This week in history...

Something happened, I'm sure of it. Just don't ask me what. All I do is play with a baby all day every day. She is very cute and cuddly and all, but she doesn't help me stay connected with life 'outside' as it were. For me this week it was just nutso, for the most part.

First of all we all had a nasty stomach thing; Karen had it first (Sunday/Monday) then I had it (Tuesday/Wednesday) and then Joe had it (Wednesday/Thursday). Karen puked up a couple times, I just felt really gross, and Joe had it all comin' out the other end. It wasn't a great week in that way, but we're feeling better now. Karen also got two new teeth this week. One last night and one this morning for a total of seven for my cute little 10 month old. She's got another one close too!

The major things for this week are a couple of exciting things in the extended family. My cousin Jamie Stansfield is pregnant again-she'll be due sometime in the fall/early winter but she's not sure yet. Her older baby Liberty is 6 weeks younger than Karen, so this was not quite expected but is still really exciting. The other thing that is exiting this week is that Joe's sister and brother-in-law are going to UConn for graduate school. He's going to do a master's in Counseling (I think) and they'll move from Provo to Connecticut sometime this summer. That's about it from us down here in Charlotte. It's a nice 80degree day here (again). I think my favorite thing about this city is the weather (except in July and August). The picture of Karen in her frog mask is from the "Imagine Me as a Frog" book we got from my parents a Christmas.

Dishes

The worst thing about staying at home with Karen all the time is the dishes. I feel like they should 'be done' all the time. So, for a week or so I'll do good and keep up with it all right but then the rebellion sets in. I don't want those dishes to push me around and I resent being stuck in the kitchen all the time. So the dishes start piling up (because who else in our house would do the dishes anyway?) until it gets bad enough that I can't get Karen or me or Joe any food because there are no clean dishes and if there were any I'd still have no where to put them. Then I decide that I just can't live like this and spend an hour or two (or more sometimes) cleaning the kitchen. Usually right after I finish cleaning up, I have to make dinner and the whole terrible cycle starts all over again... I'm at the bottom of the cycle right now, and I'm glad I have Enrichment tonight so I don't have to try and find any food in there...it could be scary. I guess in some way it could be related to the whole Nephite 'Pride Cycle', but I really don't want to go there right now.

Other than Dish Wars, not much is going on. Tomorrow is Recruitment Day for Joe, which means it's been a whole year since we decided to move here, and in about a week it will be a year since I was on almost-bedrest with Karen. It's crazy how fast the last year has gone by. Part of that may just be my blocking out a month or two after Karen was born, but that can't account for all of it...can it? Oh well.

Glasses

This week was spring break for us, which meant that Joe only spent about half of the day at school every day instead of all day. So the other half of the day we had 'free' if you can call it that... Tuesday we went to the eye doctor. It had been almost 2 years for me and my glasses were aweful, and Joe hadn't been since before his mission. So, more than $500 dollars later I come out with contacts (which was cheaper than getting glasses) and Joe comes out of the experience with a...unique...perscription. I am near-sighted and far-sighted, depending on which eye you're talking about (which is interesting itself). Joe however is near-sighted and far-sighted at the same time in both eyes (but can see middle distances fairly well, oddly enough) which Casey Claypool can tell you all about...he gets some expensive glasses and that's about all I can say for now (I don't want to get in trouble too much). So we're a bit lighter in the pocketbook now, but at least we can see exactly how much we don't have. ;)

Also this week I've been doing a bit (very little bit) of Southern cooking. Monday was Biscuits and Sausage gravy, which turned out all right if you like thick gravy. Wednesday I made cornbread (for the first time ever) to go with our Taco Soup, as well as a Pecan Pie (which was really good). The only problem with the pie was that we had the Sister missionaries over for dinner and one of them has a nut allergy... which didn't work out so well since the only other dessert we had was peanut butter cookies. Oh well...

Thursday was Karen's 9 month checkup. She would have had it a couple weeks ago but she was sick. Now she's feeling fine except for the rash all over her face and in the cracks of her elbows and knees and chin. Nothing I had would make it better, but it wasn't getting worse either so I wasn't too worried about it. The Dr. said she has baby eczema (I think that's how you spell it) and gave us a cream to help it get better. In one day it's already almost gone. Hopefully this is something she'll grow out of though.

The last thing about this week is the cross-stitch I finished last night. Our front bathroom is frogs, and I did a little cross-stitch of a frog on a fountain. It was fairly symmetrical so Joe said "why don't you do another one only backwards" so I did. It was really difficult to remember the whole 'opposite' thing and it took me about 3 times longer than the first one, but they're really cute now. I put them in some cute matching frames and will hang them up sometime. As Marquita suggested I took a picture of all the 'stuff' I've been working on-see below.

Now it's back to real life next week, but only a month until Easter and my birthday (they're the same this year, and it's also Fast Sunday for us as well). Hope school is good for everyone and y'all have a more exciting and eventful spring break than we did (unless you're at BYU and don't have spring break at all...) yeah.

Ivory...?

