Hair

Those of you that have known me for a long time know that I can be, and am, a little obsessive about my hair. How long? Bangs-front or side swept? Color or grow it out? Should I chop it like I usually do?

I never let it rest for long. After marrying Jameson I realized that I worked on a clock. Every year and a half I would have the biggest desire to chop  my hair. He met me right after one of these chops and even though I dont remember this, he tells me that I would constantly tell him "Wait until I have long hair! It looks great!"

And seeing as this is the longest it has been since I was, well, I think my first HUGE chop was when I was...7? 8 ish? Since then. And you know what? I've loved it. I love the fluffy bun pony tails, I love learning new braids, I love that after all these years I can FINALLY do the "Little Mermaid" with it. Which is why I find it weird that I have the desire to cut it again.

I've toyed with the idea for almost a year now. I've been fighting it. I even went in with pictures of a short cut and the guy talked me down because he didnt think it was what I wanted. He said if I still wanted it in a few weeks, to come back and we'd do it. And I never did. I love what he did. Mom would tell me I am a classic look. To which, I agree. I'm not edgy or trendy, I just dont do it well? I dunno.

Thus my current predicament. In college I would decide and run to the first open appointment ANYWHERE to make it happen before I chickened out. And I remember calling my sister telling her how sad I was I cut it and how I miss it. I remember stroking my hair in class because I was told it made it grow faster. I've spent my whole life trying to get here! And now I am here. And you know what?

My daughter is getting my fallen hair stuck in her mouth and choking her. We're finding them in our food. Our shower is clogged bimonthly. I NEVER get to do it cause it takes too long to blow dry. I always end up putting it in a ponytail, but then it gives me a headache so I take it down but then it bugs me cause it is constantly touching me. I hate that I feel like I always look frumpy with it.

So I found a new haircut and it is short. Here is the thing that makes me feel mature, I've done pros and cons all day long. I know when it is short I miss ponytails, I hate that it is always on my neck and that when I get out of the shower it is dripping on my shoulders. I hate that I cant do anything with it and I only think of my hair long. Which is why I called in the big guns. Friends and family.

Family will support me no matter what. But one thing I know about my family is that they all prefer long hair. And I get that. My best guy friends like it better long. But out of the guys that matter, Jameson is the one that matters most and he supports me either way--he met me with it short and likes it both ways. So I called my girlfriends. It was pretty split. But tonight I talked to Carleen.

And as I was talking to her I realized something. I am not doing this cut because I get stuck in patterns (last time I chopped I was 10 weeks pregnant with Chloe. I'll be 10 weeks pregnant on Saturday). And it isn't because I am bored with it. It is because I have been through all sorts of hells the last several months--I'd even say back to January when we were doing Graduate School rejects to a month ago when we were finishing up moving drama. And I need something to show myself that I am not carrying around dead hair, emotions, memories, drama, I want to cut it off. And that is what freaks me out. I take everyone's opinions into considerations but ultimately, Jamie wont care, my family will get over it, but  this cut is for me.

Part of me thinks I will come out tomorrow with nothing but a trim. I'll chicken out and keep what I have. The other part of me is looking at super short cuts thinking about how fun it will be to have bedhead and rocking out. Then I remember Chloe nursing and playing with my hair and think I'll miss it. I guess the fact is, hair grows back if I make a mistake tomorrow and it is okay to stay the same too. But in the end, I'm doing this cut for me.

A glimmer of hope

The funny thing about when you get sick, or in this case pregnant, you feel like you legitimately forget what it felt like to feel not sick. You cant remember a time you weren't nauseated or aching.

Yesterday I remembered. I had energy and desire to do things! It was amazing! I got the genius idea to make Jameson a celebratory welcome to finals week surprise dinner. It was awesome :) roast, potatoes, gravy... it was fabulous. In theory.

Chloe went down for a nap and I was going to lie down too but I was thinking about what Jamie would appreciate more, a yummy dinner or a clean house. But the more I thought about it the more I decided he would appreciate both! So I turned on my Carly Rae pandora station and rocked on! I danced. I did a jig. I popped and locked. I grooved. I felt amazing!

He was surprised and very gracious :) It has been a year since I bought beef so I know he loved that. The only thing was, it was chewy :/ bah humbug Round Roast. Bah. Hum. Bug.

I am grateful for those glimmers because today? Today was not a glimmer. Today was a sick, tired, ugly UGLY day with my body.

So, my sweet LPR (Little Parasite Ranck), I do love you :)

Day Thirty

Sorry about yesterday, I was feeling really junky. I have something in my sinuses and it makes it hard to do anything. Code milky green--as it were. And the only thing that could take my mind off of it (and pregnancy sickness) was a book my sister let me borrow. Which I am not at all ashamed to say I picked up yesterday and finished at 5:15 this morning. In my defense I did sleep from 1-3 before I couldn't sleep I was so congested. So it wasn't like I stayed up ALL night JUST to read. It was because I couldn't do anything else. I could barely read in all honesty, my head was so congested and it felt like I couldn't even see but I didnt want to just lie there feeling sorry for myself either.

I fell asleep again around 5:30 this morning until 6 when Chloe woke up. I put her back down for about a half hour then got up with her, warmed my sick bebe up some milk and tried to let Jamie sleep in because he didnt get back from work until around 12:20am. Even though he is a few days behind me on this sick thing, honestly I hope he is just exhausted and that he wont make it this far on the strain of virus I am on, but he got up, got Chloe dressed while I slept on the couch and took her to church.

Luckily I already have some awesome friends that agreed to teach my class for me at 7:40 this morning. Phew. They even had a baby 3 weeks ago! When I am not sick I need to make them something as a thank you.

So. Day 30. What have I learned in the last 30 days? Looks like I jumped the gun on that one with the previous post about discovering why I haven't been writing on here. Looks like maybe I should've stuck to the schedule. I did relearn how much I love old friends. Two of my oldest friends and I reunited on Skype after one of them just returned from her mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was so fun to see all three of our faces talking, laughing, so impressed that we weren't crying ;) It was another testament how great life is when you take the time for friends.

Day Twenty nine

What are my hopes, plans and dreams for the next 365 days?

Well, here is one:

Now, I am only 9 weeks (on Saturday) so the baby doesn't look like much more than the back of a gummy bear. But on the screen you could see the little heart beating :) The little circle next to him or her is NOT the baby, so no gender thing or whatever you're all guessing.

Doc said that all is well. Chances of a miscarriage are at 10% at this point, less than 1% by my next sonogram in 4 weeks! So cool :) It helped to go in. It got me excited again. And he made me feel less of a blob. Said this time I am going to get hit harder, faster. So I dont feel like such a lame boob. Dont get me wrong, I'm no kickboxing instructor until the day I deliver, but hey, I'm a Becky :)

So, having this baby complication free is a hope and dream AND plan. Boo-yeah.

Another hope, dream and plan is to take on potty training. Chloe fits all the "profiling" you can do for when a child is ready except for one thing, an interest in taking off their pants. Yeah. She takes off shoes, socks and often asks for her shirt off. But that's it. So, we're waiting probably about 6 more months for that one.

I am also hoping our rent wont change so we can stay in this apartment. It is definitely in the outer rims of what we can afford, but I feel safe here. I haven't totally meshed into the ward, but I still know we're supposed to be here. And I think part of that is our new callings. Not to mention, I've been to several other apartments or heard of them and they all say ours is an incredible deal. Not a bragging thing, but another confirmation to me that this is a good place. A good plan.

