What blog?

Ohhh, that's right. I have a blog. Sorry, I kind of let it slip my mind...

Actually, my computer parts just came in this week, and I am HOPING Andrew will feel up to putting it all together for me this weekend. Then I will be FREE once again. I have just been bumming time from Andrew's while he is at work.

SO... we are officially moving at the end of this month! We're moving to Lindon--to rent out the basement of Andrew's boss's house. It's kind of weird--we know. But it's a very nice apartment (we'll have our own two car garage!!--oh what we could do with storage space!) and a DISHWASHER and WASHER AND DRYER. I'm sorry--I am very excited about those things. I have been hand washing dishes for a year and a half now (or mostly not washing dishes for a year and a half), and have been dragging myself, Kate, and bags and bags of laundry to the laundromat for a year and a half--and I have to say--I am SO sick of it!! I never would have made it as a pioneer, I completely realize that.

This is a dishwasher, for those folks (like me) who have not seen one in a very, very long time.

Anyway, we'll be moving shortly after Christmas. Once again, I hate packing and moving and all of that, but both Andrew and I enjoy going somewhere new and experiencing something different. Not sure how long we will be living there or what's in store for us, but we are excited for a new adventure!

PS In case you can't tell what the new banner is...it's Kate holding up a star and looking at it. Andrew took this picture through her play tent door, and then had fun with it in Photoshop.

Ugh blech argh

Well, it's been a rough couple of weeks. My computer is BROKEN, which means I am fighting for the will to live right now. :) I have to bum time from Andrew's computer (which is very difficult) or go to the library (gasp) or the Wymount office (ugh).

Anyway, no--Kate is not potty-trained. She kind of is, kind of isn't. But I am spending less on diapers, so that's something.

We had fun on Halloween--will post pics at some point in the future.

I am turning 30 this week--shoot me now.

But the weather is beautiful, my parents and brother are coming to town this week, and Andrew just finished editing the Provo temple picture that I want to frame and put on our wall. To view, click here.

So...things are looking up.

Potty Training: Complete?

This picture has nothing to do with potty training, of course, but I realized I never posted it, and it's cute. Kate is with her Aunt Crystal's dog, Sabrina. This was from a couple months ago.

Andrew thinks I'm a little premature in declaring Kate potty trained (and you will probably agree with him after reading this), but I'm saying it anyway (we've only been doing it since Monday...). She's only had one peeing accident in the last three days. The poo is a different story. She did finally go poo in the potty yesterday, but it came with much drama...or trauma, I guess I should say. Once she was done, she yelled for me (I was trying to give her some privacy), and she screamed her head off--a kind of terrified sort of scream. She just wanted off that potty and away from the poo. My celebrating was completely ignored and she didn't even acknowledge M&M's until she was a safe distance away. She's had similar reactions seeing the poo in her panties, and tonight in the tub. It's like she never realized what was in her diaper all these years.

You all may remember my last try at potty training her, which did not go well. I couldn't even think about potty training again for a year (I just realized it was almost exactly a year ago that I tried), even though she probably could have done it a few months ago. Her friends and cousins are all potty trained, and that got her more interested.

But still, most of the time it is a pain to get her on the potty. It only happens when I tell her she will get chocolate (and lately not even then). (Next week's challenge will be to wean her off the chocolate.) She holds it and doesn't go for hours until she comes skidding into the bathroom crying that she needs to go. Her pull-ups have been bone dry the last two nights, so she is in her panties for the first time tonight. We'll see how that goes...

I know you are all so curious about her potty training, but it has really been a great time for me--I feel so free! It's really more effort to help her go potty than it was to change her diaper every few hours, but it will save us some money every month which will be fabulous. And she won't be the only Sunbeam come January who's still wearing diapers.

