Falling slowly

As I mentioned before, after we took our previous mountain drive, we knew we would be headed back up once the leaves changed. This week and the next are the peak for colors in the high country near our house, so we packed up and headed out this morning for a long drive around the backside of Pikes Peak.

Of course we needed our camera to make sure we got some great shots of leaves, as seen here:

But I was more interested in finding a spot for a family portrait, as seen here:

 

I kept trying to turn the camera onto the manual mode so that I could learn how to take better pictures. Unfortunately, when you have no idea how to adjust any settings and you are in the middle of the mountains, you just put it back into Auto mode. Some day.

So when I got home, I started fiddling with Photoshop to adjust some colors and shadows, but quickly realized that you can’t read entire help book in one sitting. So here’s the best I got:

I think it looks a little better than it did before.

The drive was absolutely beautiful! And long. Miles, as per usual on a drive over 45 minutes, took a nap at an unusual time. Which means he didn’t nap at all once we got home. I left him in his crib during the time it took me to clean all of the mountain from the outside of my car and the goldfish/cheerios/dog hair from the inside of my car.

And since Chris had to leave at about 4:15 for work leaving me alone with a non-napper, I decided to let the lovely young ladies at my gym deal with him during the witching hour.  This might be the best thing I have ever done!

The search for our dream home…

…is hard.

On some of the days that Chris has off, we like to take drives to different neighborhoods in Colorado Springs and surrounding areas to try to narrow our focus. Especially since we hired a realtor this week and it would be nice to give her something specific to look for—you know, not just “a house.” Today we went to one of the prettier areas, the towns of Monument and Woodland Park.

Imagine a quant mountain-ish town just 10 minutes from the freeway. Both cities are tucked up against the foothills, although Monument extends to the east side of I-25 as well, and are beautiful. The houses seem to have much more land than you will find in the suburbs, which is anything above 1/8 acre. I don’t know about you, but I really don’t want to see into ten of my neighbors’ backyards from my back patio.

The problem with these areas is that you are a bit removed from the convenience shopping, the parks, the schools, and other kids. Unless we plan on having 8 kids that can keep each other entertained all of the time, I just think it might be best to be closer to their friends as they grow up. And Chris likes the idea of building a new house with everything he is looking for (but probably not a yard or a beautiful mountain feel).

And the other major problem in our search right now is that we don’t have money. Remember how my parents helped us to get out of our townhome in Charlotte? Well that means that we have a balance to pay them every month. Oh, and let’s not forget those medical school loans that are due now. Oh, and that large chunk of change that we may need to buy into the group in 18-24 months.  But somehow we need to also have a down payment?

Right.

But I really hate our rental!

I hate the kitchen. I hate the white tiles on the counter that show every piece of cat hair. I hate the baseboards in the kitchen that aren’t actually attached to anything. I hate cooking in the kitchen. I hate the dirty white walls. I hate the random blue accent walls. I hate the drafty, dirty windows. I hate the weird smell in the basement. I hate the bugs in the basement. I hate that our master bathroom doesn’t even have a tub. I hate the cobwebs growing on our front porch. I hate the driveway that is crumbling. I hate the garage door that only opens about half of the time. I hate the rock garden in the backyard. I hate that birds fall out of the sky and die in our grass. Yes, you heard me, birds die here!

But mostly I hate that it isn’t mine.

So you can see why I am eager to get out of this place, but we have  8 more months on the lease. Unless the perfect house shows up and our bank account miraculously grows, we’re stuck here.

It could happen, right?

Things I really want to like but don't

* Eating healthy foods.
* Crafting. Although perhaps if I actually tried to make something instead of just looking at it on Pinterest, I might like it.
* Cleaning the shower and tub.
* Waking up early.
* The new show "Up All Night." I keep trying.
* Ironing. But that will never happen.
* The lady who pulled into two spots at the grocery store because clearly, her car is so much more important than mine.
* Cooking dinner.
* Cleaning up after dinner.
* Sharing food with my adorable son.

And I'm sure many, many more.

We teach by example in this household

We ran our second 5k as a family tonight which makes me feel so good about what we are teaching our son about health and well-being.

And then we ate out and got some ice cream which makes me feel so good about what we are teaching our son about sometimes food and rewards. Kind of.

