You are all invited!

Hey everyone. Just a quick note to let you know that we will be celebrating Sam's birthday on Wednesday at 7:30 at our house. There will be cake and icecream. Come if you can!

For those of you who hadn't heard...

Just in case you hadn't all heard, I got a teaching job for next fall! I was starting to get really discouraged and stressed that I hadn't found anything yet. I even started looking at school districts in far away places. They say that teachers are in high demand in Utah, but I don't think they mean French teachers. So I will be teaching at Joel P. Jensen Middle School in West Jordan in the Jordan School District (8105 South 3200 West). It's just part-time for now, but really I think that's all I would've found anywhere at this point seeing that I'm only qualified to teach French. Since I'm just part-time, hopefully I'll be able to take whatever classes are needed in order to become endorsed in other areas. The administration seems really great and they sounded so excited that I accepted the job. I'm excited about it too!

Eeeeek!!

I've been trying to have a more healthy lifestyle. I try to be more active and eat good foods. Well, today, I exercised and then decided to eat some lunch. I pulled out my bag of salad, cut up some tomatoes and cucumbers. Only after I had eaten about three-fourths of my salad did I notice a little intruder: a dead bee! Ew! Yuck! Plegh! Gag! I wanted to throw-up! I know in some cultures eating insects is a delicacy, but not here! Not me! I had to throw the rest of my salad in the garbage. Who knows how many bug parts were unknowingly consumed! Yuck!

Once while we were shopping, we picked up a bag of salad and found an alive bee flying around inside the bag. If this is how it's going to be, maybe I won't be buying bagged salad anymore!

The 9 Month Visit

So we had the 9 month doctor visit yesterday. Here are the stats:

Weight: 15 lbs. 0 oz.
Length: 26 in.
Head circumference: 45 cm.

For his weight and his length he is under the 5th percentile and his head is in the 45th percentile (these percentages are still adjusted for him being born a little prematurely). The doctor said that he's growing and developing just fine, and she said that his gums on top are a little swollen. His third tooth should be coming soon.

Oh yeah, some other exciting news is that he finally figured out how to crawl foward! Last Wednesday it finally clicked! Now he's completely mobile!

Tired Baby = Free Food!

Last night we were at the Gateway getting new glasses for Chris (he's been going blind for over a year now...we thought it was about time to get some new ones). While we waited for them to finish, we headed over to Biaggi's to get some dinner. Neither of us had ever been there, so we thought we'd try it out. We ordered our food, and waited and waited. I didn't mind too much; I was just enjoying being together. By the time they brought our food out, Sam was getting really tired and fussy. So after just a couple bites of our food, we asked for boxes to take home. They felt really bad that it took so long, so they gave us our meal free! I'm glad we decided to order appetizers! We figured we got close to $30 worth of food. I was very impressed with them and will definitely go back again sometime.

My hard work is starting to pay off!

Chris has been so wonderful and supportive as I have worked on finishing college. He has worked so many long hours so many days of the week just so I could become a college graduate--a promiseI made to my mission president and to myself. It hasn't been easy; in fact, it feels like I have been running a marathon for the past bunch of years trying to get all my credits in. Throughout my entire pregnancy, I took a total of 47 credits. And then again with a wee baby keeping me sleep-deprived I somehow continued taking classes, and have even been able to successfully do my student-teaching. I've tried to think of my schooling like my job, even though I don't get paid. I have always hoped that somewhere down the road all my hard work would pay off. Well, because of my hard work and good grades, I was invited to submit a valedictory speech for the U's commencement ceremonies. I will find out in a few weeks if I am among the top ten finalists. How cool would that be to talk at my graduation?! And then today I just found out that I was selected to receive the Kennecott Scholarship which is a cash award of $2,500 from the U's Department of Teaching and Learning! I am so happy that I was blessed with the strength and endurance to finish school and that I am able to contribute in a small way to our family's finances. I applied for four other scholarships from which I am still waiting to hear back. Anyway, it's all very exciting and strange to be graduating. It's weird to be looking for an a real job. Hopefully the Mustangs will have me?? We'll see...

