Pictures from Shad's phone

I realized yesterday that I forgot to include pictures from Shad's phone in my last post. Here they are:


Tommy was eating waffle bites one day while playing. There were four bites left that I had broken up for him and we were waiting for him to finish before going to give him a bath. He must have heard me tell Shad that because 2 seconds later all 4 bites were gone. All stuffed into his mouth. Here's the boy with his face about to explode, but the important thing is that he's ready for his bath:)


Oh, how life gets exciting when you're a big boy walking with big boy shoes and get to have your very own grocery cart at the grocery store! Tom thought that was just the best!




Shad helped Tommy with those shopping selections. The actual areas where Tommy stopped his cart to look at food were the cheese, chicken and frozen french fries. Otherwise, his cart was unstoppable!



We went outside to play croquet one evening and Tommy was an excellent player, playing with the mallet while Shad set up...



And playing in the grass with us...and chasing all across the yard when he realized we were on opposite ends.


Tommy is learning to help hang up the laundry. He was holding the hangers for Shad to put shirts on them. I personally think he looks a bit like his cousin John in this picture.


Eh? Anyone else see it?

Silence is Golden...and beautiful and holy and divine, etc, etc

Well, is it not? About two and a half weeks ago my already thin patience ran out with my neighbors and their obnoxious dog. 3 nights in a row he woke me up at unearthly hours--3 am, 2 am, 4 am. And I had trouble going back to sleep after his 10-15 minutes of barking. Shad said it'd be better to talk to them directly before filing a complaint with the police. I told him that would be his job because I didn't think I could be nice about it. After giving him plenty of days to take the opportunity...and continuing to be interrupted with my sleep...I went to the police department with the intention to only find out what the noise ordinances were, and also whether it was legal to shoot the dog with Shad's airsoft gun. They took a full complaint anyway and sent a letter to my neighbors. Not only do I no longer hear that beast at night, but I also hardly ever hear him during the day. Soooo glad we got that resolved before Katie arrives. I was not going to have patience with a dog waking my newborn from her naps. I've enjoyed these two weeks of blissful quiet and peace. Ahhh, joy!

Two weeks ago on Monday was Shad's first day of work. Oh, was Tommy upset that morning when his dada wasn't here! It took several minutes before he calmed down to eat breakfast. That was the only day a fit was thrown, though Tommy did ask for his dada on other mornings and has spent time looking around the house for him. Shad is enjoying work well enough. He gets a little frustrated with the training process or lack thereof, but we figure he'll enjoy things better when that's passed.

Thursdays are Reading Corner days at the library and Tommy loves to attend. A week and a half ago when it was 45 degrees and misty and he had to wear a coat to walk there, he forgot that. He cried and complained the whole 8 minutes it took to walk there...until the library was in sight and he realized where I was taking him. We were 1 family out of 2 that braved the weather to come. Tommy enjoyed coloring a paper a little, but mostly pulling all the crayons out of the tub, then running around the room with a whole sandwich cookie in his mouth and fistfuls of crayons. I did have a video of this, but somehow my phone's memory card got erased. He did NOT want his coat back on to go home, so I decided not to fight it. We made it one block and he realized it was stinking cold and let me put his coat on. This Thursday he enjoyed the crayons again and tried stealing other kids' cookies. That's my boy:)

Thursday morning was also the day that Shad decided to celebrate my birthday so that I'd be caught off guard and be surprised. I woke up to a note by the water pitcher that was my first of 14 clues to find my birthday present. I spent the morning working on the treasure hunt and got interrupted when it was time to go to the library. But I found a bag of peanut butter cups and favor coupons at the end. I enjoy the thoughtful gifts that Shad gives much better than if he were to ask what I want.

Shad's mom, Ruth and Levi came over this afternoon for apple pie and ice cream and we played some Scattergories and laughed at Tommy. I'm tired and done writing now, but here's some pictures and a video to enjoy.


Not only has Tommy mastered walking, but also monstering. He's even chased Levi around the room before going "Boooo! Boooo!"



Tommy got his FOURTH haircut on Monday.


Our garden has produced 5 more "squmpkins" in the past couple weeks.


Last night Tommy had fun doing hand stands on the game table and walking across it. He's so active now that it's hard to get a picture that's not blurred anymore!

Oh, the little things that make life worth it!