Kate says the funniest things lately. When I was praising her for being "potty trained," her reply was, "Yes! I'm a potty train!" Ha ha. :) And when we tell her what a big girl she is, she sometimes agrees proudly, but other times insists, "No, I'm a little girl." All this potty training business makes me feel like she is all grown up--next milestone: high school graduation! It's nice to know that she's not in too big of a hurry to grow up either.

Andrew's new pic

Just thought I'd let everyone know Andrew has a new picture on his website. We're still working on the title and description. Oh, and Andrew added a feature that lets you comment on his website (just click on the tab below the pic that says "Leave a Comment") if you have something to say. :) You can also increase the size of the photo under the tab "Page Display Options."

Click here to see the new photo.

PoLITE

Ha ha, I just had to write this down. Just now I was teaching Kate to shake hands and say her name, then say, "It's nice to meet you." After she did it successfully, I said, "Oh, you're so polite, huh?"

To which she responded, "NO!! I'm a PINK light."

Time for a Kate update

Sneaking some of Daddy's birthday cake in her "princess dress." It's supposed to go over another dress...

My mom reminded me that even though I am writing a lot for examiner.com, I can't neglect giving a Kate update once in a while on the blog. So here goes.

Kate is adorable. Nothing's changed there.

She has recently become obsessed with princesses and princess dresses. She didn't have any princess dresses, though, so she's been dressing up in her Sunday dresses every day...all day long. In and out, in and out. I finally got her a princess dress from Kid-to-Kid a couple weeks ago. The day after she got it she threw up ALL over it. Nice. Hand wash only.

I asked her to tell me when she needed to throw up again so that I could try to aim her to a big bowl. Well, she did tell me when, but after only hitting the bowl one time, she then began running crazily all over the house refusing to throw up again in the bowl, but all the while throwing up on the couch, carpet, walls, speakers, you get the idea. Poor thing. She's better now (after passing the flu to me and then me to Andrew).

When I was really sick one day and trying not to throw up, I told Kate I was feeling sick to my stomach. She looked worried, and ran to the bathroom. I heard her yell, "You need to blow your nose FIRST!" She was getting me a piece of toilet paper. She connects sickness with me telling her to blow her nose. :) She then brought me her princess cup with water in it and told me to drink water. She got tired of playing doctor after that and told me to "GET UP!!"

Yesterday, she asked to wear panties and go pee pee in the potty. Excited, I took her up on it. She went a couple times, and had a couple accidents. What she mostly wanted was to wear her cute little panties (no other clothes), and then change her panties like she changes dresses. I was talking to Andrew in the office, when out of the corner of my eye I see a very naked girl running down the hall. I still don't know where the blue panties went...

I hear "I'm a princess, Mommy! I'm a princess!!" about 2000 times a day. And when I am wearing a dress for church, I hear "You're a princess, Mommy!! You're a princess!!" I'm a little worried her vocabulary growth has been stunted...with all the princess stuff.

She can play kid games really well on the computer. She's mastered the mouse already. We recently got her a Sesame Street game and there's a part where they sing about people in the neighborhood. People like a barber, baker, doctor, and for some reason an astronaut...haven't figured that one out yet. She loves "cutting" our hair. She'll drape a blanket around me, shove my head in different directions, then she gives me a sucker at the end. It's cute.

She LOVES dogs, especially Grandma Ellen's dogs, and still talks about them every few days.

She loves her cousins (my sis's kids), and we try to spend time with them at least once a week.

She LOVES to sing Primary songs and knows almost all the words (it gets a little iffy in some spots) to "I love to see the temple" and "I am a child of God." The temple song is by far her favorite, though, and we sing it over and over and over. I got an audio recording of it. I'll have to see if I can figure out a way to post it. She gets so excited every time we pass the Provo Temple. When I told her Daddy and Mommy were married there, she replied, "Kate's married there, too."

She's generally an obedient, happy, affectionate little girl that we love very much.

