Five Short Years

Adam and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary yesterday. Well, the anniversary was yesterday, but we are celebrating all weekend! Yesterday we had some friends over for dinner and games, which was a lot of fun. Today my dad came over to pick up Joshua, and then Adam and I headed on down the road for a one-night get-away in Seaside. We got here around 4pm and our little hotel has lots of character. It is right on the beach, and I spent the first few minutes we got here just looking out our window at the stormy ocean outside. Yes, it's raining, but it's not windy and it's not freezing, so I'm still loving being at the beach. We walked around town and found a place for dinner, and afterwards found some ice cream. As we were walking down and back on the main street through town, we noticed that with all the summertime tourists gone, Seaside's troubled youth population has room to stretch out and run up and down the streets while constantly smoking.

*****



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5 years
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I can only imagine what the next five years will bring!

Something fun!

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you.

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!

2- What I create will be just for you.

3- It'll be done this year.

4- You have no clue what it's going to be.

5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!

My little corner of Etsy

I've been wanting to do this for about 6 months or so, and this past week, I finally did it. I opened my own shop on Etsy.

When I was a little girl, my maternal grandma taught me how to crochet, and I have loved it every since. Over the years I've learned more stitches and with lots of practive, have gotten pretty good. There was the lady on my mission who taught me how to do granny squares. Then there was Jen and Cheryl in my ward at BYU after my mission who taught me how to read crochet patterns and taught me some cool things.

I often crochet when watching TV. It somehow makes me feel more productive. Over the years I've made quite a few full-size afghans and baby afghans. I have given some of them away to friends for weddings or for their babies, and I've made a couple of baby afghans for Joshua. Last year a friend of mine started selling homemade, over-sized baby blankets on Etsy and I got an idea. I should try to make some extra money by doing what I love and try to sell my extra afghans! The idea mulled around in my head for a while, and these past few months I've been building up my baby afghan inventory. Finally last week I signed up and opened my shop. It is called ladybugcrochet, and you can see it at this link: http://ladybugcrochet.etsy.com

So, if you are ever in need of a unique, handmade gift for a baby shower or for just because, take a look-see at my shop and see if there is anything that fits your needs. Tell your friends, tell your neighbors!

21 months old!

Joshua turned 21 months old this week. I can't put my finger on any one particular thing, but he just seems to be older in the past few weeks. He is learning more words and is getting better at copying what we say. It is very cute to hear his little voice. He also still loves to tickle and loves to show his belly for us to tickle.



He will stand there holding the bottom of his shirt and look at us with a gleam in his eye. Then, all of a sudden...



BAM! He yanks up his shirt and shows his belly and waits for us to tickle him while he laughs hysterically.



Some other cute pics:





He got this little folding table and chairs for Christmas from my parents, and he much prefers eating at his table than in his booster chair now.

I can definitely tell we are getting closer to the terrible twos, though. He is really starting to exert his will in the things he wants to do (or NOT do). And so, soon starts the challenge of trying to teach your offspring how to deal with their emotions and frustrations in a healthy manner. Yay!

Performance Review

In all of the economic doom and gloom that dominates the news lately, it can get a little depressing. There are layoffs and rumors of layoffs everywhere. I have been feeling a little of that storm cloud at work for the last few months. Who doesn't? If nothing else, the recession introduces a nagging uncertainty into everyone's lives. And so we come to the words I heard today that have in the past caused a little bit of a stomach flutter. "Time to do your annual performance review."

I haven't ever really gotten a bad rating on a performance review, but that doesn't change the sinking feeling that one can get when faced with those words. It is akin to the phrase "We need to talk" for relationships. Even if there is nothing wrong, you get hit with a surge of adrenalin and worry.

My review today went very well, despite my initial fight-or-flight response to being notified of it. It may actually be the best review I have ever had, actually. This is the sort of thing that leaves you with a good, warm, fuzzy feeling amid the economic wreckage that litters the business world lately. So my job is safe for the time being, and I might even get a raise if senior management at the company authorizes raises for anyone this year. That is still unknown, unfortunately.

So the word on the street today is, "Phew."

Little friends

Our friends Dustin and Holly have a little girl, Mya, who is a year older than Joshua. They live around the corner, so it has been really handy to trade babysitting with them. Joshua loves playing with Mya when she comes over.



Last time Mya was over, I noticed an interesting phenomenon in energy requirements in the care of multiple children.

Here is a little equation for you: E = C^x where (E) is the energy required to care for (C) children as their number (x) increases. As you can see, the energy required increases exponentially as the number of children increases. So the energy required for two (2) children is not E = 2C. Rather, it is E = C² and the energy required for three (3) children is E = C³ etc.

But all that math mumbo jumbo aside, Joshua really enjoys playing with his little friends and we enjoy having Mya close by to play with.

My Spine Is Rubbish

I just got back from my second visit with our chiropractor (who is also Dean's uncle). He's a great guy, even if I have to turn the speed of my brain up to 11 in order to follow his incredibly fast rate of speech. I went in for the first time on Monday and had some X-Rays taken, followed by a standard adjustment. I went back in today (Wednesday) for a follow up to look at the films and discuss a course of treatment. Apparently my spine sucks in some ways, but is really good in others.

Sucky stuff: my neck is curvy in places it is not supposed to be, while it is straight in places where it is supposed to be curvy. This is causing my upper and middle back to compensate by curving the other way. This is what caused the pinched nerve on Friday that sent me to the chiropractor in the first place. Also, I have a dislocated rib, but I have no idea why.

Really good stuff: none of my vertebrae have fused, which would make correction without surgery impossible. Also, the space between the vertebrae is very good, which will make adjustment and correction of the curvature easier. Lastly, my insurance covers up to ten chiropractic visits per calendar year at a cost of just a $10 co-pay for me. So even though those will get used up quickly with this correction, at least I have the option of using them without a huge out-of-pocket expense.

So yeah. Now I know why my neck is always stiff and creaky. The combination of my many brother-induced and self-induced head injuries as a kid, plus my several years of intensive computer use for work and play have really jacked it up.

While the neck adjustments are, well, alarming at the time, my neck hasn't felt this good in probably a decade. Good times.

Succombing to Peer Pressure

I decided to jump ship from MySpace today and sign up for Facebook. I can see why people like Facebook more already. It's cleaner, easier to use, and I like the nifty games that you can use on it. We'll see if it is still interesting to me in a couple of months.