time warp

i saw this on my friends blog and thought it could be a lot of fun!!

20 years ago
Gosh, i was 5 years old--in kindergarten with Mrs. Mills at John C. Freemont Elementary. i remember learning how to cut out a circle by moving the paper, the boy who would rip holes in his shirts, my mom dressed up as a witch for the halloween party and trying to count the highest with things like a hundred-gazillion-billion. my brothers were 2.5 and my parents had gotten us a dog: Lady. Rob would have been in the 2nd grade. i don't know what he remembers from then...i am sure he was doing something mischievous with his brother, spen.

10 years ago
i was 15 and in the 9th grade. i was starting to make more friends, seminary was really good for me, i was starting to develop some self-confidence. i had a huge crush on a guy named jake, he moved at the end of the school year and neither of us ever admitted out crushes on each other but we played the silly "who do you like" game while both blushing for most of the year. i had mr. phelps for geography and got in huge trouble for brushing my hair (it hung down to my waist). i started to admire alan hurst for his crazy braniac abilities(he scored 100% on SAT). Rob was 16, a sophomore at Jordan, working at mulligans golf & game as a picker (i think) and driving the saturn--legendary family car. he hated high school and loved basketball.

5 years ago
this was a very piviotal time for me. i was 20 and we were engaged. i was going to USU in logan and he was in salt lake going to slcc. i came home nearly every weekend to be with him. we were trying to figure out what we were going to do for living arrangements. since we were both in school, rob had just gotten home from his mission in july and i had just gotten back fom maine ...we were almost destitute. we got the elsberry's apt. we worked for them in exchange for the rent. it was a life saver for us! i remember ritarae called me on afternoon while i was walking back to my apartment from a rhetoric associate meeting(writing tutor) to let me know they wanted us to move in. i was exctatic!! i also remember rob was really nervous to get married and after we were engaged he briefly had second thoughts-mostly due to the fact that he had pretty much no way to take care of me. i remember looking at trailers-a for real trailor park-for living. i don't remember being concerned-i was 100% confident that since i would be with rob i would be happy and we would be ok.

3 years ago
we has just bought our condo. rob was working for intermountain plantings and going to school. i was working for roundy clothing (job from hell) and in my last semester of school at the U. we were primary teachers for the 11 yr olds. i went to the las vegas air show with my in-laws, without rob. don't understimate the power of the air-show. we love them! we'd be going to this years but it is a TON of driving and we are not sure we are ready to do that with Caleb. and i don't exactly want to nurse in public. :) i think this is the year rob put the irrigation system in the backyard at the condo in december. i thought he was crazy-he had to use my blowdryer to heat the pipe and glue to get everything to work.

1 year ago
i was 2 months pregnant, a little sick and delighted. we had told are families but hadn't announced it for real until halloween. i was working for ProviderPay and rob was working for Odyessy Landscape. we were remodeling the condo, getting ready to do the cabinets in the kitchen. gabby(our dog) was getting walked every day and we were looking forward to the Hawaii trip (amazing) with rob's work. i really didn't like my job but was staying for the insurance. i think we took gabby to petsmart to get a haircut and she came home sick. diarrhea and stuck in a kennel for 2 or 3 days. it was sooo sad. she has never been back to petsmart for a haircut. we played catch on a regular basis. rob would play quarterback and i would be running back. i probably dropped more balls than i caught and usually i couldn't throw them back to him but we had fun anyway-and gabby loved chasing us and the ball. i think she went through two footballs.

Yesterday
hung out with Caleb, who is now 5 months old. he was eating every 2 hours and i was trying to recover from the really hard workout from the day before. nursing so much and trying to recover drained me. i ate like a horse and went to bed early. we did go for a walk in the afternoon, i had Caleb all bundled up in blankets, hat, sunglasses and a binkey--it was so cute. Rob worked all day and came home and worked on the basement. he is trying to get it ready for our renters who are moving in on saturday. eventful huh?! :)

Tomorrow
we will dress up like cleopatra and caesar and go to a halloween party. i am still trying to get the costumes ready. Caleb will go see grandma and grandpa hakes and probably aunt J.
funny how simple life is now that i stay home with caleb. he eats, sleeps, poops, drools and smiles at me all day long. sometimes we run errands, usually we go for a walk or a run. ironically, going from being soo busy and self-involved to a stay-at-home mom has been really good for me. my former job was a pretty toxic environment. being at home is great.

