"Well it's been a long day" (or couple of weeks)

It seems like it's been forever since I did a post. Since the last time I wrote...Joe went to Dallas and back, did finals, we've spent quite a bit of time looking at houses, Karen turned one and got shots, and I survived it all. So, I guess I'll write a bit about all of those (I'll be brief so you don't have to spend hours reading this).

After NYC, Joe came home for a week and a half. During that time he did his finals. This semester was unique for one reason: he didn't have straight A's going into the final. He actually ended up with 2 grades that weren't A's (for more details call and ask Joe, he loves to gripe about it, and I can't say that I blame him). However, the semester finished, just like it always does. I wanted to celebrate and do something fun, but the next day he left for Dallas instead. This trip was 'really exciting'. He collected data at a convention of Humane Society people for three days. Sometimes it can be fun to collect data (count how often people raise their hands in class or some other wierd thing), but this was walking around saying "Do ya wanna take a survey?" It wasn't the most exciting thing that he'd ever done. On the bright side the food for the conference was provided-it was Vegan, and somewhat "interesting" I understand-but it was provided. He brought me back a T-shirt with a kitty that says "Love is a four-legged word", which was kinda cute.

The past few months we've been thinking about buying a house or townhome or something. We don't have a lot of money at this point but we're just sick of renting and don't want to do it for another 3 or 4 years. So, we've been looking around at what we hoped would be 'cute little houses', but our luck hasn't been good. There are lots of places in our price range, but most of them are in areas that I wouldn't want to be in after dark. So then we thought maybe we'd just stay where we're at anyway, or get a 3 bedroom apartment.... we just aren't quite sure. Then I went with the realtor today and saw this really cute little house with a great yard in a decent neighborhood...so we'll just have to see what happens. Maybe we'll move, maybe we won't. It's not very fun to be up in the air like this, so hopefully it gets resolved soon.

And now, at last, my cute Karen-poo has turned 1. It seems like she was just born a month ago, but she's a whole year old. It was really wierd to watch the American Idol finale and thinking about how I missed it last year because I was in labor. Anyway, we had a nice get together with some of our friends to celebrate her birthday. I made a cute bear-shaped birthday cake, we had ice cream, watched Idol, and had a good time. We gave Karen a Noah's Ark (Little People, Fisher Price), and she loves to put the animals in and out and in and out. We took her to get her checkup/shots yesterday, and in a year she has tripled her weight (coming in at 21lbs 10 oz.) and grown 9 inches in length. It's just amazing to see how much she's grown.

On a last note, we bought our plane tickets for Utah. We'll be in town from July 2 to 10. We're going to be busy a couple days with my grandparents 50th anniversary (it's so exciting!) but we'd love to see all of our friends and family while we're there. Hopefully there will also be some good movies at the dollar theater by then as well, but that's farther down on the priority list. Anyway, hope you're all having a good time being where you are, and have a great Memorial Day.

Mr. Allen goes to NY and Back...

Well, we have finally made it...almost. Classes are over, one trip is finished, and now there are only two finals and one more trip for Joe before 'summer vacation'. For Joe, a full load of classes is 12 (or 13) credit hours, so he basically has 3 real classes and 3 hours of research credit. This is nice at finals because he really only has 3 classes to study for. So, one week from now I will be 'free'. It's funny how I have this feeling, even though I'm not the one who's actually sitting in the classes or meetings. Maybe it's because I get calls at random times during the day with Joe saying "honey, what do you think about _____?" and then not taking an "I don't know" for an answer. Whatever it is, it'll be nice to have him only working 20 hours a week for a couple months.

So, in the past two weeks Karen hasdone some really cute things. I don't have pictures of most of them because they all seemed to happen when Joe had the camera in NYC, but there are a couple of cute pics at the bottom. She has also learned how to sit up. Whereas previously if Karen wanted to sit up instead of lay down she would yell and make a fuss until Joe or I did something about it; now however she just sits up on her own. She's also started 'scooting' a little bit, though she still mostly rolls. She's getting really good at following me everywhere I go. One evening I left her with Joe while I went into the little girl's room. Upon exiting, I tripped over Karen who had followed me, preferring to sit by a closed door than to play with daddy. Some kids are just crazy huh?

