I love Oreo's

Okay, so I think i've all ready mentioned this, but I LOVE OREO's!!!! and I honestly do not have any self control once the package is opened. I try to tell myself to only eat one, but that doesn't last long. Joan bought oreo's for Halloween, and I'm trying really hard to not eat anymore...cause I've all ready had too many..... :)

Tonight is the ward Halloween party. Ethan is going as a green dinosaur; Ryan is going as a mob/gangsters accountant; and I will be wearing a big 1900 style black hat (it is awesome) that I made, some long black gloves and my black and white formal dress I have from college. I guess i'm going as an eccentric rich lady. I think this is the first time since I was 14 that i've dressed up for halloween. I'm not really into halloween. I know, that makes me pretty boring. :)

I spent this last week pruning and doing yard work. I have discovered that I like yard work (except weeding, I don't like weeding). Ryan thinks I like it because I have some control over something, and I think he is right. I like the feeling of cutting dead branches from the trees and shaping them to look nice. I really need a yard! :)

P.S. I accidentally left my camera at someones home last week, so that is why there aren't any pictures lately on my blog...sorry for the lack of visual material...:)

Lost

This christmas it will be two years since I lost my wedding ring. At first I didn't want to buy a new ring because I was holding out hope that we would find my ring, but now it's more of it just being a large expense that we cannot afford at this time. I was devasted when I lost my ring. I don't know where I lost it. The last time I distinctly remember where it was was Christmas morning at my in-laws, where I had picked it up off the dresser in the room we were sleeping in. The rest is completely foggy. I've even made up memories in regards to where the ring could have gone. We went home to Centerville UT that day, so the ring could be at Joans, or at a gas station along the way to Centerville, or somewhere around our apartment complex in Centerville, or somewhere inside the apartment. When we moved from the apartment, I searched the place up and down repeatedly and even came back once more before leaving utah to check the apartment, but I never found it. I've been able to slowly force the frustration to the back of my mind, and it doesn't hurt as much as it used to, but a couple of sunday's ago a guy got up in church and was giving a talk, and in his talk he spoke of how he lost his ring twice!! and of course, found it both times. One of the times it was even lost for a year out in a field. Then of course there is the story that Joan told me, of the girl who lost her ring when they were fishing, and everyone fasted and prayed and then went back to the river/stream or whatever where they were fishing and they found it. I find these stories so frustrating. I know they are supposed to be inspirational or something, but I just find them frustrating. Joan has even lost the diamonds in her ring several times, but found them again. I've been having dream's lately where I find the ring, but it's always in places where I know it's not, like back at college, or in my yard at home in Coulee Dam. Okay, so I guess there really isn't a point to this post, but thanks for letting me vent. I'm hoping that we will be able to get a new ring soon. I miss having it, so we will see.

New Ward

Today was our last day in our Twin Falls ward, and next sunday we will start going to Ryan's parents ward. I really liked being in the Twin Falls ward, I was getting to know people, and I really liked my calling, however it does seem like time to leave. Both Ryan and I are hoping that Ethan will like the nursery in the Jerome ward, since he really didn't do great in the Twin Falls ward's nursery. They were strictly organized with their time and activities, which was a good idea, but 15 minutes was a little too long to try and make Ethan sit on a mat for singing time. I was proud of him today because he did sit on the mat for a moment, which is an improvement. My calling was to teach the 8 and 9 year olds. When I first got the calling, I was very worried about how I was to do it. Children take one look at me and think, yeah, I could take her. The kids were difficult the first sunday, climbing everywhere onto cabinets and everything. The next sunday my friend Charity ended up teaching the lesson for me, so I sat in and listened, and she was great with the children. We set up rules and consequences and wrote them down. It helped tremendously.The children still had their rowdy times, but for the most part they were great. I enjoyed going to class each sunday and having them excited to see me. I will miss the children the most in leaving the ward. They all had such cute personalities, and would crack me up with their comments some times.
Ryan was the young men's secretary, but unfortunately he had to spend all of his time in the nursery with Ethan. Ryan is looking forward to going to the Jerome ward, where we can switch off who goes to nursery with Ethan, and hopefully Ethan will like it enough we can leave him there and he won't sob for 45 minutes straight... :) I will miss our ward, but it won't be too bad, since Ryan's parents ward has a lot of nice people, and I know a lot of the people in the ward all ready.