I hope to donate my hair. I cant be sure how serious I am going to be about this, because I really want to do it. And I love the idea of doing it. Here's the thing. I contracted myself not to chop it off again until after I have the baby. I dont want to do the classic chop mistake. I want to love it--which means I am going to be picky about how short it goes. I am going to want it long enough to still do stuff with. And I dont know if it will be. Also, the haircut I want, I have a feeling will be very popular when I do it. 1. It'll be summer and 2.It is in an upcoming, predicted (by me) hit movie...at least with women. And as we all know from little Hermione Granger, all the women love her short hair and all the men hate it. So all women will be chopping their hair to look like gorgeous Julianne Hough. Sigh.

I plan on starting to train again to do another race with my Mom and sister. My Mother has very graciously agreed to hold onto one more half marathon after her possible retirement after 60 for me. Hopefully it'll be a Disney one :)

Life is good y'all. Life is hard. Life is short. And I am incredibly blessed to be living mine.

Day Twenty Eight

My year in great deal.

We applied to schools. We spent a lot of money on a lot of "no"s.

We applied again, but only schools in Georgia. We got in to the one he wanted!

We had one of the worst moves known to man.

We got over it.

We got pregnant.

We accepted our current lot in life and embraced it.

That is all the details you are going to get. It's like they dont expect us to blog before this and you not to read and need a review, in great detail, of our year.

I want to tell you... about this baby. First, let me tell you about my friend and her baby. She is 28+ weeks pregnant and has gained 2 pounds. 2....pounds...
Now let me tell you about my baby. My baby only lets my tummy relax when I am eating. So I eat a lot. Which is annoying. Especially cause I just came off this huge high! I was running like a beast, training, at my most fit ever and now I am sleeping all day long, eating like it's going out of style and... blah. In my defense, I am not eating crap. I am eating oranges and protein and applesauce without the sugar. Even if the only drink I can get down is lemonade... It's just annoying that I am already gaining. I was really looking forward to a fit pregnancy. So I am trying, even if it is just walking at a high incline.

First appointment tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes, and probably have to tell you about the last decade in great detail :P

Day Twenty Seven

Now I am getting a little sick of this. Describe my month in great detail.

So let me just say this. Jamie was very sweet and bought me some surprise presents on Black Friday and I didnt have to wait for Christmas! I am watching one tonight. Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief.
I LOVED the books. LOVED LOVED LOVED the books. I will read them again. That being said, this movie is only 32 minutes in and I'm incredibly sad at how they've gone about this. Watching it as another entity is kind of fun. It is engaging, although confusing cause you wouldn't know right from left about this movie without it.

But that being said, it is missing a lot of stuff I loved. But I think I will use my gift of separating church and state and love them both for what they are.

He also got me a bag of potatoes :)

Day Twenty six

My week in great detail.

Gonna bypass this one again.

I'm currently listening to my daughter screaming murder from her room fighting bedtime. Saturday night Chloe climbed out of her crib 7 times. The 6th time she fell and was very angry. So I decided that after church the next day, we'd take down the side panel and make her a day bed.

Originally I thought we'd wait for an actual bed so we wouldn't have to do it twice, but it was to the point of safety being more important.

The first night she was a dream. Went down, only popped up once during the early evening. And slept in to her new normal of 6. Ouch. But, still.

Last night was a little more difficult. I had to start the cry it out method almost immediately. It lasted from 7:30 to 9. She woke up twice in the middle of the night but it wasn't a big deal. It wasn't until 5am that it got rough. It wouldn't have been so bad if it just got me up, but Jamie has this weird disorder where once he is awake, he cant fall back asleep. Weird. My disorder is I cant sleep when Chloe is crying. So we both got up and I agreed with Jamie to keep her in bed until 6:30.

I immediately prayed for Chloe to have comfort and to go back to bed. Jamie was so frustrated because he just has not been sleeping enough. She cried from 5-6:30, when we let her out. The excuses already started. "Mommy, water?! Mommy, food!?"

To help avoid this tonight we were going to put Chloe to bed earlier for her nap so she'd have more time to use up energy. She ended up climbing up on her toy chest, turning on her light and playing for an hour, so she actually got to bed a half hour past her normal time. She did wake up at 3:15 exhausted so we're hoping her not getting enough of a nap will help.

I dont hear her screaming anymore, or I even fidgeting. So, here is hoping. I dont think we could do another 5am wake up call. Any of us.

Day Twenty five

My day in great deal.

Honestly, you have more important things to do than read my day. So I am going to use this for a good ol' fashioned blog about thoughts with some things about my day.

Starting with this blog a day thing, at first I thought I was doing it because I needed prompts. And yes, I think that's true. I needed something to push me. But as I've written, I've learned that it wasn't that I didnt have things to write, it is that I didnt want to. I had all that craziness with the move and it just never stopped. And I didnt want to dwell, but I would share when anyone asked. I dunno, kept me quite I guess.

Something cool about that, I've been called as a Primary teacher and until New Years I am teaching the CTR 7 class (7 and 8 year olds). It's been really a trial by fire. My co-teacher never comes, so they called me to be someone more stable for the class, which I didnt know when they called me. Well, I was preparing for a lesson on forgiveness and it hit me that I could not teach them about it when I was not forgiving myself for the move. I was never angry at the people that did it. Weird? Sure. I was angry at me and I couldn't get over it being my fault. So I had a super awesome prayer and it's been an incredible healing process for me. The hardest part of the move was seriously the PTSD it brought me cause all I could do when I closed my eyes was see myself looking at the safe in the car and choosing not to bring it in, or relive hitting the floor when I walked in the door to call the police. And since my prayer and teaching these children, I haven't seen those things unless I purposely bring it up. And that has been amazing. I am so grateful for the gospel and prayer. Prayer is the ultimate.

Good news that did happen today, we got our insurance cards! We applied for Chloe and me but the big surprise is that Jamie got a card! We're super excited to see what this means for us, if that'll save on how much we spend of our loans or what not, but it is a huge relief. Especially cause I am in serious need of a nurse hotline! This pregnancy is so different, I just need some good ol' nurse lovin'.

Jameson had a final presentation tonight! Last week he is DONE with his FIRST semester of GRADUATE school! I am so proud of him. He has really risen to the occasion with school and then to add work on top of it when we saw the loans wouldn't be enough. He isn't sleeping much because he is up with Chloe at 6am then working the late holiday hours of 11:30pm. He is one of my heroes. I am so blessed to be married to a man so dedicated to his family.

And, back to the "topic at hand" I ended my day watching Dancing with the Stars finale and the Voice *curse curse curse* I'd rather be watching The Sing Off. Except Nicholas. He makes it worth it. And you know how I know I'm pregnant? I cry through every performance. Every. Performance.

Ending the night cleansed of poisons and full of homemade berry lattice pie :)

Day Twenty four

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Something I crave often.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

That's a phenomenal question. A year and a half ago I would've said Taco Bell. And that isn't to say that it doesn't sound good from time to time. But the year without got it mostly out of my system.

What his baby wants, which, is the size of a kidney point and shouldn't have that much of a say, is Jimmy John's Beach Sub: turkey, lettuce, tomato, avocado spread, on their 9 grain, with a pickle. Ohhhhhhhh yeah. Pickle.

If we're talking not dish and thinking ONE thing, bebe likes apples! Which means mama LOVES apples.

The one thing I am not craving, is sweet. I had half a piece of cake tonight. But I hate sweets. No chocolate. No sweet. Which is why I am eating my deliciously tart cranberry relish of orange, cranberry and very little sugar.



Sandwich....

Day Twenty three

Post a youtube video. First of all, watch my video AFTER you check out Jamie's Christmas list videos/playlist. It is the culmination of hours of hard work and he looks forward to it every year, as do I. So please, check it out.

That being said, this is my video. I love it. I smile with it. I laugh with it.

Enjoy.

