The Harbertson Chronicles

Audrey at Three Months

2012-01-24T22:50:00.000-05:00

Audrey has been such a joy. She is very easy going and content as long as she's within eyeshot of Mark and me most times. She doesn't have to be held for long stretches of time (which my back is loving), and I can put her in her crib completely awake and she'll go to sleep. Yes, I wish she would sleep a little longer at night, but that seems to be improving, so I really can't complain. She eats well, hardly spits up, and doesn’t even blowout her diapers very often. I'd love to claim it's me, but really, we just feel blessed.

Even more so, Mark loves her. When he hears her wake up he begs me to spring her from her crib. He loves to give her hugs, tells her she's cute, adorable, tiny, sweet, or whatever else he's heard someone else say about her. Today he decided to lay down on the Boppy with her. He grabbed his blanket, Mickey, and owl, and snuggled in next to her. Then, all matter of fact, he said, "Mommy, take a picture!" Well, alright. And, to be clear, Audrey's expression is probably 20% Mark and 80% camera flash.

Mischief

2012-01-01T21:59:00.006-05:00

Often while I'm feeding Audrey or busy doing something around the house Mark disappears to find something to entertain himself with. He's gotten pretty creative and is keeping me on my toes.

"Cleaning" the mirror in his bathroom with water from the spray bottle and tissues while sitting in the sink. To make things more complicated he likes to lock the bathroom door. Thankfully we have a key if needed, although he is generally good about opening it for me.

Sitting precariously in Audrey's laundry basket on the edge of the chair. He climbed over the back of the chair to get in there and added my coat for good measure.

Stuck in our laundry bin. He had thrown a puzzle in the middle section so I think he climbed in the outer one in hopes of getting to the puzzle. Instead, he just got stuck until I found him.

Visiting Audrey in her crib. Recently Bryce and I heard what we thought sounded like Mark on the baby monitor. It was early in the morning so I dismissed it since Mark doesn't have a monitor in his room. Around the same time, Audrey started fussing. Bryce went in to check and found Mark huddled over Audrey and talking to her. He had left his room quietly (we have bells on his doorknob) and had gone into her room looking for me since I'm often in feeding Audrey when he gets up. It wasn't malicious, but Audrey wasn't a fan and thankfully let us know she needed help.

Stethoscope

2011-11-21T19:45:00.010-05:00

Mark LOVES Bryce's stethoscope. Whenever he sees it he insists on a thorough check-up. He'll bring it to Bryce and lift up his shirt. Seriously. The reflex hammer and tuning fork are a close 2nd and 3rd for the coolness factor, but the stethoscope always wins.

Bryce usually takes his stethoscope to the hospital in his backpack. When Mark saw his backpack today, he asked for the stethoscope. Bryce replied that it wasn't in his backpack because he doesn't need it for psychiatry today (it was the first day.) Mark interpreted psychiatry as 'stuck in a tree'...cue video.

And yes, we did have a baby (Audrey) that I need to post about and I have a LOT of back posting to do. No guarantees when that will be, but I will do it soon so stay tuned.

What Does the Doctor Say?

2011-08-18T09:29:00.006-04:00

We're glad Mark knows why his dad is now MIA. But, since it's a little hard to understand if you don't speak Mark:

Cathi: Mark, where's Dad today?

Mark: At the Hospital.

Cathi: At the hospital. What's he doing at the hospital?

Mark: (no idea what he said)

Cathi: Is he learning how to be a doctor?

Mark: Doctor.

Cathi: And what does the doctor say?

Mark: No more monkeys jumping on the bed!

Life Through April

2011-05-01T16:05:00.016-04:00

I keep waiting for some free time to do some photo editing so I can post on the blog. Needless to say, it's not coming, so instead of getting REALLY far behind, here's a glimpse of the past few months.

January 2011

For a few months, this was Mark's preferred way to watch a show.

A few of us have been doing a playgroup switch. Once a week for two hours one of us gets five children between 18 months and 2 1/2 while the other girls get 2 hours of free (or at least one child less) time. So that meant 24 free hours for 6 hours of chaos. On this particular day, cell phones were in. Good thing we have a ton of old ones.

Mark's favorite sandwich: peanut butter and Nutella.

February 2011
Mark discovered water wasn't necessary to enjoy the bathtub.

Bryce and I painted Mark's big boy room (he's not there yet so it's just the spare bed/toy room). We went with a sports field theme.

Valentine's Day 2011
We had a Valentine's party at the church for a bunch of the smaller kids. They colored, played, shared valentines, and ate lunch.

Mark's Birthday 2011

As a passing thought, I suggested to my dad that he and my mom come out the weekend of Mark's birthday. My dad is an accountant so anytime around Tax Season is a little crazy. But, to our surprise, they were able to come. We went to the aquarium and the big Air and Space museum hanger near Dulles airport where they have all of the planes, helicopters, and even a retired space ship. It was pretty cool, although Mark got bored. He did like the toy car from McDonalds though.

Papa and Omi with Mark

We opened 'family' presents while my parents were here. Mark loved his Cars book for his Tag Jr, playdoh, Thomas pjs, and the Little People airport.

We got him a little cup of ice cream from Baskin Robbins. He was a little nervous about the candle, but figured it out. Notice the taxi and helicopter from his new airport had to come too. For at least a week the first thing he'd say when he woke up was "Airport?".

Mark's Birthday Party 2011

I didn't want to be worrying about a party with my parents here so we had a few of Mark's friends over the following weekend to celebrate his birthday.

Bryce and I got ambitious and made this Lightning McQueen cake. It took a pretty long time (30 minutes of which was trying to make frosting red, not pink), but overall, for our first 3D cake, we're pretty proud of ourselves. Thank goodness for all of the over-achieving people on the internet who not only make these kinds of cakes, but blog their every step.
Mark's not much of a game kid, so we didn't really do any. We played a short find the ball under the cones game and ring around the rosy. Otherwise, the kids just played with our toys while the adults hung out, ate, and chatted.

A few Cars decorations

March 2011

The strap around his waste is to my purse. He'd been rummaging through it and got stuck.

I attempted to do a little photo shoot a few weeks back. It's rough, but here are some pictures of Mark at 2 years at the park in our apartment complex. He asks for the 'slides' almost daily.

Easter 2011

We had planned to have an Easter egg hunt at our complex's park like we did last year, but too much rain and chilly weather made the ground super muddy and the spiders abundant. So, we decided the best move was to do it at the church. Each child was able to collect 10 eggs. Mark didn't listen to the rules, so I rehid some when he exceeded his quota.

Mark was thrilled to find the eggs contained candy. He ate a few marshmellows and jelly beans and thought he was in heaven. There was a group picture taken with a lot of the little kids, but Mark, of course, didn't want anything to do with it. He was willing to sit close by with his eggs though. This soccer ball one is his favorite. He slept with it for a few days.

Last year Reese attempted to steal Mark's basket, but as she was stuck in a Bumbo, she was limited in her success. This year however, she had no problem snatching it away.

The Easter bunny knew that it's sometimes a little busy trying to get ready for church so he didn't hide Mark's eggs this year. He did, however, fill the eggs to the brim with all sorts of things that Mark never gets to eat. When Mark couldn't get the eggs open, he decided shaking them was nearly as fun as eating the candy. Of course now he knows that it's what's inside that counts. He will let jelly beans marinate in his mouth until they more or less melt. It's nuts and I'm sure all of our dentist/hygenist friends are cringing at the thought.

Success!

2011-04-17T21:05:00.004-04:00

We've been discussing the need to get rid of Mark's pacifier for the past few months. He had chewed a nice sized hole in it so we used it to our advantage. About two weeks ago it 'broke'; well, half-way. Last night it 'broke' again and is now no more than a stub. He's still not sure how he feels about it, although he did throw it at me tonight. Then again, that may be because we refused to let him take Mack (the big Cars trailer) to bed with him. Regardless, we're on the home stretch to being paci-free.

I've been on quite the blogging hiatus, but I promise to post soon, especially Mark's 2nd birthday. Yes, it was back in February, but the important thing is we did celebrate it.

Don't You Hate It When Your Kids Get Sick?

2011-02-07T18:40:00.005-05:00

Best Buddies

2011-02-02T22:32:00.005-05:00

Although Mark has a lot of little friends out here that he loves to play with, Caleb has always been his favorite. It's probably because they are both boys and close in age, but it could also be that Amy and I get along so we have forced them to play together. Whatever the reason, they just love to be around each other. When ever I ask Mark if he wants to go see Caleb, he practically drags me out the door. Since the Blooms are moving this summer (the downside of having so many students around here), we decided to take the boys out for some fall pictures....back in October. It was wet and cold, but the leaves were beautiful and the boys had fun.

Throwing leaves

Looking for 'fish' (or so we told them)

Knuckles

Cute faces

They didn't like our artistic vision in this one.

And, this is typical- Caleb fully participating in the song Amy's singing while Mark is more interested in a rock, leaf, or anything else other than the activity in front of him.

Since I Ran Out of Christmas Cards...

2010-12-20T23:01:00.002-05:00

Halloween Activities

2010-11-07T21:29:00.003-05:00

Halloween is so much fun now that Mark is a bit older. The weekend before Halloween we headed up to Baugher's, a pick-your-own farm not far from us, to pick pumpkins. Mark found one that was perfect for him---that he could barely carry.

There was a huge stack of hay bails on the farm that Mark loved. He found a little hole just his size and HAD to climb down in it. He could have stayed there all day.

The wagon ride was fun too. I think Mark just enjoyed riding in a moving vehicle without being strapped down by a 5-point harness.

Some of our friends out here are quite the pumpkin carvers. I'd like to say that we are too, but we barely got our one big one carved on Halloween night. At least it was still Halloween. Mark thought it was kind of cool.

And, for all of you waiting to find out what Mark was for Halloween: none else but Harry Potter in his Quidditch robes! We don't think he really understood what he was wearing, but he did look pretty cute, right?!?

"My scar; it keeps burning!" (For those of you that don't watch Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone at least once a day, that's a quote from the movie.)

Mark's friend, Reese, hosted a little Halloween party. Mark had a blast with all of his little buddies. They took pictures, gathered leaves to throw, hunted for paper skeleton parts, and of course, had snacks. Thanks Lori. It was a great party. Notice the ball in his left hand? Of course. He also got to take home a little ghost sucker that Sheryl had made. I decided to let him try it that night when he was a little cranky and Bryce wasn't back from school yet. When I handed it to him he said "Wow!". Then he tasted it and said "Wow! Wow!". And, when he bit off the last chunk, one final "Wow!" Had I only known he was that easy to please...

The Maryland Zoo holds ZooBoo every year around Halloween. Mark's friend Mallory (and Rebecca and baby Landon) invited us to tag along. Mallory loves giving hugs. They're looking down at the elephants. We had lots of people pointing and saying "Look! It's Harry Potter!" I'm just glad the costume was recognizable, or maybe it was just the scar. On a sad note, Mark lost his ball somewhere in the Zoo. Needless to say, I have no idea where he lost it or where it rolled off too. Thankfully, Bryce was home so I called him and had him run to Target to get us a pack of a dozen identical balls that I had seen there. And surprise! When we got home, Daddy had his ball. No harm, no foul, although he is much less attached to it lately. Maybe subconsciously he knows it's not the same.

As an excuse to wear his costume for the third day in a row, we also went to the Trunk or Treat at the church. Bryce took Mark around while I passed out candy. Mark quickly caught on that he was supposed to grab candy from people and stick it in his cauldron. He browses his candy daily.

Picking candy.

Regular Occurences Sept-Oct 2010

2010-10-27T22:17:00.004-04:00

We never have a dull moment with Mark on the loose. He's a bundle of energy and his laugh is infectious. Here's a few things from the past months that I want to remember about him.

Mark found one of his church ties and a pair of sunglasses in his drawer. He HAD to wear them. I love the model face.

For some unknown reason every once in a while Mark decides he doesn't need a nap. This of course, is not true and he's cranky for the rest of the day. Sometimes though, for a brief moment, he'll stop and cuddle and watch a bit of TV. I think he knows that's the way to help calm us amidst his whining.

Thankfully he does sleep most days. We're growing his hair out for his Halloween costume (stay tuned), so he's been getting some pretty awesome bedhead lately.

