Rainy Day Miracle

A couple of weeks ago, a couple friends and I decided to start walking together. We walked Monday through Friday last week and had beautiful weather everyday. 

I have two dogs and a kid. One of my other friends had two dogs and a baby, and the other friend has two kids and a three-legged dog. 

This week has started on a completely different note though. For the last two days, it's been raining nearly constantly. The great thing about walking with other people though is that it kind of forces you to get up and go, regardless of the weather. 

It wasn't raining when I left the house, but by the time we got to the park where we meet, it began pouring. Kevin began to cry and we quickly put his sweater on (he had refused it before). The other friend with two dogs had almost reached us, but she didn't have a rain cover on her stroller yet, so she had to turn back home. We didn't blame her.

My other friend was waiting at the park, and we stopped at her house quickly and grabbed a couple of extra blankets. However, even with the blanket, the wind was blowing cold rain into Kevin's face, so I took off my sweater and covered the front of the stroller with it.

A few moments later, the rain stopped. We kept walking up the sidewalk, and then I suddenly noticed something. We were completely surrounded by storm clouds on all sides, but right above us, the sky was blue. 

I pointed this out to my walking friend, and I told her I thought it was a blessing from Heavenly Father because we'd gone walking even though it was raining. 

For the rest of the walk, the sun came out and it warmed up. However, as we finished up the walk, the storm clouds rolled back in. Shortly after we entered the house it began raining again. 

Some people might say that was a coincidence, but I don't believe that. I know it was a tender mercy and a miracle. 

The Lord does care about us and what we're doing. Even something as seemingly unimportant as a walk. I'm so grateful for another example of the Lord's love for me. 

Birthdays and Other Crazy Events

This last week has been pretty eventful. We've been a bit focused on Grig's job and so I didn't talk about a lot of the things that happened. This will have to be my catch-up post. 

First of all, our car broke down again. I was at a relief society meeting, and after I came out of the church, the car wouldn't start. We tried to jump it, but it wouldn't hold any kind of charge. We had to leave it in the church parking lot. One of the men who was there offered to drive Grig into work, if he needed a ride. That was very kind of him. However, it turned out that Allopex had the next two days off, so Grig was able to borrow his car while we tried to get ours figured out. 

The next day was my birthday! I turned 29. It's hard to believe that I'm almost 30. I guess I'll just have to enjoy my last year of being in my 20's. 

I had a pretty great party. Kevin made me a cake while his dad was at work. He did a pretty good job. He tasted it every few minutes and told me that it was still yummy. 

After Grig got home, we had a birthday party for me. I finally got to open my presents, which had been sitting next to my computer and mocking me for the last couple of weeks. I was pretty excited about my gifts. I got Kim Possible Season 1, a microphone for the computer (so I can work on more Atomic Otter Cinema videos), a new swing for our playset, and the book "Avatar: The Search." We finally know what happens to Zuko's mother. Allopex and Havelock joined us for the party. Grig's taking the picture, so he's not in this one. 

 However, he did help Kevin finish my cake. They're quite the pair.

 Arkhon wanted to help with the cake too, but he behaved himself. Kevin, on the other hand, was feeling a bit mischievous. I had spice cake with a cream cheese frosting. It was pretty yummy.

 Then, the next day, my grandmother was kind enough to pick me up and take Kevin and me to her home for another party. My sister was up visiting, and so we had breakfast together, and then they gave me cake again! I love angel food cake, so I was pretty excited. We had a fun time visiting with family, and my sister revealed the gender of her baby. I felt pretty loved afterward. It is nice when people think of you.

 We had our car towed that day, and found out that our battery was dead. Our mechanic is amazing, so they got our car started and Grig went and bought a new battery and put it in himself. It ended up costing far less than we thought it was going to. We're grateful it wasn't the alternator.

That same day, we had Loki (Arkhon's brother) come and stay over. They really love each other, and he enjoyed playing with his brother. They wore each other out.

