Four Months!

I can't believe it! Here are some pics of our growing boy:

We're still dealing with blocked tear ducts, but he's handsome even with eye goop.

Hands are still delicious. So are plastic rings, toys, burp cloths and mom's fingers.

This is to show what his tummy looks like when he flexes. I love the fat bunching over the muscles, especially the roll above his diaper. At his four-month checkup he tipped the scales at 17 lbs, 8 oz and is 25 inches long. And still has a massive head, in case you were curious.

Quinn and Daddy love video games (don't worry, it's football. Mom won't allow Quinn to killing games).

Tackle him, Dad! Don't let him get a touchdown!

Blankets are for the head, not the legs. Silly boy.

There you go, that's the life of Quinn!

Lots of Pics

Quinn is doing a lot of fun things lately, so here are some pics in rather random order. I will narrate.

In the last week he has become very good at tummy time. He holds his head up proudly and looks around for a while before giving up.

Quinn took his first bath in the big tub with Daddy. He wasn't too sure of it, but didn't cry. I think he enjoyed Dad's splashing (and his farmer's tan).

This pic is for two reasons: There was about a week and a half that Quinn always had his tongue sticking out. So cute! And this day he was intrigued by my lotion. He stared at it, talked to it and eventually started knocking it over.

This is how we spend our afternoons: Watching Uncles Tony and Wilbon on PTI.

Shhh. TV.

So handsome. When he's tired he gets some very thoughtful faces.

For a few days he was doing really well reaching and grabbing for things. Now I think he's lost interest and is focusing on other tasks. I'm sure we'll come back to it though.

Triumph of the Shopper

I have some meaningful posts coming, but I have to take a minute to share my joy. How much did I pay for the items pictured above? $28.01, not too amazing. How much did I save? $65.28. Now that probably says more about the outrageous prices at our Albertsons than my ability shopping the sales, but I am still proud. Then I went back last night for diapers and pedialyte and spent a little over five dollars and saved $11. Hooray for remembering to use coupons. :)

Baby Laundry

The funny thing about having a baby is that I always have clean clothes. Quinn creates enough laundry that I have no choice but to do my own. I really don't mind the extra laundry that having a baby creates. Folding it is no problem. The problem is that it takes so much longer to get started and to make the change from washer to dryer. Why? Stains, that's why. I have to pre-treat the poop and puke stains and then check the effected pieces before putting them in the dryer to make sure they came out. The ones that didn't get treated again and saved for another batch. It takes so much longer to be thorough!

A weekend I couldn't avoid any longer

I have tried very hard to be productive today. We cleaned out the inside of the car, vacuumed it and washed it. I still need to armor-all the inside, but it's only cool enough for that until about 9 a.m. so that will happened next weekend. Then we went up to check on Troy's parents house. No disasters there, but we decided we need to go up Monday night and pull weeds, sweep and squish cans people have dropped off. Coming back to the heat is hard for Connie, so the easier we can make it the happier we'll all be. They'll be back on Tuesday and I'm actually very excited. I hang out with my mother-in-law more than anyone else in town and I miss her when she's gone for the summer.

Once we got home I was tempted to be lazy, but forced myself to do the dishes and wipe the counters. Then I looked and my floors and decided I just had to do them. If there were ever floors that needed some TLC, they're mine. I mopped, but because we live in a rental, the grout was kinda grimy when we moved in. Then after two years of cooking and washing and walking and pasta sauce (for those who remember that incident--see my post in October of last year), the grout was brown instead of the light beige it's supposed to be. So I pulled out the pumice and went to work. It looks a lot better, but I'll have to keep working on it. I used a whole stick on the kitchen and still have the dining room and trouble spots to do. I took before and after pictures and although you can see a difference, it still looks icky close up, so just be proud of me because it's a major improvement.

After that I was in a slightly productive mood so I went to the store to get pectin for freezer jam. I had strawberries I needed to use and I LOVE freezer jam. I've never made it before and travelling to Utah to steal some from my mom just isn't practical, so I decided to give it a shot.

This is for you Linds. For those of you who pay attention to details, my jam is cheese-free, contrary to what the lid says.

It tastes good for now. Hopefully it will set up and still taste good.

So that has been my day so far. I do not plan for the rest of it to be as productive. I think I'll make dinner and that will be it. :)

A Quick Update

Yes, it's been a while since I posted. You'd think I've been busy, but no, I haven't really. Summing the last few days up, over the weekend my mom passed out right after she pulled the car off the highway (long story, but I'm very happy everyone's okay) and Jason and Lindsay got engaged on Saturday (hooray!). I'm getting more and more excited to go to Utah for Christmas. I miss my fam very much and get more and more homesick every day. I hope the weather cooperates and we can get out of Blythe early so we can get there quickly. Wish us luck!

Thank You for Calling the Library

Have you gone to answer your phone at home and rather than saying hello or your usual at-home saluation, you greet the caller by identifying your place of work? Every time I'm about to answer the phone at home, I have to force myself not to say, "Library." And I don't even answer the phone at work that often! There have been a few times it slipped out and we all got a good laugh out of it, but it's really annoying to be walking around my house thinking, "Library, library."

Quite a Dilemma

I'm sitting here trying to decide if I should go out of town tomorrow and do some Christmas shopping (and watch my hubby's basketball game) or not. I'm just so tired and it would great to have a day to myself, but I really do need to go to an actual store and finish my shopping. What's a girl to do? I also need to finish my primary lesson, but I guess I could do that tonight instead of surfing the net. Ha ha. A serious quandary.

It's Been a While

A little update: Thanksgiving was great but the vacation was too short. Strange that I'm complaining when most people didn't have Friday off and I did, but I'm finding that I'm taking a lot for granted lately.