This week my life has been about ivory (or something) and antibiotics. Karen started her first round of meds last week and we've continued with the 'pink stuff' all week long; I think we're both glad that this is the last day for it. Hopefully this means that Karen won't be sick for a couple of weeks...? Also on the same topic Joe went to the health center on campus with the same thing Karen has had...but instead of giving him an antibiotic for the infection they gave him some really strong decongestants...as in the highest legal dose that you can possibly take and people who make meth would love to get their hands on it. As far as I'm concerned if they think it's that great they can have it. Joe took one pill and was in such a daze for the evening it was really scary. And he didn't even feel better at all. So, if you ever have a doctor give those to you watch out-if you need them that bad you may just have some other underlying problems that you should talk about it with a professional.

Now to the topic of ivory...or white. At the beginning of the week Karen had 3 ivory (or white) colored things coming out of her gums in her mouth. Now however she has 5 of them. Yes, Karen got 2 new teeth in the last two days, one on bottom first (which was funny because she had 3 on the bottom and only one on the top) and then yesterday the other top tooth came in. So it's been a bit of a week in that department-all she wants is for Mommy to play with/hold/feed her, but she won't say mommy-only daddy or bob (whoever that is!)

Also on the topic of ivory (and ebony-if you remember the old song) we now have a piano in our apartment! It's really exciting but don't think that I've just gone out and spent all my money and used up all the credit I've ever had. In church on Sunday the EQ Pres. asked if anyone would be willing to 'store' a piano for a year or so. Joe and I weren't there because we were both in Primary, but a friend of ours emailed Joe on Monday with the news. So, through some convoluted and twisted manner that I don't completely understand we are now 'storing' a piano for some guy that we don't know for an undefined period of time (at least a year or year-and-a-half). It's not a nice piano or new in any sense of the word, but it's been tuned fairly recently and it sounds all right. The most worrying thing is that the rust on some of the inside parts; I think I heard it was stored in a garage for a few (maybe 10-15) years. So we're not sure if the guy will ever come for it, it could just be ours-until we move and actually have money to buy a good non-rusted piano. Anyway, that's about it for us. Next week is Spring Break for us, which is exciting but Joe has tons of work to do so it won't be much of a 'break' but we might be able to do something fun. It's also in the 60's here every day and it's starting to bloom-Spring really is here!!!! Hope y'all are doing well and good luck on midterms! (Pictures to be posted in the next week)

Tax Time

The biggest event in the past two weeks is getting our taxes done. It's always a chore and is never fun, but having them done is quite a relief. Especially since we have a new baby and get a nice tax credit for her. We'll be able to live for a month or more on our return, which is good since Joe doesn't get paid in June or July.

Also in the past week, Karen got her first tooth on the top and is working hard on the second. She's really cute all the time, but now she's even more toothy ;) The down side of course is that she's a bit of a pill (even though she's still my cutie!) and on those days she does not want mom at all-she is SUCH a daddy's girl. Some evenings she won't even look at me, she's only got eyes for dad. Joe loves the attention too, I should add. Another thing she does now is try to stand up. She doesn't crawl or roll very much, but she likes to try standing up all the time. She also loves her toys-especially things that stack, like cups or colorful rings.

Besides those two things not much has happened. We've watched a lot of TV, whether that's good or bad I'm not sure yet...but 24, House, and American Idol take up quite a bit of time. I've done a latch-hook rug for Karen's room with Precious Moments kids on it-it's cute but it was a pain to make. I don't know if I'll do another one for a very long time. That's about it for us down south. Hope y'all are doing well where you are.

The Big Storm...?

So, living in North Carolina I didn't expect to get much snow. And up until this week I was correct in that assumption. However, last Thursday we had a 'huge' snowstorm. It was so bad that the local news stations did traffic-and-weather coverage ONLY from 4:30 am to noon, and not much else the rest of the day. Almost all regular programming was cut for the day. Also all schools were closed, as well as daycares and doctor's offices and many other places as well. How much snow did we get in this massive storm? Maybe two inches. I should have taken a picture of it-it almost covered all of the grass. Too bad it didn't last long either; it turned to rain in the afternoon and all of the snow was melted. It was the biggest winter storm in 3 years, and if it had been in Utah or Indiana no one would have even mentioned it (Oregon might have had a 2-hour delay). It didn't even freeze last night, so there was no ice on the roads or anything this morning.

Another thing of note for this past week would be the bunk beds. We decided that it would be good to get Karen a bed so she can get used to it in her room before she has to start sleeping in it. We also thought it would be a good idea to get bunk beds since we'll probably be in an apartment for several more years and are planning on having more kids. Note: This is NOT an announcement of an impending birth in our family!! The beds are nice and come apart into two regular-size and height twin beds so if we end up moving into a house before number 2 comes along they can be in separate rooms in regular beds too...

Anyway that's about it for us right now. Joe's getting ready to go to a couple of conferences: NYC in April and Dallas, Texas in May. He's really busy with school and scouts and is totally excited about his Colts making the Superbowl. I'm excited too, but I didn't cheer for them through all their really bad years so I 'don't know how it feels'.

