Crazy February Update

Since returning from Christmas break, life at our house has been a little different. Think single mother:) Ok not really because I still have my wonderful husband but let's count the # of things he is doing...School full time (21 credits), Part-time work (15 hour a week), Construction Competition in Hawaii (about 15 hrs a week or more), Sunday School Presidency for the Stake (Sundays and then some) and just joined a band...hmmmmm that leaves just about no extra time for that poor guy. The good news is, the competition in Hawaii is at the end of this month. These boys are in it to win it, so it is very worth the amount of time they put into it to do their best. So fingers crossed that they win! Today Ryan drove all the way to Reno all by himself, 7 hours all alone bless his heart. There's a competiton there that he's not officially part of but is still nice to be at because there's a million companies there and the more exposure you can get in this economy, the better. Even though jobs are hard to come by right now, I have always been peacefully assured that we will be just fine. I know Ryan will get a job, he has earned that and it's nice to know it's a priority to him to take care of business. He's so great. And he's staying with my wonderful friend Court which really makes me wish I was there, so thanks guys for taking care of him. So, as for Ollie and I? We are in La Canada! We flew into Oakland to hang out with my sister Leah and Steve and their new baby Carson, then today we road tripped it to the parents house. It is so rainy, everything is gorgeous and green. Quite the difference from Utah in Feb:) So for the next few weeks we'll be here soaking in all the family and friends we can and giving Ryan his much needed space to take care of all the things he has on his plate. We sure miss him. He's been talking to Ollie on the phone and it's so funny cause Ols listens so carefully and every once and a while says, "si". In other news, I completely threw my back out doing who knows what. It's always a general progression till I basically can't move and I have to crawl to wherever I'm going. I mean, I'm 26, in pretty good shape, and this really should not happen to me so often. This has happened many times, but this time was worse than ever. I went to a chiropractor at Leah's and he felt my back and was like oh yeah, there is something definetely wrong here, you'll need an MRI to really see what needs to be done. Awesome. Over 3 days it's gradually gotten better and today I can walk upright and the pain is bearable. So if you're a person who has really bad back pain, I feel you and sympathize, it's so painful. I actually screamed out loud the other night in bed trying to roll over. I just need to get to the bottom of it because I've had bad back pain since high school so something is not right. I'm so glad it's feeling better and I know my sweet husband is praying me into health. So I figured, if I'm a temporary single mom this month, might as well be somewhere warmer, near lots of family to love, and wait out the rest of the month to welcome our hubby and daddy back from Hawaii. Can't wait.

We've got a bowler on our hands

We took Ollie bowling last weekend and just had to capture a little of the excitement that this activity causes in him. I'll be honest, he was freaking out so much at times that I was like, "WOW, who's kid is THAT". What we got on video was very much toned down. The real hard part was figuring out that we all took turns, which was far too long to wait of course. I ended up forfeiting many turns cause it just meant so much more to him than me and it was so fun to watch his little face light up. The best was that there was a boy scout group bowling next to us who got so loud and excited, Oliver was in complete heaven watching the "big boys" and he just felt like one of them I think. He is so funny.

Kindness

I've been reading this really wonderful book, "Love as a way of life" by Gary Chapman, the same author of "The five love languages". Both are really great books and are those types of books to keep around and read over again when you just need that little reminder. Anyways, the book asks that you as an individual remember certain acts of kindness you did or saw. I love the following excerpt from the book...
Try to visualize every person you meet as: Valuable beyond measure, Gifted, Born for a unique role in life, Capable of receiving and reciprocating true love. (Essentially the way God views each of us, hmmmm, sounds familiar:)

So here are a few acts of kindness I did lately:
-I saw a homeless man in the parking lot of Wal-Mart and instead of just handing him a few dollars, I parked my car and walked over to him to ask what specifically I could do to help. Did he need anything from inside the store, did he just need money? What was his situation? So he said that he and his wife and kids were trying to get to Texas and his wife was expecting another baby and they just needed to raise enough money to get there. Now I have a tendency from working with drug attics to be skeptical of stories but reminded myself that no matter what his story, he needed kindness and that was the point. Anyone willing to beg for money is always in need of help, always.
-As I got off the machine I was using at the gym, I saw an elderly woman was waiting for one to open up. When I walked past her I told her mine was open and then asked if she knew how to use it. She said she didn't, so I offered her help to get on it and program something for her to do. She seemed really grateful and her thanks was more kindness than I deserved.
-Ollie and I were grabbing a slice of pizza at Costco and I noticed an older man had just gotten a hot dog and was walking around by himself looking for somewhere to sit. I invited him to sit across from us and boy was I glad. I got to hear all sorts of stories from his life, how his wife had died of breast cancer, how he thought he'd never love again but then found another amazing woman, that both their families combined made up 13 kids, that he was visiting his son from Florida, and the list goes on. When we parted, he just said, "I am so pleased to meet you". It was enough to make my eyes fill with tears because he was just so sincere.

