The long winter is over.

Okay, so it seriously took me like a half an hour to upload all of these pictures, so I hope that I'm not in trouble anymore for not posting for the last few months. I hope this post will be satisfactory. Honestly, my dad is chomping at the bit for some new Reid pictures, so...Hi Dad! Here's the latest!

This is what all of February looked like. Reid with crazy hair and boogers running out of his nose. February was a long, hard, cold month. Seriously, I hated it.
Reid loves it when I let him sit on the bench to play. Here he is working on the piece that I had set a goal to learn by when Erik got home. Didn't happen. I bet Reid could play it as accurately as I could. It's a dang hard song. It's possible that I'm not as talented as I think I am, because that song is really killing me.

Reid is a very busy kid. Busy busy busy. He's a problem solver, too. He'll pull down books to stand on top of them to reach higher books. Genius.

Okay, these aren't exactly in order, but this is the night that Erik finally came home. His flight came in around midnight, and some friends came to the airport to see him so we all went to Denny's afterwards. Here's us at the northernmost Denny's in North America. (are there Denny's anywhere else?)

These pictures are in the Fairbanks Airport, just moments after Erik got off the plane. I was worried about how Reid would adjust to his daddy being home. Reid was only 9 weeks old when Erik left, and 10 months old when he got home...so it had the potential of being a hard adjustment. The adjustment was about 30 seconds. They have been inseparable ever since. You'll see, the next 20 pictures will prove it. Reid doesn't want to have anything to do with me anymore, he's OBSESSED with dad. When Erik leaves for work in the morning, Reid practically spills out of my arms reaching out to him, "Da! Da! Da!" He just wants it to be all dad, all the time. I can't really blame him.

The day after Erik got home we got down to business. Reid needed a haircut, big time. These pictures are a bit out of order, here's the end result with Erik looking as though he's saying, "Well, there you have it, folks."

We started out trying to trim his hair with scissors. Neither of us have any haircutting skills, and when Reid starting looking like Lloyd Christmas then we knew that we needed a better plan. Out came the clippers and we just went for it with the longest guard on. Much better. And, Reid didn't flip out at all. He loved all the fuss.

Dad getting set up and Reid making it difficult. Say good-bye to those sweet little curls in the back!

Here's the start of it. Seriously, Erik came home in the nick of time. That little boy has a shaggy hair do that would be the envy of all the young men in our ward. Is your ward like that, too? It's crazy. When they pass the sacrament I keep thinking, "did all of you just roll out of bed or something? Where are your eyes?" Seriously shaggy hair going on up in Alaska.

Since Erik got back, there's has been a lot of male bonding going on. Here it is in the form of crazy faces. Erik can make the most amazing crazy faces. He can instantly endear children to him with these crazy faces. Looks like Reid is entertained as well.

Just a cute shot, and it shows the new hair do pretty well.

When they're not playing, Reid remains underfoot. Honestly, he's obsessed with Erik. He's tagging along with whatever Erik is doing. Here Erik is either working on the master's, or the ipod. My guess is the ipod.

Just a cute shot. I'll have Erik post about his snowmobile adventure in Logan a few weeks ago. Crazy.

Reid and dad playing on the swings.

Reid is a walking machine now. When he took his first steps, Erik was still gone, so I pretended for a while that it was just a fluke. Then 5 steps became 10, 10 became 15, and then I resigned to the fact that it was official, Reid is a walker. In the last month, however, Reid has become a pro. He can stand up on his own now (meaning he doesn't have to pull up on anything) and when we've been travelling it's been great to let him walk around and wear himself out before our flights. He's really into the freedom and adventure that come with walking. In this picture Erik is helping him figure out what to do with that lawn-mower/popper toy. Don't mind the pajamas. Most of our pictures from the last month show us still in our pajamas. So, if you've noticed a drop in blogging/phone calls/emails from me, here's the reason. I've been busy playing with my boys...very busy.

This is one of my favorite things to do. Erik loads up the little man and we go for a walk in the neighborhood. Reid loves it. I think he knows that he's got VIP seating up there with dad.

