Graduation!

I almost think I'm more excited for Brandon to graduate than I was for me to graduate. I'm so proud that he has worked so hard, that he has a job, and that he was able to be a men's basketball intramural champion before he finished. It was a great day and we're ready to celebrate.

The Green Corduroy Book

I just received some copies of a books I illustrated in the mail today and I love the way it turned out! It is a book to record funny things that kids say and there are hilarious samples from the author's kids, which is what I illustrated. You can get more info at: greencorduroybook.com

D.C. here we come!

For graduation I was going to surprise Brandon by taking him to NY, which would have been awesome. However, it worked out to be cheaper and easier for us to go to DC and we are so excited! We have a 3 1/2 hour lay over in NY though, so I think that will give us enough time to ride on the subway, eat a slice of pizza, and maybe even snap a quick picture or two. If you only had time for one stop in NY, and it was even during rush hour, and you had a baby, where would you go? And would you bring a stroller?

*trip update*
Actually, it turns out we are going to have a whole day in NY after all. We won't get to see everything, but enough. I can't wait!

Finally!!

Tonight was the top division championship for BYU basketball intramurals and after years of coming close - Brandon's team won!! What a great way to finish his BYU career.

Frames & Earrings... so far

My friend Staci just opened an Etsy shop with some cool stuff for sale. She is very creative and talented. You can check out her stuff here.

our helpful baby

Sometimes Calvin will smoosh his lips together suspiciously like he's got something in his mouth. Sometimes it's nothing, but the things we have found in there so far are:

lint
peanut
leaf
kleenex
bolt

I think he is trying to encourage us to clean more - where does he find this stuff?? He is also good at encouraging us to eat smaller portions by offering to eat anything on our plate. What a considerate little baby.

Breakfast

I was taking some pictures off our camera and I found this video clip. Apparently while I was at aerobics this morning Brandon decided to try a new method of feeding Calvin breakfast:

ipod dream come true...

I accidentally washed my ipod in the washing machine. You might be thinking, it seems like that happened before? It did. But this time, the ipod still works! What a relief. I have gone through way too many ipods in my lifetime.

Business & Technology Expo

This week Brandon got tickets from work for us to go to this Expo thing going on. Big-D probably had the coolest booth there. They had a machine where you could ride a bike upside down. It was really fun and a little scary:


I ended up finding a couple places to hand out business cards, which I didn't expect. And it turns out I'm very talented at roulette and I won a pack of cards. ok - so I had no idea what I was doing. And someone gave Calvin a couple of golf balls while Heather pretended like he was her son. He loved the golf balls and gripped them so tightly in his little fists. Then he fell asleep in the car holding onto them.

New pet?

They were .12 each, why not buy some fish? (yes, there were 3 at first) I know they don't live that long, but it cost $1 to feed them their whole lives. I guess fish are considered pets because you buy them at the pet store, but I kind of think of them as a really interesting decoration. They are so fun to watch swim around.

First Five

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me!

my choice. for you. this offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2. what I create will be just for you.
3. it’ll be done this year.
4. you have no clue what it’s going to be … it may be cards, a poem, a bookmark, something yummy or a complete surprise to you (and me) … who knows? not you, that’s for sure!
5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.
6. most importantly, you must offer the same deal on your blog - the first 5 people to comment on your blog (or if you do not have a blog, facebook) get something made by YOU! the first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me …

Design Build Competition

Brandon's team did really well at the competition in Reno earlier this month, they got 2nd place! You can tell Calvin is really proud of his dad.

Poll Results

Although Seattle was the poll winner (with some questionable multiple computer voting) we will be going with the 2nd place choice: Salt Lake area.
Brandon has accepted a job with Big-D in Lindon, the company he has been with for the past year and a half. He really likes everyone he works with and is excited about the construction jobs they have coming up soon. Big-D is a great company so we are very grateful.
We haven't figured out when and where we'll be leaving the student housing scene, but for now we think things look better here than anywhere else. Eventually I'm sure we'll migrate a little bit north. We'll see what we can find.