Karen's favorite thing right now is clapping. She figured it out in church a couple weeks ago and has been doing in nonstop since. She's also getting strong legs and can almost hold herself up; it's just too bad that she won't crawl for anything. That's us for now. Here are a couple pics from our battlefield experience and our new bunkbeds.

MLK Jr. weekend

How wonderful to have a 3-day weekend after the first week of school. It was nice to have a day off, but I don't think we really needed it yet. However, we decided to enjoy the day and go see some sights. We ended up going to Cowpens National Battlefield, a Revolutionary War historical site. It was cool to actually see something that I'd learned about in school. I even wrote a paper about it at BYU. The funny thing about this battle is that it actually took place in a cow pasture. It was an American victory big time-only a few Americans were killed/wounded/captured while more than 500 British suffered the same. The thing about battlefields is that most of the time they're just empty land without much exciting to see. We got lucky though, because (being in the south) there were people dressed up doing a reenactment of the battle for the 226th anniversary of the victory. We hadn't remembered that it was in January, so we got there and there were already a couple hundred people there. It was fun and a bit strange. Oh well, it was a good day off of school and we got some interesting pictures (which I forgot to bring-next time they'll be here).

Another thing of note this week is that my brother came home from his mission. Don't worry, it was an honorable release ;) he's been out for two years and home for two days. He was in the Tempe, Arizona mission and is now freezing to death in the Portland, Oregon area while deciding what to do with the rest of his life. I told him to come visit us, but he just laughed. He thinks you need money for things like that. Oh wait....

Anyway, that's about it for us this week. Just back to the grindstone for Joe and back to normal life for me. At least American Idol has started now... something to do while Joe's doing homework in the evenings. Hope y'all are having fun wherever you happen to be.

January!

The past week or so since we've been home has been a bit crazy, but I think we're about to settle back into our old and somewhat boring lives. Here's a bit on the crazy... Our flight from Portland to Atlanta was about an hour and a half late leaving, which totally ate up our layover time in Atlanta and we ended up running from one gate to the other. Thursday last week we spent the entire day shopping-getting food and spending the gift cards that we got for Christmas. Friday we played Age of Empires II like all day, when we weren't sleeping. Saturday the Colts won their playoff game, which was great. Sunday was the most calm church experience for quite a while, and we got ready for Joe to start back at school Monday, after which things became back to normal... After this Sunday things will get downright boring...

This week we have Choir practice before church, then we speak in Sacrament Mtg., then I'm subbing for the Primary chorister and Joe teaches primary, then I have Women's Choir, then there's a Primary fireside called "Eight is Great" that I have to be at Sunday night...if we survive it will be good. Monday is a holiday, and we're trying to decide what to do; stay in Charlotte and go to one or two of the many museums, or go to the Biltmore estate in Ashville.

As a last note, congrats to Andy and Nancy Heiss (baby to be born in July) and Matt and Shelley Allen (found out baby to be born in May is a boy). Good luck to you all and congrats! Here are some final pics from our trip.

The week between..

So, the week between Christmas and New Year's is always up in the air-at least with my family. Christmas was nice, we had lots of food and candy of course. Karen got TONS of presents-I don't know if we can fit them all in our suitcases, we might have to ship some stuff back. So after Christmas we didn't do much. On Thursday we went to the beach, which means that I've been to both oceans in one year! I think that's nifty because I'd never been to the ocean before in my whole life. Karen has been great; she's a real trooper. She loves playing with her young aunts and uncle and the grandparents. She is not going to like going home and being stuck with mommy anymore!

Happy New Year! It was fun to stay up late and all that (Karen didn't make it though) but I realized that Midnight here is 3am where I'm going back to on Wednesday. It made me tired just thinking about it. However, with all the junk food, movies, and puzzle going on-besides all the people-I managed to forget that and have some fun. I thought it was nifty that they had a youth fireside on New Year's; I didn't go, but my sister and parents said it was really nice.

Well, it's been a really nice holiday vacation. We're pretty much ready to go home now, but it has been so nice to see everyone and spend time with family before we go back out on our own. I hope all of you had a great holiday season and have some great resolutions for the new year. Some of mine include (of course) losing those few (okay many) pounds and reading the NT and possibly D&C-I'll have to work out a schedule for that still. Everyone be sure to have a fun time the last week or so before school starts back up and real life takes over again! I've got to sort out my pictures so here's just one to get the year started.

Utah!

Hey all! Hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas. I'm writing today from the West coast instead of the East, which is kind of a change for me. This last week has been really crazy for our little family. Monday we spent getting everything packed and ready to go. Tuesday we left for the airport, leaving around 11 am EST and expecting to arrive near 7 pm MST. However, there was a problem with the plane during our layover in Cleveland, Ohio and we were delayed about six hours. We finally got to Salt Lake and into my grandparents house around 2 am. It was a very long day, but Karen did fairly well. She had no problems with takeoffs or landings, but waiting in the airport was not her favorite thing ever.

Wednesday was Danny and Kathleen's wedding. It was very nice in the Bountiful UT temple. We went early for some pictures, then went to the sealing. It was so nice, and they were so cute! After the sealing we went to the Nadauld's for the dinner/reception. The food was great and there were lots of people from their mission there. During the whole wedding thing Karen was with Calista (my little sister) and my grandparents/family at the family Christmas party at my aunt's house. We were worried a bit because we hadn't left her with anyone else for a very long time. However, she did very well and liked playing with all the kids and everything.

