One of THOSE days…

My patience muscle got a major workout today.

Today was a challenge for Jay. The kind of day where every little thing was a big trial, requiring tears and lellow and star (his blankets). Being two is no picnic.

Jay figured out how to climb onto the kitchen counters today! Monkey. He was devastated that I wouldn’t let him play with the bread knife. A distraction was necessary.

We made a fort instead! It was a pretty sweet fort, complete with castle turrets, a paper welcome mat, lego-flowerbed, and bordered walkway. I had tons of fun making it. When I was little, we made forts all the time, so I felt like a kid again with this creation…until I had to bend down and crawl into it! Creak, crack, twinge, oof. And I thought age 24 still counted as young.

In spite of his boo-hoo-mood, Jay liked his fort a little. He slowly warmed up to it.

slowly.

In the fort together

Of course, when Daddy got home, Jay perked up and got all excited to show off his now-fun-and-cool fort. Eventually all 3 of us squeezed in together. It was warm in there!

We would have brought Rose in with us too, but she was snoozing peacefully next to the garden path.

Then the bunny came and destroyed the garden,

and this little cutie pie woke up. (that bruise on her forehead was a gift from Jay)

She was feeling strong so she kicked down part of my quaint little walkway wall.

We tested Rose’s super strength, and this was the result. She pushed herself up and over the pillow—faceplant!

Jay’s banana version of “faceplant.” Toldja he’s a monkey.

We’re kind of going crazy

[we took this picture for a project that my sister is doing—hence the paper heart]

It’s the last day of May. Jeff is filling out job applications like crazy. We only have one month left to live in our little “lellow” cottage by the park. What’s going to happen to us this June?

Little Voices

Jay and Rose have the sweetest little voices! Here’s proof:

My two favorite Jay-words right now are sunshine and airplane. I just love how he says them! He babbles in his own language and inserts real words every now and then. It’s entertaining to try and figure out what he means. He’s getting so much better at communicating now, and it’s nice to be able to understand what he’s talking about more often.

Rose is quite the little squirmy, squeal-y chatterbox these days! She looks like she really knows what she’s talking about, too. It makes me smile.

This afternoon, we were playing on the bed, so I got out my trusty camera. Jay is getting pretty good about putting his arm around Rose for pictures. He was so energetic, though, that it didn’t last long…

Jay likes jumping on our bed. It’s hard to tell, but he’s actually in the air in this picture.

I love watching Jay and Rose interact. Rose enjoys watching Jay play, and she gives him lots of smiles. Jay gives her toys and pats her (and whacks her) and covers her with blankets.

Rose is so patient with Jay’s rough `n tough affection.

mmmm tasty t-shirt quilt! (Jay was copying Rose)

Little miss blue eyes

Ball Boy. He adores any round object.

Love them.

Jay is probably saying “head!”

Cute tummies

These two are so much fun! They remind me not to take life too seriously, and just relax and PLAY. Yes, there are big decisions and worries looming in the very near future (job hunt, home hunt, etc). I have been making a big effort not to stress about the future, and to take plenty of time each day to devote 100% of my attention to my sweet kids. It helps. The FUTURE will come whether I worry about it or not. So I’ll just pray and hope and do what I can, and then go hang out with Jay and Rose (and then I’ll beat Jeff in Scrabble when he gets home).

The Coolest Ward Name EVER that we’re really excited about

Sunday night we attended a special “fireside” meeting in Prosser, WA. There were 2 stake presidencies there and 2 wards. We knew a major change was a-brewing.

THE CHANGES:

1. Our stake president released everyone in our ward from their callings all at once. It was kind of fun, raising our hands to thank each other for the good work all together. (hah--I lasted less than 5 months as Primary President)
2. The boundaries of our ward were altered, more than doubling its size (before the change we were falling below 140 members, with only about 60 attending each Sunday).
3. We switched STAKES from the Yakima, WA stake to the Kennewick, WA stake. Our stake center has the Columbia River Temple in its backyard now. Weehaw!
4. We will be meeting in a different building (in Prosser)—adios, Sunnyside!
5. Church for us now starts at 1pm (collective groan from all parents of toddlers and nursery leaders)
6. Annnnnnd….drumroll……our ward’s name was changed from the plain ole Grandview Ward to the super new and exciting Rattlesnake Mountain Ward!