And now I’m eating popcorn. The extra butter kind. And kind of thinking that I might be a little confused.

Slider

Miles has bravely been going down slides now for a few weeks (a big milestone for him since he would previously scream when we took him near it). Last Friday Miles and I met a friend and her daughter at this same park where Miles went down a very tall slide several times with no fear, even though it has a drop off at the bottom causing him to drop about a foot to the ground.

But when Chris and I took him today, we was more cautious.

I apologize if the video doesn’t look right on your screen; this was my first time uploading a a video from my phone.

Boob tube

I just deleted an entire post about my the TV shows I watched in the last week. So pathetic. Here’s what you need to know:

I need more hobbies.

But more importantly, I need another TV and receiver so that I can record more shows.

Inflation

Hey, remember me, the girl who pledged to blog everyday in September but just skipped three days in a row? Well, I’m back and with no good reason why I didn’t blog. Unless you count that I just didn’t feel like it. But because Live Writer lets me set my own publication date (even if it has already passed), none will be the wiser.

So let’s pretend that it is Saturday night and I just got back home after my first real date since our anniversary in July.

Chris and I just paid our first babysitter ever. Yes, after nearly 17 months. In Charlotte we just did swaps with friends since we didn’t go out often; and since we’ve moved here, we used my mom once, but that’s it. So we decided to hire on of the scribes that Chris works with in the hospital, but because I was worried about what Miles would do with a stranger, we had her come over right before bedtime to meet the little man but didn’t leave until after we put him down. But next time, she’s on her own.

Especially because we paid her $10 an hour to watch TV.

And she drives a nicer car than we do.

Cat nap

I bought this bed for the cat yesterday so that he would stop leaving his dark hair all over my light couch.

Good news: he loves it.

Bad news: we lost one seat because he'll only sleep on it when it is perched on the chair.

It’s like Hollywood up in here

And because I forgot to blog yesterday, here is a second one for today.

I spotted a celebrity at the gym. Not sure what he is doing in Colorado Springs, but he’s here. Probably because every show I have seen him on has been canceled. And because I don’t even know his name, perhaps he can’t be considered a celebrity. Maybe D-list. Or perhaps F.

But thanks to IMDB, I can tell you all about him. Except that it doesn’t say a whole lot.

Meet Nate Torrance. He’s from Canton, Ohio. He was in some commercials and some failed shows, including one of my favorites, “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.”

And I did try to take a picture of him at the gym with my phone, but I felt kind of foolish and invasive. Here’s the best I got.

I promise it’s him.

Not that anyone cares.

We be jammin’

Yesterday was our second music class with Miles, and it went much better than last week. Both for Miles and the photographer.

Last week we had a bit of a hard time because Miles would have a meltdown every time we had to put away something that he loved (i.e. the egg shakers, the scarves, the instruments), but this week we were able to distract him enough during the transitions so that he didn’t realize what was happening.

His favorite part of the entire class is instrument free time, otherwise known as a jam session.

I know he doesn’t look excited, but he truly was. He just kept switching from instrument to instrument which sometimes meant that he stole them from the boy whose striped sleeve you see. And it was so cute to see him figure out how each one worked.

And then do it wrong.

I say he’s a boy prodigy, you know, because the future of drumming definitely involves turning it upside down.

Why today is my favorite day of the year

Two words: fall lineup.

In fact, I’m having a hard time focusing on this post because I am watching the season premier of “How I Met Your Mother.” And as far as I can tell from my DVR list, I’ve got a follow-up episode coming up right after this.

Embarrassing story time. When Chris and I were first married, we didn’t yet have DVR because TV had always been a background part of our lives. Don’t get me wrong, I watched my fair share of “Friends” in college (well, until it ended) and occasionally “Dawson’s Creek” (although I’m not proud of that), but this was before the world of DVR or Tivo. If I wasn’t home to watch something, then I didn’t watch it. And I know Chris made a specific arrangements to be home on Thursday nights for “ER” (not surprising), but that was pretty much it.

But as time went by, we realized that we were actually planning our social calendar around our  shows. Pathetic. So we upgraded to DVR service. And it revolutionized our lives!

And now that I find myself at home more often (something to do with that adorable sleeping boy downstairs), I find my nightly TV to be so rewarding.