Crafting

The other day I went into Michael's craft store to buy some stuff for my classroom, and the scariest thing happened: I had the desire to craft! Yikes! I am so anti-crafting because for one, I'm not very cutesie, and two, it stresses me out to make so many decisions. But while I was in the store for those few minutes, all of my excuses went away, and I thought that it could actually be really fun to create something. Maybe when we have older kids and I'm not so busy with school I'll try to do crafty things with them. I think it's in my blood, but it's really hesitant to come out.

I Love Office Supply Stores!!

Can I just tell you how much I love going into office supply stores! I went into Office Max yesterday to buy some big envelopes, and wanted to buy the whole store. With so many boxes, binders, paper, dividers, tape, and other such organizational items, it gets me so excited to organize anything and everything. Lately, I've been thinking about creating a teaching portfolio, and it's silly how happy it makes me to think about putting it together in a new three-ring binder with colored divider tabs and plastic protector sheets...sigh. Maybe that will be my post-student teaching project in April.

He's getting so big!

So Sam has been hitting some major milestones the past couple weeks. At his last weight check, he weighed in at 14 lbs. 5 oz, if I remember right. He can wear some of his 6-9 month clothes; however, most of them still swamp him. February 12th he rolled over for the first time from his back to his belly. He is now mobile and rolls all over the place. Let the baby-proofing begin! He is eating a variety of veggies: peas, carrotts, squash, and soon sweat potatoes. And as of the beginning of this week, his first tooth has finally popped out! And it's sharp too, so everyone beware! What a fun age!

My Girlfriend, Part II

So yesterday I was out running errands and decided to pop into Great Harvest to say hi to Chris. Just as I was about to leave, I noticed my girlfriend and another neighbor eating at one of the little tables. I almost just walked out without saying hi because I know what'll come out of my girlfriend's mouth; but then I decided to show Sam off to her because they have never met.

Girlfriend: Oh, is this your baby?! You know, this should have been my grandbaby!

Exactly the sort of thing I expected her to say.

Girlfriend: I really wished you and Steven could have gotten together. But you and your husband do make cute babies. I guess I could forgive him for marrying you.

If she forgives him, does that mean she'll stop bugging me about her grandson every time I run into her. I mean really...the last time I went on a date with her grandson was 6 1/2 years ago, we're both married now, and I have a baby! It obviously wasn't meant to be.

As I was walking out the door, I said goodbye to Chris. I guess my girlfriend didn't realize who he was until then.

Girlfriend: Ooh! Is that your husband? He is soo cute!

Maybe she'll start having a crush on both of us now!

Home again, home again, jiggity-jig

I am happy to report that we finally made it home from Texas last night. Coming home from vacation always seems to take longer than the getting there. Our plane was originally supposed to leave at 6pm-ish. Late yesterday afternoon we got a phone call from Delta saying that it had been delayed till 7:30 because of severe weather in Dallas. It had been raining really hard, there was lots of close thunder and lightning, and even some tornado watches, all of which are unusual for this time of year. When we got to the airport, the plane coming from Salt Lake that was going to be ours coming back was delayed. Because of all the crazy weather in Dallas, they left Salt Lake late, and then once they got here, they had to circle the area for at least an hour and a half to wait their turn to land among all the other delayed flights. Once that plane landed, we were informed that it had been hit by lightening, so they had to check it out and make sure it was okay for another flight. Luckily nothing was damaged too seriously, and we were in the air by 10:30pm. Again, Sam was a great little traveler and slept the entire flight home. I wonder if he'd make it to Europe so well behaved. Anyway, we got our bags, took a taxi, and were home by about 12:30am. I had been looking forward to my warm comfy bed, but because we turned off the heat while we were gone, our thermostat read 42 degrees in our house. I went to bed with my new winter hat, new fuzzy socks, warm pajamas, a hoodie, and a tootsie-toaster. Poor Chris went to bed for an hour before he had to go bake at Great Harvest at 2am. He had to go in so early because he also has to work at the InstaCare from 10am to 10pm. Back to the real world, I guess.

