Fun in the Sun

Caleb took his boards on the 20th and then we flew to California on the 21st. It has been a busy but really fun trip. On Friday the AMGEN tour of California time trials were in the valley. Caleb was so excited to see all the pro racers up close and racing. The whole valley was set up for the race, and the major sports stations were in town. It was amazing to see how fast the racers went. The weather was cool, high 50's-60's and a little rainy during the weekend.

Friday my nephew Jared got his mission call, so we all went to Travis and Susan's for dessert to see him open it. He got called to the Kentucky, Louisville mission. We are so excited for him and know he will do a great job. It is amazing to see all my nephews and nieces getting so grown up.

Saturday was my birthday. Caleb made an amazing breakfast and got me a year pass to Shelburne Farms, I am so excited. Then my parents took me out to lunch and to the grocery store to pick out all my favorite foods for dinner. Sunday everyone came up for dinner and a birthday party for me and for Ezra's first birthday. It was so much fun to see everyone, and celebrate.
Monday we woke up early and went to Disneyland. It was so much fun, we got to go on so many rides with Joshua. Basically every ride without a height limit we could go with Joshua. He was so excited looking at all the fun things as we rode through the rides. On the other rides we could get buddy passes and take turns riding. Elizabeth's boys loved it because they got to go on every ride twice. Then we spent the night and went to California Adventure the next day. It was really amazing weather, mid 80's! It was so much fun, but has a totally different feel than Disneyland. The rides are bigger and more extreme.




We go home Saturday, and are just hanging out and enjoying being with the family and the sunshine.

Tagged: 10 years ago

Natalie tagged me, and this seems like a really fun one.

10 years ago I was a senior at Bainbridge Island High school Washington. Some of my friends were Lindsey Griffith, Amanda Jensen, Maggi Holbert, Blaire Keller, Ryan and Taylor Simmons. I had a crush on Jared Dever, who was older than me, and have always had a thing for Brad Pitt.

Snacks I enjoy: Any kind of fruit, wheat thins, raw carrots, vegan chocolate chip cookies (See post below)

5 Things on my to do list:
1. Start Joshua's scrapbook
2. Clean my house
3. Go for a run
4. Get a haircut
5. Do and fold my piles of laundry

Things I would do if I were suddenly a billionaire:
1. Buy a 20 acre ranch in Santa Barbara County, CA with a farm house, gardens, dirt bike trails, pool, tree house, chickens, ducks, horse and a pet cow. All this so Joshua and his future siblings can play, explore and discover outside everyday of the year, like when I was a kid.

I'd use the remaining few dollars to:
2. Pay off all our debt and my siblings debt.
3. Go on an African Safari to see the big cats, and then travel the rest of the world.
4. Get my masters and possibly doctorate.
5. Make Caleb work 1/2 or 1/4 time so he can spend lots of time with us.

3 of my bad habits
1. I pick at everything.
2. People watching, I find people and all their quirks very interesting and often find myself staring and eavesdropping.
3. I like to get job done quick, sometimes at the expense of the finished project.

5 Places I have lived:
1. Santa Barbara, CA
2. Spokane, WA
3. Bainbridge Island, WA
4. Narva, Estonia
5. Vilnius, Lithuania

5 Jobs I have had:
1. House Painter for 5 years with my brother-in-law
2. Child care worker at a day care
3. Receptionist at Rob Rosenberry Physical Therapy
4. Teacher at Lindamood-bell learning processes
5. Substitute Teacher

Things People don't know about me:
- I have had pet rabbits, chickens, hamsters, rats, turtles, fish, ducks, crows, parakeets, cats, dogs and about any other critter I can turn into a pet.
- I have ridden a camel and climbed into the inner tomb of the pyramids in Egypt.
- I am a health nut. I take my vitamins daily, buy organic foods, read the labels of everything I buy, workout, would rather spend money on good food than on clothes, read and study about homeopathic medicine, and am paranoid about using any over the counter or prescription drugs unless absolutely necessary. I think that the food and drug industry is a business, like any other business they are out to make a buck even at the cost of the American public. Caleb calls me his closet hippie, it is my favorite soap box subject. [Editors Note: Caleb doesn't entirely approve, condone, or support some of the author's opinions...in fact he wonders why she fell for someone planning on a career in the health care establishment]
- My oldest brother is closer in age to my mother than to me, which makes makes the oldest of my eighteen nephews and nieces 21 years old.
- I love to work, not in an office (I hate that) but manual labor. It physically challenges me and makes me feel really good. I can't sit still and am constantly doing something.

