Lish, Whitney and Yale

Five a Day

2012-02-14T16:03:00.002-07:00

Lish has been getting after me for not posting on the blog. When Lish starts getting after me, that's when I know it's been a long time.

I haven't posted because we haven't had too much going on around here. We've just been enjoying our quiet life down here in SG since we got home from our busy Christmas break. I feel like we've finally gotten into a routine. Yale and I are starting to go out more and have more play dates. Lish is in a good flow with his work. Plus, the house stays clean for the most part. So really, life is pretty good.

Let's see. A couple weeks ago, Maggie invited me and Lish, along with some other family members and friends, to participate in a fitness challenge with her. We started last Monday. The rules are: eat 5 fruits and veggies a day, drink 64 oz of water, take a vitamin daily, exercise for at least 30 minutes a day (except one rest day), no eating after 8pm, and no sweets (except for one free day). Last week Lish and I both did really well. We'll see about this week. It'll be good challenge though. My sweet tooth was getting a little out of hand. And I used to think eating five fruits and veggies a day would be really hard. Guess what? It's not.

We've also been out hiking again. We're all set up to go camping at Zion's over spring break, so we're practicing with Lish carrying Yale and Yale staying in the backpack. Maybe I've already mentioned that. I don't remember.

Yale continues to be a hoot. (Yes, I said "hoot.") It's so fun to see things click with him, to see him begin to understand things. I just wish he understood that we don't want him playing in Jazz's food or water.

Anyway, happy Valentine's Day everybody!
And enjoy some pictures we have taken during our blogging absence.

Music is Lovely

2012-01-17T14:25:00.000-07:00

Especially when it is sung by lovely people. My stepsister, for those of you who haven't heard, is amazingly talented. She sings, plays the guitar, plays the piano. She probably plays the harmonica too, but I can't be sure. Anyway, she's been working on getting some of her songs recorded and she's got a small album done now. One of her songs is available for a free download. The entire digital album is available for only $5. Yes, five bucks. Save yourself the sub and buy her music instead. You'll be glad you did!

You can download her song here. Enjoy. I know you will.

We are a Hiking People

2012-01-15T15:49:00.001-07:00

For Christmas last year (so about 3 weeks ago), Lish and I got some stuff. Crazy, right? A couple of the things we got included a hiking backpack for carrying Yale, and a Camelbak backpack. Lish and I have wanted to take more advantage of the beauty that surrounds us, so we are trying to go out about once a week. We also decided that for Spring break this year, we'll go camping at Zion's, so we need to go on "practice hikes" and get Yale used to the new backpack.

Anyway, last week we decided to go out, but as soon as we left, it was windy and gross. At Snow Canyon it was raining, but it only lasted about 15 minutes. However, it also dropped about 10 degrees, so it was cold. We decided to forego the longer hike and go on a mini one. We had Yale walk the whole time. It was so fun. He didn't care about the cold at all. He just had this huge smile on his face the whole time.

We went out again yesterday and it was beautiful. See for yourself.

Jeopardy

2012-01-11T20:17:00.002-07:00

I forgot to mention something very important: the date of the Jeopardy showing. I know, how could I be so silly? Anyway, Trevor will be on Jeopardy on April 16th, whenever Jeopardy is normally on. I don't even know. But you should watch! Maybe you'll see me in the audience! If they show the audience.

The End and the Beginning

2012-01-07T22:36:00.001-07:00

It seems as if I have some catching up to do. Shocker, I know.

I'll start from the very beginning. That's a very good place to start. Okay, not the VERY beginning, but I'll pick up where I left off.

We had a busy month of December. After our visit with Mitch and Maggie, we had a few days break before we headed into Vegas. We wanted to see the big Christmas tree at the Bellagio. And Trevor was flying in. You remember Trevor. He's our friend from Tallahassee. Awesome fella. Most known on this blog for this story. Yeah, THAT Trevor. Anyway, Trevor was flying in to Sin City, where we picked him up and travelled to LA.

Why was Trevor going to LA and why did we go with him, you may ask? Well, I'll tell you. Lish told Trevor that if he ever got invited to be on Jeopardy, we'd drive out to see him. He got invited to be on Jeopardy, so we held on to our end of the deal. It was lovely to get to see him and spend some time with him. I'm sad his wonderful wife and supersonic son couldn't come out with him, but we'll see them this summer, so I'll let it slide. We spent a night in Vegas, drove to LA, met up with one of Lish's good friends from high school who we hadn't seen since our wedding, I ate a crepe, Trevor played Jeopardy, I got to watch while Lish was with Yale, and then we came home. Yale was not feeling well, therefore, not sleeping, hence Lish and I were not sleeping. We cut our trip a day short. It all worked out though.

We had a couple of days at home before we ~~packed much bigger bags~~ repacked our bags and were on the road again, heading up north to be with our families for the holidays. We made Scott and Karen's our "home base" and travelled around to and from there. We spent Christmas Eve at my mom's, doing the traditional delish meal followed by the DELISH spudnuts. Yum! We let Yale try one, and he loved them. Go figure.

Christmas morning was spent at Karen and Scott's, which was lovely. We got to spend time with Maggie and Brandon and Steph and Hannah. (And of course, Karen and Scott.) Then we headed down to my dad's to spend time with him and Alisia and my other sibs who were in town. We spent the night with them because the next morning we headed up to the slopes. The man-made snow slopes. (There was no snow anywhere! And it didn't snow the whole time we were up there. Of course it snowed up there last night and today.) It was still really fun! Love that tradition. And what made it even better was that Lish came! I know. Hell froze over. He said he'd probably treat it like the Olympics and only go every four years, but we'll see about that. I am very persuasive.

After that we spent a lot of time relaxing, visiting with family and friends. We even went to a movie in a movie theater. Lish and I haven't been together since before Yale was born. On New Year's Eve, we went on a double date with Maggie and Brandon. We went to Keys on Main. It was fun, but we were all exhausted by about 10:30 and ready to go home. How lame are we? Don't answer that.

We had lots of fun and made lots of memories, but I have to admit, it does feel good to be back home and know that we aren't going anywhere for a while.

Enjoy the many visuals.

Grandma K's 60th and Grandpa M's Visit

2011-12-12T07:25:00.000-07:00

Remember how Yale turned one? Me too. We spent his birthday weekend up in SLC with Karen and Scott. It was Karen's 60th birthday that weekend, so we had lots of celebrating to do. Maggie and Lisi flew out as well, which means we had a grand time! Except that poor little Lisi was sick all weekend. We still got in some playtime.

After we got home, we spent a couple days preparing for some company. Mitch, Lish's dad, flew into Vegas on Wednesday, and Maggie and Lisi flew into St. George. (Yes, for those of you who don't know, St. George has its own airport. It's very exciting.) We didn't do too much while everyone was down here. We explored St. George a little bit, visited Lish's office, went to a couple parks. You know, the normal low-key stuff you can do with 2 babies, 4 adults, and 1 car.

It was so fun to have them all visit. I loved getting to see Yale and Lisi interact, now that they can kind of play together. And by that I mean play side-by-side. And I loved getting to see Mitch play with his grandkids. He's a natural grandpa. It was also fun to spend time with Lish, Maggie and Mitch, as they reminisced and brought tears to their eyes from laughing so hard. There was a lot of joy going on around here last week. It was lovely.

ONE

2011-12-03T16:40:00.001-07:00

Yale turned one today. One. ONE. One? A year? Oh my goodness. My baby is growing up. I did not know this was going to happen. . . so fast.

This past year has been full of ups and even higher ups. And a few downs. I'm not unrealistic here. I'm not saying being a mother is easy. Many women have already discovered this.

In this past year Yale has:

*met several family members and made many, many new friends
*gone from lifting his head, to lifting his chest, to rolling over, to getting up on his knees, to crawling, to standing, to climbing, to taking steps, to dancing, and finally to walking
*went from smiling to laughing to making us laugh
*grown 7 teeth
*gained about 12 pounds
*grown about 8 inches
*given his mother and father more joy than they thought possible

It's been a wonderful year. And I can't wait to have many more with him. And celebrate many more of his birthdays. And watch him continue to grow and grow.

Enjoy some visuals from our monkey's party:

I love him so much and I'm so glad he's in our lives!

Turkey is for Giving

2011-11-28T21:50:00.001-07:00

This Thanksgiving was unlike any other. Ever. For us. Because we held it at our house! It was awesome! We had asked my mom a while ago if she wanted to come down for the holiday, and much to our surprise and delight, she said she's love to. So then we extended the invitation to my little brother, little sister and her husband. And they all accepted. We had a house full!

Everyone came down on Wednesday, we ate all week, and it was lovely. My mom, Courtney, Kyle and I went Black Friday shopping. As we were standing in line waiting for the doors to open at midnight, I was thinking, "Why am I even here? What am I getting?" But I found some things. Birthday and Christmas presents. That made it productive enough. Still not sure if staying up until 3am was worth it, but it was. . . fun?

It was fun to get to have my family here and spend so much time with them. I sure love them! But I'm awful at taking pictures of them, so enjoy the few I have.

Our Country has a Capital...

2011-11-21T20:06:00.001-07:00

. . . and we went to it. And it was lovely. And so fun. Yay!

We got to spend so much time with Vance and Casey and their girls. And can I just say, their girls are adorable. Absolutely. We spent the first couple of days at their home, and then stayed the rest of the time in the District. Those first couple of days didn't consist of much, besides chillin'. We loved getting to spend that much time just hanging out.

We went into the city on Thursday. That night, Lish's alma mater, the Seminole Nation, had a reception that a lot of the alum attend. We got to see lots of old friends and catch up with them a little bit.

Friday we visited Vance at the office, since it was just a few blocks away from out hotel. Then we met up with one of Lish's old friends from his Master's program at BYU who lives in DC with her husband. That afternoon we did our bit of site-seeing. We've both been into DC multiple times, so we didn't feel a strong desire/need to site-see, but we did want to go to the new Martin Luther King Memorial.

Lish's presentation was on Friday night, but Yale and I didn't go. Lish said it went well though. Another one of the presenters in his group, a current grad student, even cited him in her research, which was pretty cool. After he presented and Yale got his nap, we went out to dinner with a few of those FSU friends. It was great to spend even more time catching up.

On Saturday we met back up with Vance and Casey and spent the day with them. Lish took the training wheels off of their oldest daughter's (Isabelle) bike and started teaching her to ride a bike. It was pretty awesome, and of course she did splendidly!

It was such a wonderful trip! We'll always look back on that with fond memories. We're so glad the Taylor's could meet Yale. And we look forward to our next trip out there. Or theirs out here. Whichever comes first.

Yale Gets His Hair Did

2011-11-04T20:16:00.002-06:00

Can this little guy get any cuter? We didn't think it was possible, but after the little haircut (just some from the sides and the back), he proved us wrong. . . yet again.

Don't you love that little smirk he was giving me? Always making us laugh, that one.

A Mom-velous Weekend

2011-11-03T12:46:00.001-06:00

Why is it that I'm always writing about the last weekend as the new one is approaching? Anywho, last weekend my mom came down for a visit! She got in on Friday afternoon and stayed until Sunday afternoon. It was so wonderful to have her down!

When she got here on Friday, we gave her another tour of the house, since the last one she got was a while ago. And by a while, I mean, none-of-our-stuff-was-moved-in-and-we-were-removing-wallpaper while. Then we relaxed and let her and Yale reminisce and make new memories. It's so cute to see Yale with my mom. You can tell how much he loves her. He hadn't seen her since Courtney's wedding, but as soon as she walked in the door, he looked at her and started crawling to her as fast as his little legs would take him. It was adorable. And you can tell how much my mom loves him. Seriously. She kept reminding us the whole weekend. And even after she left. That's a good thing.

So anyway, we hung out and relaxed a little. Then my mom and I headed out to my aunt's house for our girls night. We had some delish dinner and then went to see Thriller at Tuacahn (a Halloween dance concert). It's just like the one up in SLC, but the theater is much cooler, because it's outside. Of course, that means it was colder. But we snuggled up under blankets and had our hot cocoas. It was wonderful, as always.

Saturday was another low key day. We went onto campus so my mom could see Lish's office. We walked around campus and got the grand tour there. My mom hadn't been on Dixie's campus before, so that was nice. Plus, it was a beautiful day! When we got home, Lish and I got ready for a little "date" and my mom watched Yale. Lish and I went to the temple because we don't get to go as often. And my mom and Yale snuggled while he took a nap. We got home and picked up my mom and Yale and went out for dinner. That night my mom and I stayed up late talking, which was really nice, until I didn't get as long of a nap as I wanted the next day. Still worth it though.

On Sunday, Lish and I both spoke in church, so my mom watched Yale for us. He was really good for her too, which was great! Then my mom headed out after that meeting so she could get back home before it was too late. I love having family come visit us! And my mom is such easy company. Of course I didn't take any pictures, but she is coming down again for Thanksgiving, so I will definitely get some then!

Thanks for such a great weekend Mom! We love you!

Halloween

2011-11-01T15:31:00.000-06:00

Our ward had a picnic and Trunk or Treat last Thursday. We got Yale all dressed up and asked one of our neighbors if she wouldn't mind taking him around. We thought it'd be more fun that way.

Then last night we went to a Halloween party where costumes were required. Lish didn't feel like dressing up too much, and I borrowed a costume from my aunt, so we didn't have a theme. Still fun though!

A Weekend with Some Goodfellows

2011-10-26T21:57:00.000-06:00

Many people who read this blog may already know, but Scott, as in Scott and Karen, as in Lish's stepfather, got in an ATV-ing accident back in September. He broke his leg in 3 different places, broke some ribs and broke a couple vertebrae in his back. Yeah, ouch. Anyway, he was in the hospital for a while, then he was in inpatient therapy, and a month later, he got to go home.