In the middle of March we all went to Utah for a week. Erik's grandfather (Grandpa Reid Olsen, our little Reid's namesake) passed away and we went down for the funeral. It was so amazing to see all of the Olsens. It's really touching to see how big of a difference one life can make. At the service there was over a hundred direct descendent of Grandpa Olsen. More than 100 people who directly benefitted from his example. I loved hearing the stories about his life and his testimony. Many people commented on his trademark saying that goes something like this, "Live the gospel. Follow the commandments and your life will be better. Your car will run better, your wife will be prettier, your neighbor's dog won't bark as loudly, you'll have more money, etc." We have a recording of Grandpa Olsen talking to his family, I think it was recorded a few years ago, and so I've heard him say that. I don't know if he meant that following the commandments resulted in blessings that made our lives better, or if he meant that when we do what's right that our outlook on life is more positive and hopeful. Or if he meant both. Either way, I agree. My life is better when I'm doing what I know to be right and good. I am really grateful that I got to meet Grandpa Olsen 3 summers ago when we were driving through Washington on out way up here. I loved him instantly, and I think he liked me too.

When we were in Utah we stayed at the house of some friends of Erik's parents. The friends are on a mission in Ghana and they were so nice to let us stay at their house. Here's a picture of Reid with his grandparents. He loves grandparents.

Here is my very miserable attempt to get a good picture of the boys playing. Reid loves it when Erik throws and flips him around. Loves it.

These two have a great time together.

Just a cute picture. My goodness, look at that face! So cute!

Celebrating Erik's birthday.

I got some of those really gross candy letters, and it had the words "Happy Birthday" and then the alphabet (with a few extra vowels) and numbers. I thought it would be funny to try and spell out words using all of the letters. What a dumb game. I think of some really dumb ones sometimes. It was so hard. After we spelled a few words all we had left was a bunch of useless consonants, so we gave up and just put his name on there. Dumb game.

Hey, if you want to know an awesome game, leave a comment and let me know, I've got some favorites that are always winners. Not like the dumb candy spelling game.

More bonding time. Erik's lap is Reid's most favorite place. And again, we're all still in pajamas. Check out Reid's bed head.

I wish that I had planned this out better, but after we all got dressed up for church on Easter, and when we were almost out the door I remembered "a picture!" So I ran and grabbed it and got this lame shot before we dashed out the door. Not a great picture, but Erik looks killer in his new suit and tie (don't you love that gray/salmon-peachish combo? I love it!) and Reid is a little heartbreaker in his outfit, as well. What a good looking pair. I had on a cute outfit too, but we all know how much self-portrait skills are...not good. So just imagine me in the picture too.

Even more bonding. We've had such a great month just hanging out, enjoying each other's company, going on some fun trips, and just being. Being our little family of three.

To wrap this up, I'd like to share with you Reid's new face. We first saw this face about a week ago and it cracks us up every time we see it. For no reason, Reid gets all playful and starts making this crazy face. It's hard to capture, but here's a pretty good example.

He makes this big growly face, spreading his mouth out as wide as he can get it, and showing his teeth. He has the two little chompers on the bottom and four teeth on top. His two front teeth are about halfway through...and about 1/8 of an inch apart. They are so funny. His bottom teeth can almost fit in between the top two. SO cute, seriously. It kills us. Another shot of the crazy face. We see it the most at mealtime.

And that brings us to the end of our tour. My sincere apologies for those of you who frequent this blog and have seen the same old post for the past 2 months. It's been a really good March, and so far April has been just as wonderful. When Erik came home, he brought Spring home with him. I mean that figuratively and literally. There were a lot of days when it felt like Spring would never come, but it did. My Spring finally came.

Hold on to your seats, people

Watch out faithful readers. As if Reid wasn't cute enough, here are some recent photos to show that he's gotten even cuter. I take no credit for this cuteness. He looks totally Erik to me, and his disposition is just so sweet. I'm just trying my best not to ruin everything before Erik gets back. (Soon! It's getting closer!) This one is just funny because it's a daily ritual. As soon as I get down on the floor with him he starts to crawl all over me. It's funny. And if he's across the room he darts over to get me. His little legs crawling so quickly to come over to me really cracks me up.

This is at the clinic when Reid was sick. Or, rather, one of the times when Reid was sick. So far in February either one or both of us has felt like garbage. His fever got up to over 103, so this is when I took him in for that. If I didn't take his temperature I never would have known that he was that sick. He was a little less energetic than usual, but no less angelic. Here's him playing with another kid in the waiting room. Actually he just watched the bigger kid and inched closer and closer to him. Reid really likes playing with bigger children.

The doctor taking his pulse oxygen or something. They always comment on how mellow he is. Even when he gets shots. The shots hurt his feelings, but he's quick to forgive.

This is at Jiffy Lube in Faribanks. Nothing special except for the cuteness. Look at that hair!

Mealtime is so much fun. He really interacts with me. He's shown a few signs back to me also. He puts his hands together for more and waves "all done." There's a big genius brain in that big head of his.