Christmas Playlist

So I hesistate to write this because Becky has had a great thing going with her daily blogs, which have been fantastic. If you haven't read them, do it! But it's time for my annual Christmas playlist, as it is past Thanksgiving, and I want to share the joy with you. I've mixed things up a little this year, and searched pretty hard to find some good songs that people may not be familiar with. I've gone through literally hundreds of songs, but also note that my selection is fairly limited, and classics are all but absent in this playlist which does give me some cause for regret, but I figure a lot of people have those so I'm sure you can find them. Here goes!

1. Little Saint Nick - The Beach Boys
2. Holly Jolly Christmas - The Format
3. Put The Lights On The Tree - Sufjan Stevens
4. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas - Daphne Loves Derby
5. Christmas Time Is Here - Vince Guaraldi Trio
6. Away In A Manger - Casting Crowns
7. Winter Wonderland - Phantom Planet
8. Mele Kalikimaka - Bing Crosby
9. You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch - Deanna Kirk
10. Carol of the Bells - The Bird and the Bee
11. All That I Want - The Weepies (LOVE this song)
12. Happy Holiday - Bing Crosby
13. White Christmas - Bright Eyes
14. Elf's Lament - Barenaked Ladies (feat. Michael Buble)
15. Little Drummer Boy - Jars Of Clay
16. It Came Upon A Midnight Clear - Norah Jones
17. A Visit From Saint Nicholas - John Williams: Boston Pops Orchestra (read by Robin Williams
18. Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow - Matthew West
19. Must Be Santa - Bob Dylan
20. Oh Holy Night - Eisley
21. The First Noel - Lady Antebellum
22. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town - Bruce Springsteen
23. The Peace Carol - John Denver & The Muppets
24. Angels We Have Heard On High - Chris Tomlin
25. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) - John Lennon and Yoko Ono
26. Jesu, Joy Of Man's Desiring - Amy Grant

While I made each song have an audio link, there are several that are free to download. I can provide sources upon request. Hope you enjoy! Merry Christmas!

Day Twenty two

The story behind our blog's name.

Yes, I took Thanksgiving off and this was "yesterday's" post. Get over it.

Our blog title "Lucky in love" comes from our song :) Because our courtship and engagement were spent at least one state away from each other, our song was "Lucky" by Colbie Callait and Jason Mraz.




That's right. Bask in our sappiness and love it.

Dat Twenty one

A recipe.

No lie, thinking about food isn't my favorite thing right now. Unless it is food I want. Like Five Guys. mmmmmmm Five Guys. Burger. bacon. cheese. green pepper. lettuce. mustard. pickles. big bag of fries. Mmmmmm....

So what recipe shall I share?

In the spirit of Thanksgiving and pumpkin pie, I give you, a family favorite:

Pumpkin Pie Cake!

Crust:

1 pkg. yellow or white cake mix

     remove one cup and set aside

Add 1 cup melted butter and 1 egg

Mix together and pour into Pam sprayed 9x13 dripper pan.

Filling: Mix together:

3 cups pumpkin

2 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/2 tsp cloves

2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp salt2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

3 eggs

2/3 cup canned milk

Mix well and pour over top of cake mix.

Topping: Mix until crumbly and sprinkle over filling:

1 cup reserved cake mix

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter

Scatter 1/2 cup or more slivered almonds (or pecans) over top of cake

Bake @ 350 for 45-50 minutes until knife comes out clean.

Served with whipped cream on top.

 

Let me know if you try it! Cause.... it's fabulous.

Day Twenty

 A picture of me and my family. This is my super nuclear family :) I would post a more recent one like it requires... but you've seen all my post run pictures. Me as Mario, Chloe as Princess Peach, Jamie as my awesome husband being surprised by this Fathers Day Party!

My family of origin minus my eldest brother Marshall but with my Mother's Father. This isn't recent... but it is the most most of us have been in one place. Sad day! Family reunion!!!! Of course... it's looking like it'll happen when I'm pregnant. Yay for us together! Aww for me being uuber pregnant when we take the picture.

Day Nineteen

What nicknames have you had and what are the reasons behind them?

The first I remember is Becky-bear. I dont know if it stemmed from one particular teddy bear present or if it just worked out that way, but my wall hanging was a teddy bear (now in Chloe's room), my Mom was given a teddy bear as a surprise right before she had me and now it's Chloe's :)

Then it's Becky. I was called that because Mom named me after her best friend Rebecca Hunter and she goes by Becky.

Becks was just always there...

Becka. I gave it to myself. When moving from California to Colorado I felt like I wanted a more grownup nickname going into junior high. So I switched it, didn't like the "cc" and made it "ck".

Usagi. It means bunny in Japanese. My friend and I watched a lot of anime and drew a lot... and what not, so it stuck :)

Bex happened in high school. My family called me "Becks" but that didn't seem much of a nickname cause it wasn't shorter, so it turned into Bex to make it shorter to write.

Which is why my name in a friend's phone is "Bex with an x". He had another nickname for me but he cant remember what it was. I think it is convenient memory loss because I've heard the nicknames he has given girls that married into the Budge Boys or didnt...

Nothing too exciting. But there you have it.

Day Eighteen

Plans/Dreams/Goals I have.

Well, plans feel like something more practical than the others. So, my plan is to get Chloe and I insured. I plan on having a baby in July. I plan on sticking with running/walking through this pregnancy.

Dreams are much more fun, in my opinion. I dream of traveling again. More than anywhere, I really want to go to Ireland and Scotland again. Something about knowing I came from there just really draws me. I actually MISS it. I dream about going back to our honeymoon hotel just Jamie and me.

I dont mean to go all deep on y'all, or maybe it will make me seem more shallow, but I dont feel like I really dream toward anything outside traveling. Just because we're taught to live in the now and not live in the future. And I feel like thinking about what I want that far down the road will cheapen what I have now. Not to say you shouldn't have direction or look forward to it, but, I just haven't in a while. So much has happened to me lately that I dont feel like looking far forward. I dream just to get through every day. Maybe that makes me short sighted. But I like to think of it as living in the moment and being pleasantly surprised with whatever comes my way. As a girl you dream about school, marriage, family, etc. And I've found all my dreams... what more could I want? Just a continuation of what I already have really.

Goals, now that is something I can talk about. I have a goal to always fit into my wedding dress between babies, to be able to play every song in the hymn and children book, to be able to do "man" push ups as easily as "woman" push ups, to donate my hair to locks of love, to clean my kitchen every night, to be a good mother/teach my children about the gospel, to show my husband I love him as much as I tell him I do, to make my bed every morning.

My goals may seem small and they may seem mundane. But those are the goals that set up bigger goals to happen. I consider it my domino effect. My doing the small things, great things shall come to pass ;)

What else is there?

We'll know, come July 7th :)

Day Seventeen

Put your ipod on shuffle, list the first 10 songs that play

1. So I thought---Flyleaf
2. Okay, so this is a little embarrassing... but... "I Wanna Touch your Soul---Benny Benassi & The Biz
3. If I Could Reach Your Heart--Cirque Du Soleil
4. Awake---Secondhand Serenade
5.Filling the Air With Music---Skye
6.This Never Happened Before--- Paul McCartney
7. Paper Thin Walls--- Modest Mouse
8. O Holy Night---Martina McBride
9. Our Song--- Taylor Swift
10. Good Mornin' Life---Dean Martin

I need to remember some of these, I miss them! I sure do love me some Skye...and Dean Martin...

Two of these are soundtrack songs, one I didnt even know I owned, one Christmas song and two were gifted to me. The rest are pretty much my originals :)

Day Sixteen

A song that makes you cry, or nearly cry.

I dare you not to.