On Labor Day, we had a house full in the morning. Shad had the missionaries, Levi, and 3 other friends from the ward over to play Magic. Ruth came over as well to go over some activity planning with me. She and I are planning a birthday party/getting to know you activity for the 21st. Anyway, with school started now and Shad started work on Monday, these weekly game rituals will no longer exist, as Elder Riha lamented on Sunday. I'm happy enough to sit back and think the same thing, and smile. I'm enjoying having the house back to being mine.

Sometime this week while out walking, Shad and I saw this:


And I mourned not having an income that would allow me to go to the store, by a pack of Maxis and dump it in there. If anyone would like to send contributions my way, I'd receive them gladly:)

Our Wednesday church activity plans kept getting changed this week. At the beginning of the month, it was planned to be a Young Women planning night. A week and a half ago that got changed when the Stake President told us to get our youth on Mormon.org by Saturday. So that changed the activity and those involved because Mormon.org only accepts ages 14 and up for profiles. I decided that since I have 2 beehives with new assignments to decorate and maintain bulletin boards, they could bring their supplies and then the other beehive and I would help. That didn't end up happening due to homework and lack of planning/caring...so we played Apples to Apples. Aside from having fun and enjoying each others' company, I did get 3 Personal Progress goals completed in the travel time and waiting for my ride time, so at least the night was still productive. By the way LORI, I hope you're doing a good job working on your own PP because if I end up beating you in getting done, I'm going to SMEAR it in your face. Just letting you know:)

Thursday I had another prenatal appointment. I really like my doctor. A few weeks ago I heard a fantastic horror story about him that just made me so glad I got him instead of the other doctor. My favorite cashier at the grocery store told me that he let her go a full 2 weeks past her due date before inducing her...and then she was in labor for 50 hours. She was so mad at him for 1) not cutting to the chase and going for a c-section and 2) not releasing her so that she could have her husband take her up to Kearney to get a c-section. I love this story because it shows that he's a patient doctor in letting birth go as naturally as possible. He told me he's a lazy doctor, but only in the sense that he likes to let nature do the work for him. And then after that, he sent me to be a lab rat for the phlebotomists to get my rhogam shot (after they didn't believe I need it and they decided to run a blood test just to be sure), and to get my glucose tested for gestational diabetes after making me drink that vile sugar crap. I'm sure that's the actual technical term for it.

Friday was fun. Shad saw an ad in the paper on Wednesday for a free piano 20 miles away. So we were scheduled to go look at it in the afternoon. While I was on Skype for my Young Womens Presidency meeting in the morning, Shad washed the dishes and worked on rearranging the living room furniture to accommodate, just in case. I really like the new arrangement. It's more inviting and comfortable. We didn't end up getting the piano that day because it was much heavier than anticipated, even with Shad's dad and the missionaries. They returned Saturday morning with an extra hand and a trailer, which made things considerably easier. We love our new piano! Tommy especially. He got right to playing. He started in his Chinese rest squat...



then got more intense with his playing AND singing, so he had to stand up on the bench. Notice the blurred hands. Yep, he was playing that fast. I kept thinking of a line from one of my Chinese movies, "Wow! Turning black keys into white."

Isn't it gorgeous?


Shad gave Tommy a horse ride, which was a new thing. Tommy thought it was pretty cool.


One of the days last week, we decided to just go out to the retail store here in town just to let Tommy have fun walking around with shoes on. He was so excited and thought he was really big stuff to be walking around in a store by himself.


Being a big boy with shoes on also made it easier to wield the foam swords in the toy section.


On Saturday we tried to go see Ruth play in her tennis tournament that was here in Norton. Unfortunately, we got there after her partner rolled her ankle, benching them for the rest of the afternoon. So we played on the kiddy playground instead. It's one we haven't been to before, and also relatively new. Tommy is really starting to get the hang of what to do at playgrounds.


Playing jailbird in his appropriately striped shirt--holding onto the bars, shaking around, and yelling a bit.


Then we went in the tunnel. This was our first successful tunnel attempt. He's wanted absolutely nothing to do with playground tunnels up to this point. But this one was fun because it had the holes in it, and he could make faces with Shad and pose for the camera.


Again...


And again...