I like this picture because he's such a little dude. The hooded sweatshirt, the beanie, jeans and sneakers.

Playing at the O'Neil's house last night at dinner.

Wait for it...

Okay, here it comes...this is going to knock your socks off. Today it was about 35 degrees...ABOVE ZERO! For me, that might as well be heaven. After weeks of -30 and colder this warmer weather makes my soul burst with happiness and relief. Seriously. Today we went to the park to play. The past week or so I've been wearing sandals just because I can't bear to put my snow boots on one more stinkin' time. But I did today to tromp through the thigh deep snow to the park behind our house. It was worth it, just look at this cute boy! He loved getting out as much as I did. The snow has melted off of all the trees and almost off of the rooftops. But at the playground there was still so much left that his feet were almost dragging in it. We are definitely going back tomorrow.

okay, I'll make your life easier

I really want everyone to read the "Dalai Mama" blog, so instead of hoping that you go there after reading the last post, I'm just going to make life easy and send you there now. She's so funny and I think she is somehow, through the powers of creative writing magic, able to communicate what it feels like to be a parent. It's amazing. She's like my writing guru. I have a lot of gurus. Here's my scrapbooking guru. I just love her. I love her perspective on life and creativity and family, and how it all goes together. Here are my photography gurus, a creative landscape one and a portrait one. Hey, the second photographer is putting together a weekend workshop in California in late August, anyone want to visit me in CA and become a better photographer? The scrapbooking guru is going to be there tooo-oo! For details about it look at this and then call me and I'll convince you.

While I'm flooding you with links to cool things, check out this:
cute dress, just in time for Valentine's Day (in my case a post-poned Valentine's sometime when Erik gets back)
wouldn't any of these be cute for an arrangement on the table, or individually on a gift?
is there anything better than a cupcake? How about an amazing cupcake blog! Or learn from the master.
makes you want to get the sewing machine out, right?
support your local corporate Stampin' Up! employee (or at least your favorite) and make your own valentines this year


...and to finish this mega blogging day on a sad note, apparently I am not intelligent enough to figure out how to post a video. I couldn't get it to upload on youtube, and now I'm bummed. Here's some consolation, one of my favorite commercials of all time.

Some thoughts

1. Bummer about the Romney campaign suspension, huh? I am, however, glad to hear McCain use the word "conservative" so often in his CPAC address. I am also glad to hear some very detailed promises of what he will and will not do. I have not been gung-ho on Romney, although I found him to be the candidate closest to my political views. (interjection - I'm listening to McCain live on cnn.com and he just said that he would support Bush tax cuts. That's good, it took him 7 years to come to that conclusion, but still good.) I hope that Romney is asked to be his running mate. That would be smart, we really need him for his economic intelligence. I don't think that McCain can compete with Clinton's aggressive socialist plans unless he has some detailed plans of his own, or those courtesy of Romney. Clinton's position on the economy really bothers me. Of course I don't want to see people out of their homes and on the streets. That's very sad. I mean, to quote what could possibly be the world's worst movie, "First Daughter" (the one with pre-Cruise Katie Holmes), in a scene where her President dad finally asks her opinion just as he's about to make a big speech, she says "I don't know what could be more important than home." In a very sacred way I agree with that very cheesy line from a very crappy movie, but it bothers me that Americans have lived beyond their means and now expect a bloated government to swoop in and rescue them. I don't think it's right. If you can't afford your mortgage payments then you bought too much house in the first place. There are always options. You can sell the house, even if it means selling it for much less than you hoped for. At that point you can get an apartment...while it's not ideal, at least you're exercising liberty and agency to take care of your own family. I guess that's what bothers me, it's the blatant disregard for and abdication of liberties that I see in the American people. Bugs me big time.

2. You know, "First Daughter" was really dumb (I know I just said it was crappy, which it is, but I have been encouraged by my mother not to say crappy so often. It's a good and needed suggestion, but it really is one of my favorite words. It's just so funny). But I think the movie "Forces of Nature" with Sandra Bullock was probably worse. That movie made me angry. It was just so, so, so bad. How do these movies make it to the production stages? Hey, Erik and I get a kick out of how all the bad romantic comedies have a point where the female lead says to the male lead, "you lied to me!" Seriously. All of them. Keep an eye out for it, it's hilarious. And to save yourself the trouble of watching crappy movies, eh...I mean dumb movies, you will probably hear that telltale sign-of-a-bad-movie line in the previews at the movie theater. I have one exception, though. The other week I saw "27 Dresses" and I loved that movie. I'm talking, LOVED it. Maybe it's because I got a sitter for Reid and saw it with a friend, making it my first night out without a baby on my hip in a long, long time. Ennnnie hoooo...there is a point in the movie when she says to him, "you lied to me!" Man, I wished Erik had been there with me in the worst way. We would have been able to laugh about that for the rest of the night.