Day Fifteen

What is your favorite song?

This song kind of spans the time... I always go back to it. It always makes me smile. And you can rock out to it :)



That being out there, I love Lucky by Colbie and Jason because it is my and Jameson's song. I love Sara B's Gonna Get Over you music video.

Day Fourteen

What would you find in my bag?

I'm going to translate "bag" to "purse". Because I do not have a purse, I am then going to translate "purse" to "Chloe's bag" because... that is all I carry.

Inside Chloe's cute new backpack from my mother you would find...

Diapers, Wipes, Lightning McQueen and other various cars, Little Blue Truck, Who's That Baby?, a bag of grapes, her new water cup, a noise maker from Aunt Bonnie and my wallet.

Not super exciting. But the bag is! It's a little blue owl with bright straps. I've gotten a compliment or two on it. Ironically, I got said compliments when Chloe wasn't with me.

Huh.

Day Thirteen

A picture of somewhere I've been.

This is the beautiful Aran Island. I went on a British Literary Tour while attending BYUI. We hit Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England and France. It was fabulous! If I could go back to any of those places, it would be here. Ireland and Scotland were incredibly beautiful!

This was while we were on a bike ride around the Isle and up to the cliffs. How do you beat that? I mean seriously.

Gorgeous.

Day Twelve

 A picture of someone/something that has the biggest impact on you.
It doesn't really feel right only having one picture of one person.

 

 Here stands the love of my life on our first married Valentines Day.

He has been so influential in my life, it kind of surprises me when I sit down and think about it. He makes me smile every day, he helps me work through my crazy, he has taught me to relax! Which, I am not good at all the time, but I think that is the biggest thing. He just has this attitude of everything will work out and he BELIEVES it! Which helps me believe it. I cant tell you everything he's done for me because I know that I dont even know it all :) But I look forward to learning more ways to be better with my husband.

It is impossible to do a post on "the most influential people" without my parents. They are the most amazing people I know. They raised me right, taught me right from wrong, supported me, pushed me, and loved me through it all. I couldn't have gotten here without them.

Day Eleven

A photo taken recently...

Just cause I like to brag, I choose:

I like this one cause I kind of stand out :) But when you're surrounded by blondes that choose dark shirts because of their hair color, it makes your dark hair and light shirt glow :)

First Race!

Day Ten

A picture taken of you over 10 years ago.

Lucky for you, I happen to have many of the memorabilia binders my mother kept for me. I was going to go far enough back that I looked cute and girly. You see, in Kindergarten I still wore shorts and bejeweled outfits, Mom would braid my hair so it would look like Shirely Temple the next day and I looked cute.

And I looked at some of those. But the two pictures I am going to show you say a lot more about me and give me more fun stuff to say about my embarrassing past. Now, before the first picture I need to tell you something. We do not have a scanner. So these pictures are courtesy of my itouch snapping a picture of pictures. These are from the 4th grade.

First up:

 Now who does not want to squish that cute little pudgy face?! I love this picture. So much love and charity...humility...honesty...love...
This is a child that was born in the 80s, to grow and flourish during the fashionable 90s! Boom-shakalaka. I chose this picture, other than for the obvious reasons to show you the bangs through the hat style I sported. And to document the Pooh bear phase that transitioned into the Tweety Bird phase that actually ended tragically because I got wind that he was actually a he.... Or maybe it was because I got sick of telling people he was a he. I cant remember which.

This little golden nugget has a rich background. This is my school picture.
My hair is growing out from one of my many chop mistakes.
If you are wondering about the baggy shirt and if that is just an illusion of the stripes, no. It is not. I was in the stage of wearing clothes bought at the store my high school aged brother was shopping at. I liked his clothes better than girl clothes, I had no confidence in my body and the best thing to do was to cover it up and not deal with it.
My lovely toothy gap caused me to beg my dentist for braces every time I went in and every time he said no.
The gold chain was from a trip to a gold mine in Oregon from a family reunion.
And you cant tell me you didnt love overalls at one point or another... Maybe I need to find me another pair...

So there you have it, my attitudeliciousness, my bagginess....

Quick side note about my baggy clothes. If they weren't baggy they were ridiculously short cropped (baby belly poking out if I raised my hands) and over compensating the other direction. This lasted until I moved to Colorado where I was forced into a middle school dress code of which I fought rigorously and found many ways to bend,  brake and otherwise protest the rules. I actually got a yellow slip for having a sweatshirt tied around my waist (another Becky staple as I felt this hid my rather curvy booty). They cited it as a personal hazard in case it got caught on a stair and made me fall. As if. I wrote a lengthy response on the comment section before I showed it to my mother, to whom I told I was erase it. She encouraged me to keep it. Thus began Ms. Harvey's and my lovely banter for the next two years. 

Day Nine

A photo that I've taken.
 Here is the REAL stretch... a photo I HAVEN'T taken. But I'll stick to the books on this one.

I love this picture :) I was wearing my dress after several years and Chloe wanted to play dress up with me. What mother wouldn't love this picture of their bebe?

Day Eight

This doesn't make much sense to me. Why on earth would you want to see a picture that makes me sad or angry? I dont really keep those kinds of things around.

I want to tell you why before I put up the picture because it isn't necessarily a sad/angry picture in the.... I dunno, traditional sense? It doesn't make me angry at all. It makes me sad in the, appreciative yet I wish it didnt have to be so difficult but know it had to be sense. So it falls under sad but incredibly beautiful picture that I love.

I love my Savior and am grateful that He went through this for me personally. It does make me hurt and feel sad knowing He had to go through it because I wouldn't be able to get through this test on my own. But I can be sad and full of love and gratitude at the same time.

Day 5.0

You know, cause 5.0 is the updated version?
Even though... it just looks like... a 5.

Anyway, this is my favorite quote:

"With any major decision there are cautions and considerations to make, but once there has been illumination, beware the temptation to retreat from a good thing. If it was right when you prayed about it and trusted it and lived for it, it is right now."

I have fallen back on this quote several times and it has brought me untold amounts of comfort when it comes to feeling like maybe I made a rash decision. It brings peace and confidence. And I hope it can help someone else too.

Where was it?
At the bottom of my daughter's toy chest. Found when looking for the little people for her school bus.

Day Seven

Again, "A" picture? Ha.

A picture that makes me smile. They are both pretty obvious, but I'll give you a little insight into my why. The first is actually a candid shot between real ones, but how perfect is it? Me looking at him all in love and joyful in him as a father and husband. Him looking at his little girl with wonder and love. It is just a perfect picture.

The second is one of the few pictures staged of me with Chloe girl. And it is one of the pictures that makes me smile the biggest. 

Common theme? My family :')

Day Six

A picture of me with my friends!

 A photo? 

A!? 

Not possible.

 In no particular order, these are pictures of me with friends! First up is Kass. We were mortal enemies as children, had a spiritual awakening together at girl's camp, became friends and ultimately completed the Three Musketeers of California with Jessica.

 Because there is no recent pictures of the three of us this is the other Musketeer--Jessica. We met several years after Kass and I ( she actually could probably take credit for Kass and me making up), was a roomie in college and is now finishing up her mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints.

Okay... so I know I said this was in no particular order...  But... This picture is missing some of them because well, that picture didnt get taken due to two newly born babes needing to be taken care of. From left to right:Marshall (Heidi), Bonnie (Kirk), Ken (Kristen), Bard (Ric).

My parents. I know I am supposed to be in the picture, but this alone should show you why they are my friends :)

 My daughter. She isn't old enough to know it, but she is.

This is my best friend. Jameson. If you didnt know that, you dont know me.

Day Five

My favorite quote.

I have two very meaningful quotes in my life right now. One is from Pinterest.

