncle Joey and cousins, pepperoni, pickles, bologna sandwiches, strawberries/raspberries, popcorn. She gives her mom about five million hugs and kisses a day, and tries to blow raspberries on her mom's stomach ever since someone taught her that trick (much to mom's chagrin). She is a very active, very funny, extremely cute, extremely sweet and kind little girl. We LOVE her so so much. As I tell her (because she is my only girl after all), she's my favorite girl.

Blowing out them thar candles.

We did trick candles and I was a nerd and didn't let them burn long enough. So...she blew out the trick candles. We re-lit them and made her try again and she thought it was hilarious that they kept re-lighting. And then she burned her nose trying too hard to blow them out and we felt like bad parents. (she's ok).

Oh, and this is what the cake looked like when I went into the kitchen this morning. Someone swiped all of the frosting off all around the letters. I got a good laugh over that. (1 out of 10 dentists agree that frosting is a nutritious part of a balanced breakfast you know?)

And because I like to show off my finds, these are some of her presents. I got a lot of them from our local version of Kid-to-Kid, aka consignment. I find the best toys there for super cheap, and Maddy doesn't know/care. I found this Melissa and Doug mailbox with wooden letters (that have velcro stamps) for five bucks. I used to love playing post office with my siblings.

I also found this My Little Pony baby pony house for about ten bucks. I found a huge bag of Mega Blocks legos for a couple dollars and some original CareBears for two bucks (still in the original box and everything!) I do great at that store. Anyway, after cake and presents we had planned to take her to a local water park (we waited until the afternoon because we will only last a few hours at that place with a baby in tow and it drops to half price after three), and there were crazy thunderstorms. So we had a Plan B, which was that mecca of all birthdays, Chuck E. Cheese. Maddy currently has a crush on Chuck E. Cheese the mouse. Kinda creepy if you ask me. But we all had a blast. Possibly John more than anyone. :)

I'm sure you're sick of my settee obsession, but I decided to get some pillows. I went to Target to get some outdoor pillows for the stain resistance of the fabric they cover them in and was stoked to find out that the pillows were on super clearance. So I bought four.

Can you blame me, with prices like that?? I'm such a cheapskate. This is apparent to me now.

Lastly, a baby sleeping in his crib. Because that sight never gets old.

Now we just need to get through Maddy's friend party tomorrow (I'm excited about it actually, it's going to be cute) and all of the other stuff that is coming soon. Never a dull moment my friends.

Taco Bell stereotypes give him hives

2011-06-20T20:47:00.003-06:00

See this blur? This was what approximately 99.9% of the photos that I took looked like after trying to photograph the newest addition to our household. His name is Pascal, named after the smart lizard sidekick from Tangled, also named after one of John's first programming languages. Also named after some obscure mathematician because I hate math. We like our animals names to have lots of meaning. Our kids names, well we just picked 'em cause they were cute.

Say hello to Pascal. He's a chihuahua mix. I think he was mixed with a bottle of adorable, because that is all that could mix with a chihuahua and come up with him. He is the sweetest, most even tempered dog I've ever met. To me, he looks like a golden lab puppy with short legs.

We made one slight miscalculation when we got him. We thought we were getting him mostly to entertain and love Maddy. Turns out that I am his favorite person. So apparently I got myself a dog. Good thing I actually really like him, because I honestly didn't think I was a dog person.

Turns out I am not a dog person, I am simply a Pascal person. The only down side to Pascal joining the family is that I am having to potty train him. It's like having a toddler with no pull-ups. No bueno. But he did great today, no accidents! Lots of Beggin' Strips treats accomplished this magnificent feat of doggydom.

CLOSE UP! lol

He and his partner in crime like to hang out under the table. Because that's where the scraps are. These two weren't born yesterday.

Also, Maddy doesn't really believe in getting her hair brushed. It's against her religion. She also doesn't like to wear shorts during the summer either. She does like to pull little doggies on leashes though. (which I have to watch veeery carefully).

If you would like a smile, you can click on the answers above to Maddy's Father's Day Interview. It sounds just like her funny way of talking.

Notice anything different besides the presents? I moved my dining room into the front room. I was just tired of feeling so cramped. (oh and the presents? Maddy's pick was the best, she got John a snow-cone maker. Yes!)

I also converted my bookcase into a holder of dishes and books. I like it.

And all of this switching might have been inspired by a Craigslist find called a settee! Finally my dreams came true, for VERY cheap! The color is not my first pick, but I think someday when I get my sewing machine back, I may attempt a slipcover. If I am feeling ambitious. Of course, if I ever feel that ambitious, I might have better things to do with my time, like clean my house for a change.

But for now, I am happy with the changes. And now I am off to get ready for Maddy's two (really? Yes, two, I know) birthday parties this week and Grant's surgery on his tongue next week. It's going to be a bit crazy around here.

But let's not get distracted here....what thinks you of my settee??? :)

Past Due

2011-06-20T20:28:00.000-06:00

I have been M.I.A for a few days. But that doesn't mean that I won't take the belated chance to remind John of why he is the best thing that ever happened to me and two little children. We have such a wonderful life, and I happen to be very aware that a huge percentage of that is due to John Savage. We love you Sweets, words don't do you justice. And that's saying something, coming from a word-a-holic like me. So instead, pictures of some of our days. We love you. Of course we do.

I had to throw this last picture in because it made me laugh, and who wouldn't want to be Dad to that face??? :)

Hey guess what?

2011-06-16T20:48:00.000-06:00

John is on-call this week, which means I have been a single parent this week. Guess what? No me gusta. Or in english, no me likey. I would like to put down on the record for all of my future posterity to read that I am NOT a fan of single parenthood. It stinks to the highest of all heavens.

And so, on that note, you probably won't hear from me again until this foul week is over and I have my partner in crime back. I miss that guy. I miss the life I have when that guy is around (and puts the kids to bed for me and does the dishes). At least my heart is growing fonder in his absence though right? He is going to get lots of love this Father's Day, no doubt about it.

walkabout

2011-06-13T08:08:00.002-06:00

These are my favorite type of posts, but I forget about them occasionally. I just walk around the house and take pictures of things at our house, and I think it gives a pretty accurate account of what we have been up to. So it's kinda like a walkabout, you know, like from Crocodile Dundee (that bastion of truth and awesomeness).

Finally printed off Maddy's birthday invitations. She is sharing a birthday with her best friend Natalie. Their birthdays are a day apart, and they have the same friends from church, so they are sharing a birthday--a rainbow themed birthday. I did the invites in rainbow colors, because I'm a nerd like that. I took a picture, because I'm an even bigger nerd.

My original fourth grade b.f.f. Molly's sister-in-law (did you get that? lol) designed these for me. Aren't they AWESOME? She has an etsy site selling stuff and she can even come up with custom designs, like she did for me. And she is super affordable. Love her stuff. Check her out here.

I went garage sale-ing for the first time in a long time, and I always ask myself why I forget, because it's like thrift store shopping, but better! I bought this little vintage kitchen for Maddy's dollhouse.

I also bought this Raspberry Shortcake (that's not her real name, it's Raspberry Crumble or Raspberry something, but she's from the Strawberry shortcake show). She was still in her original box (which was filthy) so we didn't feel bad taking her out.

Oh and look what I found hiding on the mantle!! It's like an easter miracle in the middle of June!

Another miracle? Maddy spending more than five minutes doing anything. Moon Sand is THE biggest pain in the world to clean up, but it is totally worth it for the hours (you read that right!) of fun she has (and quiet time that Mom gets).

Did I tell you we are going to the beach for a vacation this year? After going back and forth about a lot of different ideas, we decided to stay local (for the short drive, and cost) and we found an awesome deal on priceline. We are going to Hilton Head and are going to spend several days at a hotel right on the beach. We'll roll out of bed, eat some breakfast, and go to the beach or go to the hotel pool, and then when Grant needs a nap, no stress--one or both of us can head back in just a few short steps and be back in the hotel. Doesn't that sound heavenly?? We're headed there at the end of August. Anyone wanna come too?

We bought a beach cart too. This thing is going to be amazing. I've wanted one for a while. You can load it up with your beach stuff, and your beach chairs can hang off of one of the bars. With kids, this thing is a must have to go to the beach with all of the gear. Can you tell we're a weee bit excited? :)

Do you like my collection of peanut butter? I went couponing this week and got all of these bad boys for 18 cents a piece. I love good deals like that. I envision lots of chocolate peanut butter bars in our future. Yummm.

That's it for our walkabout today. Coming up soon will be posts about my new baby carrier that I'm hoping will change my life (it should arrive today, and hopefully take the strain off of my back). Perhaps I will even talk about the fact that I got a new calling (Gospel Essentials teacher) and got a round of applause my first Sunday teaching (haha, that is a funny story). Good times.

Hook Line Sinker

2011-06-08T20:49:00.000-06:00

So there's this thing about Dads and their babies. It's something that I have noticed as a mom, and maybe you other moms out there have noticed it too. It's the moment/the week/ the whenever it dawns on you that your husband and your baby have bonded.

With Maddy I didn't hardly realize it. Her whole birth was such a blur, but I suspect it happened when I wasn't even present--I suspect it happened during the first few nights that John was home with her and I was still in the hospital. They bonded in utter necessity and he has been smitten ever since. But with Grant, I have been there for the whole process and I have been kind of watching, and I swear I saw it happen before my eyes yesterday.

Now, don't get me wrong, it's not that John didn't love Grant before this, but we Moms have nine whole months to really bond with the baby, with Dads I think it is a little bit of a process. Anyway, all that aside, I saw Grant wrap Daddy around his little finger. I saw Daddy fall hard for those chubby cheeks. It was sweet. Little Grant was laying on our bed, up way too late, and John did something and Grant had a huge belly laugh. Daddy was delighted and told me excitedly that Grant did a full laugh. I smiled and said that he had been doing that for a while and I guess I forgot to mention it (which was really lame of me to have forgotten), but John was so thrilled. It was adorable. I kind of stayed in the bathroom watching quietly as John grinned from ear to ear as he tried to get Grant to laugh again and again. Hook, line, sinker. That Daddy is a goner I tell you.

In other non-related news, Maddy discovered the sprinkler. It was love at first run through, which kinda surprised me as she hates being splashed. Go figure. This is her deciding that she would turn the sprinkler on me towards the end. She's just a little too diabolical for the likes of me. I skedaddled. But not before I took a bunch of other pictures before this occurred. You know me, I always post way WAY too many. Eh, it's a sickness.

And on a completely not related note (and not racist note just so you know), I have noticed several black people I know (and also recently on t.v. too) saying the term "in a minute" but referring to a long space of time. Like, "He quit playing professionally for a minute, but now he's back." I LOVE it. I am pretty sure this is the newest cool thing to say. Which means that I want to start using it, but I am pretty sure that I'm too caucasian to get away with it. White, if you will. I mean, Maddy didn't get those ivory (albino) legs from nowhere. She's had them for a minute....

I love love LOVE this one. It just makes me think she is welcoming summer with her arms open like that. I don't know, I just love it.

This one makes me laugh. She looks like she's about to box the sprinkler. Go Rocky! You're a contenda!

Oh and then to add to this random post, I still don't have my snap and shoot camera. I left it in New York (along with some clothes. I'm good, what can I say?) so I only have a few pictures from John's parents visit. This was from the day we also had his Aunt Fawn and Uncle Jon and their daughter Leotie over (who Maddy called Coyote the entire time. Uh, slightly embarrassing. Luckily she is three and that sort of thing is kosher when you are three). Leotie is the sweetest girl and played with Maddy, and pretty soon Maddy never wanted to be parted from her. Isn't Leotie gorgeous??

Both of them are. :)

They gave Maddy a little treasure box and she still plays with it.

I caught them reading together.

This is not a great picture of Fawn, who is as lovely as her daughter, but it's all I got. I get kinda shy taking pictures of people without asking (but I like candid pictures!). I was just quickly snapping photos. Fawn grabbed Grant from my arms as soon as they got there and kind of won my heart over in a big way by doing that and loving on him the entire time. Love my baby, love me I always say.

John's Dad Terry, with his famous mustache. I personally think he looks like a Civil War general with that mustache. Which is cool because he went with his boys on a Civil War tour while here. :)

Again, a bad picture of John's Uncle Jon.

John's Mom Jane looking lovely mid-conversation.

John's brother Tony, trying not to look bored while the adults talk about stuff.

John's brother Joey. Or Joseph if you're not a renegade like John and me.