Tulips

I was in Costco last week and saw that they were selling Perennials for pretty decent prices, so I decided that it might be fun to plant some tulip's around Joans yard. I bought a bag of 90 tulips, thinking I would just use a shovel, dig up the dirt, drop them in, and cover them up and it would be a relatively painless job. I was so naiive. I decided to put them on the little mound/hill at the corner of the driveway, by the road. There's all ready a tree and two bushes there, but I thought I would put them around the base of the existing plants. There were so many roots from the bushes and the tree that it was impossible to use a shovel and not hurt the roots. So, I used a mini spade/shovel thing and spent from 2:30 yesterday until almost 9 at night (with a couple breaks here and there) planting 49 of the tulips. Despite the fact that it took so long, and that my arms and hands are still aching today, I enjoyed being outside and planting. In a couple of minutes, when Ethan falls asleep for his nap, I'm going to go around the house and look for places to plant the rest of the tulips, only this time I'm only planting them where I can use a shovel! I'm going to keep some of the tulips and plant them in some of my empty pots, but I'm still trying to figure out what I'm going to do with all my perennial plants this winter-since they are in pots, and therefore are supposed to brought in during the winter to prevent freezing them... I hope I can figure something out, because I want them to survive the winter. Last winter killed a bunch of my plants, such as my ivy plants, rose bush, and peony's, because I didn't know I was supposed to bring them inside. When I finally have a yard of my own I will be able to plant all my plants in the ground.

My Little Boy Blue

Ethan was born on October 15th, so he is now approaching his second birthday. I had planned on doing this post on his birthday, but I don't want to wait. This e-mail is more for me than for anyone else, so I understand it might be boring to everyone but me.

I remember when Ethan was born, I loved the fact that I could pick him up and hold him whenever I wanted, and I didn't have to ask someone else for permission. I would even pick him up when he was napping just to hold him and look at him. At first, in the hospital, I remember being a little overwhelmed at the idea of being responsible for him, I didn't know what to do with him, I didn't know if I was supposed to change his diapers or when to feed him (it may sound silly, but I was seriously overwhelmed by it). And it was overwhelming when my mom had to leave, I cried off and on that whole day, and for a while afterwords. However things did get easier, and I don't regret any of it.

When Ethan wakes up in the morning and I see his smiling face it makes up for the fact that I wanted to stay in bed and keep sleeping. Sometimes, if he wakes up early enough I will pull him into bed with me and let him jump around and giggle. I will roll over with my back to him and he will start playing with my hair, or he will get under the covers and lay on Ryan's pillow and pretend to go to sleep.

Ethan doesn't talk yet, rarely he will say a word out of no where, but thats it- a one time thing. He has been doing really well on signing, and I find it so cute when he tries to sign, he will sometimes start making up stuff because he doesn't know how to say what he wants to say. So he'll pat his hands together and rub his arms, and maybe wave one in the air, all in his efforts to communicate. It's very cute. He can sign drink, banana, please, up, more, movie, book, ball, cat, dog, quack, and good bye. We are currently working on mama, dadda. grandpa, grandma, open, and thank you, as well as getting him to know what his eyes, nose, mouth and ears are. He is very cute when he signs cat, he will pull one hand across his cheek and get a big smile on his face. This morning he even came up to me, looked at the kitten (tonya and phils cat they recently dropped off) and signed cat. Normally I have to tell him to say cat, but this time he did it on his own.

Since he doesn't talk, it is hard to really understand how much he comprehends. So, I'm impressed by things others might find ordinary, such as he has figured out the right buttons to push on grandma and grandpa's radio/alarm clock to turn it off and on, he knows which button to push for his favorite song on the toy keyboard, he Has a favorite song on the keyboard, and also has a favorite song on his little whinnie the pooh ride toy thingy. He dances anytime fun music comes on, which consists of running in place or around the room, and lifting his knees really high. He will sit on the piano bench and turn the pages of whatever music book is on the piano and then play (even though Joan rarely sits at the piano, and it's even rarer when I do). He also, generally, plays nicely on the piano- without "plunking". So i'm impressed.

I love Ethan so much. The day he was born was the happiest day of my life. He's my little buddy, I spend 90% of my time with only him (I really don't get out much), and so I wouldn't want to live a day without him in my life. Thats not to say I wouldn't welcome a vacation some time in the near future (that comment is for Ryan :) ), however I would definately miss having his little smiling face to greet me. I recently learned of another little boy who drowned in a canal. He was only 16 or 17 months old, and it broke my heart. I can only imagine what the parents are going through, as I know that it would destroy me to lose my son. When I heard about this little boy, I wanted to go down stairs and wake Ethan from his nap and hold him forever and never let him go, because you never know what could happen. Thats why I decided to write this post, because I wanted to say out loud how I feel about my little boy, and how much he really means to me, his sweet little face, and pretty blue eyes. I love how happy he is to see me in the mornings, and how he will cuddle with me throughout the day. I love when he gives me kisses. I love being his mom.