My Latest Faves and Craves!

Here's a random post for ya . . . some of the latest things I'm loving, from cleaning products to lotions to . . . of course, food!

MARIONBERRY . . . ANYTHING! Probably my favorite thing right now. This, if you can't tell, is a picture of pancakes with Marionberry jam. My friend Deb gave me a huge jar of her fabulous jam after we got back to Oregon, and the first time I cracked it open, I put it on a waffle with whipped cream. It was heavenly. More like dessert than breakfast! Can't wait to go berry picking and learn to make jam on my own . . . and syrup, and ice cream, and smoothies, and sorbet, etc. . . . SO tasty!

BATH AND BODY WORKS SHIMMERY LOTION. Got a pedicure with my mom a few weeks back, and they used some of this shimmery lotion from Bath and Body Works. I loved it! It made my legs feel so pretty! :) The Cucumber Melon scent featured here, just to clarify, would be my LEAST favorite scent, thanks to an old college roomie. It always makes me think of good ol' Chan Chan. (That, mixed with rotten milk.) I know, not nice, but neither was the smell.


TOSTITOS CREAMY SPINACH DIP. My sister Mary brought this stuff to a family function this summer, and I have not been able to stop thinking about it. I know, pathetic, but it is SOOOOOO good! I like to heat it up a little bit. Ashamed to admit that the most recent jar, which we bought only a little over a week ago, is almost gone, and I can't credit Grant with eating very much of it. He's not a huge fan. I, on the other hand, am hooked. (P.S. I like that in this photo, which I got off the Internet, the dip has been gotten into. Makes me feel like I've got a friend out there.)

SWIFFER SWEEPER/DUSTER/MOPPER. (Pardon the informercial moment on this one!) K, I know I'm WAY behind in catching on to this one, but the Swiffer is my new best friend! I've got a lot more floors to keep clean, and the Swiffer starter kit I picked up has been wonderful! The funniest thing about it was when I was looking at it at Costco, I literally had two other women come and give me unsolicited testimonials about how much they love their Swiffers. No, seriously. One lady went on and on about how she has this hundred-and-some-ridiculous-number pound Great Dane that she uses her Swiffer to clean up after, at which point her testimonial was negated in my book on grounds of insanity (Who lets a Great Dane in their house?!? Oh yeah, my neighbors when I was little did, and it used to knock over their toddler.), but the nicer, less flamboyant woman who smiled and assured me that yes, it's much easier than regular mopping, re-convinced me to make the purchase.

Tongue in Cheek

So my dad read about this in the news and referred me to this satirical blog that supposedly some "Mormon mommy" in Utah started up.

http://www.seriouslysoblessed.blogspot.com/

Check it out if you've got a minute. It's hilarious! I can't believe the time and effort someone is putting into a joke, but unfortunately, she's a little bit too dead on at times (from the skimming I did in just a few minutes). And yes, I know I'm part of the phenomenon. And it's okay. Can't take ourselves too seriously, can we?

Safe and Sound

We made it back to Oregon. Our trip was smooth sailing, and after a few days of adjustment, Eliot is happy and perfectly content to have ample room to roam and play. Some of you may already know that we are house sitting this year for a couple in our ward who are on a mission in Hawaii. Needless to say, we are making quite the adjustment to so much space! It's going to be an amazing blessing to be in a house, even if it's just temporarily. We are loving the gorgeous view and yard, and it feels super strange to have more storage space than we can use! One of the great perks of staying in the house is that we have space for visitors. We already have people lined up to come see us, too, which makes us look forward to the weeks ahead! My sister Mary will be out in just a couple weeks, and then my parents are planning to come out for Labor Day. Hopefully a few of Grant's sisters will be able to make it for his fall break in October, along with others who are yet to "set a date"!! The fun visits from family and friends should hopefully make the year go faster (at least for me . . . I don't know that the visits will affect Grant too much, other than he'll be wishing he could be home with our visitors and not stuck at school for long hours!). It was definitely hard to leave family again after our very restful summer break. We had such a wonderful time in Utah, though. Grant's internship/clerkship could not have gone better, I was able to make some great accomplishments with piano lessons, getting my photos/scrapbooking organized, and also getting back into "running" shape, and Eliot had a ball being spoiled by grandparents and all of his adoring aunts. We'll miss ya, fam and friends! Come visit soon!

Healing My Heart

I made a huge first step this past week and made it back to the temple after over a year. Not only has having a newborn, nursing baby, along with a law student family schedule made it difficult to make it to the temple, I've also had some anxieties about going that resulted from some very painful and heartwrenching experiences. My feelings about the temple have not been the same this past year, which has been heartbreaking for me. I remember when I was first endowed, I would go all the time -- alone, with other friends preparing for missions, with anyone who would go with me. Because I had been endowed prior to my mission, Grant and I had the privilege of attending the temple together during our courtship and engagement, which was one of our favorite dates. That habit carried over into our marriage, and we have loved every opportunity we could go. When we would vacation, we would try to make a point of attending the temple if there was a temple nearby our destination or along the way. I felt like that safe haven was taken away from me over the past several months, and I wasn't sure what my experience would be like when I went back. Well, it was heaven. Simply stated, heaven. It was peaceful, perfect. I had prayed and prayed to have an experience to help me feel at ease and to feel reassured that my Heavenly Father knew my heart and my feelings, and that experience came in a sweet and simple way. It was so wonderful to go back. So wonderful to allow that part of my heart to be healed.