Living with Board-om

Caleb is taking the Step One of the Medical boards on February 20, so he has been studying like mad. I must say he is an amazing husband and father and I absolutely adore him. No matter how busy he is or stressed he is he always takes time out to be with us, and do all his church duties. He is really good at keeping his priorities straight, even when I know he is stressed with school. With the board studying he leaves in the morning and comes home around 5:30, plays with Joshua, and eats dinner with us. By seven he is back at the books until about midnight. This is nightly Joshua and daddy time.

I really appreciate and am proud of his diligence, and am grateful that he takes his role of providing for us so seriously. That said, honestly I have been getting a little bored of the boards. Even for my hour or two a day I get him, his head is wandering through micro biology and pathology. (By the way I have declared my hour of dinner time with Caleb a phone free time, so if we don't answer we will call you back, but our time together is short and sacred. You all can wait.)

I have been finding ways to entertain myself. I have my daily routine of waking up and bundling Joshua up in the jogger and going for a run. Since my surgery I have not been able to run, compounding my boredom for these last two weeks. Instead I have been taking long gentle walks in the frigid Vermont air. It gives me meditation time and fresh air for the day, which without I would go mad. To break my boredom I went out on a limb and invited all the med student wives and their kids over for lunch. Now for those of you who know me best you know this was really going out of my comfort zone. I have always been a bit of... well you could say a loner (Caleb says introvert-ish). I am perfectly content running, gardening, cleaning, reading, doing whatever all day with little to no social interaction beyond my family. I love to work, be outside and basically always be doing something. The problem is that before medical school I always had lots of family around to interact with all day. My family has always been my friends (I still talk to my sister everyday around 12). So being here by myself I have noticed that I actually do need more social interaction than previously assumed. I think Heavenly Father moved me here to Vermont, with long lonely winters, a social husband, and none of my normal society anywhere nearby so that I could learn to step out of my bubble and rely on others more. Anyway I had a wonderful time at lunch and am very grateful for all the wonderful friends that I have nearby, who know exactly what is like to live through medical school. I am also very grateful for free long distance calling :).

Besides hosting lunches, I have been playing with Joshua. He is very entertaining. This is one of his favorite toys.



Today he is eight months old. Since he has started to crawl he has really taken off; he is non-stop movement and noise. He is extremely sociable, loves to snuggle, and to play with me or Caleb, but not so much by himself. Part of that is being the first, but I have consciously tried since he was little to let him play on his own, but he never wanted to. He would much rather sit with me and see what I am doing and interact with me than play with toys. So he keeps me busy, he really has a great little personality, and is very smiley and funny. I spend half my day crawling around playing peek a boo with him around the furniture. I really could not imagine are more fulfilling and wonderful job as mothering. Not that it is not hard; I remember thinking that my mission was the most physically, emotionally and spiritually draining, yet fulfilling work in the world. I stand corrected. Mothering beats it a hundred times over. Anyway, Joshua has decided to go all out in getting his teeth. All four of his top front teeth have been cutting through at once this week. He has taken it really well, but defiantly has been uncomfortable and not able to sleep. Hence, I am a little loopy this weekend.


Every month around his month birthday I do a little photo shoot with Joshua. One day I am going to get a "real" SLR camera, with manual focus, interchangeable lenses and all that fun stuff. Of course, by that time we also might have a TV that is not purple and green, a perfectly functioning car, a dishwasher where the hoses don't explode off every time we run it, a computer that has a functioning hard drive... and all the other little non-necessities of life. I can always dream, right? :) Anyway, these are a few of my favorite pictures from the latest photo shoot, although they are getting harder to take as he becomes more mobile.

Grandmas, write up your orders :)

Our Europe/Russia trip Summer 2006

I know this trip was a long time ago, but my parents are planning a trip for this summer and wanted to see our pictures. It was the greatest, most tiring trip we have ever taken. We went to 8 countries: Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Russia and saw a lot of the sites within those countries! In the Baltics and Russia, we also visited the people we knew while serving on our missions. (I served in the Baltics & Caleb served in Rostov) We took a lot of trains, and planes and stayed in a lot of hostels. It was really a once in a lifetime experience, and really fun.

