Seven Thoughts

Here are a few thoughts from the past couple days...

1. Don't see this movie. (Peaceful Warrior). We had free tickets from a friend, who also traded babysitting, so it was a totally free-for-all night. It was like watching Karate Kid on speed. We should have left and just walked around the mall.

2. I've aborted all attempts to sleep through the night. Ok, I admit I didn't try very hard, but I realized I should focus more on nap time instead. The past couple days getting that hour-11/2 of time to myself has been way more value able then the 5-10 minutes I spend getting up with Noah twice a night. It's all about focusing on a day time schedule first.


3. Being without a computer isn't very fun. Our keyboard went on the fritz. It started beeping at me during nap time the other day. Then it would type two letters at a time. So we bought a new one, a wireless one, but since we have a password on the computer so Gage won't email random people, we couldn't install it. I now have a new keyboard, but still wires. Oh well.


4. Number 3 leads me to this: I need to be able to function without my computer. Really, we did this fine like 10 years ago, but I seem to be addicted to checking my email, reading blogs, surfing ebay/amazon. I need to find a better way to manage this time.


5. Springtime is nice, but tornado's are not. I have now cleaned out my tornado closet. I have my weather radio working. Today there were tornado's to the west of us, and storms to the east but they just kept going north, so we were fine. I love my house, but have no faith in my apartment building if we ever get hit.

6. I finished reading the sixth book in The Work and the Glory series. I now only have 3 books left. I think Wade is ready for me to be done so I will talk to him again instead of having my nose in a book all night. I've been reading these off and on since the fall and I love them. I have a new interest in church history. I now want to find a good book on the history of Emma Smith. That might be my next read (after the series of course). Wade got me the first two Work and the Glory movies for my b-day, which I love, but I haven't seen the 3rd. Someone in UT will have to let me know when it comes out so I can get it too.

7. This past week I have come to the conclusion that I have become more addicted to reading scrapbook magazines then I actually am addicted to actually scrapbooking. Sad.

Joys of being a mom

Spring break is now over and it passed much too quickly. We are tyring to get back to normal life around here. I am back to being the bad guy. Poor Gage thinks he needs his dad to do everything, so once again I get to play bad guy and tell him that Daddy won't be home until dinner time. Then the tantrum starts. Usually on a good day, we can hold off on all "daddy-tantrums" until at least 3 pm. Breaks from school are lifesavers for our family but sometimes they are just so hard for Gage to adjust back from.

I've decided Noah is old enough to sleep though the night without me feeding him. This means we have to hear a lot of crying, which I am not excited about, but it's got to happen at some point in time. Crying - even when you know it is good for them crying, is so hard for me to listen too.

Ahh, the joys of being the mom.

Trip to Washington

We had a great time in Washington. Everything was so green and we actually had pretty good weather. We did some shopping, ate a lot of yummy food, went to the zoo, played in the Puget Sound, scared Grandma's cat, took some hikes and had fun hanging out. Here are some of the pictures.

And last, but not least, my personal favorite...

And We're Off...maybe

I'm so excited, tomorrow we are flying to Washington (state) to visit my parents. The last time we were there was in May of 2005, so needless to say, it has been a while. Gage is so pumped for the airplane. He loves flying and has always been a good little traveler. I'm hoping his brother will follow in suite. I'm a little nervous for the 4 1/2 hour flight from Chicago. They both woke up this morning with pretty bad colds. We are hoping a good nights rest will help or else we might have to delay the trip and go later this week or later in general. Let's keep our fingers crossed :)

27

Since it's my birthday I’m blog-lifting (is that a word?) this idea from my friend who did this on her birthday. I’m now a year older and wiser, so here are 27 things you might not have known about me.
1. I was born in Longview, WA, being the fifth out of six kids
2. When I was little I wanted to grow up to teach bugs to tap dance, live in China and have a million kids
3. I used to call myself “Debby-4” when I was 4 years old, and “Debby-5” when I was 5.
4. When I was in 5th grade I loved pigs
5. I was a cheerleader for 4 years, and captain my Senior year
6. I am “thrifty” (ok, cheap) and almost always buy the generic brands
7. I’ve moved 10 times and lived in 6 states
8. I've never had a pedicure because my feet are too ticklish and I think someone touching my feet would drive me crazy... my husband is going to be a podiatrist.
9. I took college classes from 5 colleges before finally graduating from University of Utah – but I did it all under 4 years.
10. I used to have a teddy bear named Fatty
11. I used to write articles for magazines on health and fitness. Now I draw pictures of Thomas the Train and dream someday I will be able to workout.
12. I want two more boys in my family for a total of four. I’m not too sure what I would do with a girl.
13. I really love school. Someday I want to go back to school for a masters or even a doctorate. I think being an adjunct professor at a community college would be a fun part time job.
14. I get my feelings hurt when I can’t make everyone happy
15. I ran track in Jr. High
16. I can play the piano, trumpet and baritone
17. One time at band camp….yes, I went to band camp.
18. I worked retail all through high school an college. I really liked it.
19. I love bacon and my grandma used to cook it for me every time we visited her
20. I still feel bad Wade sold his truck so I could get a mini-van
21. I won a pageant once and was Miss Junior Buck Fever 1996
22. I love to be in charge, and I always want to push the cart at the grocery store.
23. I love to read and libraries I wish I could own all sorts of books and have a place to put them in my house
24. I love to hold hands with Wade, it reminds me of seeing my parents hold hands in the car when we were on trips
25. I really love Iowa, but I really miss living in the courts at the U of U. Those cyder block walls were awful but the atmosphere and the friends we made there were the BEST.
26. I won’t know how to function when we are officially not “students” any more. Refer to #13
27. I am a stacker. My house might seem clean, but it’s all somewhere in a stack. Wade is scared someday he will come home and find our children in stacks.