Well, this past weekend, he and Karen and our niece, Hannah, got to come down to visit us. Karen and Scott were supposed to come down in September, but as you read, we know how that ended up. Anyway, they were finally able to come down! We didn't do too much because Scott is still recovering. Broken bones take time, you know. But we had such a great fun getting to spend time with them!

And by the way, Scott is doing much better. I know you were worried. But we worried enough, so you can stop.

And I'm awful. Of all the pictures I took, I didn't take a single one with Scott in it. Sorry, Scott.

Enjoy the pictures I did take! And thanks for the fun times Goodfellow fam!

This, That, and the Other Half

2011-10-23T21:53:00.000-06:00

This: Guess what?! I have a new computer! So, please be expecting posts from me more often. I don't know how much more often, but more often. I love my new computer!

That: A few weekends ago, we had some visitors again. Our friends Nate and Melanie came down because Mel's brother was running in the St. George Marathon. It was so fun to host them and get to spend some time with them. We love ourselves some Nate and Mel! And we can't wait for them to come visit again!

The Other Half: I'm sure I mentioned before that I had signed up for another half marathon after running the one in July so that I could run a race with my dad. Maybe I signed up for it before I ran the first one, because that run was hard. Anywho, the race I signed up for I signed up with my dad, my stepsister, Ashley, and my stepbrother-in-law, Collin. The race was held in Moab, UT. And it took place a week ago.

We drove to Moab on Friday and got to go into Arches National Park. We hiked up to Delicate Arch, and it was beautiful. On Saturday we went to Dead Horse Point and then went 4-wheeling. It was so fun!

The race was on Sunday, so the four of us were up nice and early. It was cold when we first got up to the starting line. In fact, I didn't start feeling warm until we had already been running for half and hour. The race was awesome though! We all stuck together for a majority of the race. I started to pull ahead just a little around mile 11.5, my dad caught up to me about half a mile later and ran with me for a while. Then I picked up the pace a little for the last quarter mile or so. I finished in 1:58:47! Under two hours! My dad finished about 10 seconds after me, Ashley finished almost half a minute after that, and Collin finished almost half a minute after that. They all did incredible! It was so fun to get to run with them. It makes me want to run another one. Not tomorrow or anything, but some day.

Visitors Like Us

2011-09-22T21:07:00.001-06:00

For the first time since we've been in our "big kids" house (I don't feel grown up enough to accept the fact that we're homeowners), my dad and stepmom came down to visit last weekend. It was so wonderful to have them here and we only wish they could have stayed a little longer. But, as luck would have it, or just absent-mindedness, I did not take a single picture. Nope. Notta one. Sorry to disappoint.

On with the weekend then! They got down here on Friday afternoon. We just sat around and chatted, they played with Yale, we gave them the grand tour (it is quite grand) and we just relaxed for a couple hours. Then we got ready for the evening and went onto campus so Lish could show them his office. Afterwards, we headed to dinner, ate some delicious grub, and then drove up to my aunt and uncle's house. My cousin and aunt were going to watch Yale while the rest of us went to a play, so we got there early enough to visit and so I could try to get Yale to sleep. Then we headed on up the road and saw Tuachan's "The Little Mermaid." It was so fun and they did such a great job. We were glad we got to see it! Every show is sold out, so if that doesn't tell you something, I will. It was good. Really good. The props and everything were really cool. Really. If you, too, got to see it, YAY!

Saturday was a special day. That morning we all went into Snow Canyon. My dad and I jetted off on a run while Lish, Yale, and Alisia went for a walk. My dad and I ran 9 miles (gearing up for another half marathon next month) in under 90 minutes. I just have to brag about this because it never happens, but at the end of the run we try to sprint (by that time it's more of a hobble-y scanter) and I started sprinting faster than my dad. I beat him! I don't expect it to happen again any time soon. Hence the brag. Moving on...after our run we went out for some breakfast at Kneaders. It was Lish's first experience with their French toast, and he loved it. Later that day we went for a bike ride. Yale wasn't feeling it so much, so it didn't last long. That night we went for another nice dinner. They left early Sunday morning because they had church duties to attend to.

But the weekend was wonderful! We're so glad they were able to come down and we can't wait until they come down to visit again!

Settled and Living It

2011-09-19T21:36:00.003-06:00

Man, I am awful with this blogging stuff now. I'm going to stop apologizing for not blogging, because it seems to be a habit of mine now. Maybe I've already said that too, but maybe saying that is another habit of mine. I don't know. Where am I going with this? No where. That's where.

Anywho, since our crazy summer, life has settled. And it's lovely. Well, it was a weird struggle for me, but now it's lovely. It's been nice to stay at our home for longer than a two week period. And to figure things out, such as paint colors, what nick-knacks should go where, our leaky toilet that we had to replace, and our roof that was also leaking that we had to get fixed. Ah, the joys of home ownership!

The weird struggle I mentioned earlier went like this: We had been gone so much over the summer, and had so many visitors, and Lish's schedule was such that he got to be around more often than usual. But when we got home from all those trips and the new semester started, I felt alone. And I was stressed. I'm not even "alone" for that long. Lish's schedule is still awesome in the fact that he can be home to help out a lot. And he is home helping out a lot. But I just had to transition back to that stay-at-home mode.

Also, I miss having friends. Lish made me promise him a couple weeks ago that I would ask someone out for a lunch date. So today, I asked out two different girls to lunch. Through facebook. We'll see what happens. I miss having a social life. I'm working on it. I felt myself going into a bit of a depression a month or two ago. But as I was sitting in church this past Sunday, I was looking around and thought, "This is my home ward. This is my ward." For some reason, it lifted me out of my funk. I had a renewed aspiration to make friends. And to get out and do stuff. And it felt good. I feel good. And that's happy.

In other news, Lish's semester is going well. He's teaching five classes, which is keeping him busy. But he has no classes on Fridays, which is great for us. Lots of time with our favorite man! There was a meeting last Friday with the Utah State Board of Regents, and they approved the Bachelor's degree that Lish wrote and worked on last semester. It's the first degree offered in the state of Utah that is a Criminal Justice degree with an emphasis in Criminology. I'm so proud of him!

Yale is adorable. He is getting his two upper teeth right now, so his nose is so stuffy. It's sad. He's crawling like crazy. He crawls away from us (because he can't run yet). His balance is getting so much better. He can stand for a few seconds at a time. And he's walking around tables and other furniture. He's growing up fast. We love him and love being able to spend so much time with him.

Here is an adorable picture from when we went to the park last week. It's always the perfect way to end a post.

Family, Family and a Wedding

2011-08-23T18:07:00.002-06:00

Life continued to be crazy when we got home from Maine. There is a lot to catch up on, so I'll just go in order.

The day after we got home we had a friend that Lish grew up with (Ryan Arp) come over with his family for dinner. The house was a little crazy, but it was so fun to meet them and have them over.

The day after that, we drove into Vegas, again, to pick up Maggie and Alyse again. It was so fun to have them come back out and to spend some more time with them. Karen and Scott drove down the day after that, so our house was hustlin' and bustlin' with family!

On their way back home, Karen and Scott dropped Yale and I off at my dad's house. We spent the next week traveling back and forth between my dad's and my mom's Lish-less. It was sad. But we still had a good time with everyone! We were busy getting things ready for my little sister's wedding. The reception was held in my mom's backyard, so there was lots of work to do. We got plenty of playing in though, so no worries. I wish I had taken more pictures. Ah, well.

And then there was a wedding! My littler sister was the most beautiful bride I've ever seen. And I'm so glad Alex is part of our family now. The ceremony was wonderful. The reception was set up so well. And then as we were taking pictures before the reception was supposed to start, it started getting really windy. Then, right at 7, which was when the reception was scheduled to start, it started raining. Not just raining, but pouring rain. Thankfully it lasted for just about 20 minutes. And we had so many hands to pull everything inside, wipe it off when the rain stopped, and set it back up. I was impressed. Then there was a beautiful rainbow right about our house. And the rest of the evening was perfect.

Mainely for the Namesake

2011-08-11T18:55:00.000-06:00

Last week our little family hopped on an airplane. This time it took us to Manchester, where we then drove up to Kennebunkport, Maine. First off, I can see what all the fuss is about. That little town/village/city, but not really a city, was so quaint and wonderful!

Alright, now on to the good stuff. We finally got to take Yale to meet his great grandparents, including the amazing man that he was named after. It was so much fun to have them all meet! We spent lots of time playing, walking around the downtown area, going to the beach, kayaking, walking along Ocean Avenue, relaxing, and eating so much good food! Seriously. I ate just about everything under the sea. Except shrimp. Because shrimp is gross. And don't disagree with me. Because this is my blog post. I also had my first experience with eating real lobster. I mean a whole-lobster-sitting-on-your-plate-break-off-the-pieces-and-crack-them-yourself lobster meal. It was definitely something unlike anything I had ever experienced before. It was so yummy!

Enjoy the visuals.

Cousins are Fun

2011-07-28T22:19:00.000-06:00

We have had the most fun past couple of weeks. Maggie and Brandon and Alyse flew into SLC a few weekends ago and we headed up there to spend some time with them. A few days after we came home, everyone came down to our place to stay for a while. It was so fun to see Yale and Lici (Alyse) together. They loved looking at each other and touching each others' faces and talking. Pretty adorable stuff going on, I tell ya!

Well, see for yourself.

Goals are Meant to be Accomplished

2011-07-05T22:03:00.000-06:00

I planned years ago to run a half marathon after I had my first baby. Well, I had my first baby (in case you didn't know), so I had to run. And I did it! I accomplished my goal!

Sneak Peek

2011-06-26T21:42:00.000-06:00

I know you have all been so curious. Without further ado...

Home Sweet Home

2011-06-12T13:14:00.000-06:00

Happenings

2011-06-05T20:05:00.001-06:00

Holy Moley. There is no way I can completely catch up, so I'll give you little snippets of our lives these past few weeks. Cuz we been busy.

But first let me take a little breather....

Whew.
Hi. How are you dear readers? Do I even have readers? Sometimes I don't know. So, you should let me know. That would be fun.

Alright. Let's just jump into it then. We had quite a few visitors in April. My old roomie Diane came down for a couple days during her Spring Break. It was so fun to catch up with her! We went back up north to visit some family and mostly because my stepsister was having a baby shower. It was so fun to go support her. Then Karen, my MIL in case you aren't in the loop, came down for Easter weekend, which was awesome!

Next Lish finished up his first semester as professoring. One down. Lots more to go. We stayed around here for a few days after the semester was over before heading out for 2 1/2 weeks. During that time was the descent of our computer. Boo computer. Boo me trying to download something that I shouldn't have been trying to download. My bad. But now it's back and better than ever! Except how it was when it was new.

We headed up to SLC on our anniversary (Yay 4 years of marriage!) and celebrated up there. We knew we'd have babysitters so we could at least go out to dinner. Which we did. At the Cheesecake Factory. Delicious. We stayed in that area for a week, traveling around visiting family and what not. And during that time my stepsister had her baby. Welcome to the world Cash Christensen! You are so loved!

Then we got a plane. We ended up in California. Don't worry; it was all planned. We got to visit Petaluma, which is where Lish grew up. I got to meet some friends and families that he grew up with, see the sights that he saw every day, see the house he grew up in. You get the idea. It was so fun! Then we met up with Lish's dad and stepmom for a few days and we're so grateful for them and their kindness. They had just gotten back from a 2 week trip to Italy a few days before, so we know the timing wasn't ideal, but we appreciate them working with us anyway.

We got back into Utah and stayed a couple more days before heading back home. On the last day we were there, I was supposed to run that half marathon I've been ~~dreading~~ talking about. However, due to someone not filing a permit or something of that nature, it was postponed. For a month. Another month of training and not being able to run with my dad. Boo. But it was goal and we were going to be up in SLC over the Independence weekend anyway, so I'm planning to run it. My dad and I still want to run a race together, so we'll most likely do the Moab half in October. I hear it's beautiful! I'm excited. Anyone want to join us? You should. It'll be fun!

As for Yale, cause I know that's why you've tuned it, he is half a year old. He's getting so big! He's just over 17 pounds now (50th percentile) and 26 1/2 inches long (50th percentile). We started feeding him solid foods and he's not a big fan yet. But in his defense, that rice cereal stuff tastes gross. Lish tried it. He has two teeth now. He got them within a couple days of each other. And he's thisclose to crawling. He's scooting and moving like crazy!

We're Alive!

2011-05-09T21:16:00.000-06:00

But our computer... That's a different story. Stupid computer. We have been so busy and our computer isn't working so well, so I'll just have to do a brief overview post when I can. I would now, but I'm writing this on the iPod and it just takes too long. But all is well and life continues to be good to us! Much love dear readers, much love.

Happy Easter

2011-04-24T21:04:00.000-06:00

I hope everyone's Easter was as fabulous as ours!

Happy Easter to one and all!

Be Jealous

2011-04-14T13:14:00.000-06:00

I get to hang out with him all day.

Movin' and Groovin'

2011-04-07T13:04:00.002-06:00

By the way, I have signed up for this. Wish me luck! I've been training my rear off! Or at least my belly fat off.

And we got this in the mail earlier this week. We have yet to play it. I know. It's a horrible shame. And it's so fun! I think it's on the agenda for tonight. But I also want to add this and this to our collection.

Birthday, Weekend, and 4 Months

2011-04-05T11:14:00.000-06:00

I'm playing catch up again, mostly because I think it's fun (not really). And because I slack sometimes. But, you know...