3. I have an addiction. And it's serious. My family has unsuccesfully tried to intervene for years, but I persisted. I thought I had control over my appetite for it. I thought, I can enjoy a little now and then, I'm not a big user. But then the addiction grew. Martha Stewart Living was my gateway drug to an addiction to any home magazine I could get my hands on. I mean, it's a sickness. While I only currently have a subscription to Domino (a crazy cool magazine), I periodically purchase these favorites: Martha Stewart Living (and any MSLO publications: Blueprint - may you rest in peace, Weddings - yes I know I'm already married but I really like weddings...okay?, Good things for kids - a moment of silence please for Martha Stewart Kids and Martha Stewart Baby, Body and Soul, and Everyday Food), Cottage Living (I also like Country Living although not as much as Cottage Living...apparently I'm more "cottage" than "country"), Dwell, Metropolitan Homes, Elle Decor, Better Homes and Gardens, Sunset, Architechtural Digest, and many, many more. That's just the beginning. I also love an assortment of other types of magazines. I currently receive LDS Living (cute story about that one, check item #4), and love these as well: Hallmark magazine, Parents, Parenting, Wondertime (look online to read a weekly blog by one of my favorite writers...look for the "Dalai Mama" blog), Creating Keepsakes, BHG Scrapbooks Etc., the Mary Engelbriet one, any magazine with home plan blueprints, I like Erik's Outside and National Geographic's Adventure, the Economist, InStyle, and I'm sure I'm forgetting more. Here's where things get really scary. I also LOVE catalogs. I love them! I love getting them, partly because I love mail and partly because it's almost like a free magazine. Of course my favorites are Anthropologie and Pottery Barn (even though I can't get myself to pay that kind of money for clothes and furniture), but I even like getting weird ones like Plow and Hearth...just to see what's for sale. It's an illness, people. And I need help. Serious help. So here's the plan. I can't get myself to get rid of all of the magazines that I've accumulated. I mean, to me they're like gold. Emily gold. But I can just stop buying. Stop consuming! So that's the plan. When we move to California I'm going to pick one magazine that I can subscribe to, and then that's it. Other than that I'm going to utilize the magic of the internet for creative inspiration, or...to get my "fix."

4. Okay, here's the cute Erik story. I know, I know...I realize that I gush about him a lot, but that's just how it is. He's the best. (1,000 points to anyone who said "He's the best" in a Nacho Libre voice after reading it just then. Anybody? You know, the part when he's talking about Ramses? Just call and say "He's the best" to me in your Nacho Libre voice to claim your 1,000 points.) Back to the cute story. In '06 when Erik was in the desert, he subscribed to LDS Living for me. One day I got it in our mailbox and when I asked him about it he said that he remembered me looking at it a few months earlier when we were at a Deseret Book in Denver. So he thought I might like it. Perfect gift. I loved that he thought to get me something, that he knows that I'm in love with magazines, and that he remembered a insignificant thing like me purusing an LDS Living months prior to when he bought it for me. He is so considerate, that Erik. He gets 1,000 points just because he's sweet.

5. I tried to upload a video. We'll see how it works. I'm very blog-illiterate, but Reid is even cuter in video than he is in pictures...if you can believe it. I took this when we were at Grandma and Grandpa Olsen's in Denver for Christmas. Check out Reid's sweet pants. Grandman Olsen gave those to him and they have padded knees for little crawlers. I also love the ties in the back of the knees that help keep his pants from getting caught underneath him as he crawls. These are some of the very few pants that he doesn't crawl right out of.

6. So I am officially last in the running competition so far. It's been -40 for about a week now, so I haven't been able to get to the gym. Also, Reid is very pleasantly (that's not sarcasm, he's really been a sweet little guy) going through a flu of some sort. He's had a fever for 3 days now and today it's been about 103. Obviously I haven't taken him outside in the past few days, and so that means I've been stranded inside too. Erik said that when he gets back (only a few more weeks!) that we can make a fort in the house with blankets and watch movies and we'll all just hang out. That sounds really fun. I'm looking forward to having my best friend back so that we can do fun things like that again. Oh, and I bet we'll play Boggle too! I love Boggle. Mostly because it's one of the few games that I can beat Erik in. He is 100% more patient than I am, and so he usually wins when we play games. Except of course for the ones where "slow and steady" is a disadvantage...like Boggle. Or Cranium, I'm awesome at Cranium. I miss the Sturgills. They had an entire closet full of games. They were a TV-less family and so when we hung out with them we would play games. It was so much fun. Plus, they are the most competitive people I've ever met. Yeah, games are fun. Way more fun than TV. Seriously, is there anything good on lately?