Joe had a good time in NYC last weekend. He flew in Thursday afternoon/evening and stayed until Sunday night. He got to go to many of those 'cool' places that you see in tv and movies, like Central Park, Radio City Music Hall (where the NFL Draft was going on), and Ground Zero, just to name a few. He wanted to go to a broadway musical, but neglected to reserve tickets several months ago; the shortest waiting list was almost 200 people long. While he was gone Karen and I hung out. I did a lot on my cleaning list, and our apartment is starting to look clean. I think the worst of what I did was clean the blinds from all our windows (okay, so there are only 4 windows, but it felt like way more than that as I cleaned them all). I put 'em in the bathtub to soak, and they left a terrible ring. But now the light comes in the windows so much better! It's great! Also while Joe was gone I read a bunch of Harry Potter. We've preordered #7, and as part of my birthday present Joe says I get to read it first. I'm also excited for the movie of #5 that comes out just before the next book (July 13, just after we get back from Utah). Maybe we'll see the movie for our anniversary. Can any of you believe that it'll be our 4th anniversary this year? It's really gone by fast. Karen turns 1 in 19 more days. She's so cute and active now.

Well, I hope y'all did well on your finals, or at least did them ;) Let me know where you'll be in the summer. We'll be here for most of the time, but we're heading to Utah the first week or so of July, and then to Philadelphia for a few days in August.

Another week, another... (you fill in the blank)

So, this week was...better than last week that's for sure. However I'm not sure exactly what I did now that I look back on it. I actually did get some of my list done this week. Not all of it, but some of it. It feels good to have some of it done, partly because it makes it seem like the rest of it seem easier.

Let's see... last weekend we saw a fun movie (on DVD of course). It was Stranger than Fiction. Now, I'm not a big fan of Will Ferrell, but I like Emma Thompson. So, I thought it might be okay. It turned out to be really funny! It was much better than I thought it would be. Of course it's not the perfectly clean film that it would have been if made 20 years ago but it wasn't too bad that way either. While we're talking about movies...we also saw 'Failure to Launch' this week. (Chick flick with Sarah Jessica Parker and Matt. McCaughnahay(?)) that was okay but definitely not as good as the 'Stranger than Fiction'. I also bought 'The Mask of Zorro' at Walmart. I've always loved the music and the movie's not bad, plus it was on sale for less than 5 dollars so I looked at it and said, "you're mine" and took it home with me.

Besides movies what's happened...Karen went to the doctor (actually I took Karen to the doctor, she didn't take herself, but you knew that didn't you) and in the last 2 weeks she's gained more than she did in the previous 3 months. This is awesome, except that my arms are always tired now because I'm not used to the extra weight yet. While at the doctor she got her first flouride treatment on her teeth. When we went in the morning she had 7 teeth, but by the time she went to bed that night she had another tooth. It came just a few hours too late to get flouride. Oh well.

The most interesting thing that's going on the first part of next week (actually Sunday) is that Joe is singing in churh with a couple other guys. They decided when asked to do it (on Monday night) that they would sing A Capella so that if they were off key it wouldn't be as easy for the audience to notice (okay, whatever). Then we remembered that there's a big missionary fireside on Saturday and Sunday with Gladys Knight and her choir. It's at our church, and Gladys and the choir will be coming to our ward for church on Sunday. So, Joe gets to sing for Gladys Knight. The guys practiced once, so they're all ready...I think it'll be good.

One note: next week I probably won't post anything since Joe's taking the computer to NYC with him on Thursday and he won't be back to let me use his office computer either until late Sunday...So hopefully I'll be able to have some good stuff to write after that. Good luck with finals for all you BYU people, and those who aren't quite there yet, good luck because you will be... ;)

After Easter or Being 23....

Yeah, so Easter was good. The church service was nice and I was in Primary again playing the piano. I realized that I've been there more this year so far than the lady who's actually called to be the pianist. It's fun and I really like to be there more than in Sunday School (our teacher is a good person, but ...yeah), however it might be nice to actually be called to that if I'm going to be there every week. One nice thing about Primary is that one of the teachers has a little boy named Joshua who is the same age (well, a few hours older) than Karen. They play together really well most of the time...until they start playing the 'let's push each other over' game. Anyway, Easter was good. Joe cooked a ham and 'funeral potatoes' and deviled eggs for dinner and it turned out really well. We talked to almost all of our family as well. For my birthday Joe made a chocolate cake and put chocolate frosting on it. Then we realized that the only candles we had were numbers- a 3 and a 9. Well, I didn't want to be 39, and I don't know who would really, so I decided that instead I would be 93 on my birthday this year. At least one of the digits was right...? That evening our friends Doren and Steve Cook came over to help with the eating of the cake and playing games like Uno, Phase 10, and CandyLand. It was nice to visit with someone who actually speaks in words and not just baby noises (yes, Joe does speak but he's not home most of the time so he doesn't count).

