Lukesters

A couple of days before Thanksgiving, we celebrated Luke's first birthday in a big way (when I say 'in a big way' I mean I made him some cupcakes, iced with store brought frosting (gag) and chocolate sprinkles on top). I am starting to be much more realistic when it comes to birthday parties for my kids. This year it just had to be simple. Besides, Luke is a party, in and of himself.

He is so busy. He is constantly on the go, constantly chasing after me at home in hopes I will either feed him or hold him. But if I am holding him (such as at church) he just tries to get away from me. He loves to play on the stairs, loves to empty kitchen cabinets, loves to hug by butting his head into your chest. And he is constantly happy and thinks everything is funny. Well, except for the Big Foot toy at Target. It freaks him out and he cries so hard when he sees it. So I make sure we stop and look at it ever time we are there.

We love him so much- he's kinda got me wrapped around his finger. Such a sweet boy!

Vegas

I remember when Cody was applying to dental schools and we first got the interview request letter from the University of Pittsburgh, I thought it was such a random place. I didn't even know that Cody had applied there. When it came down to making a decision on which school we would attend, Cody and I made a little list of the pros and cons of the schools and cities and without much hesitation or uncertainty, we accepted Pittsburgh's offer. What a blessed decision.

I don't know if you couldn't tell, but I LOVE Pittsburgh. It is old, crowded, and the road system was apparently designed by a blind man, but it is all so wonderful (okay, the road system is not wonderful). And though the city, by itself, is pretty cool, I know I wouldn't feel the way I do about Pittsburgh if it wasn't for the wonderful people I met there, and the amazing friends I made. It really was such a wonderful experience and time in our life. I have often thought back to that initial decision of Cody's and mine, how we could have chosen a different school, a different city, met different people, had different friends, and while I am sure that we probably would have had a good experience somewhere different, I am just so happy we were blessed enough to find ourselves in Pittsburgh.

Last month, I had a chance to get together with several of these Pittsburgh girls in Las Vegas. We have all gone our separate ways, and some of us haven't seen each other since last years girls trip, but as soon as we saw each other, we instantly fell back into that fun, comfortable friendship that we enjoyed in PA. We talked non-stop for four days, laughing, crying, sometimes laughing and crying at the same time, eating, getting spooked by Amy's mere mention of ghost stories, and then talking some more. I really had such a fun time.

These are lovely girls, inside and out.

As for the agenda, we really didn't do anything very 'Las Vegasy'. We went to one Comedy show and we drove by the Bellagio fountains while I imagined Clare de Lune in my head. We ate yummy food and just enjoyed good, good company.

It's been over a month ago and I am still smiling about it. I am just counting down the days until I get to see them again.

In the News

So I was on the news.

Normally when I watch people being interviewed on TV, and I am talking regular people who don't normally appear on TV, I always think to myself, ". . .and that's what you chose to wear?" I know, so judgmental, right? Especially for one who often goes out in public looking pretty scrubby. But if I was appearing on TV, I would give some serious thought to what I chose to wear.

I definitely wouldn't have chosen my sparkly striped shirt that makes me look like I am trying to be 14.

And I would have done my hair. Just saying.

My friend, Adrienne, and I were at a park with our kids when we were accosted for a simple interview.

Now I have been interviewed once before on camera, back when I was in high school, for my best friend Bridget's documentary for her film class. When she finally showed us all her documentary, I was MIA in it. When I asked Bridget about it, she told me with the all the sensitivity befitting a best friend, "oh, yeah. I couldn't use any of it." Because I was that bad.

11 years hasn't made me any more eloquent. The interview went basically like this:

She asked a question- I sputtered like a doodlebug.

Then she asked another question- I buttered like a spoodledug

She asked Adrienne a question- Adrienne answered with complete and coherent thoughts.

She asked me another question (the interviewer is a slow learner)- I manage not to sputter like a doodlebug and get out a complete sentence. Unfortunately, I ended up quoting the cheesiest line known to mankind, and of course, that is what made it into the final cut. Since this was Alabama local news, I really wish I could have said something a lot more sensational, like "hide your kids, hide your wife, hide your husband. . . you are so dumb, you are really dumb, for real." Maybe next time.

I am on it a couple of times, so is my friend Adrienne, and so is, apparently, Erin, the secretary from The Office.

Three Halloween Tricksters

"Three Halloween Tricksters are we:

My sister, my brother, and me."

