Weekend Update

- First and most importantly, I had the follow up blood draw from my needle stick injury. My blood work came back nonreactive for Hep C or HIV. So far so good, I have another blood draw in 6 months.
-Lauren came for a few days last week. She watched Jake while Eli had finals and I worked. It is nice to have family available. Jacob loved the coconut creamcicle. Too bad she had to leave to go get a real job. - We went to the beach over the weekend. For those of you who have never been to the beach in Washington I must explain that it isn't the warm sand, warm water, sunshine filled sky that most often think of. It is a cold, windy, over cast, gray filled day, but fun none the less. The campfire on the beach and singing songs was the best part.
-In other news, Jacob can finally wear his " I make crawling look cool" Shirt because he is officially crawling, not rolling or scooting actual hands and knees crawling. And yes, I must agree he does make crawling look quite cool.
- And the final story, Jake French-kissed George. It was too graphic to post, but lets just say Jacob is one handsy kid.

How embarassing...

Legs of an obese woman or a 10-month-old boy?Those would be my son's chubby legs. Poor kid.

Sneezing or smelling stinky feet?
Apparently Jake has a thing for smelling feet. I another photo he tried tasting stinky feet.

And my favorite, (and Jacob's) going for a stroll in Kylee's pink baby doll stroller.

10 months is a fun age. Crawling, climbing, and entertaining us daily.

The Good Wife's Guide

• Have dinner ready. Plan ahead, even the night before, to have a delicious meal ready on time for his return. This is a way of letting him know that you have be thinking about him and are concerned about his needs. Most men are hungry when they get home and the prospect of a good meal is part of the warm welcome needed.
• Prepare yourself. Take 15 minutes to rest so you'll be refreshed when he arrives. Touch up your make-up, put a ribbon in your hair and be fresh-looking. He has just been with a lot of work-weary people.
• Be a little gay and a little more interesting for him. His boring day may need a lift and one of your duties is to provide it.
• Clear away the clutter. Make one last trip through the main part of the house just before your husband arrives. Run a dustcloth over the tables.
• During the cooler months of the year you should prepare and light a fire for him to unwind by. Your husband will feel he has reached a haven of rest and order, and it will give you a lift too. After all, catering to his comfort will provide you with immense personal satisfaction.
• Minimize all noise. At the time of his arrival, eliminate all noise of the washer, dryer or vacuum. Encourage the children to be quiet.
• Be happy to see him.
• Greet him with a warm smile and show sincerity in your desire to please him.
• Listen to him. You may have a dozen important things to tell him, but the moment of his arrival is not the time. Let him talk first - remember, his topics of conversation are more important than yours.
• Don't greet him with complaints and problems.
• Don't complain if he's late for dinner or even if he stays out all night. Count this as minor compared to what he might have gone through at work.
• Make him comfortable. Have him lean back in a comfortable chair or lie him down in the bedroom. Have a cool or warm drink ready for him.
• Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his shoes. Speak in a low, soothing and pleasant voice.
• Don't ask him questions about his actions or question his judgment or integrity. Remember, he is the master of the house and as such will always exercise his will with fairness and truthfulness. You have no right to question him.
• A good wife always knows her place.

From Housekeeping Monthly, 13 May, 1955.


Eli shared this magazine article with me a few years ago. It was passed out in one of his classes. It makes me laugh and shocked every time.

5- Letter Words

• JACOB had is 9 month appointment last week. He weighs 16.6 lbs and 26.8 inches. That puts him in between the 3-5% percentile. He eats well, but is just small. Still no teeth. Loves to STAND, CRAWL backwards, and WHINE when I try to put him down.

• DRIVE- 8 hours to NAMPA and 7 hours back for Lauren's graduation. She is so spoiled it is CRAZY. Never has had a job, but gets a new cell phone, clothes, and Coach purse for finishing high school. Am I jealous? Bitter? A little bit. I had to work at my parent's floral shops all during my youth and somehow my sister missed out on the manual labor part of our upbringing. Oh well, she's the baby and it seems things are often different for the youngest.

• GREAT- Jake finally met his Great Grandparent's. (My mom's parents).
  