 He stayed with us for a couple days, and we all enjoyed having him around. He's a lot fluffier than Arkhon, but he's smart and he figured out our house rules pretty quickly. They're both really good dogs.

Arkhon's on the left, and Loki's on the right. 

Loki's a little heavier, but Arkhon is faster.

 Another exciting event this week is that we were invited to a birthday party with one of Kevin's friends. They invited us to go bowling with them. It was Kevin's first time bowling and he loved it!

 Every time he'd knock over a pin, he'd do a victory dance and spin around. It was pretty adorable. We sure do love our boy. He and the birthday boy also danced to the music in between their turns. They had a lot of fun.

The family also has a little girl who is quite the snuggler. Kevin just adores her. He loves to kiss her and push her cheeks in and play with her. Here is a picture of the three of us cuddling.

 After we finished our game (which I didn't win, though I was leading for a while), we had cake. It was a really yummy Reese's cake. We're really grateful that they invited us to join them for their party.

 After we finished eating and opening presents, we let Kevin "drive" on one of the games. He's not actually driving. We had to leave soon and didn't want to go spend money on the arcade, but he sure thought he was. He wasn't very happy when we had to go home to go to bed.

 Sunday, we went for a walk around a nearby temple. The gates were closed, so we walked all around the outside, and then went down a nearby trail. We had a great time, though Kevin is really into eating snow right now, and that's all he wanted to do.

 The next few pictures are from the trail we were walking on. Half-way down, we saw a deer trail going up the mountain. I was a little nervous about leaving the human trail, but it was really fun, and steep. We saw deer tracks, and made our way back up to the sidewalk. It's good to do things that are brave sometimes.

We didn't even die!

 One last thing I wanted to add. Kevin loves to sword fight with Allopex. The funniest part though, is the fact that every time they sword fight, Arkhon goes and gets his "sword" as well. He grabs a rawhide bone and brings it over. He'll fence with his bone to the best of his ability. He loves it when you knock it out of his mouth. Here's a picture of him sword fighting with the other two.

That ends a pretty crazy week!

It's Raining, It's Pouring

A couple of weeks ago, I was doing really well.

Kevin and I were getting out on walks, I was keeping a schedule, and I was nearly getting everything done on my list.

It felt great!

"And then came the rain" -and I quote from Rock-a-Doodle.

For the past couple of weeks, it seems like it has been pouring every day. It has made it difficult to do anything for some reason. I think we started getting cabin fever. Even the dogs weren't allowed outside as much, and it was causing the energy levels in our home to rise.

Now, don't get me wrong. I love a good, WARM rain. I like to go out and splash in puddles and get soaking wet and dirty. However, spring rains are not warm. In fact, it's been snowing in the mountains. We're super grateful for it, but it makes me cold, and once I get cold it takes forever to get warm again.

On top of the rain, my schedule got thrown off from some late nights of baby-sitting. We were happy to help, but it's hard to get up at 6:00 a.m. when I don't get to bed until 3:00 a.m.

As well as I do on small amounts of sleep, I've never been very good at the actual waking up part. I sleep very deeply, and so it takes my brain a while to emerge once I actually fall asleep. I sleep through most alarm clocks.

If I hit snooze one time, it's like my brain says, "That noise is now irrelevant. You can ignore it from now on." My cell phone alarms are one of the few things that consistently wake me up. I try not to use them unless I absolutely intend to get up when it goes off, or it becomes irrelevant noise too.

My first few years of college, it got so bad that I had radio static turned on full blast, and often I couldn't even hear that. This problem of mine made me late to a few classes and late to work occasionally. Not a good thing, and I still feel awful about it.

Okay...that was a really long tangent.

Anyway, it finally stopped raining yesterday, so Kevin, Arkhon, and I went on a walk. It was beautiful. We stopped to visit some friendly horses, and Kevin got a little scared when I brought him close to them, which surprised me, but they were awfully big! He finally worked up enough courage to pet one on the nose and then he pulled his arms back really quickly. Arkhon got to say hello to them too, but he was just as nervous as Kevin was.