When Mark knows something is wrong he says "No, No, No", and then does it anyway. A couple of days ago I heard a faint knocking from his bathroom. He had shut himself in there in the dark. When I opened the door and turned on the light I found him with the entire roll of toilet paper unwound. His response? "No, no, no". Yes, that's right. NO!!

We try to go for a walk almost everyday, especially now that it's much cooler. There's a sidewalk near the trees as you go down the hill from our apartment and Mark always stops to pick up one, two, three, more if we'd let him, acorns, aka "Ball!!". He knows to look in every crack and generally finds one that hasn't been opened yet by the squirrels.

So proud of himself. You might notice the ball in his left hand that you can barely see? He discovered it in his Easter basket (he found it when we moved) and it's become his constant companion for about three weeks running. When I say constant I mean constant: it goes to the store, on walks, around the house, in the bath, and yes, he even sleeps with it. We trick him to get it before we go to church (can you imagine the fights in Nursery?). Last week he cried all the way there. Anyone know if that's a sign of a psychological problem? Now he's toting the Sam's Club card too. It's not quite as severe (doesn't bathe with it), but he is sleeping with it right now.

Half Off at the Zoo

2010-10-27T21:59:00.003-04:00

To continue with our deal excursions, every Tuesday of August was half off at the Zoo. Since Mark is still free, that meant just paying $7 for me, and we got a free 'frozen treat' (aka popsicle.) And, since friends always make the trip more fun, Amy and Caleb, and Lori and Reese came too.

The cheetah was putting on a nice little show for us. He'd do loops right up next to the glass. I did a paper (?can you call it that in 5th grade?) on cheetahs once back in the day and have always loved them. Probably because I like cats too, except for the hair issue.

We had to stop by to see the elephants for Caleb. Mark thought they were okay too, but wasn't quite as into them and didn't feel the need to get out of his stroller.

This monkey was great. She was right up at the window and made faces at the kids. From left to right, Caleb, Mark, Reese (held by Lori). Mark is more and more interested in animals every day. We're going back to the Zoo this Friday and it'll be fun to see what else he's picked up.

Port Discovery

2010-10-27T21:45:00.002-04:00

On the third Friday of every month the Balitmore Port Discovery Children's Museum has $2 admission after 4pm. Bryce was at a Teacher's Quorum campout (this was back in August) so we decided to go with our friends the Spires and Blooms. A lot of the exhibits are a little advanced for Mark, but he still found things to play with.

He loved this ballpit that was in the little kids area. He probably would have stayed there all night had it not been for me being concerned that he would be hurt by some kids that were too old for the area who were jumping into the pit.

Not surprisingly the water room as also a hit. As you can see, me being the responsible parent, I neglected to put an apron on him and he got thoroughly soaked. He didn't care one bit.

Mark and Caleb liked hanging out in the camper of the Bob the Builder exhibit. They would look at each other and smile and then take turns climbing out and back in. There was another ball activity in that area. Of course, Mark found one to carry around as long as he possibly could. More on the ball fetish to come.

See What We Mean?!?

2010-09-29T13:17:00.004-04:00

This happens without fail, everytime a Harry Potter movie comes to a Quidditch scene. It's been almost two months now since he discovered Harry, and if anything, his enthusiam to watch it EVERY day has grown stronger. Let's just say we're glad he didn't fall in love with Barney (sorry, Lori).

Our Little Harry Potter Fanatic

2010-08-17T20:17:00.004-04:00

Life with Mark is never dull. A few weeks ago Bryce and I were watching the first Harry Potter movie (we’ve been reading the books together) when Mark got up from his nap. He saw the screen and immediately sat down on the couch to watch the rest of it with us. We keep our DVDs at the bottom of our TV stand and the first movies he pulls out are all Harry Potter. Seriously, he’ll hold them up for us to see and point at either the TV or remote. Sometimes he’ll even turn the TV on for us and sign ‘please’. It’s hilarious. His favorite scenes are always Quidditch. He puts his arms in the air and cheers “Go, go go!” whenever he sees them flying around. Then he claps when they show the crowd clapping. It’s so cute. We were driving to NC and had A Bug’s Life on for him to watch. He wasn’t super involved and was even fussing some so I switched it to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. I kid you not, he was practically silent for the entire movie, then took a nap, and watched the 2nd one. He couldn’t have been happier. See? And, then, the second one is just cute. “Give me the camera, Mom.”

As a disclaimer, we aren’t letting him watch all the Harry Potters since they get scarier in the later books and he is only 18 months old. And, he won’t sit through the whole movie, but gets up and plays with his toys and then checks back in every once in a while.

P.S. I wrote this post on Sunday. On Monday he was watching a little bit of the first movie before bed and it came to the scene where Oliver Wood is showing Harry the Quidditch balls. When Wood gave Harry the snitch, Mark started pointing at the screen and whining followed by his motion for ‘I want’ and ‘please’. Yes, he wanted the ball from the movie. Obviously that wasn’t going to happen, but we let him hold a Lindor truffle since they are packaged in a bright and shiny foil. It worked well, but took a fair amount of coaxing to get him to let go of it when it was time to go to bed.

Week in North Carolina

2010-08-17T20:13:00.003-04:00

We had to go down and see everyone in NC for a week before school started so we headed down there the first week of August. Mark loved going to the pool with his cousins and also the Marbles Children’s museum. He thinks the water exhibits are great, but especially liked driving cars in the vehicles section. He did NOT learn to drive like this from me.

Mark loved hanging out with his cousins, Lonna and Bryce, especially while they played Super Mario Bros on the Wii. He would grab a remote not being used and sit on the couch with them pretending to play as well. Grandma also has the pictures of that. We were glad to be there to celebrate Bryce’s dad’s birthday and see Kim, Jason, and family for a bit before they left on vacation.

Utah-Idaho-Utah Vacation

2010-08-15T21:13:00.003-04:00

I’m very behind on posting, so I’m attempting to catch up this week before Bryce starts school again next Monday. Time will tell if I succeed.

After Bryce took Step 1 of his medical licensing boards in June, he had two months before his MPH classes started so we decided to take a few vacations. During the end of June/beginning of July we took a two week vacation to Utah to see friends and family. Here’s a recap of our travels:

June 25-26: Spent with Grammy and Grandpa Ted for Grammy’s 80th party. My whole family was there (and really nearly all of my extended family). Here’s a quick picture of Grammy and Grandpa Ted with Mark. He’s around their 25th great-grandchild. Ted turned 90 this past March. Although we didn’t get to this time around, we love playing cards with them. We’ll see them at Christmas in Colorado and I’m looking forward to a few good rounds. My sister, Susan, her husband, Brian, and their two girls, Grace and Kate, were there too. Grace and Mark had lots of fun at the kids museum, the Treehouse, in Ogden, and just playing at Grammy’s.

June 27: Bryce’s little sister, Ashley and her husband, Greg, had their first baby on June 16th. Despite being only 11 days old, they couldn’t pass up the chance of having their parents, us and his sister, Kim, and her family from N.C., as well as Bryce’s two other sisters that live in Utah at the baby blessing. Needless to say between all of the Harbertsons and Greg’s side of the family, little Aurora had a very large circle of priesthood holders blessing her. But, the real riot was trying to keep 10 cousins ages 0-6 semi-quiet on two parallel benches in sacrament meeting. We all ate lunch together afterward and got to enjoy what was as close to a family reunion as we’re probably going to get for a few years. Grandma took all of the pictures so I don't have any to post, but they do exist.

June 28-29: Spent with my parents, sister, Joy, and Grandma Joanne and Holly down in Utah Valley. We hung out, ate, and toured the Thanksgiving Point gardens while my dad and Holly went golfing with Bryce’s dad and uncle. The gardens were really pretty and we got some cute pictures of us and Mark.

Mark feeding Koi fish at Thanksgiving Point

Mark LOVES water.

Omi had bubbles for him to play with in the Secret Garden.

Best we could do with a family picture.

June 30: Catching up with Tiff, Kyle, Kallista, and Dave as well as Tiff and Kyle’s kids. Tiff and Kallista are some of my roommates from college. We’re really glad we got to get together since both Kyle and Dave are starting MBA school in different states. Thanks also to Aunt Debbie for letting us crash at her place despite having her oldest son, daughter-in-law, and their 6 kids already there.

July 1: Spent some time with my sister, Joy, and then dinner with some of my old colleagues at BYU Graduate Studies. I worked there for 5 semesters +2 summers while at BYU and LOVED it. I wish I could have seen more of the staff, but was glad to at least get to go to dinner with Claire, Janice, Breann, and Maria.

July 2-4: The day we got married was a bit snowy so Bryce’s uncle, Glade, couldn’t make it down from Idaho for the wedding. I hadn’t ever met him, which means Bryce hadn’t seen him in 4 years or so. So, we decided to go up to Island Park, ID for the weekend to see him and his family as well as spend a day at Yellowstone. The weather was nice and cool and the park was awesome. Mark did surprisingly well in the many hours in the car thanks to Cars, Emperor’s New Groove, and Ratatouille. That DVD player was really a lifesaver.

Awesome waterfall at Yellowstone.

See the bison causing the traffic jam? He was just crossing the road.

Walking the trail around the Mud Volcano.

And, of course, we had to wait for Old Faithful to go off.

July 5: Hung out back down at Grammy’s in Ogden to recoup a bit (it’s 4 hours from there to Island Park) before driving nearly 6 hours to St. George to see Bryce’s sister, Erin. Erin and Chris had graciously let us use Chris’s car for our trip so we figured the least we could do was return it to them and spend a few days there.

July 6-8: Down with the Gappmayers in St. George. Mark had fun playing with his cousins, Max and Sydney and their two dogs, Murphy and Thatch. Bryce and Chris watched the kids so Erin and I could go see Eclipse, which, surprisingly, they weren’t too excited to see. We also hit up a splash park so the kids could play for a while. Then, after a fun, but exhausting two weeks, we flew back to Baltimore from Vegas. Thanks to Pres. Obama for deciding to fly into the airport as we were trying to leave, delaying our plane by almost 2 hours and not getting us home until nearly 2am after a 5 hour flight with a 16 month old.

All in all, we had a really great time, which is why we didn't take many pictures. Thanks to everyone who let us use their beds, eat their food, and borrow cars and everything else while we were there. Hopefully we'll make it back out in another few years.

We Do Exist

2010-05-24T19:33:00.006-04:00

Despite all indications to the contrary, we are alive and well, although I can't say the same about my sister who hasn't blogged once since her baby was born...in September!!! I'm about to make a threat to not post again until she finally puts something on her blog, but we'll see if I have to take such drastic measures.

So the last time I blogged about the family was for Mark's birthday. As a gift from our friends Brandon and Cari, Cari took some more wonderful pictures of little Mark. As you can see, he wasn't really in the mood to smile or look at the camera, but that might have been because we had just taken him all over the country and he was a bit worn out. Anyway, you can see more pictures of this shoot here.

In March my grandpa, Ted, turned 90! I got to go out to Utah for his big birthday celebration, which was awesome. He's doing great and I hope he makes it to at least 100. While I was there, I couldn't pass up the chance to see some old college friends, Tiff and Kallista. The three kids are all Tiff's, despite what it might look like.

After Utah, we swung over to Colorado for a few days to see my dad who was busy with tax season. He really only got to see Mark for a few minutes at his office, but I saw him some at night. I'm very proud of him. His accounting firm that he started a few years after we moved to Colorado Springs was voted the gold medal in the Best of the Springs awards that the local newspaper puts out. They all deserve it.

A big motivation for my trip to Utah was to avoid another pre-test week with Bryce. He just has to spend a lot of time studying, so it's less fun. Mark still wished him goodluck though. We flew baack the night after he took his test and then headed down for a week in North Carolina with some of Bryce's family. I didn't take any pictures, but we had a good time.

Here's a picture of Mark at the airport in Denver. He was making friends with all sorts of people.

For Easter my friend, Amy, organized a giant Easter egg hunt at our apartment's playground. There were at least 30 kids with 8 eggs each so you can imagine the chaos. Here's Mark waiting at the top of the stairs to head down to find his eggs.

He got bored after only an egg or two and sat down to explore his treasure. I couldn't resist the baseball Easter basket.

We all ate lunch afterwards. Here are a few of his friends. We love having so many little kids to play with.