Lish had a birthday. And we celebrated hardcore. It was our first weekend in a long, long time that we didn't have anything to do, so that's what we did. The night before his birthday we went on our search for Chinese food again. It was our second attempt to finding something, and our second fail. In the end we just got some Cafe Rio and it was delish! (Of course.) On Lish's birthday we took things really easy. It was raining, so we couldn't go outside to do much. (Although I still ran 6 miles and it was one of the worst runs of my life. Never again will I run in the red dirt when it's raining. I don't know if you knew this, but it turns into slippery clay. Go figure.) And for dinner that night he just wanted to eat in. We watched a couple movies. Snuggled with the little one. And with each other. Like I said, hardcore. Nothing could top his birthday last year. That was the night we found out we were going to have this little guy:

Good times. Really good times.

In other news, Lish has completely completed his dissertation! Yay! I'm so proud of him and all the hard work and long hours he put into that thing. And I'm so glad he's done. He's glad too. Very glad.

This past weekend we went up to SLC for the Jazz v. Lakers game. The game didn't start until 8:30 Friday night and my mom was watching Yale, so Lish and I had a whole night by ourselves. It was so nice but I was amazed at how much Yale was on my mind and how much I missed him. We were only apart for 5 hours. I loved getting to spend that one on one time with Lish though. We were sitting up in the nose bleed section for the first half of the game, but both of us were keeping an eye out for empty seats in the lower bowl. We found almost an entire row of emptiness, so during half time we moseyed our way down there. We weren't the only ones with that idea either. No one ended up claiming the seats and the ushers didn't check our tickets when we went down there. Our little rebellious selves didn't get caught! And we got to watch the second half of the game 10 rows up on the Lakers side, which Lish appreciated. It was awesome!

The rest of our weekend was spent fulfilling our appetites, spiritually and physically. I didn't get to listen to Conference as much as I wanted, so I'm excited for the May Ensign to come out so I can read those talks and be uplifted again.

You know I have to post more pictures of our little man.

He went in for his 4 month checkup yesterday, BTW. Can you believe that? FOUR months! He weighs 15 lb 5 1/2 oz (60th percentile) and is 25 1/2 in long (75th percentile). His head size is in the 75th percentile too. So he's gotten longer and skinnier in the past 2 months. But he still has the chunkiest little thighs! I love them!

Tally-Ho

2011-03-22T21:28:00.000-06:00

Lish, Yale and I had the opportunity to head back to Tallahassee this last week. It was wonderful! The week was full of good friends, delicious eats, a sandy beach, and tasty treats. We had sooo much fun! But we were sooo busy and sooo tired when we got home.

The purpose of the trip was for Lish to defend his dissertation. And he passed. Yay! He has a few more things to edit and he will be done. Finished. Finito. (I do not think that is a word, but I like it.) I'm so proud of him for making this huge accomplishment! He's amazing!

Here are some visuals of the vacay:

I wish we had taken more pictures with friends, but we were just having way too much fun. Thanks for a great trip everyone! We'll sure miss you, Tallahassee. You were good to us and we shall always remember you fondly.

Tres...already?

2011-03-03T17:42:00.000-07:00

My baby is 3 months old today. 3 months?! Wow. I have been trying so hard to just enjoy every moment because I know it just slips on by. (Well, I'm learning that it does and I've been told, so I think it's okay to say I know.) I think I've been doing a fairly decent job. I really love this little guy and I love that he's in my life. And Lish's life. I love seeing the two of them together. Lish can't get enough of him. It's so fun to see him as a father. I always knew he'd be a good one. Just the other day Lish was giving Yale a big ol' kiss on the mouth, like how he usually does, and Yale reached up, put his hands on Lish's cheeks, and was pulling him closer. It was so cute! Yale might not think it was 15 years from now, but it was.

Now, I'm not so great at this photoshooting thing that some parents with skillz do at every month. I've tried and they just don't quite capture how cute he really is. So, instead I'll post this video I took on Monday. Some of our friends just met Yale last week and gave him this tummy time mat. He loves it!

Do you hear how he's trying to laugh? Oh, such a cutie! And sorry for all the crinkling noises, but if Yale wasn't playing with the crinkly frog, it just wouldn't have been as cute.

Also, I'm not sorry that Yale has been in so many posts recently, but I will post about other things in due time.

Last Week

2011-03-01T16:27:00.002-07:00

Creative title for this post, I know. Forgive me.

I have hit a wall and I'm trying to regain my energy as I sit here eating my Eggel Bagel.

Never had an Eggel Bagel? Shame on you.

Eggs and cheese on a bagel. Delicious.

Anyway, due to my lack of witty flowing juices, I shall just post some pictures for all to enjoy.

(Aren't these boxes amazing?

Scott made them for Yale and Alyse.

And his sister made those quilts on top.)

And here are some more pictures from when we were with Lish's dad and stepmom.

Since they hadn't met their grandchildren yet, we decided it would be fun to surpise them at the airport.

And surprise them we did.

We also took Yale and Alyse on their first swmming adventure.

And an adventure it was.

Good times!

Babies are Blessings...

2011-02-28T21:43:00.001-07:00

...so we give blessings to babies. Before we moved, and way before (as in a couple months before) the babies were even born, Lish's sister and her husband and me and Lish all decided that we should bless our babies on the same day. Even though we moved, we went ahead with our plans. We thought having the blessings over President's Day weekend would be best because Brandon's family could fly out and we'd have that long weekend to spend time together with all the fam. And it was such a great weekend, which was actually a full week for me and Yale and most of the week for Lish. Yay for us!

Here are some pictures from the day of the blessings. Coming up will be a bunch of other pictures from the week, including several from Mitch and Bev's visit to us. That's right. Lish's dad and stepmom came out to meet both of the grandbabies for the first time. And the little ones are Mitch and Bev's first grandkids. Yay!

Anyway, here are those delightful pictures.

See? Delightful, right? (That white and green blanket, by the way, was made by Yale's Great Great Great Grandmother. Isn't that awesome? I thought so too.)

Two Months and Such

2011-02-08T14:45:00.001-07:00

I'm playing a little game of catch up...again. I seem to do this quite often, but at least that means I'm probably being productive with the rest of my life. Right? Yeah, we'll use that excuse...

First:

Yale went in for his 2 month check up last Thursday. I can't believe he's already 2 months old! He's not a newbie anymore. And he's a Lil' Chubbo. Yes, that nickname still works well for him. He measured at 23 inches long (50th percentile), his head was in the 60th percentile, and his weight? 13 lb, 3 1/2 oz. (90th percentile). So, we know he's eating well, gaining 5 pounds already and all. We love our little chunky man cub! He's getting much stronger and he's awake more during the day. I enjoy his awake time. It's fun to play with him. He's generally a pretty good sleeper too. Except for last night. And the night before. I think he's still getting over the shock that his mom would let some stranger poke him with a big needle, not once, but twice. Yes, I'm a mean mom, letting someone do that to him.

Second:

Boo to the Steelers not winning the Superbowl. I'm not a huge Steelers fan, but Lish is, and I'm a huge Lish fan, so I support the Steelers. We had some prop bets going, and I did not bet well. I got 10 points for guessing that the color of the Gatorade that would be dumped was orange, and getting that one right doubled my points. Yeah...
But Lish won with double what I had. How's that for a math problem for ya?
(Spoiler: He had 40 points.)

Third:

Being at home and such gives me time to think about stuff I haven't thought much about. This has led to many random thoughts and questions. I'll work on this as a post for some time later, because really, the things I think are pretty intriguing. You wouldn't be reading this post otherwise.

Fourth:

I'm not sure how many of you got the chance to watch the documentary on Brooke Wilberger they did on Dateline this past Friday, but her story took up the full two hours of the show. We sat down to watch it and didn't expect it to be that long. They did a good job with it though. I was happy to have known her and to have had her in my life. She was amazing and her family continues to be such a great example to me of never giving up hope and being able to forgive. Her family is so wonderful.

Fifth and Last:

Lish has been working like crazy on his dissertation. He's in the final home stretch. You know, the one where you can barely see the light at the end of the tunnel but you're racing to get there so the light gets brighter and bigger every day? Then you have to take some steps back to fix some stuff, but then when it's fixed you're running even faster? Yeah, that final home stretch. He has been working so hard and has been so diligent. I'm really proud of all the things he's accomplished.

Well, that's about it for now. Someday I'll be good about blogging again...someday.

Happy Little Stinker

2011-01-31T15:44:00.000-07:00

I can't really call him a stinker actually, because he's not. He's awesome. And can I just brag for a sec and say that last night he slept better than ever? We put him in bed at 11:15 or so last night, and he didn't wake up until 7:30 this morning. I was awake at 5 and couldn't go back to sleep. Lucky guy got better sleep than I did! And than his dad did. Maybe that's why I have in my head that he's a stinker...

Anyway, I wanted to share these amazing pictures of our Lil' Chubbo. Yes, in case I haven't used that nickname on here yet, that is his nickname, because he is a little chubbo. We go in for his 2 month appointment on Thursday, and we can find out just how chubby he's gotten.

Look at this cuteness. Doesn't it make you melt? Me too. Every. Time.

The middle one just steals your heart, doesn't it?

Home Sweet Home

2011-01-13T15:22:00.000-07:00

I've spent a lot of time these past few days cleaning so I had to take pictures afterward.

Proof that this place was clean once upon a time:

And now just some cuteness:

First Day of School

2011-01-10T21:06:00.000-07:00

Lish's first day of his new career was today, his first day of school as an offical professor! I am so proud of him! Of course I had to do the classic first day of school picture, even though this time around he isn't the student.

And today was my first official stay-at-home-mom day. I say that because Lish wasn't working full-time before and since Yale came along, he has only had to leave to go to work twice. And it was lovely. I love this little guy. Here are some pictures from when I was playing with him today and then from the walk we went on. It was really more for me, because he just slept the whole time. But how cute and chunky is he?! Seriously. Makes my heart melt!

So this all means that we have moved and are finally settling into our new place! We love it here. We really enjoy our condo and the area it's in. Plus, we live close to some of my extended family, and we have other family that stays here quite often so we will get to see them often. I think this place will really work out nicely.

PS. Yale giggled for the first time this morning. He started shaking and making a weird noise and it scared me before I realized what it was. And then I about died from an overdose of cuteness.

It's the Happiest Season of All!

2011-01-03T05:21:00.001-07:00

Christmas was wonderful this year. I mean, it always is, but this year we had Yale and that makes it wonderful. I didn't have the Christmas spirit this year though, not gonna lie. I never really got into it like I usually do. I guess I was distracted and was focused on more important things, like being a mom. (Still weird to me that I'm a mom. I need to buy me some mom jeans.) Here are some pictures from the holiday!

My goal was to finish Yale's stocking by Christmas. I whipped most of it out in less than two days and finished it Christmas Eve morning. Go me!

All the grandkids at my dad and Alisia's house.

(Dad, I want to get more pictures from you from Christmas Day, okay? Okay.)

Acting out the nativity scene at Mom's. It was...interesting, and pretty funny.

The traditional making of spudnuts on Christmas Eve.

These next few pictures aren't from Christmas, but I had to post them.

Yale meeting his first set of great-grandparents!

Yale meeting his second set of great-grandparents.

This picture tugs at my heartstrings every time I see it.
My grandma is very sick and has very low energy and strength, but she was able to hold Yale on her own. When her arms started feeling tired, we stuck my Boppy pillow under her arms for support and she was able to hold him for about 15 minutes. It was awesome! (Thank you Boppy, for coming through yet again!)

2010 Was a Grand Year

2011-01-01T05:33:00.002-07:00

Lish and I went on our last date of the year last night--babyless. It was lovely to spend some one-on-one time with him, although we did miss our little guy and enjoyed a lot of snuggling time with him when we got home. While we were eating our delicious meal, I said, "You know, 2010 was a great year." Then we started reminiscing about the events that happened.

I ran my 12K and ran even further after that, but not during an official race.
Lish and I found out we were going to have a baby.
I got to stop working at a job I struggled with and move to a job I loved.
We moved back to Utah to live close to family and got to spend a lot of quality time with family.
We got to go to Disneyland for 2 1/2 days, and Epcot earlier in the year.
We visited Lish's dad and stepmom in California.
Our little niece was born.
Yale came into our lives.
Troy got married.
Lish got a job. Not just a job, but he's starting his career!

I know I didn't include a lot, like the fact that we got to go up to our family cabin, or that we went to Jackson Hole, or Jam Day 2010, or that Yale is going to have a couple more cousins. Yeah, 2010 was a grand year! I'm excited for 2011. I think life is only going to get better!

We've Got Some News

2010-12-22T22:15:00.001-07:00

Lish got a job! He interviewed with Dixie State College in St. George, Utah, and they liked him so much, they offered him a job. And he accepted. Whole-heartedly. We're so excited! When they called him with the offer, they asked if he was still interested. He responded, "110%!" Then they offered it to him and Lish said, "I'll take it!" They said, "Don't you want to hear what your salary will be first?" So they told him, and he accepted it again!

The thing is, they want him to start in January. We just found out about this a week ago, and we'll be moving in 2 weeks. Kinda crazy. We decided to take a trip down there so Lish could get the books for the classes he'll be teaching, fill out some paperwork, and so we could find a place to live. Mission accomplished. And Yale was great for his first trip of many down there. Because we will be making that drive a lot over the next several years. And yes, we will be living there for several years. It's close to family, it's a teaching school, Lish will get to help convert the program from an Associate's Degree to a Bachelor's Degree, the weather is wonderful and life will be grand!

It'll just be busy for these next few months, for Lish anyway. He'll be teaching three separate classes, finishing his dissertation, defending said dissertation, writing up the Bachelor's program, and being a husband and father. But, he's pretty amazing so I don't doubt he'll excel at all of it. We're thrilled about this opportunity and can't wait to start our lives down there!

Yale's Birth Story

2010-12-15T14:19:00.000-07:00

(Be forewarned, it's long!)