• SONGS- My grandpa brought his Karaoke set up and we stayed up until 2 am both nights singing our little hearts out. Eli and I had a fun time tenderly singing the Tim McGraw & Faith Hill duet "It's your love" while our audience giggled.
  

• BOOKS- We attempted to listen to 2 books on tape while we traveled. FIRST, "Lincoln's Letter" almost put us both asleep. The second, "The Face" by Dean Koontz is 19 hours long and I am still slowly getting through the last eight HOURS.

• SUSHI- Lauren's delicious dinner of choice.
  

• And finally my favorite activity-- feeding DUCKS-- these hissing Canadian geese had to do. I wished I had more bread. I am going to retire into bird feeding.

Potpourri

-So I just got off working my 4 night stretch. Yay for the next 10 days off. It was hot and sunny all weekend (while I was sleeping all day) and this morning when I got off work-- pouring rain. I was ticked. Blasted northwest weather.
-It was a full moon or something this weekend because the hospital was crazy. I had patients hitting, throwing phones, swinging at me with walkers, expletives were commonly thrown at me. Sigh. I love my job, but sometimes I just wish everyone could experience one night like this so they understand how weird the nursing world can be at times.
-This was such contrast to the experiences I had the previous weekend when a patient struggling to breathe, dying of COPD held my hands to her face to calm herself or the WWII veteran that teared up as he talked to me about how lonely he has been since his wife of 50 years died. These are the moments that keep me coming back. I feel so fortunate to be in this profession.
-Jacob is 9 months old today. I am a little sad and happy at the same time. He used to fit on my forearm, I could easily hold him in one arm. Now I can hardly keep him balanced on my hip. I love this baby. I never understood why we are told to have kids, start families, hence putting it off for 3 years. But now I get it--JOY. When this little guy smiles at me or falls asleep and I look at him-- oh that feeling of pure happiness and contentment is wonderful. I know all you mama's know what I mean.
-This weekend we are going to IDAHO for Lauren's graduation. I am excited because Jacob gets to meet his great parents, my mom's parents. I haven't seen them since my brother's graduation 2 years ago.
-On the Travel Channel this show I'm loving it right now. Check it out if you like traveling.
-At weight watchers meeting there is a leader who runs the discussion. They are very nice and supportive, but they weight you each week creating this sort of pseudo-fear whenever you see them. So I hadn't been to my step class at the gym for a while. But I went the other morning and my weight watcher leader was there too. Whew, That is way better than getting caught scarfing an ice cream court at the food court in the mall.
And those are my thoughts for now. Welp, back to the real world.

Mothers & Missionaries

I spoke with Addison, my younger brother serving in Germany, on Saturday night. It was about 0500 am in Nienburg, Germany. Apparently Nienburg is known for its white asparagus and next week is the big asparagus festival. He is doing well, except for craving Mexican food which is in short supply. We are going to send him some corn tortillas.

I spoke with my mom who is in SLC for a few weeks for job training. She has taken several of her coworkers to temple square. I am impressed with her ability to introduce strangers with completely different lifestyles to the gospel. She is a great example to me.

My cousin, who is serving his mission in Virginia, was attacked and ended up with a broken jaw. My aunt and uncle flew out to see him and he is recovering well. Scary though!

Eli made me waffles for mother's day and let me sleep in. He also promised me a rug for our living room. Our flooring is pergo which makes it hard for Jake to crawl on or cry real hard when he smacks his head on it). Happy Mother's Day to all you mom's and mom's to be out there!

The Haps

It has been busy busy since we've been back. There was my Brother in Law, Ben, whose wedding was in Seattle last weekend. My newest SIL, Teton, is awesome. Congratulations you guys. Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos of the bride and groom. However, I did get a photo of my other new SIL (as of March), Brittany, who is so great. They watch Jacob when I have to work and Eli has school. We are so lucky to have them live close. Thanks guys!

Next, Jacob has been working on crawling, only backward not forward.
Also I got fed up with our apartment. I started looking to move and then just decided it was much easier to redecorate. Three cheers for IKEA in Portland. Yay! Yay! Yay! Cool stuff, great prices, and NO sales tax.

I just got off from working 4 nights in a row so it is 3:30 am and I can't sleep. Switching back and forth from nights to days is such a challenge.

P.S. I made this cake earlier today. If you have old bananas to get rid off-- I highly recommend it.