Two Things

I have two ideas that I think would make the world a better place:

First up: Grocery Store drive thru, Smith's in particular

* The simplest version: you know how some grocery stores have a pharmacy drive thru? Just add a small stock room there and allow people to pick only certain items ie: milk, eggs, bread, maybe 15-20 basic items.

* Or: Instead of having a stock room by the drive thru full of groceries, have a stock room of pre-ordered items in bags with people's names on them. Kind of like take-out from a restaurant. You could place your order online and then pick it up later. I always buy the same stuff anyways, so it would make grocery shopping so quick and easy. Especially with a kid.

Second idea, it seems pretty common sense:

hello - Girl Scout Cookies online & year round. Don't they want these girls to learn how to make money? Maybe if they sold them year round I wouldn't feel like I need to eat an entire box of Samoas as soon as I get them into my hands. By the way, if you live in Provo here's the schedule.

Oh yeah Catan

Suddenly this week I've seen multiple people with pictures about Cupcakes of Catan. Who started this ingenious idea and WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF IT?? I can't wait to play. Catan party here we come.

added memo for friends like Christy:
Cupcakes of Catan is a new way to play the board game Settlers of Catan, which is probably the best board game ever made and very addictive. Like cupcakes.

Brandon's homework

Brandon had an assignment to instruct someone in building a house. Kind of a practice for managing people building real houses I guess. So Saturday night I spent cutting up a cardboard box like he told me to and gluing them together with a hot glue gun.
Afterward I was going to scribble on it with a marker here & there to have doors and things, but then I remember how much I love to paint! Then it became very difficult to not get carried away. I'm planning on leaving it like this:
but he doesn't have to turn it in for another week. With it just sitting around for me to mess with, I might have to add some flower patches, curtains, a lighter color for the roof & some shingles. Let me know if you see something else I'm missing.
(And if you are thinking that I am going to get carried away with my kid's homework assignments I would just like to say that although it will be tempting, I am very determined not to. I hope I will have done enough art projects with them outside of school that they will want to do the projects themselves and I will be happy to let them.)

Latest at the MOA

For those who like to check out the latest stuff at the MOA, there is a new exhibit by Dan Steinhilber that is very impressive. Even Brandon liked it and wants to go back. (they were closing) My favorite was a huge painting (I guess you'd call it a painting) that was made completely out of duck sauce packets.

Seattle

I just returned from a very fun trip to Seattle to see lots of family. Brandon got to come for part of the trip because of an interview he had up there. It was great to be surrounded by so many babies. My sisters up there both have little tiny new babies. This is a pretty short post, but what can I say, I'm out of the habit.

Ward babies

Most of the babies in our ward were born within a few months of each other last spring/summer. It's been fun to see them at church as they all learn to roll around, sit up and now start crawling in some way or another. Calvin is still pretty slow with his hands & knees/ belly flop/ army crawl method.
Sunday at church I was in the front row in RS (gotta get the spot with baby space) and Cal was sitting on the floor with a small slew of toys. Gradually other babies started migrating towards him and his toys (other kids toys are always better than your own). Pretty soon there were 4 babies at my feet and it was pretty funny to see them crawling on top of each other and pulling at clothes and toys. I had to watch Cal carefully though because he is vicious. His little hands were lunging at everyone's hair and face, and I know from several daily occurrences that it really hurts when he gets a tiny fist full of face/ arm/ hair, etc.
As crazy as RS gets with these half a dozen or more little crawlers I can't imagine what it will be like when they are 12+ months, they all start walking, and nursery is still half a year away. I'm guessing the hallways & mothers lounge will start being a little more crowded.

