This website needs more Jeff

Bath time... the little red spot on his shoulder is a birthmark. The doctor assures me it wont effect his abilities be a productive member of society.

Jeff is showing off his newly acquired funny face.
Here is some more funny face. It is hard to catch those little expressions on camera.

Jeff showing off his speaking skills. Even with a mouth full of Cheerios and a cartoon to distract him. :)

Tracting (is that spelled right?)

So, I went tracting yesterday with one of the sisters serving in our ward. Can I just say that I have a lot more respect for missionaries now. We were only out a little over an hour and by the time we were done, I was content to know that I would go back to my everyday life of playing with Jeff, watching Opera, and eating Bon Bon's. Okay, so maybe my life isn't that posh, but seriously, these girls work hard.

I don't think it was so much the physical part of walking around, but lets be honest... I don't walk all that quick these days. Pregnancy has a way of making my sciatic nerve hurt and now I usually amble along at a nice leisurely pace. I think it was more the fact the some people can be so rude, and I just don't like being around rude people.

When someone comes to my door, I usually invite them inside. Not so for us. We never got invited into any houses. In fact some would just talk through the screen door and one lady even talked through her little mailbox hole.

One lady yelled at us and told us she didn't want it. I could see she was elderly and I really wanted her to know about the health fair we were promoting... so I offered again. She got pretty ticked and yelled at me some more. I walked away and decided I wasn't going to let myself cry. This lady just didn't know how to treat people. Thankfully, I didn't cry, but only because I was with a sweet little sister missionary who was totally tough about it and we also had a 10 year old girl with us from the ward and it didn't even phase her. So, I put on my game face and we went for the next door.

I was also really impressed by how bold this sister was. She was so diligent to give out cards and share her testimony even when it was obvious people were annoyed. You would never think her to be so bold. She is so quiet at church and has a tiny voice that I am surprised that people can hear her.

So, to all of you sisters and elders out there... or once were. I just have to say I have a new found respect for you. Thanks for being so diligent and working hard, because I now see how hard it really can be.

He's got skills

My son is learning some new and exciting things these days. Like how to hit. How to pull all of the cushions off the couch. How to scream when he doesn't get his way.

I can't say I like all this one bit. He is at such a "copy cat" stage that anything he sees once he does all the time.

I am pretty sure the hitting came about after he had a Kong Fu (I don't know how to spell that) lesson from one of the boys in the ward. While its a cute idea, it hurts my face. The kid keeps telling me I need to enlist Jeff in a Karate class... no way.

The couch cushion incident came about because Scott built Jeff a fort and now everyday is a fort day. I really don't mind this one as much, it is just a kid being kid.

The screaming. Oh, the screaming. It is more like a high pitched grunt. If you were here, I would demonstrate, but since you aren't and I have no idea how I would put an audio clip on the blog, you will just have to imagine. This one came from a little girl in our ward who is just three months older than Jeff. She is a sweet little girl, until Jeff comes around and then she feels it her duty to be the alpha female.

So, now that my son has these really cool talents... I'm wondering what to do. How do I teach him not to hit? How do I teach him not to scream? And how do I teach him that the couch makes a great fort... every once in a while but not every single morning?

So, I am soliciting your parenting advice. I can't guarantee that I will use it all. But feel free to tell me what has and hasn't worked for you.

Oh and just so you know, my boy really is a gem. He gives the best kisses and loves to sing himself to sleep. He never stays out past his curfew and uses clean language that I still can't understand. He has begun to say "Day doo" and "Dah doo" which are obviously "thank you" and "love you". So, all things said, I think we will still keep him. We just need to tweak a few things.

He's coming...

It hit me yesterday... I only have 12 weeks left before the our baby boy will be here. 12 WEEKS!!! Folks that is not a long time at all. And if this little boy is anything like Jeff I only have 8 weeks before he will make his entrance.

We are excited for this little guy to join our family, but I have to say that this pregnancy and all the feelings that come with it are definitely different than the first time. I think that now that I know what I am getting myself into, it's a lot more intimidating. I keep thinking about all of the amazing women out there who have had like six kids, with no epidural. That leads me to think about all those women who had babies in some one room cabin with the neighbor lady there to help her out.

And then I ask myself this question... Why am I such a pansy? Women have been doing this for years with a lot less luxury than I will have in my warm hospital room with pain killers, and epidurals, and ice chips. What happened to that firefighter girl who was so tough and not afraid of anything? What happened to that basketball player who broke her finger and kept playing? What happened to that little girl on the farm who was so tough she ate ants? (thanks to my brother who taught me that it was cool) What happened to her? Where is she now, when I really need her?

Sorry to any of you first time moms out there. This post is not to scare you away from ever bringing life into this world. But to all of you seasoned (read: had a baby and survived) moms out there, any advice on how to get over my fears? Any tips on how to make labor and delivery painless? If you've got it, send it on!!! And do it quick, because like I said before... He is coming...

All about Scott!

HOW OLD IS HE? 26.

WHO EATS MORE? Scott.

SAID "I LOVE YOU' FIRST? Scott, I just said "thank you". A few weeks later I got up to courage and mumbled it under my breath when my face was smashed up against his chest. Amazingly, he heard it.

WHO SINGS BETTER? Scott for sure. He has all he talent in the family.