I had been having a few more Braxton Hicks contractions for the couple weeks leading up to the birth, but nothing consistent and definitely nothing close to labor. I had a doctor’s appointment the day before my due date and she informed me that I was 2-2 ½ cm dilated and about 75% effaced, which was huge progress from the week before, where I was 1 cm dilated and not effaced at all. So that brought my hopes up. We also set up a day for me to be induced if I hadn’t gone into labor yet. The date was set for December 8^th, one week past my due date. Lish and I left that appointment feeling good, knowing that there was finally a day when we knew that he would be here.

My due date came and went and I started sinking into a funk. I was thinking, against my better judgment, that maybe this baby never would get here. Lish and I started thinking of things we could do every day to distract us until the baby did decide to arrive. We didn’t have to do that for long. I woke up early Friday morning, around 3 am, with some pains that would come and go. When I first woke up, I honestly thought it was probably just gas pains. I switched positions but when I did, it woke Lish up and he asked if I was okay. “Yes, I was just rolling over.” (He told me later that he asked because he could feel me shaking.) Those pains came and went a few times while I was lying there and I started thinking, “Okay, this has to be more than gas. I think this could be labor.”

I got up around 3:20 and went to the computer to start timing the lovely contractions. They weren’t very far apart, so I didn’t wait too long before I woke Lish up. At 3:45 I went back into the room, woke Lish up and said, “Okay, I think this is it.” He immediately popped up and told me to take a nice warm shower. It felt good. Then we packed the rest of our stuff and headed upstairs so I could get something in my system. We called my parents (my dad was in Idaho on a business trip and my mom was coming to the hospital to be with us for the delivery) and woke up the in-laws. When I was on the phone with my mom, my contractions were getting so hard that I couldn’t talk to her. I had to hand the phone to my MIL. Then my contractions were getting really hard and I felt like pushing, which freaked me out because I knew I couldn’t be that close yet. I told Lish in a very panicky way, so he started the car and loaded all of our things in it. That was not a fun ride to the hospital, but my MIL was in the backseat rubbing my shoulders the whole way. It was so nice.

We got to the hospital sometime between 5:30 and 5:45. A nurse took me into triage to check me. When we got in there I asked to use the restroom. Right after she told me where it was I started having another contraction. I was standing up, so I leaned forward and braced myself, we heard a “pop” and then whoosh! My water broke, and it broke good! You know how it is in the movies? And they tell you to not expect that, that sometimes it’s just a trickle? Well, mine was straight from the movies. It was pretty incredible, and gross. The nurse looked at me and said, “Well, we don’t have to check you. We’ll just get you straight into a room.”

After my water broke, the pushing sensation stopped and my contractions actually got a lot milder. I guess the baby just wanted to get some of that fluid out of there. When they checked me, I was measuring at a 5 and 90%. I was making some progress! My mom got there not too long after. We put some Enya and Jim Brickman music on. (Don’t laugh or hate. That music is beautiful and it calms me.) During my contractions I would just close my eyes and focus on my breathing. A few days earlier, I had read about this technique that when you’re having a contraction to pay attention to your senses and surroundings. For example, when a contraction would start, I would start thinking, “I feel my hospital gown on my body. I feel the monitors and the band on my belly. I hear the monitors. I hear my baby’s heartbeat. I hear Lish encouraging me. I feel my mom holding my hand.” I would think about everything going on except the contraction. It actually helped a lot. In between contractions I would chat and try to make jokes. When they came to check me again, I was at a 7 and 90. I was thinking, “Okay, transition is coming up. I can get through this.”

The contractions stayed about the same for a while though, not too hard, but not comfortable by any means. By the time the doctor got there, she measured me at an 8 and 100%, but a stage -1, which I had been at the whole time. Still progressing at a good rate though! When my doctor and the nurse were in the room at one point, I started having a pretty big contraction, so I used my technique to get through it and afterwards, opened my eyes and said, “Ow.” The doctor laughed. She looked at me and said, “Ow? After that contraction all you can say is ow?” I told her I kept thinking “Ow, ow, ow” in my head, but I didn’t want to waste my energy during the contraction to try to say it. She thought it was funny.

The next time I was checked I was almost 10 cm. They said I just had a little lip, but I was still a stage -1. The nurse told me to either get up and walk around or sit on the medicine ball so that the baby could move down. I did not feel like walking at this point, so I sat on the medicine ball and my contractions were definitely getting hard. While sitting there, I actually was getting the urge to push after not too long. The nurse was telling me to hold off and wait until she could get the doctor back in and I had to move back to the bed. Let me tell you, it is not easy to try to not push when you want to push. I finally got back over the bed and the doctor came in, checked me and said I was ready. I asked, “Okay, so when I want to push, it’s okay to push?” I was relieved when she said yes.

My animal instinct kicked into overdrive at this point. I was making some serious grunting and pushing and screaming noises. I was being loud, or at least I felt I was being loud. After one of the contractions, I laid my head back down and said, “I’m sorry for being so loud.” The doctor laughed at me again for apologizing and reassured me that I was not being loud at all. (But I know I was. My throat was sore for the rest of the day.) I really didn’t know what was going on around me unless someone said my name. I kept my eyes closed the whole time during the pushing stage. I was trying really hard to focus on getting the task done. And it was hard. I handled transition okay, which people say is the worst part, but pushing was the hardest for me. (Not saying that transition was easy, because it definitely was not.) I felt like crying but didn’t have the energy. My mom was crying for me. And Lish almost cried, but he held it together because he knew that I needed him to. (He said that in all the classes we went to, they never once prepare the husband/partner for how hard it’s going to be to watch the person you love go through so much pain. He said if it hadn’t ended with a baby, it would have been one of the worst experiences of his life.)

I was only pushing for about half an hour I guess. I really didn’t keep track of the time. But Yale Dinari was born at 11:45 that morning, only 6 hours after we had checked into the hospital. Getting to see his little face and that little body and hold him and kiss him was absolutely amazing. And getting to experience that whole thing without any sort of medicinal help was awesome. I had accomplished my goal! I honestly would not have been able to do it without my incredible and loving support team! Lish was the best coach ever and he really helped me a lot. And my mom was wonderful and having her there was such a comfort. I owe them both a lot for helping me reach my goal!

People have asked me if I would do it that way again, and the answer is yes! I love that my body was able to handle that, not only physically, but also mentally and emotionally. It wasn’t easy by any means. They really do call it labor for a reason. (So cliché, I know, but it’s true.) But now that I know it’s something I can do, and it’s something I can do without biting anyone’s head off, why not do it that way again? It was all worth it for me. And while it was one of the most challenging experiences of my life, it was definitely the most rewarding.

Newborn Photoshoot

2010-12-10T13:37:00.000-07:00

You know how some hospitals offer to do a photo shoot for you at the hospital? Well, we took advantage of that. However, we initially thought it would just be one or two little snapshots. Little did we know it was a half hour photo shoot. She got some great pictures and my dear mother-in-law bought us the rights to these pictures! We just got them in the mail yesterday, all in color and black and white.

I am in love with this little guy!

IT'S A BOY!!!

2010-12-06T18:52:00.000-07:00

On Friday, December 3rd, 2010 at 11:45 am, Lish and I welcomed Yale Dinari Harris into the world! He weighed 8 lb, 4 oz and is 20 inches long. I'll post about the birth later, but for now, please satisfy your appetites with some delicious pictures. (In no particular order.)

All It Needs Now is a Baby

2010-12-01T13:23:00.000-07:00

Our nursery is complete! Well, it has been for a while now.

(I mean, today is my due date. Hello, Baby? Where are you and why aren't you here yet?)

But I am finally getting around to posting pictures for the cyber world to see.

Isn't it just presh? I love it! Being in this room makes me happy.

Now we just need a baby and the room will be complete!

Day of Giving Thanks and Turkeys

2010-11-26T16:27:00.000-07:00

Happy belated Thanksgiving everyone! I couldn't go this year without letting you all know what I'm grateful for.

First and foremost, I'm grateful for this guy. He has taught me so much about life and love and handling my money. He's truly someone very special and my best friend. Basically, he's amazing and I feel so lucky to have him as my eternal companion.

Next up, I'm grateful for my family. They're incredible and the best support system a girl could ever ask for. I am so blessed to be a part of a family where all of us get along so well. We have such a fun time together. They never cease to amaze me with their awesomeness and their weirdness. Seriously.

(I wish I had more pictures with my stepsiblings. Just sayin.)

I'm grateful for this home I get to live in. My in-laws are such wonderful people for letting Lish and I stay for a year. They were so willing to allow us to live with them and they have been so accommodating and helpful.

I'm grateful for my body. I know this may seem like a weird one to some of you, but those of you who have been through pregnancy and childbirth know what I mean. And I'm sure I'll have an even better appreciation for my body after the childbirth part. But my body is amazing. It is growing a human life and we are so happy that I have felt as healthy as I have through this whole process. Thanks body.

This leads me straight into my next and last thing I'm grateful for (not the last thing ever, but just the last one I'm going to share with you because my list could go on and on). I'm so grateful for this little baby. Granted we don't know whether it's a boy or a girl, and we don't know what he/she looks like, so that may change... I'm just kidding of course. That's not funny to joke about, I know. But really, that's my humor and I think it is. Anyway, I'm so grateful for this new little addition to our family. Lish and I are going to learn so much and we are going to be so humbled and it will be the most incredible experience ever. I love that we have started our family and that before we know it, this baby will make his/her grand entrance and life will never be the same.

Our Thanksgiving day was wonderful! We were able to see and spend time with so much family. We went down to my dad's house in the morning and I helped get some things ready while Lish went and played some football (in the balmy 15 degree weather). All of the siblings there, except my stepsister Ashley, her husband McLane and their son Mason, for our delicious feast. We had such a fun time. After we ate and cleaned up and played some games while eating pie (I had my delicious slice of banana cream while Lish had 3 slices of some traditional pumpkin), we headed back home to let the dog out. Then we drove on up north and ended up at my grandparents house. It was chaos! There were almost 40 people there by the time we showed up. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, children, and so on. Their little place was so crowded and full of such energy! It was great to see so much family that I hadn't seen in quite a few years! There was lots of love in that little home.

By the time we got back home, I was so exhausted. I slept quite well last night and it felt great to sleep in this morning. I'm glad I made the decision to not go out on Black Friday. But to those of you who did, kudos to you! I hear it was crazy. Like usual. Now Lish and I are getting ready to head out to the Jazz v. Lakers game. It should be a fun night to spend with my favorite!

Introducing our new Niece!

2010-11-22T13:35:00.000-07:00

(I was trying to think of how to title this without y'all thinking it was our baby, so I feel that the title is a little dull. Oh well. At least I didn't confuse y'all!)

Lish and I have been blessed with a new little niece! She was born a week ago today actually, so I'm late in letting you know. Alyse Karen Woodland entered the world at 10:25am EST. She weighed a total of 9 lb 6 oz! Mama and baby are healthy, and mama actually did it all naturally! She's my inspiration! They are both home now and my MIL, Karen, has been out with them for a few days helping take care of all of them. I got to visit with them through Skype last night and it was so fun to see that little angel! I can't wait until our baby is born and then we can push those little cousins in front of the camera and have them "meet." I know they won't know what's going on, but we'll think it's precious.

Maggie and Brandon, I can't wait to meet your little baby girl! She is adorable!

Full Term and then some!

2010-11-18T12:42:00.000-07:00

Finally. I have passed the 37 weeks mark and now the 38 weeks mark. This baby could come at any moment (though I know it won't be any moment soon) and it'd be fine and healthy. YaY! I've been feeling huge these past couple of weeks. Talk about a major growth spurt, for both me and baby. Seriously. Plus, I'm a waddler. Yes it's true. Takes me a minute to stand up, takes me a minute to get going, and then I can waddle my way pretty much anywhere. I started laughing at myself the other night because I was waddling so badly. I told Lish it was much more comfortable to walk that way and he said, "Who cares then? Keep on waddling!" And I have.

Materialistically we're feeling ready for this baby. Emotionally, we're very excited for this baby. Mentally, I'm not sure how we're doing yet. I think the baby should be more mentally prepared for having us as parents. I can't believe it's just another couple of weeks. Craziness!

38 weeks!

I made Lish take this picture of me yesterday. When he asked for my approval on it, I laughed and said, "It really does look like I just stuck a ball under my shirt." It's very round. And it's funny to me because I don't ever see it from this angle. I only get the aerial view.

I love that there is a baby in there and that it's mine and Lish's baby. And I love that that baby will be making his/her appearance soon. Can't wait!

We're so Halloweenie!

2010-11-02T16:47:00.000-06:00

Well, I guess we could be more Halloweenie, but we had fun. We carved our pumpkins on Friday and stayed home on Saturday night, watching The Ring and handing out candy to the trick-or-treaters. Jazz was going crazy whenever the doorbell would ring, like most dogs do. Needless to say, it wore her out and she slept a lot for the next 24 hours.

Sunday was the day of the annual Griffith pumpkin carving contest that my dad and stepmom host. Lish and I of course had to join in the fun. My dad and Alisia were planning on dressing up, so Lish decided he would dress up too. It was lovely.

(My dad and Alisia were Dog the Bounty Hunter and his wife, Beth, and Lish was a pumpkin.)

Now onto the pumpkin carving....

1st Place - Dallas (an owl)

2nd Place - Ashley & McLane (Albert Einstein)

3rd Place - Shelly & Brian & Hunter (scary cat)

4th Place - Collin & Whitney (Tiger Woods)

5th Place - Doug & Alisia (pumpkin eating pumpkin)

6th Place - Whitney & Lish (brother-in-law Collin)

Can you believe that? Lish and I got last. Of course, our pumpkin was more of an inside joke than anything else and the judges weren't in on the joke. Plus, they gave Collin fourth. I mean, did you see how much effort went into that Tiger Woods pumpkin? Also, I think it's pretty easy to see which pumpkin carvers used stencils (cheaters) and which ones were free hand. I'm just sayin'.

