Reviews

MOVIE
Last night Ian took me on a date. It was lots of fun. We had dinner at Cafe Rio, where there was a nice long line, so we got to talk a lot. Then we went and saw Julie & Julia. I loved this movie. It was so down to earth. I identified with it. I love Amy Adams and thought she did a fabulous job. The way Julia Child was portrayed was very sweet. She and her husband appeared to have a very supportive and loving relationship. I need to go look up some actual footage of the real Julia Child just to compare Meryl Streep's performance, but whether it's spot on or not, I fell in love with her. I left the movie realizing that I have never eaten, much less cooked, French food. I should. I also felt inspired, like I could actually do something hard, like cook an entire cookbook in a year. Not that I intend to set that particular goal because of this movie, but it was inspiring nonetheless. Go see it. Now.

BOOK
Like I mentioned in a previous post, I read The Book Thief. It was really amazing. From the very beginning I was sucked into this book with the rich imagery. It really paints pictures for you. Not all of them pleasant. This book follows the story of a pre-teen girl in Nazi Germany. The book is narrated by Death. I found this to be a really fascinating take on World War II. I was riveted by the story and also the way it was told. I generally really enjoy WWII stories anyway, but seriously this book was well written. It used lots of color images and unconventional metaphors. Very interesting and engrossing read. I certainly recommend it.

Before I Was a Mom . . .

-I was organized.
-I could shop and actually try stuff on whenever I wanted to.
-I got dressed every day.
-I had a busy social calendar (heck, I HAD a social calendar).
-my hubby and I went out to dinner when I didn't feel like cooking.
-I slept 9-10 un-interrupted hours every night.
-I got annoyed when there was a screaming child in the waiting area at Applebee's. (Ok, I still get annoyed about that, even when it's my own kid)
-I thought snot, vomit, and poop were personal and disgusting.
-I didn't appreciate my body.
-I took Friday nights for granted.
Now that I am a Mom I try not to take the little freedoms for granted. I also try not to let the sweet moments pass me by. I read stories, give snuggles and kisses, clean, cook, do laundry, tidy (oh the endless tidying!), play blocks and rolly ball, teach, and love. My life is so much different than it was before I was a Mom, but so am I.

This post is part of the August Group Writing Project on mamablogga.com. Go HERE to participate.

Playing and Walking

Last night for FHE we all went to the park together. We have been having such nice, mild weather, so it was a perfect evening. Weston practiced riding his bike all the way to the park. He is getting better. He insisted on wearing his helmet, even when we got to the park and he was just playing. Davin practiced walking. He is doing it pretty much all the time now and getting better every second. On Sunday afternoon he literally was doing laps around the kitchen table. It's so fun having 2 walkers.

SO excited to be riding his bike to the park!
Weston has been too scared to do this ladder all by himself forever. Last night he did it while no one was watching then was so proud of himself. He climbed it several more times.

We went to the aquarium this morning and then met up with Ian for lunch. I managed to keep both kids awake on the drive home by singing songs the whole way. It was worth it though because they both napped for 2+ hours. Now I have a nice clean house today. Go me for not wasting all that beautiful quiet time. I am feeling all good about myself. Not only did I get my house clean, but I went to the gym this morning, I have a roast and veggies simmering away in the crock pot for dinner, and I am halfway through an intellectually stimulating book (The Book Thief by Markus Zusak). I'm sure all kinds of chaos will break loose as soon as Davin finally wakes from his looong nap. Oh well. It's nice while it lasts.

I am thoroughly enjoying getting back into my routine. The only bummer is that Ian is SO swamped at work. It's hard to enjoy the nice summer evenings when Ian is working practically every one of them. I really hope that things settle down for him soon. I mean, having lots to do is great! It means job security, but I think they are getting to the point of needing to hire back a person or two that they laid off a few months ago. This is the first time that I feel like the grind is really getting to him. He has always enjoyed his job. I'm not sure he's a big fan right about now.

High School High

This last weekend we traveled to Oregon for Ian's 10 year high school reunion from Sam Barlow High School, Class of 1999. It was a very quick trip for us. We didn't bring the kidlets though, so it was probably good that it was quick. Poor Davin is getting used to abandonment by now. Weston understood that he was having 2 sleepovers and then I would come get him. The boys were very good for Natalie and Nicole, and I am grateful for that.

So, back to our trip. We were really bad about taking pictures on this one, so not much documentation. We flew out Thursday evening. After grabbing a quick dinner we headed to downtown Portland to visit with Adam, one of Ian's good friends from HS who wasn't going to the reunion. We had a nice time catching up with him. He took us to a little coffeehouse called the Pied Cow for some dessert. It was delicious. The weather was perfect too. Nice and cool. It felt great after the 96 degree weather we had left. We ended up getting home pretty late.

We sort of slept in the next morning and took things really slow. My FIL had recorded the finale of SYTYCD for me, so I watched that. I was happy with the winner. Good stuff. I'm glad that it's not really over since the next season is this Fall instead of next summer. Once we finally got going we went with Denny to the furniture store to see the new stuff they had ordered. It's always fun to browse furniture. After that we went and all got pedicures. It was nice. I haven't gotten one since the last time Denny was here at my house. I got purple toes to match my dress I wore to the reunion that night.