"Sometimes you are delayed where you are because God knows there's a storm where you're headed!"

I love this quote for a lot of reasons. The most obvious is our move fiasco. It wasn't supposed to go the way it did... you know, robbery, almost lose our apartment, lose tons of money... that sort of thing. This helps me remember that nothing goes without God's notice and that He is looking out for me. The one you may not know is that we were going to start trying for a baby in August. Granted, we aren't that off schedule, but we really wanted this baby and because of the bad move we knew we had to wait until all our identification documentation was replaced.

The grand-daddy of all favorite quotes, the one that has been in my bathroom drawer or wherever else I put it to save my day is:

Well shoot... I cant find it. I kept it in my journal. But I finished it so I moved it to my scriptures. But one day it fell out so I put it somewhere to stay extra safe. I am super frustrated. I'll keep looking at post it as a post-script to a later post.

But just so you get the gist, it is a quote given from an LDS talk I heard while at BYUI. It basically says that if you feel good about a decision when you make it, you cant give in to doubt later. It's awesome.

Day Four

As an English Lit major I get this question a lot,

"What is your favorite book?"

And I feel like, as an English major, I should have an answer. Truth is, I dont. Which is why I am glad I followed my impression that led me to marry Jameson. Some of you may know that the day before I met Jameson for the second time, Spokane was hit with a huge snow storm that would've made it very dangerous to try and make my GRE test the next day. So we canceled my flight which was canceled anyway, got the test refunded and the next day, when I was supposed to be testing, I saw Jameson.

I am not saying in an alternate decision making universe I wouldn't have done well and become a good English teacher. But I am saying I think I have a quirk that wouldn't be seen as a quality. I read for entertainment--to a fault. Sure I still pick up my Hemingway, Faulkner and occasional poets but I am perfectly satisfied with popcorn reading. To me, it's not a bad thing. I love it.

My favorite series, because it was my first, David Eddings Pawn of Prophecy. First real series suggested by my brother Ken.

My favorite classic is the Count of Monte Cristo. Great great great read! Dont watch the movie. At least not without the cut scene where Mercedes tells off her standin husband.

For some reason I keep wanting to say my favorite is Once and Future King. Time for a re-read!

Day Three

What is your favorite television show?

I need to find a better blog challenge...

Television shows are like popcorn to me. When I make a bowl it is delicious and I think, "Wow! I really like this popcorn!" I'll eat it all then not make it again for weeks. And this is why. I'll find a show, get really into it, like on Netflix. I'll watch the bajeebers out of it until one of two things happen.
1. I run out of seasons because they are either currently playing on tv and not all uploaded
or
2. I get disinterested.

As it stands, nerdy me and Jamie are loving Big Bang Theory. It's nerdy, it's funny, and clever enough to make you enjoy watching reruns.

My inner college girl loves Vampire Diaries. I love the complicated relationships and as a happily married woman I enjoy watching other people fall in love.

The practical me enjoys Biggest Loser. It is a great feeling watching people meet their goals and watching what the trainers do and try to apply it to me.

The Literary me adores Downton Abbey. I've only watched one season and I am thirsty for more! Old English, scandal, honor, family ties, desire to live how you want and not how society dictates... English Literature Major crack on a screen!

The adventurous me solves Castle. Who doesn't love a ruggedly handsome author falling in love with his homicide detective counterpart while solving crime!? Ummm... no one.

Again, "favorite"? I think not. Practical, literary, Adventurous and Nerdy do not agree but enjoy in their own sphere.

But lately, all I've wanted to do is read. Sorry shows, no offense, but reading is my leading man.

Day Two

What is my favorite movie?

I hate this question. What is your favorite Disney, Action, Romantic-Comedy, Documentary, etc. WHATEVER just be specific!

So here is what I am going to do. This is the question I am answering:

What is the movie right now in your life that you can put on, sit back and enjoy or, what is the movie that makes you feel better right now?

Still not a perfect question, but a movie that I can just put in and enjoy, knowing I'll be happy while I watch it counts to me as a favorite of the moment. And right now that moment creator is....





RED
Not what you expected? It has humor, honor, romance, action, witty remarks... I cant think of anything better right now. Sure there are other movies I am enjoying watching and I dont think there is a Cary Grant movie I dont love watching any time of day. But last week when I needed something, this is what I wanted and it didnt disappoint.

Looking for something more family friendly? AKA when Chloe is in the room?




I really do love this. Just a peaceful, beautifully sounding movie.

Ask me again in a week and things will change,  movies will move up and down the ranks, but they'll still be on the list.

Day One

I've been wanting to do this blog a day challenge for a while, and seeing as the move drama is mostly over I finally have the peace of mind to write.

15 Interesting facts:

-My big bottom lip isn't real, it's scar tissue.
-I was an alternate for State in highschool for the 100 yard butterfly.
-I was a horrible nail biter until a random day in college I just stopped.
-I used to put my spoon between my toes and use my feet to feed myself cereal.
-I've never broken a bone.
-I have a collection of Josephine Wall puzzles.
-I would pull my friend's teeth during recess for fun.
-I graduated with my Bachelors of Science at 20.
-I like to do portraits using graphite.
-I took Tae Kwon Do when I was young and made it to brown belt. Hi-Yah!
-I've beaten Zelda Ocarina of Time on the N64 7 times.
-My car's CD tray is full of musical soundtracks.
-My first week of college I changed my major with the school three times and proceeded to do it another three that trimester. It ended up the one I had in the first place-English Lit.
-I can beat my husband at Mario Kart.
- I ran a half marathon while pregnant

Southern Life

It's been about six weeks since we moved to Roswell. It's been...challenging, for one. We're still having issues (especially about the robbery) that we're trying to work through, but overall life has been very good. Grad school is busy, Chloe is busy, Becky is busy, and we're enjoying it. However, it's been different. I think I have had enough experience to give a little bit of a comparison here, so that's what I'm going to do. You know we moved from Holladay, UT, right near the center of the church, to Roswell, GA, right near the...ocean? It's two different worlds. And I'm going to break it down.

PROS:
-Everyone sweats. That's right. It's so hot and humid here that you go outside and you sweat and then when you come in the air conditioner makes everything better in a few minutes. In other words, it's not just me. And I like that because I don't have to feel as self conscious. There's some info about me you're loving, right?
-The characters. Now, I realize that this isn't exclusive to the South. You go into any major city and you're sure to find interesting people. But as I was driving through Buckhead the other day I'm positive I saw Kazam outside. Remember him? Rapping genie played by Shaq? I now think he's real.
-We're now much more obvious. It's one thing to be LDS in Utah. It's another thing to be LDS in Georgia. The spotlight is on us, and there are many more opportunities to stand out and be an example. Of course, with today's world, many times the example you want to set is looked as a negative thing, but it's refreshing. It's much more of the city on a hill experience.
-It's gorgeous here. Utah has mountains, and Holladay has trees, but in general it's boring and brown. The more I lived there the more I grew to enjoy it, but there's just something about being surrounded by greenery. Becky aches for the mountains, but I haven't missed them.

CONS:
-The streets. Now, Washington has bad streets. You have to pay close attention or you'll go down the wrong 14th street, and sometimes they'll be branching off from adjacent roads, and I thought it was a mess. Until I moved here. There are something like 104 streets named Peachtree in the Metro Atlanta area. Half of the time you'll go to an intersection and if you turn right you'll be on one street and if you turn left you'll be on another. It's disgusting. If we didn't have our GPS we would be hopelessly lost. Thanks Judy!
-The sprawl. I'm not trying to say that Utah was compact, but we have to take a five minute drive if we want to take a walk. It seems that everything is at least 20 minutes away. It's a very spread out area.
-The bugs. These things are disgusting. And huge. And everywhere. I had forgotten mosquitos existed. Now every time I go to the park I come home with three or four new bites. We found a cockroach in our apartment a few weeks ago (I killed it posthaste). Apparently this is normal.
-The traffic. I thought I had experience with traffic. I had gone through the years of construction on I-15, I was a pro. That was nothing. My class is 20 minutes away (see?) and I leave at the latest an hour ahead. It's ridiculous. LA has nothing on Atlanta. I know.