Thrilling Night!

2010-10-27T14:57:00.001-06:00

Remember how I kind of bragged about my amazing weekend? Yes, well, it didn't stop after my baby shower. In fact, the baby shower was just the beginning! Later that night, since all the girls were in town, we got together for a GNO (girls night out for those of you who didn't know). We met up for dinner and had a delicious meal, and then we headed to the main event, Thriller! The show was so fun and we had such a good time together! Some of the dances were new and one of the dances I really liked wasn't performed anymore, but it was still amazing! Thilling even, if I dare say it! Those dancers are so talented and I wish I could move like that. Maybe someday.

I love Halloween and I love dancing, so it was a wonderful night!

Baby Shower

2010-10-25T15:18:00.001-06:00

What an amazing weekend!

My sister-in-law Shelly and one of my best friends, Brittany, hosted a baby shower for me and little Baby Harris. It was so fun to get together with friends and family and get to celebrate the life that will be entering this world in just over a month!

Here are some pictures of the wonderful event!

Autumn, Autumn Everywhere!

2010-10-18T22:31:00.000-06:00

I really like fall weather. Really. I love when it cools off, but it's not cold enough for coats. Still cold enough though to justify drinking that hot chocolate. Which we do. A lot. You could call us hot chocolate whores, but that might be mean, so please don't.

And this season is awesome! Why? Because there are finally some fall colors on the mountains, it is actually cool when it's supposed to be (unlike in Tallahassee, which was too warm, although Lish may disagree with me), I can bake without getting too hot in the kitchen, and at the end of the season we'll have a little bundle of joy! Now you know why, right? Yeah.

I'm sorry I haven't written in a while. Lish and I, for the record, are both alive and well and kicking and punching, minus the punching. Life has been pretty...normal. I don't want to say slow because that's not the right word. We've been busy enough, but I guess we've finally settled into a routine. It's nice. This summer was crazy. So fun! But crazy. And now we're just working away.

Unfortunately, because life has been so normal, we haven't really taken any pictures. I mean that's unfortunate for you. Because we're pretty people.

This weekend will hold the event of my (in my mind) much anticipated baby shower! I'm so excited to celebrate this little creature's life and to see so many friends and family. So, there will plenty of pictures coming after that shower has come and gone.

To hold you over until then, here is the only picture we've taken in the past month:

My belly at 32 weeks pregnant.

When I see this picture I feel like I look much bigger than how my belly feels when I'm not looking at this picture. Maybe the digital camera adds 10...15...20 pounds? But probably not.

Little Family Update

2010-09-23T15:38:00.000-06:00

I feel like it's been a while since I've updated on how Lish and I are doing. I've talked about stuff we've done, but that seems to be about it.

Life was crazy busy this summer. So much time was spent with family and friends and vacationing. It was fabulous! Thankfully though, it has slowed down a little bit. I think this is our slow "grace period" before it gets to be more hectic than ever when little Junior arrives. We're thankful for it though, and we kinda planned it this way.

Anyway, we've been doing so well! Like I said, we had a summer that was very well spent and we really enjoyed ourselves. Lish is continuing to work on his dissertation. I'm sure he'll be so relieved when he finishes it. He's also been spending a lot of time applying for jobs. Thanks to our experience last year, we know how time consuming this is and we're glad he has time to be getting it all done. He's also teaching a class at UVU and seems to be enjoying it. His classes at FSU were always very full and crowded, but this class now only has 30 students or so. The class had papers due on Monday and when I saw Lish grading the stack, I said, "Wow, that stack is tiny!" He laughed and said how nice it was. I don't blame him. It's much easier to grade 30 papers rather than 130 or more. So he's been busy but he's doing great! He loves that it's football season again and especially loves that his shows are back on now.

I'm doing well too. Just continuing to work at the law office. I'm still really enjoying this job! It's much different from the one I had in Florida, so it's a nice, welcome change. I don't really know what else to say about how I'm doing. . . My belly is growing, so putting on my socks is challenging, but I'm loving it. Is that weird? To love being pregnant? Because I really do. We'll see how I feel about it in a couple more months. We're getting more and more ready for the arrival, but how ready can you really be, really?

Life is good! Just waiting on this little addition, which will be shortly after another addition (the birth of our niece) and right before another addition (the wedding of my brother, Troy, and his fiance Beth). So that's our life! (Sorry my post isn't so clever. I think this baby is stealing my clever juices.)

Thriller!

2010-09-15T16:19:00.004-06:00

Is any one else excited for this? Because I really am!

Not only is it an AMAZING dance concert,

but I also get to go to it with

my stepmom, sister, stepsisters, sister-in-law, and future sister-in-law.

It's going to be off the chain!

I love Halloween!

Labor Day Extravaganza!

2010-09-10T15:38:00.004-06:00

It wasn't really an "extravaganza" per say, but at least I caught some attention? Yes, I knew that would work.

We had a wonderful Labor Day weekend! It was spent with family up at the cabin in Island Park, ID. We got to go 4-wheeling, went into Yellowstone (swam in the Firehole and watched Old Faithful shoot off), celebrated a couple of birthdays, ate some delicious meals followed by scrumptious desserts, enjoyed spending time outside, and so on and so forth. It was fabulous!!

A Day in Whitters' Life

2010-09-02T14:43:00.004-06:00

Can I just tell you about my day on Monday? If not, too late. You can't stop it once it's started!

I woke up that morning to my husband kissing me awake. I brushed my teeth and started exercising. Afterwards I started getting ready for the day. I went to pick out what I was going to wear from my own giant closet, and although I don't have as many maternity clothes as regular clothes, I still had plenty of choices. Then I had to decide which of three pairs of flat white shoes I wanted to wear.

I went upstairs with my hubby to eat breakfast while he made my lunch. We turned on the Family Feud, a classic and a new breakfast tradition. After breakfast I grabbed my lunch made with "lub," grabbed the car keys, kissed my husband goodbye and headed out. I drove with the windows down, feeling that beautiful crispness on my skin. It was lovely! (Sidenote: I love driving with the windows down when it's cool outside.)

I got to work in downtown Salt Lake, where I work with my dad and my sister up until a week ago (she's gone for college). I did the things that were asked of me, did my job, you know. As the afternoon went on I started getting a headache. I didn't want to take anything for it because it felt like something I could handle.

By the time I left work my headache had gotten a worse. I was also starting to feel nauseous. Thankfully the traffic wasn't bad. I made it home and started heating up some food from eating out over the weekend. I sat down for dinner with my husband, his mom and stepdad. I didn't eat much. I still wasn't feeling great.

After dinner Lish asked how I was doing. I finally fessed up my state of being. He told me to take some Tylenol and just relax. I went downstairs and did just that. I took some medicine, laid on our bed and started reading. Lish came downstairs and said, "I've started filling the tub upstairs for you." He drew up a bath with dim lights and bubbles and candles and everything. I laid in it for a while, not too long as to not "cook" the baby, but long enough. And it was perfect. He sat in there and talked to me while I soaked. I felt so much better. After my bath I just went and sat outside for about 5 or 10 minutes, feeling that cool, autumn feeling. Then I went downstairs to join the rest of the family and just relaxed in front of the TV, like any good American would do.

Although I don't get headaches every day (in fact, rarely do I get headaches), you see how my life is? I am spoiled. I have so much that I don't feel I deserve sometimes. Sure, my three pairs of flat white shoes are scuffed and worn, and sure, the car I drive is over 10 years old now, but I have an amazing husband who takes such great care of me, I live in a great place surrounded by people who I love and who love me, I have a wonderful job, I can drive my own (okay, Lish's) car into work and not have to worry about the safety of the vehicle, I have plenty of food to eat and water to drink, I have a bed to sleep on and a shower to get clean in, I can read and type and write, I can walk and talk and see, and I'm growing a little human inside me.

My life is amazing! I think we take so many things for granted, and I have had such a strong feeling of gratitude for the things in my life these past few days. I hope I don't ever forget how lucky I am.

Jam Day 2010

2010-08-30T17:06:00.006-06:00

My dad and stepmom make jam twice a year, strawberry in the Spring, raspberry at the end of Summer/beginning of Fall. This year, Lish and I joined them.

Lish was so excited. He had never made jam before and homemade jam is DELICIOUS, so maybe that's why he was so excited...?? I don't really know. Anywho, he showed his excitement by making something in lieu of jam day.

"Jam Day 2010"

"Holler!"

(Sorry for the blurry pictures. They were taken on a phone. And yes, that is a picture of Lish there.)

Yep, that's my husband! I just love him!

And Jam Day 2010 turned out to be a huge success! We made about 75 jars worth of delicious, scrumptious, mouth-watering raspberry jam.

100 Days!

2010-08-23T21:37:00.005-06:00

I noticed on my little ticker to the right there that I only have 100 days until my due date. Or estimated due date. The date I was given. YAY! Lish and I are so excited to be parents. To raise little junior or juniorette into the dorkiest cool person ever!

Let me give a little update on how my pregnancy has been going, for those of you who care. It's been great! I always hear these horror stories about pregnancy and how it's so hard to keep food down some days, or how a person can't function because she's so tired, or about how hard it is to exercise or sleep. Thankfully, I haven't really had a problem in any of those categories. Sure, I was tired and nauseous during the first trimester. And sure my belly has been expanding in the second trimester, so finding comfortable positions to sleep is more challenging, but I haven't had a huge problem. For being pregnant, I'm feeling pretty darn good.

About a month or two ago, I actually felt healthier than I did a year ago. Thanks to my work schedule, I don't have to be into work until 11. Do you know what this means? I get to sleep until 8 every day, wake up and exercise, take time getting ready for the day and actually sit down to eat a healthy breakfast. It's pretty much amazing.

Don't get me wrong, some days aren't so great. But I really don't feel like I have room to complain. I know there are others who have had it so much worse and I just feel lucky to be doing as well as I have been so far. And I'm sorry if this came off as bragging.

Anyway, here is the latest picture of me and our little one, taken last Wednesday. My bump is getting bigger! And it's harder to lean forward. Gets in my way! I can't wait to get our home ready for and meet this little baby!(Hm, I seem to have a problem with sticking my butt out. Stupid sway back! I always got in trouble for that in ballet.)

Going Back

2010-08-19T14:16:00.004-06:00

I've realized that I haven't written at all about the trip we took earlier this month out to California. Shame on me.

So, we went to California earlier this month (in case you hadn't caught that) to visit Lish's dad and stepmom. It was absolutely lovely! So lovely in fact, that I didn't take one single picture. Not one. Who am I and what have I become? Honestly.

We didn't even do much while we were out there. That's what I love about those vacations. It's a perfect time to enjoy each other and relax, which is exactly what we did. We went to the gym, laid by the pool, went out for ice cream, had a couple of delicious homemade meals, played games, went to a movie, went shopping and slept. Like I said, lovely!

The day we went out shopping we actually hit a couple of adorable baby shops. I loved looking at the baby gear and was getting excited to start getting our baby stuff together. (Yeah, we still haven't done a thing.) Then Bev, my stepmother-in-law, told me she wanted to buy us a couple things for the baby and to go ahead and pick something or a few things out. I started panicking. I needed everything, so where was I supposed to start? After my head almost exploded (but not really) I finally picked out some swaddling blankets and a warm sleeper. Both necessities. I felt very satisfied with my choices and so grateful to Bev for getting those things for us and the baby.

It was a wonderful vacation and we're so glad we got to go out to visit them! Thanks for all you do Mitch and Bev!

Life is Worth Celebrating

2010-08-15T19:37:00.004-06:00

I was spoiled this past week. We had a friend (Jared) coming into town from Tallahassee last Wednesday and he's here until Tuesday, so part of his visit was over my birthday. I was a little bummed about this at first, I'm not gonna lie. I told my sister that I blame my parents for the way I feel birthdays should be spent: being spoiled. My parents were always really good at making sure that our birthday was OUR day. We could do whatever we wanted (as long as we went to school), choose our favorite meal for dinner, our favorite cake for wishing, and we got spoiled with presents. It was always really fun.

Anyway, I was a little sad that it wouldn't be just me and Lish or just me with my family on my birthday. I especially wanted something special since this is my last birthday as a non-mom. I know, such a bratty attitude! Don't worry, I got over it. Well, I'm sitting at work on Tuesday, talking to my sister to make the time go faster, when she looks up behind me and says, "Oh, hi!" Lish came walking down the hall and I was so confused. He doesn't just come in like that since it's a half hour commute for me to get to work, so I didn't know what was going on.

"I'm taking you out for an early birthday dinner! I thought we'd go to the top of the Joseph Smith Building because you said a while ago that you wanted to eat there."

He is such a smart man! Dinner was fabulous and it was so nice to have that alone time with my husband and to be out and about with him. It was a wonderful night!Then on Thursday, my sister came up to me at work and said, "Whitney, I forgot my lunch today so do you mind coming downstairs with me to get something to eat?" My computer was being really awful that morning, so I was behind on my work and told her to give me 5 minutes, which probably turned into 15. But I finally finished what I was working on and headed down with her, thinking I'd just be gone for 5 minutes at the most. We walked outside and my mom was there getting some balloons out of her van. Courtney yelled "Mom!" to get her attention, and she turned around and yelled, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!" She and Courtney had planned to kidnap me for lunch and I had no idea! My mom had gotten me balloons, a little cake and a birthday present with a sweet card. It was so much fun to spend time with those girls!