My brother-in-law fixed the light in our kitchen. Our landlord thought I just couldn't figure out how to put in new bulbs, but I told him it was more. After being stood up by the electrician twice, we just learned to live with it. Over the weekend my bro-in-law looked at it and determined the switch was bad. Yeah, that's what I was thinking all along. I just saved my landlord $100 bucks. Well, I didn't, but my family did.

Today we got the carpets in our living room cleaned and it's amazing how much larger the room seems without our furniture in it. No wonder we were excited to rent this place!

What a busy week. Lastly, today I vacuumed my Christmas tree. Strange, I know. But the tape on the box gave way from the heat in our shed and the tree spilled out and got dusty. Now it's all clean and ready to go up.

There you have it, our weekly update. Now we're off to the grocery store for potatoes and milk.

A Little Bit of Everything

Wow, I'm feeling very cloudy headed today. I was all ready to enjoy a Friday evening to myself with nothing to do, but with a couple hours left at work, I remembered I have to go to a baby shower tomorrow. I didn't necessarily forget about the shower, I just forgot it was so soon. I've know about it for awhile, so I guess I just thought it was still a long time away. Not so. Anyway, I still had to make my gift and figure out what salad I was making. It had been suggested that I make a seven layer something salad, but I've never done it and wasn't in the mood to experiment. So I'm doing a scaled-down version of my Pepperbelly's knock off (which turned out very well, if I may say so). Anyway, it's now 10:30--that probably explains my cloudy head--and I need to go check on the chicken. I'm kind of at the point that I'm tired but wired at the same time.

I wish I had a funny story to tell, but I don't. The trunk-or-treat was fun. Troy and I were some of the first helpers there so we got to pick our game. We opted for the bean bag toss, but by the time it was over two hours later my hands were black from picking up the bean bags from the asphalt. Ick. And I was so tired. My legs were jello and are still recovering. I think I need to time it next year so I'm either prego or out of town.

One final note: Congrats to cousin Sam on getting married today and Happy 18th Birthday to Sarah. I love you! She'll never read this, but it's the effort that matters, right?

Hello, My Faithful Readers

Yes, I know I haven't been a good poster, but there hasn't been anything good to post about. Homecoming went on without a high school game, although Pop Warner played and everything else pretty much went on as usual. Our primary program was on Sunday and it went relatively smoothly--nothing to complain about, but not much to laugh about either. Other than dealing with sibling drama over the weekend (thanks for your help, Kamie. She's clueless about the source of the treats but I told her Brian probably didn't have much to worry about. She did comment that they were very yummy and the packaging was very "done up." Okay, tangent ended) we really didn't do much. I did learn that one of my sisters has to drive a mile to use a restroom when she's not working in the Utah wilderness. Very sad and slightly funny that she has to plan her potty breaks well ahead of time. Anyway, that's about it in Peterson Land. The snowbirds are starting to come back to Blythe, so the streets are fuller and there are more friendly-looking seniors in the grocery store, so that's fun. I'll try to look for some oddly-funny stuff this week.

Fall Cleaning

Well, today I used comp time and stayed home from work. I decided I needed to clean behind the washer and dryer because they really needed it. Once I got started I was really in the groove. I pulled out the fridge and cleaned behind it, too. The more I did the more I was loving it (weird, I know). Then I started putting away some groceries that never made it to the pantry shelf when it happened.

I picked up a bag containing three bottles of Prego and I guess there was a hole in it. One bottle fell out right after another and shattered on the kitchen floor. Ick. I was wearing flip-flops, so at least I wasn't standing bare-foot in the mess, but I could tell there were bits of glass in the red goop covering my feet. So I carefully walked to the sink and washed my shoes and feet. Then tackled the mess. Not so fun. That was a major mood-killer.

I spent the next 1.5 hours cleaning up glass and pasta sauce from the floor, cabinets, fridge, etc, etc. My once semi-white dishtowel is now a festive Halloween orange. I was just going to do a quick sweep and swiffer of the kitchen and dining room, but instead did a hands and knees wipe, a thorough sweep, a vacuuming for good measure and then a swiffer. I even found some glass in the living room (which is around the corner from the disaster zone), so I vacuumed the living room again. Needless to say I didn't accomplish much after that. I did go buy some flowers, so I hope to get those planted this week (pictures to follow).


I know, it looks like a massacre.

I don't think the picture really represents the extent of the mess. Don't try this at home.

Another Friday

Ah, the weekend. Troy's at a football game (I hear it's not going well) and I'm enjoying my Friday Night Freedom. I went to a birthday party for my friend's son. It was a pirate theme and I made myself a little bandanna. There were a lot of other friends there and it was nice to see everyone and chat. Actually, I'll see a lot of them tomorrow at a baby shower. I just finished making and wrapping my gift. It's just a blanket, but I like the colors. Hooray for going out of town to find fabric. Anyway, the new mom and the birthday mom are part of a long-time family in Blythe. The matriarch is our ward choir director and is trying to get me to come back to choir, but I just can't. Ever since Carrie's funeral, I don't really sing. Well, I'll sing along with the radio and in Primary, but I have a really hard time singing the hymns in sacrament and the one time I went to choir it wasn't any better. My heart just feels heavy when I think of making the words come out. But you can't really explain that to someone, especially without tears coming to the surface. I don't why singing is the part of me I lost with her, but I just can't do it anymore.

It's strange that sometimes Carrie's death just seems like a fact--that's the way it is and it all seems very distant. Others it's so fresh I can smell the flowers that filled our house and the way my clothes felt on my skin as I stood next to her casket.

Last week I realized we'll have to take Carrie's name off our rotating Christmas list. As traditions pass and milestones are marked, we're losing her. Our family is slowing becoming one less.