Next Year
we will likely be living in our current house working our current jobs. hopefully i'll be skinnier, the landscape will be in and caleb will be 1.5 years old. i have no idea what that means other than he will be all over the place and into everything. i fully expect a toddler that is a handful-i am hoping i have the patience and ability to be a good mom to him. Caleb will have a baby cousin to hang with. unlike when i was working, i am now inclined to take life much slower. i really haven't given a lot of thought to next year. so far my mental timeline takes me to mid-januray of this year.
i have spent my whole life planning for the next event and creating expectations for myself. Caleb has singlehandedly obliterated that abilty for now. i have no idea what to expect from a kid let alone of myself as a mother. i have a conceptual idea of what i want for my family; every day i try to create that or work towards the creation of it. that is how i live for now. it is a fleeting time i am sure, life will get progressively bussier as we have more kids and they get older. for now my little baby and i are taking life slowly.

Brought to you by the letter A...

thanks so much to Wendy!! for those of you who don't know, i will list the top ten things i love that start with the letter A.



1. Amor
i really like all kinds of love. of course, romance is at the top of the list, but i love my son, my dog, our extended families, our friends. when i was 17 and i had just meet rob i remember talking about what i wanted out of life...nothing more than love. i remember telling rob i would live in a cardboard box if i could be deeply and happily in love. what i didn't realize was how varied love is...and how hard it is to hold on to. it is something i can't live without.

2. Afterglow--album by sarah mclachlan
i adore music!! mostly i am into alternative rock music. jack johnson style music is very near and dear to my heart. i wouldn't know what genre i would put sarah mclachlan or imogen heap into but i love that type of music also. i am also a dorky new-age piano style music connoisseur. i used to play the piano and on occasion i will try to pick out some hymns that i used to be able to play. pretty much i always have something going in the background.

3. Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin
i never watched flipper but as a kid i always loved dolphins! at one point i wanted to be a dolphin trainer at sea world. i absolutely love to play in water; more than once i have been accused of being a fish. this particular animal stands in for all my animal loves. i have a minature schnauzer named gabby. she is awesome although currently a little neglected. we had fish when we were first married--bunky and steeder--beta fish. after a while of rob taking of them i decided i didn't want them anymore and asked rob to take them to the canal behind the house we were living at the time. it was winter and the water had been drained also. rob still likes to tease me.

4. Austen, Jane
how can a girl live without her stories?! thankfully my best friends from high school (audrey and andrea) introduced me to pride and prejudice and my life has never been the same. this version (see picture) of pride and prejudice is wonderful andthis scene...never fails to give me butterflies. i know it is a bit of a mystery to men why this is so incredible and to be honest i am not sure i can articulate it but trust me when i say it is wonderful!

5. Apples
it is fall and i have discovered baked apples. take out core, create a bowl inside apple, little bit of sugar, cinnaman, and nuts bake at 350 degrees for 45-60 min and whala...your house smells like fall and you feel like a whole new person. these are a stand-in for all fruit...seriously probably my favorite food group. i try to watch my intake of sweets during the week and i have a huge sweet tooth. fruit is the antidote to this weakness.


6. Asleep
i love to be in bed sleeping or relaxing. 'nuff said.



7. Acadia National Park
this is my favorite place. i went there when i lived in maine. it is rugged and unique to a girl from the western desert of the united states. i loved this place. i have resolved to go back. when...no idea but i loved it there!!!! if you can ever go...i highly recommend it! it is outside bar harbor maine. it is worth it!