And then summer comes along and totally ruins everything.

So tonight is the start of a beautiful reunion with old friends. And of course some new friends. But in past experience, I should just wait until a new show gets renewed for a third season before I pour my heart and soul into it. Or maybe even a fourth season.

Cookie monster

I bought  a package of Walmart snickerdoodle cookies last night, and barring the one that Chris ate this afternoon, I ate all of them. I didn’t count, but I’m pretty sure that makes 11. This is not something I normally do. But I know that tomorrow there will be no more cookies in my house to stuff my face with, and I can start over and pretend the whole thing never happened. So long as I don’t step on the scale in the morning.

Free advertising

On my jog today, I saw something rather odd: children holding signs to indicate a garage sale. And I saw it twice! I felt a bit odd taking a picture, so that's why you can't really read the sign or see his five year old brother around the corner holding another sign.

Why my car is really dirty tonight

The thing we love most about Colorado, and specifically where we are in Colorado Springs, is the proximity to beautiful mountains; well, that and the fact that there is almost no humidity in the air. Today we decided to take a mountain drive through Pike National Forest, which was about 15 minutes from our front door.

And about 3o minutes from our front door, we made it to “Make-Out Reef,” at least that’s what the spray paint on one of the rocks said. We did NOT make-out while we were there.

That’s downtown way down there.

Where’s Miles, you say?

Doing this:

He did wake up when he realized that Daddy was snapping pictures.

And as we continued driving up, we saw the first signs of Autumn on the Aspens and decided that we will be making this drive again in a few weeks.

Chris’s original plan was to get out and walk/hike to the reservoir, but when we realized that we didn’t have the carrier or warm enough clothes for Miles, we turned back around so that Miles could stretch his legs back at Make-Out Reef. I did inform him that this will be his ONLY trip there. EVER!

But who needs kissing when you have huge rocks? A little boy’s dream.

 

And a bunch of little rocks to show off.

He was so excited that he just couldn’t keep that drool in his mouth. Either that or he is getting three molars at the same time.

Blogging gets old after 15 days

I have a great husband who stayed home with Miles all morning while I went shopping for clothes with a friend….is what Chris told me to blog about.

And because he was mad that I insulted his photography is the last post.

And because I can’t think of anything else to blog about.

Date night (afternoon)

Chris and I went on a date today. To the dentist. Is that lame?

Is it better that we then went to Ikea, Nordstom Rack, and Target without Miles?

No?

Maybe next time we’ll also go to the grocery store.

Next time I’ll hire a professional

Today was the first day of Miles’ new music class, and I was excited to have Chris join us for the first class so that he could take pictures of our little music lover.

And this is what I got:

Nobody puts Baby in a corner

I really wish that I had taken a picture of the woman I saw while in Zumba this morning, but I thought that would be a bit awkward. No one wants to be on camera while working out. But this woman was clearly dressing for others, at least that’s what I am assuming.

I tried to Google the top she was wearing, but to no avail, so my description will have to suffice.

To start with, it was a light orange…not quite salmon, but not quite neon either. It was tight, but that seems to be common among Zumba-ites (I don’t know if that’s what they call themselves). It wasn’t quite long enough to cover her, yes, muffin top (but to her credit, she was at the gym). It was an open back shirt/bra with three wide straps across the back revealing her skin rolls. And it was ugly.

The shorts were basic enough: white, short, possibly classified as hot pants. But they were short enough that I could see the white strip of skin that never gets tanned while lying in a tanning bed.

And she was clearly a woman that loves to Zumba because she dances right up front by the instructor, she gives tips to newbies before each song, and she gets REALLY excited about everything.

But not as excited as the old lady that sings and shouts to every song that is played. Including when she sings every other word to the theme from Dirty Dancing.

“Had…time…life…owe…you!”

Remembering

There is nothing that I could write today that would accurately convey how I feel ten years after the tragedies of 9/11/01.  Yes, I remember where I was: at work cleaning the dorms at BYU during my freshman year. Yes, I remember what I felt and still feel as I see images from that day: absolute awe. But as I was snuggling my son today, all I could think about was how grateful I am to know what I know about God and His love for all of us. Grateful to know that His son died for us on the cross and rose again on the third day to prepare a way for all of us to live with Him again. Grateful to know that He is there for us in our times of need. And all times.