And another one of Joey that he can use for his future band cover. If he's ever in a band. You know, if he ever learns an instrument.

Here's Grant's future band picture too. That is his serious face, along with his version of a baby tambourine he is clutching in his hand.

And here is mine. I'll admit it. I was playing with my camera settings and I was the only willing model around. That's when I realized I had eyes like my kids (previous post). It is also when I realized that my hair needs a trim/brush. But for my band cover, it's edgy.

or better yet, the partial face over-exposed artistic shot

no wait, how about the "only my shoulder is in focus because I'm still only wearing my pajamas" shot. Oh to the yeah.

ok, no one is going to think any of this is funny except for me. I am apparently in one of my weird moods. Don't worry, when I'm a little more normal I'll write again. You know, in a minute. (you can't stop me!)

People Ask Me

2011-06-04T20:55:00.000-06:00

all of the time who my kids get their big eyes from, John or me. While I will whole-heartedly agree that John has big eyes, from this point forward, I think I'm about to start getting offended.

I think this photo proves it, they get them from moi. Maybe it's a glasses thing. (**p.s. this is all in good fun bytheway, I wouldn't actually get offended. Not until people start asking me who they got their cuteness from. Then all bets are off.)

Oh boy!

2011-06-03T09:39:00.002-06:00

Remember me? I'm still alive! Barely. :) AND....if you read this HUGE blog post, you may be barely alive by the end of it too. So read at your own peril. I tried to throw some big vocabulary words in there to keep you awake.

I have been thinking about what I would write when I got back to my good old blog, but I decided I would have to wait until I got all of my pictures to blog. Then I realized that I don't know where my camera is (which John is probably just now finding out, um, Hi honey, I'm sure it's at Mom's house!) so now I will just have to blog without photos for now. Hope that works for you. It certainly takes the pressure off of me for a few more days.

Anyway, not to bore you with details, but I had a great time. Maddy, Grant, and little old me were gone for an entire week and just got back on Wednesday night. We missed our flight on Wednesday and I almost had a panic attack about it, because I'm a cool customer like that, but my Mom sorta kept her cool (she did get a little mad at the check in desk lady lol) and she got permission to come to the gate with me and kept Grant occupied until the next plane showed up. The plane ride went pretty good until Grant needed a diaper change (he waited until the plane was taking off to need one). So I took him all the way back bumping into people as I went and got him changed in those bathrooms the size of walnuts. Then I returned and smelled something and thought, "oh no, Grant has done it again!" But instead Maddy looks up at me and says she had an accident in her pants. WHat??? I freaked out. She hasn't had anything like that happen for years! Luckily I had extra clothes/panties in my carry-on, but not so luckily, I had to walk with both kids back down the aisle and get us all into that tiny bathroom. The funny part? She didn't have an accident at all, she just needed to go to the bathroom. I have never been so relieved in my life. I literally had no idea how I was going to clean her up with a baby in my arms in the tiniest livable space known to mankind. I could have kissed her (if there had been space).

Before our trip home with all of its craziness, we had lots of other fun and hijinks. We saw my little brother graduate with a Master's degree in Systems Engineering. We were all extremely proud. I got to see some really awesome buildings including a library that I want to move into. I took lots of cool pictures. Someday you'll see.

We also missed the parking lot bus and had to hike back to our cars with all of the kids in strollers. Every adult had a stroller. So that was kinda funny, but mostly it was kinda a long walk. But we can all laugh about it now, right??

We ate lots of good food, courtesy of my sister-in-law and cooker extraordinaire, Melissa. She made something called Blueberry Buckle that has changed my life for the better. I need that recipe asap. We had a princess dress-up movie party (Tangled), we were all eaten under the table by Bryan's one year old Katie who ate more pizza slices than anyone else (and also turned one and had a birthday party while we were there). We got sunday shirts for the men in our lives for super cheap on Memorial Day, watched Tron on Bryan's graduation BluRay player, and generally just watched the little girl cousins enjoy the heck out of each other and their Grandpa.

Oh, and I got Bryan the coolest graduation present known to man (well except for a BluRay player dang it). Check this out, I am going to post a picture after all. Cornell's mascot? Big Red Bear (that is his real name). So I got him the biggest red bear I could find. On a stick.

Yes, this gummi bear is indeed "90 times larger than a standard gummi bear." I go all out.

While at my Mom's house, I got to eat TWICE (this is for you Bryan) at Smokey's. That means Maryland Crab soup my friends. I put together a play kitchen for my Mom, hung her curtains, took down her blinds, and completely overhauled her laundry room. When I say overhaul, I really mean it. Someday I'll have pictures of that to impress you with too. We painted and nailed and beadboarded and hauled junk to the curb. We even painted her cabinets. I told you, a total makeover. It looks amazing and cute and you'll love it (someday).

And then last night I continued to not see John by having the Relief Society meeting thing where I reported on my one month experiment. I was asked to pick one aspect of the gospel and do it every day for a month. I chose to read a conference talk every day. I missed a couple of days on my vacation, but still managed to do it a few nights right before bed. It was a cool experience, maybe I'll write more about that. Then I had to go grocery shopping because there was no food in the house. I was a good wife and left some food for John before we left, but he made a considerable dent into that cache of food and he said by the last day that he was "getting so desperate that he considered going grocery shopping by himself." Wow, that is desperate. :)

Most of all, I am just SO glad to be back. Back in my own bed. Back to my own routines. Back to my own husband who I think I may actually be able to see for more than five minutes today, woo-hoo! The trip was awesome and fun, and the first flights out to Maryland were amazing (did I mention baby slept the whole time due to my secret weapon?? What was the secret weapon? It was the sling my Mom made me back when Maddy was a baby. Maddy didn't like it much, and I had tried Grant in in before without much success, but I took it as a last resort in my diaper bag. I am a genius! He was so tired that as soon as I got him in (after an alarming initial bout of screaming) he fell right asleep. I was SO happy. He didn't do quite as well on the way back because it ended up being so late after we missed our first flight, but he did sleep a bit. So lucky!) I tell you all of this because I have a friend (Hi Bekah!) who will be traveling soon with her tiny baby.

So overall I consider it all a huge success and now that I have written this overly long post with NO DANG PICTURES (so sorry) I consider that I have also done my duty by my poor news-beleaguered sister who is my number one blog fan and reader. Kelly, I hope I've done you proud, pictures to come.

Now excuse me while I attempt to find other reasons to avoid unpacking my suitcase full of dirty laundry. It shouldn't be too hard.

bon voyage to me

2011-05-24T13:42:00.000-06:00

Here I am, procrastinating even more by posting a quick blog post to say that I am procrastinating. I have so much to do, but most of it depends upon the mountain of laundry that I am finishing up as we speak. Once that is done I will have my pick of the cute clothes (aka the ones that fit and aren't stained by spit-up). I need to go to the store to pick up some stuff, but the baby is sleeping and I don't wake him for silly things like going to the store to pick up necessary supplies for our trip like fruit snacks and formula. I will have to do that tonight once John gets home.

I have been missing in action this past week for lots of reasons, most of which have very interesting and/or exciting photos to go with them. Unfortunately the photos will have to wait until some other day that I have time. This morning John's family left after visiting us for a few days. We got to do an amazing amount of cool things in a relatively short amount of time. We went on a privately chartered sailboat and saw dolphins and stingrays, some of us went on a Civil War walking tour (I stayed home and watched kiddos), we ate delicious seafood with an amazing view, we went mini-golfing, go-karting, had a fondue party, and visited Boone Hall Plantation. We also had a lot of fun catching up and Maddy tricked any willing soul into playing endless hours of hide and go seek. It was a great time and we were sorry to see them go this morning. But...there is no rest for the wicked--and since I am the most wicked one in the house, I am really getting no rest. Tomorrow I am flying to Baltimore with the two kids by myself. The flight goes to Philadelphia first and I have to switch planes, and I am in near panic mode about this, because Grant is a horrible horrible no good sleeper except in his bed. We had a practice run this morning during Maddy's last day of preschool presentation thing, and he was not a happy camper. The anxiety may kill me before I even board the plane tomorrow.

But once we survive that, we will be in Baltimore, and eventually head up with my Mom and Step-Dad up to Syracuse and see my brother graduate. So....plan on some amazing posts someday. I'm sorry for you that that day is not today. Ta-ta!

p.s. tips for traveling with a baby are always accepted.

Did you say you needed a laugh?

2011-05-18T18:20:00.001-06:00

I've got one for you.

you're welcome

I woke up a few mornings ago to this face. You laugh now, but when I first saw her face I kinda shrieked in fear lol. She said she was only trying to "be a superhero." John thinks this means she was trying to draw the mask on her face. (and her legs, arms, fingernails, and as I later found out, her tummy). And can you believe it...that is pencil. Normal school pencil. I have no idea how she got it so dark. You'll have to ask her for tips.

Now, if you're done with your laughs, did you say you needed a cute/sweet overload? Well I am just the girl for you on so many levels today. I had Grant laying on Maddy's bed while we were playing My Little Ponies and Maddy lost interest in the ponies and just couldn't get enough of her brother. I had to document that it happened. She usually just politely ignores him. :) Here she is giving him her favorite pat on the head.

Here is what life usually looks like around here. Grant drooling, and Maddy kind of freaking out about it.

Then Grant goes in for the kill. He is trying to chew on his fist and her shoulder.

Maddy thinks this is hilarious (which it is)

Oh my goodness, I love these two

I'll admit, I'm mostly posting these for my poor sick Mom. Nothing cheers up a sick Grandma like cute grandkid pictures, I'm pretty sure I read that in some cheesy mothers day book somewhere.

snuggle

baby boy all by himself, looking cute. We found out today that he is going to have to have surgery to fix his tied tongue. We're waiting until the end of June. Poor little boy.

The first of many (I'm sure) times that Maddy forces Grant to play girl stuff with her, like ponies.

Sweethearts. But I saved the best two photos for last

They just started staring at each other, and I was forced to be extremely happy.


My favorite of them all.

I've been missing for a few days from the blog because I was in a blogging funk, I was getting ready for family to come (John's brother is already here, the rest of his family comes tomorrow), and I was picked to do a "special project" for Relief Society. It will be a crazy couple of weeks to come. Oh, and other super exciting news is that my sister just found out that they will be moving to Pittsburgh in July. Her husband got into the school he wanted, and so they will soon be on the East coast. Woo-hoo! She's busy worrying about where they are going to live and a job, but I am busy planning their trip down to Charleston. :)

Delete Delete Delete

2011-05-14T16:30:00.000-06:00

You might have noticed I deleted my previous post because I think I didn't quite get the tone I was going for. Instead I think I came across as depressed can't get off my hiney Jenn. The tone I was going for was, I'm still soooo tired from getting up at nights, and I don't like to leave the house because it breaks up the baby's naps. You would think that it would be easy to distinguish between those two tones, but did I mention that I'm tired? :)

I wonder if this is what Maddy was picturing (keep reading to know what I"m talking about)

Anywho, I got some good advice anyway and so I just deleted it because frankly I don't want any more posts around here that could be construed as potentially sad/depressed/annoying. I would like to just have some good old nice posts. For example, telling how Maddy closed the door behind her Dad the other day and I asked her to lock it. She asked why, and I told her "So we can keep the bad guys out." She said, "Well what kind of bad guys?.....You mean ninjas??" (pronounced injas). I died laughing. Or when she was eating the ice cream cone we bought her and some started to drip down and she declared, "I've got a bad feeling about this!" Or when she snuggled up to me in bed and told me I was her best friend...and that best friends get each other sippy cups with milk in them. Also, I have five bajillion pictures of Maddy and Grant snuggling up to each other that I need to post. So I'll keep my ambiguously toned posts to myself and focus on the easy to read ones. Voila!

p.s. Guess who has some really exciting news?? Me me me! Somebody is going to see their brother get his Master's degree from Cornell at the end of the month after all, thanks to the amazing awesomeness of my brother and my Mom. You seriously have NO idea how stoked I am. Granted I'm a little nervous to take the two kids by myself on the plane (mostly because Grant will not sleep anywhere besides his bed. No really, he won't.) But it will be worth it to visit Bryan and Melissa in good old Syracuse, NY. Speaking of which, Aunt Venita, if you're reading this, I need to call you and reschedule our visit because I didn't know I was being kidnapped at the end of the month until yesterday.