7. As I've mentioned before, Erik's birthday is coming up, and I love daydreaming about parties. I keep thinking about themes, decorations, making a fancy cake, party games, costumes, etc. I'm glad that I have Erik to rope me in, because even though I don't spend money foolishly (except for the obvious, see #3), I have a feeling that I'm only a few steps away from the crazies that go into debt from their children's birthday parties. I saw a family on Oprah (when Suze Orman was on, I LOVE her!) that was in crazy debt. The mom was recounting parties that they've had and for one they rented a petting zoo, and for another they bought snow! Snow!, so that the kids could go sledding in California! Crazy, huh? Sadly, I don't think I'm that far from it.

8. Do you know what I'm looking forward to when we move to California? Besides the obvious: sunlight, warmth, Mexican food, sandals instead of wool-lined boots, a beach, taking Reid for a walk everyday if I wanted, etc...I'm really looking forward to yard sales. I love them. It is the embodiment of the enigmatic perfect blend of my granola-ness and Martha Stewart-ness. If I can find some good thrift stores/yard sales/flea markets then I can have my collection of antique cup and saucer sets, and feel good about recycling too! Bonus!

9. I don't think this video is going to work. How do you all out there in blogworld get your videos to work? Oh, right...I have to upload it to youtube first and then onto blogger, right? That's a lot of work.

10. Lastly, could this be any cuter? (although not a new and novel green idea..."the lunch box" is still a great idea. In fact, even just a homemade lunch is still a great idea.) I am steadily becoming more and more granola. I mean, come on, accepting and trying to rehabilitate myself from my magazine addiction is a big step. Matt has joked that I'm about as granola as you can get from growing up in Tanque Verde Ward, for those of you who know what I'm talking about. So, I'm starting to adopt other ways of doing things. Trying to drastically reduce use of things like paper towels, ziploc bags, anything disposable. It's tricky, and definitely not convenient. But I think it's important. It's almost a game now. I try and see how little garbage I can take to the dumpster each week and see how much I can recycle. Of course, recycling is great, but it's still not enough. I'm trying to do things like...say when I make chili, instead of buying cans of beans and then recycling the cans, I buy a bag of beans, cook them and then recycle the bag. Much less waste product for the same thing. Just less convenient. It'll get trickier when we get to CA and water is a premium, but the thing is that even though it takes water to wash Reid's diapers, it also takes water to manufacture disposables. I don't know the numbers on things, but I still think it's better to use a mop that has to be rinsed off than to use a swiffer that has to be manufactured and then thrown away. That's something else I think about, the idea of "away." Away to where? Just because it's out of my sight doesn't mean that it's disappeared. It has to go somewhere. I'm trying to put less of my crap into the cosmic void of "away", and in that case I think the word crap is appropriate.

My life, as told through pictures of my little guy

1. Here's Reid causing trouble while we're waiting to meet with an academic advisor. He is non-stop motion and he ran into a chair leg, causing the redness on his cheek. I'm making very slow and not-so-steady progress towards a degree. A master's? Nope. A bachelor? Nuh-uh. An...associate? YES! Bingo! The goal is to finish an associate before we leave Alaska. I feel like with school that I've been making backwards progress. The school I go to next will be my 5th, yes you read that right...5th institution of higher education. It's time to just get it done. Actually, that was like 4 years ago. Good thing Erik is the world's most supportive and encouraging husband. I think he's the secret ingredient that I've been needing to finish this school thing. Actually, I don't know if I'll ever be finished. I've been daydreaming a lot lately about getting a master's in library science (obviously after the associate and bachelor). I have this romantic idea of working from like 12-4 and my gaggle of kids would come to the library after school. They'll bug me saying, "mom, I'm bored" and I'll tell them to go find a book to read. Then I'll see my little gaggle all lined up in the library's comfy chairs, reading books. When it's time to go home I'll gather them all together and we'll talk about what they're reading while we walk home (yes, my daydream includes living within walking distance of a library, schools, grocery store, etc. Actually, I live within walking distance of a library now, but Reid and I don't really go out for walks at -40. Oh, how I wish it was walking weather.)