So there we go! A short list of pros and cons of living in Atlanta. We're loving it, we're surviving, and we're smiling. Thank you to everyone, and I hope you have a great day.

Oh Where Oh Where Did My Little Girl Go?

This post has been a few weeks coming. We were going to start trying for another baby in August but because of the move we have no government documents and cant apply for health insurance. So we're waiting. In the meantime, I've been looking at pictures. Like this:

Yeah... my sweet beautiful beautiful baby Chloe Elizabeth.

Lately, my baby disappeared. And in her place is a little girl. More specifically, this TODDLER girl:

Chloe is now speaking in sentences. Her first sentence was repeating back a song "Rain came down". Yesterday she put her own sentence together, "Thank you for water".

Chloe now throws away her own diapers. She initiated it on own her own but also does it when asked.

Chloe cleans up her toys. When she wants to start with a new toy she knows she has to put away her others first.

Chloe is playing with other children. Not just next to them. She is holding hands and Ring-Around-the-Rosie-ing!

Chloe is insisting she feed herself breakfast. We can still help her with some things. But Cream of Wheat is all hers. We bought her new spoons for the occasion.

Chloe's Aunt Kristen bought her a box to fit in shapes. I've been telling her the shapes and pointing to the corresponding holes. Jameson sat with her yesterday and she would point to the right hole then put the shape in. She even named over the half of them.

Chloe points to letters and knows what they are. She can spell her name. And when she sees a sign or clothes with letters she points to them immediately to name or  or ask "what's that?"

She may always be my "baby girl" but she has certainly become my little girl.

On a happier note

Hello All  :)

Today Jameson and I got an email saying it has been one month and no one has used our identity to do bad things. YAY!

I have two initial thoughts about this notification.

1. It has been a WHOLE month since it happened!
and
2. It's only been a month?

Although nothing has really changed in the life of the Ranck family, we are moving forward, which to me, is a big thing.

Jameson has started school. I know I facebooked this little tidbit, but Jameson came home from his first night of school, swept me off my feet and if Chloe wasn't asleep I am sure he would have yelled instead of semi-whispering "I'm in school! I'm in school! I'm in school!"

And I am pleased to report that he is STILL very happy about this fact. He has made a few comments about how small the text print is and how there are no pictures or diagrams to take up space, but he has been really excited about every class and comes home with a smile on his face. Which, keeps my smile firmly in place.

He is still looking for a part time job. We have two ward specialists on the case and he writes down the number of every "For Hire" sign we see on the road. We're not picky... if you know of anything.

I am remaining pretty positive. I got an email from my previous RS president this week and for the first time I mourned my ward. I love them so much and they truly felt like my home ward. I was so lucky to know them and learn from them. I just hope to live what they taught me. I still have moments where I feel anxiety for what happened, and that frustrates me. I feel like I should only have to deal with it once and move on. I have been working on the mental image of the stuff they stole. I tell myself it was about as personal as a suitcase full of clothes. Will I miss them, yes? Would I hate to see someone else wearing them? Yes. But you know what, clothes can be replaced. And I think it is really helping.

I am also training for my first half marathon. I know... bandwagon jumper. No need to call names. I am really liking it. Jameson bought my entry and a new pair of running shoes for my birthday so I am putting them to good use! I am so fortunate as to be running them with my big sister and mother! I feel so blessed :)

Chloe is a crazy person. She still runs, climbs, rolls, somersaults and all other physical activities. But, her speech has skyrocketed! She is singing songs, saying phrases from songs, at least two new words a day, signing with more clarity and just growing leaps and bounds! She still doesn't fit into most 18-24 month clothes, but she has the look of a growing girl. Everything is now "Daddy" which we're starting to wonder is her really trying to say "Yucky" half the time... mwahahaha....ha... She loves playing at the park with Daddy when Mommy is training and is the most natural little fish you've ever seen. She has been showing some signs of stress with the move, like problems sleeping (Jamie and me too), resorting to milk as a comfort food and has some anxiety when people leave.

But really, we're counting our blessings. Jamie is in school. We qualified for the loans we need. I am physically and emotionally stable. We're so blessed with family, friends and the gospel and all the other things in life just melt away.

Here is a random picture. We didnt get any good ones from the move because my camera's batteries punked out, but we'll work on it.

Love,
The Rancks

 Fourth of July lovin' with the hubs

I love shoes. Peace out.

Moving Sucks

So many of you know what's happened with our move this year. Many don't. I figure I need to get it out somewhere, and here may be as good a place as any so some of you can see what's up. Let's call this...journal therapy. Sounds good.

Our move came and went. We are currently in our new home in Roswell, GA and we highly enjoy it. But it was the most difficult move we've ever had. See, we hired a moving company to come get our stuff and move it here. The guy was enthusiastic and very willing to move everything. They said they would arrive Monday or Tuesday. So we're getting everything ready, cleaning, and Becky's mom flies down because she was kind enough to drive across the country to help take care of Chloe and keep Becky awake. Tuesday rolls around (our 3 year anniversary!) and Becky gives the moving people a call. Nothing. Turns out the truck "broke down" so it wouldn't be able to get to us. They said it could take up to two weeks to get us a truck.

So this is where we're at. A "broken" truck, needing to be out of our apartment that day, what? Becky's brother in law (an attorney) gives the contract a look over and basically says we're in deep. He looked a bit deeper into the company and it turns out they're brokers, just hiring people to come get our stuff, and says they probably forgot to get us a truck but because of the "mechanical problems" they have two weeks to get us one. So we're stressing out and talk to the apartment manager who agrees to prorate the apartment to us so we can stay in it a tiny bit longer while we figure things out.

4:45 AM rolls around and I hear my car alarm go off. I roll out of bed and stumble out the door to turn it off (this isn't the first time it's happened) and what do I see? Someone had taken a knife to the top of my convertible top and gashed a good two and a half foot cut in the top of the car. Yes. We had our cars packed for moving and luckily had unpacked everything we had thought was important at the time. Nothing was missing, but this was some serious damage (NOTE: We actually discovered yesterday that at some point during the night someone had taken my tabs off of my license plate too). So we call the police, file the report, go back inside and can't go to sleep obviously. We're sitting there trying to figure out the day when a car alarm goes off again. I rush out there and...no. Our other car was broken into. Someone had smashed the back window and taken our fire safe from the car. We had taken everything we thought was important...but we had left the fire safe. We called the police again and I started cleaning up the mess. The problem with the fire safe is that it had all of our documents in them. Social security cards, birth certificates, spare keys, passports, Becky's license and credit cards, my immunization records, things of that nature. All gone. We go through the process (which we finally finished last night!) and don't worry, it's all been reported and in the process of being replaced and our credit and socials are on LifeLock watch. So far, no problems.

So suddenly Wednesday turns into a very stressful day. I'm working on getting an appointment to get the window replaced (finally did around noon) and trying to figure out how to get my car top replaced (still hasn't happened; we're waiting on insurance. Duct tape doesn't hold canvas well. It was fun when it rained) and we're still trying to figure out what's up with our truck. Well, they said somebody could come get it! But later, no, the person they picked up before went over weight and they don't have room for us. But wait! If you pay us an extra 300 dollars we can get someone to you tomorrow! It's only three days after we originally said! We finally got so frustrated that we just ate the (800 dollar!!) deposit and hired a new, legitimate company for a much more expensive price. I'd like to take a minute to thank, once again, each of our parents and our ward for the assistance they gave us in this time, both financial and otherwise. We could not have done it without the aid we received.