1 am

2011-05-10T23:10:00.001-06:00

It's 1 a.m. at our house and I should have crept back into bed, but my heart is so full. No one will care but me, but tonight when I got up to feed and rock Grant back to sleep (at an unusual time for him, maybe he's growing?) I looked down at him and was overwhelmed. I looked at him as his eyes grew heavy with sleepiness. I tried to memorize the weight of his body as it felt in my arms. His sweet baby smell. He was all wrapped up tight in his cozy stretchy car blanket. He was wearing his dinosaur pajamas with the feeties. His body was limp with sleepiness and with the trust and comfort he feels in my arms. His head fit comfortably on my chest, his arms nestled between our bodies. He finished his bottle and I pulled him in closer. I smiled at how cute his face looked with the giant binky sticking out of his mouth that he quietly sucked as he closed his eyes and fell asleep in my arms. I closed my eyes so hard and tried to imprint this moment into my mind forever. I am overcome with gratitude and awe. I felt in that moment that Heavenly Father sent me the most perfect gift of the most beautiful little boy. I didn't know how I would feel as the mother of a son. All I knew before him was a lovely sweetheart of a girl. But now I know that I can love a son with all of my heart too. She is my sun and my laughter and he is my comfort and my darling. I am crying over all of these silly thoughts, and I know it's even sillier to post them on a blog at 1 in the morning, but someday I hope those two little babies of mine will one day read this and know beyond any doubt that their crazy, sometimes mean, sometimes strange mother, loved them more than the words she could ever find to say it. And I wish I could stop the world sometimes and just rock them in my arms and drink in the sight of them and cry over how beautiful and sweet and wonderful they have made my life. Agh, I am crying all over again. Time to go to sleep.

I never thought days like this would come

2011-05-09T10:27:00.000-06:00

There was a time when I did not think that I would ever be a wife, much less a mother.

I had a wonderful time at BYU, but it certainly was difficult at times when it came to dating. There were so many gorgeous, smart, funny, and certainly skinny :) girls at college, that I often felt not only out of their league, but not even playing the same game. I had lots of roommates (no really, I had five almost the entire time I was in school), and usually these roommates were asked out quite a bit. Me? Well, I went out and did lots of things with groups, I did lots of things with my roommates. I had a job, I studied, I wrote papers. I had tons of fun, but I didn't get asked out very often. For the most part it didn't bother me on too regular of a basis, but sometime during my sophomore or junior year, it hit me kind of hard. I started down the, "why am I not good enough, pretty enough, anything enough to even have guys ask me out, much less date me?" This went on for a few months--I started running (ha, I know!), lost quite a bit of weight, and I just started asking myself what I was really hoping to get out of my college years. All of the sudden the importance of "finding the One" became more about getting comfortable enough in my own skin to "be the One," or even just to be vulnerable enough to just be myself all the time.

Eventually I filled out my mission papers and I served a mission and felt like I filled out a bit more of my character. I learned that guys are just guys (being around 19 year old elders kinda de-mystified the whole guy thing for me), and I learned that I was a lot more interesting, daring, and strong than I had previously considered. I came back to college and I knew in my heart that my time was coming. I already told you how I met John in another post. All that I can say is that I am so grateful for the hardships that brought me to him, and eventually to becoming his wife and a mother. I often dreamed of what it would be like, and I often thought it would never happen-- but then one day I found that all of those dreams did, in their own way and time, come true. It wasn't easy for me. There was no clearly defined path at times. But now I am so glad that I went through those hard times of self doubt so that I could greater appreciate the miracle that has made me a mother.

Happy Mother's Day. (and here are some pictures from my fabulous day, courtesy of John and my little ones).

I always wanted to try Eggs Benedict, so John made me some for my first time and they were DELICIOUS. No really. Yummm.

I had to get a close-up of the poached egg. It was perfect.

and a rose in a tiny vase. my favorite.

breakfast in bed finished

then came some gifts, some books, and Maddy picked me out some make-up (mascara) very cute. John let her pick whatever she wanted for me and she picked mascara, which is funny because when she sees me put it on she always wants to do it too, so I'm not surprised she picked that. :)

she has started doing the fake cheese smile. but she's still adorable with her barbie. she helped me eat my breakfast

she was jumping on the bed and John said, "well aren't you just a jumpy little frog today?" To which she replied, "No, I'm a jumpy chinchilla." What in the world??? She said she learned that from Diego. lol. She can't pronounce the word scooter (she says schooler) but she can say chinchilla perfectly. love it

eventually the little boy came and joined me

and he looked so cute sucking on his fingers I had to take a gajillion pictures

Daddy looks cute too

I told you, a gajillion

and an up close and personal fuzzy baby face shot. my favorite.

And lest you think me an ingrate, I know that none of this would be possible without the wonderful love and example of my own Mother (and John's). We love them lots. :)

Days Like Today

2011-05-06T18:46:00.002-06:00

a girl must accessorize!

Days like today make me SO happy to be a Mom. It was a good day. And don't I just seem to be all over the spectrum these days with my blog posts? I know. But that's how I've been feeling too, all over the spectrum. I've been stressed about John's job, but I've been falling in love with my kids. Or I'll feel frustrated with something one of the kids do and then the next moment they make me laugh. I feel this time of my life is a time of extremes some days. Like some days I get plenty of rest and the next none. Some days I get lots done, and some I get zilch done. There is no moderation in the Savage house, and I'm learning to just roll with the punches.

Me and Hermana Farley, and no, we weren't twins on purpose, this is the first day we met. :)

On a completely not related sidenote, the idea of moderation reminds me of a funny story. When I was in the MTC (missionary training center for the not mormon friends I have out there) my companion was a really gorgeous, tall, and super athletic girl named Jamie Farley (or Hermana Farley as we called her). Anyway, because she was a serious athlete (she played track and did shotput and threw the hammer!) she ate like an athlete sometimes too. She was especially fond of the ice cream sandwiches, and one day even joined an ice cream sandwich eating contest with the elders in our district. Anyway, she started to realize that being in the MTC where we studied all day that she couldn't eat like she used too, and she started watching her ice cream sandwich intake a bit more. She told me proudly one day, "Hermana Fisk, I only ate one ice cream sandwich today and I actually don't feel like I am going to be sick!" I just looked at her and said, "Well congratulations Hermana, welcome to the land of moderation in all things." We both looked at each other and burst out laughing. Good times....

I guess my mission is on my mind today, because I was also thinking today how grateful I am for indoor plumbing. Things like that hit me still. I was remembering two things about Honduras in terms of indoor plumbing. One, I remember the first true honduran bathroom I used. It was at the bus station to head down to my first missionary area. We had to pay a few lempiras to use the bathroom, so I thought that would mean that it was taken care of or something. Um, no. Basically it was a filthy semi-stall of concrete with a hole in the ground. No seat, no toilet paper, no place to wash your hands. That was my first taste of culture shock. :) The other thing I thought of was when I got back to the U.S. a year and a half later and we got to the Miami airport. I was still with Hermana Farley and we both went to the restroom after going through customs. I really REALLY hope no one else was in the bathroom with us, because we were oohing and aahing about how clean and beautiful the bathroom was, and how there was toilet paper (and reminding each other that we could flush it down the toilet and not to forget and accidentally put it in the trash, which is what you have to do in Honduras if you chance upon a real toilet). We washed our hands forever. It was at that moment that I realized how rich americans are. Most people here don't have a clue. They take the bathrooms in Target or the gas station for granted. They take so much for granted. Anyway, just some random thoughts.

me right before being introduced to my first honduran bathroom. this was another landmark, my first taxi ride.


this was one of our bathrooms (you may recognize it as an outhouse, which it was, and yes, that is a piece of wood over the top. This is also where I almost sat on a scorpion one night. If I hadn't taken out my maglite that night, I would have a whole other story to tell about why I love indoor plumbing....)

and just for kicks, here was our shower too. I use the term shower very loosely. It consisted of a giant concrete box of water that you dipped your bucket in and dumped over your head. and it was freezing. Remind me to tell you of the time I realized my companion had bathed in water filled with mosquito larvae BEFORE I (thankfully!!!) bathed in that same water. Yuck. And kinda funny lol. Oh, and the herbal essence shampoo was sent in the mail to me as a present. God bless whoever sent that to me. You may have saved my humanity.

Okay, so I really am off on tangents tonight. I didn't even say why it was such a great day for being a mother, but I think you can guess. I was able to get out of the house with both kids, and Grant didn't scream in his car seat, Maddy was patient and good. We went to the library, checked out books and then went to a nearby playground. Then we got home, Grant slept, and we got stuff done and the rest of the day went like clockwork. It was amazing! I even went out a second time to pick some stuff up from the grocery store that we desperately needed (i.e. bread) and both kids were good again!! I never go out at all with the kids because I hate messing up Grant's schedule and he usually cries the entire time in his car seat and that is the one thing that still stresses me out even though he is the second baby to be like that. For some reason that is my kryptonite. I would rather stay home than having a screaming baby in the car. So today was huge. Yay for the Savages! We may not be as good at this two kid thing as other folks, but we're getting there!

Do You Ever

2011-05-03T18:50:00.000-06:00

the caption to this picture is simply, "waaa!"

Do you ever have one of those days where you doubt every decision you make? When you think, Why can't I figure out why the baby's schedule is so off? Why can't I give my other kid(s) the attention they need? Why is my house always such a mess? Why can I be more understanding, less judgemental, more giving, less tired, more put together, less put-out? Why can't I be as organized/thoughtful/faithful/sweet/generous/perfect as so-and-so? Or even if you don't really compare yourself to any one person in general, you compare yourself to that perfect version of yourself that you're convinced really does exist if you JUST tried hard enough?

Kendra, here is that "bum" shot that you mentioned in your comment. Maddy got about twenty of them. This one is an especially flattering one of me taking out the trash. ha!

Oh man, I have those days. And now I am realizing that it is dumb to think that way. I have never lived a fully perfect "up to my full potential" day in my life. There will never be a day that I don't disappoint someone (most likely the voices in my head), that I don't forget something I meant to do, neglect something worthwhile, or just plain avoid what I need to do. There will never be that perfect day. I need to just let those niggling voices--the guilt, the worries, the anxiety, the stress--all of those voices that can get so loud somedays-- and drown them out with something better. Like maybe appreciation, gratitude, repentance, forgiveness, and the realization that no one's life is like the pottery barn catalog, and that means that I need to stop striving against myself so hard and feeling so disappointed when my life doesn't turn out that way either.

Somedays I wish I would just slow down, take a deep breath and remember these things. It seems so impossible most days when I'm surrounded by diapers and sleep deprivation and the endless demands of a young family. So that's why tonight I'm sitting down, taking a deep breath, and jotting it on my blog hoping that it will ingrain itself more fully into my brain if I write it down. And maybe you need a deep breath too. Some days are just that way I guess.

Pictures and funny stories

2011-05-01T19:13:00.000-06:00

You know how people say that every child after the first doesn't get as many pictures taken of them? I'm determined for that not to be the case. How could I? I have the cutest bub on the planet.

See what I mean??? I told my mom that sometimes when I look at Grant it reminds me of baby pictures of my two brothers. Kinda strange, but he does. Who do you think he looks like? I don't think he looks like either John or me.

modesty cloth strategically placed

Here's the best part of this photo. I asked John to take some of me with Grant in just his diaper because he looked so cute and small. John took about five pictures just like this one. Then I held out Grant and said, "What the what....he has spit up on the back of his head. How did he do that??" Then I realized I had a huge thing of spit up on my shirt for every picture and John didn't realize. Classy....

My child and her wild hair.

John said he was teaching her the properties of erosion. Maddy just liked throwing the wet sand around.

Also something to cheer up a Sunday afternoon would be homemade baked caramel corn.

And tomatoes on our container garden plant. It's a miracle!

another miracle

to prove to my sister that we have lizards everywhere here. This one was on the inside of the screen. Not sure how that happened. These guys are houdinis.

I just love seeing Maddy's little watering can. She is a very conscientious gardener. She must have inherited that from one of her gardening grandparents.

Doesn't that just look relaxing?

More "erosion"

More cuteness

I love how she has her little legs crossed sitting in the top of the sandbox cover. And something about scruffy active little kids in crocs melts my heart. Do you know what I mean?

Oh, and I worked long and hard to take decent photos of my new hair-do, just for you.

I get shy taking pictures of myself

much shyer posting them

and then I just have to break out my Justin Bieber pose, so that you can see what I meant. The shame....

Okay, and totally not related, I wanted to jot down some funny things Maddy has said and done lately. She seriously cracks me up every single day. I think of her as my daily sunshine.