WHO DOES THE LAUNDRY? Me.

WHO DOES THE DISHES? Both of us. I usually do, because I am the one home, but he does them whenever he is home and has time. Sometimes I would rather do them myself when Scott is at work so I can have the time. I am a super high maintenance wife, I want all of his time.

WHO SLEEPS ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE BED? Me, is that weird?

WHO PAYS THE BILLS? Me, but most of them are direct debit.

WHO MOWS THE LAWN? Neither of us, we have never had to.

WHO COOKS DINNER? Me, but Scott is the Jello man. He does the Jello every Sunday.

MORE STUBBORN? We are both pretty laid back on most things.

KISSED WHO FIRST? Scott laid one on me after we had only been dating a few weeks, I was shocked, but it was nice and I didn't resist one bit.

WHO ASKED WHO OUT FIRST? This is a heated debate. I just happened to have an extra ticket to a Jim Brickman concert. I told him he could have it. We ended up going to dinner and sitting next to each other at the concert. But I did not, I repeat, did not ask him out. :) Just an FYI, this is the night Scott decided I was datable, before he had felt like I was too much like a sister.

WHO PROPOSED? Scott surprised me like crazy and gave me a ring three minutes before he left for a cruise to Alaska for ten days. I had told him a few days before that I thought we should date for another six months so I could get over my fears. He had none of that and got a ring the next day.

WHO IS MORE SENSITIVE? Scott is super in tune with my feelings, but he isn't a sensitive femmy type at all. He is pretty stoic in sad situations and can handle hard things better than me. Especially when I am pregnant. Whew, talk about emotional. :)

WHO HAS MORE FRIENDS: We share all of our friends.

WHO WEARS THE PANTS: Neither of us, we base our relationship on mutual respect and concern for each other.

WHAT IS YOUR SONG? The theme song from "The Man from Snowy River". I told him I loved the song once when we were dating. He went out, secretly bought the music, and memorized it on the piano. He randomly played it for me one day when we were just playing around on the piano. Seriously, this guy is too good to be true.

Look what I'm driving now...

So we made a little trade and I've been seen around Jersey driving this beauty! Seriously! I can't believe I am parking this "little" guy next to my house. It has been way fun to have have it, and I didn't think I would, but I like it a lot. The downside is that I have to return in on Saturday. Sad day.

So, the story is that our car has this issue with turning on its own headlights in the middle of the night. Our mechanic is a guy from our ward and insisted that instead of sitting in the shop waiting for it to be fixed we trade cars when we were both at the church on Wednesday. We were going to drive down to the shop to trade back, but he insisted that it was too far to drive all the way down and just to trade back when we got together for a party on Saturday night.'

I'm sure my landlord was a little surprised to see the beast in the driveway when he came out to warm up his car. So, we may be converted to the Hummer series of cars even if we will never buy one. I just can't cough up that much dough for gas, especially with the prices the way they are.

So, I guess this post is just to show you how amazingly wonderful and kind our ward members are. They are just incredible! I mean, if I really did own that baby, I wouldn't just hand it out to others to take for a half a week. And the funny thing is, we aren't the first family he has done this for. Super nice people in Jersey.

Charity after the dance

I am not a night owl. I never have been. I remember the time in high school I invited over some friends to watch a movie and my little brother ended up entertaining them because I fell asleep about five minutes into the thing. In college I would often fall asleep on the ride home from a date. I always tried to tell my date not to take it personally, that it really wasn't them... it was me. With that background I can proceed to tell you the story.

It was my junior year in college. A guy from church, who I wasn't interested in but was a nice guy, asked me to one of the many dances at BYU-Idaho. I got all ready with the dress, shoes, makeup, and insane amount of bobby pins in my hair. We went to dinner and it was fun. We went to the dance, and it was fun. We went to watch a movie afterwords... and it was not fun. I got carsick on the way there, and then my head started hurting (probably from the plethora of bobby pins in my hair). Not just your typical headache, but the hurting where you can't even lay your head down because the pressure of it touching anything hurts.

Finally, he took me home. I said good night and walked in my apartment door thankful that the night was finally over and I could go to bed. Oh... my wonderful bed that always welcomes me home with a nice pillow on the side. The problem was that I first had to take off the shoes, take off the dress, take off the makeup, and pull out every stinking bobby pin... oh I was beginning to hate those bobby pins.

I stumbled into the bathroom and began the task of first finding and then pulling out all of those metal wonders of being beautiful. I started... and then all of the carsickness, headache, and late night got to be too much. I handled it the way any grown up girl would... I started bawling and cursing the man who invented bobby pins (knowing it must have been a man with sadistic motives). I plopped down on the floor big dress and all and sobbed.

Then, she came. My roommate and best friend growing up. Amie carefully pulled out each pin without ripping out too much of my over hair sprayed, matted hair. She undid my shoes (which were also causing problems because my finger dexterity had severely suffered from all the trauma thus far). She helped me get my PJ's and even pulled back the covers on my bed so I could climb in without too much effort. She sweetly and carefully took care of her toddler of a roommate.

What did she expect in return? Nothing. And that is the beauty of true friendship and the charity that develops in one. She took care of me and hopefully someday I can return the favor, even if she doesn't expect it of me.