Writing for examiner.com

I recently started writing for examiner.com on local and national politics. Since I get paid based on how many people are reading my articles, thought I would put in a shameless plug! Here is a link to my first article (I only have two right now). Hope you'll visit! :)

Patrick Swayze 1952-2009

I looked high and low for my sketch book from when I was like 8 or 9. I had some nice drawings of Patrick. I thought it would be fitting to post them. Oh well. If I find them sometime soon, I will put them up. For now, I had to go with an internet picture. Rest in peace, Patrick.

Protesting at the Utah State Capitol Building

Had fun this weekend joining millions of people across the country protesting BIG (and corrupt) government. It was great!

(My dumb lens had a smudge on it, and so the "We" on the "We the People" is all messed. Oh well!)

A blessing for pillows

I'm not sure if it is sacrilegious to post this or not...but I thought it was super cute. Andrew gave me and Kate a blessing last night. And when Andrew gave me a blessing, Kate thought it was just a prayer, so she repeated every word that he said as he was giving it. Then when it was her turn, she sat perfectly still with her eyes shut tight. Afterwards, she kept asking him for more. When she didn't get any more, she decided she wanted to give a blessing. She took our three pillows off the couch, one by one, put them in the chair and gave them a blessing. She did this over and over and over. Andrew joked that our pillows should stay in mint condition for years to come. :)

View from the Saddle

I forgot to post this with my last entry. Oops.

I (almost) made it to the TOP!!

Yikes! What a trip! On Friday, we left Kate with Andrew's mom and sister at his grandparents' cabin and headed to Mt. Timpanogos! Andrew's wanted me to go with him to do this for years now, but my claim at being too out of shape has never changed, so I decided to just go for it. Oh, and have I ever mentioned that I'm afraid of heights? That comes into play later.

The hike up was GORGEOUS!! A total mountain paradise complete with an abundant array of wildflowers, wildlife (luckily we didn't see bears, but we did see cute little wild hamsters!), and waterfalls. Wow. The first two hours up, I was like, "This isn't so bad. This is fun!" Andrew kept warning me not to get too excited, because it's always much longer to the destination than you realize. Very true. It was 6.5 miles up to where we planned to sleep.

In case you can't tell what you're looking at, that is a moose.

On our hike up we were approached by a salesman (who got us to stop by asking us to take his picture) trying to get us into a pyramid scheme of some new miracle juice. Of all places to be solicited!

We were headed to Emerald Lake to camp for the night, then planned to hike to the top of Timp the next morning, then gather our stuff, and head back down again. Well, it ended up being dark (we left late in the afternoon) before we reached the lake. On the way to the lake you have to walk along a very steep, rocky, ledge. We did that completely exhausted and by flashlight. I was freaked out. Plus there was a Boy Scout behind me who kept saying to his group, "Woah! Be careful! It's STRAIGHT down, and I don't trust half the rocks I'm standing on!" That didn't help me. Finally, we got to the lake and set up our tent in the best place we could (considering we couldn't see anything), and it happened to be on a very sloped spot, which made for an interesting night's sleep. Plus, it was FREEZING! Very freak temperature for August. We were then both rudely awakened at 2 AM to a group of people screaming at the top of their lungs. It seems they hiked up to the summit by moonlight (it was almost a full moon) and then yelled for a good while up there (and while sliding down on the glacier). Then, I woke again later to rapid gunfire! That really freaked me out because we'd been told by a ranger that there'd been bear and cougar sightings and that the cougar was being tracked. I didn't sleep well.

The next morning we hiked to the "saddle" of Mt. Timp. See pics below.

This is a terrible picture of me (my pants are all poofy from the wind--I swear I'm not THAT fat), but the only one we took of the view of the city before the clouds appeared out of nowhere and overtook the mountain.

