by Erin! I've never been tagged before...this is a first! Here it goes...
"The 5"
10 years ago I.....
1. Had just turned 16!
2. Just got my braces off.
3. Was getting ready to run at the regional cross country meet
4. Was a junior at Buena.
5. Had a much better memory than I do now. I hope. Maybe. Hmmm...did I?
5 things on my "to do" list
1. Clean my house.
2. Finish all my projects for my crafts show on Saturday.
3. Make dinner.
4. Make a witch dress for Bekah.
5. Play the kissing song for Rus and kiss him a lot. (you know, the one that goes, "I wanna kiss you on a monday, a monday, a monday, blah blah blah blah blah blah...but never never on a sunday, a sunday, a sunday, cause that's my day of rest") I've had that song in my head all day from one of Bekah's preschool cd's and I've gotta get it out of my system!
5 snacks I enjoy
1. Cookies, sweets, chocolate and all things unhealthy (but not hard candy...not a big fan)
2. Cheese nips or other crackers
3. Apples, pears, grapes, bananas
4. Really I've already listed nine things...I'll call it good.
5 places I have lived...
1. Sierra Vista
2. Riordan Ranch in Flagstaff
3. Married housing in Flagstaff
4. Albuquerque
5. Cherry St. in Flagstaff
6. Los Lunas
hmm...not quite the world traveler, huh! Dangit Rus for making me fall in love and have babies before I could see the world!
5 jobs I have had.....
1. Teller at Stockmen's Bank
2. Teller at AZSSCU in Flagstaff
3. Kitchen Designer at Lumbermens in Flag
4. Really stretching it here...interned as an office systems designer in Albuquerque for a summer 5. A mom! Hardest, best job ever!
5 things I would do if I was a multi-millionaire........
1. Buy all matching, coordinated furniture.
2. Save it all and pretend I didn't have it!
3. Buy a cozy little house with a 10 car garage.
4. Fill that garage up with all of Rus's dream cars (He'd like a different one for every day of the week. And I want a Ford/Chevy truck from the late 40's
5. Buy lots of cool power tools and commandeer a nice sized part of that 10 car garage for my shop.
5 People I tag are
1. You!
2. Yep, I mean you.
3. No, not the other person reading this post. You!
4. Come on, have a little self esteem. I really want to hear all about'cha!
5. See above.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Balloon Fiesta
Thursday night: Pack sweaters, put shoes and socks in the van, make muffins, pack elmo lunchbag with snacks, put blankets in the front seat, pack diaper bag, double stroller, and baby carrier, dress my kids in comfy real clothes and not pajamas (so I don't have to change them in the morning), fill up sippers with milk and place in the fridge, pack Beau's medicine (for acid-reflux)....try to go to bed early...(um, Beau didn't get that memo...oh well, late it is...)
Friday, 5am: Alarm clock goes off, thank you Rus for setting it for me...but my bed is too comfy and I try to talk myself out of a crazy pre-dawn outing. Again, Beau had a different idea, he wanted to get up, eat, and get on the road! Oh well, I'd committed myself the night before when I'd explained to Bekah and Jacob how much fun we'd have seeing the balloons fill up...Find jeans, shirt, sweater, load up kids, kiss sleepy hubby and remind him gently of how he's missing all the fun (he doesn't think he's missing anything, his bed is calling him and he has a strong aversion to large crowds and organized gatherings and early mornings). The kids and I take off and enjoy the dark, like we've never seen it before. Closer to the balloon fiesta grounds we suddenly see a balloon in the air, brilliant and golden yellow, the color flickering but bright. And then just as suddenly the balloon disappears, the flame turned off for the moment, the balloon free to drift invisibly. The kids ask question after question, "Where'd it go!?" and I try to explain as best I can in the bumper to bumper morning traffic. Soon we're pulling up into our parking space, bumper to the fence of the fair grounds. Pretty good, I thought! Kids get loaded up, blanket on, Beau strapped in the Snugli, burritoed again inside his blanket with his hat on. We were ready to go. I give the stroller a push and realize it weighs at least sixty pounds. Later I find out that Bekah weighs 33 lbs and Jacob weighs 31 lbs and the stroller weighs at least 10 lbs. And then Beau strapped to my chest weighs 15 1/2 lbs. Yep, I officially feel like super-mom! We huff and puff our way to the grounds and watch the balloons take life while the sun comes up. Bekah and Jacob carry the varying expressions of confusion, awe, and sleepiness as we plow our way through the crowd. Their favorite balloon was the one that looked like Nemo, while my favorite was a jack-o-lantern. We got to see the balloon laid out, basket laid on its side at the bottom, and then the fans kicked on to blow air into the balloon. When it got big enough the flames finished the job of inflation. The basket was eased upright and the balloon continued to get bigger until members of the crowd got pulled in to hold the basket down...another 7 minutes and the balloon was off, joining tweetie bird and a haunted house and enormous castle, making mockery of the plain clouds in the sky. Here are some pictures of what we saw...