I can’t say anything better than Thomas S. Monson, the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said in a guest blog for The Washington Post.

9/11 destruction allowed us to spiritually rebuild

By Thomas S. Monson

The calamity of September 11th, 2001 has cast a long shadow. Ten years later, many of us are still haunted by its terrible tragedy of lost lives and broken hearts. It is an episode of anguish that has become a defining moment in the history of the American nation and the world. This week, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, along with Tom Brokaw, will pay its own homage to the unforgettable events of September 11, 2001.

There was, as many have noted, a remarkable surge of faith following the tragedy. People across the United States rediscovered the need for God and turned to Him for solace and understanding. Comfortable times were shattered. We felt the great unsteadiness of life and reached for the great steadiness of our Father in Heaven. And, as ever, we found it. Americans of all faiths came together in a remarkable way.

Sadly, it seems that much of that renewal of faith has waned in the years that have followed. Healing has come with time, but so has indifference. We forget how vulnerable and sorrowful we felt. Our sorrow moved us to remember the deep purposes of our lives. The darkness of our despair brought us a moment of enlightenment. But we are forgetful. When the depth of grief has passed, its lessons often pass from our minds and hearts as well.

Our Father’s commitment to us, His children, is unwavering. Indeed He softens the winters of our lives, but He also brightens our summers. Whether it is the best of times or the worst, He is with us. He has promised us that this will never change.

But we are less faithful than He is. By nature we are vain, frail, and foolish. We sometimes neglect God. Sometimes we fail to keep the commandments that He gives us to make us happy. Sometimes we fail to commune with Him in prayer. Sometimes we forget to succor the poor and the downtrodden who are also His children. And our forgetfulness is very much to our detriment.

If there is a spiritual lesson to be learned from our experience of that fateful day, it may be that we owe to God the same faithfulness that He gives to us. We should strive for steadiness, and for a commitment to God that does not ebb and flow with the years or the crises of our lives. It should not require tragedy for us to remember Him, and we should not be compelled to humility before giving Him our faith and trust. We too should be with Him in every season.

The way to be with God in every season is to strive to be near Him every week and each day. We truly “need Him every hour,” not just in hours of devastation. We must speak to Him, listen to Him, and serve Him. If we wish to serve Him, we should serve our fellow men. We will mourn the lives we lose, but we should also fix the lives that can be mended and heal the hearts that may yet be healed.

It is constancy that God would have from us. Tragedies are not merely opportunities to give Him a fleeting thought, or for momentary insight to His plan for our happiness. Destruction allows us to rebuild our lives in the way He teaches us, and to become something different than we were. We can make Him the center of our thoughts and His Son, Jesus Christ, the pattern for our behavior. We may not only find faith in God in our sorrow. We may also become faithful to Him in times of calm.

Thomas S. Monson is president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

(http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/guest-voices/post/911-destruction-allowed-us-to-spiritually-rebuild/2011/09/08/gIQAbkjKCK_blog.html?fb_ref=NetworkNews&fb_source=profile_multiline)

Cute pictures make up for a missed day of blogging

Before you start judging me for missing a day of blogging, just know that I spent my normal blogging time (that being once Miles is in bed) with my head hanging over the toilet. Caught some sort of stomach bug that I’m hoping is gone.

But I did take some great pictures of Miles at my sister’s house last night.

The weather was still very nice when we got there, so Chris took Miles out to the trampoline with my sister’s girls. Pictures don’t turn out that great through the mesh cage, but you can still tell he was having a great time.

And then (instead of eating dinner), he played with a ball in the lawn and pointed at airplanes flying over.

And then as Chris was playing video games in the basement with my brother-in-law, my mom introduced Miles to the piano. He got the hang of it pretty quickly.

And so you see, I’m still kind of copping out of a real blog entry by just posting pictures. Maybe tomorrow.

Star Light, Star Bright

How do I keep forgetting to blog about the stars on my ceiling? I have started like four different entries, all about nothing, and as I erased the last one, I leaned my head back in frustration and remembered that in just a few minutes, when I turn out my lamp, the ceiling will look like the night sky.