Mark sometimes thinks he has a pet mouse, although he prefers the wireless one. His new favorite thing is to sit in our laps with his wireless mouse while we play on pbskids.org with the corded one.

On Easter morning Mark was thrilled to find out that his eggs had something in them. He stopped and ate his puffs without finding any more eggs.

Sorry this is so small, but hopefully you get the picture of his attempts at running. This was over a month ago at the Cherry Blossom festival in D.C. He's much more stable now. He was so happy to be out of his stroller. He also loved the pigeons.

We went to D.C. with the Murdocks and the Jacksons. Cari, of course, brought along her camera and took more cute pictures of Mark and Mallory. Here's the post on her photography blog.

More recently, Mark loves to play on the deck. His friend, Caleb, has a box that he likes to sit in so we made him one out of his diaper box. He loves it, despite how this picture may look.

Bryce has finished all of his med school classes and is now just studying for Step 1 of his medical licensing boards. He takes those on June 23rd and then we are off to Utah/Idaho to see family and friends for a few weeks. Things are pretty normal for me: Mark, work, quiet book.

Why I Haven't Posted in a While

2010-05-08T21:50:00.002-04:00

Late last year I decided to make Mark a quiet book to take to church. My sister-in-law, Ashley, was coming to North Carolina for Christmas so I recruited her to make one too since I didn't have a sewing machine up here in Maryland and two is always better than one. Being ambitious, we figured we might as well each make an extra for a friend as well. We were delusioned enough to think that we could do 96 pages + cover in only a few days during the break. Needless to say, we didn't get them even close to done. Instead, it awoke a new and dangerous hobby for me: crafting/sewing. Whenever I get bored/frustrated with how slow the quiet book is coming, I take on a new and easier project. This has happened multiple times (3 already this year), but I am happy to say I have completed these projects and am now going to actually finish the quiet book! Every free moment I have when I'm not working, taking care of Mark, doing housework, doing church things, or spending time with Bryce has been filled with crafting. I used to think people were insane that crafted figuring I could work an hour more and buy what took them hours to make, but I must admit, there is something fulfilling in creating something great from scratch. So, here's what I've done:

First, I made crayon rolls. I took this idea from my sister who took it from this site. Mark has a lot of little friends with birthday parties out here so every kid in 2010 will get one of these. Making them in bulk also saved a lot of money! They only cost $4-5 each, including the crayons and are great for church since they protect the crayons from getting crushed in plastic bags.

Second, another sister-in-law, Erin, wanted to make I-spy bags for her kids, but figured the more people we got to do it, the cheaper we could do it for (since the little items inside often come in multiples.) She collected the items and vinyl; I picked up the poly pellets and fabric. I then made a key by individually taking pictures of all of the items, used Photoshop to remove the backgrounds, and then compiled all of the photos of the items in a Word document with the descriptions that I then printed and laminated. I used another blog post to make sure I didn't mess up the sewing, but added the little pocket on the back of my bags to house the laminated key. Mark's still a little young for this, but enjoys looking at and bending the key when he can.

Finally, my friend, Adrienne, did a post about an FHE board she created. It was a great idea (which she adapted from another friend, Krystel) since it was magnetic (sheet metal) on one side and then felt on the other. I have a variety of FHE materials from a group I did, and some visual aids have velcro while others have magnets. A board with dual functionality was just what we needed. I was chatting with Amy about it one day and she mentioned that she would be interested in doing one too. Great! Split the costs = cheaper and cooler (double the ideas). Michael's was having their bonus buys that week so we got a bunch of stuff for at least half off, but couldn't find any frames with sheet metal (Roberts in Utah has them, but we're a bit far from there). As we were brainstorming cheap or free ways to get sheet metal, Amy remembered that dry erase boards are often magnetic. How great is that?!? So now we have something to write on and use magnets. Amy's husband James made us frames that encased the dry erase board completely after having glued a piece of felt to the back of the dry erase board. Awesome. So then we painted the frames black while Mark and Caleb played. We then recruited Tara's Cricut machine to cut out cute letters, and mod podged them on the frames. I decided that I could use the dry erase board for more than FHE so I made that side more general and the felt more specific. Then I attached a wire to the top and covered it with some cute ribbon. I must say, I am very proud of this board. It was a group effort, for sure, but very worth it. Thanks everyone.

That's all. I'll post some pictures and an update of little Mark in the next day or two.

Did We Mention...

2010-03-10T21:07:00.006-05:00

Did we mention we got a little snow in February?

Our other pictures got accidentially erased, but trust me, there was a lot of snow.

Did we mention that Mark likes to play the piano?

Play might be a stretch, but he's got banging randomly down pat.

Did we mention that Mark discovered the tupperware cabinet?

He loves to pull everything out and play inside and throws a fit if we don't let him in the kitchen.

Did we mention that Mark turned 1? He's growing up so fast--

23lbs 4 oz (50-75th), 32" tall (95th+).

Did we mention that Mark got lots of books for his birthday?

He wants to read all of them multiple times a day.

Did we mention Mark had a little party on his birthday (Feb 27)?

Many of his little friends and their parents came.

Did we mention Mom and Dad got to choose the theme?

Cathi AND Bryce helped decorate the cupcakes.

Did we mention that we failed to teach Mark how to blow out a candle?

Well, if anything, at least he didn't try to touch the flame.

Did we mention Mark likes cake? He broke down right after this picture. He didn't like being confined to his high chair when all of his friends were down on the ground playing without him.

Happy Birthday Buddy! We never could have imagined how much our life would change when you joined our family a year ago, but we wouldn't trade it for the world.

P.S. Did we mention that Mark is walking now? We'll get a video taken sometime here.

It's Bath Time

2010-01-24T20:27:00.003-05:00

Mark REALLY likes bath time. Watch the video. Enough said.

Holidays in a Nutshell

2010-01-15T20:25:00.005-05:00

Nope. I didn't keep up on blogging over the holidays. Here's a rundown of what we did during the past two months:

For Thanksgiving we went out to see my family in Colorado. Mark and I flew out early so Bryce could finish studying for an exam the day before Thanksgiving. He flew out Wednesday night to be with us for the rest of the weekend.

While we were there, Mark discovered bubbles. He got some more for Christmas and loves them.

On our way to pick up Joy from the airport, we stopped and had dinner with Michelle and her three kids. Wish we could have stayed longer--but it was still fun to see her. We also got to see the Barretts briefly on Thanksgiving morning and the Hills the day after. They're a mix of BYU and hometown friends.

Susan came up from Albuquerque the day after Thanksgiving to see us. Mark wasn't so sure about his new cousin, Kate. He looks like a giant compared to her (she's only 2.5 months in this picture and Mark is 9).

The first weekend of December we got a small snowstorm. Mark truthfully wasn't so sure about it, but we caught a quick smile. Hopefully next year he'll be more into it.

Two weeks later (Dec 18-19) a Nor'easter hit. This was Bryce's car after the snow finally ended. We got around 20" of snow and I loved it. Thankfully the roads were cleared by Monday so we could head down to North Carolina for Christmas.

The day after we got to N.C., we left Mark overnight (first time!) and went to Great Wolf Lodge with Ashley and Greg. Technically, it's a family vacation spot, but we had a blast spending two days in the indoor waterpark for our anniversary. We were happy to share a room/slip the cost with Ashley and Greg too. And I've successfully converted another person to the joys of On the Border queso. It's a good thing that restaurant isn't convenient to where we live or I'd be there every week.

The day after we got back was Christmas Eve, which we spent with Kim and her kids. Here's Mark checking out Maddie. Another cousin to play with in a year or so. Colin (Kim's two year-old), on the other hand, was not so thrilled with Mark's ability to crawl. Let's say he 'panicked' when Mark went for his toys. We're optimistic that once Mark gets a little older, they'll get along better.

Christmas Day we headed down the street from Grandma and Grandpa's house to Mark and Ladonna's so we could watch their kids open presents with our Mark. Of course, Mark loved the wrapping paper.

These rings might just top the list of favorite toys, although he really likes them all. The first thing he does in the morning is find this ring set and pull them all off. Then on and off for the rest of the day he carts around the green ring and screams/cries when we take it away. He is so attached that he even walks with his little car using one hand to hold on/steer and the other remains clutching the green ring. It's pretty amusing.

Mark loved his gifts until our niece, Lonna, unwrapped her Hannah Montana gift. As you can see, he went to great lengths to try to get to it.

Aunt Ashley was kind enough to give haircuts so Mark no longer has what Bryce referred to as his 'pseudo-mullet'. He's growing up so fast and looks more and more like a little boy each day.

Mark and Ladonna host New Year's Eve party every year and they were kind enough to save us from the over 50 party at Bryce's parents' house. One of the games they had lined up involved a community scavenger hunt. We had 30 minutes to take pictures of us with a variety of things in the surrounding neighborhood. It was a little crazy, especially with a cop following us for a bit and my shoe getting run over by a tire when I jumped out of the car too early, but we tied for first (and then lost because we didn't know the names of Michael Jackson's children). Yes, we are licking a mailbox.

We loved having the chance to relax and spend time with family and friends over the holidays. As always, we would have loved to stay and postpone reality a little longer.

A Lot Has Happened

2009-11-08T22:20:00.005-05:00

I would have thought that by having a child I would be better at posting on the blog, but it's just not true. Mark's now a little over 8 months old, growing fast, and I haven't posted in almost two months. Shameful.

About a month ago Mark went through a mirror phase. We would take him into the bathroom and he loved to look at his reflection. He preferred to stand in the sink (we lack in counter space) and soon discovered the cool, shiny stopper. Bend at the waist, slide a bit, and wallah! who knew he fit perfectly in said sink. We gave him a few bath toys and he loved it. He's outgrown it now, but it was great while it lasted.

We tried to take Mark out for a few pictures near our house. He thought the cars driving along the road were much more interesting.

Today Bryce and I looked down at Mark and found him talking to himself while holding this book. He loves to read books and HAS to turn each page by himself.

My wonderful friend Cari took some family pictures of us a couple weeks back. She's finished editing them and we're thrilled! She's got tons posted on her photography blog if you want to see the good ones. These two are a couple we just thought were amusing. We're farther away from the water than you think.

And things are good on the home front. Bryce just finished his first class of the year and I got my big work project done (well, at least for the first round). Work definitely keeps life interesting, but I'm still enjoying it.

Mark is considering crawling, but gets easily frustrated. If he's on a bed with one of us, he'll roll and scoot backward to his heart's content, but doesn't seem to like the floor as much. He does love to stand against the coffee table and bounce like a crazy man in his Exersaucer. He's a chatter box---da, da, da, ya, ya ya, and crazy squeals. We love how much his personality is coming out; he's got an opinion about EVERYTHING!

With the holidays, I'll try to be better about posting. No promises.

Caught in the Act

2009-09-11T20:40:00.005-04:00

Mark has discovered bath toys. I don't know what this poor pengiun did to him, but he's always trying to bite it's head off and is reluctant to let it go.

You can just see him thinking "Enough with the flash already!".

Things are normal around here. Bryce has his first test coming up so he's busy studying and I'm trying to get a big work project done before October. Mark is doing fine. His little personality is starting to show. He's definitely a Harbertson with how crabby he gets when he's hungry.

We're enjoying the start of football season (go BYU!) and I hope to have a better showing with my Fantasy Football team this year. It's just embarassing when the opposing team has two players on byes and still beats you. That'd better not happen again, Sarah, or count me OUT for next year's McFootball league.

How Quickly Six Months Have Come and Gone

2009-09-02T22:01:00.003-04:00

August 27 marks six months since Mark was born. The last month Mark has made some big changes:

1) Has 4 teeth (two on the bottom and two on the top)

2) Eats solid foods (rice cereal, oatmeal, carrots, and sweet potatoes so far--he thought peaches were too sour and despite my desire to see that face again, we only tried to feed it to him for two days before moving on to something else)

3) Sits up for a few minutes before falling over as long as he doesn't try to reach for something to the side

4) Loves to stand and only needs light support

5) Smiles and laughs tons

6) Physical Stats:
-17 lbs, 2 oz (50th)
-27 1/2 in tall (75th-90th)

We took Mark out for a short photo shoot on Saturday. He wasn't in a smiley mood so we'll be taking some more, but they still turned out pretty well.