Ian and I ate Subway then headed off to see a movie. We saw 500 Days of Summer. We really enjoyed it. It's always nice to do something fun like that when we don't have the kids and don't have to get a babysitter. By the time our little date was over it was time to go home and get ready for the big reunion!

The reunion was held at the Persimmon Country Club. It was a pretty standard Conference/Event room though. We got there and started visiting. That's really all we did. After the dinner, the committee did a little general questioning to see what everyone was up to. You know, who was married, for how long, how many kids they had, who worked in what fields, etc. There was supposed to be dancing, so the music was really loud after dinner. Only about 5 people were dancing though, so it was mostly just really annoying. The loud music was our main complaint though. Ian had fun catching up with people and I knew a couple people, so I wasn't completely bored. Here's Ian with his friend, Becky. I spent a good part of the evening visiting with her too.
***Addendum: I grabbed a few more reunion photos from Facebook.
We didn't stay too late. Ian finished visiting with everyone he wanted to talk to and then we left around 11pm. I would say we had a good time, but not an $80 a person good time. Oh well. The next morning all of Ian's siblings and their spouses came over for breakfast. It was really fun to get to spend some time with them without the kids running around. We ate and talked and played bananagrams. We also got to hold baby Ivy.


Later that afternoon we met up with Becky again for lunch. After that it was time to pack up and head for the airport. We had an uneventful flight and got to Nicole's house at about 8:45pm. Both the boys were asleep, so we visited for a little bit then got them all bundled into the car and came home. We were all pretty tired yesterday, but Davin only napped for 45 minutes. What a punk. It is nice to be home for good and know I have weeks and weeks before I have to get out any sort of luggage again. Today has been catch up day. We had no food in the house. We had no library books. I have YW at my house tomorrow, so we are plenty busy. Weston and I just finished watching Charlotte's Web together while Davin took a real nap. Time to get a little prep work done for YW tomorrow. Watch me go!

Photo Corner

I am finally posting the fun pictures from Aly and Ryan's reception in Oregon last month! The reception was gorgeous and they had this really fun photo corner set up for all the guests to have their pictures taken. We were there early, of course, so we hammed it up. This was pre Davin's meltdown too, so we even got a cute one of the whole family!
You have no idea how much Weston loved this. We had to pry him away so that other people could get their pictures taken.
With Aunt Mo. Her hubby, Carr, was taking all the pictures.
Weston made friends with this cute little girl, Lucille, at the reception. They ran around holding hands while dancing and getting their picture taken. It was very cute.
We also managed to get one of our whole family with the newly married couple. Never mind that Davin was a hopelessly screaming mess by then.
We are actually headed back to Oregon this week for Ian's 10 year high school reunion. He's so old! :) We are leaving the kids with our very helpful friends. I am feeling a little anxious about the whole thing. I am ready to just be home. This summer has been nuts. I am going to do my best to enjoy it though. I'm sure mid-way through September I will be all bored with my routine and wishing I could get away.

It's Official!

The Davster has finally almost kind of conquered walking! He started doing like 6 or 7 real steps while my mom was here on Thursday and Friday, then we got video Saturday morning. He has let go of us and walked across the room several times since the video too. It's not his main mode of transportation just yet, but by next weekend I'm sure it will be.

The Long Journey Home

There's nothing like driving down the open road. Beatles blaring on the radio. Wind blowing through your hair. Because the air conditioner conked out right as we left town. Followed quickly by the check engine light flashing on. Just after we passed the entrance to Zion's (about 15 minutes outside St. George) we crested a hill and lost power. Good feelings gone.
When I pulled over to the side of the road a bunch of steam came out from under the hood. Luckily the car would still start, so we weren't completely dead. Whew.
Thanks to our more-than-worth-it roadside assistance we called in for a tow and were back in Washington City in an hour. Hot, sweaty messes, but still. Turns out that the radiator was cracked and had leaked all the coolant (causing the steam), causing the engine to overheat (power loss). We also had some majorly old and cracked belts that needed replacing. The guy at Tunex estimated he could get us back on the road by 3pm.

We hung around the waiting room at Tunex during the whole diagnosis process, but as soon as they started working on it we headed to the nearby Red Robin. It was actually pretty pleasant. We ate a yummy lunch, then just hung out there in the air conditioning for a couple hours. I made arrangements for the kids by phone. Luckily Mel's hubby, Brad, was sweet enough to go watch the boys until Ian could get home from work.

At 2pm we went back to Tunex. We didn't end up leaving there until 4:30pm. The car also needed a new battery, but rather than paying $150 for it at Tunex we drove over to the Walmart across the street to get a $75 battery. Well, just our luck, they put in the new battery and then the car wouldn't start at all??? After several Walmart mechanics trying to figure out the problem, this one guy determined that the ground cable was really corroded and probably needed to be replaced.

By this time we were all getting a little crabby and frustrated. The good news of the day was that Brad got the pharmacy tech job that he interviewed for back in Rexburg!
Finally after another 2 hours in Washington City the car was in working condition. We actually had a fairly pleasant drive home from there, but didn't get to Salt Lake until 11:15pm. Ugh.

Long story short: $1200 and 7+ hours later than planned we pulled up to my house.

Things I Am Grateful For From July 27th:
I am grateful that I had Mom and Mel to keep me company. I am grateful that we did not have to stay another night in Washington City. I am grateful that we didn't have to leave the car there and then have to arrange to drive back down at some point to pick it up. I am grateful that we got home safely. I am grateful for my credit card.