We had a couple of different Halloween parties we went to this year. The first was a family party for Claire's first grade class, which included a haunted hayride, pumpkin cake-pops, face painting, and all of Claire's classmates running around in costumes, completely happy.

The second was our ward trunk or treat. The chili feast and trunk or treat were pretty run of the mill kind of stuff, but this ward also has a haunted forest. Completely awesome! The young men put it on and it is a full on haunted walk in the woods behind our church. It wasn't super scary to me (you know, since I am an adult) but it scared Morgan good, and Claire mildly, and I did see several teenagers and adults who came back after a couple of minutes, too afraid to continue forward. Pretty Awesome.

Anyways, we have too much candy in the house now and some whiny girls warn out from all the sugar and excitement of Halloween. And Luke. . . he just makes chubby look good.

The Crime Scene

A couple of weeks ago, I had a day that was, well, maybe the worst day of my life. Or maybe not quite the worst. Maybe that is being a bit dramatic. But if I was to make an analogy of this day, I would definitely use the image of a paper bag, filled with poop and hair balls, lit on fire. That would definitely be in the analogy somewhere.

It all started in the morning, as I was in my bedroom, wrapping presents on the floor, with my little curly-haired assistant, Morgan, helping out. I was letting her use the scissors to just cut random scraps of wrapping paper and think she was actually helping me (3-year-olds are so gullible). After we were done, I put the scissors up on top of dresser, because I know my kids. They will go straight Josephine March on themselves if left alone with the scissors.

After I was done, we left my bedroom and I went to get Luke, who had just woken up and was standing in his crib, bundle up in his sleep sack and that big toothy grin plastered on his face- it wins my heart every time. I brought him downstairs to feed him, while Morgan, at some point, decided to strut around the house sans-clothes, like she owns the place. And while I was feeding Luke, she came out of my bedroom, where she had obviously been searching for the scissors to not avail, and asked me where the scissors were. In one of the greatest lapse of parenting judgement ever, I decided to be honest with her. I told her that I put them away on top of the dresser. What!? Why would I give her the location?? I am an idiot.

I thought that was the end of the story. It's on top of the dresser, a.k.a. out of her grubby, 50-percentile-for-height hands. But boy, did I underestimate her determination. Morgan goes back into my bedroom and a minute or so later I hear a big, BIG crash of things falling down. And then I hear her scream bloody murder. I pop Luke off (if you know what I mean), put him down, and rush into my bedroom, not sure what made the big crash. As I ran into the room, my confusion instantly changed to a terrible understanding as I saw Morgan pinned underneath the dresser and the TV that had been on top of the dresser. She had opened the drawers to climb into them in an attempt to reach the scissors, bringing down the whole shebang on top of her sweet, 50-percentile-for-weight body. The way that the dresser had fallen was that it landed against the fallen TV, propping it up slightly and making a little triangular space underneath. This is where Morgan was. I saw immediately that Morgan's head was bloody and there was blood sprinkled on the floor. I pulled her out, without much resistance, since she luckily was in this little space and I looked her over quickly and saw that it didn't look like she had broken any of her limbs. It was just her head that looked damaged. It was bleeding a lot, so I quickly grabbed a towel and pressed it against her head.

I was very scared at this point, mostly concerned that she had done some serious damage to her head with such a heavy blow. I could see that the TV had hit her head, I just didn't know serious the impact had been. I asked her questions to see if she could spell her name because I was worried she might have a concussion. She was crying and screaming, but still answered my questions, so I decided she would be okay if I drove her to the hospital. Except, I didn't have a clue where a hospital was. So I called Cody, and in my best emergency voice, told him what happened and asked him where the hospital was. While I was talking to Cody, I just kept walking back and forth, with Morgan in my arms, trying to think about how I was going to get Luke and her ready to get in the van. Luke still had a diaper full from the night, and Morgan was naked, save for her underwear. Finally I put Morgan down, had her hold the towel to her head as she talked to Cody on the phone. He did a good job calming her down, while I quickly changed Luke's diaper, put him in the car seat and grabbed a change of clothes for Morgan. And then off to the hospital we drove.

To make this long story short (way too late), she had a gash on her head that required stitches, but no other damage to her head or body. We stopped for ice-cream on the way home from the hospital. When I inspected the TV, I could see exactly where the TV hit her, as there was a pool of blood on the bottom edge. I feel so incredibly lucky that she wasn't hurt more. We feel so blessed that she is in our lives, her quirky attitude, and her sweet hugs. We love everything about her.