Friday was my actual birthday, yes, Friday the 13th. It was a great day! I woke up with Lish singing to me, then had some yummy coffee cake for breakfast, or something similar to coffee cake, that Karen had made. I went into work a little early so I could leave early. My dad took me and Courtney out for lunch and we ate in the shade by Temple Square. Troy and his girlfriend Beth stopped by to wish me a happy birthday too. After I got off work, I headed down to pick up Karen and Scott and we headed down to Provo to meet up with Lish and Jared. We got to walk around BYU's campus, which was fun because I hadn't done that since I graduated. Then we went to the Brick Oven for dinner, which was delicious! And we went to get ice cream afterward at the creamery. It was such a wonderful way to spend the day!

This wasn't really for my birthday, but it was something I had wanted to do since we moved back out. Saturday we headed up to the Hogle Zoo. I got to see penguins and the one year old elephant! We had a blast seeing the animals and enjoying the time outside.Thank you to my wonderful husband and my amazing family for making my birthday so unbelievable! I really didn't deserve all I was given and am so blessed to have you in my life! I think it's been a great start to the 25th year of my life!

Jaclyn's Wedding & Jackson Hole

2010-08-04T14:08:00.005-06:00

One of my cousins got married this past weekend and we had the opportunity to hitch a ride up with my dad to attend her wedding. We were going to head up to the cabin afterwards, but decided against it when we found out that was where the newlyweds would be honeymooning. So instead we headed over to Jackson Hole. It was beautiful and such a fun weekend! Again, I have lots of pictures, so I'll let them speak for themselves.

So Far . . .

2010-07-26T14:53:00.003-06:00

. . . I love being back in Utah. I don't really expect that to change, so I'm not sure why I prefaced it that way, but oh well.

I love being close to family. I love working with them, seeing them on the weekends, going on vacations with them, even living with them. I knew I missed them, but I didn't know how much I missed them until we came back. I'm so lucky to have such amazing people to call family!

I love experiencing a Utah summer. I've forgotten how amazing they can be. Especially compared with the summers in Tallahassee. There is little to no humidity. There are no bugs. (I know Utahns say there are bugs, but trust me, there are no bugs.) It actually cools off when you're in the shade and at night. I love going on runs here. I love eating dinner outside. I love the walks I take with my husband just about every night. It's so beautiful and so peaceful.

I love the mountains. They are majestic. There is no other way to really describe them. They are so big and beautiful and each one is unique. I love looking up at the mountains, being on top of the mountains and looking down, seeing all the bicyclists trying to go up them. It's quite entertaining really. And impressive.

Of course there are some downsides to being back in Utah. For example, the construction. Especially on the roads. It's everywhere and it's like this every summer. They never finish, I swear. Then there's the people. Lots of great people live here, don't get me wrong, but so many of the people here are the same. I miss the diversity. And I'm not going to lie, I miss going to church outside of Utah. Maybe I was just spoiled with a great ward in Tallahassee (no maybe really, I was definitely spoiled), but this ward is just not the same.

Anyway, life is grand and I'm so glad we are where we are. Still missing my Tally friends of course, but that's expected.

Baby Harris

2010-07-22T15:32:00.005-06:00

I've been meaning to post this for the last week, but you all know how I've gotten with posting...

Moving on.

Last week, Lish and I had the amazing opportunity to look at a little black and white video of our growing peanut. My sister-in-law, Maggie, was right when she said that when other people show you their ultrasound, you think, "Alright, yeah, that's cool." But when it's your own, IT IS SO COOL! We loved getting to see our baby move and stretch and hit me. I've finally scanned the ultrasound pictures for your viewing pleasure.

(The baby's profile.)

(The baby's foot.)

We didn't find out the gender of the baby, but go ahead and take a guess! We'll let you know in a few more months whether you were right or not.

The doctor told us the baby couldn't be healthier, and for that we are grateful! I love seeing my belly get bigger and being able to feel the movements now. Lish actually got to feel the baby kick for the first time last night. It was pretty amazing. (Hopefully I continue having that attitude when the baby is kicking me in the middle of my slumber.)

Adventures in California!

2010-07-13T15:52:00.006-06:00

We went on a week long trip with my family last week. We went to Disneyland, the beach, California Adventure, Disneyland and California Adventure again, then we drove down to San Diego and went to the San Diego Zoo and Sea World. It was so much fun to spend so much time with people I love! We had an absolute blast! Plus, one of the benefits of being pregnant and going to theme parks is you get to do all the stuff you never did before because you were always too busy going on the "cool" rides. We were all exhausted by the end of the trip, but we have some great memories because of it! I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, and there are a ton of pictures!

Happiness =

2010-06-28T12:19:00.004-06:00

Night swimming in the summer
Getting a new tube of mascara
Spending time with loved ones
Coming home to a clean house
Getting flowers from your husband
Knowing there is a healthy baby growing in your belly
Getting a compliment at work
Reading a good book in the shade of a big tree
Eating freshly baked chocolate chip cookies
Trying your hardest and succeeding
Dancing your heart out
Running in the grass with no shoes on
Accomplishing your goals
Being married to your best friend

Life Back in the West

2010-06-22T14:09:00.006-06:00

I haven't written for a while, and I haven't mentioned anything about how we're doing back in Utah. We've been back for almost a month already! We're already in a routine here and we're remembering how much we love summer nights. You just don't get them like that in Tallahassee.

Anyway, when we got here Memorial Day weekend, we got to see a lot of family. We had so much help when we were moving all of our belongings. We had some family pictures taken with Lish's side of the family, since Maggie and Brandon were out.
I wasn't scheduled to start working for another week, so we spent the week settling in and getting organized. We had to reopen bank accounts, visit new doctors, figure out insurance stuff (still working on that one...) and took some time to relax and rejuvenate. Now we're both in life's groove out here. I'm working at my dad's law firm, for one of his partners. I'm in my 3rd week of work, and it's going great! I get to see my dad almost every day and my sister almost every day. The people are so easy to be around and are so willing to help. I don't have to be into work until 11 and I only stay until about 5:30 or so. It's fabulous! I love having time to sleep until 8, wake up and exercise, and take my time getting ready for the day. I get to eat breakfast while sitting down, instead of running around getting my stuff together like before. And Lish makes me lunch every day, unless my dad offers to take me out to lunch. I couldn't ask for a better job right now!

Lish's "dissertating" is going well. He's ahead of schedule, just by a week or so. I'm proud of him and all the focus he has. He's very hard working and so determined to get this done. He's been helping out a lot around the house and I know Karen and Scott have really appreciated that. He's pretty much amazing.

We love being close to family out here. We love the weather we've been having so far and love spending our nights outside. We don't get eaten alive by bugs out here and we don't feel sticky from humidity when we walk back inside. Life has been busy, but it's been wonderful!

PS. Here is a pregnancy picture for any of those who care. This was taken last week, so 16 weeks! My belly is growing, which is a good sign!

Moving is a Pain

2010-06-08T21:44:00.008-06:00

I know everyone who has read my blog has moved at least once in their lives, so you can relate, quite well I'm sure. But I hate moving. Hate it! Especially moving from Florida to Utah. Alright, moving from Utah to Florida was bad too. But this time it felt worse! Let me tell you about moving week.

Lish and I had this plan to have everything packed up and ready to go by 5:30 pm on Tuesday. All of our boxes were filled, for the most part. We had very little to do come Tuesday morning. We were scheduled to pick up our truck and car carrier at 1:00 pm that day. We got a call at 11:30 am on Tuesday from Budget letting us know that the car carrier they expected for us was damaged and we couldn't use it. There wasn't another car carrier in Tallahassee. The next closest one was in Thomasville, GA, 45 minutes away. We decided that since we needed our car carrier, to just go up there on Tuesday so we wouldn't have to worry about it Wednesday morning on our way out. We picked up our 24 foot truck and headed on up to Georgia.

On our way back into Tallahassee, right as we were about to turn onto the street where we rented our truck, a "check engine" light came on and our gas pedal stopped working. (Thankfully the brakes still functioned okay.) We decided to ask the rental place if there was another truck we could use, because we didn't want ot drive a faulty truck across the country. They did have another truck, clear on the other side of town.

I went on home in case anyone decided to come by to help us pack, and to finish packing up our last-minute random stuff. Lish came by in the truck, dropped off the car carrier, and headed across town, during 5 o'clock traffic, to pick up the other truck. It was 4:45. He didn't get back with the truck until 5:45, and we had a few people waiting to help load it. As soon as the truck was in our parking lot, people started hauling our belongings into that thing.

My friend Leah and I went out to get pizzas since we couldn't really help with the loading (since we're both preggers) and by the time we got back with the pizza, the crew was already done loading. They had been done for 5 or so minutes and a few people had already left. It went crazy fast! We had about 14 people helping.

We sat around and ate pizza and breadsticks and talked and laughed in our small, empty apartment. Then a group of us headed out to Brusters to get some delicious ice cream. It was a perfect way to spend our last night in Tallahassee.

After our ice cream break, Lish and I headed back to clean. We didn't get to bed (on our air mattress) until 12:45, and neither of us slept very well. We found out we were both up at 5:30 Wednesday morning, so we just got up and got ready to hit the road.

That first day we drove up to Bowling Green, KY to stay with some of Lish's friends. He served part of his mission there, so we stayed with a family who Lish served with (the father was the Bishop when Lish was serving). It was such a nice break to stay with them and have them make us dinner and breakfast the next morning. We slept so well.

(At some random gas station somewhere along the way.)

The second day we made it to North Platte, NE. It was such a long drive! And the next day we made it into Utah, despite some ugly wind in Wyoming. It was a horrible drive. Horrible! I think we calculated that we were driving (and by we, I mean Lish) for 39 or so hours. 39 hours! Yuck! But when we made it into Utah, and when we got to see and spend time with so much family that first weekend, it was all worth it. Lish's sister and brother-in-law were in town. I had a bunch of extended family in town, some that Lish hadn't met before, and it was chaotic and wonderful!

But I'll have to update you on that later. I'm gonna go finish watching the game with my husband now.

I'm Not Getting Fat

2010-05-31T16:08:00.003-06:00

There's a baby in my belly!

Lish and I are so excited! I'm due December 1st (exactly two weeks after Lish's sister). We can't wait to be parents, and at the same time, we're quite nervous! But we know we'll be awesome anyway.

Goodbyes are Strange

2010-05-23T19:51:00.003-06:00

Lish and I are packing up and moving on this week. In less than 3 days actually. It's strange. I finished up my last week of work last week. It went by quite slowly actually. But then Friday flew by. And Friday was a great day at work. My friend Michelle did a beautiful little set up for me in our break room. It was lovely and I truly appreciated it. (The picture isn't great because I took it with my phone.)Then I had to say goodbye to everyone there. And return my key. Yet I was the last to leave the building. I did a very sneaky job at setting the alarm and getting out with all the doors locked and no key. Very sneaky indeed.

Then we went to church today. Our last time in the Tallahassee 4th ward. My last time in this primary that I've been in for the past two years. The primary president had me come up during closing exercises to tell me thank you and to let all the kids say goodbye to me. It made me tear up. As I was making my way back to the back of the room, all the children were waving to me and saying bye. Before some of them left, they came up and gave me a big hug and told me they'd miss me. Made me tear up again. I had to say goodbye to so many people today, and our goodbyes aren't over. We'll have more tomorrow and Tuesday.

I'm saying goodbye to these people, knowing that I'll never see a majority of them ever again. It's so strange to me, to move on from this phase of my life and know that there is a possibility I'll never be back. I have some friends say to me, "Come back to visit." And I might. But I might not. I don't have family here, I didn't go to school here, and Tallahassee isn't exactly built for tourists. So maybe I'll be back to visit, but maybe not. I honestly can't say. And as excited as I am to be back in Utah and back with family, I'm really going to miss a lot of these people. There are some amazing people here and we've been so blessed and privileged to have built relationships with them.

So although goodbyes are strange and I am walking away knowing that I may never see them again, I know that the place I am walking to and the future we are working towards will be a wonderful one because of these people. They have taught me a lot about life and about myself. And I am grateful for their temporary presence in my life and I hope to run into them again sometime in the future.

Surviving with Some Sanity

2010-05-16T19:50:00.005-06:00

Last week was a little crazy. You know those weeks, where the receptionist at work is sick and out for all but 4 hours of the 40 hour work week, so you have to play receptionist + your normal job, and you know you're moving in 2 weeks so you're packing, and figuring stuff out with the apartment management, and getting a moving truck, and trying to sell the scooter, and trying to figure out what's going to happen to your insurance when you quit your job, and trying to figure out what you'll need and what you'll store in the next year, and trying to spend time with all your friends before you move and before they move, and having to teach sharing time and give a talk in sacrament, and celebrating an anniversary, and putting in your two weeks notice at work, and knowing you'll have to train a lot this coming week since you had no time last week, and having the biggest primary activity we've had in the 2 years I've been in primary, and having to go to a baptism but showing up half an hour early because that's what they told me, and getting a sore throat on top of it all. You know those weeks.

Okay, I hope you don't know those weeks. It was a little crazy around here, but we've survived and we're making progress. And we'll survive this next week and the week after, and then we'll be relaxing just a little in Utah. We're living with Karen and Scott for the next year, and we're so excited! It'll be a great experience to be out there again and to be so close to family. We've missed them. A lot.

But leaving Tallahassee will be hard too. This has been our home for the past almost three years. Lish and I haven't lived in any one place that long since high school. And it's the place where we've grown so close to one another. We've made some amazing friends and met some wonderful people. So they will be missed. The thing I won't miss? Humid summers. I'm glad we're leaving while it's just in the high 80's. It's already hot enough and sticky enough for me. Give me that dry stuff.

All in all, we both have mixed feelings about moving, but we're getting more and more excited as we get closer. We're down to a week and a half! Can't wait to finish my last week of work this week and continue cleaning out our apartment!

Update on the Update-We're Moving!