Once Again, Colorado

2009-09-02T20:42:00.008-04:00

We took a quick trip to see my family in Colorado at the beginning of August. I was out there for a little over a week and Bryce came for the last four days after a camping trip with the Teacher's Quorum. It was a bit difficult, but we were able to do just about everything we wanted to while we were there.

Mark got his first mohawk. I think he found the camera more interesting than his hairstyle.

My niece, Grace, had her 3rd birthday. My sister (with some last minute help from me) made this amazing teddy bear princess cake. It's completely edible and dairy free! Next time Suze, let's just make a sheet cake, especially when you're eight months pregnant :) We're excited to see her next week!

Mark enjoyed a new toy courtesy of Grace's gifts. It kept him entertained during the entire party.

Grammy and Grandpa Ted came out from Utah to join the party. It was great to see them and we're so glad they were able to meet Mark. Hopefully we'll be able to go and see them and the rest of our family in Utah next summer! Joy also flew in so we had a chance to take a quick picture of all of us.

We always have to stop in and see friends that have somehow ended up back in Colorado. We had a great time full of laughs and a bit of trash talk with Heather and Tyson, got to see Michelle's new digs and three kids, and had a wonderful dinner with Brad, Amanda and Jason (above). We never did send you this picture, did we?

Now we're back in Baltimore and in full swing. We look forward to the upcoming holidays and more chances to see family!

And, does anyone know how to stop some of my text from doing double-spacing? I can't see anything in the code, but I'm not that good with HTML. Thanks!

Speckled Frogs

2009-08-01T19:50:00.004-04:00

We were given this bouncer when Mark was born. For the first three or four months it's only purpose was to allow me to take a shower without Bryce at home. Recently Mark has learned how to grasp things so we reattached the toy bar to the bouncer. His favorite game is to pull the frog which plays a spiced-up version of the "Speckled Frogs" children's song. He'll do this at least 5-10 times in a row in less than three minutes.

The toy is more touchy than you'd think. If he continues to hold it, the song won't play again so he either has to let go and then grab it again or let up on it a little and then pull it down. He caught on quickly.

We also started feeding Mark solids this week. He's just doing rice cereal right now, but seems to like it okay. Our pediatrician wants to see us before we give him other foods so he'll start on those at the end of August.

Days of Summer

2009-07-21T20:17:00.010-04:00

We've been enjoying a slight blogging hiatus these past six weeks. Really, it's just that we haven't been up to very much. Bryce is just about finished with his two MPH classes for the summer, I've been working 15-20 hours a week from home, and we've both been taking care of our little guy. Here are a few highlights of our summer.

For Father's Day, we went down to North Carolina. We had a lot of fun just hanging out. We appreciated our babysitter (Grandma) that allowed us to go to the temple. I finally got a haircut after eight months, Mark went swimming for the first time, and we played a lot of Rock Band 2 courtesy of Kim and Jason.

Mark didn't really like the pool. Despite it being nearly 100 degrees, the water was cold due to rains earlier in the week. We all got used to the temperature, but Mark wasn't willing to wait and adjust (go figure). Hopefully he does better next time.

The 4th was pretty quiet. Mark was having a rough week so after an early BBQ with the Blooms and Judds, we decided to skip fireworks in favor of Mark going to bed at 7:30 and having some peace and quiet together. That next week he was having a little bit of a fussy streak and not sleeping at night like he usually does. Then, on Thursday, we figured out the problem: he had his two bottom teeth! We weren't really expecting them to come in so early, but he handled it pretty well. It does explain why he has been trying to chew/suck on everything in sight. We expect his top two will appear within the week. Now we've just got to start him on rice cereal so he can get ready to use those bad boys.

This past weekend we headed up to New York to see the Hill Cumorah Pageant. We headed up on Thursday night with the Judds and Hardings to Elmira, NY. The next morning, we drove to Niagara Falls. While Tara and Andrew went over to Canada to see the falls from that view, the Hardings and we went on the Maid of the Mist. It's a short boat ride that takes you right up to the falls. In addition to the mist that comes off the falls, we got caught in a huge downpour. It was a blast. Mark was a bit confused at why he had a big plastic poncho on, but when we got to the falls, he couldn't take his eyes off them.

On Saturday, we hit the Church history sites. We stopped in at the Peter Whitmer Farm (where the Church was organized), the E.B. Grandin Printing Shop (where the Book of Mormon was first published), and the Palmyra temple. By the time we reached the temple, Mark was exhausted so we let him sleep in the stroller.

After a drive-by of the Martin Harris farm (the original burned down in 1849), we grabbed some snacks and drove to the Hill Cumorah. We got there almost three hours early so we had some time to kill. We played some Yahtzee, ate some dinner, entertained Allie, and tried not to freeze. Apparently summer hasn't made it to upstate New York. It was probably 60s during the pageant. Once we got Mark in his sleeper and wrapped burrito-style in a blanket, he warmed up and fell asleep about 30 minutes before showtime.

After my freshman year of college (six years ago), I was in the cast of the pageant. Saturday night I finally got to see the entire show. It brought back a lot of memories. If you ever have a few weeks during July, apply to be in the cast- it's an amazing experience. I hope we can do it as a family in about 15-18 years - we'll see.

Sunday we went to church in Palmyra, the Sacred Grove, Joseph Smith farm, and to the top of the Hill Cumorah before going home. It was a whirlwind of a trip, but we had a good time. Thanks to the Judds for helping entertain Mark in the backseat for much of the trip. He did remarkably well, but still had moments when he just wanted to be out of his car seat.

I've Wanted to Take a Picture of This Sign for 10 Months

2009-06-07T20:03:00.003-04:00

This is perhaps one of my favorite signs in Baltimore and I finally got a good picture of it. It's right at the beginning of I-70 out here. For one, my family lives near Denver so sometimes I think 1700 miles doesn't sound that bad and maybe I should keep driving (then I quickly come to my senses and realize I'd much rather fly that distance). Second, outside of the LDS world, who really knows where Cove Fort is? Even on Google Maps all they have is a dot where I-70 intersects with I-15 in Utah. I wish I knew what people were thinking when they see these three major cities and then an ambiguous name at the bottom. It's so random, but it always makes me smile.

Go Terps!

We went for a walk at Harper's Ferry (a national park that has some Civil War history) this past weekend. Of course, we took some more pictures of Mark. He loves to suck on his hands and we've given up on trying to fight with him about it. The second one is my current favorite.

Wagstaffs and Colorado

2009-05-30T13:32:00.003-04:00

Bryce finished his first year of medical school on May 14. I am so proud of him for making it through and doing well despite having a tired, pregnant wife for the first six months and then a tired wife and a newborn for the last three.

The night he finished his final our friends Devin and Naomi and their 1-year old son, Spencer, came to visit us (well, actually they came to see D.C., but still claimed us as friends for a free place to stay-jk). We had fun having them around for a few days. We only did a few things togther, but saw them at night and enjoyed a trip to the National Aquarium in Baltimore.

I had been debating whether or not to fly across the country to see my family for at least a month and finally decided to just do it. I found a decent direct flight to Denver and the swine flu seems to have calmed down, I went for it.

Our family has a tradition of surprising each other. So, since I had only bought my tickets two weeks before my flight, I figured this would be a great time to surprise my family. I only told my sister, Joy (since I needed someone to get me from the airport); everyone else had no idea. My mom is working on redoing our house and Joy was even able to convince her to do a lot of the furniture rearranging and painting so I would have a room to stay in under the guise of just needing to get moving on everything. The surprises went like this:

1) We got to my house in Colorado Springs from the airport around 10:45pm. My mom was in the kitchen (which has windows that look out to the front yard and driveway) so I had to duck so she wouldn't see anyone else in the car. I stayed in the car with Mark sleeping in the back for about 10 minutes until my mom went to bed. My sister, Susan, her husband, Brian, and their daughter, Grace, were up from Albuquerque. We knew they wouldn't go to bed until late, so Joy told them that I was in the car. Susan came out all excited and with Brian's help, we snuck Mark, me, and my suitcases into the basement.

2) The next morning Mark and I went upstairs to find my mom. She was looking for the cat with Grace so when she came out of her closet (the cat's favorite haunt), we were just standing there. She was super excited and Grace was kind of confused, but also excited. Grace will turn three in August so she's still pretty little. Joy just got back from her mission in April so to Grace, Joy and Cathi are one person. When Joy got back, Grace called her Cathi. Now, she calls me Joy probably 75% of the time. You should have seen the look on her face when both Joy and I were finally there together.

3) My dad was getting home late that day, so we decided that Mark and I would hide out that night and then surprise him the next day (his birthday). Yes, I was there for a day and a half without him knowing. We're good. My mom, Grace, Mark , and I met Joy at my dad's office to say Happy Birthday. Joy took Mark while I was still hiding and asked my dad if he wanted to hold him. He had to think for a second, but quickly decided that this was in fact, Mark. He came around the corner to see me. He was very happy (and slightly teary-eyed) to see us.

Anyway, that was long. We went out to dinner for Dad's birthday, but Grace was having a little bit of a rough day. Here she is watching a Mickey cartoon on YouTube on my sister's Blackberry (has it really come to this?). Mark, the angel child, slept for the entire restaurant outing.

Grace had been so excited for Papa's birthday. She helped him open all of his cards and presents.

In the meantime, Joy fed Mark who had woken up.

The rest of the trip was pretty relaxing. Joy gave her homecoming talk in church from her mission to Jackson, Mississippi. On Memorial Day, Joy and I went to cash in our Christmas 2007 gifts at the Broadmoor Spa- massages. They were wonderful. I wish I could have one every week, but I would never spend that kind of money.

Mark did really well on the trip. He's developing quickly. He cough/laughs and smiles regularly. He's discovered his hands and found that they are of most use to pull out his pacifier and then suck directly on his fists. He also loves this firefly. He'll hold and play with it on and off all day long.

Mark: The First Ten Weeks

2009-05-10T18:59:00.008-04:00

Mark is now 10 weeks old. Time has gone by fast and I'm not great at blogging, so here's a picture for each week of his life.

Day 2: The Hospital

Week 1: Still with hats and mittens

Week 2: Ditched sponge baths for the sink

Week 3: Hanging out with his cousin, Lonna

Week 4: Trying to eat his burp towel halfway through feeding

Week 5: Borrowed a swing; it took him a few days to like it.

Week 6: Finally put him in an outfit other than a sleeper (except for his blessing)

Week 7: Recognizes his parents well now (can you see the concern?)

Week 8: Working on his smile

Week 9: Oohs and aahs abound

Week 10: Growing up too fast

Never Underestimate the Power of Oprah

2009-05-08T19:28:00.003-04:00

Did you catch the CNN article or the commercial from KFC about the free chicken meals? Apparently 10.5 million coupons were printed and stores were running out of chicken. Yikes. So, since I told you to go print your coupons, I figured I should tell you how to redeem them now. Go to UnthinKFC.com.

Joy and Two Months

2009-05-01T21:34:00.008-04:00

My sister Joy just got back from her mission (Jackson, Mississippi) on April 8. Since Mark is still a little too small for me to feel comfortable traveling to Colorado, she came out here to see us this past week. I figured while she was here, we might as well do some sightseeing. She thought she would have a leisurely vacation; instead, we were all exhausted by the time she left. Bryce had a test on Monday so we packed up Mark and ventured around the area by ourselves.

On Thursday we decided to go up to Gettysburg, PA and look around. We brought the jogging stroller since Mark generally likes it, but as it turned out, it was kind of windy and cold so we covered him up to keep him warm while we walked up to the National Cemetery and back. We were going to drive around the auto tour route too, but Mark wasn't too excited about it. We ended up doing a quick drive through the middle of the battlefield on our way back home.

Joy bought Mark some sunglasses and amazingly, he seems to like them. He wouldn't open his eyes outside unless we had them on.

Joy's best friend, Holly, lives in New York right now so she came down on Friday to hang out with us for the weekend. She'd been to DC so we went up to the Hershey Chocolate Factory in Hershey, PA. It was pretty cool, although we weren't impressed with the chocolate tasting. We were hoping for some new flavors, but instead ended up just getting the normal candies they make to sample.

