Let It Be

This song helped me stop being mad at a librarian today. I feel better. Thank you, Paul. I don't want to talk about it though. She was a shrew.

Well we left Thursday for our business trip to Colorado around 4:30 pm when Shad got off work. Business trip? Yes. It's a business trip when everything is scheduled down to the hour, you're constantly on the run from place to place trying to get as much done and see as many people as you possibly can in the limited time you have. It's also a business trip when you come home and wish you could go on a vacation. We do enjoy it, though; we've just decided that Colorado and Utah don't, and probably won't ever, count as vacations. We stayed at Shad's brother, Dan's, place and it was nice to be able to see his son, Ryan, that night and Friday morning before he went to his mom's for the rest of the weekend.

This is how Tommy was sleeping Friday morning. What a cute kid. He really didn't want to sleep in his pack-n-play, so we were suckers and let him cuddle with us.

We got to go to the temple Friday morning with our favorite Colorado friends, Mark and Robyn Bailey. That was actually a new experience for us--to go with friends. It was nice to be able to enjoy the socializing in the car and a bit in the temple. It was fantastic. Then we ran a couple errands, picked up Tommy, visited Priscilla and finally made it back to the Baileys' to play games with them. We played Smallworld and Shad hasn't been able to get it out of his mind since. Thankfully, a friend of ours here just received that game for his birthday on Monday, so we graciously offered to help him break it in on Saturday. After Smallworld, we went to my parents' house for a couple hours for dinner and visiting until Tommy begged to go to bed.

It was nice to wake up Saturday morning and realize that we didn't have to leave that afternoon. Very enjoyable. We got to see our friend, Chris, in the morning, then have lunch with my parents and leave Tommy with them while we went to run errands. That was ideal for all parties involved--Shad and I wouldn't have to get Tommy in and out of the car or deal with him complaining that he didn't want to shop; Tommy would get to play and nap as he pleased; and my parents wanted more time with him anyway. Win, win, win. Ugh, but we forgot how long it takes to run errands when everything is more spread out, there's traffic, and then people in your way in the store so you can't go to where you want at the speed you want. And you get stuck in Walmart trying to find something for 15 minutes before you find an employee to tell you it's at the complete opposite end of the store. But at least we got it. That took hours longer than we had accounted for, so by the time we picked up Tommy, and visited with David and Von for a short 20 mins, we were much later in getting back to Dan's for dinner than we expected. That turned out to be a good thing because as we were pulling into his condos, my sister, Lori, was pulling out, thoroughly lost. She was trying to find Dan's place so she could visit with us and Tommy more. She was able to turn around with us and follow us there.


Tommy was glad that Lori finally made it to Dan's with us, because she shared her mini Oreos with him, and that was super exciting.




I love this boy's face.

Sunday morning we had a delightful breakfast with Matthew and Lisa before church, with time to spare for Matthew and Shad to play some Magic. Lisa wasn't feeling well, so she didn't go to church with us when we went. We went to 11:00 sacrament meeting, then left to go meet up with Paul and Wendy so that Paul could fix Shad's computer. As we were pulling out of the parking lot, my old friend and BYUI roommate, Brittaini Milner, was walking in with her mom and husband. I shrieked and jumped out of the car. I had forgotten that she and Jay moved back to Aurora a few months ago. I haven't seen her since her wedding 3 years ago. They will definitely make the priority list next time...and she'll have a little dumpling of her own then, too! Paul did get our computer fixed and we are soooooooooooo thankful to have our computer working again without any expense. We left their place around 2:30 and made great time in getting back home at 7:30. Shad's family came over to visit for a little, help us unload the car, and then trade cars back (we had traded cars with them to have a reliable vehicle for a 300 mile trip). Tommy was so glad to be home in his house with his family and toys and bed. Monday and Tuesday were a little rough for him, however, as he had to readjust to leaving blankie and cork in his crib and not being able to spend all day walking around with them.

Okay, so last week Shad started to actually enjoy work. He was getting some good laughs and fellowshipping with coworkers. On Monday, however, he found out that he didn't qualify for the apprenticeship program. No one had bothered to tell him that, he had to ask. And they couldn't tell him why he didn't qualify, because the lady couldn't find the rejection email. So he's been a bit discouraged with work this week, feeling that he's lost what he was working toward. Not to mention, he and a coworker finally came up with a good analogy to describe what they do: Take all your silverware spoons and throw them in the sink. Spend the next 10 hours (with 2 15 minute breaks and 1 half hour lunch) staring at those spoons. Once every 3-5 minutes pick up one of the spoons and wash it. Occasionally pick up a spoon, measure it and compare it to the other spoons to ensure that they're all uniform. Then continue staring at the spoons. At least that made them laugh:)

I've started working on crocheting Katie's sweater finally with the yarn that I got in Denver. I've been waiting for a while to be able to do this and I'm excited to get it going. I've had to teach myself a bit of new crocheting skills with internet help and I'm hoping that I'm doing this right. Time will tell and then I can start over if I need to, I guess. It's been nice that Tommy has been supportive of my project. We sit together and watch The Wonder Years on Netflix and rock in the rocking chair while I crochet and he's always quick to tell me to start the next episode when the screen goes red. Other projects on my list to do to keep me busy and productive until Katie arrives: finish unpacking the office; can soups; finish reading the Book of Mormon; finish her sweater and maybe a bonnet and booties?; decorate the kidlets' bedroom; transform a white pillow case into Tommy's ghost costume; finish typing the first of Shad's many journals and transfer everything to ldsjournal.com; beat Alexis (one of my Laurels) in finishing Personal Progress; ...I think that's it. Not quite sure. I should probably write these things down.


Here's a picture that missed getting posted a while ago. Tommy brought a pair of shorts to me a couple weeks ago and since he was already dressed, I didn't know what he wanted me to do with them. So they went on his head.


This morning my little hobbit decided he didn't need first breakfast, so we just got to sleep until 7:30. And at that point, sitting in his high chair, he asked so nicely to watch Mulan that I couldn't refuse. So here's my boy, barely awake, watching Mulan.

And then we went to the library just after 10. It was still only in the 30s and Tommy was very nice and didn't fight me when I made him wear his coat. Poor little boy can't move his arms to save his life, or pick himself up off the floor when he trips. I should have at least moved the blanket to his basket under the stroller...hindsight, though.


And what did we do when we got back from the library? Finish watching Mulan, of course!


It has occurred to me that, given Tommy's meal and snacking habits, I should watch the clip in Lord of the Rings where the hobbits name all their meals so that I can call Tommy's accordingly. Add that to my list of projects.