After that, we went to a neighbor's house, and Arkhon got to play with his friend, a big Siberian husky. Kevin calls him, "Batman Dog." His real name is Lakota. Arkhon and Lakota are best friends and they ran all around our neighbor's yard. We have some pretty great neighbors. As soon as the dogs started to play, Kevin said, "I play too!" I let him out of the stroller and immediately he was chasing the dogs around the yard. Everything went well until he got knocked over, and the husky sailed over his head, clipping Kevin's head with his back paw. Kevin cried for a minute, got a "Mommy Kiss" and went right back to playing.

This dog looks a bit like "Batman Dog"

"Batman Dog" is so big that he can put Arkhon's whole head into his mouth. Arkhon always comes home with a wet, slimy head and a big grin. He loves playing with other dogs.

Our crazy puppy

After we came home, we started to clean the house. At the time when Grig usually comes home, I got a call from him, where he informed me that we had a flat tire.

Lovely.

I had been planning on mowing the lawn with a lawn mower that some other neighbors were willing to let us borrow until our new mower arrived.

Did I mention we have great neighbors?

However, in light of his news, I decided to leave Kevin with Argent, and go get the mowing done while it wasn't raining. Clouds were starting to appear, and I knew I didn't have much time.

I left Kevin inside and ran over. I started mowing and things were going well. After about 15 minutes, Argent came outside with a worried look on her face.

She informed me that Kevin had fallen asleep. I told her that was okay, it would make watching him easier. She's very sweet and expressed her concern that I wouldn't get any sleep that night. At the moment, I was just happy that he was calm while I was working.

He continued to mow and completed the front yard.

Then, I moved on to the backyard. As I began, I was hit with a few drops of rain. Praying that it wouldn't really get going until I finished, I hastened my pace.

I finished just before the rain began to really come down. Our lawn looks pretty good now, if I do say so myself. It's still lacking in grass in a few spots, but that will be fixed in time.

Today we had a clear sunny morning and Kevin and I went to play in the backyard. He had a great time, and I got some weeding done. I think our garden may be sprouting something besides weeds! It's hard to say, and only time will tell.

Things are going well for us, except for car troubles, but what else is new? We were planning on going on a vacation this summer to the Grand Canyon, but in light of car repairs, I think we're just going to go camping locally. It will be fun and much cheaper.

Family Friday: Picture Walk

I didn't want to do much talking today (since I'm not blogging until fairly late at night), so since I decided to photograph our walk yesterday I decided to make a photo-blog.

Here are some images we took.

After all, a picture is worth a thousand words right? (Though I may add a caption or two).

This is how we walk. Dakota on the left, Arkhon on the right, and Kevin in the middle. Usually, I push.

Stopping for a water-break for the dogs.

Autumn is beautiful here.

Kevin likes to eat a few snacks on the way. This day's food of choice: cookies and plums.

This is an awesome photo of Arkhon.

There are always ducks on the path. Today we fed them crackers.

Dakota in the stroller while Kevin plays on the playground. 

He knows how to have a good time!

I like the way this picture turned out.

Sorry I'm not in any of them. I don't really like selfies usually.

We had a great time yesterday, and today we took Grig with us to show him where we usually walk. I think he really enjoyed it.

Today I was told by a kid that Arkhon doesn't have a dog's nose because his nose is pink. Who knew that dogs had to have black noses?

What kind of nose does he have then?

Dog in the Stroller

I've been walking a lot lately.

During the morning, Kevin, Dakota, Arkhon, and I will go out with the stroller and go on 1-2 hour long walks. It's been really nice, because the weather's been wonderful, and I feel really good when we're finished.

This has nothing to do with what I'm writing about, but it was a beautiful sunset the other day, and I wanted to share it.