Disclaimer: there's a hundred-and-something pictures, so you might want to take advantage of the "view all images" button, unless you have lots of time...which we're fine with.

Update on Joshua

Joshua has been very, very, slowly entering the world of food. He loves avocado; here he is eating the little bit that was left in the peel. He would not give it up until he had sucked every last bit out of the peel. The only problem is that he gets a terrible stomachache for days whenever he eats. We can't figure it out, so we are going extremely slowly.



Diaper changing and getting dressed has become quite the challenge. He just starts arching and flipping and crawling away. I end up having to pin him down just to get his diaper on.



Joshua loves to help me "clean up". He sits there and opens and closes the cupboard door and pulls all the Tupperware out. Then he pulls up on the dishwasher and pulls out all the dishes.



Joshua is getting really good at pulling up on things. He loves using the knobs of our armoire, but then will loose his grip and bonk his head (so sad). He is so determined to figure it out that he won't stop doing it. Until he gets stronger I have been putting pillows in a circle around him to fall on.



I had to put a picture of our cat, Figaro, on here for my dad and sister. She is Joshua's best friend (although Caleb finds that ridiculous), so he crawls after her all day and tries to grab her ears and fur. I try to teach him to be soft but it has not worked to well yet. Luckily she has been very patient with him...so far.

Joshua's Dream Come True (AKA Musings of an anesthetized mind...)

Friday I had a hernia repair, my first and hopefully last surgery of my life. It wasn't too bad. We had to be there at 6 am for a 7:25 operation. I was able to stay with Joshua and Caleb up through all of my pre-op. This was wonderful because Joshua was really tired because of his rude awakening at 5:30 am in 5 degree weather. I got to nurse him one last time and get him all calm before they rolled me away.

I opted for the least amount of drugs as possible for the surgery, to avoid getting passing it along to Joshua. Consequently, I was awake and alert (or at least thought I was). Before they rolled me away to the OR they gave me a mild sedative that made me fell like a had butterflies flying around in my head, and Caleb said I sounded really drunk, but I thought I was totally normal. I was talking to the Doctor and anesthesiologist the whole time during the operation, thinking I was having a normal coherent conversation, but most likely not. They just put some local on the area where they cut, which was strange because i could feel them touching and tugging at my stomach, but the sedative made me not care. Anyway it went great and only took an hour before I was in recovery with Joshua and Caleb again. Joshua slept most of the time I was gone, but was very nervous of all the people that kept attacking his mommy and insisted on sitting right by me, and crying when ever someone came near.

Since the surgery I have been pretty sore, and have to walk all hunched over or it pulls on the incision. I have also been too sore to carry Joshua. He loves it since all I do is sit down on the ground on a pillow and let him crawl all over and play. He loves that I can't get up and do other things. I am always right there, so he crawls over to see me, and then back to his toys, etc. I'm sure it's what he's always dreamed of: his mommy and his toys together all day long.

Anyway I am starting to feel much better already; everything is healing great.

Moving up in the World!

So Joshua has been crawling like mad. Every day he gets a little faster and more daring. We have had a lot of head bonks, but most of the time he bonks and stops to think and then keeps on moving, although if it is bad one he always needs his mommy.

He is a bit of an over achiever and is not content down on his hands and knees, so he has began climbing, which is the source of all the bad head bonks. He pulls himself up on everything and will stand there and talk and talk, like he is saying look what I can do! He stands at the dishwasher, bathtub, chairs... but these yellow boxes are his favorite because he can climb up them.