Thursday was excellent. We all went to Provo to visit various people. We talked to Jessica and tried to visit some professors on campus, but none of them were home. It was really cold outside and Karen totally flipped out. Going from 75 degrees in Charlotte to about 15 in Provo was too much for her to handle. The highlight of the day was the Bowl game party in the JFSB. Quita, Shaille, Nancy, and all the rest got together some great grub in the Foreign Language Center. The game was great but it was even better to see all our friends in Utah again.

Friday we flew to Oregon. It was an 8am flight, so we got to the airport just after 5am. It was really early, but it turned out to be a good thing. Calista's friends got there a bit later and one of them acutally missed the flight. It all worked out in the end and we arrived in Portland before lunch. Since then we've been chillin' at my parents house, while Karen gets to know all of her aunts, uncles, and grandparents. She's been really a trooper and loves being able to be held all the time. Here are some pictures from the last week. Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

Leaving on a Jet Plane...

So, sorry no writing on Friday-this whole end of semester thing kinda throws all of that off. Just to let you know we're leaving tomorrow (Tuesday) morning for Utah and won't have internet access probably until Friday when we get to my parents house in Oregon. So if you want to contact us call our phones. You should all have our number-and if you don't I'm not going to post it on the web, so don't ask. ;) Hopefully... the weather will be nice, the wedding will be gorgeous, we'll get to see everyone we wanted to, Karen will be happy the whole time, and it will be a wonderful experience. Life so far has made me think nothing will go that perfectly, but we can always hope, right?!

Well, that's about all for now. Sorry there aren't any pictures the last couple of weeks, but the whole pictures on different computers and USB drives and all that has gotten kinda crazy. Hopefully we'll get some good ones up next week of everything in Utah and then some truly cute ones from Christmas. Have a great week and maybe I'll see some of you soon!

Howdy!

Hey ya'll! Hope everyone is getting ready for Christmas in a big way...or at least a little way. Not much is going on right now. Joe has been gone most of the week. He's finished classes and only has one more final left, but that one will take a full day of work to finish. No 3 hour time limits here! However we are all three looking forward to a few weeks of no school and vacations. Tonight is our ward party, which will be fun I hope. Sorry this is so short but I'm already out of time. I'll write more next week for sure!

Thanksgiving

Hello to all! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and that you’re now excited for Christmas (which is only 24 days away). The past two weeks have been busy but good. We went to Indiana for Thanksgiving last Tuesday through Saturday, which is why no blog last week. We did have a good time, even with our somewhat-whiney Karen. The drive north took almost 12 hours, and Karen (and me and Joe too) was very tired of being in the car with nothing to see. I can’t wait until she doesn’t have to be in a rear-facing car seat anymore! While we were there it was nice to just chill a bit (in more ways than one-it was so much colder there than it is here!) and hang with the fam. The only down side was that Karen didn’t want to be held by anyone except mom and dad until Friday. The dinner on Thursday was nice, though slightly different than I’m used to. For instance, I don’t think I’ve ever had mac-and-cheese (homemade, not box style) at thanksgiving dinner. We drove home on Saturday, which took only about 9 ½ hours. I’m not sure why it took so much less time; maybe going south is like going downhill…?

Anyway, Monday was Karen’s doctor visit with shots and everything else. She is growing so well! She is now 18 lbs. and 27 inches long. In 6 months she’s grown half a foot and almost tripled her weight. The shots were no fun and she had a bit of a fever for the next day or so, but that’s pretty well over now. Another added bonus of being 6 months is that she gets two meals of cereals/food every day instead of one. This makes baby happy because she likes to eat different things and it makes mommy happy because Karen likes to use nursing time as teething time, which can be painful since she has a tooth now.

Joe’s really busy at school and church/scouts. Karen is frustrated because she’s hardly seen him since we got back from Indy. However after next Friday Joe will be done with all of his classes and finals (except for maybe one) and a week from Wednesday we’ll be on Christmas Vacation! We’re looking forward to a few ‘slow’ days before we head to Utah and Oregon. Speaking of which…after meeting with Danny and Kathleen (who is quite cool), the 21st is really the only day we’ll be able to get together with friends, but as of now the entire day seems pretty much open so let me know what’s going on and hopefully I’ll be able to see everyone!

Well, now that you’re all totally bored to tears, I hope you’re doing well. Good luck on finals for those in school, and Happy Holidays, Season’s Greetings, and/or Merry Christmas (whichever you would personally prefer)! Here are some Karen pics from the last couple of weeks.

Before Thanksgiving...

Before Thanksgiving this year I made a decision, which I asked Joe to support me in. I decided I didn't want to gain weight this holiday season (which is the same decision I make every year I think) so I have less weight to try and lose with my New Year's resolution. However, just after I made this decision Joe seemed determined to make me break it. He took me to Walmart and bought a bag of M&M's and a sewing machine (early Christmas present!) so he obviously doesn't want me to be active ;) So I'll just sit around and eat chocolate and sew something as I get bigger and wider. However, I am very excited about my sewing machine! It will be fun to actually be able to do the projects that I keep thinking of. Now I can't say "Oh yeah, that would be fun...if I had a sewing machine" so hopefully I'll be a little more motivated to do a bit of crafty things. Maybe that will be another New Year's resolution...