Kevin and the dogs really enjoy our walks too. Usually they all take a nap when we get back, and I can actually get a few things done. However, a two-hour long walk is too long for a puppy Arkhon's age, so usually after a few blocks he takes a break in the basket of the stroller. We try to take frequent rests, and frequently take drinks, but sometimes I feel really bad for Dakota.

She's pretty old and I can tell that by the end of the walk she is finished. Kevin usually gets finished with riding in the stroller by that time too. So, yesterday, I did something unusual.

Arkhon was riding in the stroller already, Kevin wanted out, so I said, "Okay." I took him out and said, "Dakota, it's your turn." I then placed her in the stroller. She sat sideways with her bum in the seat and her paws resting on the lip. She got this really happy look on her face, and Kevin helped me push the two dogs in the stroller.

We went that way down the sidewalk for a while, until we came to some playground equipment, and Kevin wanted to go play. We moved toward it, and I saw a little boy watching us. It turned out to be someone we knew. He was looking at our stroller, and suddenly his eyes got really wide and this big grin spread across his face.

I asked him if all dogs should ride in stroller, and he nodded his head yes. It was pretty funny.

Dakota enjoyed the break while Kevin played on the slide and swings for a while. Arkhon doesn't like breaks very much, but he is taking them better. I think he likes them more than he thinks he does.

I wish I could have taken a picture, but I didn't have the camera with me. Maybe I'll have to bring it today, just in case it happens again. I'm planning a shorter walk today though, because I have a lot of things to get done in my house. We're running out of clean clothes.

Our washer's been acting strangely lately, and the apartment is supposed to be sending someone to fix it, so we haven't been using it, because we thought they were coming soon.

They're probably going to come today when I have it full of clothes.

Dakota and Arkhon are becoming pretty good friends. She's old, so if he gets too rambunctious, she'll bark at him or snap a bit. I think in our language it would sound like, "Shut up and sit down!"

Unfortunately, it just makes him excited because he thinks she's playing. So, then we'll call him over so she can have a break.

Sometimes this happens though, and it's too cute for words:

Arkhon and Kevin love each other. They play pretty well, unless they're getting tired. Then hitting and biting ensues, but Arkhon is beginning to learn to walk away if Kevin is getting rough. That's a wonderful improvement!

BFF

To top it all off, we've had wonderful weather lately. Last night, Grig, Kevin, and I went out to eat for Family Home Evening. We had a coupon for a restaurant, so we ate there, and then we went on a walk together. We ended up at the library, where we checked out a few books and then walked/ran back to the car. One of Kevin's favorite things to do right now is say, "Run, run, run," and have all of us run (or speed walk when we're being lazy) down the sidewalk with him. It was a nice evening, and we enjoyed spending the time together.

Grig gave an excellent lesson on spiritual preparedness. He talked about ways that we can improve ourselves as individuals and as family members.

Arkhon chasing Kevin. He loves him.

We've got a lot to work on, but we're moving as a family, and that's what's really important.

Huge Goats and Pill Bugs

Yesterday, Kevin and I had quite the adventure. We scheduled with some ladies in our ward (congregation) to go visiting teaching (which is basically  where you go and visit them, sometimes with a brief spiritual thought, with the intent of seeing how they are doing and if they need any help).

Grig had the car at work, and so Kevin and I were going to be picked up by another lady in the ward who is assigned to go with me. However, as we were waiting for her to show up, she called me and told me that the morning had just gone crazy and she wouldn't be able to come.

I quickly assured her that I wasn't upset and that those things happen. The two women I was visiting were easily in walking distance, so Kevin and I decided to go by ourselves. He would be my companion for the day. Kevin set the pace and we began to walk.

Three captured pill bugs later (though he had to drop one in order to pick up a stick), we really hadn't made it very far down the sidewalk.

Luckily, the first sister I had intended to see was not answering her phone, so we had a few extra minutes to get to the second sister, which worked out great since she was closer anyway.

Eventually, after Kevin squashed an ant and a may-fly, we made it to her home. We enjoyed our visit, though she had a large robotic dinosaur that half frightened and half fascinated Kevin. 