1. I was teasing her the other day about how to say a word. I said something like, "Did you say tele-zone? Tele-crone?" She replied, "Nooo Mommy!" and played along until finally she said, "Girl, it's telephone!" with all the attitude you can imagine. It was hilarious, especially since I'm fairly certain I don't ever say that.

2. John, Maddy, and I were sitting at the dinner table to eat. She looked over at me and said suddenly, "Mommy, you are just so lovely!" and I laughed and said, "Well thank you Maddy!" and she said, "And I'm so lovely too." And I said, "Yes you are." and then she turned to John, paused for a second and said, "Daddy?" he said, "Yes?" "Daddy, you're just jealous." LOL! We laughed a good five minutes at that one.

3. My favorite one of the bunch: Maddy has been obsessed with the giraffe chew toy that I got Grant. It squeaks and apparently this is the best thing ever if you are three years old. John and I are always having to tell her to stop squeaking it, because she will do it incessantly. One day she was doing this very thing--this time by pounding the poor giraffe over and over in quick succession on the ground, driving me crazy. I said, "Maddy!" in my serious Mommy warning tone, and her head popped up and she pointed to the giraffe and said very seriously, "He started it!" I lost it big time on that one. Oh Maddy, what would we do without you?

I need a remote control for my life

2011-04-28T08:47:00.000-06:00

photo by Madeline

how I found Madeline after I put Grant down for a nap. She discovered the jewels I bought to decorate the Easter eggs....

Photo again by Madeline

photo by Maddy

photo again by Mads

I have been keeping a distance from the blog. I wrote the blog stalking story so that I would have something funny to write about. I did the same about writing about how John and I met. I have not really talked about what's going on our house because unfortunately (and are we really surprised??) we are having some issues with John's job and we are pretty stressed out about them. I don't want to go into details, but the crux of the situation for us is that we cannot be the ones to instigate a change because if we do so before we are with the company for two years, we would have to pay back our move and a signing bonus that they gave John when we came (though the bonus we would only have to pay back if we left after the first year). We are very unsure as to what the future holds and of course that is nerve-wracking. We are hoping that things will smooth themselves out, and that we will be able to finish out our two years here.

I swear I don't go looking for additional drama to keep this blog exciting. It just happens. ha. I also chopped all of my hair off. I took some pictures, and after viewing them decided that I had unintentionally been given Justin Bieber's haircut. Oh my.

So. Having said that, can I just fast forward my life a few months so that I know what will happen with John's job and so that my hair doesn't make me look like a chubby hipster teenage boy?? That would be great.

A Funny Thing Happened on the way to a blog(stalking)

2011-04-25T20:42:00.002-06:00

Want to hear a funny/interesting story?

It all started when I clicked the links from one of my friend's blog sidebar (that's you Missy!). One that caught my attention was a scrapbooking/generally entertaining blog of a girl that I did not know. Actually, my friend Missy didn't know her personally either, but they were both scrapbookers so I think that's how she found her.

Anyway, I wasn't a scrapbooker at all, but I thought this girl was hilarious and interesting and creative, so I kept reading her blog. She wrote a blog post about dealing with something difficult and I felt like I could relate and read between the lines. I emailed her and asked if she had had some issues with her dad (I know, aren't I so nosy), but I promise I made it much more tactful than that, because I told her that her words seemed to speak to me because I had had similar issues with my Dad. She told me that she is actually pretty open about what happened and that I had guessed correctly. I was pretty amazed and it deepened my admiration for her, although I definitely felt more stalkerish after that email--I've never done anything like that before or since. ha :)

Anyway, on another occasion, she wrote about her best friend, named Emily. She wrote about this friend quite frequently. I blog-hopped over and started reading her blog one day. I liked her style of writing and way of looking at things too. As I read through her archives, I came upon this post: Question of the Week. I looked at that picture of her Grandpa Larson and I thought, Hmm, that looks A LOT like my Great Grandpa Larson. But she's my age, so...that's not likely. Of course I had forgotten that my Grandpa was the oldest in his family, and that his youngest brother was born around the same time that my Grandparents had my Mom--hence we are the same age (and my Mom was the same age as her uncle. Us mormons and our crazy ways). At least I think that's right. I still confuse myself sometimes, even though it's not that complicated. I'm getting old....

Anyway, Emily figured out how we were related before I did and I was pretty shocked that I had stumbled upon her blog in such a random way and had liked her even before I knew we were related. Ever since we kinda go back and forth commenting on each other's blogs and I feel like I have a friend that I have never met (well technically we did meet at my Grandpa's--her Uncle's--funeral, but I was such an insane mess that day that I barely said two words when we met....)

So anyway, how is that for a random story?? You should check out her blog if you haven't read it before. She is really funny and is on her way to Paris as we speak (can we say jealous??) and you won't regret reading her posts. Just had to share because she posted this post a few days ago and reminded me of how I found my long-lost second cousin. Random and cool.

the easter parade (of outfits)

2011-04-24T20:03:00.000-06:00

My two dapper boys. Yes, I made them wearing matching bow ties. It was the best thing ever.

I watched a youtube video to learn how to tie the bow tie so I could do it for them. I feel so accomplished.

The bow tie was way too big for Granty, but we didn't care, he looked adorable anyway. He liked to chew on it, so it was good for everyone.

Maddy wore her Easter hat for all of about three minutes, but it was cute.

My favorite part of her Easter outfit, her shoes. She calls them "tap shoes."

We always had gloves growing up for Easter, I had to keep the tradition alive.

So pretty

John glazing the easter ham.

Another easter project. A free banner printable thing

flowers and jelly beans. I told you I was all crafty this past week.

And our Easter ended as all Easters should--with a bunny that got his ears eaten first.

around these parts

2011-04-23T18:54:00.001-06:00

Tomorrow's Easter, and I am probably more excited than any child. I don't even particularly know why, except that it's a chance to decorate and give my kids goodies and dress them up and have ham. That sounds like a good holiday if you ask me (apart of course from all of the religious implications, which I hope goes without saying on a frivolous blog post such as this, is the real reason that this holiday is worth celebrating). It just so happens that all of the other stuff just makes me happy too.

So here is one (of several) projects that kept me busy. It was a lot (a TON) of cutting, but it was fun. Maddy sat beside me and worked on her "projects" (aka practicing her cutting, which is what her preschool has asked all the three year olds to do). Grant napped peacefully, and I traced and cut out shapes and taped. It was almost therapeutic--all of this from a non-crafty person. I might have to take up crafty stuff. (oh and for everyone that asks me how I get any projects done, the answer is that my baby is still so small that he naps quite a bit, and Maddy is old enough that she does stuff with me, or she will play with her My Little Ponies. My project days are numbered, and don't I know it.)

Anyway, here's some pictures. I got a little obsessive. We all know I have photography obsessive compulsive disorder.

Bunnies everywhere! On your cupcakes, in your hare....haha

Idea (and template) courtesy of my friend martha and some scrapbook paper I had in my desk

Someone couldn't wait to dive in. Mostly I posted this photo because it looks like she has a charlie chaplin mustache and it makes me laugh. Or maybe some sort of french guy mustache. Oui.

I saved the best for last (and largest). Could you not just DIE from the cuteness?????? I die!

Oh no, he's getting cuter by the picture!

There's no hope for me. I'm smitten. That baby snuggling a blanket like this with his little clasped hands and big eyes has just stolen a piece of my heart forever. I squealed multiple times during the taking of these photos. I am not ashamed.

Happy Easter everyone. :)

Highlights

2011-04-20T20:57:00.000-06:00

Some highlights from today:

Maddy and I got to play in the pool together. Grant splashed his little feet in for a while and then went down for a nap. So I put on my swimsuit and played with Maddy. We had a blast and laughed a lot. Then, when I was helping Maddy get out of her wet swimsuit and hang it up, she wrapped her arms around my neck and said fiercely, "I love you sooooo much Mommy, you're the best Mommy ever!" and she meant it with her whole fervent heart. And I got a lump in my throat. I always tell her she's my best girl and my favorite girl, and she is. I know she misses having my full attention, it was good to have a chance to play and focus just on her cutie pie face.

Sorry, no other pictures because I was too busy enjoying the day. These are the flowers my Mom and Kelly got me after they started opening up. Just gorgeous.

Maddy and I also got to share two strawberries and lots of sweet peas from our container garden. They were so good! Nice and sun-warmed and sweet. It felt a little like heaven.

I kept laundry and the dishes going. Go me.

I caved and bought Grant a toy I have been dying to buy him since before he was born, a rubber giraffe toy/teether. It's kinda a snobby toy (apparently celebrities have them, oo la la, like I care ha) but I just knew my Grant, who is a major fist chewer would love it. I gave it to him today and as soon as he saw it he smiled! It was so cute, he never has that reaction to toys. He happily chewed on the giraffe's legs all afternoon. Maddy says she needs a giraffe for her teeth too now.

We finally got our fan fixed in our bedroom. It is not advisable to live in the South without a fan in your bedroom working. It's the difference between...well frankly, America and a third world country. Trust me on this one, I know.

So this post was me, being upbeat. I had some great moments today. The best was swimming with my girl and just realizing that we were so happy to be together and laughing. It doesn't take much to make you love your life does it? At least, I suppose it doesn't if you make up your mind to look for the good. I recommend it. Worrying and stressing doesn't make your problems any less. Might as well eat a strawberry and smile (says the natural born pessimist today....ha). Hey, I'm trying out something new, so far, so good.

a weekend list

2011-04-17T20:35:00.000-06:00

This weekend we:

1. Sent Maddy off with her friend to pick strawberries from a local strawberry patch. She came home tired, filthy, happy, and with a bag of strawberries. I would have gone except for number 2 below

(Did you like my series called, "Eating a strawberry: a photojournal series"? Sometimes I think I'm soooo funny. I just like to take pictures of my pretty girl)

2. John helped a lady from church move her recently deceased mother's things from her home. So I stayed home with the Mr. G.

this picture makes me swoon a little. those eyes. I'm embarrassing the pants off of him by writing this. he looks so serious because he was letting me take some practice shots to get my lighting right. i love this guy

3. I watched the original True Grit. Loved it. My Grandpa on my Dad's side is a HUGE John Wayne fan and made us watch all of the John Wayne movies when we were little and I was always so bored. Now I'm really into them. Weird.

4. There were lots of tornado warnings all day Saturday, but none close to us. It was pretty windy on Saturday though. Windy and hot. Strange combination, but it's the humidity's fault.

5. I went through all of Maddy's and Grant's clothes that they have already outgrown. I didn't cry. Nope, not once. I came close, but I just closed that part of my brain off and finished the task. It took a really long time, but I got it all arranged and took it to the local consignment shop. I then took some of the money I got from their clothes and bought Grant some more cozy pajamas because he is growing so big. He's already just about in 6 month sized clothes (he's three months old). I kept the first thing I bought when I found out Maddy was going to be a girl (red shoes), and the first thing I bought Grant when we found out he was a boy (a navy blue teddy bear outfit). I just can't get rid of them yet. Maybe ever.

6. I got back in the photography saddle and took some pictures for a family in my ward. I asked my friend if I could do them for their family for free because she was such a huge help while I was in the hospital (all of the many times). It felt like she saved us quite a few times. So I am SO happy that I am able to do a little something to show how much I appreciated her. Her four boys are adorable and I think the pictures are going to turn out cute. We're going to take their whole family pictures on another day at a local lighthouse that is supposedly really pretty and abandoned. Coolness.

this baby made it too easy with cheeks like that and eyes so big.

three years old! this kid was killing me with cuteness

7. I got a bluetooth headset because that's the only time I can talk--when I'm running errands at night when John gets back home. So of course I had to call a bunch of people.

8. My house is a mess. I swear it was clean a day ago.

9. Grant doesn't sleep through the night yet. He still likes to wake up right around 4:00 in the morning and have a bottle. If we don't swaddle him well enough he'll wake up again, but usually he keeps his once a night date. I don't like waking up, but then I get his sleepy body in my arms and I usually end up rocking him for a while after he has fallen asleep. Can't help it.

10. John always does the dishes, without fail. This is one of the very best things a man can do to make his wife fall even more in love with him. Just ask me.