Otherwise, things are going well. We leave for Indiana on Tuesday morning after Joe gets out of class. We're not sure if we'll come back on Saturday or Sunday because the BYU-Utah game is Saturday and there may be some small chance that we could see it in Indiana. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Everyone be sure to travel safely for the holiday, and beware the sleepy turkey syndrome while driving! ;) Once this holiday is over we'll get our Christmas-time travel plans figured out more clearly. Happy Turkey Day!!!

This week

This week has been pretty slow. However, we have gotten more information on our travel plans. We'll be staying in Midvale with my grandparents unless something crazy happens, but thanks everyone for the invites! We may have to take you up on them sometime, but probably not on this trip. We also know that we'll be flying to Portland on the morning of Friday the 22nd. We would love to get together in the day on the 20th or 21st, whichever is better for everyone who has work and other things at that time.

Also this week we came to the realization that we really just need to buy a new computer. The one we have is dying one part at a time, and at this point it would be cheaper to buy a notebook computer than replace the remaining parts. So, we're going to go looking tonight and hopefully in the next week or so we'll have a computer that I can use for pictures again. As a result of the computer issues, we have no Karen pics this week since the computer doesn't want to turn on.

The last points of interest for the week are...1. I had my first Achievement Night with the girls in the ward. It was fun except that I had to take care of Karen at the same time since Joe was at scouts too. 2. Cameron and Sarah, some people that Joe goes to school with, came to dinner last night. It was nice but a little different since they aren't members of our church and so we had less in common and fewer things to talk about that weren't school-related. It was still good to have people over though.

TTFN!

Holiday Plans...

Sorry about the post last week. It was having issues when I originally wrote it, and I told Joe to post it later but he never did...So it's up now, and here's more for this week...

The last week has been crazy at our house trying figure out our holiday travel plans. Originally we were staying home for Thanksgiving and going to Oregon for Christmas, but it has since become much more complicated. Joe's brother Danny started dating a girl at the beginning of the semester and got engaged on Sunday. So, we're going to Indiana for thanksgiving and to Utah for the wedding in December. Yes, that's right, December! We bought plane tickets and everything. So, now we're flying into SLC on the 19th of December for a wedding on the 20th. From there we will rent a car and drive to Portland before Christmas along with Calista, my sister at BYU. That's as far as our plans have gone, so we don't know where we're staying, how long exactly we'll be in Utah, or any of that precise information, but we're coming and we want to introduce Karen to everyone! I don't know how many people will be around or busy with family or any of that, but we'd love to see everyone out there while we're there.

Otherwise, this week has been good. Halloween was all right. I made donuts like my mom always does, and we had some people over to help us eat them. However, I made way too many and we had tons left over, and most of them are now in the trash. They tasted good, but were way too greasy to eat all day every day. Karen was cute in her Halloween costume at the Trunk-or-Treat and we have pictures today! Also this week Karen grew out of her little-baby car seat that clicks into the base in the car. She loves the new car seat that she gets to ride in (thanks to Grandma Allen!) but it makes it somewhat difficult for me and Joe. For example, we went grocery shopping at Walmart, and she didn't have her car seat to ride in, but she's too small to sit up in the cart. So we had to bring the front-carrying thinger and Joe carried her all around the store. She thought it was great but Joe was really tired by the end of it all. Well, that's all for now, hope everyone's enjoying the first week in November! Remember to vote on Tuesday!

Rain!

Well, today is a rainy day. It's nice but sad because our Trunk-or-Treat will have to be in the church tonight instead of outside. Other than that the weather has been really nice. We actually have gotten down into the 30's at night a few times-setting records for the 'cold' temperature. The leaves are finally starting to turn colors; I began to think it wasn't going to happen! But it is, of course.

This week has been crazy because Karen and I have hardly seen Joe. Tuesday he was at Cub Scouts, Wednesday was Home Teaching, Thursday and Friday he's been at a conferene for School (in the city, but gone all evening). And now tonight's Trunk-or-Treat, which should be fun. We'll take pics of Karen in her cute outfit and put them up next Friday.

As nothing is 'official' about our trip to Utah in December, you didn't hear any of this from me. However, we are tentatively planning on flying into SLC on the 19th or so and being around for a couple of days before going on to Portland. When it's official and plane tickets are purchased, I'll say more... but it will be nice to see the mountains again if it all works out, not to mention all the friends and family! None of y'all out there have even met Karen yet!

Hope everyone has a good Halloween weekend and all that!

