This is pretty random. I was just looking through some photos tonight and I couldn’t believe how much Chase has grown over the past 14.5 months of his life! I’ve really realized lately that he looks and seems more like a kid than a baby nowadays. He’s just not the big, chubby baby he used to be– now he’s tall and rather lean compared to the other babies in his age group. I guess we can’t go back in time– except when we look at the photos! Part of me is really okay with not going back in time, though, especially when I think about the sleep I wasn’t getting back then… But wasn’t he a cute baby!?!
click to enlarge photos 🙂
Month: June 2007
Retreat from the Regular Routine
I got back today from a nice little Stake Relief Society Retreat. It was an overnight event, even though only like 20 people actually camped there (our homes were only 15 minutes away so most people just went home, then came back in the a.m.). I felt privileged to go to this event, especially because hardly anybody does this type of thing. It was up in Hobble Creek Canyon, at Jolley’s Ranch– such a beautiful area– I only wish we had had some sort of hiking/exercise time to explore the place a little during our stay! A lady in my ward brought her bike and rode around in the morning before breakfast, which was pretty smart of her. I’ll do that next year. But it was fun; lots of hanging out, fresh air, musical numbers, good food, and classes/speakers. The various classes were either spiritual, informative, or crafty, or a mixture of any of those. One of the classes I took was a CPR class that was really informative, because the ratios have been simplified to just one (30:2 ratio of compressions to ventilations, for all ages). Anyway, thank you to McMom and Pace for watching Chase so I could get away for this experience, and to Pace for “making me” spend the night (although it was not a very warm or comfortable night–it didn’t help that before bed we were discussing all the recent local bear sightings and the mauling of the poor little boy by that crazy bear). I really felt like I bonded with women from my ward and stake, and I also had a very uplifting experience. I think that every stake should do this sort of thing– I’m convinced that it makes us better women/wives/moms!
By the way, the photo shown here is not really from the retreat; I didn’t even bring my camera. Pace took this beautiful photo in Dec. 2005 in the redwoods at my parents’ property. Just wanted to give credit where credit was due!
Aint no kindergarden game
You are all invited this coming Friday to play Capture the flag!! Woo hoo, I haven’t played since Chase came into my schedule. And I’m really excited to play. This Friday I’m gathering a group of people to play at our local park. We will be playing Southern backwoods style, ie side 1 side 2 – no other boundaries, no flag sitting, and releasable jails. Full camo is recommended, but not required. My neighbor said he is bringing his night vision. We are gathering at 8:30pm if you want to play, please come.
iPhone or iBroke?
Ok so if you live in America, I don’t know how you wouldn’t know the iPhone is coming out tom. I’m sick and tired of hearing about this phone. If WWII was allowed to have as much propaganda as this phone, women and children would have wanted to join up. So anyway, if you’ve ever been tempted at all to think about buying one, good you should have, but NOT NOW! WAIT FOR THE SECOND VERSION! If you think about it, buying an iPhone tom, or soon, is over a $3000 commitment! You commit to be on the worst network in cell phones for 2 years, at $60 a month for voice and $40 a month for data, PLUS $600 for the phone itself. Before that contract is over, a second model, probably with fewer bugs, better features and prob a lil cheaper will come out.
Now I’m not hating the iPhone, actually I love the fact that most phones that will come out after will have similar features, I love that it’s a widescreen video iPod. I love that it has a feature rich internet browser. What I want to point out, are the things I don’t love about it, that maybe you haven’t thought about. So what do you think? What do you like about this revolutionary phone? What don’t you like?
Hello, hello
We’d like to welcome those of you who have joined the blogosphere this year. And are excited to see what comes out of the latest venture, Rachel T’s Blizog. If you haven’t joined the fun and new alternative to calling everyone you know… you should jump on the bandwagon. I’d recommend WordPress, but some people like Blogger… bleh.