We enjoyed watching movies (Joy had missed a few, of course, although some had come out long before she left) and eating cookies. Holly had to head back on Sunday night, but we had fun while she was here.

On Monday we ventured down to DC. It was probably in the mid 90s so we felt like missionaries walking the Mall in the heat (you know, that survival mode where you just ignore the fact that you're hot and sweaty and actually convince yourself that it's not that bad).

We started out near the Capitol Building and then headed down the Mall on foot towards the Lincoln Memorial.

We hit the Washington Monument next and then the World War II Memorial.

As you can see, from the WWII Memorial it's quite a ways to the Lincoln Memorial, but we had to see it. Luckily there was a bit more shade along that path.

Mark did surprisingly well on this trip too. We kept him hidden in the stroller and kept him cool with some water on his skin every once in a while. He mostly slept.

We made it to the Lincoln Memorial and were pleasantly surprised with how cool it was up near the statute.

Joy actually took this from a few blocks away. We decided that we would rather catch the metro during the reduced rate hours and miss the DC traffic than make the trek up to the White House.

We were sad to have to take Joy to the airport on Tuesday, but I guess she's got to go back and go to work sometime. Thanks for coming to visit! We'll see you this summer sometime.

On another note, Mark had his 2 month check-up Thursday. He's doing great at 12lb 14oz and 24 3/4 inches long. He's growing fast!

Happenings

2009-04-18T10:50:00.008-04:00

We've made some great friends in the ward out here. My visiting teaching companion, Cari, is a photographer and took pictures of Mark for us for free. She's working on her portfolio and photography blog for advertising so she was happy to take some pictures. We appreciated her help to get some professional pictures of Mark. Of course, despite being tired he would have nothing to do with sleeping so he's awake in all of them. Within 5 minutes of Cari leaving, he fell asleep in his swing. Is this a sign of a strong-willed child? I hope not.

I love this one. It's like he's trying to prove how much of a tough guy he is.

Bryce is hoping he turns out to be tall and left-handed so he can be a pitcher...we'll see.

Mark likes to hang out with us on the couch and watch T.V. or just watch us while we're doing things. He's finally able to track us with his eyes and seems to know that we are his parents. He's trying to start smiling and every once in a while gets it right. Once he gets a bit more consistent, we'll take a picture.

Last week some of us girls met at the park to have a picnic and play (for the kids that can walk, that is). Heather Parkinson told us about a "Kid's Nearly New Sale" at the Howard County Fairgrounds. Families can rent booths and then sell their clothes, toys, books, etc. to other people. I figured it was worth a shot to go down and see what I could find. That county is one of the nicer ones to live in around here so I figured the clothes would probably be good as well. Meagan and I left the babies at home with our husbands and got there within 10 minutes of it opening. There were tons of people there, but I was able to get about 35 things for $50. I would say at least 10 things were completely new and nothing was stained or too worn.

Now Mark has more 'real' clothes (other than sleepers and onesies) for the next little while. I'm glad we went early though; by the time we left (about an hour after we got there), there were so many people it was getting difficult to get around. Meagan was even getting boxed out by a lady looking at the same rack as her. They do this sale twice a year so I'll definitely go back this September (12th) and get whatever else we discover we need (especially for toys). Thanks for the tip Heather! It was well worth the trip.

On a final note, our complex has been having some repairs done to the siding. This week, they spent two days banging relentlessly from 8am-5pm. Needless to say, it took it toll on little Mark's naps. By last night, he was exhausted. We had gone to have dinner at the park with friends and by 7:00 he was done for. It's the first time that we took him out of the car and he actually stayed asleep in the car seat when we set him down. He had blown out his diaper so Bryce set him on the changing table and he still didn't wake up. As we were taking off his clothes he finally did and boy was he mad. He just screamed and screamed. He needed a bath so we got that done as quickly as we could, got him dressed, rocked him for maybe two minutes and then put him into his crib. He was still awake, but fading. That was probably at about 7:50pm. Around 4:30am I woke up and was amazed that he hadn't woken up yet to eat since he hadn't had anything since 6:30pm. I went and checked on him and he looked like he was searching for food in his sleep, but he wasn't awake so I left him, but figured he'd be up soon. He finally woke up at 5:50am --10 hours after we'd put him down. And, he's already taken two decent naps since and it's only 11:30! I'm just glad he can finally sleep. I should probably stop blogging and finish working while I can.

Free Food

2009-04-08T09:29:00.004-04:00

This post is for everyone that's interested, but really those from Baltimore. I belong to this thing called BzzAgent. It's a company that uses word of mouth to help other businesses (restaurants, personal and home care products, etc) showcase themselves or create some 'buzz' about their new offerings. Right now I'm doing a got2b smooth operator smoothing lotion BzzCampaign. So, I have pretty big samples of their smoothing lustre lotion. It's already for sale at drugstores (Walgreens, CVS, Rite-Aid), and will be hitting grocery stores soon. It's meant to de-frizz, tame, and silken thicker hair. I've got 3- 30z bottles that I can give away as well as substantial coupons for them if anyone's interested. Send me an email or leave a comment if you want to try it. I've been using it a bit and it's not bad.

More importantly, they are starting a new campaign here in Baltimore with TGIFridays. Last time I did a Chili's campaign and we got 4 free complete meals for their smokehouse bacon burger line (which are really good if you're not worried about how unhealthy they are). Come and join. There's lots of other things you can do (review websites, take surveys, etc), but I don't do a lot and they're not annoying me about it. So, if you're interested, go here. For those of you not in Baltimore, it may be worth your while still since they have campaigns all over the country.

Happy Sampling!

Nostalgia

2009-04-05T19:35:00.006-04:00

Conference always brings back memories of the mission. Sometime during high school I actually started really paying attention to what was said, but still, those talks I listened to on the mission are still some of the ones I remember the best. It's probably because we would use them for the next six months to teach members and investigators some of the principles of the Gospel and just in general, being a missionary you are so much more engrossed in spiritual things that the messages really sink in.

I loved all of my companions, but one of them in particular comes to mind when I think of General Conference-- Sister Whitney Sheahan. Ironically, we never actually served together in April or October. While we were companions in Sassari, a city in northern Sardegna (also known as the island of Sardinia of the west coast of Italy), we bought little notebooks and started coming up with things we wanted to do with our future families. One of the ideas as to make Conference an 'event'. Now this is really for when we have kids and are trying to get them excited to sit down and listen to 8-10 hours of church on a weekend. So, once Mark and hopefully a few other siblings get older, there will be a very special biannual event for them involving special meals, games, and whatever else I come up with in the next few years. In the meantime, I'm open to suggestions of things you all did growing up.

For kicks, here are some pictures of Sister Sheahan and me throughout the mission.

Sassari in the summer is HOT! We had to wear closed-toe shoes so the instant we got into our apartment we would drop our bags, pray, and then shed our hot, sweaty shoes for flip-flops. Yes, barefoot would work generally, but since we had no air conditioning, dust and sand would cover the floor faster than our weekly cleaning could keep up with it.

Randomly, we were assigned to be companions a second time in Rome. We were taking pictures with some of the members and investigators before Sister Sheahan got transferred and a member wanted to take some of us. I think she's laughing at my ridiculous expression.

We weren't companions in Florence, but a bunch of missionaries got together to visit Boboli Gardens and play some sports (hence the casual outfit) so Sister Leavitt and I came down from Prato. Sister Sheahan was going home the next week and had just stopped by to say goodbye between some appointments and other errands.

This one is just for kicks for all the Baltimore folk. We're pretty small, but if you look in the right back, you can see me and Tara (Gibbons) Judd. Who knew that 5 years later our husbands would be in the same med school class together. (I could have put the boat picture on here, Tara, but spared both of us from the embarrassment.)

His Name Is Going to His Head

2009-03-22T19:20:00.004-04:00

It's probably because he's our child, but we think this is adorable. Let's just hope he doesn't take after my dad and continue snoring when he's older.

Two Weeks!

2009-03-15T15:59:00.004-04:00

Mark is doing great. We went for his two week check-up on Friday and he is up to 9 lbs 8 oz and 22 in long. Our biggest adventure this week was his growth spurt. No one mentioned to us that around 7-10 days he would have one so it was quite the shock to us that he wanted to eat every 2 hours instead of 3, and was practically inconsolable if we didn't feed him right away. Poor little guy. Luckily, things are calming back down now. He has some rough patches on occasion, but 95% of the time we can figure out what's wrong and he's happy (or sleeping) again.

We've been giving him some "tummy time" to help him with his head control. However, he's decided it's much more interesting to just lay on his stomach and watch T.V. He's actually wide awake in this picture.

Bathtime. This is after we're done (so the screaming is over and now he wants to cuddle up in his towel).

More Details

2009-03-03T19:38:00.007-05:00

Mark had his first check-up today. Everything went fine. He had no signs of jaundice so they didn’t have to stick him at all. Thank goodness. Having to strip him down to get his weight was traumatic enough for the little guy. He HATES being cold and naked and isn’t afraid to let you know it.

We didn’t give many details on how the delivery went since we just wanted to get some pictures up, so here’s the run-down (If you don’t care, skip to the bottom of the post for more baby pictures). Two weeks before I actually delivered I went to my OB (Dr. S) for a check-up and based on my progress, she said she’d be surprised if I made it to my due date. Great. I was already planning on working from home that week, so it would be fine if I went into labor. The next week I went in and I had progressed some more and she (still Dr. S) said she’d be really surprised to see me in the office the next week (which would put me past my due date). Even better. The next week I go in (this is Thursday and I still haven’t gone into labor) and the doctor (Dr. Z this time) checked me and with a perplexed look on her face says, “You’re sure you’re not having contractions? I’d be surprised if you weren’t in early labor.” She then advised me to go home, take a walk, and see if things didn’t get moving. We also scheduled a fetal non-stress test and fluid check for Friday and an induction for Monday. At least the end was in sight as I was skeptical that my body would actually go into labor. So, Bryce and I went for a three-mile walk at the park by my house. I had some mild contractions during the walk and throughout the rest of the day, but I didn’t feel like they were all that strong. Dr. Z called me that afternoon to see if things were progressing and I didn’t have much to report. By Thursday night the mild contractions had all but stopped and I had resigned myself to the fact that I would probably have to wait until Monday assuming the tests turned out okay on Friday.

So, Friday morning at 4:25am I woke up after having slept fitfully for maybe three hours to what was finally a real contraction. Wow. Now these were different. I started timing them and they were anywhere from 6-11 minutes apart so I laid in bed waiting for the next one to start for about an hour and a half. Bryce’s alarm went off at 6:00am and I told him that I thought I was in labor. We both took showers (it sounds crazy, but warm water is wonderful when you’re aching so bad and I almost got through the whole thing without a contraction. I wasn’t feeling that great so I didn’t eat anything for fear it would come right back up. As the contractions neared 5 minutes apart I decided I would call the doctor’s office. I spoke with Dr. M and since I was already 4-5 cm dilated from the day before, he said to head on into the hospital. Yay! At my baby shower with some of the girls in the ward I had heard stories about how many of them had been sent home when they went into the hospital the first time. I really didn’t want to come home and I figured that with how far progressed I was I wouldn’t be, but you can’t believe how relieved I was when they said they would be admitting me.

We got to the hospital around 7:30, registered, and went to triage so they could monitor me. I was super dehydrated (since I hadn’t felt well so I hadn’t eaten or drank anything that morning) so they started an IV once they decided I was going to be admitted and would need at least ¾ liter of fluids before I could even consider an epidural. Apparently the night before had been very busy so they were still cleaning delivery rooms and mine wouldn’t be ready for at least 30 minutes. Some of you know this, and others don’t, but I have two herniated discs in my lower back. By the end of the pregnancy and the added weight stresses, my back was in pretty bad shape. The contractions were painful—very much so—but the worst for me was that even between contractions there was no way for me to lie on the hospital bed and be comfortable. So, when they asked me if I wanted an epidural, I willingly obliged (I had already planned on it, but realizing how much my back was going to be a factor made it even more appealing). The anesthesia team came in for a consult and when they found out I had the back problems they said they would need to consult the attending physician. I was a little nervous that I wouldn’t be able to get one, but still optimistic. The anesthesiologist came down, we chatted, and he decided to try one—they would just place it a space above where my discs are herniated. He then said he would be back at 12:30 (mind you that was at least four hours in the future). I knew he had to be joking, but also that they don’t generally place epidurals in the triage room so I wasn’t sure if they would wait until I got moved to my own space. He decided they could do it there (the triage nurse said that was the first time she’s ever seen one done triage) so they prepped the room. The CRNA (Nurse Anesthetist) got me ready and placed the epidural without any problem. There are a few exciting things about epidurals that I didn’t know happened—like the electric shock down your leg when it’s placed (it only lasts a second) and the shaking from the medicine that lasts for about 20-30 minutes afterwards. I had already been shaking some from being cold, in labor, dehydrated, and nervous, so I didn’t think it was that bad, but Bryce thought it was funny. Good thing I wasn’t in any pain anymore.