This is what I saw (above), a trail to the summit on the edge of a steep cliff covered in clouds. Hmm. I was scared to death! No way am I going out there, I told Andrew. After much discussion and compelling arguments, I decided I'd better try to make it to the summit (only about 30 minutes from this point). Holy cow--I cried more than once from total fear! I was freaked out of my mind, let me tell you. Andrew's main argument was that it's impossible to fall off a trail--so all you have to do is focus on the trail and don't look down (to the side of the trail). Just pretend like you're walking down the street. You wouldn't just fall down while walking down the street, right? Well, his argument makes more sense to people who don't frequently trip (not me). But I went along with him.

We came to the switchbacks portion, and some guy coming down told me that that was the worst part of it, and then it was easy from there. So I made myself scramble up these rocks, trying my best NOT to look down. I somehow made it up and went a little ways more. We were in perfect sight of the summit--probably only about 100 yards to go, but I couldn't take any more. The next bit of trail petrified me (even though it probably wasn't any worse than what I had already done), and I said, "No thank you." Everything was covered in clouds anyway--it's not like I could enjoy the view...(but I would have avoided looking down at all costs anyway). So we headed back. Kind of sad, but I am still proud of myself for going that far.

We went back to our tent and napped for a while, and ended up getting another late start going back down the mountain. Woops. Not a good idea. Both of us were really dying after a couple of hours. Our knees and feet had had it and really weren't functioning all that well.

(The ridge below the mountain is where we hiked to Emerald Lake at night. I forgot to get any pics of the lake.)

(The wildflowers were really like nothing I've ever seen--every color you can think of. These pics don't nearly do it justice.)

So, probably with about an hour to go, it was getting dark, but we hadn't gotten out the flashlight yet since we could still mostly see. I was stepping down from a rock, lost my balance, fell to the ground, and put out my hands to break my fall...only there was NOTHING to break my fall. I went right over the side of a cliff and tumbled down until thick plants broke my fall! I was totally shocked and psycho scared. I didn't know how far I'd fallen or if I was okay. I yelled out to Andrew, and he climbed down to me instantly. An older man with a walking stick came to help, and together they pulled me up. My pants were torn, my knees cut and elbows bruised, but other than that (and a mouthful of dirt somehow), I was fine! I can't tell you how blessed I felt!

Whenever I am hiking, I am always surveying the cliffs on the side of the trail and thinking, "Okay, if I fell here I would probably die" or "If I fell here, I'd probably roll for a ways, but not die." Well, this cliff didn't really look like a cliff at all--there were tons of plants coming up. I thought when I put my hands out (when I fell) that there would be ground. But it was just straight down.

I limped all the way down the rest of the way (in the dark again), and it took much longer than we had thought--going at our slow pace. We got back at 10:30 PM, just shy of the 11 PM deadline Andrew had given his mom to call search and rescue if we weren't back yet. Search and rescue was at the trail head when we made it down, but it wasn't for us. There were several other problems with hikers on the way.

I had a fever and chills when I got back to the cabin (I was dehydrated--I never make myself drink enough water), and it is difficult to walk with all the soreness, and I had nightmares all night about falling off the summit trail (I'd bolt up awake with my heart pounding like crazy)--but other than that, it was great! I'm glad I went, though. We plan on going again--frequently (but maybe not to the summit...).

My little tumble did disprove Andrew's theory, though--that it's impossible to fall off a trail! :) Maybe for some, but not for me!

Month's summary in pictures

It was a good month! This weekend Andrew and I are hiking Mt. Timp! Wish us luck!

Happy Fourth! (a couple days late)

On Thursday night, Andrew came home with some fireworks. He decided that if Kate was going to have any chance of enjoying real fireworks on the Fourth, then we would have to start small. It took a long time before we could get Kate to come anywhere near the sparklers. When we asked her if she wanted to hold one, she would say, "No way!" She was more content to run in circles (see video). But finally, she broke down and loved it. I'm not sure it was too smart on our part to give a two year old a sparkler--it was a little scary! She would run at us with it when she wanted us to take it back. But we all survived.