Update

This week has been fast but slow...I've been 'reading' a book on CD this week that's way long (as in 20 CD's) and it has taken forever, but I have to finish it so I can take it back to the library. However, the book is pretty good and as a result I have been not-so-good at multitasking. So, I have spent a lot of time sitting by the computer with Karen listening to the book. While the book is good I haven't gotten much else done this week, so it's felt crazy even though it really hasn't been. Also this week we've been working on our travel plans for the holidays. Originally we were going to be spending Thanksgiving here in Charlotte, but now we're going to Indiana with Joe's family because we want to meet Kathleen, Danny's girlfriend (and maybe more?). So in addition to the Thanksgiving trip we may also be stopping in Utah thanks to said cute Kathleen person, as well as going to Portland around Christmas time. We'll see how all of that works out; nothing in December is final yet.

Midterms continue at UNCC, and Joe is doing well but going nuts. The midterms are all stretched out over 2-3 weeks, which is nuts but any closer together and I think the students might all die. Several of them have pulled all-nighters multiple times this week. Also going on this weekend: we're having a family over to make Halloween cookies on Saturday. It's the Larson family that we spent Conference Sunday with; their two little girls are so cute! That should be really fun. Next Friday is Trunk-or-Treat and Karen is going as a flower. Her costume is way cute, I'll be sure to put pictures up in the next couple of weeks. That's about all for this week. Hope all is going well in the fall for ya'll!

This picture is for Danny. It's Karen's first time eating Sweet Potatoes. She thought they were okay. This is Joe's favorite one of Karen's bibs!

Update

This week has been slow and crazy at the same time. I think that's mostly because I've been listening to a book on CD that was forever long, and pretty much just vegging out while I was listening. Maybe I've just lost some of my multitasking abilities or something. Anyway, some developments have occured in our holiday plans. We were going to be staying here for Thanksgiving, but instead we're going to Indiana to be with Joe's family and meet Kathleen, Danny's girlfriend (and maybe more than that). Also, because of said cute-girl Kathleen, we may be making an unexpected stop in Utah sometime in December either before or after Christmas, instead of just going to Portland with my fam. None of that is close to being final yet, but I would love to come "home" for a day or two in any case.

Other than that, we're continuing the whole midterm thing-Joe has one more test and a 25 pg. paper still to finish. It's not fun how they drag it out, but I don't know if he could handle it if it was scrunched together any more. Let's see... oh yes. Tomorrow we're having a family in the ward come over and make Halloween cookies with us. It's the Larsen's that we spent Conference Sunday with, and their two little girls are adorable. It should be fun. Next Friday is Trunk-or-Treat, and we got a cute costume for Karen-she's going to be a flower. It's way cute and I'll be sure to put pics up next week or the week after. Other than that, things are just going. Hope everyone's having a good fall time!
Just for Danny, here's a picture of Karen eating Sweet Potatoes for the first time about a week and a half ago. I was supposed to put it up last week but I forgot. The bib she's wearing is Joe's favorite, of course!

Huge Baby!

Well, since Joe was on Fall Break on Monday and Tuesday we decided to go shopping. Monday we went to the mall and looked at lots of things that we didn't buy-we seem to do that a lot. On Tuesday we went to Target and bought a new bathroom scale, since ours died in the move. Not that I really wanted to know how much I weigh, you understand. It's just that Karen hasn't been weighed since just after the 4th of July, and we really wanted to know how much she weighs. Well, it turns out that the kid weighs 17 1/2 lbs., which is really a lot for someone only 4 1/2 months old. As you can see from the pictures we took this week, she's not really fat or anything though. She's also 25 3/4 in. long. Since birth Karen has gained about 10 pounds and gotten almost 6 inches longer. She is a big cutie, and no mistake!

The rest of the week was fairly boring. There's a NASCAR race this weekend (actually one tonight and one tomorrow) and a big Country concert on Sunday, so we're trying to keep a low profile with the tons of extra people in town. Joe is doing midterm stuff and is really busy with school in general, of course. He also got called to be in the Cub Scouts (webelos), which will keep him even more busy. I finally got a Visiting Teaching list this week, so I can do that now too!

Thanks to all who check out our blog, and especially Nancy who always comments!

Karen Plays

This last week Karen has started really playing with things; anything from toys to diapers to hair, or anything she can get her hands on. It can be cute but also a pain since her 'playing' is really just putting anything within reach into her mouth. Her food this week is peaches, which she seems to like less than the peas and the pears which she had before. She always makes a face like "whoa, what's going on here?" but then eats lots of them anyway.

Conference last week was really good; we watched/heard the sessions in different places each time. Sat. Morning we went to a church, where it was basically us and the missionaries (like 10 of them). Sat. afternoon we went to Seth and Kirsten Higginson's (and baby Autumn). Sun. morning we went to Gary and Mindy Larson (and Maggie and Sophie), after which we went for a nice walk and I got really bad blisters on my feet because I was wearing bad sandals. Sun. afternoon we didn't get to see because Karen was tired of being away from home, so we just went home and sat around. It turned out to be a good thing though because she pooped all over the place just at the time the session was getting over, so it was good to be at home for that.

Other than that... this weekend is Fall Break, which is nice. After BYU we're not used to having any breaks during the semester. This is only Monday and Tuesday, but it'll be nice to have a couple days where we can catch up on sleep a bit and Karen can have some extra Daddy time.