Darth Vader Rising!
The typical response to me trying to take a picture...More sleep, anyone?
Inflating Tweetie Bird (FIRE!, as Jacob said)
Beau was a model balloon fiesta attendee, never once making a peep. He was awake the whole time. I think he loved all of the commotion.
Please make way for Supermom and the Walking Circus!
Meet Jack...He has the perfect shape for a hot air balloon!
What a goofy, intriguing sight! Where do they come up with this stuff?!
The typical response to me trying to take a picture...More sleep, anyone?
Inflating Tweetie Bird (FIRE!, as Jacob said)
Beau was a model balloon fiesta attendee, never once making a peep. He was awake the whole time. I think he loved all of the commotion.
Please make way for Supermom and the Walking Circus!
Meet Jack...He has the perfect shape for a hot air balloon!What a goofy, intriguing sight! Where do they come up with this stuff?!
We were too close to Nemo, so this is all you get to see of him!
I think the castle was the largest of them all! Just look at how tiny that basket looks under there!
We finished off the morning with a sprint up (UP!) the walkway and out of the park, 20 minutes in traffic, and a quick jaunt by the doctor's office to get Bekah's 4 year shots and Beau's 2 month shots (at three months). We know how to pack a morning! We had a blast and I'd probably do it again! (The balloon fiesta part, not the shot part. :)
Club Foot, Before and After
I've been wanting to post some before and after pictures of Beau's foot so you could see how well it has turned...
Here is how his foot looked before
And here is after 7 weeks of casting...
The red dot is where they cut his achilles tendon.
And here was Beau at three weeks old, before any of his casts...
Here's my happy Beau now! He's now pretty used to his brace and is wearing it about 22-23 hours out of the day. I've gotten better at not automatically thinking he wants the shoes off everytime he cries. What an amazing miracle it is that feet can be fixed so easily. Seven weeks out of a lifetime isn't so bad. I feel blessed everytime I think about our experience so far, and I'm so excited for the months to come when he'll be crawling and walking and running!
Here is how his foot looked before
And here is after 7 weeks of casting...
The red dot is where they cut his achilles tendon.
And here was Beau at three weeks old, before any of his casts...Here's my happy Beau now! He's now pretty used to his brace and is wearing it about 22-23 hours out of the day. I've gotten better at not automatically thinking he wants the shoes off everytime he cries. What an amazing miracle it is that feet can be fixed so easily. Seven weeks out of a lifetime isn't so bad. I feel blessed everytime I think about our experience so far, and I'm so excited for the months to come when he'll be crawling and walking and running!
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
For Joy
Since Joy noted my ommission of the pic of the baby blanket I fell in love with, I thought I'd better post it...
See! It's way too cute to pass up! The brown fabric is the really soft, almost furry stuff, and there are also patches of blue satin. I need a queen sized one for my bed. Love, love it!Sunday, October 5, 2008
Got 10 Minutes to Spare?
It really is true, what they say. The mess will wait for you. In my case, my mess was especially patient and waited a full week and a half for me. I left my house with Rus and Beau on a Wednesday afternoon, returned on Saturday night for a short stop to relieve my Mom who had been oh so privileged to be able to watch Bekah and Jacob for me, and took off on Sunday morning with my mom and kids, leaving Rus behind, to head to Sierra Vista for a week. Then Rus flew in to Tucson on Friday morning, I picked him up and escorted him back to sunny SV, and then we drove back home to NM on Sunday. Anyone confused yet? The point is I've been gone for a week and a half and it feels like I've been gone forever. Cockroaches moved out of my dishwasher and onto my counter, a bold move that sent seven of them to their maker. My grass had the audacity to grow while we were gone and now it needs to be mowed again. If it all waited a week and a half it can wait another day, right?
So for the first part of my trip, Beau and I tagged along with Rus to Colorado for a business trip. We drove straight up to Denver and then took our time coming home, going on the back roads from Denver down to Pagosa Springs, and then down through Chama to Santa Fe. Check out how beautiful it was! I am convinced that right now is the best time to travel because the weather is great and everything is in wonderful color.
That sea of gold is from the Aspens. So, so pretty. This next pic is from Fenton Lake in northern NM. I thought the mountains looked amazing.
Rus and I stopped and did a little hike down to the Chama river. Rus is blurry here because he kept making the bridge sway back and forth. The hike down to the river was really more like a thousand stairs. The creative little bugger who made the trail picked the steepest place and said, "Hey! Let's put some stairs here, just for fun!" My calves and quads weren't too appreciative. 