For the fireworks this year we decided not to go to Park City (we were too tired after a long hike the day before) and instead watched the Stadium of Fire fireworks from the stadium parking lot. Daddy's hands blocked Kate's ears, and her hands covered her eyes (but we did catch her stealing peeks). There was a huge American flag hanging up, and it must have really made an impression on her because she's been asking for the past two days where the American flag went. We watched them take it down, and so I tell her every time, "They took it down." Her response: "Oh. They took America flag down. Right." She always says "Right" like that, after she gets something. You'll hear her say it in the video. Enjoy!

Kate Update

The other day she surprised me by pulling over a chair to the couch, laying down with a blanket, proclaiming herself tired, and falling asleep.

I realized it has been a long time since I've given a good Kate update! So here goes.

Kate has officially broken out of her painfully shy spell. She loves to say hi and good-bye now to anyone and everyone. After she says it, she'll tell me, "Say bye, Mommy!" Meaning, she's proud of herself for saying bye to people. She loves to play with other girls and boys and talks about how much fun she had with them long after they're gone. Nursery is her favorite place, and we were happy to hear from the nursery leader that Kate is the most well-behaved kid in the class! And she is the only one who volunteers answers during lessons. I'm so proud!

Kate also LOVES the sacrament. Her hands are always reaching into the bread tray before I can get one out for her. Today, when she saw the water tray coming, she said, "Ooh water!" then leaned over the back of our pew and took a cup of water out of someone else's tray!! She proceeded to slurp it down noisily, saying, "Yummy water!"

She is so kind and thoughtful, it makes me tear up sometimes. She frequently will hook her arms around mine, look up at me adoringly, and say, "I love you, too, Mommy" even though I haven't said anything. She proudly goes potty before bath time and always gets a fruit snack as a reward. I only give her two or three for going potty, and she will often give Daddy one and give me the other. Fruit snacks are one of her favorite things in this world, so I know it is a real sacrifice.

She continues to love going outside, going on hikes, and camping. She's not one to roll around in the mud, though. She likes to stay clean and will refrain from going down the slide if she deems it "too messy."

She loves all things princess! She knows all of the Disney princesses, even though she hasn't even seen all of their movies.

When I ask her to do something, or tell her it's time to go home, her favorite response is to say quietly, "No no, Mommy." Then she puts her little index finger to her lips crookedly, and says, "Shh." It is so cute, I usually don't have the heart to drag her away from what she's doing.

In the mornings, her typical greeting to me is, "I don't feel so good." When I ask what's wrong, she says with a sigh, "I tired." I can relate. She has stopped taking regular naps, but at night she will tell me she is sleepy and needs to get some rest.

She LOVES to clean up and generally does so without me mentioning it. She has become very independent and likes to get her silverware out and put her own butter and jelly on bread, push the grocery cart at the store, etc.

She now sleeps in her very own toddler bed. When we put it together and rearranged her room, she was SO excited! She kept running around, throwing her arms in the air, and exclaiming, "It's PERFECT!"

It seems she is somehow managing to get cuter and cuter with time, and she is a joy to be around. If ever I stub my toe or otherwise yell out in pain, she is always there to see what's wrong and how she can help. She even offered to carry me the other day. It didn't work out so well...

More and more I look forward to seeing the person she becomes.

911 "EMERGENCY" ?!?!?!

I think the quickest way to ruin someone's reputation at Wymount is to send a fleet of police cars to their house and accuse them of domestic abuse.

That is what happened to us this morning. It was a nice morning, we showered, had breakfast, Kate watched Clifford. I was going to take Andrew to work and go to SLC with Kate to develop his latest photographs. It was raining, and I made a couple trips to the car with Kate and everything that goes along with her to keep her happy. I noticed a police car parked right behind our car, blocking us, but assumed he was looking for someone and would move his car in a minute. As I was scurrying about, the policeman got out of his car and approached me. At first I panicked because our Nova is sitting in a Visitor spot without current registration. I was wondering if someone had complained about it sitting there. He told me that he was there because someone had called about a noise they heard.