Intramurals

Brandon is really good at basketball. However, I was really nervous when the game was about to start and Brandon's team had 4 guys, with no one on their way, while the other team had 9 or 10. The funniest part of the team was that in addition to the or 9 or 10 players they had 3 "coaches". How do I know they were the coaches? They were all wearing suits, holding clipboards, subbing guys, and yelling instructions. Mostly they were yelling, "THEY ONLY HAVE 4 GUYS!!" They kept saying this throughout the whole game and apparently the players weren't catching on because there was always a guy wide open for a nice 3. Brandon's team was ahead the entire game, I'm not sure what the ending score was but at one point they were ahead by 34.
Hopefully Brandon and his friends can add a few more guys to the roster before they get moved up for the tournament. They might be able to dominate in the middle division with 4, (they didn't sign up early enough to get in the upper division) but if Brandon wants that t-shirt before he graduates he has to break the 2nd place curse.

First up: Carrots

I made baby food! Thanks to the inspiration of my sister, the cost of baby food, and a baby with a bottomless stomach. I boiled carrots for about 45 minutes, so they were super soft. Then I blended them in the blender forever with some water & formula and it came out so creamy. I was so excited I almost ate it myself. (keyword: almost)
I poured it into an ice cube tray to freeze, and when it's solid I'll put it into ziplock bags, pull them out and warm them up as needed. And for about 20 times less than regular baby food. oh yeah.
I think Calvin liked it too.

Warm bread

Brandon found an awesome deal on craigslist for a practically new breadmaker. It came with the box, the manual, recipe book, etc. But this is what can happen when you use a manual that goes to a different breadmaker:
So I looked up the correct manual online, realized what I had to do differently and once again our house smelled like delicious bread only to find another disaster.
Then, I found a second center piece for the breadmaker that stirs everything and realized that the piece we had used before (that didn't fit very well) must go to a different breadmaker also. On the third try, with the correct instructions, and correct stirring piece, we finally have warm delicious bread!

New things for Cal

When Calvin clamped down on my finger the other day I felt something sharp that wasn't there before. After making sure he didn't have a staple or something in his mouth I decided it must be a tooth. (although, it was really hard to see because who likes someone pushing your lip and tongue out of the way to see your gums?) Today when Calvin fell asleep in Brandon's arms at church we had a chance to really spy on his mouth and saw 2 teeth! okay, little tops of teeth. I don't really look forward to the potential of being bit in the future, but new things are always exciting.He also has a mammoth new carseat because he'll be too big for his infant one really soon. You can tell how excited he is about it. We have actually started putting real shoes on Calvin too. They are size 4 and I think they make him look so grown up. I guess he is grown up compared to 6 months ago, right?

Not your typical inspirational music

Yesterday I miraculously went running. I was listening to some of Brandon's jammin music on my ipod to keep me going. One particular song was very inspiring to me. It was Eminem's "Lose Yourself". In the lyrics he said, "If you had one shot, one opportunity to seize everything you ever wanted, would you capture it? Or let it slip?".... "You only get one shot, do not miss your chance, this opportunity only comes once in a lifetime" It made me think about how every minute of our lives we only get once. It made me run faster, I will never get those minutes of my life again. And these minutes right now while I'm blogging, I'll never have these minutes again. It made me think about how I spend all of my time and if I'm really making the most of each moment to seize everything I ever wanted. Thanks Eminem for the very unexpected insights.

Eggs, flour & milk

3 simple ingredients can sure make a lot of great food. (plus toppings, of course)

My Favorite, Swedish Pancakes:
2 eggs
1/2 c. flour
1 c. milk

Use butter on the pan, fry on med. heat. Flip. Remove from heat add butter and granulated sugar for best results. Or syrup works too if your name is Brandon. Makes 3-4

German Pancakes:Crepes:
Yorkshire Pudding:
Yorkshire pudding is made the same as german pancakes, but you bake it in a cupcake pan, use gravy instead of syrup (I thought it was weird at first because it was like putting gravy on pancakes to me, but I discovered it actually tastes good) and eat it for dinner. Definitely the most unique of these.
I'm sure there are other things you can make too, probably regular pancakes, or waffles? I never make those though, so I'm not really sure.