The second part of the trip was to Sierra Vista. My parents moved away from there five years ago, so I hadn't had a reason to go there really. Then they moved back there this past March and I've just finally gotten around to visiting them. I forgot how beautiful SV is. My mom and the kids and I went on a hike up in Ramsey canyon and we had a blast. Jacob kept finding bugs, like caterpillars and butterflies. They loved the little bridges that took them over the creek.
Awww...they look like they like each other! Actually Bekah and Jacob are really good friends. They slept in the same room for the whole week and they loved it. They'd lay in their beds and talk to each other until they fell asleep, and then in the morning I'd wake up to their little voices, deep in conversation.
Here he is! Jacob, the next Karate Kid!
Here's all of us relaxing by the bird feeders. We did a wonderful job of being too loud and scaring all of the birds away. Sometimes pictures don't really tell the whole story. Jacob looks happy here, but he had just spent the last 15 minutes crying because he face planted it whilst trying to step off one of the bridges. I had just fed Beau, and then I think right after this pic he spit it all up. Bekah had just collected a bunch of acorns that were on the ground, successfully ruining the bird-watching experience of a few Germans that were sitting nearby. Then she found the feather and in between smiling for the camera she kept asking "Did you take a picture of my feather?" I started the hike off grumpy because my kids were, in my opinion, the most horrible listeners ever, but I think I got over it by the end of the hike.
Beau lookin' snazzy in his new shoes and navy socks. I've been meaning to post an update on Beau and his shoes, but I haven't had a chance. I got his new, custom fit Mitchell brace on the Tuesday before I left and it has been so, so much better than the first brace. He's wearing it the majority of the day, with maybe an hour or two brake every 24 hours. So I think we're doing pretty good! And he's happy!
Ummm...since this has turned into the longest post ever, I'll try to briefly sum up the rest of my trip...
1. We were able to meet up with Amy and her kids Andrew and Emily. She has a good pic of us on her blog. It was so fun to see her! I haven't seen her since my wedding, and now we both have kids, minivans, and an appreciation for mac and cheese!
2. Since I had to go to Tucson to pick up Rus from the airport, I decided to go early and spend the night at my brother Tyler's house. I don't know why I didn't get a pic of Tyler with my kids (slacker!) but here is a funny one of Bekah getting stuck in a random bucket that Tyler had. She was screaming, "NO! Don't take a picture! It hurts! Help me!" Aren't I a wonderful mother?
3. The kids and I went to the zoo in the morning before we got Rus. Bekah got drenched playing in this little water-spray area. Once again, pictures don't really tell the whole story. Sure, she's happy here, but the rest of the time she was driving me crazy, looking at each animal for point-three-five seconds and then yelling to go see something else. And then she complained about being wet, even though she'd just reassured me, saying, "It's okay mom. Clothes dry," in a very serious 30 year old voice. Jacob was able to very strategically get wet only between his legs, so for the rest of the morning he looked like he'd peed his pants and I looked like I'd let him pee his pants. By the time we'd wrapped up that fun adventure and had picked up Rus from the airport, I was one frazzled mess and Rus said in his soothing, talking-to-a-crazy-person voice "Maybe when we get to your mom's you can just drop us off and then go have some time to yourself." I loved him for that and hated myself for not being able to handle everything.
4. Amy came to Sierra Vista too, with her kids while her husband was turkey hunting. My mom got a sitter for all of the kids except Beau and we (Mom, Dad, Amy, Rus, me, Beau) took off to Art in the Park, which incidentally is the number one reason (not including family) to ever visit Sierra Vista. It was so much fun and the vendors had some great stuff. One of my favorites was a carousel made out of two bike rims and spam cans. No, really I fell in love with several paintings, a beautiful purse, and numerous pieces of jewelry. I successfully walked away with only a baby blanket that was so, so cute I had to buy it even though it's really for a girl and Beau is obviously not a girl. Oh well, I'm a girl, so I can have a girly baby blanket if I want to. (Sorry, Beau.) I don't know how I only took this one picture. Beau enjoyed Art in the Park, too.
And now despite this post being seriously, ridiculously long, I have to include these pictures because [insert very long, complicated explanation here], so just stop whining and enjoy. :)
Have a wonderful, terrific, yummy, stick-your-tongue-out sort of day!
So for the first part of my trip, Beau and I tagged along with Rus to Colorado for a business trip. We drove straight up to Denver and then took our time coming home, going on the back roads from Denver down to Pagosa Springs, and then down through Chama to Santa Fe. Check out how beautiful it was! I am convinced that right now is the best time to travel because the weather is great and everything is in wonderful color.