This was all said and done and we were home from the hospital by 9:30 in the morning. And then the rest of the day was filled with lack of naps by Luke, who was having ear trouble and therefore was a little grumpy, and a couple of upsetting phone calls from Claire's school, which is another post in and of itself. By 2:00, I was so beat-up emotionally that I had to call my dad and cry. And he made me feel better.

So I guess it wasn't the worst day of my life, because everything turned out fine. Morgan healed, Luke's ears healed, and the calls from Claire's school, which had seemed upsetting at the time, have turned out to be not such a big deal.

Things are good. Except we still haven't gotten the blood stains completely out of the carpet yet. But I have Oxyclean, so I am not giving up yet.

{Scene of the Crime}

Toughy

We have been busy lately, and this little monkey is part of the reason!

Luke is almost 10 months now and is just bursting with personality. I love this age. He loves to laugh and shout. He loves to babble. He loves to suck on my face. He is crawling and scooting all around, pulling himself up into standing position any chance he gets. Today I found him half-way up the stairs. It startled me to see him so high, so I shouted "Whoa!" and he hadn't seen me there so my startle startled him and he let out an excited squeal and laugh, because he was pretty impressed with himself.



He is still such a sweetheart- always happy and easy going. From his 6 month to 9 month appointment he only gained 2 pounds. Part of that is due to him being much more mobile and the other part is that he has been sick in some form or the other for almost the entire past two months. He has had three ear infections in the last month, but still was smiling through it all. We call him "Toughy", because that is what my Grandpa Leathem use to call my little brother and we say it exactly the way he use to- "Hey Toughy" (for the record, I am really good in my impersonation).


We love him so much and seriously can't get enough of this kid right now. Just a big bowl full of fun.

Remember July?

Way back in ol' July, I flew back west to visit my family. We fly into Utah, and it was me flying solo with my three little chiltens. It was sorta miserable, but I won't harass you with those details--because there isn't a lot to detail besides, it was just miserable. We arrived in Utah and spent a couple of days with Cody parent's in Utah, where my kids enjoyed playing with Grandma and playing with their cousins.

Cody's parents have a chicken coup and naturally my kids thought collecting the eggs was quite possibly the coolest thing they had ever done. Here is Morgan and her cute cousin, Lyric, before the collecting began (thank goodness). My kids had a great time, and I also had a good time getting to see my brother and sister-in-laws and some nieces and nephews.

After a couple days at my in-laws, I drove with my sister from Utah to Washington, with six of our little kids jammed in the back of her van. Again, slightly miserable, but Monica makes everything more enjoyable. She is so fun to talk to- we talked the ten hour trip, non-stop, and I was a little hoarse the next day. Good times.

We spent a week at my family's house, where all my siblings had gathered for a family reunion. Again, just so much fun being with family- i love my family, the girls loved their cousins. It was so much fun. Our theme this year was Cowboys and Indians, so my mom made cowboy outfits for the boys, and Indian outfits for the girls, which were so darn cute it almost made me pee my pants. Almost. We had a scavenger hunt that we based off the Oregon Trail game (remember? from fifth grade?? So Awesome). And there was lots of swimming and slip-n-sliding. And some giant radish eating.
But I am a bit shocked to say no scotch-a-roos this year. What??

After our delightful week, we drove back to Utah (more miserable than the drive up) and then we spent a quick afternoon visiting friends, and then went back to my in-laws, where even more of my nieces and nephews had arrived and we had a birthday with all the cousins.


It was lots of fun to see them there altogether. And then the next day, we flew back home to Alabama (which again was miserable).

I'm kind of a whiner.

I love being with my family so much and this trip just wasn't long enough. I felt like each time I was leaving somebody to go to the next place, that I just wasn't ready to go yet. I spent too much time traveling and not enough time with family and friends. At one point, I called Cody when I was on the road going from one home to the other, crying, because I was sad about there not being enough time to see everyone I wanted to and just take my time rather than rushing around. But I was also very glad to be home with Cody again once the trip ended.

All my friends and family just need to move down to my neighborhood with me. I think that is just going to be the best solution.

(I don't know if Glamour Shots still exists, but Claire is ready for her close-up)