Naively, I asked, "A noise? From where?"

"Your apartment."

Quickly, I went through everything I had done that morning in my head. Did I have music on too loud? No, wait, I didn't have music on at all. Was Clifford too loud? No. Kate hadn't cried or screamed at all this morning. Andrew was busy getting ready for work...

"What kind of noise?"

He motioned us out of the rain and told me that it was a domestic disturbance call. A what what??

Immediately, two more squad cars came swarming into our complex. Two officers asked to speak with me privately in the apartment, while another questioned Andrew outside. I told them that I didn't know why anyone would call and was frankly very disturbed that they would. They were very nice, and it seemed obvious that they believed everything I told them.

He seemed bugged that someone had called and said he was going to go upstairs and talk to our neighbors. They never asked to see Kate, who was patiently sitting in the car.

Needless to say, I was extremely bothered by this all day. When Andrew and I got home tonight we decided to go upstairs and talk to our neighbors and find out why they would call the police. We spoke with the lady who actually made the call (an older woman not in our ward), and she said that she heard a man yelling, "I'll show you!" or something like that and hitting someone, and a child screaming. She said she's heard this abuse going on for months, and she always thought it was us. She was kind and just trying to do the right thing by calling the police. When we told her all that we had done that morning, shower, ate, no abuse...she asked what time Andrew showered, and it turned out that he was showering when she heard the man yelling and hitting--so we were off the hook--with her.

SO STRANGE!! RIGHT?? I've never heard anyone being abused and our windows are open all the time like everybody else's.

This has definitely taught me to NEVER jump to conclusions, listen to gossip, or spread rumors or anything like that. Even if you think you know something for sure (like the woman who called), you might be wrong--and then what?

Happy Father's Day

Sorry for the nudity--I normally would never post bum pictures, but I thought this was too cute. It was taken way back in March, and I've been wanting to post it ever since. I finally broke down tonight. :) Andrew is a wonderful dad. I love you!

Toast will never be the same again.

If you love making yummy food that is EASY, you have to try this homemade jam my sister told me about. Strawberries are so cheap right now--so go pick up a case and make some jam!! All you need is two cups strawberries and four cups sugar to one box of Sure Jell. It makes about five cups jam. The recipe is in the Sure Jell box--for easy freezer jam, I think it's called.

It is even better than you are imagining. Mmm...I think I will go have some more.

2 Cute 2 Resist

I couldn't resist the title either--flashback to junior high. Anyway, I just asked Kate if she wanted to go to the store with me to pick up some ice cream (for a dinner party with friends tonight--not wholly for personal consumption), which normally she would be more than thrilled to do, but this time replied, "I don't want it. I tired." Not even two minutes later, she looked like this. That's what happens when you stop taking regular naps--you end up sleeping at dinner time and not wanting to go to bed at night. 'Sigh.' But she's too dang cute to harass until she wakes up (and really that's impossible anyway).

PS Notice her painted toes! I can't believe I painted her toes. She loved it, though.

Kate's new do

Before


After

Last night when I was getting my hair cut, Andrew and Kate looked on. Kate kept saying, "Mommy, I need a haircut!" I think I've told her that a time or two recently...her hair has been quite the shagginess. She did let me put in pig tails a couple of times (which was super cute), but then didn't want me to touch it anymore.

So I took her in today and brought a bag of suckers. The last time (and the first time) she had her hair cut somewhere was in Omaha in February. She didn't scream out, but crumpled up and cried silently. It was so sad! Finally, someone got her a sucker because the weird guy that was cutting her hair kept telling me, "I can't cut her hair if she's crying!"

The sucker worked magic on her, and she was totally still for the entire thing. So I figured I'd give it another shot. This time was so funny. She got in the chair, and I immediately gave her the sucker. She completely froze when the clippers came out. She didn't budge--sucker in hand. It never reached her mouth. She obediently raised and lowered her head when told--it was so cute! By the end, the sucker was covered in hair, so I got her another...and another. She was so happy! No tears were shed at all during the haircut. She's growing up.