We stayed at the bishop's home that night. We were shaken, wanted our cars away from the lot, and needed peace. Becky's mom was a champion this whole time. I know we probably did not thank her enough, but she was so helpful! Instrumental for our sanity and safety. Well, the next day the moving truck came and picked up our belongings, we packed the cars, and left. The drive across the country was blessedly less eventful. We stayed at Becky's parents for a couple days to recuperate, and off we went again.

So, we basically are now at the present. As I said, we're in the apartment. It's empty. We're on an air mattress and Chloe is in a borrowed Pack n Play and we're waiting for everything to show up. It should get here between the 16th and 26th of this month. Hopefully on the earlier end. We're trying to rest while we can, but setting up a new life is work! I start my orientation on Friday and my classes start Tuesday! It is exciting. Somehow, to top it off, I bought the same book twice. Excellent right? At least it was only 75 dollars...

Anyway. We're actually trying hard to keep in good spirits, and it works a lot of the time. We're doing well. We're safe. Everything is alright. The Lord is watching out for us, that I know. We miss everyone we've left behind in Utah! We are excited to start our life here in the beautiful Atlanta area though. Here's to a great year!

In the Middle

Those of you that read the LDS Magazine the Engisn, and haven't read this month's message from the First Presidency, read it and welcome to our life.

We've packed the books, the clothes, the dishes (not to be mistaken for the pots, glasses or pot lids). We've managed to throw away more boxes, we're getting rid of stuff I've been dragging since I was in college, clothes Jameson bought before his mission and toys Chloe has broken.

We aren't unpacked....we aren't packed.... we aren't moved... we dont have jobs here...

Welcome to a literal "in the middle"

Checking in

So it's been quite a while since I've written anything. Life has been flying by! It's been quite an adventure and we're not even close to finished. It's exciting and stressful and everything in between. We'll have to see how things turn out.

I'm finished with work for now. Right now it's an incredibly relieving feeling, but I'm sure being unemployed will turn scary quite soon. I've been able to spend a lot of time wth Becky and Chloe which has been very nice. My parents also came to visit for a week or so which was very nice. Chloe loved it. She got all the attention she could have ever asked for and cried when they finally left. It was so good to have them here! We played games, visited, and went down to Vegas to do the same with our extended family. It was a very nice time. I'm glad we could spend time with them before we leave.

Chloe's learning all sorts of fun things. Like how to climb up on the TV stand and hit the top of the TV, how to climb up her high chair and pull things down from the table, how to hit daddy in the face, how to scream really loudly. Things like that. It's fun. In all seriousness though, she has learned what sounds a truck makes (honk honk!), that sidewalk chalk is for the sidewalk and not your mouth, that force feeding daddy animal crackers is hilarious, and that if you beg long enough daddy will give you some of his food. She hasn't figured out that the key to begging lies in being cute rather than annoying.

Not too much else to report. We have been working on moving things (we've already donated two large boxes of stuff!) and that's pretty much all. It's been a great week, and it will only get busier and busier. It's exciting! We'll keep in touch.

PS I'm writing this on my new laptop that my father got me. It's amazing!

Interests, Dislikes and Favorites Vol. I

Jameson:

Interests: Having two weeks left of work; My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (yes I understand how I sound stating that. The cursed show sucks you in!), almost finishing book 3 of Game of Thrones (only 200 pages more!); Watching Scrubs again, Ice cream, Amazon's weekly $2.99 mp3 albums, GRAD SCHOOL.

Dislikes: Not having the money to download an album a week, Trying to sleep in 90 degree weather (seriously?), All of the fires going on right now (two of my friends have been evacuated), How much work it is to move.

Favorite Movies: My Neighbor Totoro, Rango, Men In Black, Serenity.

Becky:

Interests: Watching My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic with Jameson (after watching the first episode I totally called the artist and impressed him to no end), Running with Missy and Jann, Researching our new apartment and what I want to decorate it with, talking about when we'll have baby #2

Dislikes: Shattering my ipod on the floor twice in one month and the money that goes to fix it, my 5 plantar warts, the stories I heard growing up turning into things that actually happen to people I know.

Favorite Movies: An Ideal Husband, Monsters Inc, Philadelphia Story.

Father's Day

Well as everyone knows, today is Father's Day. Mine has been, in a word, wonderful. Last night, we were invited to Aleece and Damen's place for a Father's Day party. I show up after my shift, and it's a Mario Party! Becky and Aleece had set it up and decorated fantabulously. There were Boo's hanging from the ceiling, there were themed candies out, we had pizza and breadsticks for dinner and Becky and Aleece were dressed up like Mario and Luigi with Chloe being a little Princess Peach. We ate and then played some Mario Party and Mario Kart, then said goodnight. It was an amazing night and I'm so lucky to have a wife and friends like that.

This morning Becky surprised me with my father's day gift: a shaving kit. One with a brush, soap and mug you know? I'm way excited for it. I tried using it this morning and forgot that my razor is dull and so it wasn't the phenomenal experience I was hoping for, but I felt like a sir using it and that's every bit as good.

As I was at church today I was sitting half asleep in Sunday School when I got a phone call. It was from a number I didn't know. I stepped out and listened to the message and that's when it hit me: I got accepted to grad school! We're moving to Atlanta and my classes start in the third week of August. I am sooo excited about it and my relief is actually physical. I don't know many more details right now, but I'll keep you all in the know. Anyway, we're just spending the evening being excited and happy and I hope you all do the same.

I just want to say something about my own father. The older I get, the more I realize just how amazing of a man he is. A tireless worker who was always wanting to spend time with his children whether we wanted that or not. He was willing to learn anything to have something in common with us. He was a phenomenal example to us and I hope that I can become a father like he is. Thank you dad for making me the person that I am today.

Catching Up

Well! It's been a long time since I've written anything on here. As usual, the longer it gets the harder it is to actually write. But here goes nothing.

I had my birthday! I went to work in the morning with a Keith Urban CD that Becky gave me. While I was there, my wonderful work friends surprised me with a Carrot Cake from Whole Foods (can you say delicious?), a Spiderman balloon that's just now finally died, and a card. Sweet of them. I got home and Becky burst out with some nice gifts and then made me Alice Springs Chicken. I know, I scored right? All in all, a wonderful birthday.

As a side note, my daughter is sitting on my lap. She literally just crammed an entire half of a banana into her waiting trap. I don't even know if I could do that. Hungry girl.

I got a call on the way home from the temple. It was a call for an interview at Mercer University in Atlanta GA. The interview was for the following week, so I finangled my schedule around, made a few calls, bought a (very expensive) plane ticket and flew on out! I feel very good about the interview, but I've felt very good about interviews before so I'm trying to not read too much into it. I also was able to go look at an apartment, and after some weird rigamarole we now are renting an apartment starting the beginning of August in Roswell, Georgia. No matter what we're coming down! We're very excited to go.

I think a special thank you needs to go to Bonnie and her family for housing me not once, but twice in the last couple months as I've been on this grad school journey. Of course, I actually got to see her this time, so her plot to avoid me failed. Bwahaha.

Anyway, that's a little bit of catch up. Not much here, I know, but who says blog posts have to be long?

Update... Merry Christmas?

Alrighty folks.