I don't usually make him do dishes while holding Grant, but I wanted to take Maddy's picture and then he just started doing the dishes and I had to take his picture too.

change

2011-04-13T20:31:00.000-06:00

Here's my dilemma: how do I come back and write about normal day-to-day stuff when 1. my last post was me trying to cover a heart of sadness and 2. my life doesn't feel all that day-to-day right now? Sometimes I have little chats with myself (in my head) and I say over and over, "Self, why do you insist on sharing so very much with everyone? Do you share too much? Do you make other people feel too sad? Are you too dramatic? Maybe you should be one of those bloggers that just writes about the pretty stuff." I could do it. I could just write about the good and the pretty. I love blogs like that. I sometimes get frustrated with my need to write out some of the personal struggles and hardships that I am going through. Someone, I can't remember who off the top of my head, commented on our calling the firetruck fiasco a few weeks ago something to the effect of, wow, your life is never boring! I laughed and I thought, well actually, yes it is. Maybe I just make it seem like it is a never-ending drama? Maybe lately it just has been? I don't know. I am full of lots of questions, lots of doubts these days. I used to be so sure of myself. So sure of everything I did. Now I just feel older and like I know even less.

But here's the good thing about sharing the personal stuff--you all make me feel so loved and supported. I don't feel so alone, which is easy to feel these days in this new state and new house. It reminds me that I have friends all over the place that care about what is going on and don't mind reading the good with the bad. Thank you so much. Maybe I write too much, maybe I share too much, maybe I am a little strange. I don't know. But I do know that I am so so grateful that you take the time to leave your comments, even if I don't know you personally (that's for you katamaran, and emily).

feel better flowers from Mom and sister. they are the greatest, no doubt about it.

Here's the thing--for a girl that likes to share too much, I am not feeling up to talking about my heart and the future. I think you realized by my last post that future children are not possible for us. That is all I can say at this point. I am just trying to stay afloat and blogging about it at this time is not going to help me in that endeavor. Usually it helps me to sort my thoughts, but right now my thoughts hurt too much. I alternate between feeling peace and feeling lots of other things. Someday maybe I'll be able to talk about it more, but I think that I've shared enough at this point. I just want to let it rest for a while. I want to let my mind and heart rest too.

So instead, I'm going to move forward like there is nothing deeper going on here than the makeover of my laundry room that I finished a few days ago. You don't mind pretending with me do you?

Laundry room before. Wish I had taken more. Just picture a tiny box of a room covered in flat cream paint that was all scuffed and dirty looking.

The after. We put up board and batten. Total cost for the materials was $12 (pre-primed pine boards). I had the paint and nails already. I think I did have to buy some caulk.

We added the hooks back onto the board and batten and they are much more stable and strong now. Love it so much.

The blue color is a blue gray that is really really pretty. I went kinda dark for this room and I was nervous it would make the room seem smaller, but with the bottom half of the wall being a crisp glossy white I could just picture that it would look good. Plus I only did two walls to keep the color from being overwhelming. (I only bought a quart of paint and it was just barely enough. I told you I was cheap).

I also got a new rug for the space. I looked EVERYWHERE for one that wasn't super expensive. Rugs are so expensive! I finally found this one that was a perfect color match (and cotton and washable) and best of all on clearance on Pottery Barn! I then remembered my brother gave me a gift card to Pottery Barn for $25 for Christmas and that just about covered the entire cost (told you it was clearanced, nothing is ever that cheap from Pottery Barn!) I was really excited.

The last touch was to add some sort of decoration to the room. I knew I wanted these frames as soon as I saw them at (you guessed it) Target. They were a great price and I loved the larger mattes. I didn't want family pictures in a laundry room because that felt kinda weird to me for some reason, but of course baby feet don't count. :) I printed off a picture just on my regular printer of Maddy's baby feet, and of Grant's. I LOVE how they turned out. It really does make me smile every time I go in there (which lately has been a lot. That baby spits up a TON).


There are Grant's feet. Looks good for a normal printer right?

So there you have my laundry room makeover. I took a little risk and I love how it turned out.
I love a fresh start, a new beginning, a change of perspective. Of a room certainly--but also-- I am hoping, for my life too. Soon.

rejoicing for what we have

2011-04-11T17:52:00.000-06:00

He is a wise man who does not grieve
for the things which he has not,
but rejoices for those which he has.

Epictetus

Some people are always grumbling
because roses have thorns;
I am thankful
that thorns have roses.

Alphonse Karr

Gratitude is an art of painting an adversity into a lovely picture. ~Kak Sri

"Mercies and blessings come in different forms--sometimes as hard things. Yet the Lord said, 'Thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all things' (D&C 59:7). All things means just that: good things, difficult things--not just some things. He has commanded us to be grateful because He knows being grateful will make us happy. This is another evidence of His love."

Bonnie D. Parkin

We are grateful for the two miracles that are the babies that we have. I'll probably be away from the blog for a few days. I hope you understand.

Something's different....did you cut your hair??

2011-04-11T09:51:00.000-06:00

I have to apologize for my lame blog titles. Sometimes I just think of stuff and it sounds funny to me, but not to anyone else. Anyway, I didn't cut my hair, but you all know how much I love change, and so I changed stuff up around here. That title seemed catchier than: "Stuff Changed"

I switched up Maddy's bedding. Very springy and girly and comfy and I think I love it more than her.

We also bought one of those potentially cheesy canopy things because Maddy is really into forts lately and I thought this would be fun for her.

This was my find of the week. It was a community garage sale this past Saturday, which I didn't know until I left to go to the store and everyone was having a garage sale. I drove past this lovely and thought the seller probably wanted too much for it, but I would ask anyway because funnily enough, I was going out to buy a smaller (much smaller) doll house (I'll get to why in a second). The lady asked for $20. Sweet!! It's a barbie sized doll house and bigger almost than Maddy herself. Awesome.

The roof hinges open and the My Little Ponies have parties in there. Notice Ken trying to pretend like he doesn't hang out with ponies there in the background.

It opens up in the front.

Here's the reason I was going to buy a little dollhouse. We made this house from something we found at Micheal's because Maddy is obsessed with My Little Pony and I thought it would be fun to recreate one of the houses. This is Pinkie Pie's house, and she has a candy/bake shop.

We found this little shelf and painted it and put cupcake stickers on it. We bought the trim on the sides and I painted it pink and white like a candy cane.

We fashioned a cupcake of clay to put on the top, and my favorite thing is the hostess cupcake swirls of puffy paint on the roof. It was a fun little project.

Oh, just one more shot of her pretty bed.

Now here's the thing about this picture, I hate fake flowers, but now I have them in my house and I kinda like them. I only buy them if I think they look halfway real, and these tiny daffodils fit the bill. What thinks you?

This wheat grass is completely real. We're growing it for Easter, although it's not coming in as full as I had hoped. Still--there's plenty of time to try again, this stuff grows super fast. Maddy LOVED doing it and loves checking on it every day.

I also organized my pantry. I bought some clear bins so that I can corral things but still be able to tell what is in the pantry. I've tried the basket thing in the past (because it looks so cute) but for me it wasn't practical because we couldn't see what was in the pantry and food got wasted.

Also on my organizing kick I saw these at Target and could not resist. We have a problem at this house called "opening too many boxes of cereal" syndrome. Now we only have two boxes open and we get to pretend like we're getting stuff from a candy machine every morning. Double win.

This little globe was clearanced at Target. So you know, it called my globe loving name and somehow slipped itself into my cart. Sneaky.

Also sneaky are these two easter bunnies. I put them up on the mantel sitting next to each other very innocently, and the next thing I knew, I came back and they were kissing like this. Hmmmm...

and if you were wondering why if I have heard anything from my doctor yet, the answer is no, but they told me to call back today after twelve. So I am blogging and trying to keep my mind off of it until then.

How I Met Your Dad

2011-04-07T08:09:00.001-06:00

**inspired by this excellent post by my friend Raelynn.

I realized today while reading the story of my friend's courtship with her husband, that I have never sat down and written about how John and I met and finally decided that we were marriage material. Maybe this will be something our kids would like to have someday. And, I think even some of my close friends don't know all that much about this time because I kinda quit talking about my life during that period. haha, I'll get to why I did that during the story. Here we go.

I met John in October of the same year I got back from my mission. My apartment decided to host a bonfire in one of the many canyons in Provo and have smores and "scary stories" and generally try to promote general cuddling and good feeling. I actually made sure another guy from our ward was invited because I was interested in getting to know him that night. :) John ended up coming as an add-on invite. His roommate and my roommate both knew each other from the small but courageous band of Democrats at BYU ha! John and I always joke that the Democrats brought us together.

Anyway, probably nobody believes me about this part of the story, but I swear to you that it 100% happened. I walked out of the back of our apartment before we had left to go to the canyon and John was in the kitchen and a very distinct thought, almost like a voice in my head, said, "Wow, I could marry a guy that looks just like him." !!! It seriously freaked me out so much that I ran back to the back of the apartment. ha! It really startled me. I now think that was a spiritual nudging, since I'm pretty sure God knew how obstinate and scared I was going to be of marriage and I had often prayed that I would know easily who the man I was supposed to marry was. It doesn't get any clearer than that!

Anyway, I didn't even talk to John during the bonfire (there were lots of people and I still had designs on another guy) but we ended up sitting next to each other during a scary movie that we watched at our apartment after the bonfire. He kept grabbing my arm to scare me during the scary parts and was being really touchy and flirtatious. I was actually both flattered and a little embarassed because I had never really let a guy be so touchy with me before I really knew him, but I figured it was all in good fun and just went with it, figuring that he was just one of those guys that is really flirty with every girl--you know, kind of a "player" as they put it.

Afterwards all of my roommates pounced on me, wanting to know what had happened, apparently everyone had noticed and then I felt even more embarrassed. :) I said it wasn't anything and I didn't really give it anymore thought. That is I didn't until a few days later when my roommate Meredith asked me casually what I thought of the guy from the movie from a few nights before. I said he seemed pretty nice. She asked if I would consider going out with him. After thinking about it for a while I said, Yeah I guess so, but why? She let out a huge sigh of relief and said, "Oh good, because I already told his roommate that you would!" Ha! I then found out that he had asked his roommate to ask my roommate if I would go out with him. I then knew that he was not a player. That is really the only reason I probably said yes because I thought it was kind of endearing that he was too shy to ask me out himself--plus it was a little nerdy, and I love nerds.

Oh goodness, this story is turning out really long. Anyway, we started dating. I got mad at him at one point because I thought he liked one of my roommates and that made everything really awkward for a while. My roommates all thought he liked her too and so that turned everyone against him. I broke up with him over it actually, and tried to go forward not thinking of him. I was doing a pretty bad job of it when I saw him again on campus and I missed him so much in that moment that I called him and we got back together. (the roommate thing wasn't true bytheway.) Anyway, we started dating again and it was great. We took long walks at night together, we watched devotionals (a byu thing) together every week and I would make him lunch, we annoyed my roommates by kissing probably too much, and just generally had a great time. One of my favorite memories is when we were in the campus library together for a date, just looking at books, and he looked at me through the other side of the bookshelf and smiled at me and I felt such a surge of love for him at that moment that I was almost overwhelmed. He then told me he loved me and I wasn't afraid to say it back. It was like it hit us both at that same moment.

Later he started talking to me about getting married. We had only been dating for a few months at that point and I basically freaked out. I told him that it would probably be a good thing, but went home and started planning on breaking up with him. I felt scared and unsure and all of the sudden suffocated. Right before Christmas I broke up with him AGAIN, all the while holding his hand. He told me, "You know if we break up again, we aren't getting back together again, because I can't take it." I said okay.

Over Christmas we were both miserable. We wrote each other emails every day, and he finally called me and I wanted so badly to ask him to take me back, but I remembered what he had said so I didn't. Finally he asked me if we should give it another try and I was so relieved. We got back together before school even started again. My roommates at this point were kind of livid with me for getting back together with him because they just saw my reactions and figured he must not be a good guy for me--not realizing that I was kind of the crazy one. :)

So, in order to feel like I was making decisions based on my own feelings towards John and not my roommates reactions, I stopped telling them about dating him. :) They were not big fans of that and I hurt some feelings. In the end I feel like it was a good decision because I was able to figure things out on my own, without the well-intentioned, though not as well-informed advice of my dear friends.

Anyway, during Christmas I told John that things were moving too fast for me and I didn't want him to bring up marriage again until I could decide if that's what I wanted. If it was, I would let him know, because he still wanted to get married. So he said okay. Isn't he a gem for sticking with me during that?? I mostly tried not to think about it, but I did sign up for a Marriage Preparation class hoping it would shed some light on the subject (I know, so funny, but a great class despite the name). John was pretty smart and made sure to meet me and walk me home every single time I had that class! I think he wanted me to associate him with marriage class. lol.