The first day we were in this rental, we had unpacked the essentials and cleaned the floors (multiple times), but we had no idea what was waiting for us in the master bedroom. It isn’t like the ceiling has those adhesive stars that are popular in kids’ rooms because the ceiling looks completely normal in the daylight. But when the lights are off, it literally looks like the night sky that you would see in the mountains. I have tried googling it to see how it is done, but I have no idea what search terms to enter. Either there is a company that customizes some sort of see through glow-in-the-dark decal, or someone very skilled painstakingly painted each little star (and the entire Milky Way) with some glow-in-the-dark paint and a paintbrush.

I can’t decide if it’s cool or creepy.

I’m leaning towards creepy.

Waxing and Waning

Have you ever gone in to get a simple eyebrow wax and after being directed to the room, you are tempted to leave because it looks more like a torture chamber than a reputable business? That was me today. But did I leave? No. I didn’t want to offend anyone or have to find another place near my house.

It turned out okay though.

But I won’t be going back.

Boon!

While Miles and I were grocery shopping this afternoon, he kept pointing at all of the balloons hanging over the floral department, and I thought it would be a bad idea to get him one of those since he would probably just let go of it; and if I tied it to his wrist (which my mom tried once) it would only result in lots of crying. But as I was walking through the cereal aisle of all places, I noticed a pack of punch balloons (remember those?) and couldn’t resist.

I thought it would be perfect mommy-making-dinner entertainment. And although his face doesn’t show it in this picture, he truly loved it.

All little creatures were super excited to get to that balloon. Actually I think Scout was mostly nervous.

I was pretty sure that if I could just keep the cat away from the balloon, everything would be fine. I was wrong. I’m pretty sure that Miles bit it.

And because I’m not a good mother, I took a picture of the aftermath before I held him.

We only semi-labored today

It being Labor Day today, we did what every family does: checked off items on our to-do list. Oh, is that not what everyone does? It was Chris’s intention to get up early to go see the balloon festival this morning, but I wasn’t keen on the idea of getting up that early, or more accurately, of waking up Miles that early. Perhaps we should have done it anyway because Miles decided to wake up at 6:15. Then we thought we would go for a morning hike, but it was that weird temperature between too cold and just right. So we sat around watching The Today Show in which their C-list anchors hosted. Then we figured we might as well just go run all of the errands that were piling up: REI to exchange our kid carrier, the mall to remove an alarm sensor from a sweater Chris bought in Utah, Kohls to replace Chris’s sunglasses that Miles destroyed (and pick up my first pair of skinny jeans…not quite jeggings though), and Target to pick up a whole plethora of items (including sunglasses because after summer is over, Kohls doesn’t think that men need sunglasses).

During naptime my sister’s family did stop by on their way home from hiking near us, and I’m pretty sure the kids were bothered that we wouldn’t wake up Miles to play with them. But like I said, I’m not real keen on waking him up if I don’t have to.

And since Miles ended up sleeping until 4:30, we decided that an evening hike would be a perfect time to test out our new backpack. We went up a canyon 15 minutes from our door to hike up Mt. Cutler. It is an easy hike, but has gorgeous views of mountains and the entire city.

Is there anything that could make this view better?

Yes.

We tried to get a family shot, but the camera battery gave up the ghost right as a nice hiker was about to snap it. So far, we are loving living near the mountains with such beautiful weather. Thing's that we missed living in Houston and Charlotte. Don’t get me wrong, each of those places had things that we loved. Houston had excellent food, in fact, we still crave Chuy’s. and Charlotte had wonderful seasons (just a bit too humid for my taste), but we are excited to become Coloradoans or Coloradans…never have decided how to say that.

A pleasant Sunday

Church with a toddler can be very difficult, especially when Chris isn’t able to come with me to take turns walking the halls. But today was one of those days when I was pleasantly surprised. I only had to go in the hall once when Miles fell backwards and hit his head.

Can’t complain.

Oh, and the markers were a big hit. And he didn’t even need to take the cap off. He thought it was pretty fun to just tap the marker on the paper without actually coloring.

And that’s all I’ve got for you today. Forgot to take pictures of him playing with my family this afternoon. Oh well.