2. This is Reid eating some little puffs while I'm buying a new pair of shoes. No, not men's work boots, but new running shoes. I'm in a running competition with Matt, William, Erik's brother Zach, his wife Natalie, and some of Natalie's friends. This came about from some goals that Natalie and I set, and then it grew into a very cool and very detailed competition. We're all using the nike+ iPod system so even though we're all so far apart we can still keep tabs on each other, encourage each other, etc. So far I'm in dead last. There's a girl in the ward that comes over every morning to watch Reid before school so I can go to the gym to run. Her dad brings her in when he brings her older brother to early morning seminary. The problem is that they don't have early morning seminary when it's -30 or colder, so since the competition started (Feb 1st-May 31st) I've been out of luck. I've got a lot of catching up to do. Natalie and I set a goal to run a half-marathon this year and we're working towards the Provo half in August. We also both want babies, so we'll see which goal takes priority. We're pretty jazzed about doing the half down the Provo Canyon though, if we're not too great with child. Hey all you BYUers, did a date ever take you to Bridal Veil falls? (or, if you're male, did you ever do such a thing?) Very, very BYU. I dated a guy that took me there for a walk, the same one that also took me for a walk around the Mount Timpanogas temple...on our first date. Yikes. Super nice guy though, just not the one for me. I liked Erik's dates: rides on his motorcycle, Indian food, art galleries...he knows just how to make me melt.

3. Reid got a new coat. It's a little big. I think that's what he's trying to say in this picture, "mama, my coat is too big!" It's 18 mos. because I just couldn't see spending the money on a 12 mos. coat that will fit him for another month or two. Maybe he'll get some use out of this one next year too. Right now he just looks like Boo in "Monsters Inc." when she's in the monster costume. "Mike Wazowski!"

4. I'm in the kitchen doing dishes, and Reid is on the outside making cute faces at me through the baby gate. He just kills me. I love that he wants to be right where I am, so if I'm in the kitchen, he's waiting outside the gate.

5. This is the face that I get when I wash the goop off of his cute little mouth after he eats. Man, he hates it. He protests and gives me a scowl like this. Too funny. A moment later when I give him a kiss he's back to my little angel. Wouldn't it be great if we were as quick to forgive and forget as little children? Look at his eyes, they are still such an amazing color. They are blue-ish/green-ish/gray-ish. They're gorgeous.

6. We're waiting for the doctor at his check-up the other day. He's playing with this great "baby mp3 player" that my cousin Lara gave to him for Christmas. He loves that toy. I love that little belly.

7. You can just barely see my reflection in the window (I'm wearing an orange coat). I'm in the frozen air, filling up at the gas station, while Reid is wondering what the heck mom is doing out in the cold. He outgrew his infant seat and is now in a convertible car seat. He loves the extra room and comfort, but he sure gets tired of me buckling him in and out all the time.

8. I'm so thrilled to know that I have more readers than my lovely mother on this silly little blog of mine. Thank you for your comments, everybody. I love it. I love being able to share some of our life with you. Alaska feels like a million miles away sometimes, and I am so grateful for any way to feel more connected to the people in my life.

9. Elana, I am now desparate to catch an episode of ANTM (I can't believe I just used the acronym, I'm such a nerd). I can't wait to see what you're talking about with all the blinking. Too funny.

10. I don't know how Sarah does it. I have a hard time coming up with 10 interesting things to say (besides the fact that I have to write in shifts because I don't have enough time in one chunk to write all of this nonsense), which explains why I haven't done Annie's challenge yet. I was tagged like 3 months ago to post 7 interesting facts about myself, and I've been putting it off because...come on, interesting things? I don't know about that. Crazy? (thinking I can run a half-marathon when the most I think I've ever run at one time is probably 5 miles or so) I can do that. Pathetic? (trying to finish an associate when I've been out of high school for almost 8 years) Check. What is she thinking? (living in -40 weather and loving it...for the most part) Got it. Shameless gushing about my wonderful husband and adorable baby? Yes, much to my family's shagrin, I do a LOT of that. But interesting? I'm not so sure. For now I think the best I can offer is sporadic posts about the little things that make up our days. Soon I'll have a lot more exclamation points, things like "Erik is back!" or "I am so happy that Erik is finally home!" That'll be nice.

Only a few more weeks! Uh-oh, it's starting already.

Confessions

One of my favorite blogs is my "friend" Sarah's blog. I say "friend" because I've never actually met her, although in my head we're tight. Buds. This blog thing is funny because it's so intimate and so distant and detached at the same time. Anyhow, her blog is awesome and so I'm going to copy. I always have lots of unrelated things to say, so I'm going to try her format. Here goes.