Finally one day I just couldn't stand not knowing if I should marry him. I was scared to pray about it because I think I was scared of the answer. I know that my parent's divorce made me very wary to make a wrong decision, and I felt unsure that I could ever trust anyone enough to put my future life and plans into their hands. I decided that I needed to take a day off and just think. I called into work and I skipped a few classes and I stayed home and spent the day thinking and catching up on little chores. I finally prayed and asked for Heavenly Father to give me some sort of strong reassurance that John knew me really well, and that he wasn't just marrying me because he just wanted to get married. (hey, this is a real concern at marriage crazy BYU, trust me!)

Later that same day, John came over. I hadn't told him what I had been doing that day or anything, but he showed up and told me he had a surprise for me. He pulled out of his pocket two tickets to go see the musical "The Music Man." He said he knew I would love it and so he had bought the tickets as soon as they came out. It sounds so silly, but I knew that was the sign I had been looking for. I kissed him and told him later that night that I wanted to marry him. He was shocked and happy. I told him he still had to propose to me properly, and he agreed.

I will save the proposal story for another time because it deserves its own post. It was adorable and funny and so memorable and perfect. I'm SO grateful everyday that I figured out that John was the man for me. I came so close so many times to ruining the best thing that has ever happened to me. I loved reading my friend's post about her courtship because it reminded me of all of the early times that John and I spent together and how full of hope and love you are at that time. And now we are older, but in an even deeper and steadier love. Thanks for sticking with me John through all of that craziness. And thanks for sticking with me during this really long post to all of my friends. :)

sobering

2011-04-05T21:19:00.000-06:00

I'm still here, and my project is almost done, but not quite. I've been so tired today that I am losing a bit of steam. Today has been an interesting day. Today I had my follow-up appointment with my cardiologist. It was a visit I've been dreading and thinking about ever since I found out that I have mitral stenosis back in October.

When Dr. Kennedy originally talked to me to tell me that I had mitral stenosis and what that meant, he also told me at that point that I shouldn't have any more kids. I was in shock and didn't say anything during that first visit. The second visit in the hospital I couldn't even get my question out without bursting into tears. He was so sweet to me and sat down and handed me a tissue and listened as I asked him if he was absolutely sure there was no chance I could have more kids. He seemed surprised that it would matter so much to me, but agreed to take a look after my pregnancy was over to see how much of the duress my heart was under was due to pregnancy, and how much of the damage is there all of the time.

So I finally decided to make the appointment. I decided because I have piles and piles of clothes that both Maddy and Grant are outgrowing. Suddenly I realized that I didn't know if I needed to be saving all of these baby clothes anymore. Suddenly I just needed to know the answer, no matter what. So I made the appointment. I went in today and got my EKG done. The technician asked me all sorts of questions as she had never seen a mitral stenosis diagnosis on anyone my age (they always tell me how rare I am, and I believe it since I'm always the youngest person in the waiting room. Grant came with me and he made a big splash with all of the little old ladies in the waiting room). Anyway, she asked me all about my mission and why I didn't go home when I was so sick (if she only knew that I was almost constantly sick down there ha!) and all sorts of questions about "mormons."

As she did the EKG I looked up at the screen and I could see the portion of my heart that was damaged without her even saying anything. I asked her just to be sure, and she seemed surprised that I could tell, but it's pretty easy to see once you know what to look for--the valve doesn't flip open cleanly, it kind of makes the shape of a hockey stick. I felt discouraged that I could see the damage so easily. I felt even more discouraged when she started asking when I would have my valve surgery, and telling me how serious my condition was and that I needed to be sure to never miss my check-ups. It was all pretty sobering.

As for the final word on things, well I won't get a call for probably a few days. I'm sorry to disappoint you with no ending to the story. But somehow, even when I do get the answer, I'm hoping that no matter the answer, it won't be the end of our story anyway.

Project Dining Room Makeover Complete (for now...)

2011-04-04T09:13:00.003-06:00

Well I say "for now" in my title because knowing me, I can always find something else I want to do to every room, but for now, I am really really happy with how this room finally turned out. I've showed you most of the in between pictures, but here is the before and the real after. I painted and re-covered our dining room chairs. Their seats looked horrible before--they were covered in a sort of white cotton and you can imagine what that looked like after several years of eating on them (although I did try to clean them mind you). I hadn't even really thought to re-cover them now, but I went into Hancock fabrics (the only fabric store around here minus one quilting shop) and their upholstery fabrics were 50% off! So I knew it was a good time to do it. Okay, enough chatter. On to the pictures.

I painted the chairs a color from Martha Stewart's paint line and color matched it to Behr paint because I'm a Behr fan. I spent a lot of General Conference in this room (with a drop cloth) painting chairs and listening. It was actually great because if I sit still for too long these days doing nothing I fall asleep. This way I was awake and listening and getting something done. I loved how the chairs turned out. I think the color is called Heavy Cream.

These chairs took one coat of primer (Zinsser stain cover, AMAZING stuff. I had heard it was amazing and that you wouldn't have to sand the chairs beforehand with this stuff, and now I am a believer. Never shall I use any other primer but Zinsser!) and two coats of paint. That was like painting the chairs three times. I wanted to die by the end (and there are lots of imperfections) but it was worth it. :)

It is very unlike me to go with such a subdued and normal (or traditional I guess) fabric--I usually go for something that is interesting and unique. But I have realized lately that sometimes a nice basic background lets the other things in the room shine more. Plus it is a dark blue and will hopefully hide stains better. :)

And I couldn't resist these hydrangeas at the market. Love these, I wonder if they would grow down here??

And my favorite and final touch was this silhouette I made of Maddy on photoshop. It's not perfect, but I think it adds such a nice cozy feel to the room. I am so excited that I finally tried it and it worked! (and bytheway, getting her to stand still so I could take a profile picture was akin to torture for both of us....I had about fifty outtakes.) The frame was a thrift store find. I got three matching versions.
So let's take one more peak at the final product.

Ahhh, so much better! (Well at least in my opinion).

And a little mini-makeover. I went to Home Depot for some wood for my other project you haven't yet seen, and saw this tree. I have been looking for something to replace the little red table we used to have by the door. It was getting covered in yellow pollen and generally just looked sad and gross and ugly. This little tree is SUCH an improvement and adds a tiny bit of privacy to that little window. I really really love that little tree. I think I'll name him. Maybe...Norman?

See? Doesn't he just cheer up the whole front door? So happy to have some cool little changes going on around here. When I finish my other project (it is looking GOOD!) I'll post it. I can't wait!

a weekend of feasting and painting (my favorites!)

2011-04-03T22:20:00.000-06:00

I've been a little M.I.A these past few days but for good reason. First, of course, was that we were hunkered down in our house watching General Conference (bi-annual Church-wide conference, and is super awesome for my not mormon pals). I also took this opportunity to make tons of delicious food, as that has been a goal of mine for some time. You probably think I am joking about that, but sadly, those are the sort of goals I make. I always hear what other people are making for General Conference and think, "wow, that sounds so delicious, why didn't I do that? Why can't I ever think of good stuff to make??" This year the tide turned and we gained 15 pounds. It was heavenly in many ways around here--most of which had to do with the talks. :)

And....I picked up a paintbrush. Don't worry, it wasn't to attempt more landscape artistry, it was to do what I do best, which is painting walls and furniture. Yes, both. Aren't you SO excited. I know, me too. I'm not showing you pictures tonight though. One project is still in motion (but hopefully finished tomorrow when the kids are in bed or when John gets home??) and the other one needs one final touch. But I'm pretty much thrilled.

So that in a nutshell was our weekend. Pretty good stuff if you ask me.

p.s. Missy, I made your cookie salad recipe as one of the "good conference foods." Yummmmm. My tummy thanks you. My thighs do not. (add one can pineapples to that recipe I linked too if you try it.)

Things add up

2011-03-31T19:57:00.000-06:00

Here's a little something that occurred to me today. It's a life lesson brought to me by that bastien of truth and knowledge: Target.

I went to Target today with the two kids to buy Madeline some new tennis shoes. She has to wear tennis shoes to preschool and hers were getting too small (otherwise believe me I would not have ventured out with two kids, because it is still not the easiest thing in the world for me to do).

Anyway, while there we got her shoes--princess inspired of course--and then I had to get Grant a new pack of binkies because his fell out of his mouth while in the bjorn and Maddy accidentally kicked it under a display. When I retrieved it it was covered in fuzz circa 1987. Then I remembered a few other things I wanted to get, and oh yeah I'd been meaning to grab some bigger blankets for swaddling a growing baby and....

Maybe you can see where I'm headed--I'm sure the title gave it away. I got a bunch of "little" things, but by the time I got to the checkout stand, of course it all added up. I was a little bit shocked that it had added up so quickly (another trademark of my favorite store, oh Target, I love thee/I hate thee). But I realized that all of those little things really add up.

And tonight I started thinking about how that is true in life too. I may think that getting impatient with Maddy once a day doesn't really affect her. Or the million other little things that aren't "that big of a deal" won't really add up. But I have a feeling that some day, when I least expect it, a reckoning will come. All of the times I wasn't strong and discipline my kids when I should have, or all of the times I possibly took the easy route with parenting, it will all add up, and it will not be a price I (or my kids) will want to pay.

And by the same token, those million small gestures of love--the hugs I smother my kids with daily, the kisses, the stories, the lunches made, the time spent talking about my little ponies, changing wet sheets, putting on bandaids to invisible hurts, buying princess shoes, trying not to laugh when their sorrows and fears seem funny but so real to them, all of these moments add up too-- but they are all money in your bank. They are the little things that add up to the love and confidence that will carry your kids through the future of their lives.

Just thought I'd share. You can never get too many life lessons from Target I always say.

You're Doing It!

2011-03-29T20:05:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I had the chance to rock Grant to sleep during the day. This happens very rarely at this house, because Maddy is often up and has been getting into bits of mischief lately, so I usually wait until I see that Grant is sleepy and then I lay him down awake. I also do this because I want him to get into good habits of falling asleep himself. But I have to admit that when I had those few minutes to rock my little baby, all wrapped up cozily in his car blanket, sucking sleepily on his binky, I felt so full and happy. I love that he fits perfectly in my arms. I love that he stares into my eyes until he can't keep his heavy eyelids open any longer. I love kissing his cheeks. They are so soft and smooth and smushy. I love wrapping him up in his blankets so that he is swaddled just the way he likes. I love him so so so much. He is so sweet. It has taken a few months, but now it feels like he has always been in our family. I can already tell that he has a happy and gentle personality. He loves to smile, and even when he is tired and grumpy, he can't resist smiling at you first before fussing. He's so lovable.

I saw a program on t.v. where the wife was a doctor that helps babies in distress. It broke my heart. I remembered being in the hospital with Grant for just a week. I grabbed him up during the show and kissed him and held him close. I feel so much for those families. It is incomprehensible to think of watching your baby be sick for so long, or even losing them.

I am grateful for our healthy baby boy. I am so happy to have this time to have a new baby in our house. Certainly some days are really tough. Last week was a rough week for me. But I am trying again this week. That's all you can really do I guess. I just try to dust myself off and remember that things are very good when your family is healthy, safe, and moving forward. We aren't a perfect family. We struggle with things, we get annoyed with each other, we long for a break from the crying and late night wakings, we get tired of making meals that are "yucky," we would pay good money for a nap. But, we are doing our very best. Our best may not be as good as someone else's best, but it is what we can do. Just like my friend used to yell out to runners from her car window, "You're doing it!!!" We're doing it. And that is good stuff.

Calling 911 is a little scary

2011-03-28T08:54:00.000-06:00

First, let me assure you that everyone here is perfectly fine and we are all safe. But boy howdy, did we have an eventful night last night.

I woke up at about 2:00 in the morning to feed Grant. I didn't notice anything strange and I fed him and swaddled him back up in his crib.

As soon as I opened the door to his room and headed back to our room, I smelled a horrible smell. At first, in my panic, I wasn't sure if it was gas or something burning because it was so overwhelming. I quickly figured out it was the smell of burning plastic and I ran into our room and woke John up. He woke up and also smelled it and we began frantically looking for what was burning. We couldn't see anything and we checked all of our plugs.

We both were unsure of what to do. We didn't want to be alarmists, but we do have two kids and didn't want to go to sleep when something could be burning in the attic or the walls.

So, I called 911. I'm sure the operator thought I was a complete nerd. She asked where our emergency was and I said, "Um, I need your advice." LOL. I told her what was going on and she sent the fire trucks over. First the police arrived though and they came in and smelled it but couldn't find anything. They made us wake up both kids and take them outside wrapped in blankets. It was so cold that we kind of snuck back in eventually to the front room.

