252 posts and counting...

In the midst of my feverish condition yesterday, I was sensible enough to cancel seminary and watch Mary Poppins (oh how I wish they still made movies of that caliber).

When I woke up with extreme abdominal pain last night, I started to regret eating the entire pan of homemade cinnamon rolls yesterday. An hour later I started to question that chocolate cookies and cream ice cream cone. An hour after that when I woke Brad up to hold me, I started to wonder if I should have eaten 4 greasy fish tacos stuffed with spicy salsa and guacamole. Where were the calming effects of the chicken noodle soup I had for breakfast? I finally fell back to sleep, but I woke up with what feels like bricks on my chest, a blimp for a head, sore abs, aching limbs, pounding headache and a wild two year old...

Naturally, I wandered into my kitchen stacked high with dirty dishes, ate my chicken noodle soup for breakfast, and topped it off with a chocolate cookies and cream ice cream cone. Now that I think about it, maybe I shouldn't have given one to Kaci... she's wild enough as it is.

p.s. it's 46 degrees outside... 70 degrees inside... I feel like I'm in a sauna!

Kaci's Dance Moves

Here's the progression of Kaci's dance moves, starting about 1 year ago. This girl has got some rhythm.

Seminary- Historical Account

Okay, I've done my fair share of "murmuring" so far with this whole experience. Brad keeps telling me it's just the learning curve, it has be hard so it can get better! I thought I should share some pictures of some of our more memorable days so far.

They're all wearing our "family lenses". We are focusing on how important the family was, is, and will always be this year. We use these glasses to read some scripture stories when I really want something to stick or I need to loosen them up.

I'm bummed that I don't have a picture of our heritage day. I wrote a family tree starting at Adam on the chalk board one day. The kids loved it. The whole thing was full of names. The point was that human testimony that God is real can only survive if we pass it on to our kids.


This is our fort. How many prophets "dwelt in a tent"? So we built a fort to have our lesson in to make that more real. We were a lil squished, but some kids said it helped them pay attention better.

Our first morning-side with John Hendricks. He told a cool story about his mission and his hand drum. He had a lot of cool messages, but my favorite thing he said was "You're important to God so things that are important to you are important to Him" (in talking about miracles). One girl told me "Sister Call, that was the most amazing thing I have ever experienced at 6am!" Lovin' that!!

So, I am making the most of my longer days. The kids respond well to my craziness!

Brad's Dreams

Ok, Brad pretty much gave me the schmuck of the year award by telling the world that I loathe listening to his dreams. There are reasons for this loathing:

1)What he dreamed about last night is the first thing he talks about in the morning. Whether I'm awake yet or not, he's awake and he's ready to tell me all about his dreams.
2)I don't like talking or listening until I've fully woken up, eaten breakfast, brushed my teeth, taken my medicines, and have put my hair in a pony tail. (translation about an hour after I am actually out of bed I am willing to communicate)I'm not a morning person at all, never have been. Brad knows this!
3)When we were first married almost all he ever dreamed about was going back on his mission (I'm not exaggerating bytheway, I should have kept track, it really was almost nightly). He would wake up totally bummed to find that he didn't preach the gospel in his dream because he was married. (not what a new bride wants to hear every single morning, rm's talk about their missions being the best two years enough as it is, the dreams put it over the top for me)
4)If you think that it takes 10 minutes or less to listen to his dreams, you have obviously never listened to Brad tell his dreams. He has been known to still be telling me his dreams over LUNCH and occasionally over dinner. Seriously, seriously. And when he forgets one of his dreams and remembers it days later, he still tells them to me on top of the dreams from the last sleep... doesn't always have to be night time to dream mind you. Afternoon siestas pack a lot of dreams too, believe me, I've heard all about them.
5)He also tells me every-single-dream-he-can-remember! Even if they aren't interesting at all. Somethings just aren't noteworthy in my opinion. It's hard to be a captivated audience to a boring dream when I, myself, am half asleep still.

Now, I may still be a schmuck, but I'm a schmuck for good reasons. With his new blog, Liam can interpret his dreams again on a regular basis and vice versa... I guess that's a soul mate thing.

New Baby Tasha

We went to see baby Tasha on Sunday. Our friends the Darowski's had their baby and we celebrated by bringing a home made chocolate haupia cream pie. They loved it. Pudding pies happen to be their favorite dessert. Kaci loved the baby, she even got to hold it.



This is a picture moment for sure... her dad's first diaper!

Shoe Shopping

We went shoe shopping for Kaci. Her feet are huge. She's already growing out of her size 6 shoes. I wondered how big her feet were, just a half size bigger. But with winter I might buy her 7's so she can wear double socks on super cold days. I let her try on any shoes she wanted. And she tried on a lot of shoes. We didn't buy any yet. She never found a pair she just had to have!

Cho Happy

Garret is here. I really enjoy having him around. He's always willing to go places with me and is awesome with Kaci. She finally calls him by name, Cho! He wanted her to call him Nacho... Kaci decided Cho would do. This is a picture of our hike to Dark Hollows. I thought the sign was funny.

Still Cool

A newly wed couple thought we weren't cool anymore because we've been married for a while and have a kid. Thankfully the person they said it to defended us... but it left a scar for Brad. That weekend he said he'd show everyone just how cool he still is!

Don't Sass Me

I woke up at midnight to scratch the heck out of my foot.
I woke up at 2:50 to take Kaci to the potty.
I woke up at 4:44 to get ready for seminary.
I said a fervent prayer at 5:59 that I could forget my awful night mare, focus on Christ, and give the inspiring 30 minute lesson I spent 4 plus hours studying for and preparing...