2010-05-10T12:27:00.003-06:00

Hello Everyone!

I hope you are ready for the second installment of the Harris Family saga. We have decided to…insert drum roll here…move back to Utah for the next year! As I described in my last email, I was waiting to hear back about funding for the next year from a couple of different sources: the College funding I have received the last 3 years and a grant my mentor applied for. As it turned out, I was not able to receive funding from multiple sources per some College norm for graduate students. Additionally, my mentor emailed me this weekend to tell me that he did not think he was going to receive the National Science Foundation grant after all. Once you add this up, our decision was fairly easy to make so we can achieve our goal of getting me through school without incurring any debt.

So, Whit and I have already booked our moving truck and picked up a slew of boxes. We have decided to go ahead and move at the end of this month. (We are going to leave on May 26^th and get into Utah on May 28^th. I expect Collin to be waiting for me with open arms.) I only have funding through the middle of June and I told my College that I did not want to pay a full month’s rent to work for 2 weeks. They told me today that leaving at the end of May was fine as long as I did a couple of weeks or work from Utah to complete my commitment. Also, moving earlier rather than later will give Whit a chance to get started at her new job. And to top it all off, this means we can make it back to see Maggie and Brandon while they are in Utah for a wedding over Memorial Day weekend. (For those who don’t know, Maggie is pregnant which means she won’t be traveling much the next year and we will be too broke to go to Baltimore to visit, so we wanted to see them when we had the chance.)

All in all, Whit and I are excited to be closer to family and to see what the next year holds for us. It will be sad to say goodbye to our Tallahassee family, but if we don’t do it sooner we will have to later. We know it will be an adjustment from our independent life here, but we are extremely grateful for our family’s generosity and hospitality. In short, its time to warm up the oven Mama!

Stephanie Nielson

2010-05-04T13:57:00.003-06:00

I'm not sure how to put videos from youtube directly on here, so I've just added a link. This video is amazing and if you have a few minutes, you should definitely watch it. What a beautiful story and a beautiful testimony this girl has.

Enjoy.

And here is her lovely little blog.

A Little Family Update

2010-04-27T14:01:00.002-06:00

(This is an email Lish just sent out to our family today. Thought some of you might like to know what's going on as well. Beware: It's very long!)

Hello Family!

I hope this email finds you all doing well and enjoying spring time. Whitney and I are trying to enjoy it here in Tally before it turns to the hot-box that is the summer. I figured it was time I sat down and shared all that has been happening with Whit and I these last few months. So much has happened that it has gotten to the point that I cannot remember who we told what, so if this is repetitive to you, consider yourself one of the lucky ones (or unlucky ones if you hate really long emails).

As all of you know, I went on the job market this last year to test the waters. Although I have only been working on my PhD for 3 years (a feat that normally takes 4-5 years), I had been lucky and was able to be in a position that I could have been done a year or so early. With this in mind, I sent out job applications thinking that maybe I could land a job earlier than anticipated. If not, I could extend my dissertation work and try again the next year without having a gap in my resume. The process has been pretty long as most applications for jobs that start in the fall of 2010 were due in the fall of 2009. I made what is called a short-list (the top 2-3 candidates for a job) for 5 different schools and was invited to visit their campus. And as Lady Fortuna would have it, I was offered one job at Gannon University in Erie, PA.

Although I was impressed with some of the aspects of Gannon, Whitney and I decided to reject their job offer. This was not a decision that was made in haste. We took ample time to sit and discuss, and sit and discuss, and sit and discuss (Whit can attest to this). I also ran this decision by my advisers and mentors and they were all in agreement about this particular position. Gannon University is a school that has its professors carry an extremely heavy teaching load. They teach what is referred to as a 4/4 load, which means each professor teaches 4 classes in each semester. (To put this in perspective, both BYU and FSU have their professors teach a 2/2 (this is offset by a heavier research load). Ideally, I'd like to be at a school that has a 3/3 policy. These universities focus more on teaching than research, but ask each professor to spend a more balanced amount of time doing both activities. I was lucky enough to make the short list for two schools like this (Towson University and The University of West Georgia), but did not get the job at either place. As another side note, The job at West Georgia was cancelled about a month ago due to budget restraints so we are glad we didn't get that offer after all!) The 4/4 teaching load is troublesome for a new professor who wants to move jobs within a few years because it sucks away anytime they may have to do research. Ultimately, this hurts their long-term marketability as they would not be a well-rounded candidate for a new job. With this in mind, we made the tough decision to say no.

Having rejected the job offer from Gannon, we moved into "What-Do-We-Do-Now" mode. Although we are not completely certain yet, we have narrowed our options down to 2: we will either stay here in Tally for another year while I finish and apply for jobs or we will move back to Utah for the year while I finish and apply for jobs. Our preference is to try and stay here because it would be a bit easier for me to finish if we didn't have to go anywhere, although I am very confident I will finish anywhere we go. The trick is getting the college to fund me for another year. Our college offers some students assistantships or scholarships to help them get through school. I was lucky enough to get one a few years ago. The problem with these assistantships is that they are only guaranteed for 3 years. Many students in the past have been able to secure a fourth year of funding, but like many institutions, FSU is experiencing budget retraction and there is less funding than there has been in years passed. Currently, we are waiting to hear if I can receive an extra year of funding. If that can fall into place, we will stay here. If not, we will head west. I have talked to my major professor (the guy in charge of my dissertation work) and he is very supportive of both of our options. In fact, he had to move the last year of his dissertation as well so he has been through this and knows how to work through it. To sum it up, we are not choosing between good and bad options, but good and better options.

I am confident that this next year will be great for us no matter where we end up. I experienced some success in a really tough job market and I will be a better candidate this next year with another year of work to put on my resume. We have thought a lot about these decisions and have received some great advice from people-in-the-know on these things. In fact, my major professor patted my back the other day and said, "You have made some tough, but really good decisions lately." That made me feel good, because it is easy to doubt decisions you make that seem so large and important. Thank you all for your love and support. The latest we will know about my funding here at FSU is May 10th, so we will keep you all in the loop as soon as we hear anything.

Love,

Lish

Silly Husband

2010-04-21T11:14:00.002-06:00

I have a confession to make. Lish and I watch American Idol religiously. (No, that is not my confession.) My favorite part about watching American Idol? Watching Lish. Why? You'd know if you watched him too. Whenever they sing a song he knows, he always juts out his chin, sticks his tongue out a little, and mouths the words during the chorus. It makes me laugh every time. He reminds me of a little kid. I just love him!

The Day After Easter

2010-04-08T19:19:00.004-06:00

(I meant to write this post a few days ago, but you know how that works out sometimes.)

This is what happens when Lish goes shopping the day after Easter:
Yes, he loves his Easter candy. And if they had had some jelly beans, there would have been many more sweets in the picture. When I got home and saw his little display, I just laughed. That boy loves his sugar.

And yes, our Easter weekend was fabulous. We didn't do much of anything. For dinner, we had some stromboli that Lish had bought the night before. We slept in (especially me), listened to conference, relaxed, and stayed lazy all weekend. It was lovely.

Lish had a Birthday

2010-03-28T15:28:00.005-06:00

Shout hooray!

It was a great birthday too, if I do say so myself! His birthday was on Friday, and of course I had to work that day. So I woke up early that morning and got ready for work, but I headed out to the grocery store first. I picked up some cinnamon rolls and some chocolate milk (his favorite breakfast) and made those for him so he could eat them when he woke up. That night we didn't do anything too special. We had an Easter primary activity for the kids in our ward, so I had to go help with that right after work, and Lish came to help as well. Afterward, we just went out to dinner with another couple and just chatted. It was low key, but fun!About a month ago Lish told me he wanted to have a BBQ with some close friends for his birthday. So we held that yesterday. We had a great turnout (everyone who was invited came) and we had a lot of fun! We went to the park and made some burgers and hot dogs, ate a lot, let the dogs play, and enjoyed being outside. It was a beautiful day and a great birthday party!

(The delicious cupcakes I made, thanks to these girls.)

I hope Lish knows how much I love him and how much his family and friends love him. And I hope he had a magnificent birthday!

Family Get-Together in Jupiter

2010-03-25T07:23:00.007-06:00

(I'm not sure why blogger won't let me move my pictures down right now, so you just get to enjoy them all up front and out of order!)

Lish and I had the wonderful opportunity to go down to Jupiter, FL this past weekend. For those who don't remember, his grandparents live down there part time. The school that his sister teaches at had their spring break, and his mom and stepdad were going to fly out. So we all got to meet up down in sunny south Florida! It was such a great trip!

We drove down last Thursday. We got in, dropped Jazz off with the grandparents, picked Maggie up and headed to our hotel. Of course we stopped by a grocery store after we saw the freezer in our room, to pick up a couple half gallons of ice cream. Karen and Scott got in late that night. Friday we went to visit the grandparents, then headed over to the beach to soak up some rays. That night we went out to dinner with the grandparents, which was followed by a walk on the beach and a movie.

Saturday was fabulous. A bunch of Lish's family (cousins, aunts, uncles, great aunts, second cousins) all got together at Adele and Yale's (the grandparents) house. It was so fun to me to get to meet a few more family members and to get to chat with everyone. We never got a picture with the whole crew though, which was too bad.

Then on Sunday we headed down to Miami. I hadn't been down there before. We went to a newly built park, South Point Park, right by South Beach. Then we headed to South Beach. Not too many crazies down there, but there were still a slew of people. Then we went to a delicious Cuban restaurant. After that we got to go visit one of Karen's childhood friends, Elaine. (They've been friends since the 3rd grade, and Elaine even made it out to our wedding.) It was fun to see her again and her family. After that we drove back up to Jupiter, and met up with Aunt Beth and Uncle Bob for dinner. That night we ate more ice cream and chatted.

Monday was spent packing up. Then we went to lunch with Adele and Yale, and Beth and Bob. After lunch, Lish and I hit the road to make the long drive home. I guess it's not too long, but still. It was such a great trip and we're so happy we could spend so much time with everyone! We sure love our family and are so grateful for all they did for us!

Sittin', Waitin', Wishin'

2010-03-15T08:09:00.003-06:00

Lish and I have been waiting a lot it seems. Waiting for something or someone to tell us where we should go at the end of the summer. Lish is finishing up his PhD program, yay! He has been working on his dissertation since last summer, and he's making some good progress. He applied for jobs last fall, and we're still waiting to hear back from several schools. (Reminder: he wants to be a professor.)

The application process for becoming a professor is very long. The applicants apply a year before they want to teach. They have to get the curriculum vitae, published papers, letters of recommendation, letter of intent, etc. all together, mail them all off, and then it's completely out of our hands. For months. It's very annoying to not be able to have any control over the situation.

Then the schools start going through their applicants. They narrow them down and call several who they are interested in. After the telephone interview, they narrow it down even more, to three or four candidates. The schools invite these few people to come onto their campus for a campus interview. The campus interview lasts all day, usually. The candidate meets most of the faculty, talks with them, dines with them, and then teaches them. They either teach a class or do a presentation about their dissertation, depending on what the school asks of them.

After the campus interview, the candidates are sent home and told to continue waiting for a few more weeks while they make the decision. The faculty then votes on a candidate, the name gets passed to someone higher up in the college or university for approval, the approval moves back down to the department chair, the department chair then calls the approved candidate, the candidate takes a couple days to decides yay or nay, gets word back to the school, and then the rest of the candidates find out their fate.

Waiting and waiting and waiting...

I'm tired of waiting! I know we don't have much longer to wait until we can finally determine our near future, but my patience is being pushed. We're hoping for some very good news! We shall keep you updated.

Disney World and Lakers Game

2010-03-09T20:10:00.004-07:00

We had such a fun weekend!

We were so glad we made it to the temple on Friday night, even after we got stuck in some weird traffic. And we had an amazing time at Epcot. Our feet were tired and sore afterwards, and I think Lish was sick of the camera, but we had such a fun time! And the Lakers vs. Magic game was really fun too. We got there early so we got to participate in some of the activities they had going on beforehand. We even got a free caricature! Too bad the Lakers lost, but at least it was a good game!

I liked many of the pictures we took, so I made a couple collages for your enjoyment.

March is Good!

2010-03-04T07:36:00.006-07:00

Not gonna lie, I am SO excited about this movie. Sadly, we won't be able to make it this weekend. We're going on our Orlando trip!

Did you know about this trip? We've had it planned since the NBA schedule came out last year. Lish really wanted to make it to a Lakers game. Remember what a big fan he is? Put a bumper sticker on the car and everything. Anyway, the game is on Sunday but we're heading down tomorrow. (We know we're breaking the Sabbath.) Gonna hit up the temple tomorrow night, and then go to Epcot on Saturday. (Lish hasn't been to Epcot and I've only been once, my junior year of high school.) Can't wait! It's going to be a great weekend!

And next weekend will be too. That's when we'll go to the movie.

The weekend after that will be amazing too. Lots of family time down in Jupiter!

And the next weekend after that will be good. Lish's birthday!

Good things are happening! Go month of March!

Bumper Stickers...

2010-03-02T08:38:00.003-07:00

...are almost as permanent as tattoos.

Oh, they're not? Well, I think they are.

They scare me. Yes, I am slightly afraid of bumper stickers. Especially the ones where once you put them on, there's no going back.

Being in the car, amongst other cars, I tend to see a lot of bumper stickers. Some make me laugh, some make me confused, and others make me think "Why in the world...?" Yesterday, I saw a car that had four different stickers about animals, for saving animals in pet shelters, supporting the Humane Society, and so on. Then I started thinking, "Am I passionate enough about anything to put it on my car?" The only thing I could come up with would be a cute little dancer. I know for sure I'm passionate about dance. But I couldn't give my entire bumper to dance bumper stickers. That's just an overload. And maybe if someone close to me got breast cancer (which I pray doesn't happen), I would get one of the "Save the Ta-Ta's" stickers. Those make me laugh.

