4 Things

These things seriously never get old to me for some reason. I just love them, not to mention I'm doing this to bide some time--I don't want to clean up my house and I'm trying to be patient while I wait for Marc to get home. One more hour to go!

Four jobs you may not have known I have had in my life:

• 8th & 9th grade English teacher
• waitress & server at Chevy's, three different times
• telemarketer--the worst job ever and I wasn't very good at it either
• data entry at Principal financial group--I'm not sure I had a job title

Four movies I could watch over and over:

• Legally Blonde
• Runaway Bride
• The Wedding Singer
• The Count of Monte Cristo
• Italian Job (I had to add a 5th--I just couldn't decide!)

Four places I have lived:

• Toledo, OH
• Colorado Springs, CO
• Provo, UT
• Beijing, China

Four TV shows I love to watch: (in order of days of the week!)

• Gilmore Girls
• Grey's Anatomy
• Close to Home--okay, so Marc and I don't go out anymore on Friday nights so we watch this, if I can even stay awake anymore
• The Amazing Race--every season we decide we'll try out for the next season. Sounds fun but who can take that much time off?

Four places I have been on vacation:

• Hawaii

other than that, vacations are to visit family now so that would include

• northern Utah
• Montpelier, ID
• Colorado Springs, CO (soon to be home, not a vacation spot!)
• Chicago, IL

Four favorite foods: (I don't really have favorite food because I just love good food so here's what I'm in the mood for right now)

• chicken ceasar salad
• cinnamon rolls
• chicken tortilla soup topped with cheese, avacado & chips
• thai linguini from California Pizza Kitchen

Four places I would rather be right now:

• at the beach soaking in the rays
• going to dinner and a movie with Marc--it's surprising what a luxury that becomes when you have kids!
• shopping for clothes for me and my boys
• having a spa day--facial, massage, the works!

Okay, that only took like 20 minutes so I guess I'll go pick up the house and maybe vacuum and mop.

Reasons to Celebrate

We have so many reasons to celebrate life this week! The first being it is officially spring here, or at least it was until this morning when we woke up to rain. But Saturday and yesterday we woke up to the promise of 70 or 80 degree weather. And wow was it beautiful and even in Southern California, the boost in heat can really lift my spirits and get me excited for summer. It was so warm and spring like that we took our lunch out on the lawn yesterday after church and enjoyed a little picnic with the company of a little ladybug. Here are a bunch of pictures of that. Carter kept on getting in the way of the light, so some are a bit shadowy. I guess you can play "Where on Anderson is the ladybug" while you look at them! (Hint, in his hair, between his eyes, & on his arm.) The pictures of Carter are funny too, since he decided, much to the embarrassment of his dad, that he is in fact like his mom and afraid of bugs, even ladybugs. (But I'm not afraid of ladybugs!)

Another reason to celebrate--Anderson turned 5 months on Valentine's Day. This month was one of many developments and many more to come, I'm sure! He began eating rice cereal and is now eating two meals of it a day. He certainly loves to chow which is no secret considering his size! And he looks so small in the high chair! He has rolled over by himself twice now and he sits up pretty good by himself. His biggest and most shocking development is his teething--last week was miserable for us. I thought he was probably teething, but I've never been good at telling, but on Friday we could see two little white specs underneath his gums and yesterday morning we could feel them. Give them a week and they'll be two nice pearly whites jutting out.

We enjoy Carter's antics daily. Here are two of his funny moments from last week captured. I walked in the living room one day last week to find Carter sharing his water with Anderson. And one night, after Carter was in bed, I was cleaning up and walked past Carter's room to find his little fingers poking out from under the door. Scared me to death, but it was so funny I had to sneak a picture! Something of Carter's we do not enjoy are his sassy moments which are happening more often now.

Perhaps the most exciting reasons to celebrate in recent days are Marc's accomplishments. We finally have our immediate future plans nailed down which is comforting after months of limbo. Many of you know we planned to open a clinic in Utah immediately after graduation. Well, one major bump in the road prevented us from moving forward with that and so he accepted a job that will take us to Colorado Springs. Though it was incredibly disappointing to let go of our Utah plans, we are very excited to be embarking on the waters of having a real job and no longer being students. Yea! Colorado has a lot to offer us so come May we will be moving forward with life. Marc also earned his Certified Strength and Condistioning Specialist credential after taking a very expensive and difficult test. As I understand it, this will allow him to develop exercise programs for high school (or other) athletic organizations, among other things.