Our Trip to Texas

I think time moves faster in Texas because I can hardly believe our time here is just about done. It's been such a nice trip, and it will be hard coming back to real life.

We left Sunday afternoon--Christmas Eve. Sam was such a great little traveler; it was his first time ever on an airplane. He slept almost the entire flight to Dallas except for the last 30 minutes or so, but even then he was a happy guy. I hope he does just as well on the flight home tomorrow. The first two nights we stayed at Chris' Aunt Elaine and Uncle Richard's house. We had three big families staying over for Christmas, so the house was filled to capacity (it's a really nice big house, so it wasn't so bad at all). Sam had so many admirers and googelie-eyed people playing with him that it overwhelmed and overstimulated him making him more fussy than usual. Being so popular and loved is so hard! The rest of the time some of us have been staying at Chris' dad's parents house, and the others at Chris' mom's parents house--they both live in Irving.

Christmas morning was fun as we opened our presents. The best part was having Chris' grandpa come for a few hours. He's been in the hospital for the last three weeks, and they let him out for a couple hours Christmas morning. For that set of grandparents 50th anniversary, Chris' mom put together a nice DVD of old family pictures and family movie clips. We also put together a nice quilt for them--each son, daughter, grandchild, grandchild-in-law, and great-grandchild (Sam is the only one) was in charge of decorating a square, and they were all put together as a quilt. It was a very nice present.

Sam has had many firsts on this trip. He went to his first movie. We went to see Eragon. Again, Sam was very well behaved for the most part. We only had to go out of the theater once for a diaper change. He went to his first museum. Today we went to the Dallas Museum of Art to see a Vincent Von Gogh exhibit. It was very cool! And to get there, Sam went on his first train--the TRE (the Trinity Rail Express, I think). We spent the whole afternoon there at the museum, and Sam just sat in his Snugglie carrier so content and happy. What a good boy.

He hasn't been this good the whole trip. Like I mentioned earlier, he has been passed from one admiring fan to the next. One of the nights we went out to a crazy restaurant called the Magic Time Machine. If ever you are in Dallas, you must go to this place. Each waiter plays the character of someone. Our waiter was one of the Spartan cheerleaders from Saturday Night Live. It was so loud and so crazy that Sam let us know just how overwhelmed he was. He rarely cries so hard. Poor guy.

So that's pretty much been our trip. We've eaten like crazy (I think I've gained lots of weight), and spent lots of fun quality time with the extended relatives down here (Chris' one grandpa got out of the hospital for good this evening). The weather has been amazing, and it's going to be so hard to come back to the snow. I guess our vacation can't last forever! Too bad it can't!

Time flies when you're having fun

Three years ago from today I came home from my mission. Four years ago this coming April Chris came home from his mission. That's two sister-missions for me and two elder-missions for Chris!

My Girlfriend

So yesterday at the bridal shower, I ran into my girlfriend from the family ward who I haven't seen in a very long time. She's still as crazy as ever and still wishes I had married her grandson.

Girlfriend: So how are you and your husband doing?
Me: Really well.
Girlfriend: Darn! So you two are happy together?
Me: Yeah, my husband is wonderful!
Girlfriend: Darn! My grandson got married, but the girl is completely opposite of you. I wish he had married you!

She seriously said all that! How am I supposed to respond?! When Chris and I were engaged, I brought Chris to the family ward so people could meet him. When I tried to introduce him to my girlfriend, she refused to shake his hand because she was mad that he was taking me away from her grandson. More than two years later she still hasn't gotten over it. She does this all jokingly, but as the saying goes, many a truth is spoken in jest. Why does she love me so much?