After that visit we walked a few more blocks to see the second lady. We had a good chat with her as well, and Kevin enjoyed himself with playing with her toys. 

At that point, he was starting to act tired, and so we decided to head home. However, we passed another friend's home, and they invited us to come play for a minute. Kevin was looking eager, and I decided it sounded like fun. 

We stayed there for a while, while he enjoyed playing with the children and I enjoyed chatting to the mother. After not too long, however, he started telling me he was getting tired. So, we decided to head home again.

However, as we walked past another home, I followed an impulse and went and knocked on the door. This particular home was actually also a goat farm. When our ward helps people financially, it often will ask them to come and help milk the goats as a way to earn the money. I have kind of wanted to go just for fun. 

I vaguely knew the people, but not very well. Anyway, the man opened the door and we asked if Kevin could see his goats. He couldn't hear me at first, so I had to speak up a bit louder. After he could hear me, he invited us in and sent us through the house and out the back door. He also told us that if we stuck around for a while, we could watch him feed the goats, because it was almost feeding time.

We followed the trail that led from the backdoor to some sheds and were greeted by cute little baby nubian goats. Kevin was a little nervous at first, but eventually, he was brave enough to approach the gate and touch them. As we stroked the little ones though, I was shocked to see a humongous animal behind them. I realized it was the father, and it was huge!

I have never seen a goat this big. It was the size of a small horse or a large great dane!  

This isn't actually the goat, I think the one I saw was a little bigger than this, but I wanted to let you see that goats do grow this big! Click on the picture to follow the link to its original source. 

The females were only about half the size of the male. They were all very sweet and tame. We stayed long enough to watch him bottle feed the youngest goats, and then we headed home. 

After a long drink, Kevin quickly fell asleep. He was wiped out, but he'd had a great time. It had ended up being a three-hour trip. 

I really enjoyed myself as well. It's nice to get out every once in a while. 

Walking with my Husband

Yesterday, our family took its first walk in a while.  We have this wonderful river trail near our home, and after Grig got off work he, Kevin, Dakota, and I went on a walk.

Walks have always been a part of our relationship.  When Grig and I were first dating, we used to take long walks every night.  It was wonderful and somewhat magical.  We would talk for hours about everything!  We would discuss our fears, our past, our hopes, and our expectations.  We would talk about plots of books we were writing.  We would discuss our families and our differences.  We resolved a lot of things and came to agreements about how we would handle them in marriage.

One day, Grig came to my apartment.  I was sleeping on the couch and he wanted to go on a walk.  However, when I am asleep, it can be very difficult to wake me up. He tried pulling and tugging on the snuggie I was sleeping in, (and yes, I do have a snuggie).  He tried talking to me and I tried to curl deeper into the couch.

Finally, he broke through my haze.  I sat up, reached for my boots and realized with a shock that someone had replaced them with tennis shoes.  When I questioned my roommates, they all acted innocent and I shrugged it off.  I didn't really get it, but that was okay.

Grig waited impatiently as I slowly got ready, and then we took off.  We walked in a big circle to get to the park where we would usually walk.  It was a way we'd never gone before, but since we tried to alter the routine frequently, I wasn't too suspicious.  I knew he was up to something, but I figured I would find out eventually.

We made it to the park, and as we walked in, Grig put his hand in his pocket and told me that he'd written a poem for me.  However, it was a tree poem, and it could only be read up in a tree.  I readily agreed.  It was sweet of him to do that for me, and we both loved climbing trees.

He brought me to a particular tree and soon we were up in its branches.  He placed me a bit higher in the tree, knelt on a lower branch and began to read.  This is his poem he read, hopefully he won't be mad I posted it.  (He kind of hates it.)

Let me help you into this tree with me,

No inane barking, no mad dash streaking tree, bush, back again,

Just smooth rising to branches we'll weave together,

While the maple grows us beyond and forever.