Fail

I still have two months until I can officially take Miles to nursery at church…and yes, I am counting down. It will be nice to feel like going to church is actually worthwhile. And if I’m being honest, I must admit that on Sundays that Chris isn’t with us, we often leave early.

But a few weeks ago I thought maybe if Miles had a super cool toy that he can only play with at church, he would be so enchanted, that I would actually get to pay attention. So as per usual, we took a trip to Target on Saturday (not that we don’t also go on other days) to pick out a toy. Unfortunately, there aren’t many toys that are small enough to fit in my bag and also quiet. I ended up with something that he didn’t care about at all.

But today I had a better idea: coloring! There was another little boy at church with Crayola markers that only color on their own paper. Expensive? Yes. But if it will keep him entertained…totally worth it. But while we were in the Crayola section, I also saw the little markers and crayons that are supposed to be perfect for little hands. I tried to first stand him at the dining room table and help him color, but he kept pushing the chair back. And when the marker starting bleeding all over my table, I moved him to his high chair. Here’s what he thought of them…

I’m not sure why he was so upset by the idea of coloring, but every time I tried to help him, he screamed at me.

But the paper was pretty cool.

And these were put away for later.

But I know what will always make him happy: ROCKS!

And just for good measure, here is a picture of just how cute my little man is.

Here goes nothing…

Why, oh why, did I say that I would blog everyday in the month of September? I seem to have temporarily forgotten just how not exciting my life is. Miles and I did stuff, but just nothing exciting happened. Other than lots of crankiness.

I think this must be one of the most fun and frustrating ages in Miles’ development. He is just so excited about everything, but can’t communicate exactly what he wants to us. We try our best to understand his pointing and grunting, but it often ends in tears. He’s pretty good at pointing at what he wants, but sometimes he points to the pantry but doesn’t want anything that’s in there. Perhaps a sign that he is super smart because perhaps he remembers something that was there before.

But today was just one of those days that we couldn’t seem to get it right. And one of those days that I was grateful Chris was around for the post-nap to bedtime crankiness.

And sorry that I don’t have any pictures of today, but no one wants to look at grumpy face. From Miles or me.

Miles: 16 months

I’ve been trying really hard to pretend that I still have a baby, but it gets harder day by day. I think it’s time to admit that my Miles is officially a toddler. He definitely toddles around a lot. A lot. He has been busy since he could crawl, but not that he has mastered running, he doesn’t stop (unless he’s sick).

I took him to the doctor this week for his 15 month check-up (a little late, I know), but he is officially middle of the pack on the growth curve (finally).  Although I feel like the big bulk of his growth has happened in his belly. Many of his shirts turn into belly shirts, and let’s be honest, that’s not attractive on a boy.

(This is what I found him doing when I got out of the shower the other day.)

But while at the doctor, they gave me a survey to fill out that’s supposed to be done at 14 months to see how your child is developing. As it turns out, I have neglected to observe behaviors during the day. Like if he can stack blocks on top of each other. To be honest, when he plays with his blocks, it mostly involves Chris building a tall tower while trying to keep Miles from touching it until it is completely done. Then Miles knocks it over. Or how about the question about his ability to hold a spoon. Well, yes, he can hold a spoon. But do I let him? No. I don’t want to be giving baths three times a day. Bad mom, I know. Or the question about coloring. Was I supposed to be teaching him to color? Oops.

It’s amazing to me how quickly he picks up on things now though. He learned the sign for “more” in one day this week. He learned the sign for “ball” while pointing at one hanging at a restaurant over and over again. We know he understands a lot of words: Mom, Dad, dog, cat, ball, milk, banana, flower, tree, airplane, truck, train, more, bite, take/bring, kiss, Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Steve…and I’m sure more. But what does he say? Dada, or more specifically, “Dad-n.”

I’ll admit it: he LOVES his Daddy more than he loves me. Probably because Daddy plays music and dances with him more than I do. I keep meaning to get this on video, but whenever Chris puts on any song by The Killers, Miles lights up, lifts up his arm, and starts dancing. So cute. He actually points to the stereo when he wants a dance party.

 

But this child also has a very serious side. Like when he is trying to put things inside of an empty Diet Coke box.

And as observant as this child is of the world around him, he sometimes misses the big picture. You know, because that speck on the floor is way cooler than the otter behind him.