Black Friday

So I've never done the Black Friday thing ever, but I decided to try it. I was up anyway with the baby at 5am, so soon as I had finished feeding him, I left the little guy with my hubby and ventured into the cold to go to Target. I knew things were crazy at stores; I had been watching the early news shows showing huge crowds storming malls, but for some reason I thought Target wouldn't be so bad. I got there and could hardly find a place to park. I have never seen the parking lot so full! Then I could hardly find a shopping cart. When I got inside, the store was packed with crazed shoppers running around trying to grab everything from their lists before the stock runs out. I heard one lady say that some random person had tried to steal some stuff out of her shopping cart. I shopped around a little bit, but then had to abandon my shopping cart as I could hardly get down any aisles with it. In the end I didn't buy too much. I mostly just went for the experience and to see what kinds of sales they had. I don't think I'll ever try shopping on Black Friday ever again. It was absolutely insane!! However, I left the store around 7am and could tell that it had calmed down a little bit. Maybe it'd be okay to go shopping later in the day if you don't mind missing all the early bird special sales.

Sam's 4 month visit

For anyone who is interested, here are Sam's stats as of November 17th from his 4 month visit to the doctor:

Weight: 10 lbs. 5 oz.
Length: 22 1/4 in.
Head Circumference: 41 cm.

Still small, but growing on his own curve. Everything looks okay!

Yea for Turkies!!

So I beat my bowling record, and I'll probably never bowl as well ever again! At yesterday's anual Thanksgiving bowling extravaganza, I started my game with a turkey--three strikes in a row! And how appropriate to have done that on Thanksgiving! At the end of it all, I think I got a couple more strikes and spares leaving me with my high score of 153! We could join a league, but team members beware--that last game was definately a fluke! I rarely bowl over 80!

What is this world coming to?!

It was an unseasonably warm day (a couple weeks ago) when I saw a minivan driving down Davis Blvd, an arm hanging out the passenger side holding a leash and a dog walking on the sidewalk all alone. Are we so lazy that we can't even get off our behinds to walk for a few minutes?! Especially on such a beautiful day! What kind of healthy habits did that teach that kid? I was flaberghasted!

Book Club

Some of my friends from my French classes and I started a book club. Today was our first real meeting (two weeks ago everyone met to decide on what we were going to read). Our first book is The Phantom of the Opera in French (Le Fantome de l'Opera). What I hadn't realized was that it was written by the same author of a one of my favorite books we studied last semester (Le Mystere de la Chambre Jaune by Gaston Leroux). We had our meeting on the roof of the Salt Lake library. It was a perfect afternoon to be outside with friends discussing the book (which I actually haven't technically started yet, though I know the story very well). It was also fun to have Sam come and meet my friends from school. What a precocious child for attending a book club meeting at such a young age! If any of you French speakers are interested in joining, vous etes le bienvenues!

What's your best time?

When we lived in Farmington, once or twice a week I would drive Chris to work at 4am in order to avoid having to drive both our cars out to Bountiful since we both had places to be in the mornings. The drive to Bountiful was always dark and cold, and the only thing I could think about was how nice it must be to be able to stay in my cozy bed for a full eight hours. The streets at that hour are pretty quiet and empty, however there are a few regulars that we see. For example, often we would see a lady out walking her dog in her bath robe. I think a coat would probably keep her warmer, but for whatever reason, she settles on her robe. Almost every morning during our drive on Main Street to Great Harvest we would see people out exercising. What kind of crazy person wakes up at 4am to go running?! I know exercise is important, but so is sleep! I admire their determination to go running and walking so diligently, but I still think they're crazy! In my opinion and experience, in order to make your own personal exercise plan work, you need to schedule it at a time that motivates you the most. For me, on several occasions, I have forced myself to wake up early to go running. It'll usually last a couple days, and then I stop because I value my sleep. I have found that my best time to workout is between 3-5pm. That way I don't lose any sleep, it's not too dark or cold outside, and I still have the rest of the evening to do whatever I want. If you plan exercising at a time that is naturally the best for you personally, I think you will find the most success.