So props to those who feel comfortable covering their car with stickers. I can't get the courage to accomplish such a feat.

And maybe someday soon I'll write a post that says what Lish and I have been up too. We've been busy, I swear!

Oh, and by the way, there IS a bumper sticker on our car. I didn't put it on there and if you saw it, you would know that too. It's an LA Lakers sticker. Lish is trying to turn me into a fan.

The Flash 12K

2010-02-20T14:51:00.008-07:00

I did it ! I ran my race. And it was awesome! My goal was to run it in an hour and 15 minutes. I beat my goal by three minutes (1:12:10, according to the picture Lish got), which also set a personal record for me. I haven't run for that long at that speed. It was great!

AND I got in 3rd place in my age group! Yes, I placed and I medal-ed. And I got a t-shirt and a bag. And I finished. I finished my goal. I did it. And I'm still walking!

I would like to thank my legs and my heart, my shoes and my socks, my watch and my heart monitor, and of course, my husband. :)

It's been a good day!

Best Friends

2010-02-18T16:19:00.004-07:00

At my place of employment, we have a breakroom in the back. This is where I eat my lunch. A coworker of mine and I usually eat together. She watches her "Food Network" channel, and I sit and read my book and we make little comments to each other every now and then. It's a good time. I enjoy her company.

Yesterday, a commercial came on with a family. The father was doing the "superman" (You know, with the father lying on his back with his feet in the air holding up his son with his feet? You know.) with his son. I laughed when I saw it and said, "Lish does that to me sometimes too!" I also told her that when I get home from work or if I'm in a bad mood, Lish will usually always "dip" me. I LOVE the dip! It makes me laugh every time because it is so much fun. She looked at me and said, "It sounds like you guys have a fun relationship."I started thinking about it, and it's true. Lish and I do have a fun relationship. We love spending time together. We are each others' best friends. There isn't anyone else I would rather hang out with more than my husband, and I am so happy to say that. So Lish, thanks for all the good times and the laughs! I'm excited to have so many more with you!

Superbowl and Valentine's Celebrations

2010-02-14T15:14:00.005-07:00

So, I accidentally left my camera at our friends' house, so I couldn't upload my pictures until a few days ago, and then I got lazy. I know it happens to you too. Anyway, so I have some pictures from the superbowl party that we went to last week, and from our Valentine's Day celebration.

First off, the superbowl. I was happy with how it went this year. I would have been happy with either team winning, but I am happy for the Saints. We had some delicious food and some great company, and it wasn't even at our house, so I didn't have to clean!We celebrated V-day yesterday. (Lish called it the "Mormon Valentine's Day.") We went bowling, went out to a nice dinner, and then got some DQ Blizzards. We followed it up with watching the Slam Dunk contest. I wasn't too impressed. But the rest of the day was fantastic. Of course, I only took pictures during bowling, so you, readers, will only have those to enjoy.
Lish won two games, that's why he's holding up those two fingers. I didn't post the picture of the other score, because it's just too embarrassing. At least I started strong! (Lish was Poopface, I was Stinker. We sure know how to be romantic.)

Happy Valentine's Day everybody!

A Day at the Park

2010-01-31T14:15:00.005-07:00

We've had some really beautiful days here in Tallahassee. It's weird, because it's January. Anyway, after Lish played basketball yesterday morning and I went on my run (7.8 miles!), we decided to head over to the park. With Jazz in tow, we played bocce ball, went on a long walk, and then pulled out a picnic blanket and just soaked up the sun. We were there for over a couple hours and it started getting a little windy and chilly, so we packed up and left. It cooled off a lot last night and somewhat today, so we're SO glad we made it out there yesterday. We love spending time outside!

Basketball, 1st Birthday and Running in the Park

2010-01-28T19:00:00.006-07:00

Lish and I still haven't had too much on our plates lately. Just living the same ole life. Good life. The same ole good life.

Anywho, Lish just started playing intramural basketball the other night, so I grabbed my camera. I hadn't taken any pictures in a while, so here are some out of focus, weird colored pictures. Ah, action pictures in bad lighting. Nothing quite like it.In other news... it was my niece's 1st birthday yesterday. Isn't she just the cutest?Lish and I have decided to start going to the park on Tuesdays after I get off work. It's our new tradition. We just started it 2 days ago. I got off work, we hopped in the car with Jazz, and took off. I went for a run and Lish walked with Jazz, but at this park they have some hiking and biking trails. I went on one of them and it took me to this beautiful view of a lake. It was amazing! I'm going to take Lish up there, but next time I'll take my camera.

Welp, that's about it for now. I'll try to be better about posting, but I'll try to keep it as interesting as possible. For you, my dear readers. It's all for you.

Okay, it's for me too.

Give Away!

2010-01-27T07:08:00.007-07:00

There is a SUPER CUTE store, PoppySnaps, that is having a huge giveaway! (One word, or two?) Anyway, be sure to check them out and look at what they have to offer. These girls are so talented and are selling some amazing items.

Small and Simple Things

2010-01-19T11:11:00.007-07:00

Life has been pretty chill lately. And by chill I mean nothing exciting is going on. And by nothing exciting, I mean it, for the most part. I do have a few "small and simple things" to share.

Last week I got home from work and Lish said, "Whit, what's wrong?"
Me: "I don't know. I'm just in a weird mood."
L: "I'm in a weird mood too. I don't know why."
Me: "Hm, maybe we should bake a cake."

It totally worked. That cake looked and smelled and tasted delicious and we got to enjoy it for the rest of the week! Lish went and played basketball that night and I stayed home and did a workout video. When Lish got back home, he asked what I did that night. I told him, "What I wanted to do was sit in front of the TV and veg while snacking on some cereal. But I didn't." He suggested we have a cereal party the next night for dinner.

Moving on to the next night... I got home from work and went for a run. While I was out running, Lish went to the grocery store and bought 7, yes, SEVEN, boxes of cereal. We already had 3 different kinds, but that just wasn't enough for our cereal party. WE LOVE CEREAL! So we had cereal, pop tarts, and fruit for dinner. It was pretty much amazing.

Last, but not least, I am a runner. Yes, I run and I enjoy it. Who woulda thunk? I decided back in November that I wanted to run a 10K. I couldn't find a 10K around Tallahassee, but I found a 15K in a city that's 2 1/2 hours away from here. But that's 2 1/2 hours away and we'd have to pay for a hotel, and the expenses started building up for this race. So, I checked again and there is a 12K race right here in Tally on February 20th. And yours truly is going to run in it. I'm excited! I ran the length of a 10K just a week and a half ago, and it felt great!

And what's even better is that I get a t-shirt with a picture of "The Flash" on it. This is going to be the best. race. ever!

Conversations with Patients...

2010-01-11T14:38:00.002-07:00

... require patience. Here is how a conversation with a patient went this morning:

(P=Patient, M=Me)
P: What should I do for back pain?
M: Are you experiencing back pain now as well?
P: Yes, but I think it's because I'm getting older. Don't you get back pain?
M: No, I've been lucky.
P: But you get more back pain when you get older. And you don't have any?
M: Nope. How old do you think I am?
P: I don't know...34 or 35.
M: No, you're quite a few years off.
P: Oh, are you in your 50's? 60's?

Are you kidding me?

Then another patient this afternoon:

M: Oh, I see D___ turned on some music. I bet that was nice.
P: It was so relaxing.
M: (Listening more closely to the music) I really like Enya. I know it's so dorky, but I do.
P: My grandma really likes her too.

I guess I am just a 24 year old who looks 50 and acts 50.

Nice.

Utah and California Christmas

2010-01-09T10:00:00.008-07:00

We have a TON of pictures from our trip, so I made some collages for your enjoyment! We had such a wonderful time back west. We loved being able to see SOOO much family and see so many friends. We're so grateful for everything that was done to help us get out there and for all the things we were able to do while we were out there. It was definitely one of the most fun vacations we've had.

I think you get a basic idea of the things we did from the pictures, so I won't get into that. We loved getting to be able to spend the holidays with our family. We think they're pretty cool.

Anyway, enjoy the pictures!

Last Birthday Shout Out

2009-12-31T17:58:00.004-07:00

To my brother-in-law, McLane! McLane turns old today. And I'm sure he's excited about it!

McLane has been a part of our family for 3 1/2 years, and we have enjoyed every moment of it. He is such a fun person to be around, always making jokes and laughing. He truly has a wonderful personality. We all have a good time when McLane is there. (Otherwise, it's just a little awkward... Just kidding.)

It's easy to see the things McLane is passionate about. He does a great job of showing his love for his family and his friends. He doesn't seem to let anything get him down. He's very motivated and hard working and does an amazing job supporting his little family. I love his constant smile and postive attitude. It's such a great example to me.

Thanks for being such a great part of our family McLane! It just wouldn't be the same without you! Love you!

So Sick of Airports

2009-12-29T00:33:00.004-07:00

Alright, it's late but I thought it'd be best to let y'all know what Lish and I have been up to so far.

We started our journey back out west on Dec. 18th. Our flight was supposed to leave TLH at 5:45pm, but Lish's mom got a phone call earlier that day letting her know about a change in her itinerary. (The tickets had been bought under her name.) Apparently our flight had been changed to 6:45pm. It didn't really change anything because we'd still catch our connection in ATL, so we just decided to take our time a little more at home and make sure we had everything ready. Lish had signed up for text alerts telling him about our flight status. He got at least 3 texts letting him know of slight time changes, and one while we were on our way to the airport telling him our flight was at 6:49pm.

So we arrive at the airport around 5:45, and the guy who is checking us in is letting us know that a bunch of flights are delayed. He told us we'd be lucky to even get out by 7, so we tried to be hopeful while going through security. We got to our gate and Lish noticed a bunch of people standing up by the ticket agent looking a little flustered, so he went up there to see what was going on. Turns out, our flight had already left. There was no change in the itinerary, it was just delayed, but we were getting those status updates and the screens still displayed "6:49pm" as their departure time. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but we weren't the only ones stuck in this situation.

Another flight was leaving to ATL around 7, so we tried to see if they had any available seats on that flight. They had 4, so we were booked on that flight. Well, turns out they were "overweight" and couldn't fit anyone else on. So then we were booked on the next flight that was supposed to leave at 7 but was delayed until 8:35pm. (Are you following me here? Yes, it was this crazy.) We were hoping maybe that flight would pull whatever our original flight pulled and leave early so we could have a chance to catch our connection.

Karen (Lish's mom) called the airline at ATL to see what the status of our next flight was, and supposedly they were going to be delayed 50 minutes. We still had a small fighting chance. We didn't leave earlier than 8:35, but we were hoping the delay in ATL was still in effect. We arrived in ATL and the gate we were supposed to pull into was taken, so we waited on the tarmac for 40 minutes. The people next to us were checking their flight connection status, so we asked them to check ours, and low and behold, our connecting flight had already pulled away from the gate. Lish and I were still trying to be optimistic (not so much me, mostly Lish), so he said, "As soon as we get off this plane, just book it to the gate we're supposed to depart at. I'll find a ticket agent and see what the status is, but you just run like the wind." And I did. I took off in that airport and was getting all sorts of crazy looks.

And it was all for nothing, of course.

The plane had already left (we weren't really surprised at this point), and there were no other planes departing to SLC that night. We tried to get on a flight for the next morning and all the flights to SLC were overbooked until 6pm on Saturday evening, putting us into SLC at 8:30pm their time. We had the agent give us confirmed seats on that flight and asked if we could be put on standby for the other flights, just in case. Of course with the way the rest of our day had gone, we weren't too hopeful. We decided to rent a hotel room for the night since we'd be spending all the next day in an airport. The airlines wouldn't pay for it though, because it wasn't their fault. Of course, right? They said it was due to "weather delays." Alright, whatever, we're tired.

We got up on Saturday morning and strode back to the airport, dog in tow and wearing the same things as the day before. (We had no idea what had happened to our luggage.) The first flight from ATL to SLC that morning was at 7:30, so we got to the airport around 5:45am. We didn't make it on that first flight. There were plenty of other flights and with the way things had gone the night before, we were due for some good luck, right? The second flight trudged along and the plane wasn't as big. However, not everybody checked in for the flight. We were high enough on the standby list that we were the first people in line! And we made it on the plane. We were so relieved.

We made it into SLC before noon MST that day. AND our bags were already in SLC waiting for us. It was such great luck! We were so excited to shower and brush our teeth and change our clothes. I've never felt so clean!

Worst. Airplane. Experience. Ever.

THEN we flew out again on Sunday to go to California. Everything was fine with our flight out there, thank goodness. We flew back into Utah on Tuesday night, but our flight was 2 1/2 hours late because of weather conditions in Utah. But we didn't even really care. We knew our plane was en route, and we knew we had seats on the plane, and we knew the updated schedules. We were just so sick of airports. I'm glad we'll have had this week and a half break before we have to go back.

Me and airports do NOT get along right now.

Anyway, that was the fun stuff. I'll blog about the other REAL fun stuff that's been going on later. Must. Get. Sleep.

December 18th...

2009-12-18T06:28:00.002-07:00

Thank you for coming so fast. You know I have been looking forward to having you here. Now, if you could ask the one in charge of Time, please let him know that once I get to Utah, I would like Time to slow back down. I don't want it to go faster than the past few weeks have gone. I want to enjoy every moment and be able to soak it all in. So please pass that on for me. Of course, continue to go fast while I am anxiously waiting at the airports and during the layover. But once we land in Utah, slow down!

My best regards,
Whitney

A Holiday Dance for you!

2009-12-15T07:53:00.002-07:00

Harris Holiday Dance

Happy Holidays!
From The Harris'!