One last thing to celebrate--my dad qualified for the Boston Marathon on Saturday, a goal he's been working towards for a few years now. Congrats, Dad. We're proud of you.

January in Pictures

What a month! Full of family fun and birthdays!
Sadly, I have let our camera run out of batteries and I think we have some around here somewhere, but I have to dig them out of a crate on the top shelf of the boys closet so this is all I have to show for a great month. Here are the highlights:

• A super trip to Utah to visit grandparents, aunts & uncles (including Aunt Allison who cam down from Rexburg to hold Anderson), and cousins and explore job opportunities. Carter was an angel in the car, watching a record breaking 7 movies in one day on the car ride home. What did parents ever do with out portable DVD players? On the other hand, Anderson was a terror. As a last resort, we drugged him with Benadryl on the way home which only worked to calm him, not make him sleep. Apparently he's partial to his own bed. Aren't we all? Though I wasn't aware babies could be so picky!
• Carter's first snow experiences. He isn't fond of the wet white stuff, though he loves the Lightening McQueen snow boots I came across at Walmart. He's still pulling them out of the closet if only to play with them. He certainly doesn't need to wear them around here!
• A week of birthday celebrations: Marc's 27th which he shared with one of the elders serving in our area. We had our own family breakfast. The missionaries then joined us for a Mexican fiesta dinner. A few days later, Helen, one of Marc's personal training clients turned 81 (or 82, I can't remember) so we had her over for dinner and dessert.
• Danette and her two boys came for a visit at the end of the month. The boys enjoyed playing while Danette and I tired quickly of playing referee. But no matter what fights we all endured during the day, night time was a whole different story. They all slept in the same room each night and what slumber party fun they had. We could hear giggles from their room sometimes hours after bed time.

idiosyncrasies

Jamie tagged me with her list of 'things that make her special' aka idiosyncrasies. So, I spent about an hour or so thinking and here is what I came up with. These are all things that I think drive Marc insane, too!

• When we go on trips, I have to bring my own pillow, even if we're only staying in hotels that of course have a plentiful supply.
• All of my clothes in the closet hang on white hangers. One day a few years ago I was in my 'tornado mode' (Marc's affectionate term for my "I'm stressed and cleaning mode") and I gathered up all of our white hangers and switched my clothes on to them and everyone else is stuck with the rainbow assortment. Someday, maybe Marc will let me do all the closets in white hangers.?
• I'm super picky with my dairy products. Pretty much has to be name brand.
• One of my projects that I finished just after Anderson was born was redoing my spices. Those spice racks you get for your wedding always have random spices, so I dumped the random ones, gathered up the ones I use regularily and dumped those ones in. Then, I relabled all of them so they are all uniform and here's the kicker. I alphabetize them in the rack. I was proud of the pretty display--who knew chili powder, paprika, and whole bay leaves looked so cute in a spice rack?
• For five years now, I have been our family's dishwasher for the most part. Pretty sad, huh. No dishwasher. I have a whole system. First, clean out the sink, run the hot soapy water. Do the bottles and glasses first. Then the silverware, then the plates, then bowls, then pots, pans and oversized anything else. Our sink dish drainer doesn't fit the bottles and glasses, so I line those up on a towel in an organized fashion, too. Kids cups in one line, adult cups in another (glass and plastic in two groups)
• When feeding Carter any meal, if it requires a bowl and a plate, I use matching colors. (We have the ever popular IKEA set of neon blue, green, yellow and orange plates, bowls, and cups) If we use any seperately, I will grab a color of bowl that we've already used that color of plate that day. That way, any clean ones are all the same color.
• About once a week, while cleaning up Carter's cars, I'll gather them up in the sets they were purchased in just to make sure we still have all 30+ of them. If we have misplaced any, I will scour the house or car to find it.

Okay, so I hope you all will still be my friends after you realize that I am probably a legit crazy! Now, anyone who is reading this is tagged and should email or post me their list. Come on you guys, it's super fun to laugh at yourself.