Last thing of note: we get to be back in our 'normal' building for church starting Sunday. It's supposedly the regular building for our ward, but we've never been inside it. So, if any of you are planning to call us ever, we will now be in church from 11-2 Eastern Standard Time. To end, here are some cute Karen pics.

Very Boring...

To sum up the most of the last week, I will quote a portion of a poem that I learned in 4th grade at Bonneville Elementary School...

Today is very boring,
It's a very boring day,
There's nothing much to look at,
There's nothing much to say.

There's a peacock on my sneakers
There's a penguin on my head
There's a doormouse on my doorstep
I'm going back to bed...

And so on. Most of this week was very boring except a few points. First, I went for a walk/hike on Tuesday with Doren, a friend from church, at Reedy Creek park and Nature Preserve. It was nice to be outside (except the large amounts of pollen in the air) and the park was really nice (at least the 1 mile trail we took). Wednesday and Thursday nights Joe went Home Teaching with Steve (Doren's husband) while Karen and I sat at home without him ;( However, we're planning to picnic with Doren and Steve as well as a couple other families in the ward during the breaks at Conference on Saturday and Sunday and party with the girls during Priesthood session. Karen's new food for the week is peas, and she really seems to like them-though not as much as she likes the pears from last week. Here are a couple pictures of Karen that I was going to add last week but forgot.

Two Weeks

Well, the past two weeks have been fairly uneventful. The only really exciting things that have happened are...

1. Karen has started solid food and loves her pears while enduring her rice cereal. The only bad part about the food is that she had a slight allergic reaction to the formula we were mixing the cereal with. Not good, but hopefully it's not a really bad thing...only time will tell.

2. Karen has started rolling over. Usually this happens only on my lap, but the other day she did it on the floor, which is good progress. She still hates being on her tummy, but it is still progress. She also holds her rattle or other small toy, but tends to hit herself in the head and get frustrated with it all. We also got her shots last week, which was not very fun. She was upset for a few days but then back to normal.

Other than that it has been life as normal around here. Not much is going on and we're just doing the school/home thing. We're looking forward to Conference in a couple weeks and wish we could watch more BYU football games!

The Visit

Last weekend was really great. We went to visit Jamie and Tom Stansfield in Buena Vista, Virginia. It was a fun day or two, for the most part. We left on Saturday morning, and arrived around noon. After lunch we called the fam in Utah at their big Labor Day get-together. Then we took our tour of Southern Virginia University, which took all of about 15 minutes. It's a really nice campus, but very small. Then we just visited, had pizza for dinner, watched a movie, played with babies, and all that fun stuff. Sunday morning Tom made great pancakes for breakfast and we sat around until church at 1:30. After Sacrament Meeting we thought it would be good to start on home so Joe could spend Monday on school stuff. So, we took off on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Not the most quick way to go, but it was fun to be up in the mountains again for a while. It was a nice trip, with quite a bit of relaxing and non-stress environments...it was fun to get away for a day or so.

The rest of the week was pretty boring. Cleaning, changing diapers, etc. It's been pretty boring, but that's life. Next week we go for Karen's next round of shots, which will not be fun. Here's a few of the pictures with Karen and Liberty, Jamie's baby who is about 6 weeks younger than Karen. For those of you who started school this week, hope it's going well.

Crazy Weather?!?

Well, this week has been pretty uneventful. Joe went to school/work every day and Karen and I stayed home just chillin'. Which, of course was not really exciting. So, to bring something other than bathroom and kitchen cleaning into this week, I'll talk about the wonderful exciting weather that wasn't.

So, there was this storm called Ernesto that was supposed to be going really close to here. It went by Haiti, over Cuba, across Florida, and then was supposed to hit right into the Carolinas. So while I was at home all week I watched the weather as the storm came closer. As late as Thursday morning they had it supposedly coming through less than 100 miles from here. However, as wonderful as their prediction models are it didn't hit land until it was due east of here, almost 250 miles. Instead of getting upwards of 10 inches of rain in a couple hours, we got 8-9 inches over 3 days, and the flooding they were predicting was nonexistent in our area. North and east of us there was quite a bit of flooding and such, but we missed out.

This weekend we're going up to Virginia to visit my cousin Jamie Stansfield and her family. She also has a baby girl, who happens to be about a month and a half younger than Karen. We're excited to go see some family and compare babies and all that. It should be a good weekend. Luckily we didn't get the big rain, because if we had it would have been more difficult to make this trip. So, while this week's post is really boring next week we should have some way cute pics of two cute babies (of course Karen will be cuter, but I'm not biased in this at all...).

Here are some of the pics I was going to put up last week but it didn't work. Hope ya like them.

It's hard to believe that Karen is already three months old! She is so big and is learning so many things every day that it's crazy. She is on the verge of rolling over and also being able to sit up, which is fun but also nerve racking. On occasion she tries to roll off my lap while I'm trying to feed her. Joe and I will have to be more careful now about where we put her down (like not on the edge of the bed, etc.).

We have also discovered that Karen is a great 'in' when you're trying to get to know people. Everyone is much more willing to talk to you if you're holding a cute and oh-so-cuddly contented baby. I took her to Joe's office on campus on Friday afternoon, and she totally stole the show. The same basic thing happened at his beginning-of-year party at a professor's house Saturday. Half the crowd gathered around the beer and wine, while most of the other half crowded around Karen.