One of my first questions was: we have a mountain in our ward boundaries?? But we live in the Yakima valley! A quick Google image search revealed that this thing…

…is Rattlesnake Mountain! I sincerely hope the rattlesnakes stay on their mountain. [I also hope this isn’t photo-plagiarism, since I just got it off the internet]

Since I’m on a roll, I’ll post one more stolen photo. Just like pictures of people, some angles are more flattering than others. This is Rattlesnake Mountain at sunset. Nighty-night, venomous serpents!

While it will be so nice to have enough people to fill church callings and make hymns sound full and rich during sacrament meeting, I confess that the bigger the group, the more intimidated I become when I have to speak or teach in church. Of course that’s the whole point—stre-e-e-e-e-tch the ole comfort zone.

All of these changes helped me notice how much the Lord is involved in running his church. He even notices and cares about what happens way out here in our seemingly-insignificant corner of Washington.

On the drive home from the fireside, Jeff and I kept saying “Rattlesnake Mountain Ward” over and over while giggling. (ok, I giggled. Jeff did the manly-version of giggle: he chuckled). Sunday, May 29th will be the new Rattlesnake Mountain Ward’s first-EVER meeting! So sweet. It’s fun being a part of something new.

Jay’s Day

Jay turned 2 yesterday!! (May 21) For his birthday, we tried to do as many of his favorite things as possible. He went to a park, went on a hike, built a tower with blocks, did some slam dunks, and ate “muh-sins” (muffins), had his favorite dinner, and of course, opened presents. Jay was pretty tired after all that celebrating!

This is the birthday dinner: MONSTERMAC! When I say monster mac, I mean it--I made a double batch: 1 quart of milk, nearly 1 lb of cheese, 2 lbs of noodles. And it was just us 3 eating it! I made that huge dinner because—believe it or not—one pound of pasta doesn’t leave quite enough for all 3 of us to have leftovers the next night. Jay can really CHOW DOWN that macaroni and cheese! (and so can his parents!) His tummy was big and round after dinner. He didn’t even want more than a bite or 2 of his cupcake!

I’m not sure if he even chewed any of it… he kind of just inhaled it.

This year I got creative with the birthday cupcakes. Jay really loves banana nut muffins. So, I made a batch of those and put cream cheese frosting and sprinkles on top. They were pretty yummy, even if it was kind of weird to have a frosted muffin. Just like last year, I failed to get a picture of the birthday boy blowing out the candles. It’s just a too-long-for-the-blog-video. 

[Side note: I mixed peanut butter with some of the cream cheese frosting, and let me tell you, it is THE BEST version of peanut butter frosting EVER! It’s more like PB Fluff. Heavenly on that banana nut muffin. and on the crepes Jeff made today].

The Whites gave Jay a big wheel bike! He can’t quite reach the pedals yet, but he already likes scooting around on it.

Jay has so many loving relatives! He has quite the stack of birthday cards. Jeff and I gave him a blow up baby pool, (wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper again, of course), but it was a rare rainy afternoon in Grandview, so Jay hasn’t gone swimming in it yet. When we explained that the pool is like a giant bath that you play in outside, he got pretty excited about it.

Birthday bath! Jay loves baths. Since he couldn’t use his new pool, we let him take a nice long bath with the cute pool toys that his Aunt Steph gave him.

Jay is such a fun, sweet boy. He is learning SO FAST—I think he learns a new word just about every day, and he copies almost everything that Jeff does (examples: he tries to drink the milk out of his cereal bowl, he gets ready to go on a “run-run” in the morning). It’s hilarious and cute.

This week Jay started yanking off his pants and sitting on the potty a lot (nothing more so far). Maybe the end of icky toddler diapers is closer than I thought?? I’m almost scared to hope.

Jay gives me the sweetest hugs and kisses, and he’s even learning to be gentle with Rose (every now and then). Even though I’m always trying to teach Jay new things, I am amazed at how MUCH HE teaches ME. It’s great being Jay’s mom. Has it really been 2 years already?

Just for fun:

Jay’s birthday last year…

…and 2 years ago on his birth day.

We love our Jay.

Pants Eat Baby, Part II

yikes.

Taking the bad with the good

Some things are good. Some things are bad. Sometimes you get a little of each…

I can only spot ONE good thing in this picture. (hint—she’s wearing a bow)

Rose is glad that she doesn’t have to fold laundry yet. Lucky!

Is Jay’s skull going to have a permanent dent in it? I think he’s had a big bruise in roughly the same spot for 75% of his life!