Then, Grig pulled a box out of his pocket and presented a ring to me.  That's when my brain went into shock.  I had been expecting him to propose, but not for a couple more months!  We had just barely been looking at rings the night before!  (It turned out that the ring had been his grandmother's.  It was a huge blessing that it just happened to fit!)

So, I did what I always do when I'm really surprised.  I emotionally froze and became deadpan.  

"Oh, a ring," I said taking it out of the box and putting it on my finger.  

His face full of nervousness, Grig asked, "Does that mean yes?"

In response, I leaned forward and kissed him.  (I think it was like our second kiss.)  Suddenly, cheering broke out around us.  All of our roommates and close friends came running out from behind a building where they'd been hiding the whole time.  Grig had planned this all with them ahead of time! 

My response?  

"Oh, people."

We jumped down from the tree and hugged everyone.  They had been filming and the camera continued rolling as they presented me with flowers that Grig had bought ahead of time.  It was super sweet.  Finally my emotions began to kick in again.  I became very excited.  

After we had finished hugging and being congratulated by everyone, Grig and I galloped off into the sunset.  (Literally, we started galloping over to his car.)

So, that's the story of how I got engaged.  

Did I mention it was Halloween?

These pictures are actually from that night.  Another friend took them during the events described.

So, walks have always been a foundational part of our marriage.  We've tried to continue them as we've been going, but when I got pregnant it was more difficult, and then after the c-section it was impossible for a while.  Last night was wonderful!  

We walked over two miles and spent more than an hour and a half exploring the river bottoms.  The dog and Kevin really enjoyed it, though Kevin became really tired toward the end and fell asleep.  It was wonderful.  And most enjoyable of all, Grig and I were able to talk without interruptions and distractions.  

We always become closer after walking.  Our relationship is stronger than ever.  I know we'll just continue to grow in love for each other, especially if we continue walking together.

The beautiful flowers Grig got me

Baby's First Bloody Nose and Other Consequences

Why'd You Let Me Get a Bloody Nose?

At 9 months of age, most babies are crawling and just starting to pull themselves up to things.  Kevin, however, is now walking.  He doesn't even need any help standing up.  He can go from a sitting position to a standing in less than five seconds.

Though this makes his parents quite proud, it has also been a bit trying.  Now he can hurt himself even more frequently!  Usually, he does pretty good.  He knows how to catch himself with his hands when he falls forward, and he knows how to fall on his backside pretty well.  However, when he falls and things are in the way, he tends to get a few bumps and bruises.

Last night, he was walking around the living room and he walked up to our bookshelf.  He wanted to see the books that were on the bottom shelf, so he leaned forward, not realizing that the shelf above was just the right height to clock him in the face as he fell forward!

I saw him hit and I rushed over.  As I held him and he cried, he looked okay, but after a couple minutes, his nose began oozing a bit.  It never really bled too badly, but it kept oozing on and off the whole night.  I got blood on two different shirts.  He was pretty tough though.  He cried for about five minutes and then his daddy took him outside and he felt better.

I don't think there is any way to really stop kids from getting hurt, and maybe we shouldn't be concerned if they get a few bumps and bruises, but it sure is hard!  Grig and I have tried to let Kevin be a bit more independent.  When he falls, we usually don't rush over.  We wait and if he looks at us, we smile and clap for him.  This has made it so Kevin only cries when he's actually hurt.

As Kevin gets older, he will continue to make mistakes and choices.  Sometimes he will be hurt by the consequences of his own actions.  As parents, sometimes I think that we want to protect our children from these consequences.  We want them to have peaceful, carefree childhoods.  However, if we don't let children make mistakes and learn from them, how are we going to keep them from making even bigger mistakes later on?

During a parenting class one time, the speaker told a story.  He told us how he was at the fair one time with some friends of his and their son.  The boy came running up and asked his parents if he could buy a toy airplane that a vendor was selling.  The plane was very cheap and poorly put together.  Instead of telling their son no, however, the parents asked him if he could afford it.  The boy quickly counted his money and told them that he could.  The parents allowed him to buy the plane.