Here is what is going on. We realized after I publicly announced our decision to move to Georgia some people were a little offended that is how they found out. We are sorry that happened and here is the scoop. We've been talking about this for a long time and basically had our minds made up a while ago. It got to the point where we knew it and even though we were praying about it for God's approval, but we had talked about it so much we assumed everyone was in on it. Sorry :( It wasn't our intention to make anyone feel left out.

On that note, Jameson is currently on a plane to Atlanta for an interview with Mercer University's Marriage and Family therapy program. I personally feel like this is the one. I'm making these words sweet cause I may eat them. But I feel so confident in Jameson and in the journey that has brought us here that I feel this is the one. This is it! I think we'll know soon. His interview in Thursday at 2:00. Prayers are appreciated!

I am home trying to keep up with Chloe! I am still working out like I told y'all about, twice a day. When we go jogging Chloe yells "Go! Go! Go!" And you know, it is as motivating as it is funny :) She doesn't enjoy performing anymore. If she feels like saying a word or telling you what a cow says, she will. But you cant really ask for it anymore. She is still a little little girl but every time I look at her I see this growing up girl instead of a baby!

So this feels like a Christmas card. Christmas in (almost) July?

Merry Christmas! :)

I love to see the temple

Side note* There hasn't been a birthday post yet because I think you all want to hear it from the quarter of a century old man himself :)

Temples! I've always loved them. Even before I went through for myself, I did baptisms for the dead every week in Rexburg and Jameson and I have been good about going since we've been married. I was a huge adjustment having Chloe and finding time to go. We originally had a New Years resolution to go once a month. We had a couple that wanted to trade off so we never had to find babysitters. And, you know, life gets in the way. So it was getting hard.

A week ago we went down to Provo and our good friend Tiny watched Chloe for us. We decided to do sealings. As we sat there I had the impression that I needed to go every week. And, my sweet wonderful husband didnt say "It'll be hard" or "Okay, I'll help". He said that one of us could go, while the other watched Chloe and then switch. He wanted to do it with me! I was so excited :) It just reminds me even more about what a spiritual giant he is and how hard he works to set a good example for our family. We were also preparing for June 1st, the new deadline for Gradschools.

This week would be our first week in a row to go. Jamie had one day off this week. Friday. I was going jogging with my friend in the morning, set up a playdate at the park with a friend (Jamie included), temple, and pick up my brother Ken and his family. So I called the temple and I could go at 6am to perform Initiatories. I went to bed thinking I could wake up at 5:30 and make it all work but before I fell asleep I aborted the plan and said I'd figure it out.

7:30 in the morning, June 1st,  Chloe wakes up and I get a text from my friend saying she thinks she had food poisoning and that she wouldn't be able to jog. I ran out the door to the temple thinking this was a sign that I needed to do it. And I wasn't disappointed. It was phenomenal. I felt so awesome and had the most powerful impressions that we were moving in the right direction and that listening to Jameson's counsel will get us in the right place.

We went to the park with our friend, had lunch at Whole Foods, Chloe went down for a nap, I went to work. When I got home Chloe woke up and Jameson ran out the door to the temple. He hit traffic. He missed a turn. It seemed like everything was telling him to turn back so I could make it to the airport. He pushed through and went.

He got out in time for me to leave, but he wasn't home in time. So I ran door to door trying to find someone to watch Chloe for just ten minutes. As I ran from door to door, complex to complex, I got a call. Jameson had just gotten off the phone from a 5-10 minute call from Mercer University offering him an interview for next Thursday! He had just left the temple, stuck in traffic and he got this amazing phone call!

You know, going to the temple isn't always convenient, it isn't always at the top of your list and it takes a chunk out of your day. But you know what, when you get the feeling, itch, inspiration, desire to go. GO! It is worth it. It is wonderful and when you go, God wont be able to keep blessings from you because of the service you render your fellow siblings and the respect you are showing him.

(My sweet friend Lisa took Chloe from my arms before I even finished my sob story so I could go pick up Ken and Co for a wonderful evening of Cafe Rio and water park)

Changes and improvements and goals

Health/Exercise has been a pretty big discussion around here lately. With my inlaws changing their lifestyle/eating style, my sisterinlaw having a baby, my family being their crazy selves and trying to decide if I should keep my gym pass (money guilt)... there has been a lot.

My biggest problem with it, is that I tend to want to go all or nothing. I dont want to ease into a new regime or take it slow. I know what I am capable of, so I want to do what I've done before. Starting over is something I'm not good at. So, I've jumped into it again. My friend did an exercise project where she had several Mommies do a workout from Pinterest to see if they actually work (you can check her blog out here: http://www.momsdofit.blogspot.com/).  I know that isn't the smartest way to do it. I just cant accept anything less than the best. Maybe that's a mental thing from swim team, but I just cant start slow.

So I'm now a Pinterest workout every day, walking with my friend and going to the gym days Jameson is home. I'm NOT saying I'll be running halfs with Mom and Boo, fulls with Bard, or anything in between, but Missy and I will be training together. So I'm looking for a jogger :) It helps that Biggest Loser is on Netflix while I workout at home ;)

Jameson has also been working on some things as well! Stress has really taken a toll on both of our bodies. But, especially Jameson. With it being his name on the desks of the schools, I can totally understand that. So the other morning my lovely went jogging! For those of you that know him, he hates jogging. So I am incredibly proud of him! Especially in celebration of his 25 years! I also think I remember him saying he's stopped drinking soda at work! We're eating a ton more vegetables which has actually lowered our weekly grocery bills, woot woot!

So here is for not waiting for January 1st to start something new and being successful :)

Perfection

There's an oft quoted scripture that says "be ye therefore perfect." Truth to be told, this scripture seems to divide people in two camps: those who take that literally and those who ignore its existence. Some people freak out, thinking that because they aren't perfect this instant they're sentenced to eternal doom. Others sweep it under the rug with a "it must be figurative" statement and carry on with their lives. I feel the truth lies between the two. We're not expected to be perfect, but we are expected to consistently try to improve. And that's where my challenge lies. Too often I get complacent and kind of float on in life (which may be what God's trying to eradicate through the yearly trials). Which makes this little incident a surprise.

My good friend Carly is doing a 30 day blogging challenge. Obviously the goal is to increase the frequency of blogging, giving daily prompts that range from a minute or two to more lengthy ideas. I was looking at the prompts and realized I blog far less than I used to. I also realized that may of these prompts would not work from a male perspective (no, I do not have anything in my makeup bag). As I was searching the internet I found a website called the art of manliness, with a 30 day challenge of its own: 30 days to becoming a better man. With the website title I was expecting a list with much more of a misogynistic approach, but was pleasantly surprised by what I found. The list includes things like defining your core values, cultivating gratitude, write a letter to your father, make a meal, and, naturally, get a straight razor shave.

The list is intensely interesting to me, and whether or not I will actually take the plunge and do an activity a day it did get me thinking of how to improve. Most of the time, when we think of improving ourselves, there are a few things that come to the mind of any given person. These will undoubtedly be the areas they perceive they have the most room to improve. Following this thought, they'll try to tackle their Goliaths and will almost certainly fail. There's a reason that they're having trouble with it, and it's very difficult to change a part of you at the snap of a finger. Very few people have that willpower. We eventually give up after a failed attempt or two, and fall back into our old patterns. My challenge is to find ways to ease into it. There are small ways that we can improve, and as we take these steps the bigger obstacles will appear smaller and more manageable. When thinking of improving, we generally don't think of memorizing a poem (or scripture!) or writing a love letter. But there are things inherent in many activities that will slowly shape us into the type of person we want to be. While the going may be slower, it's no race. As long as we're progressing, we're not staying still and vice versa. So think about it!

Sorry this sounds preachy. It's not my intention. I was just musing over in my head and realized that it may help somebody else as well. I hope it does!