You can't really see what the hair looks like from these pics, but it's pretty cute. Still sticks out by her ears--oh well.

I guess my bangs are official.

I got my last haircut in February...and before that it had been a long time. When I got my hair cut in February the lady cut off four inches and it was still REALLY long. I was the one who told her to cut four inches, but I don't think I'm great at gauging hair length. Anyway, I went in today and showed the girl about where to cut--thinking about three inches or so. When she started cutting, I asked if she was cutting off about three. She stopped, looked at my hair on the ground, and said, "No." She held up a lock to show me. "More like five." Oh. Okay. She had told me she was going to trim up my bangs. My "bangs" had previously been very long bangs, to my chin. They're now to my nose.

When I saw my bangs hanging there--in my eyes--I panicked. But I don't know how to style hair! I wanted to say. Didn't I give her the spiel I usually give hairdressers about keeping it simple (and I mean simple)? No, I guess I hadn't mentioned my hair phobia, or ineptitude. Crud.

I was like, "Uh, so how do I keep these out of my eyes?"
Her reply: "Blow dry and hair spray." Oh. Crud.
Me: "I guess I'll need to buy some hair spray."

No, I don't own hair spray. I do now. We'll see if I can figure it out. I do have a hair dryer, we'll see if I can find it. I've been using the space heater to dry my hair since Kate was a baby because the hair dryer freaked her out, and I actually prefer the heater now.

Anyway, I actually really like it. I think this length of hair is the best for me. I had been growing my hair out so that when I finally lost my desired weight I could get a cute new hair cut, and the length was to give me options. But, the weight stayed, and the hair grew, and then grew a lot more.

It's fun to have a hair cut I like. I will try hard to make it a working relationship.

PS The shadow in the picture makes my hair appear much larger than it is.

Surely mine eyes deceive me

I honestly got misty-eyed just now looking upon our brand-new, glorious, white GE stove. When Wymount announced they would be installing new stoves, I assumed they meant a different kind of crappy, old, clunker of a stove. I really wish now that I had taken a picture of the stove we've been using here. The handle on the door was broken and would fall off in my hands EVERY time I opened the stove (because I always somehow forgot to open it from the side, knowing that it was broken...). And smoke liked to billow out of it and set off the fire alarm as I cooked. It was horrible!
(you must play "Dream Weaver" in your head as you behold its magnificence)

But this...this beautiful new, delicious-looking stove...I may just be emotional now or something, or maybe it's because it reminds me of the stove we left behind in our house, but I really think I'm in love.

And I have that feeling.

Better days lie ahead.

Sometimes it's good to eat A LOT of cookies.

That's what I've decided. It's good for a few reasons--

1) these particular cookies that I ate (lots of) were on a great sale,
2) cookies are scrumptious, and
3) if you eat a lot of cookies, you will end up feeling sick, fat, depressed, and ready to start working out again.


And...that's where I am. I changed my little weight loss ticker numbers to reflect my new goal. I am shooting for 14 pounds by the end of July. It's not my original goal...but I don't care. Once I hit that goal, I will set a new one until I hit the freaking weight I want to be at. I realized I had totally envisioned myself way skinnier by this summer than I currently am, and of course, pool "fun" has arrived.

Time to get to it. Again.

Climbing mountains in Moab

After Andrew found out he got a job and would start after the Memorial Day weekend, we decided we'd better take a camping trip down to Moab while we had time. We were there for five days...which was a little long for me to be camping without running water...but it was a great trip. I was worried about it being horribly hot, but it rained on us probably 75% of the time we were there (which was a problem for cooking). It was a little scary to go to sleep with thunder and lightning in a tent that is not well-equipped for rain. We did get wet, but not too bad.