The rest of the week has been pretty boring. Being 23 is so far just like being 22 was. I think I've only actually worked 2 days in the past year, which is really sad. However so far being 23 I have really done nothing. The whole list of things to do has a nice layer of dust on it now.I think I nee to change my mindset. Right now I think "yes it's dirty and I really should clean it, but if I clean it it will only get dirty again and then I 'll have to clean it again..." and so on. My goal for next week is to actually clean the house so it can acutally get dirty again-not just be a disaster all the time. Of course that was also my goal last week, and the week before... No, I really am going to clean everything before Joe leaves so that he thinks of home as a good place where he wants to come back to, which may be a stretch after staying three or four days in the Marriott in NYC. Then it will need to be clean when he comes home so he doesn't think I was just sitting around watching TV the whole time he was gone (which is probably what I'll do anyway). Then I'll have to clean again before he leaves to go to Dallas... will it ever end? *sigh*

Karen is doing fairly well. She's had another ear infection, and the antibiotics don't seem to be helping very much. She's not in pain but she still pulls on her ears all the time. We go in for a follow-up visit to the doctor on Wednesday, and we may be getting tubes in her ears. She also has a mommy fixation. If I leave the room or even if I 'm there but not paying attention to her she starts screaming. Yes, screaming; not the little whining that usually means 'look at me'. She won't even go to Joe if I'm sitting right next to him (except for last night for like 5 minutes and I took the picture of her playing peek-a-boo or 'Where's Karen?' as she calls it). It's really becoming rediculous (is that how you spell that?). On a lighter note though...I went to get her up from her nap this afternoon and she was actually sitting in her bed! She's never sat herself up before, so this was quite exciting. She's also SOOOO close to crawling (I keep saying that, but she still hasn't really started it yet) and loves for us to hold her up while she 'walks' around the apartment.

Well...I hope that's enough for you all for this week. Here are some pictures from the last week or so. Karen's dress turned out pretty well, though it's a bit big on her. I hope all of you had a great Easter and good luck with finals for those of you who still have to do them.

Happy Easter Y'all!

Another week has passed and once again I'm not exactly sure where it went. It could have gone in all that time I spent snuggling with Karen who has another ear infection (I hear from Joe's parents that little round-headed kids have lots of them; there may be tubes in our future, yuck!). It also could have gone in those tons of hours I spent working on Karen's Easter dress. It's finally finished and really cute, but it's bigger on her than I thought it would be. I'll put pictures up next week, after she actually wears it. However it stacks up, another week is gone and I still have a huge list of things (like washing the blinds, washing walls, and other nasty chores) that I haven't touched. Of course, I'll probably never get to that list and if I ever do I'll feel guilty for not doing something else (like the dishes, see the post from a couple weeks ago).

I'd like to go on record as saying happy Easter and Good Friday and all that. This is a great time of year. The only thing I really have to complain about the holiday this year is that Easter and my birthday are the same day. Not that I'm bent out of shape about having a birthday, but it would be nice to be able to have a day for me, and the whole day to focus on the Easter stuff too. This year they're kinda getting stuck together and I hope it works out okay. Like sometimes you try to do everything in one day and nothing gets done the way you think it should-that's not what I want Sunday to be like. Anyway.... If you haven't (or you don't know her) you should check out Marquita's blog about Holy Week and all that-it's really interesting and different than what we normally here in a Mormon church about this week. Growing up I didn't even know what Good Friday is; it's a school holiday here.

Well, besides being busy doing the same old, same old, nothing new is going on. Joe goes to a conference in NYC (staying in the Times Square Marriott) in a couple weeks. He's already starting to get stressed out about finals, and that's about it. Hope you have a great Easter and remember the reason for Easter isn't the Bunny! ;)

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!