At 6:50 one of my seminary students got impatient.
At 6:59 another girl gave me a dirty look (which I half joking gave back).
At 7:03 another lovely girl sassed me.

I didn't lash out at her, or the others. I finished explaining the amazing morning-side I've been planning for the past two weeks, dismissed them ON TIME, cleaned up the mess they left, and came home to an emotional two year old.

It's going to be one of those days.

Churches!

At the grocery store... gotta love ultra super conservative Harrisonburg.

I went to the Mennonite Church yesterday for their summer's end festival. I enjoyed having church outside for a change. The service was really modern, lots of singing and clapping. I also went to their Sunday School. They had some interesting points of view, some I agreed with, some I didn't. But I think everyone in the room felt the same way by the conversation. So interesting. I made some friends, so did Kaci. The lunch afterwards was amazing, pulled pork sandwiches, watermelon, beans, chips, applesauce, and coleslaw. Yum! In all we attending 5 hours of church yesterday. A Sabbath day well spent!

I realized I haven't ever been to a Methodist Church. There is a HUGE beautiful one on Main Street. That may need to be the next church I visit. Here's a list of churches I've been to: Episcopalian, Baptist, Catholic, Mormon (of course), Mennonite, and Presbyterian. Like I said, I need to add Methodist to the list :) Just for the experience, each one is just a little different than the other. I find it so interesting!

buk ree

Kaci: buk ree
Me and Brad: buck wheat?
Kaci: BUK REE
Brad to Me: buck wheat? is she saying buck wheat?
Me to Brad: what does buck wheat mean?
Kaci: baby signs book and says again-- buk ree?
Me to Brad: oooooooh-- book read!?!
Kaci: yeah!

Kaci still loves books. She's started memorizing them now. She can finish the sentences and fill in words as I read to her now. It's a lot of fun.


Kaci is also getting better at dressing herself. Pretty cool that Brad's shorts are a full body suit on Kaci... coolest super hero outfit I've ever seen!!

My Fundraiser

What do you think?


Brad has encouraged me (relentlessly) to try and sell a garden mural like Kaci's. So I set up a shop on Etsy. I only have one done, an apple tree. The apples are wood. It's 3.5 feet tall and 2 feet wide. I'm thinking about selling it for $20 plus shipping.
Do you think I'll sell any? What do you think is a fair price for it? I think I'm going to paint a flower garden next.
Oh, my fundraiser is for the Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York... the parade of all parades! I really want to go, hence my fundraiser. Wish me luck... lots of it!!

Visitors!

Victoria and Cassidy came to visit this weekend. Brad watched Kaci all day, so I could have a day out with friends. A new girl in my ward, Laura, drove up with me. It was a lot of fun and her first time to DC. It was awesome to not be a mom for a day. She took this picture of us at the WW2 memorial, her idea, way cute pix!

I'm glad we did DC on Friday because we didn't really do anything else exciting. Mainly just hung out, talked, and laughed. Time well spent. Well, I guess the minor surgery was a highlight.


Cassidy and Victoria were playing on the monkey bars at Purcell park. They were having a jumping contest, how far they could jump out and grab on. Victoria skinned her knees when she fell. Cassidy did too, right after Victoria did. They got matching holes in their pants from the skid. Cassidy thought she got a rock in her toe... we're still not sure. The surgery was to remove it. What do you think?

Brad also taught us how to tie a tie... the double windsor. We rock. Kaci started the whole thing with her tireless asking to wear a tie around her head.

just shoot me!

I had a melt down with Brad over g chat today. Yes, over g chat. He studies in a dungeon (our word for the building he has school in with no windows) where he gets no cell service so g chat is how we communicate. My eyes were burning, my stomach felt like it was eating its self, my legs ached, and me emotions were soaring. All a direct consequence of not enough sleep and a demanding two year old.

I prepared like a maniac all week for seminary, powerhouse lessons were my goal. Accomplished... until today. I barely made it out of bed and to seminary in time to get out my scriptures. My lesson was poopy. The kids got bored and antzy and so did I. What do you do? I just wasn't feelin' it. I'm sad I already hit a wall. I really thought I'd last at least the first week... nope.

Some one else is prego, and I most definitely am not even though if I hadn't miscarried I'd probably be showing and wearing all the cute maternity clothes I collected for fall all last year.

On a happier note, I got a free car wash last night and a lil package of m&m's from the Mennonite church youth group. They said, no donations please. Right on. I love random acts of service in massive form. They rock. I still slightly wish I could join their church also (can I do both, be Mormon and Mennonite? Mormon at heart and practice, but Mennonite by association) just to be friends with all of them and do all their fun stuff. I'm still considering it. I committed to go to their little fall festival worship service in a couple weeks (they're doing it outside and they have a nursery with 11 two year olds for Kaci to play with). Is that a crime. A lot of churches are all about community right, that's all I really want, that community. What do you think?

Ah Geez

Fall is upon us. Some people love it. The little old Librarian Lady that I adore feels like I do about it... and I quote her saying "every year I tell myself I'm going to like it, but then it gets here, and I don't."

I will admit the days are magical in a sense, the colorful trees, the warm sun with the cool air, but the boots, long sleeves, pants, socks, gloves, jackets, scarfs, and dull clothing colors just aren't my thing. I will strive to embrace the good moments and forget the bad. So for the record... my first end of summer beginning of fall moment:

At the park today, I felt like I was giving away magical moments when Kaci asked me to blow "more bubbles" as runners breezed past us and the bubbles popped and floated around them. What could be more magical than that?