1. I have a perfect karaoke song, all ready to go, should I ever get the chance to karaoke. I've perfected it. I'll keep the song a secret, just in case you and I go karaoking sometime soon, I don't want to ruin the surprise. (my readership is mostly my mom...so, mom do you want to go karaoke sometime?) This year for Erik's birthday we're going to have an extravaganza. I chickened out of having (making) people do it at last year's party, but this year on your invitation will be the song that you will be expected to karaoke at the party. It's also going to be a costume party, the theme of which will be announced later. It's going to blow your minds. (Right now, as Annie reads that last sentence, she's thinking of that Gwen Stefani/Eve song. Am I right, Annie?)

2. Raise your hand if you know what I'm talking about when I say the words "planet Hoth." I'm not so much a Star Wars fan, in fact I only saw the original ones since Erik and I got married, but there's no better way to describe an Alaskan Jan/Feb than comparing it to a frozen planet. Last Sunday I chickened out of going to church because it was just too darn cold. I just didn't think I could brave it on my own. Our ward has a cold weather policy, and please understand that I'm totally serious. If it's -30 or colder then we only have sacrament meeting, but if it's -50 or colder then church is cancelled altogether. That day it was in the -40 range, and I wimped out. I mean, I'm trying to be tough, but even I have a limit to my Pollyanna-ness.

3. I'm not even bummed that the writer's strike has brought TV shows to a halt. I mean, was there anything good on anyways? The only problem is that networks have to fill slots with something, and usually it means more reality TV. Have you heard of the show where the contestant answers questions and he's got a lie detector or something connected? Crazy. I haven't seen it, but I saw them making fun of it on "Best Week Ever", which is pretty much the best show ever. Dang, they are funny. I know I am not immune to reality TV. I love it when I can catch an episode of Project Runway, Erik and I daydream about being on Amazing Race...and like Saved by the Bell, through the magic of syndication, I think Annie and I have seen just about every episode of America's Next Top Model. Or so it seems. Maybe because they're all the same. It's a slippery slope though, reality TV is mean-spirited crap. Stamatia compared a Japanese game show to how in decadent Roman times the wealthy would throw people to the lions for sport and amusement. Reality TV is the same thing. I guess they're signing up for it, but I don't think it makes us good people to watch it. I'm going to start with the man in the mirror and consume less crap TV. No more mean-spiritedness! Oh, how I'll miss you Best Week Ever.

4. I've been stalling on giving Reid a haircut because now that we're moving to CA this summer I have this vision of our little guy letting his hair blow freely in the ocean breeze. He'll be our little surfer baby. The problem is that it mostly looks scraggly. He kind of looks like a hobo. It touches his shoulders in the back. So, I think it's time. Of course I'll share the cuteness of his first haircut with all of my faithful readers (so...my mom) here on the blog.

5. Do you ever feel like you are at battle with yourself? All the time? I do. There is a constant internal struggle between my granola/anti-establishment self and my Martha Stewart self. I loved my wedding dress because I think it was a perfect balance of the two halves. It was one part Jane Austen and one part hippy. That perfect balance does not happen very often, I think it's more of a duality. A Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde thing. This internal struggle gets a little crazy sometimes, too. There are days when I want to purge the house of all the excess. Then the next day I'll think of a bunch of things that I need. "Need", right? Of course I don't need them, but on the Martha Stewart days I sure think I do. Like collections of cake pedestals, and antique cup and saucer sets (for the tea or coffee that I don't drink), or a closet full of Anthropologie dresses (where would I wear those? I'm in Alaska.), or an embroidery machine, or a drum set, or a sweet SLR camera, or...etc. I just have to wait a day or so until the granola in me kicks in and then everything evens out.

6. Speaking of...some of you have asked how the cloth diapering is going. Awesome. He's into these sweet ones now that have a bunch of snaps on them and will last him until he's potty trained. I love that idea.

7. Oh, this one's good. Erik and I are going to Edmonton to see a Foo Fighter's concert. A while ago I asked him what band he would want to see if he could go to any concert and he answered "the Foo Fighters." Nice. So I told him that we're using my dividend money to go to Canada to see a sweet concert. I'm so excited. Although, one time I had that strange dream, way before the time I asked him about what band he would want to see, that we went to a Foo Fighters concert and Erik got all these weird piercings. It was a strange dream. Plus, the Foo Fighters aren't really a weird piercings kind of band. It's not like Korn or anything. But I made Erik promise, nonetheless, that he wouldn't get strange piercings at the concert. He promised.