Anyway, that was probably the most exciting part of my labor. The epidural worked like a charm. I could still move my feet and even use them to lift up my back and rollover some (to the nurses’ delight). But, I couldn’t feel any contractions more than a little pressure, and even that came and went. I would have to check the monitor to see if I was having them.

My OB group has about 6-7 doctors that work together so whoever is working at the hospital that day delivers you. Luckily for me, it was Dr. Z so she was already well-aware of what was going on with me, having seen me in the office the morning before. She checked me and broke my water around 9am. After that, Bryce and I pretty much hung out. He actually got kind of bored sitting around and I even took some short naps. We had a nursing student from Hopkins that was observing so we chatted with her and our other nurse when they were in the room.

They both were leaving around 3pm so we were hopeful I would have the baby before then. At noon Dr. Z came to do another check (she had come in every hour) and since was still only around a 7, she decided to start me on a low drip of Pitocin. After that the contractions picked up (although I didn’t feel it) and by 1:26 I was ready to push. So, despite not really feeling more than some pressure, I did my best to get that kid moving. Apparently I did fine as it only took about 15 minutes. Everyone was impressed and I was just glad that MY labor wasn’t as bad as I had feared. I do realize that not everyone has such an experience as mine, but I would prefer all of my future children to be delivered in a like manner.

Despite only Bryce being the only family at the delivery, we actually had quite the crowd of medical personnel. I think we counted six other people—Dr. Z, my nurse, the nursing student, the student’s supervisor, and two midwives. After the baby came out we gained another person or two for him, but they were in the baby area. Its sounds like a crowd, but I hardly even noticed and wasn’t bothered by it at all.

Well, by 4:30 we were transferred to the Mother-Baby unit. Let’s just say that the experience there wasn’t quite as wonderful as in Labor and Delivery, and we are very happy to be home.
As much as I would have preferred to have had him a few weeks earlier, things worked out very well for a few reasons. 1) If I had gone into labor Thursday night, I, or some other poor woman, would have had to give birth in triage. 2) Bryce had just had a test on Monday so he didn’t have to miss much school and wasn’t stressed about having an exam right away. 3) Since I delivered on Friday, he was able to stay with me until we were discharged on Sunday without having to miss any more class. 4) Monday it decided to snow six inches so Bryce didn’t have school and was able to stay home another day. In short, we feel very blessed and are happy to have such a cute addition to our family.

Night of Delivery

I think this one is so cute--he looks so annoyed with all the pictures

Drowning in one of his sleeping outfits

Finally

2009-02-27T21:36:00.003-05:00

Mark Ashley Harbertson was born today at 1:43 p.m. He weighed 8 lbs. 15 oz. and measured 21 3/4 in. Cathi did great and both she and Mark are resting and doing well. Here are some pictures of our new addition. We'll post some better ones soon.

Pregnant + Bowling = 165

2009-02-18T20:49:00.002-05:00

We decided to go bowling with the Judds and the Blooms last Friday, despite me being about 39 weeks. I mean, what's the worst that could happen---I'd go into labor? I WISH! Anyway, we forgot our camera, but Amy brought hers, so if you want to see a more recent picture of me, go here. I'm 'LEFTY' on the score board. The first game I got something like an 85 (the worst game I've had in at least 10 years). And that's only because in the 10th frame I discovered that if I stopped trying to bend over all together and just kind of heaved the ball at the pins, I was a lot better. Needless to say, after that discovery, I started bowling a lot better. Sad that it took me being large and immobile to get the first Turkey in my life. Don't worry; I doubt I'll get a score like that again...well, maybe at least until the next kid.

Getting Ready

2009-02-14T16:32:00.004-05:00

With only a week to go, we're just about ready. Finally!! It's been quite the process. So, if he wants to come tomorrow, I'm game. Well, really, I'm more than game. I've reached that point where the fear of being a parent no longer outweighs the discomfort of being pregnant. I even went out and found a new pair of running shoes today and am very excited to use them. I may even bring out my normal set of clothes this week. Yeah! As much as I love the few maternity clothes I have, I'd like to have more than 7 or 8 shirts to choose from. I'm not complaining, I'm just trying to look forward to the little things to help me make it through the days.

I had two great baby showers during the last few weeks. One was with a number of girls from my ward and the other was with my work. Both were very nice and despite me not liking to be the center of attention, I still enjoyed it. I only have pictures of my work shower right now, so here's one of my friend Jackie and me. She and Judy (one of my bosses) organized the shower. Jackie just started working for the department in November. I work at two different offices, but when I was at the Mt. Washington location, our offices were across the hall from each other until recently. I'm going to miss seeing her and everyone else at the office every week. I'll still be working for the department, but it won't require me to go in to the office very often anymore. I'll have to convince them to meet me for lunch sometimes.

Bryce is doing well; there's not much to report. He's excited for the baby to come. He does have a test scheduled for Monday, Feb 23, so we're hoping our little guy decides to join us sooner than later. I've had some contractions and am making progress. I go in again on Wednesday so we'll see what the doctor says.

Hope everyone has a nice Valentine's Day.

The Last Two Months

2009-01-03T19:18:00.013-05:00

I guess it's time to play catch-up with our lives. The last two months have flown by. Here's a rundown of what we've been up to.

1) November 14-16: Cathi went to Colorado for the BYU/AFA football game...the last game BYU won this year. Sad, but hopefully things will go better next year. We had quite the crowd at the game. Unfortunately for Dad, he was the only one rooting for Air Force.

Brian, Susan, Ashley, and Janice (Cathi's parents)

April and Bryan (Cathi's aunt and uncle)

Cathi and Sarah (cousin)

and, of course, Grace

(the only Wiechmann grandchild for a few more weeks)

2) Thanksgiving in North Carolina. We drove down the day before and stayed with Kim and Jason (Bryce's sister) for two days and Bryce's parents for the next two. Sorry, we are horrible at taking pictures so we only have some from one event...Thanksgiving dinner at LaDonna's dad's house in Kinston, NC. Jack (her dad) cooked up a 100 pound pig so we had a pig pickin' for dinner instead of the traditional turkey dinner. Pre-dinner entertainment was provided by our niece and nephew, Lonna and Bryce:

Lonna, 4, and Bryce, 3

Lonna is actually quite a good driver. She took us around the outskirts of her aunt's farm and showed us the horses and chickens.

The chickens weren't afraid of being picked up

As we drove around the other side of the farm, little Bryce wanted to drive. Marilyn (Bryce's mom) helped him with the pedals while he steered. Lonna was sitting in the passenger side and Bryce and I were in the back facing the rear. Little Bryce didn't seem to entirely grasp the concept of driving. In other words, he would often take his hands off the wheel and gaze around.

Uncle Bryce: "Bryce, you need to look where you're going"

Lonna, being 4 and an expert at driving: "Duh!"

The rest of the weekend was great too. We enjoyed playing games, watching some football, the boys went golfing, and we all went to dinner to celebrate my and Kim's birthdays on Saturday night. Biaggi's must have known that a party of 8 adults and 4 children would be high spirited and put us in our own separate room. The kids did really well, but it was nice for them to not have to be strapped to a chair after having had a busy day. We drove home in the rain on my birthday, but thanks to an alternate route, didn't get stuck for hours on I-95.

3) Christmas in Colorado. I went out to Colorado Springs on Saturday, Dec 20, and Bryce followed on Monday after his test. I got to stop by the wedding reception of a friend from high school who was marrying another friend I had at BYU. Small world. Congrats Ashley and Shane. Susan, Brian, and Grace arrived on Sunday night and Grammy and Ted got there on Wednesday. It was a full house. My father has the tradition of waiting until about noon on Christmas Eve to start his shopping. Crazy, you might ask? Yes, but the problem is it always seems to work out. He even managed to find a Wii for Brian at 5:30pm...after trying about a dozen stores. Who knew the Walmart near our house had 20? Apparently not very many people. We did have to run to the mall to help him with a couple gifts for Susan since she was shopping with him, but it all worked out.

Christmas morning was fun with Grace. She was a little tired when she came up to see what Santa brought her (a play kitchen), but quickly perked up and proceeded to help everyone else open their gifts in between playing with her own.

Grammy, Brian, and Grace with her stocking

Grace helping Bryce open one of his presents

Alligators were abundant this Christmas, thanks to my sister, Joy, who is serving her mission in Mississippi and Louisiana. Grace and Baby Harbertson got stuffed animals and Dad got a real alligator head. He thought it was great and it will probably end up in his office shortly. We enjoyed getting to talk to Joy for a while that night and are excited she'll be coming home at the beginning of April.

And, of course, Grandpa Ted taking a nap between presents. At 89, I will probably be doing the same thing. He had already gotten a box of chocolates and couldn't have asked for more.

During the rest of the trip we spent time with family, played cards with Grammy and Ted, spent a couple of nights with our friends Heather and Tyson playing games and hanging out, and made a quick getaway to Denver to celebrate our 2nd anniversary. We enjoyed two weeks away from everything and were sad to have to come back to reality.

I guess that means in only a few weeks we'll be adding a third to the family. So, here's an updated picture of me pregnant. The kid is running out of room in there and continually tries to find new ways to stretch out (much to the dismay of his mother). We're excited to finally meet him in 7 weeks!

Five Things, Eight Things, Too Many Things

2008-11-17T21:38:00.003-05:00

So I had a couple of friends (Cari and Heather) tag me. I would like everyone to notice that I am the death of any tag (meaning I tend to not tag anyone else). If you want to do it though, consider yourself one of 13 people I was supposed to tag.

5 things you want to do before you die
1. Take Bryce to Italy
2. Learn Spanish
3. Get in really good shape
4. Read a lot of church books
5. More volunteer work

5 things that make you absolutely happy
1. Spending time with family
2. Pictures
3. Cooking
4. Real Bryce time
5. Good friends

5 places you want to visit
1. Italy (I know I’ve been there, but I’d love to have unlimited funds and a few months to see everything)
2. Switzerland
3. Egypt
4. China
5. Chile

5 favorite places you have visited
1. Italy
2. Hawaii
3. Mexico
4. U.S. Virgin Islands
5. New York

5 people you admire
1. My dad
2. My mom
3. Grammy
4. My mission president and his wife
5. Prophets and Apostles

5 things of sentimental value or things you cannot live without.
1. Bryce
2. My leg pillow and stuffed bear that acts as a second pillow to keep my back straight while I sleep
3. Mission journal and pictures
4. Technology that allows me to keep in contact with everyone
5. Family

5 things on this weeks to do list
1. Christmas presents planning
2. Work on the nursery
3. Sleep
4. Catch up on emails
5. Blog about Colorado

5 of your favorite smells
1. Freshly laundered sheets
2. Roses and lilies
3. Old Spice Deodorant
4. Any good candles
5. Rain

5 favorite foods
1. Pizza (especially while I’m pregnant)
2. Ice cream
3. Strawberries
4. Cinnamon rolls
5. Queso (well, chips and dip in general really)

8 TV Shows I enjoy watching:
1. House
2. Biggest Loser
3. The Office
4. 24
5. Project Runway
6. Top Chef
7. Law and Order
8. What Not to Wear

8 Things that happened yesterday:
1. Woke up
2. Ate breakfast with my family in Colorado Springs
3. My niece, Grace, stopped and put her hand over her mouth mid aisle at seeing my parents, me, April, Bryan, and Sarah all at church when she arrived (despite the fact we’d just seen her 15 minutes earlier at the house)
4. Timed reaching DIA perfectly (got through security, stopped at the bathroom, filled my water bottle, and got to the gate just as they were calling my seating group.
5. Got delayed (not bad) in Chicago because of snow (I’m going to miss snow this winter)
6. Bryce picked me up at the airport
7. Came home to clean clothes
8. Went to bed at midnight (yes, I know that’s late for a pregnant person, but I did sleep til 7)

8 Things I am looking forward to:
1. Bedtime
2. Thanksgiving
3. Pig roast for Thanksgiving
4. Putting the nursery together
5. Our baby boy
6. Christmas
7. Seeing Joy (my sister gets home from her mission in a few months)
8. Having Bryce time during Thanksgiving and Christmas (he has tests just before those breaks so he won’t have to study during them. Yeah!