We love our little monkey who seems to so instinctively know how to pose for the camera. In the evening, we walked him over to Nana and Bumpa's house to play for a few hours so that Shad and I could have a 2 day early anniversary date. We had an at home date with DiGiorno and Rango, and still dressed up nice for each other. The pizza came out doughy (why is it that the time on the boxes isn't enough to actually cook the pizza??), and the movie sucked (I quit trying to stay awake because it wasn't worth the effort), but we still just really enjoyed having a night to ourselves and being dressed up. And then we had a nice, moonlit walk to pick Tommy up. Now to go with the subject, it really is the little things that make life worth it. Our Tommy has developed a new cuddliness in the past few weeks that we just LOVE! When we take him to bed or get him up from bed, he just hugs us and lays his head on our shoulders. When he's playing, he frequently stops to run over and give hugs--unsolicited! The other new thing for Tommy in the past 2 weeks is that he learned the sign for "bed" (we teach him sign language a little bit). So when we went to pick him up, he dropped his toys to toddle over and give hugs, then put his hand up on the side of his face and said, "Beh? Beh?" He was so happy to see us, give love and ask immediately that we take him home so he could go to bed. What a darling boy! I just love him so much:)

Sunday I got the new experience of teaching Gospel Principles. I've taken the substituting responsibility away from the missionaries. They have enough to do without preparing a Sunday School lesson as well. It was really nice and refreshing to teach a group of adults so willing and eager to learn, participate and engage in active discussion and ask questions. Quite a difference from teaching the beehives, let me tell you! Especially this Sunday.

I was going to write about yesterday, but given the already obnoxious length of what I've written, I'll just save it for the next time.

Drought Relieved by Flooding

I guess I don't have any pictures this week, but don't let that stop you from reading further!

So after roughly 2 months of applying and being ignored or rejected, Shad had an interview on Saturday, Monday and Tuesday with three different companies. He was offered a job from the Tuesday interview at Natoma. It's a machining company here in town and he worked there before he went on his mission. Aside from currently dreading returning to work there, we like everything else about the situation and job: it's in town (instead of being in Iowa for 2 weeks at a time, as would have been the case with the Saturday interview), it pays well (well enough though??), has really good opportunities for pay growth, hooked Shad up with their intern program so that after 2 years of working there he'll have a machining degree as good as from a tech school, and offers great benefits. We just keep praying for Shad to find joy in working there, not dread. He starts a week from tomorrow.

Last week I got a nice little call from my favorite librarian, Rosalie. She is the cutest little old lady with a sweet, shaky voice and it's precious when she leads Story Time and has the kids sing God Bless America with her. I love her:) Anywho, she called to let me know that the book I had reserved, The Help, had come in and was available for me to check out. I completely forgot I had even reserved it. I also forgot that I had the book for about a week after I checked it out. So I just started it on Thursday. And then on Friday I realized that it's a 700+ page book and is due back on the 8th. It was a good thing I happened to be lightheaded and dizzy all day Friday (even while sitting down), so I went from 50 pages on Thursday to reading over 300 on Friday. I was also able to put in some good book time on Saturday. I'm over half way through now, but will still have to read a lot the next few days to get done in time.

Tommy is a wonderful son to have. Seriously, I don't think a day goes by without Shad and I commenting on what a fantastic kid we have and how thankful we are that he's ours. He's really exploded in the walking department. He now tries to walk everywhere...though doesn't always make it to his destination by foot, but plenty happy to continue on hands and knees. He can walk all the way across our living room though, and he loves it! He's been great at helping take care of me and my dizzy spells. He feeds me his food directly into my mouth and comes to give me hugs and cuddles frequently, as well as to pat my belly and give hugs and cuddles to his sister. I can't wait until she's here and we can all meet her. Tom will just love her so much! He was a great fellowshipper at church today. We had Scott and Beverly Burris come today that haven't been able to until today. He was happy to see them both and socialize with them. He also made new friends with Katrina and Preston David (the couple whose home was hit by the tornado in Almena) during Sunday School. He laughed with them and shared his goldfish with them and was just so happy to be their personal entertainer. They really enjoyed his company because, although they have 4 kids, they're unable to have more.

We got to enjoy a brief visit from my cousins Craig and Eric on Saturday. They were on a suicidal deadline to drive from Salt Lake City to Louisville in a Uhaul van in less than 48 hours. They had breakfast with us, socialized for a little bit, napped for a few hours, ate dinner and then had to go after a little more socializing. It was really nice to see them. Craig got to meet Tommy and Eric got to meet Shad (and vice versa). I got lightheaded again as they were saying their goodbyes, so I spent the rest of the evening reading more of The Help.

Think that's it and I'm off to play Cribbage with my husband!