Christmas Picture Winner...

Although Sam made a really good suggestion for our Christmas picture (see comment #7 on previous blog), we ended up at our relatives house later that evening and they took a picture of us in front of their beautiful tree. Although Calvin looks a little deer-in-the-headlights & wouldn't smile for any of the pictures, at least he looked at the camera. Winner.

Our snowy night adventure

It began with simply delivering a few Christmas treats. We decided to brave the snow packed streets to stop by a friends house that is just a few minutes away. We visited for a couple of minutes but couldn't get the car out of the driveway afterwards. We proceeded to scrape at the snow and ice and spin our tires for the next 30 minutes. After finally borrowing a neighbor's shovel we were able to leave. However, the shovel had broken in the process. I suggested that we tell the neighbors that we were going to buy a new one, but Brandon figured we would be back in a few minutes and it didn't matter. While we were at the parking lot of the 6th store trying to find a shovel we got a phone call from our friends asking if we had broken their neighbor's shovel because they had come over asking about it. oops. We eventually found one and were able to apologize, explain about the shovel famine, and then finally return home an hour and a half later.

Christmas picture voting

Even though it's a little late for Christmas cards, we still tried taking a family picture hoping that we might at least send out a few. These are all 6 of the pictures that we took. Which one do you think we should send out? By the way, it took a lot of effort to get these, so don't think you can pick "none of the above".

More baby room decor

To match the mobile I made, I found an idea from a magazine for another decoration. We bought some canvases, painted them, and had Calvin add the finishing touch. It's trickier than it looks. You might think some of the prints look kind of funny or smeared, but those are good ones. I promise. We had to redo a couple due to overly curled toes and excited hands.

Gmail extras

I've been really getting into all my Gmail extras. It started with the google reader, which saves me so much time on blog checking. Then the other day I decided I should keep a calender and started putting stuff on my gmail calender. I got a little carried away with all the public calenders you can add and put on a BYU calender, U.S. holidays, Christian holidays, Lebanese holidays and Canadian holidays. Then I created calenders for Waddington birthdays and Miller birthdays and added every event I could think of. Then I added Tasks to use for my daily To Do list, instead of a scrap of paper I always lose. Between gmail, blogging, web searching, using my calender & to do list, I'd say my life feels like it's run about 95% by google.

My toys

Calvin's toys aren't that interesting to me, except his colorful rings. If they are anywhere around me in church I can't resist playing with them and changing their order over and over again to see what the best pattern is that I can come up with. There's really no way he likes them more than I do.

My all time favorite Christmas book

The Gift of the Magi is such a loving story. It has beautiful illustrations - Lisbeth Zwerger is probably the best illustrator in the world. Maybe someday I can go to Vienna to meet her. And maybe I'll learn German too so I could actually talk to her.
I've stared at her short little book for hours. And the story always makes me a little teary eyed. It's very well written. (Although, I have to admit some of the vocabulary is a little over my head: mendicancy, meretricious, fob, parsimony. And it's in the children's book section? But even with my vocabulary limitations, it's still a profound story.)
So if you are trying to think of an inexpensive but meaningful present for someone, I recommend this amazing $5.99 book. And if you're trying to think of a present for me, I could always use another one. You know, just in case someone eats the one I have.

Poison Control

This morning Calvin was playing with his toys like normal and when I looked over at him he had blue paint all over his face. He was sucking on a little doll my sister brought us from Russia that somehow got mixed in with his toys. The question is, do Russians use lead paint? I don't know. So I called Poison Control to ask if I should be worried and they said he was fine, even if it was lead paint. Lead poisoning usually happens from lots of paint, from weeks of sucking on a lead paint toy. I hope all my calls to poison control go that smooth.

Pie

Ever since making my practice pie for Thanksgiving I've decided making pies is fun. This was the first apple pie I've ever made and I even tried doing a criss cross top. It was kind of sloppy, so I'll have to work on my cooking art skills and experiment with some more recipes too.