8 Things on my wish list:
1. laser vision correction
2. Go to Italy tomorrow
3. Better sleep
4. More energy
5. More time (and desire/energy) to exercise
6. Get paid every week without working
7. Have all of my friends move to the same city/area permanently and we’re there too
8. A few more maternity clothes (I have enough to get by, but it’s like the mission where you just start to get sick of the same small wardrobe and look forward to having other things to wear again someday.

8 Things Bryce did yesterday:
1. Went to church
2. Took a nap
3. Studied
4. Watched a football game
5. Picked Cathi up from the airport
6. Made himself dinner
7. Laundry
8. Listened to a talk by Stephen E. Robinson

What? Bryce cooks?

2008-11-10T17:31:00.007-05:00

Yes, I do. It may come as a surprise to many of you, in particular my sisters, but I enjoy cooking. I'm not very good at it, but I have fun. The main problem is that I often don't have the patience. I've lucked out in that Cathi can cook really well, whereas I can only help her with basic stuff. That being said, I like to challenge myself every once in a while.

About a month ago some friends from school and I went out to eat after one of our tests. The appetizer we had was called Asparagus Phyllo. We all thought it was really good so I decided to make it myself. I finally got around to it on Friday. I tracked down the phyllo dough at the store, had my sister email me the recipe I had looked at a few weeks ago and started to get everything ready only to realize that the dough had to be thawed for 2 hours first. Lame. I didn't want Cathi to know until they were done, so I had to be creative in hiding the dough and finding the time to finish them. I had already hid the asparagus in the fridge, but since I had already cut some of the stalks, I decided to go ahead and eat it before Cathi got home. Just as it finished boiling, she walks in. I had to stand in front of the stove and wait till she left the room to drain the water and put them in a tupperware container. Before she walks back in, I hid them up in one of our cabinets. Once in the kitchen, she actually asked why it was so warm by the stove. I played dumb and got away with it. While we were making dinner, she opened the same cabinet, the one with the asparagus, to pull out some noodles, but fortunately didn't notice the asparagus just sitting there. Then, while she was stirring the noodles, I had to stealthily pull out the phyllo dough I had hidden under some other food in the freezer and place it on top of the fridge. I was pretty surprised she didn't ask what I was doing because she's normally very suspicious of me. After having dinner, she left for a church activity, allowing me time to finally make it.

As for actually making this stuff, working with the phyllo dough wasn't easy but it turned out ok. The rest was easy. All you have to do is cut the asparagus, brush the dough with melted butter and add Parmesan cheese. The dough definitely wasn't cut the straightest it could have been, and I'm sure anyone familiar with working with phyllo would have been laughing at my efforts. I think that was one reason for waiting till Cathi was gone, so I could make it up as I went.

I think I've managed to make this sound cooler than it was, so here's a picture to prove I actually did it. Kim, Kristen, Erin and Ashley, you can now pick your jaws up off the floor. And by the way, Cathi said they were good.

Haberston?

2008-11-08T09:32:00.018-05:00

About a week and a half ago Bryce's med school class had their White Coat Ceremony. Pretty much it's a day for family to come and hear/see what medical school is like in the morning, and then go to a ceremony in the afternoon where all the first year students get their white coats. The coats are short, as to help doctors, nurses, and others distinguish the students from qualified help, but still nice.

Thankfully the presentation of the coats went fairly quickly. They signed the student oath, and then three at a time came on stage to have their white coat put on them by one of the faculty. Nothing crazy there. Thanks to Sarah who made my pathetically dark picture viewable. It was dark in the auditorium and I should have stood up as to avoid the light off the guy's head in front of me.

After it was over, all of the students went to get a class picture taken and the family members went to a reception area. Only I, Cathi, went for Bryce. Each student got two tickets, no exceptions, which of course, is lame for anyone that is married and has parents. So, we donated a ticket to Andrew and Tara so that Tara as well as Andrew's parents could go. The only mishap was on Tara's name tag. Apparently they put the medical student's picture on the name tag of the family member so Tara had a picture of Bryce on hers (since she had our other ticket). Oh the stories we could have come up with.

Anyway, so Bryce comes out all smiley from the reception and shows me his coat. First off, he doesn't like these types of things so I was confused as to why he was so chipper. Apparently he was just happy it was over and, to add to his and my amusement, his coat was the ONLY one out of about 160 that was misspelled (and mind you, there are some pretty difficult names in his class). They knew it when they gave it to him, so it's getting redone.

So, to be a good sport, here's one final picture of Bryce and I after the ceremony. I think I look tired. Which, to be honest, is most likely true since I'm always tired.

Things are going well for us. The baby's growing fine and loves to see what types of weird internal sensations he can make for his mother. 25 weeks down; 15 to go! I'm still at my same job at Johns Hopkins and will be the administrative assistant to the Director now since the person I was filling in for came back, and they still want to keep me around. It's only temporary so that he can have some help while we look for a full-time person that he likes. It's a perfect situation for them to have me there while they are hunting for someone since I don't want a full-time job after the baby's born. And I got a nice raise so that's always appreciated and helpful. After we get someone hired, I'll most likely still have a job doing something else in the department at least until the baby, and possibly something small afterwards. We'll see.

Bryce's second class started this past Tuesday. He's doing Cell and Molecular Biology this round. He's been playing flag football with some of the dental students in our ward as a release. Other than that, he's helping me get things organized around here and in the garage so we can start in on the nursery in the next few months.

Two Pictures

2008-11-03T20:06:00.004-05:00

Picture #1: Bryce is often lazy about making a lunch for himself. So, this morning, I noticed a Walmart bag (i.e. lunch bag) on the counter and decided to take a peek. Look at the picture below. The contents were the following:

1) 1 string cheese
2) 3 Skittles packs
3) 3 Snickers bars
4) 3 Starbursts packs
5) 1 M&M pack

Anyone else concerned??? I was. Laughing, I asked him if that was really his lunch. To his defense, it wasn't. He was taking some of the gobs of candy we have left over from Halloween to share with some people in his class. I now vaguely remember him mentioning this over the weekend, but you can imagine how amusing I found this bag when I saw it. Before we left, he added a bagel and granola bar for his actual lunch (I was only allowed to post this picture if I clarified what he actually took for lunch).

Picture #2: My friend, Sarah Boman, tagged me with the challenge to post the 4th picture in the 4th folder of my Pictures. Here it is.

This picture was taken in 2004 right before we went home for Christmas break. Erin and Ashley (Bryce's sisters) came over to Bryce's apartment with their boyfriends, Nate (we actually had to call Erin to remember his name) and Greg (Ashley's future husband--don't worry Greg, we didn't have to call Ashley to get confirmation). We watched The Italian Job in honor (partly) of me leaving for Italy on my mission in two months.

The Result of Cravings

2008-10-26T19:49:00.002-04:00

Bryce has a test tomorrow which means I have the task of finding ways to entertain myself in quiet ways so that he can study (hence, the two blog posts this weekend). Lately, almost all of the foods we normally eat just don't seem that appetizing to me. Luckily there are only a couple that make me gag, but I still find myself wanting things that I don't usually make.

So, over the past few months Bryce has been subject to many new and experimental recipes thanks to allrecipes.com. I know there are lots of you out there who are bored with your dishes, so I figured I'd post a couple of links to the things that have been good. Most of the ideas I've added come from the comments of others, so don't think I'm that creative with recipe alterations. The low-fat dairy substitutions are me though, as the normal stuff doesn't do nice things to my digestive system.

And to Tiff who sent me a recipe chain email which I neglected to continue on, here's my contribution to helping you try new things.

1) Chicken Chimichangas with Green Chile Sauce. I tend to try to make things less-fattening so I used fat-free cream cheese instead of regular and sprayed them with olive oil spray and baked them instead of frying. We only made half a batch (four), and although they looked small compared to what you get at a Mexican restaurant, one each was plenty.

2) Cinnamon Rolls III. For about the first 18 weeks of my pregnancy, the thought and taste of cereal didn't go over well. So, I started getting creative with breakfast options, especially when I grew tired of Toaster Strudels. Once again, I used lighter cream cheese for the frosting (maybe the 1/3 reduced fat) and omitted the nuts since we're not huge fans. My only mistake was not cooking them long enough so the middle ones were too doughy to eat. I've got to remember I don't live at high-altitude anymore and shouldn't assume the low end of the bake time is always the best move.

3) Easy Enchilada Casserole. I always buy the light sour cream (but not the fat free since it tastes a bit weird), and it worked fine. I didn't put the 4 tortillas on the top and didn't cover it, so it was a little soupy, but not too bad. It was also soupy probably because I used a large can of red enchilada sauce and threw in a little salsa with it instead of the 3 cups of salsa since I had that in the pantry. Next time I will probably add two tortillas to the top to help with the soupiness, but still use the enchilada sauce with a little salsa. It was still good regardless and Bryce, who hasn't been a big fan of enchiladas as of late, ate the leftovers at least 3 times. Oh, which means it makes A LOT, so if you don't like left overs, half of the recipe will feed 4 just fine.

4) Chris' Bay Area Burgers. Okay, these aren't new, but still really good hamburgers. Some of our friends and family have had them at our place and loved them. I use half the olive oil and they are still wonderful.

And in the next few weeks I'm going to try:

5) Three Cheese Manicotti. The recipe makes two pans so I'll cut it in half, and then of course, use my own fresh made Italian sauce instead of the spaghetti sauce in the jar. For the sauce, I won't use meat and I'll add the pint size Fat Free Half and Half (yes, it comes that way at Walmart) to make a creamy pink sauce. It is delicious and actually very healthy since the only fat in it is from the little bit of olive oil. I generally make a batch when I'm making pasta and then freeze the rest in little containers that I can take out and heat up when we have a pasta dish. I'd say it makes 6-8 cups easily.

6) Slower Cooker Carolina BBQ. When we went down to North Carolina for Labor Day we had some of the best pulled pork sandwiches. We bought the meat from a restaurant, and me, being used to thick red BBQ sauce, thought they had forgotten to put the sauce on. Little did I know the magic of a vinegar-based sauce that is very light, yet flavorful. The only downside I've found to the recipe is that it says it stinks your house up (from the vinegar), so I'm thinking I'll make it on a weekend and put the crockpot on the balcony since there's an outlet out there. I figure I'd better be home to watch it though so nothing happens. I'll let you know if it compares to the real thing.

I highly recommend the allrecipes.com site if you want good, home-cooking type recipes. They have some that are more gourmet, but epicurious.com is really the place to look for a fancy meal.

To Appease the Masses

2008-10-25T16:15:00.003-04:00

See, although I'm 23 weeks, I really don't look all that pregnant yet, even if I'm arching my back a bit. I think the kid is going for a wider approach than for sticking straight out. We'll try again in another month or so and see if he's made any forward progress.

All Done!

2008-09-28T15:41:00.012-04:00

During my breaks from work (I work for a temp agency) and Bryce’s nightly studying, I tend to get bored. Since I have done all the puzzles we own at least twice, my friend Amy kindly offered to let me borrow their Mickey Mouse puzzle. I’ve had it for a few weeks now, but finally finished it this past Wednesday. It’s 1000 pieces and each piece is a mosaic of some Disney movie. Needless to say, it took a bit longer to complete than most puzzles, but I got it done. Now I think I’ll take a break from puzzles for a while.