Kate loved it! Except for the ride there and back--you can see from the picture below that she was slightly cramped. Andrew decided we should bring our futon mattress to sleep on and somehow got it into our trunk--barely. But it was definitely worth it--sleeping was SO comfy! (These pics are all taken with our old cruddy camera because we loaned out our other one. So the pics aren't so great, but oh well.)

The first day there was the hottest (before the rain hit), so we went to the Colorado River to play. It was FREEZING!! Kate doesn't mind freezing cold water to splash around in, so she had the time of her life. Andrew decided to jump in and shock his system. Then he somehow convinced me to jump in--still not sure how he managed to do that. Once we did, though, it was fun to jump back in a few more times. It was refreshing until a windstorm hit and the clouds came out. Then we froze.

We went on a couple of hikes with Andrew that were really freaky, in my opinion. I'm really scared of heights, though. Didn't seem to bother anyone else. Kate's a great hiker/climber, and Andrew's great at carrying her (and all his camera equipment) for all the tough parts. I, on the other hand, always have to grasp on for dear life.

Andrew looks ready to be a nice lightning pole.

Andrew preparing to get a shot of a pretty cactus flower. He got more than a few cactus thorns stuck in his behind. Some he didn't even feel until the next day. Ouch.

Mmm...cantelope! Kate couldn't get enough--even tried eating the green part.

Kate is doing her morning stretches here as we pack up the car.

The second big hike we went on was right before we left. There was a huge lightning/thunder storm right before we went up. Andrew wanted to watch the sunset from a great spot he found on his last photography trip. It was really gorgeous!! When Kate got to the top, she told me proudly, "I climbed a mountain!!"

This is a picture of a software engineer.

Hooray!! Andrew's job search has ended--luckily, with a job! We were worried about him finding a job with the economy and all, but Utah's economy is still doing fine--Andrew got interviews with two companies and got offers from both of them. One of them was much more appealing than the other, so the choice wasn't difficult. It seems like the perfect fit for Andrew! It's a start-up company that builds websites. The company was started by three guys that were sick of the corporations they worked for and how they were treated, and so they decided to start their own company that was good to its employees. They have a very small team, and so Andrew will be an important part of their company.

Andrew will be able to work full-time this summer and part-time during school. This is his first time working in his field, and we are very excited! Congratulations, Andrew!! :)

I'll give you a hint...

We have good news! Can you guess from the photo? Andrew actually posted about it on his blog (he's going to try to update more frequently now--oh, and me, too...). Also, if you haven't been to his photography website recently, he's added some cool new features. You can now comment on pictures (beneath each image), and you can see much larger versions, too.

Oh, and I realized that I never mentioned on here that Andrew won first place in the landscape category at the 2009 Bean Museum Photography Exhibition and Contest (it was in February) for "Ashen Flame" and also got an honorable mention for "Sandstone Sanctuary" . Woohoo!

I spoke too soon...

Well, apparently we weren't supposed to have YouTube. It is blocked...again. 'Sigh.' At least I got to see the otters holding hands.

YouTube is BACK!!

Since we have moved to Wymount we have been without YouTube. It doesn't seem like a big deal, but I swear--I have gotten so many emails and seen so many blogs and Facebook messages with YouTube video links saying things like, "This is the funniest thing ever!" "You won't believe what he says!" "This is in some way earth shattering and will change your life forever!" etc, etc, and it gets really frustrating when you can't just click on some stupid link to see what all the fuss is about. It has been almost a year of seeing people hysterical over a video I will never see. And it just isn't the same to ask someone to tell you what happened in the video.

Anyway, tonight Andrew was on the Mormon Tabernacle Choir site for some reason, and they had a video or something on YouTube that he happened to click on (because he didn't realize it was on YouTube), and it OPENED!! We're like, "What?! How long have we had YouTube?"

I have way too many links to go back to now, I could never possibly catch up. But I'm just glad the fight is over.