And here's a list of acts of kindness I saw:
-My sister-in-law Meg called me to ask if we wanted a babysitter to go out. She didn't wait for me to call her, she just called and offered and was genuinely happy to do it.
-My sweet husband tells me every day how beautiful I am and does about a million small things to make me know he loves me. I can call to tell him the smallest, dumbest thing of my day and he always is way into it, like I'm the funniest girl ever. He's never like, hey I'm busy, and this doesn't really concern me, can we talk later? Never has he said that to me.
-My sweet sister Laura came by a little while ago when I was sick, and watched Ollie, made us both dinner, and cleaned the house cause she knew it was driving me nuts that I couldn't do it. She also watches Ollie as often as I need her.
-Our home teachers asked if we needed anything and for once we were like, yeah, we need to go to the temple, and they said, we're here, let us know what time. What a blessing.
-When I was going to my sister Leah's house, I missed my flight and was really upset. Leah called my mom to tell her what happened and my mom called me right away and her and my dad were like, you are getting on a flight, whatever it takes! They didn't rub in the fact that I had missed my flight, which was dumb and totally my fault, they just wanted me to be happy. As I'm on the phone with my mom, my dad's like, head to Southwest, it's already taken care of. This is one of the many amazing acts of kindness my parents are capable of.
-Over Christmas break we all got strep throat and at one point I was feeling so bad I just burst into tears and Ollie saw and put both his arms around me and said, "tis ok" in his sweet little baby voice even though he was sick too and had a horrible temperature.
The list goes on, trust me, but I just love to remember how many blessings we can receive and give, it really does amaze me. And I definitely need to work harder, and I will.

Sticks and Stones

So I was telling Ryan this funny story of Oliver yesterday and he said it was totally blog worthy and I should write something about it. And it's true, there are so many random funny things that happen daily that really should be documented. So yesterday, we were at the duck pond near campus to feed the ducks all sorts of scraps we'd be saving. So I have a few things I struggle with at the pond. First off, in general I think birds are really dirty and when they ruffle their feathers, I envision this powdery filth coming off of them into all of our lungs. Gross I know. Secondly, these particular ducks are really aggressive and Ollie takes just a little too long to throw their bread so they snatch it out of his hand. I know he won't get bit, or hope I guess, but their persistence either makes him cry or get really angry and he starts hitting at them or kicking them. Either way it's an ordeal, but so funny to watch. Another pond factor this time of year is the mud/snow. It's been pretty warm and all the snow had watered down into massive muddy puddles. It's hard trying to tell a toddler to avoid a puddle because the mere fact of pointing it out sends their curiosity through the roof so that they MUST step right into it. The last and most difficult factor is the actual pond. Oliver is a no-boundaries sort of child. That coupled with the fact that he doesn't listen very well= drowning in ice cold, dirty poop, pond water. I kid you not that in all my time in taking Ollie to the pond, I have saved his life over a dozen times, and probably had myself a few minor heart-attacks. So to the funny part. Oliver sort of started this game with himself. He would pick up a rock or stick and inspect it really thoroughly. If it didn't pass the test, he would discard it immediately and go looking for the next candidate. When he found just the right stick, he would barrel full speed down towards the pond and throw it in, while standing on the very edge, almost falling in every time. Oh my heart. Every time, I just ran after him and held his shirt in my hands so he wouldn't fall in. Then back we'd go to search again for the right stick or stone. It was quite the process to watch and even funnier when the items didn't pass the test cause Ollie would look disgusted and throw them really far away or really hard, like how dare they. So he found a few out of the many that passed and would be thrown into the pond. The last trip down, at full speed, he slipped near the edge and slid through the mud on his bum only to be saved by yours truly before plummeting to a certain fate. Oh my gosh, my heart must have been beating out of my chest. Well his bum was covered in probably half poop, half mud so it was about time to go home. But man, every time I take him to the pond I think, why do I do this, it stresses me out! But then I think of how patient he is with the cold and how often he stays inside and on sunny days, it's just what needs to be done. Sorry no pictures of the escapade. I avoid bringing my camera because that would be a safety violation for my son's life:)