Vegan, Sugar Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

So these may sound gross to the average reader of our blog, but they are the only dessert I get. Joshua still has a protein intolerance, and gets blood in his stool anytime I eat dairy, soy, nuts, or eggs, so I have gone vegan, besides eating meat. Also I am hypoglycemic, and don't eat any refined sugars, but am a health nut so wont eat NutraSweet or any other artificial stuff. I usually sweeten with Agave nectar, or pure Vermont maple syrup. Anyway, a was craving a treat so went to the health food store to see if I could find anything, I found these wonderful chocolate chip cookies that were 4 dollars each! I got one to satisfy the craving, but couldn't justify anymore than that. Instead I took the ingredient list and tried to figure out how to make them. After several failed attempts I finally figured them out, and have had request from some family members for the recipe. So here it is:

1/2 Cup Safflower oil

1 Cup pure Vermont Maple Syrup ( no Aunt Jemima or Log cabin. This needs the real deal)

Mix

Mix and then add

1 Tbl Baking Powder

1 Tbl Water

Add

2 Tbl Arrowroot Powder (it is hard to find but doesn't work without it)

1 Tsp Vanilla

1 Tsp Baking Soda

2 Cups Flour

Mix

Add

One handful Grain sweetened Dark chocolate chips

Bake at 350 for about 7 minutes

I think they're best really light and doughy.

Joshua is Crawling!

So when we left for California Joshua was scooting, gradually he got the army crawl down, and two days after we got home he started crawling! He is still stow and unstable but everyday is getting better.

New Years in Utah

I recently had my computer die. So unfortunately we lost a few pictures, mainly the ones from Utah and of our own little Christmas. Luckily Caleb was able to save all our other pictures.

This is one of the only pictures we have, I look great :). Joshua got a really cute farm, and loves it. He sucks on the animals and barn all day.


We had a great time in Utah. We played games, saw a movie, went skiing and snowshoeing. We had a great time seeing everyone, and spending time with them. As usual the trip went to fast.

Christmas

Christmas came early this year. I left for California on the 11th so we had Christmas eve on the 10th, with Christmas dinner, story and all, and opened our presents and ate cinnamon rolls and a big breakfast on the 11th. Then I flew out to California with Joshua. Caleb joined us in California on the 21st well almost the 22nd by the time his flight finally came in. We were so excited to see him.

On Christmas Sunday Ezra and Joshua had matching Christmas outfits. They looked very cute, except Joshua's was soaked with drool by the time we got to Church. Grandma was so excited to have Joshua there and kept giving him kisses and getting red lipstick on him, so he always looked rosy.



Since we finally had someone there to take a picture of our family we tried to take a family picture. Except Caleb decided to grow out a beard while I was away, I am trying to get him to set a date to shave it off. We'll see how it goes.




On Sunday was also Braddock's 1st birthday so the whole family went down to John and Kimberlee's to celebrate.



On Christmas eve my parents, Scott and Elizabeth, and us made a traditional Christmas eve dinner, read the Christmas story and opened one present. All the boys got matching cowboy pajama's. Elizabeth, mom and I all went shopping together, and hit all the same Christmas sales, so the boys ended up with a lot of matching clothes. :)



Christmas morning we had a huge breakfast with cinnamon rolls, and opened presents. Elizabeth, Scott and the boys came over for breakfast and to show us their presents. Caleb's favorite part of Christmas morning was helping the little boys put all their Playmobile stuff together, and then playing with them.




Then in the afternoon we went down to Travis and Susan's for the traditional Christmas dinner with the whole family. We ate, opened presents and played games. Kristin had got a really fun game for her play station called Sing Star, so we were all having singing show downs. Caleb and Elizabeth were getting very competitive, but Elizabeth won everyone in the end.



The week after Christmas we went on Joshua's first picnic, he loved laying in the sunshine and crawling out on the grass for the first time. Then I pushed him in the swing for the first time and he was so excited! Elijah and Isaac loved Joshua and were always hugging him and playing with him. He loved his cousins and thought they were so funny.



Bath time in Grandma's sink with Ezra.



One day we decided to take an adventure walk on one of the beach paths. Caleb, my dad and I walked for five miles, and Elizabeth and Scott ran for like nine miles with the two older boys on bikes. The boys slept really well that night. Afterwards we walked on the beach for a little bit. I love the ocean, and have a really hard time living away from it. So every time we go to California I have to walk along the beach and stick my feet in the sand to get grounded again.




We had so much fun in California, and I loved all the time I got to be outside in the sunshine and all the time we got to spend with my family. We were really busy the whole time and the trip went way to fast as usual. On New Years Eve we flew out to Utah to spend a week with Caleb's family, and are leaving to go home tomorrow. I will write a post about that trip when we get home.

I had to share my favorite view in the whole world, it makes me feel at home when ever I see it. To me it is the most beautiful view in the whole world.