Easy to love
So I’ve recently fallen in love with Google. I’ve been using the new document and spreadsheet functions. It’s so sweet you can create and share and co-edit spreadsheets + docs, plus the Calander is SWEEeeet! I do like how everything ties together as well, ie. Someone emailed me about a meeting on Friday and Gmail asked if I wanted to add it to my calander, then I got an email reminder that I’m playing disc golf with Z at lunch. And then I fell in love with this video:
ARCHIVED
“Be sure to drink your Ovaltine.”
I would like to share a practical joke that Pace played on me a couple weeks ago. Some may have already heard this one, but many may have not. Well Pace told me that we were out of Ovaltine mix; seeing as how this is his beverage of choice, I was not surprised. I told him to write it on a post-it note so I could remember to get some at the store next time. Of course I, being the good wife that I am ;), returned home a few days later with a new can thing of Ovaltine. I saw that the empty one was still in the pantry, so I removed it. When I picked it up, though, it felt rather heavy for an empty can of Ovaltine. Upon opening it to check how much was left in there, I was overwhelmed with a wave of disgusting stench. I quickly closed the lid, realizing that there was a dirty, poopy, days-old diaper of Chase’s crammed in there. I didn’t open it again to verify this, I simply tossed it in the garbage and called Pace at work to confront him… He was very thrilled that I had “finally” found his present.
Want to move?
This place was announced today, it’s a series of man made islands that when completed will be in the shape of the world. The differences between island world and the real world? This one will be made by man, prob won’t be ready for anyone to live there within our lifetime, and everything will be named very oddly. For example the first island scheduled to be completed is called: OQYANA. Which I’m pretty sure isn’t a word in ANY language. (feel free to correct me) The same company that built this luxury hotel I saw on the travel channel is in charge of creating the new island world, we’ll see how they do.
What do you think? Would you live there? What if you were born there and never knew any other place besides oqyana?
T-Fam Visit
Okay, I know I should have posted about this already by now since it’s been nearly a week since they left… But too bad. 🙂 Part of the TFam came to visit for a week and it was lots of fun! Those in attendance were TMom, Gino, and Jessica. Gino stayed for a few days, just long enough to wrestle with Chase, bond with Chase, build Chase some forts, etc. This uncle and nephew pair was quite cute, actually. Chase enjoyed putting on a show all week and barking like a dog for everyone (he’s obsessed with dogs).
Some highlights of the trip:
- Going to Costco and buying so much food (including chocolate cake!) that it hardly fit in the van with all of us in there (thanks for all the food, Parents!)
- Pulling weeds and planting flowers (thanks for all the flowers, Parents!)
- Going to Sandy to eat at the notorious restaurant The Mayan but finding out it was closed until the following week
- Watching t.v. on our 19″ substitute tv screen
- Shopping at the new and improved Gateway mall!
- Rachel and Joy making a dance video
- Townhouse hunting for TMom/Rachel/Jess–whoever ends up staying there
- Making s’mores and chatting around the backyard firepit
- Gino and Pace brother-in-law bonding via Battlefield 2 and Warcraft 3
- Going to the Aquarium in Sandy that looked like a grocery store on the outside but that ended up being decent on the inside
- Having TMom and Jess babysit so we could go out to dinner and fireworks
- Staying up way too late every night (they’re all a bunch of night owls)
We had a great time and we actually had plenty of room for everyone to sleep! Thank you, family, for all the fun and yard work and for spoiling us! And thank you to whoever cleaned out the microwave! Check out the new albums in McPhotos for visual stimulation; there are also some new ones in rotation on the homepage.
Happy Birthday Cotton and other stuff
HAPPY BIRTHDAY COTTON!! Hope you enjoyed your math homework which is all you seemed to want to talk about… in other news, we now have another way to get a hold of us. We are using a very inexpensive VOIP phone at out house as a secondary line, it’s about $5 a month. I just got it working so give us a call so we can test it out. So now whoever is away from home will have the cell phone and whoever is home will answer this new phone… so to get a hold of who you want, try to figure out if that person is home or gone… that make sense? I am going to make Joy post the post she’s been talking about tomorrow. Email us to find out our new number. We also really, really love our new fire pit!