Today I was able to finish the book I've been reading, The Price We Paid, by Andrew Olsen. It is a historical account of the Willie and Martin Handcart companies. My dad, after reading it, sent each of us one, and I really enjoyed the stories told in it. If you are looking for a good historical book to read I think this one is very interesting and will open your eyes to some of the sacrifices that others have gone through.

Who Won?

We all won - is the answer to who won the room make-over challenge. (see post on March 8) Yes, I believe it was a little cheesy that we all won the challenge, but I suppose the true meaning of service is about the act, not gaining a reward. However, each team did receive gift cards to Target.

Last night at our spouse club meeting we got to see pictures of each room. I'm a little bias, but I think ours did look the best and certainly the most cheerful.

Birthday

So as promised, here is a highlight of the pictures from Gage's birthday party. My friend takes the best pictures ever, so I believe they were worth the wait. I still can't believe I have a 3 year old, he cracks us up every day with his new stories and antics.

And last, but not least, I had to post this picture of Gage's friend Ella.

A little service project

The spouse club at DMU has been involved in the past couple years doing service for a women's shelter here in Des Monies. In the past we have gone and shopped for new clothes, donated hygiene items, bought new tables and chairs for their living area, and other numerous projects. This year our big project was called the Adopt-a-Room-Challenge. Since I have been serving on the board for our club I felt I really needed to head up a team and make over a room.

It was such a fun experience and we had a great team and a fun time getting everything put together. We started Tuesday and finished today - 3 busy days! Our team (all second year DPM (podiatry) wives) is hoping to beat the first year wives in the challenge. We will vote at our meeting next week - so I'll let you know how it turns out.

Each room is 10x17 (smaller than my living room) and has 4 twin beds, a dresser and a built in shelf unit. It's tight for a family, so with our $240 budget we tried to make it seem a little bit more like home. The whole experience makes me want to hug Wade each night for being the great husband he is. Here are a few of our pictures, before and after.

4 Months

Noah is 4 months old!

Wow!

Where did the time go? He is trying hard to sit up, not really that interested in rolling, is pretty smiley, loves to be talked to and loves to stand if you hold him. Here are some of the pictures from his 4 month photo shoot.

Birthday Post

Little Gage Oliver was born on a Monday night at 9:20 pm. He was 6 pounds 15 ounces and 21 inches long. It cracked us up that when the Dr. mentioned to us that our child had a healthy set of lungs. Little did we know this would foreshadow the year ahead.

During Gage's first year we learned a little patience and that a "strong personality" isn't such a bad thing. He cracked us up constantly and really kept us on our toes. As you can tell he loved his cake during his first birthday. He also had destroyed his cousins cake during her first birthday just 14 days before his own. He waited until he was 10 months old to crawl, and then he crawled for only 4 weeks before he took off ran (not walk, but run). This world was full of things that Gage wanted to see and do and nothing was (or is) going to slow him down.

Gage discovered trains and so we had his first train birthday party last year when he turned 2. As you can see, we are not cake decorators, or train illustrators. He had a blast. He surprises me every day with what he talks about and the things he does. He's such a fun kid to have around and he loves his brother and family very much. We are so blessed to have him in our family and we can't believe our little Gage-man is 3!

Yesterday we had a fun Thomas party - with tickets that had to be punched by the conductor (Wade), a professional Thomas cake, pin the number on Thomas, Thomas story time with Wade, and Thomas coloring books. Gage had a blast with is friends and I will post pictures soon. As soon as the storm goes away and I am able to get the pictures from my friend who is much more the photographer than I am.