The funny thing about firemen is they basically ignore you when they are checking out your house. The just walked in, asked where to go, and didn't say another word until about forty five minutes later when they finished their search. Those guys mean business. They checked all of our walls, our attic, our a/c unit, our electronics, and they were stumped too. They could smell the burning smell, but they could not figure out what it was either. They even asked us if we had a laser-sighted gun as that had caused a drawer fire in someone else's house and it took them forever to find that too.

In the end the smell started to dissipate and the firemen told us that there wasn't much they could do. They said maybe it was our heater kicking on and burning some lint or dust in the vents (since where the smell seemed to be strongest was close to an air vent). They told us to keep an eye on it and if the smell came back or got worse to call again and they didn't make us feel bad for calling at all. They said it is a good thing we did call, especially with having kids in the house.

So that was our exciting night. Maddy kept asking if our house was on fire and if we could get a new house. Grant drank another bottle during the ordeal. We put both kids back in their beds, and then both had a really hard time falling back asleep. It was a little scary to me how we could have slept through the whole thing, and now I understand how people can sleep through the beginning stages of a housefire even if it smells. You simply don't smell it when you are asleep.

Hopefully this will be the end of our adventures with late night visits from the fire department.

my cheapness knows no bounds

2011-03-27T18:53:00.000-06:00

To start, I should say that after my last post, things have started to look up, as they usually are wont to do. I won't say that I feel completely out of my blahs, but I am feeling significantly better, and that is definitely a marked improvement.

Like I said in my last post, I tend to change things up when I need a boost. I did some switches that I have been considering for a while this weekend. I went back to try and buy that settee that I mentioned and...big shock, it was gone. This was a little sad, but not completely unexpected. I'll just have to keep my eye out for another one for a great deal.

I had already decided before trying to buy the settee that I wanted to get a new dining table. Our table has been great and was a hand-me-down from my lovely in-laws. It's still a stable good table, but I wanted something more my style and with pedestal legs for that one day that I do manage to get a settee.

Anyway, I have been cruising craigslist for a while and found a gorgeous looking double pedestal table listed for $90. That was a bit rich for my cheap skate blood, so I asked if they would consider lowering the priced since it had been posted for a little while. The lady responded and said they would lower the price to $60. Well I was pretty excited and said we would go and check it out. Well then stuff happened with Grant (this was last weekend) and we never got up there. I checked back on the listing and it was gone, so I assumed that it was sold, but emailed the lady just to double check. She wrote back and said that it was still available and that she would give it to me for $50. Ha! I hadn't even asked for a discount. She told me it was an estate sale that she was listing items from, so I got the address (cleared out the back of the van of seats) and while John watched the kids I headed up. Have you ever been to an estate sale? It was kind of my idea of paradise. You get to peek inside someone else's house (this one was in a GORGEOUS neighborhood. Seriously I think Pemberley was secretly transported a few houses down), plus there were tons of cool pieces of furniture and tchotchkes to look over.

Anyway, I wasn't sure if I was going to like the table, but as soon as I saw it in the garage, I knew it was amazing. I went up front to pay and she said, "$45 will work." Well howdy doo! It just kept getting cheaper and cheaper lol. I then spotted a huge oval antique mirror that was marked for $25 and picked that up too. I have been wanting one for a while (the less cool new versions at Target) and they run for at least twice that, so I was excited!

I'm sure you don't really care about my escapades with finding a table and mirror, but it was a pretty fun event for me if you can't tell. I even got signed up on their list to be notified when they hold estate sales. I think I might have a new hobby. :) I'm sure John is hiding our money as I type. :)

Anyway, want to see some pictures? Okay good.

The big oval antique mirror. You can't really tell how big it is unless you notice that it is about the size of half of the door next to it. The frame is natural wood stain. Lovely. (oh and sorry about the lame pictures. I couldn't find my fancy camera without too much effort, so I went with the point and shoot. Lo siento).

Oh yeah I got my new glasses finally. The other ones kept falling off of my face. I don't blame you if you can't tell a difference. But I can. :)

Remember my kinda lame painting? I decided to try it out in a frame and it turns out it doesn't look quite as lame once it is framed.


I took this before I polished this baby up with some homemade furniture polish (olive oil and lemon juice. I love google.) You may also notice (if you care about stuff like this like I do) that I switched out the window covering. This is what it used to look like:

Sorry I don't have a better picture. But you can see I added one of those swag type of window covers because I couldn't figure out what else would look decent next to my cream curtains that are really close by. Then I figured out that if I got brownish curtains to mimic the color on that opposite wall, it might look good. The problem was that it was late at night when I had this idea, and I am cheap. I realized that I had a table cloth that was the perfect shade of brown and decided to cut it down the center and hang it with rings. My cheapness knows no bounds.

There, you can see the brown wall and the cream curtains I was talking about. Oh and our new table and the flowers John got me because he read my last blog post and felt bad for me. He's so nice.

Check out those sassy legs. I would catcall if I knew how.

John thinks I'm obsessed with this table. That is probably because I am. It's my first grown-up picked out by myself table. And it was cheap. The guy at the estate sale asked me how much I ended up getting it for. I told him 45 bucks and he laughed and asked me if I knew how much they had listed it for on the first day. I said I didn't know. He told me it was listed at $400. Holy smokes. It is an antique real wood table made by Drexel, so I'm not all that surprised. But I sure wouldn't have paid that much for it.

And lastly, because I don't approve of blog posts from new moms without pictures of their babies, here is your Grant photo.


And because we still love and adore Madeline too, here is one of her, when she fell asleep in my arms for the first time since she was probably Grant's age. It was sweet.

So there was my extra long Sunday night post. I have lots more to say about things, but I will save that for another equally wordy post I'm sure. Ta-ta.

This too shall pass

2011-03-23T15:00:00.001-06:00

Let me put a warning up here: this post is a vent/rant/whatever you want to call it, but it's not a pretty sort of post. Please don't tell me to buck up or anything like that, muchas gracias.

I'm not even sure exactly what I want to write, but it has been a crummy couple of days. It's not necessarily that things are going horribly or anything, but I just feel really sad and impatient and sapped of energy. I feel like a horrible excuse for a mother (and I most certainly have proof I could tell you). I have tried to pull myself up--I've forced myself into doing housework and making dinner, but it has been a struggle. I feel so dang tired and unmotivated.

Now of course in my head I know that it is probably from a combination of things: lack of sleep (though Grant has been doing fairly decently in this regard, so I feel kind of guilty that I feel so tired), hitting that stage of post baby blues perhaps, still feeling lonely and isolated and new out here with no friends--no one I trust to watch the kids occasionally. When things get like this, I realized today that I do a couple of things. Here's a list 1. I rearrange my house or redecorate to feel some sort of newness and excitement 2. I find myself wanting to go shopping to alleviate boredom and the blues 3. I start dreaming of vacations, anything to escape the day-to-day.

In case you were wondering, I am aware that none of these are very healthy ways to cope. Sigh.

My true self-revelation, however, was mostly that I feel like I am never quite content with where I am at, or what I am doing. I'm always looking forward to something new or different to do or try. I get SO bored so very easily. I love my kids and I love having a baby, but I hate staying home. Unfortunately, Grant is at the stage where staying home is really critical to his happiness and schedule. He hates to drive in the car, and he likes to sleep in the comfort of his bed. It is a struggle every single day for me to stay home and find fulfilling things to do. I feel like an absolute lazy jerk for saying that, because I know there are lots of moms dying to stay home, but I just am getting some cabin fever. John is so nice to me and understands and lets me go by myself to go grocery shopping at night, or to run other errands, but those are just that--errands. It's nice going by myself, but it's still just usually me running to walmart or doing coupons which kind of stresses me out anyway.

I know. Wha wha. I'm sorry. It's horrible. But that's how I've been feeling these past few days. I feel like a letdown to poor Maddy (the girl does not like to play by herself, and I feel too tired to play with her)--no friends to do playdates with either--as if I would be motivated enough to do anyway. I feel like I letdown John in the dinner and clean house and presentable looking wife departments. As for Grant, well I think he is doing fairly well in the being taken care of department because that's how it goes. Baby first.

This too shall pass. I hate that phrase today. And yet I know it is the only answer. But please please please tell me that sometimes you are just unsettled and feel discontent. I try so hard to be content with what I have, where I am, and what I am doing. I try so hard to treasure these moments of babyhood and toddlerhood. I have heard it all before--that someday I will miss these simple days. But right this very moment, those words that are meant to give me perspective are only making me feel miserable for not being able to put them into practice. And as much as I love being a mother, some days it is the worst job on the planet. Oh boy, I said that out loud. I think somebody is going to report me to the happy mommy blogger police. I'm guilty officer, take me away.....

I "attempted" to be "artistic"

2011-03-21T21:05:00.001-06:00

I really wanted to buy a certain impressionist painting on ebay. It started out cheap and then it got a bit high but not enough to make me nervous. But I hesitated long enough that I lost it. I was pretty mad (I lost by a dollar). It has haunted me ever since. So I did what any rational human being would do. I looked at painting and thought, that looks easy, I could do that!

Famous last words my friends.

Anyone who has ever watched Bob Ross knows that just because he can turn a black weird shape into a happy little tree, doesn't mean that the rest of us can.

Here is the original painting: (well a screen shot of it anyway)

It's so beautiful and...and.... arty.

Then, there is my version that I attempted tonight. I give you, exhibit B.

I give myself a pat on the back for a good old effort (because that's what they teach in preschool, and by golly I approve of preschool), but I think I should leave the painting to the ebay artists of the world.

It was still fun though. Maybe next time I'll try my own thing and not try to copy. And at least my kids will someday know that their Mom was willing to try something new. Maybe I'll hang it up anyway. It's growing on me.

Have you tried something new and outside of your comfort zone lately?

At the Savage Household

2011-03-20T10:47:00.001-06:00

We planted some things in containers. This will be our first very modest attempt at gardening. We planted sugar snap peas, container garden tomatoes, and strawberries.


We also planted some flowers. I never know how to make the flowers look good. We should have probably stuck to one type of flower and bought a bunch. Instead we let Maddy pick. She was the reason we bought plants. She is always outside with my watering can watering the weeds, so we thought we might as well put her energies to good use.

Oh, we bought a little watering can just for her use (the big one was too heavy with water for her to carry around). Plus, these small ones are mighty adorable.


We are also currently obsessed with this, over cookies and cream ice cream. On a side note, did you know that cookies and cream was only invented in the early 80's? It seems like it has always been a flavor, but I guess that's because for me (born in '81) it has been.

I made John dumpster dive (well take from someone else's garbage on their curb) this dresser. I sense a project....(baskets added to see if they would work size-wise, as one of the drawers was missing. That never stopped me....) Should I paint it or leave it? (it's not real wood)

Never in my life did I think I would purchase something called "boogie wipes." Disgusting name. But Maddy's nose and upper lip have been sore and chapped from a runny nose (allergies I think), so I got over my shame and bought them.

Hey remember my idea to do a gallery wall? Yeah...it's still sitting there. I have gallery wall block.

Somebody around the approximate age of 3 found my secret stash of Starbursts (say that three times fast!). I later found Starburst wrappers in bed in the middle of night. Why I oughta.

I got tired of taking a bath and accidentally sitting on mermaids and other stuff. Hence a new basket to corral stuff. It is mermaid escape proof.

I told you I wanted to switch up my room. So...I got some new bedding stuff. Heart heart heart.

Maddy's new pegasus with wings that actually flap. Meet Princess Celestia (or Belestia as Maddy pronounces it.) Did you know there is a new version of My Little Ponies out? It's actually pretty awesome.

Also asked John to hang some hooks for me in the laundry room to help organize wet bathing suits/towels. This is pretty much awesome.

John snapped this photo of me and my bubs and I love it. Also, you too can have hair like mine. All you have to do is let it air dry, then go to sleep and wake up several times during the middle of the night. Easy. (But I recommend actually making your hair look good. But if you like crazy hair, be my guest to try the recipe above). If you want Grant's hair, that's even easier. Shave.

The Littles

The Littles (one mad, one confused)

We like to torture Grant by taking his picture when he's just woken up and hungry.

But then he eats and he is a happy boy.

Handsome (and a little drooly)

and super smiley. Aww, I just kiss his cheeks about a gajillion times when he smiles like this.