Happy Birthday Mom

I just wanted to wish my wonderful mom a happy birthday today! One of my favorite memories with my mom was when she came up just before Oliver's birth to be there and help for the whole process. She spent a lot of time and money I'm sure to be there and take care of us, it meant so much to have her there. And it's not often I get to have my mom all to myself so that was really fun to share with her one of the best experiences of my life. It's something we'll always have together and I love her so much!

Exploring the Bean Museum

This week for playgroup, we went to this little museum on campus. It was reptile day, so Ollie got to learn about turtles, snakes, lizards, all that good stuff. Actually Oliver could not sit still for 2 seconds during the presentation but took full advantage of the room to run.

The second his little finger got too close he was not at all down with touching the snake, even after I called it "puppy" hoping to coax him into holding it. Smart kid.

This is one cute face.

Call me crazy but I was slightly disturbed by all these heads and bodies. I mean really, they were covering the walls upstairs. Considering my extreme dislike for hunting, and all these being donated by proud hunters I'm sure, this was not my favorite thing in the world. This actually was very pretty.
Ollie laughing at the fellow crazed children in the museum.

Ah the facts of life. There were so many depictions of killing, I was getting a little worried for poor Ols.

When he saw that last one, he just said "Oh no!" And then made this face, and then went about his business of bounding cheerily throughout the museum. Oh my gosh, that is the most perfect word for him...bounding, new favorite.

Guam? Yes, please.

Lately Ryan has been a mad man applying for all sorts of jobs. One of his most recent applications when to Guam, a job he says would be perfect for him. I just can't even think about how cool that would be or I'll get my hopes up, but what's really exciting is that there are so many possibilities. Ok, don't get me wrong, we are very aware of the finanacial meltdown our country is in, so most likely we will gratefully take whatever we can get! But if we are at all allowed to pick and choose from a few jobs, I want to go have an adventure. I just can't help but think about all the people, places, and things that are awaiting us. There is so much to learn and teach. One of the only true ways to grow is change, and we are ready for it.

Chop it all off!!!

Due to the rapid growth of Oliver's hair, we both decided it would be best to just be done with it for a bit. Here are some post-cutting pictures in the tub. I think he looks quite handsome and maybe a little military-ish. BTW- have you ever tried to cut an almost 2 year olds hair by yourself? Highly recommend it. Just have a sucker and Curious George handy.

Sunday night dinner with family

Once again, I come to the conclusion that my child is a cheeseball.
Brian had this amazingly powerful lazer light so Ryan and Pete decided to join in on torturing passing pedestrians on the street. It was pretty funny.

Noelle trying to escape picture taking, but I got one.
So I told Oliver to go by Katherine so I could take a picture and he just walks over and puts him arm around her to pose. It was so funny, so grownup. He just woke up from a nap so excuse his bum hair.

Katherine and I are good friends. I can always make her laugh:)

The whole gang (Pete, Noelle, Regan, Brian, Amanda, Katherine, Oliver, Ryan and me)

Oliver was trying to take Noelle pacifier out of her mouth all night. I'm thinking she didn't appreciate it much.

Cousin kisses. At one point Katherine took Ollie's face in both her hands and brought him in to kiss her. Ollie just sits by her and pets her like a puppy, it's very sweet.

Blogger vs. Facebook

I have recently become a member of facebook...I know the peer pressure just ate me alive. I had always heard so much about Facebook and finally wanted to see what I'd been missing. Anyways I feel the need to set the record straight- Facebook is not as cool as blogger. There I said it. So sorry to all those diehard facebookers, it's just not that interesting, other than stalking a few old friends that you would have never found if you hadn't joined. Granted, it is REALLY cool being able to touch base with people I've totally lost touch with, but I just need more dish than so and so is feeling happy today. This brings me back to my love of blogs. I can follow up and actually read all about people's lives, and it's so interesting no matter what they say. Hands down, people are my favorite thing, and well, facebook, you just aren't a big enough fix.
Ps- I did take some pics tonight at my sister's house but am too tired to put them on considering it's 11 and who do I really think I am staying up this late. Look for them tomorrow, night night.