The man was concerned and asked the parents why they had allowed their son to spend money on such a junky toy.  The father explained that the son had earned that money, and after taxes, he got about 80 cents a week.  The toy had cost about $5.00.  The man was shocked that they boy was using that many weeks worth of allowance to buy a poor toy, and again he asked why they had allowed the boy to purchase the airplane.

The father explained that when he was in college, he had found a really nice car.  It was very expensive, but there wasn't much going on under the hood.  The exterior was quite fancy, and the father had bought the car.  When it broke a short time later, he lost a whole lot more than five dollars.  The father explained that they wanted their son to learn to be wise while he was young, so that he wouldn't make the same mistakes when he had more to lose.

A few minutes later, the boy came back crying because his plane had broken.  The parents didn't say, "We told you so..." or "Now do you see why..."  They didn't explain the lesson to him.  They simply held him and comforted him and allowed him to learn the lesson himself.

I really liked the example of these parents.  I want Kevin to make lots of mistakes now when I'm here to comfort and love him, and not after he's on his own.  I want to help him to learn to make good decisions because he wants to, and not because I want him to.  Grig and I feel the same.

So, Kevin might get a few bloody noses here and there, but he's learning.  And the more he learns, the less often his nose will bleed.

The True Use of Pillow Cases

Saturday night, Grig was in a deep sleep.  He had a dream, most of which he doesn't remember.  However, he does remember that for some odd reason, he was banned from using tissues, paper towels, toilet paper, or anything to blow his nose.  And so, as an act of defiance in his dream, he ripped the pillow case off his pillow, blew his nose furiously in the pillow, and threw it in the dirty clothes hamper.  A truly epic tale.

Great dream right?  Except Sunday morning, my pillow case had been pulled off my pillow, thrown on the floor, and covered with Grig's mucus.   Grig's pillow was fine.  When he explained what happened we spent the next ten minutes laughing.  It was really funny. 

The second great thing that happened the weekend (besides church) occurred Saturday.  Grig and I were on the way to the LDS temple.  We were taking Kevin to the babysitter and as we were leaving our apartment, we ran into two ladies and a two-year-old boy.  Kevin got really excited and wanted me to put him down.  I set him on the ground and he stayed standing as he and the other boy examined each others faces with their fingers.  Eventually, the two-year-old got bored, and turned to look at Grig.

That's when Kevin spotted the two ladies who were watching and laughing.  He looked at them, and then he took off RUNNING toward them.  Arms waving, little feet toddling, he was running as fast as he could toward the complete strangers.  He'd never done that before.  We were in shock, and he made it 4-5 feet before he face-planted in the dirt.

He immediately began to cry.  One of the other ladies reached him first, and when I took him back, he had a mouth full of dirt.  We were really impressed!  In the last couple of days, Kevin has really mastered walking!

So, that was our weekend.  We're so strange.

Also, if you haven't seen our new video, check it out.  It's great!

The Foot and the Finger: A Tragic Story

I'm pretty bright.  I've never had a problem with school work, and I feel like I'm a creative person.  So, why is it that I'm often so lacking in common sense?

Last week, Grig was at work.  He is a 'fitter,' which means he places parts for welders, who then weld those pieces together.  He was cleaning up at work, with only ten minutes left to go.  He had been working with long pieces of steel called uprights that have a sharp end to them.  They are machine sharpened and cut, which means they are really sharp.  He had gloves on, and he wasn't paying too much attention and he pushed a bench underneath a fixture that one upright was attached to.  As he did so, his pointer finger went along the edge of the upright.  The upright sheared through the glove and into the knuckle of his finger.  It began to bleed badly.  However, because he was wearing gloves and the upright had been blunted a bit, the injury wasn't as severe as it could have been.  They got him patched up, and sent him home.