8. Reid had a check-up today and his height and weight are both perfectly in the 50% percentile. Just perfect. The doctor measured his head a few times however just to make sure, and yes...his head circumference is off the charts. Literally. Off of the charts. That's my boy. He's pretty much a baby genius.

9. The Banshee died. That is the not-so-fond nickname for our mixer. It was so crazy loud. My mom and dad got us a wheat grinder for Christmas and I haven't made bread since Erik has been gone so I figured I'd give it a go. So I ground the wheat and then got started making the bread, but then she died a very loud death. I'm not so sad though, because that means I'm one step closer to this beauty (in tangerine...oh yes, tangerine. My generation's avocado).

10. This one is very special to me. Those of you who are of my faith already know about this, of course, but someone who made a very big impact on my life has died. It actually made me so happy when I heard, I felt the same way that I did when my Grannie (the most amazing woman I've ever known) died. I'm so grateful that the doctrines of my faith teaches me why we're here, what the point of all of this is. We're here to be tested, to learn from Christ and to strive to become like Him, and to covenant our lives to that end. The point of all of that is love. Love for our Heavenly Father, for our Savior, for our families and neighbors, for ourselves, and for mankind. I feel proud of President Hinckley, as I would a good friend. Although I never met him, I always felt (as did countless others) that he loved me and cared for me as a friend. So I'm so proud that my friend, President Gordon B. Hinckley, did what he was sent here to do. I'm thrilled that he gets to be with his sweet wife again, and I'm grateful for the lessons that he taught me and for the example he gave to me. He was such an example of kindness, optimism, love, the importance of temples, and the beauty of the family. For a really wonderful post about President Hinckley, check out one of my all-time favorite blogs. I just want to say, "what she said."

Wow. If you made it to this point then you deserve some sort of a prize. Seriously.

I'll start up the game again. I think I need to follow Sarah's format more closely next time. Less talk, talk, talk...and I need some good pictures thrown in there.

Playing catch-up

So this blog thing is kind of like a journal, and just like when I write in my own journal if I get behind then I get overwhelmed. Like I have to go in some sort of order, or that I have to address all past events before talking about what's going on now. Then, after lots of internal struggle, I realize "there are no rules to blogging. No one is telling me what to do or how to do it, and if they did I probably wouldn't listen anyway." So...here's what's going on lately and eventually I'll get to all to the holiday stuff. Reid has figured out the piano. He loves to crawl to it, pull up on the bench, and plink away on the keys. He mastered the crawling thing while we were at Matt and Ann's in Nov/Dec. Now he's like a rocket. He's desperate to walk, too. He cruises along furniture, and sometimes while standing will reach for something else to hold onto and then take a step to that new thing. So, he's getting close. I'm determined, however, to prevent Erik from missing his first step. So my plan is to discourage walking as he gets closer to it. Although it could be cute for Reid to walk to Erik when he gets home, I still don't want him to miss it.

I had the bright idea of going for a walk with Reid. I wanted some fresh (albeit freezing) air. So I put him in his snow suit and wrapped him up. Then I put my coat on over the two of us. I knew it was pretty cold outside, but I figured he was pretty bundled.

It was a little too cold outside. This is what we saw when we went out. The time of this picture is about 3 pm, and the temperature was somewhere around -30. So we went to get the mail across the street and came back inside.

Once back inside we played for a little bit. Reid takes playing very seriously, as well as crawling. The problem is that he crawls right out of his clothes sometimes. He did have on (prior to this picture) a cute little unionsuit outfit, but his feet would disappear inside of it, and then eventually peek out of the snaps in the bottom. Then the snaps would unsnap at which point the outfit is hanging on by the sleeves. This is the point when I got tired of excavating his feet out of his clothes and just took the outfit off. That made Reid even happier. Freedom!

More excitement from being free from oppressive clothing. He's in the middle of telling me all about it right here.

Reid got a new toy. Matt and Ann would call it a "chair of fun" and boy is it ever! He really digs it. One of the little toys on here has a string that you pull and it makes a sound as it retracts. Kind of like a doll with a string on the back that you pull and she says something like, "I love you." Reid just figured that thing out a few days ago, and he could pull that string all day long. He's crazy about it.

Speaking of crazy...Reid was in the kitchen with me the other day and I turned around to find this. I guess he was curious as to what the pole on the baker's rack tasted like. You know, I guess that's a good question. I have no idea what it tastes like, but now Reid does. I have so much to learn from him. Seriously though, he never stops surprising me and giving me memories to cherish and giggle about. He's such good company and I can't really remember what life was like without this perfect little guy in it.