The only place where Karen doesn't get us VIP attention seems to be at church. Not that she isn't her normal cute self, but because there are so many others like her that she has a much harder time standing out. Today in Sunday School they passed around a list of primary children by class, and on the 'pre-Nursery' list there are currently 11 kids, with three more women expecting babies within the month. (there are also almost 25 kids currently in Nursery). In fact, there are so many kids in the ward that a change was made today. The Primary will now meet in the chapel, partly because there are so many primary age kids and also because the Nursery will be meeting in the primary room. They have outgrown the two classrooms that they have been using. This is pretty much good news for us. As Karen gets older and is able to actually play, there will be plenty of other kids in the ward for her to play with.

To wrap up this Karen entry, here are a couple of pictures that show how much she's changed in the past 3 months. . . or at least I was. After an hour of trying to get the pictures to upload, I am publishing this one with no pictures. Hopefully it will be working better next time. Sorry everyone!

p.s. We got new cell phones (cingular) and our old number (which is still new really) will be disconnected on Wednesday. If you need the new number email either Joe or me.

the apartment

Okay, so here are some pics and such from our apartment. It's a nice (compared to what we were living in in Provo, not necessarily for this area) and big (950 sq. ft.). As you will see, the walls are really white (they're all primed) and we're allowed to paint-if we can afford to. Some time we will paint, but I'm not sure when. Other than the exceeding whiteness, the most annoying things are the sinks in the bathrooms; they happen to be plastic, and sometime in the past have been melted by curling irons.

Enough with the bad stuff, here are some great things. We have a walk-in closet in our bedroom, as well as a master bath (though it's really small). Karen's room is almost as big as ours, and feels really empty right now-even though it will fill up soon enough. The kitchen has tons of cabinet space as well as a pantry (narrow but very deep). We also have a washer and dryer, donated by a guy in our ward who is a general contractor; they should last a long time since they're Maytag and only about 2 years old. The living room is great. We have our fish by the window, then our new futon, then the 'book nook' as Joe calls it with all our books and the banana chairs. The front bathroom is great. We only had 'things' for one bathroom, so we bought all new stuff for it-froggies! Shower curtain, rug, toothbrush holder (currently empty) and soap are all frogs, which is fun. If you go out the back door of our apartment and take about 10 steps you will run into the pool. They are also planning to add a hot tub sometime in the near future, which will be cool (or hot).

That's the explanation; here are the pictures so you can see for yourself; sorry if they're not the best. ;)

The Little Vacation

Hey all! Hope everything is going well wherever you are. This week was very hecktic; we registered the car and got NC license plates, then got NC driver's licenses as well. Of course, we had to take the test and all that in order to get them, but it wasn't really that bad. There were a lot less rules and more 'common sense' things, it seemed like. I guess they have a problem with people driving on the wrong side of the road here; maybe it's because there are bars everywhere, but don't ask me.

Anyway, after we did all that the beginning of the week we decided to take a mini vacation. Since I had never been to the beach, we went to Wilmington, NC and Cape Fear and went to the ocean. It was about a 4 hour drive each way, and we only stayed at the beach for about 2 hours. So it was going to seem like a bit of a waste, but then we went to the Cape Fear Fort Fisher Aquarium. It was way cool to me since I'd never been to one before, but Joe said it was just 'okay'. I saw sharks and aligatiors for the first time in my life, along with some cool and really big fish. So it ended up that we spent 4 hours near the ocean and 8 hours driving, but it was still really fun. It was good that we only spent 2 hours at the beach because even though we tried to cover Karen up, she still got a sunburn on her face (that was gone the next day).

That's it for now, I'll try to get some apartment pics up in the next couple of days. Here are some pics from our trip-I hope they work; the last pics I tried to put up didn't work out so well. The first one is Karen sleeping on the beach; then us going into the aquarium.

Well, we finally made it. We packed up Tuesday and drove all day Wednesday (last Week), and since then it's been just crazy around here. However, we finally have all of our stuff unpacked and put away. We also bought a crib for Karen, some bookshelves, and a futon for our living room; all in the past 3 days! Now that we're poor again, our house looks pretty nice. Everything is going well for us here, except it is WAY too hot-the heat index (temp and humidity together) puts us between 105 and 110 today for the third day in a row. It's just too wet for a Utah girl like me; the heat itself would be fine, but the wetness really gets to me. I think the only thing we would change right now besides the heat would be to have some people we know around-we miss all our friends and family, especially since we don't know anyone here yet. I guess in a few weeks/months that will change, but for now our social life is really boring. Karen especially misses life with Grandma and Grandpa Allen; when she gets tired of mom and dad, there's no one else to hold her now ;(

Anyway, school will start in a couple weeks, and hopefully before then we'll take a day or two and go to the beach. I'm excited for that because I've never been to the ocean-either Atlantic or Pacific. I never thought I'd get to the Atlantic first, but I'm really excited. Hope everyones having fun and keeping cool these last few weeks of summer!!!