Family Pictures

We got family pictures done last night with the Grant's side of the family. We used the same photographer that did our wedding, who we just love, and we can't wait to get the official photos! The weather held out and wasn't too hot, and the backdrop was just beautiful (shot in the Riverwoods in Provo, for those of you familiar with Utah!). This is a "contraban" picture my sister-in-law took . . . a sneak peak of the real thing!

Mommy Moment

A recent sweet (and slobbery!) moment with Eliot. He's typically a pretty independent little soul with his own agenda these days, and does NOT like to be interrupted from discovering and playing, but every now and again, he satisfies his mommy with a sweet kiss or two! (Forgive the sideways video . . . though it made me feel better that my sister-in-law did it this way. At least I'm not the only one who forgets there's no such thing as "vertical video"!!)

Has Anyone Seen My Background?!

Yeah, so I added a background to my blog a few days ago . . . and it disappeared. Anyone know what might have happened?! Please, more experienced bloggers, help me out on this one. The "Page Element" with all the HTML coding is still there, right where I left it, and all of the changes I made in Blogger (fonts, colors, etc.) are all changed, too. Help this not-so-blog-savvy girl out!

Freedom Run 2008!!

Eliot and I had a fun new adventure this morning -- we ran Provo's Freedom Festival 5K together! There were SO many people there this year (well over 3,000), which makes it exciting, but at the same time presented some challenges for running with a stroller. With only one minor "incident" (for which I have no one to blame but myself), the race went pretty well. I even made my goal time, which was rewarding after weeks of training and even a couple of minor setbacks. My sister Mary ran it with me, and Grant's sisters Melissa and Tori weren't too far behind! Great way to start out our 4th and a fun family tradition. Eliot didn't even seem to mind getting woken up early to go, but he did keep looking at me pretty confused about the whole thing! What a sweet little jogging buddy he is!

Me and my running partner Eliot! (If you're confused about the background, we're actually at the BYU Creamery on 9th, the only place we could meet up with Grant and Mary's hubbie, Louie, because all the roads were blocked off for the race. Darn runners.)

My sister Mary and I. Mary's the "real" runner in the family. Just finished a 1/2 marathon up by Bear Lake a couple weeks ago. She's amazing!

Insomnia and Face Lifts

I'm going on about three weeks or more of not being able to fall asleep at night. Which isn't new for me. I did the same thing during the months leading up to my mission. Doesn't matter how tired I am, what time I go to bed, if I've worked out that day or not. Just can't shut down my brain. I think and think and worry and think, and it drives me crazy. My used-to-be-habit of getting up at 5/5:30 a.m. to go to the gym has happened maybe twice since we've been in Utah because I am exhausted in the morning since I can't fall asleep until one or two in the morning (if I'm lucky).

My most recent restless night brought about the face lift on my blog. I've wanted to add a background for a long time now, and thanks to a friend's secret tricks of the trade, I spent over an hour of my sleepless night giving my blog a "new 'do." I hunted and hunted through pages of backgrounds online, found one, tried it, didn't like it, tried again. And then once I found one, I of course had to dabble with my fonts and colors, and then change my mind about the background and start all over again . . . Sound familiar to any of you other bloggers?!

At least I wasn't tossing and turning in bed, going over my budget in my head or planning for the umpteenth time what I'm going to do the next day, or deciding at what point I'll turn off my alarm because there's no way I can get up to put in rigorous cardio on three hours of sleep. I know, I need help. But at least my blog's cute.

"Toddler" Blues

First I have to say that Eliot's birthday was wonderful. We gave him cake (which he only gently mushed), he got spoiled rotten with presents, he played with his new haul of toys, and we all went to bed exhausted from a full day. Pictures and one fun blog entry coming soon. So if Eliot's day was so great, why did I feel sad at the end of it all?

I think what started it was I got my weekly e-mail update from a website that sends me information about Eliot's growth and progress, and until yesterday, it would always say, "Your Baby This Week." Yesterday it said, "Your Toddler This Week." And it made my heart hurt and my eyes well up with tears. All I could keep thinking is, "But he's NOT a toddler! He's still my BABY!"

And of course he is still my baby. But I think I just hold on to the past and especially to times that are so special to me, and Eliot being a tiny, cuddly newborn was one of the sweetest phases of my life. So it's hard for me to trade that in, especially when the thought of another baby during this high-stress, lots-of-change time of life is completely overwhelming to me, which leaves me confident we won't have another newborn in our home anytime soon (never say never, but still . . .).

I was fortunate enough to not really suffer from the "baby blues" after Eliot was born; so maybe it's my turn to pay my dues? Add to all of this that I'm almost completely done nursing Eliot, which has been more emotionally wearing on me than I ever imagined it would be, and I'm just a sad/happy mommy mess! So, other new moms, am I normal or nuts?!

Eliot and Me

Couldn't love him more.

Hard to Believe

Sadly, with all of the commotion in our lives last summer (Commotion? What commotion? We only had a new baby, packed up our condo, attended my three youngest sisters' weddings and moved to Oregon in a period of less than three months. Nothing big.), we never sent out birth announcements for Eliot. So for his first birthday we did a "then and now" announcement (thanks to my amazing friend Brittany, who designed it for me! A million thanks, Brit!). It turned out DARLING. I'm still trying to get over the fact that Eliot turns one next week. What an incredible year it's been.