Speaking of injuries, did you know that it costs $2500 to faint? About 2 weeks ago, Jeff got dizzy and nearly passed out while helping a computer student at work. So they called an ambulance and carted him off to the ER with irregular heart readouts. Turns out he’s perfectly fine, and the almost-passing out thing was a random, unexplained occurrence. Too BAD that diagnosis was so pricey! But GOOD thing Jeff is healthy and happy. I will grudgingly admit that peace of mind where heart health is concerned probably is worth that expensive, uninsured visit to the ER.
[Side note: it was really weird for me to stand next to a hospital bed with Jeff in the bed. In the past year, he’s been at my sickbed in the hospital SO many times! I hate being sick, but I think I may hate watching someone I love be sick even more].

When Jay wakes up too early and pitter-patters over to his Daddy, Jeff puts him back in his room and closes the door (Jay can’t open it by himself). He usually gets bored in there if he doesn’t go back to sleep, and one morning I discovered that he had been trying to play with Rose! He gave her an extra green blanket and 3 toys. It was good for her tired parents that she didn’t wake up!

Jay is such a friendly boy! He loves it when there are random kids at the park—he makes friends so fast! He walks up, Mr. Cheerful- Smiley-Confidence, and says “HIIII!!!!” in this big happy voice. He scares some kids away, but others enjoy him. Jeff and I are kind of…the more reserved type, so it cracks us up when Jay just waltzes on over to big kids and makes friends instantly (he didn’t get that gene from either of his parents). He’s awesome.

Rose had her first swing ride at the park tonight! We went to “our park” (we call it ours because it’s about 100 feet from our house) for the activity in our Family Night. I just crammed a blanket down in the swing and then stuck Rose in on top. It worked perfectly—Rose has always been such a stiff little body. She just hung there swinging slowly, studying the sunlight moving on her hand for the longest time. She’s so mellow.

Oh, here’s another little nugget from our life. In case you forgot, we currently have a month-to-month lease on a little yellow house that is for sale. Well, this week, someone finally made an offer on it, and they are working out all the paperwork already! We will probably have to move out by the end of June. BOO! We knew it could happen any time, but after 8 months and only 2 house showings, it was easy to get complacent. Now we get to go through the joys of finding a place to live around here while doing the full-time teaching job hunt at the same time. Not my favorite combo.

This IS my favorite combo. 

Sneaky as a sage rat

Saturday morning, I was a rogue runner in the annual Sage Rat 12k Road Race. By rogue runner, I mean I did not register for the race—I just showed up and ran it for fun. I missed the early-registration discount and it didn’t seem worth the late fee. So I just snuck into the race. [Confession: when I saw the sweet race shirts, I did wish that I had registered for it]. Two of my adventurous, fun friends from our ward here also ran the race. It was 7 .5 miles of sunny, sweaty, sneaky fun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The before picture: Ashleigh, me, and Alisha. Yes I stole this picture from your blog, Alisha.

Here I am about a mile from the finish. This is Jeff’s new favorite running picture of me. heh.

The race ran from Grandview to Prosser along the flat, shade-less paved bike path. Thank goodness for my visor! I was surprised at how good I felt during the whole 7 + miles. The farthest I had run before this race (since Rose’s birth day) was 5.5 miles. During the whole race, I kept expecting my body to hit a wall, but it didn’t happen. It was great! I felt invigorated! Powerful!

For you runners out there, I ran the 7.5 miles in 61:39—that’s an average of 8:16 per mile! I honestly don’t know where that came from. My daily runs have been around an 8:50 mile pace. Oh well, it was a pleasant, big surprise!

My favorite part of this race had to be the posters with quotes on the that were posted along the course. There were inspirational ones like the classic Prefontaine “Some people run a race to see who’s fastest. I run a race to see who has the most guts.” And some goofy ones like Alice in Wonderland: “Some days I believe in as many as 6 impossible things before breakfast,” and “I like a nice warm pig for my sore feet.” (the Queen of Hearts)

I was trying to wave to Jay.

With Ashleigh at the finish… she did great too! It’s fun to have buddies who run too. We all got sunburned. I had no idea that I’d get burned so badly after a mere 2 hours outside! As I may have mentioned, the sun here is fierce! But then again, it’s been a whole YEAR since my skin even saw the sun.

No race number…oh well! I was planning on just veering off to the side at the finish, but there was a lady announcing the finishers on a loudspeaker, and she was talking to me, so I figured my best bet was to cross the finish line and then explain my…rogue behavior. They didn’t care. I don’t think.

Surprisingly, this was the most painful part.

By the way, this is a sage rat. They are all over the place around here.