That sea of gold is from the Aspens. So, so pretty. This next pic is from Fenton Lake in northern NM. I thought the mountains looked amazing.Rus and I stopped and did a little hike down to the Chama river. Rus is blurry here because he kept making the bridge sway back and forth. The hike down to the river was really more like a thousand stairs. The creative little bugger who made the trail picked the steepest place and said, "Hey! Let's put some stairs here, just for fun!" My calves and quads weren't too appreciative. The second part of the trip was to Sierra Vista. My parents moved away from there five years ago, so I hadn't had a reason to go there really. Then they moved back there this past March and I've just finally gotten around to visiting them. I forgot how beautiful SV is. My mom and the kids and I went on a hike up in Ramsey canyon and we had a blast. Jacob kept finding bugs, like caterpillars and butterflies. They loved the little bridges that took them over the creek.Awww...they look like they like each other! Actually Bekah and Jacob are really good friends. They slept in the same room for the whole week and they loved it. They'd lay in their beds and talk to each other until they fell asleep, and then in the morning I'd wake up to their little voices, deep in conversation.
Here he is! Jacob, the next Karate Kid!Here's all of us relaxing by the bird feeders. We did a wonderful job of being too loud and scaring all of the birds away. Sometimes pictures don't really tell the whole story. Jacob looks happy here, but he had just spent the last 15 minutes crying because he face planted it whilst trying to step off one of the bridges. I had just fed Beau, and then I think right after this pic he spit it all up. Bekah had just collected a bunch of acorns that were on the ground, successfully ruining the bird-watching experience of a few Germans that were sitting nearby. Then she found the feather and in between smiling for the camera she kept asking "Did you take a picture of my feather?" I started the hike off grumpy because my kids were, in my opinion, the most horrible listeners ever, but I think I got over it by the end of the hike.
Beau lookin' snazzy in his new shoes and navy socks. I've been meaning to post an update on Beau and his shoes, but I haven't had a chance. I got his new, custom fit Mitchell brace on the Tuesday before I left and it has been so, so much better than the first brace. He's wearing it the majority of the day, with maybe an hour or two brake every 24 hours. So I think we're doing pretty good! And he's happy!
Ummm...since this has turned into the longest post ever, I'll try to briefly sum up the rest of my trip...
1. We were able to meet up with Amy and her kids Andrew and Emily. She has a good pic of us on her blog. It was so fun to see her! I haven't seen her since my wedding, and now we both have kids, minivans, and an appreciation for mac and cheese!
2. Since I had to go to Tucson to pick up Rus from the airport, I decided to go early and spend the night at my brother Tyler's house. I don't know why I didn't get a pic of Tyler with my kids (slacker!) but here is a funny one of Bekah getting stuck in a random bucket that Tyler had. She was screaming, "NO! Don't take a picture! It hurts! Help me!" Aren't I a wonderful mother?3. The kids and I went to the zoo in the morning before we got Rus. Bekah got drenched playing in this little water-spray area. Once again, pictures don't really tell the whole story. Sure, she's happy here, but the rest of the time she was driving me crazy, looking at each animal for point-three-five seconds and then yelling to go see something else. And then she complained about being wet, even though she'd just reassured me, saying, "It's okay mom. Clothes dry," in a very serious 30 year old voice. Jacob was able to very strategically get wet only between his legs, so for the rest of the morning he looked like he'd peed his pants and I looked like I'd let him pee his pants. By the time we'd wrapped up that fun adventure and had picked up Rus from the airport, I was one frazzled mess and Rus said in his soothing, talking-to-a-crazy-person voice "Maybe when we get to your mom's you can just drop us off and then go have some time to yourself." I loved him for that and hated myself for not being able to handle everything.4. Amy came to Sierra Vista too, with her kids while her husband was turkey hunting. My mom got a sitter for all of the kids except Beau and we (Mom, Dad, Amy, Rus, me, Beau) took off to Art in the Park, which incidentally is the number one reason (not including family) to ever visit Sierra Vista. It was so much fun and the vendors had some great stuff. One of my favorites was a carousel made out of two bike rims and spam cans. No, really I fell in love with several paintings, a beautiful purse, and numerous pieces of jewelry. I successfully walked away with only a baby blanket that was so, so cute I had to buy it even though it's really for a girl and Beau is obviously not a girl. Oh well, I'm a girl, so I can have a girly baby blanket if I want to. (Sorry, Beau.) I don't know how I only took this one picture. Beau enjoyed Art in the Park, too.And now despite this post being seriously, ridiculously long, I have to include these pictures because [insert very long, complicated explanation here]
Have a wonderful, terrific, yummy, stick-your-tongue-out sort of day!
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