8. Athletic Training
i love to work out. in any way. i love to be pushed hard. i am one of those crazy girls who has more than once, worked out so hard i couldn't walk the next day. i suppose you could say i am addicted to working out. i was never an athletic person growing up. i had zero confidence...i still lack confidence and experience playing sports however i love go out and sweat my guts out in any way.


9. Appearance
i needed a fancy word for fashion. i love to dress up, wear jewlery and be all girly. i will admit caleb has cut in on my chances to doll up, he loves to play with my jewlery and earings. i love to shop especially bargain shop--nothing better than finding freakin' cute clothes for cheap!!! :) the pic doesn't really go but....cala lily's make me think of beauty.


10. Apostles
i am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. we are led by a prophet and 12 apostles. I believe these men are inspired by Jesus Christ himself to lead us in His ways. i believe Jesus Christ knows me and loves me and wants me to be happy. the apostles help me become closer to Him.

My Dad

i was looking through my pictures on my computer, saw this picture and was reminded of a story. since i am in a blogging mood...here you go:

my parents, me and rob went to logan for rob's college graduation ceremony. after, we were getting pictures on the 'A' for posterity and my dad found this bike on the bike rack. it was not chained up and the back tire was almost flat. of course the most logical thing would be to jump on and ride around. being my dad he did this (know you know where i get it from) in his nice church clothes. we were all laughing, looking around for the owner--he almost tipped over riding in the snow on a stolen bike in the frozen tundra of logan, ut.

i am sure this sounds like a rather stupid story for those of you who don't know my dad however, we were laughing and every time rob or i bring it up, my dad quickly tries to change the subject...so this will totally harass him. Payback dad...lol.

honestly ...i love my dad. he has been instumental in shaping me as a person and has long since been someone i could always talk to and count on being understood and accepted. he is a wonderful person and has taught me many things among which...how to handle being teased. thanks so much dad, i love you!

DCS & Heat

My brother called me this afternoon from a phone number i didn't recognize to let me know that the DCS (department of child services) had been notified we had a child residing with us without heat. LOL. It is true, we currently do not have the heater working. thankfully we have a space-heater in Caleb's room-that keeps things comfy for him. we warm our room with the heat from our showers in the master bath. truthfully, i spent half the day in caleb's room today.

this brings me to the point of my blogging moment: i am very grateful for the heat. frequently rob and i look at each other and ask "can you imagine if we had been pioneers". i can't. today, i had K outside looking at something with rob and it was so cold...those women who had babies while crossing the plains must have known their little one wouldn't survive...can you imagine?! what are we going to do in a natural disaster??

(the depressing part is over)

i have now lived in both extremes: no AC when it was 100+ (AC unit had broke and we procrastinated getting it fixed-don't ask why) and now no heat when it was snowing outside (again, we procrastinated...)

so this is a tribute to gratitude for smart fix-it men and brilliang engineers for coming up with (and installing) the beloved heating system and to God...who allows mere men to live in such comforts.

do you ever wonder if the pioneers shake their heads at all of us whiners and say "you have no idea what it is to struggle!" ??

Whoo-Hooo!!

we are finally moved in! well...there are still boxes hanging around and we don't have blinds on most of the windows in the house--little scary for when i want to work out. last weekend we got the washer and dryer and today i got the internet finally hooked up. i hated being without the internet-guess it is a sign i am addicted. LOL. now we get to start really making the house ours like decorating and buying more furniture, perhaps doing a landscape! ahhh it really happened...unbelievable

Caleb and Carrots

Yes, your eyes are not deceiving you: Caleb is gnawing on a carrot. i was eating a carrot and i handed this one to him--he promptly stuck it in his mouth. i figured it wasn't hurting him and let him fiddle with it for a while. 10 minutes later it was no longer cold and Gabby was absolutely dying to have some (she loves carrots more than anything). i figured k (my nickname for him) liked the cold in his mouth. and it is different than a binkey. LOL. my cute little man!