By Friday (yesterday) the injury was looking great.  It was closing up well, and it was no longer seeping fluid. Grig was quite happy with how well it was healing. We had a pleasant evening Friday night, and while Grig was getting ready for bed, I was showing Kevin how I could do headstands.  Kevin was quite impressed, though he came crawling at high speeds straight for my head and knocked me over.

I was impressed with myself as well, so when Grigg came out of the bathroom, I decided to show him my skill with a headstand.  I hadn't been able to do it since before I was pregnant.  So, Grig and Kevin sat on the bed, and in my hurry to do a headstand, it turned into a somersault. My legs went flying toward the bed, and Grig let out a loud cry.  "Jeez, Hun!"

My flailing heel had struck him right on his finger.  An instant later, he was in the bathroom. I had reopened his wound and it was bleeding profusely.  I ran quickly to get a paper towel so that Grig could apply pressure to his finger.  I also grabbed iodine and bandages.  Soon, the bleeding stopped, we disinfected, and reapplied dressing.  It was very exciting, and I felt really bad.

Unfortunately, I also have an unusual ability.  Most people say things like, "You know, in 220 years this will seem really funny...."  I say, "You know, this is kind of funny now...."  I am able to see the humor in a bad situation while I'm still in the middle of it.  Usually, I try to keep these thoughts to myself because most people don't like to hear how funny something is when they're in a lot of pain.

However, the thought of my epic failure and the flailing feet with their precise impact now makes me smile a bit.  At least it makes a good story.

On a further note:  WE ARE POSTING A NEW VIDEO TODAY!  It's not the 1st, but since the 1st is tomorrow, and tomorrow is Sunday, we decided to post tonight. It's a trailer for a (fake) movie coming out in Winter of 2013 called When the Vacuums Came.  It might possibly be our best video yet.  It's based off the fact that Kevin isn't scared of anything...except vacuums.  I'll post a link on the blog with it later at 7:00 p.m. MST.  Look forward to it, it will probably make you laugh.

Also, Kevin is walking!  He has gone from making clumsy steps to deliberately walking from place to place.  He still falls frequently, but sometimes he catches himself and keeps going.  He's awesome!

Walking to Church: The Big Adventure

Sunday we faced a dilemma.  Grig's brother needed to take our car to get to his single's ward from 9-12, and our church started at 11.  So, we decided to walk.  When we had first moved into our new apartment, the manager had told us that their was a shortcut to our building, which was good, because in order to get to it by road, you had to drive 5-6 blocks.  We could have walked that, but we preferred a straight shot of only two blocks.

We dressed up for church, settled Kevin on Grig's shoulders (his favorite position) and took off.  I had looked at a map before we left, so I was pretty sure I knew which direction to go, but we didn't actually know where the shortcut was.

As we walked down the street, I saw two young women sitting next to their car.  I worried that they were trying to replace their tire, so I asked them if they needed help.  Unfortunately, they weren't changing their tire, they were smoking.  At my question, they looked confused, as though they weren't sure how I could help them with that.  Quickly, I explained that I thought they were changing their tire and we continued on.  Being awkward is great!

We reached the end of the cul-de-sac and luckily (coincidence, I think not) some members of our congregation just happened to walk out of their home at that moment.  They showed us where the little path was. It skirted someone's fenced-in yard and edged around a drop off into the river.  It was a very narrow corner and we had to walk single-file and hug the fence so we didn't fall into the river.  It was pretty awesome.  Then, we just walked along a little worn path through a clearing to the church parking lot.

Kevin loves to be outside and on walks, so even though we were in our church clothes (and my shoes were killing my feet) he was having the time of his life.  We made it on time, and now we can walk to church in just 10 minutes.

It was really nice that our neighbors could show us the way.  Church was nice and we met some new people.  Moving to a new area always makes going to church a little scary because you have to meet new people, but our congregation seems really nice.  Afterward, we walked home.

Now we are pros.  We are probably going to walk every week...at least until winter hits.