Feeding the tiny (his prune juice. He likes it. Good thing, cause he needs it.)

I just like this one. Some day normal sights like this will no longer be normal. He will grow up in a blink.

I know this because I blinked and this one grew up. And then she started making tape sculptures out of blue painters tape. It happens.

Awww

I like posting the pictures that make me laugh. Can you tell?

Three almost identical pictures that I love a little bit differently. I'm sorry to bore you with three similar pictures, but I want them all in that blog book I'm going to make someday.

It has been a good weekend, does it really have to end?

What I did instead of laundry

2011-03-17T09:12:00.000-06:00

I absolutely try to avoid laundry at all costs possible, and these pictures prove it. Unfortunately it cannot be escaped indefinitely if you want to have underwear. So probably as you are enoying this post, I am sure to be catching up on the endless loads of clothes again. It was worth it.

Like taking pictures of my baby laying on my bed just because he caught my fancy. I call him Mr. Boy or Cubby Cub, or Cutie, or Handsome, or Sweet Pea. The nicknames for cute boys are endless around here.

This face just plain makes me laugh.

We call this picture, "Contemplation."

He is smiling all of the time now. I sure didn't appreciate it last night when he wouldn't go back to sleep and kept smiling at me all cute-ly. He thinks he can smile his way out of anything. He is almost invariably right.

And then I switched up Maddy's room again. I do it all of the time because change in the house does my soul good. I am stuck in the house all day every day to help Baby Cute Face have a regular schedule (and so that I don't have to hear his banshee screams in the car), so I switch up Maddy's room because it's the easiest. I want to switch up our room next. Anyway, I put different bedding stuff on and hung up the baby quilt my Mom made Maddy. It happens to be Peter Rabbit, which I thought befitting with the Easter season upon us.

Lots of cheerful yellow. All vintage pillowcases from thrift stores (don't worry, they were washed within an inch of their lives).

Lamps move around my house. Today the yellow lamp landed in Maddy's room.

Then Maddy had to swim. It wasn't a want, it was a need. That's what she told me anyway.

She also "needed" to wear her rainbow sunglasses in the pool

She also "needed" to get into this floaty thing and fall out a million times while I laughed.

She also "needed" to be adorable. It's not her fault. She just is.

See what I mean? Also, notice that she is smiling. This is real evidence that her baby brother is not actually ruining her life by merely existing and taking up attention. I just wanted to point that out.

This last one is frankly just me bragging. Please forgive me. I got a box in the mail. It was very unexpected. John decided that this past year has been a roller coaster and so he got me a little present. It showed up on the best day possible, as it was also one of the worst days in a while (had to go to the doctor's office twice because the doctor didn't show up on time. Grrrr. Plus baby shots. It was a long day.....)

He got me pearl earrings. As in, the real kind. I put them on right away, greasy new-mom hair and all. When we were dating I only had a few pairs of earrings and went through a pearl earring phase that never really ended until I lost my fake pearl earrings. He always commented on how much he loved them on me. And then he got me some real ones (that I will not be losing) because they reminded him of when we were dating/first married. It sounds perhaps silly, but it meant a lot to me. I am lucky in love, this much I know to be true--and I even knew that before I got the earrings. :)

the list is back baby

2011-03-14T22:29:00.000-06:00

I feel a random list of thoughts coming on.

1. Maddy broke my laptop. We are not sure how it happened, but we are fairly sure it was her as I left the room for five seconds and when I came back Maddy was saying, "I'm sorry Mommy!" Hmmm.

2. We set up a pool in our backyard for the coming summer months. It's a bit bigger than the ones we have done in the past because the other pools were too big for me to be able to dump out, but too small to use chlorine. This one is the next step up and uses small chlorine tablets so that we can hopefully use it all summer long and then drain it. I've never measured pH levels. I'm going to feel so science-y. Maybe I'll wear goggles.

3. Do you ever read old posts from your blog? I do and it always makes me realize how far we have come. Think of it folks, this time last year we were still living in Utah, recovering from a miscarriage, secretly applying for jobs back East and putting our house on the market--all secretively because we were so scared to even think it would work, and scared what people would think of us moving so soon after finding that gorgeous short sale house (that I occasionally miss. I mostly miss that glorious kitchen with all of its cupboards and my nice dining area). I was a blathering mess and all over the place emotionally and mentally. I do not miss that time of my life at all.
But I do feel that that time happened in my life for a good reason. I learned so much, I grew a lot stronger. Sometimes I wish I could go back to who I was before because sometimes don't you just feel so world weary? But it is all for a good cause.
And doesn't it make you wonder what your blog will say this coming year? What surprises are in store? I can't wait to find out.

4. I really love tax return time this year. Money can't buy happiness, this I know. But it sure is FUN (to dream mostly).

this is an old picture, but I just like it. He is not quite that tiny anymore. sigh

5. Little Grant seemed to be doing better today. We switched up his formula and nipple flow and that seems to have helped. He still needs to be burped frequently throughout his bottles and needs his reflux meds, but overall he seems better than before. Luckily he has his 2 month check-up tomorrow so they will be able to double check everything.

6. I keep hinting around this on facebook, but I really want someone to come and visit us. My parents in-law and brothers-in-law are coming in May and I am super excited about that. But I think I need some friends to come and visit too. Here's your invite. Consider it official. Did I mention we have beaches here??

actual South Carolina beach near us....just sayin

7. People often ask me questions in their comments to my blog. I am often at a loss as to the best way to respond. What do you do? Do you respond in the comments section--do people go back looking for their answer? Do you email them? Do you put it in a blog post? What is the proper etiquette? (Because number 5 was in answer to Mel's question of what we did to help Grant feel better). I have another message for another comment I just got from my friend Tara. Hi Tara! My response to your comment is you are so nice, and I will take pictures of my door that I took down the vertical blinds. I also appreciate light darkening during naptime. I solve the mini blind issue in two ways--I either leave them (if they are not super skinny, super flimsy cheap ones--if they are, I throw them away) and put curtains to the side, or I take them down and replace them with roman shades (you can get cheap bamboo versions at Lowes or fabric versions at JcPenneys.com), or in Grant's room I did curtains and roller shades. Roller shades are SUPER cheap, and really easy to install. They darken the room even better than vertical blinds, and I think with curtains they look nicer because you can easily roll them out of the way. Of course that is my opinion, so that certainly may be interior design heresy. I'm no professional. I just play one on this blog. But you are really super nice to ask me stuff like that so that I can have fun. (also, your Nephi comparison was actually something I have never thought about. You are right that we definitely felt led here and don't doubt that even now, but it has been difficult. These past few weeks have been a little better, but we are really just hoping he can finish out his two years in peace and with a little less anxiety.)

8. Sorry everyone that got bored by my answering questions on number 7. I think someone else asked me something on that same house staging post and I never answered. So...it could have been worse, believe it or not. ha!

9. Speaking of pretending like I'm a decorator of some sort, I am currently obsessed with a settee that I found at a consignment shop on Saturday. I went to get my eyes checked and order glasses and there happened to be a furniture consignment shop I hadn't seen before next door. I went inside and it was a tiny shop and they were having a 50% off sale certain items. I saw a settee and it was made by Broyhill (good quality furniture) and its price tag said $120. Now usually that would seem like a lot to a thrift store girl like me, but I have wanted a settee for a long time (for a little project I have had in my brain forever) and it was in good condition. I have looked on craigslist and never find them for below $200-$300. I was excited. Then I saw the 50% off tag. I thought....this is probably the price already after the 50% off. I asked just in case. Nope...it was an additional 50% off. I measured the settee (yes, I asked if she had a tape measure, I usually have one on me lol!) and called John. I knew I didn't have space in the van at that point anyway, and I felt conflicted about whether it would fit where I wanted it to go. So... I left without the settee. But, big But, I have obsessed about it ever since and I take that as a sign that I should go back and get it. Now, please tell me that this sort of craziness happens to you. Please tell me you obsess over dumb stuff too. Thanks

This is a settee bytheway, in case you didn't have any idea what I was talking about, because honestly who would, I'm so weird. (The one I want doesn't look this good, but it has good bones). And it is a lot smaller than a normal couch. Just trust me on this--I have a plan....maybe.

okay the randomness is ending, because frankly it just wasn't that interesting. Sorry friends, I'll do better next time.....

A Sunday Story

2011-03-13T22:11:00.000-06:00

It's Sunday night at the Savage house. That means that we tidied up the front rooms and 409'ed the kitchen and folded up all of the blankets that Maddy seems to need for various purposes. The shoes are put in the shoe box. The toddler is tucked under blankets, no doubt dreaming of fairies and pirates. The babe is currently in his daddy's arms drinking a bottle before he will hopefully also pass into dreamland--fingers crossed.

It has been a common type of night around the house, but it was an unusual day. I woke up this morning, as usual, to the morning cries of a hungry baby. I plodded into his room and fed him a bottle. He then promptly forcefully vomited it back up on me. It seemed like the entire bottle. And it scared me out of my sleepy reverie. So began the day of projectile vomit and a sad sick baby. Grant has never exhibited this sort of baby behavior before, so we were concerned. We placed a call into our pediatrician's weekend call service. They listened to his full set of symptoms (he has had a bit of a rough week in several ways) and they recommended we take him into the E.R.

So. Of course that set my anxiety in high gear and I felt myself going into the throes of a panic attack, but was able to take a minute and calm myself down. The thought of taking my baby back to the hospital, and having to go through the whole hospital thing AGAIN overwhelmed me and I burst into tears. I told John and we both sat at the table and looked very solemn. I told him, "Well he is sleeping now, so we are not waking him up to take him." He has been having a hard time sleeping these past few days, so every drop of sleep has been precious.

Then, maybe you think things like this are silly--but I felt that a kind Heavenly Father answered the silent pleadings of my heart--He must have felt my anxiety, my fear and stress. I had two very distinct thoughts come to my mind--very clear and very distinct. I was surprised by both thoughts because they came seemingly out of nowhere. I tried both ideas and was rewarded with a baby that ate a bottle and did not throw up for the first time all day and finally slept for the longest stretch in several long days. He also had a normal diaper (sorry if that is too much info) but that has been another struggle--and it all happened within a few hours. Hopefully this will continue to be the case and he will keep improving.

This is my Sunday post. The day is done. And what I have learned {again}, is that our Heavenly Father is not some far away being. He is involved. He cares. He is kind, even when it may not seem so when we are in the middle of the hard times. My little baby's issues may not be as serious as so many other things happening around the world, the troubles in Japan--but I have no doubt that those things are under His watchful eye and care as well. It is good to have this to put in my pocket and remember. Please consider me grateful.

Entry Take Two

2011-03-10T08:12:00.001-07:00

I got some great feedback yesterday on our entry way, Thank you! I have a slight confession to make, I posted my foyer on my blog because one of my favorite design bloggers was asking to see small entry ways. I left her a comment and asked her if she dropped by my blog to give me some advice, and guess what, she did!

So, I took her advice and listened to what the rest of you said and tried something new. I honestly wasn't ever thrilled with the radio being in the front entry, but I thought I didn't have anything else to go there (and I couldn't figure out where else to put the radio.) I decided to keep the map for now. I'm not sure if it will stay forever. I bought it hoping I would have a little boy's room to decorate someday. Since I do now posses said little boy, his room will eventually house that awesome map.

Anyway, the point is, what's a girl to do? Well if you're me, then you get creative with the stuff that you already have in your house. Halfway through my changes I was stumped and got really grumpy. I then went into our bedroom to think and noticed my little desk that we never use in there. Hmmm, could I make it work as a console table? It was the perfect size. The white would brighten up the entry way. But what about the area for the chair, wouldn't that just look weird without a chair? Then I had one of those cartoon character light bulb moments. Here's what I came up with. What do you think, better or worse?


I decided to put a basket in that area, and am going to use it as an umbrella stand (once I get a cute umbrella). Yes, I will indeed only be buying a cute umbrella so that basket looks cute. But we'll use it too, don't worry....

I also found a place for my other typewriter and I think it goes with the blue of the map. Of course, that's probably a stretch.

I added the usual accessories that I move around my house. The lemon drops do get eaten...but they are mostly for looks ha!

Some art that I haphazardly put together. It needs to be done again because I was just seeing what it would look like and never got around to doing a better job. I found the cursive primers at that free art website I told you about. I had the frame lying around.

And lest you be too worried about the radio, it found a decent home too. But now I think I am tired of that dancing couple picture--I think I want some sort of oil painting up there now. Oh my, the scheming never ends....