So, as I mentioned, I work for a temp agency. My most recent assignment is to fill in as the Administrative Coordinator for CEPAR (Critical Event Preparedness and Response). It’s part of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Johns Hopkins, but at their administrative offices up in Mt. Washington so I don’t have to go into the city (i.e. I can drive there and have free parking). They coordinate all other university and medical departments’ disaster response plans. So, if there is an emergency, each department has someone that they go to in order to make sure there isn’t a lapse in communication between the entities. The department also has a grant from Homeland Security for a National Center of Excellence in preparedness and critical event response (PACER) so the physicians and researchers work with other universities across the country to study and coordinate disaster response. My job is basic administrative support, but I’m starting to do some other projects for them as well as they discover I’m able to do more than just answer the phones and schedule conference rooms. The temp position is for six weeks, but they have offered me a permanent position, either in the job I’m doing (if the person I’m filling in for decides not to come back), or they will find something else for me to do until the baby is born. It’s nice to know that I have something set and fairly consistent for the next few months, and I like the people I work with. It may be that I can still do some part time work for them from home after the baby is born, but that’s something I’ll have to discuss with them once things get settled and I see what they are having me do. At any rate, I’m now working 40 hours a week and have much less bored time.

There have been some requests for belly pictures, but those will have to wait a few more weeks as it’s pretty hard to see still, despite not fitting in any of my clothes any more. Have no fear though, I will post some eventually.

Bryce is doing fine. He’s got another test next Monday (6th) so this will be another week of cramming. He passed his first test fine which was a big relief. He’ll still be studying a lot though. He’s had a love/hate relationship with the rainfall for the last few days; he loves rain, but hates it when it prevents them from playing football on Saturday mornings. He’s also been called to be a Teacher’s quorum advisor and Assistant Varsity Scout leader. I teach some lively 6-7 year olds in Primary.

We finally got couches so I’ll post some pictures of our apartment in the next few weeks. We just need to do some organizing and hang some pictures, but we’re getting settled. We have our 20 week ultrasound on Tuesday so I’ll post some pictures of that as well.

And the Results Are in...

2008-09-11T16:23:00.004-04:00

It appears that the cake continues to be the most accurate way to predict a baby's sex. Yes, we are 99.5% sure that we are having a boy. Well, either that or we saw something pretty funny on the ultrasound. Bryce and I had kind of been feeling that way, but knew that those feelings are often wrong. We are very excited. Now we'll start thinking seriously about names and all the other baby stuff.

If It Were Up to the Cake...

2008-09-09T10:12:00.005-04:00

Our friends James and Amy Bloom have a tradition of baking a cake that is half blue and half pink. The cake is then frosted and placed on a turning plate. The father-to-be is charged to turn the plate and the expectant mother then cuts a slice.

Whatever color she cuts determines whether or not they are having a boy or a girl. Yes, another old wives' tale. Yet, for the Bloom family, it has been 100% accurate. So we decided to see if it will hold true for those outside of their relations.

And the result? Well, it appears that we're having a boy. Thanks James and Amy for making the cake and having us over. We will hopefully find out on Thursday at our sonogram what we're having so we'll let you know if the cake method worked!

Tropical Storm Hanna

2008-09-07T16:29:00.003-04:00

We didn't get nearly as much rain as some places, but here's what it was like for a while outside of our apartment. It rained from Friday night to about 3pm on Saturday. The storm peaked around noon. Luckily as you can see, we have a nice down slope into the woods so the water drained just fine. Some places were without power for a while, but that was mostly near the ocean. Bryce loves the rain and made me leave the sliding glass door open all day so he could listen to it. I'm not complaining either though; after living in the Utah desert, it's nice to see a good rainstorm every now and then. I apologize for the less-than-engaging commentary.

The Baby's Heart is Beating!!

2008-09-03T17:58:00.002-04:00

I get so annoyed when other people don't update their blogs frequently enough and then I realized, wait, I haven't posted since August 11. Oops. But, we have had a decently good excuse since we were moving. Anyway, this is just a quick post to let you all know that we are alive and doing well.

We moved into our apartment on August 14 with the help of Bryce's parents. Since I am pregnant, Marilyn didn't let me do much in the way of lifting boxes, but I did get a lot of them unpacked. The apartment is still a work in progress, but we're getting there. Hopefully our couches will come within two weeks and we will get the pictures all hung up. That will hopefully make it feel more like home and that we're settled in.

Bryce is doing well with school. He has lectures from 8-10am, then a dissection lab from 10-12. After that, he's got the entire afternoon and evening to study. He's been doing pretty good, but as we all understand, needs to take breaks every now and then. His first test is on Sept 15 and will cover all the material up to this point. Thankfully subsequent exams aren't cumulative so once a test is done, it's over. Except for one future class and then of course the boards, that is. At any rate, he's liking school and glad to be making progress towards his goal.

I have been busy getting all of the odds and ends in order (all those things that need to get changed and settled when you move to somewhere new). The last major task is to get my car registered, which I will hopefully have done by the end of the week. I am also working for a temp agency, hoping to get an assignment soon here that lasts a few months. I have one day left at my first assignment. It's been difficult. I answer the phone (which rings maybe once an hour), let people in the door (today it was only the mailman), and occasionally mail a letter. Other than that, I'm allowed to read. I've finished one book already and will probably be done with a second by tomorrow. It's not significantly different than what I would be doing at home, except that I get paid to read a book there.

We enjoyed a nice Labor Day weekend down in North Carolina with some of Bryce's family. His parents, brother Mark and family, sister Kim and family, and sister Erin and family were all there. Erin was there for the week from Utah so it was a nice bonus to get to see her, Chris and Max in addition to everyone else already down there. Bryce enjoyed golfing with his dad and brothers-in-law. We (Marilyn, LaDonna, Erin, and I) subsequently made the boys watch the kids so we could go to lunch. It was nice to get away and talk as girls.

So today we went in for our first appointment with our OB out here. Everything went well. I'm about 15 weeks along. We finally heard the heartbeat and it sounded good...fast and strong. So, I guess I should start coming to grips with the fact that I will be a mom in six months. It's becoming real as my clothes (even the big ones) are getting tight and the bump is forming. I'll post some pictures once it's more obvious that I'm actually pregnant.

Well, this is boring, but at least it's something. I'll try to come up with something more interesting to say soon.

Alive and Well in Baltimore

2008-08-11T09:34:00.004-04:00

Well, since Bryce is at school and I'm sitting in a hotel watching the Olympics, I decided I didn't have a really good excuse to not at least post something as a "we're still alive" note.

Despite all the warnings and horror stories we heard about cross-country travel, we cruised across the U.S. without too many problems. After all the hectic moving stuff in Utah, we really enjoyed a few days to relax in Colorado Springs, spend time with my dad, Susan, Grace, and also see some friends, Heather and Tyson and Dan and Julie. The three days went all too quickly and before we knew it we were picking up Marilyn (Bryce's mom) from the airport on Saturday night. Since I'm 11 weeks or so along now, I get pretty tired and I didn't want to use a lot of caffeine pills to help me stay awake so Marilyn offered to come out and help me drive. My mom is taking care of her father whose health is quite poor right now. (I guess I haven't officially announced my pregnancy so we'll see how many people read our blog that I haven't told I'm pregnant yet...this should be interesting).

We headed out with out two cars on Sunday morning towards Kansas City, MO. Marilyn and I took turns driving my car and Bryce, the stubborn, drove his car by himself. We gave up on all attempts to convince him to let someone at least ride with him for a while and instead enjoyed listening to Harry Potter 7 during the drive. We got halfway through the last chapter when we pulled into Baltimore. Pretty good. And it made the drive go faster. To whomever created the audio book, thank you.

Props go to Hotwire.com as well. It's a bit of a risk to pay for a hotel without knowing where you are going to stay, but considering we got four rooms (two in Kansas City and two in Columbus) for $240 and ended up at a newly renovated Sheraton, and a decent Best Western, it was completely worth it. We did it again out here and are in a very nice Hyatt Place for $70 a night (including breakfast and internet). I'm a fan.

So, now we're out in Baltimore, having arrived last Tuesday. We stayed with some friends of my sister, Josh and Nikki, for two days, then have been using some free hotel points we had, and Hotwire. Since our stuff arrived last week, we rented a truck and loaded it up to put in storage on Wednesday. Our awesome friends that told us about our complex, Amy and James, are letting us use their garage so we didn't have to put our stuff in storage and then reload it and unload it in a truck. Thank you guys! So, that saved us some more money and now we just have to drag everything from their garage, across the parking lot, and up the stairs to our apartment on Thursday. I'm anxious to get moved in.

We bought dinner for Amy and James for their help with the moving as well as another couple they recruited, Clark and Liesel. They informed us that another first year med student had moved into the ward. I thought that was great. All of the others out here are dental, law, or pharmacy. They told us his name was Andrew and that he was married, but other than that, we didn't know anything. Bryce found him during orientation and as they were talking they discovered that both of their wives had served their missions in Rome at roughly the same time. Yep. Of all chances, I already know Andrew's wife. Tara entered the MTC only six weeks before me and although we never served together, we did have quite the adventure on what I lovingly call "the boat ride from hell". So, another friend found. And, she lives about 5 minutes away from our apartment. They had us over for dinner last night and then we all went over to a 4th year med student in his 8th year (he did a PhD after his second year for four years, so he's finally in his last year of the medical school portion) for dessert. Bryce and Andrew were able to get some good insights in what to expect at UMB and I got some good information from his wife about local stuff.

Well, this is longer than I had expected so I'll let Bryce do a post sometime here to let you know how school is going in more detail than "fine". We're always up for visitors (well, maybe after we move in on Thursday), so feel free to come out sometime!

Emerald Pools at Zions

2008-07-24T23:40:00.002-04:00

To understand this post, you'll first have to have read Cathi's post about our trip to St. George and Zion National Park. She claims that because I was in charge of the camera that no pictures were taken of the pools, but we instead have a picture of a squirrel. As rebuttal, the picture of the squirrel was taken earlier during the day. Second, we both forgot to take pictures up at the pools. We were exhausted. Besides, any pictures we would have taken wouldn't have looked any different from these:

http://www.zionnational-park.com/images/albums/index16.htm

So, just pretend we actually took pictures and that they looked like these.

St. George and Zion National Park

2008-07-24T22:21:00.009-04:00

This past weekend Bryce and I went to visit his sister, Erin, her husband, Chris, and their 2 month old boy, Max. We had a great time.

We took Friday off and drove down to St. George so that we could have all of Saturday to spend with them. After dinner on Friday night we decided to be daring and see if we were skinny enough to make it through a slot canyon. Well, with some determination, we made it up this very narrow bit of rock, but not without a few holes in the clothes. Oops.

Erin stayed back with Max and found a way up the hillside to come take pictures at the top.

On Saturday we got up super early (we left St. George at 6am) to go to Zion National Park. After passing through the foreign territory of La Verkin (a crazy little town in southern Utah that has a sign that states, Voted out of: the UN 2001, the USA 2006), we then made our way through Springdale (a city that only survives because of the park) and parked the van to go by shuttle into the park. The weather was beautiful, mid 70s and still shady. First, we went to see Weeping Rock, a large rock that drips 10,000 year old water. In this picture we are facing the rock so you can only see the park behind us. It was gorgeous, though Max preferred to sleep for almost the entire day.

We hiked another trail, then went back to the car to eat peanut butter and honey sandwiches before returning to the park to hike up to the Emerald Pools. Sorry, we didn't take any pictures. Wait, correction, we didn't take any pictures of the pools, but here's a lovely one of a large squirrel (Bryce was in charge of the camera). Pretty brave squirrel though. Somehow I think that spiel they made about not feeding the wildlife was lost on this little fellow.

By the end of the hike it was superhot so we hopped back on the shuttle, got the car, and headed for home. By 3:30 we had showered and were napping. It was awesome. After some In-N-Out for dinner, Wii Mario Kart, and a movie, we had sufficiently worn ourselves out again and went to sleep. Max decided to give a gift to his parents and even slept in until 7:30am. They were ecstatic.

We spent more time just hanging out on Sunday and were sad to leave that evening, but were glad to get to see Erin, Chris, and Max one more time before we move. We hope everything continues to go well for them down in St. George and will hopefully see them out in North Carolina for Labor Day. Thanks guys for letting us come down and play for a few days.

Moving Logistics

2008-07-22T21:14:00.005-04:00

Well, needless to say, things have been busy around here. We've been very busy getting everything planned to move out to Maryland. Thank goodness for small miracles. Everything has really worked out, despite some scary moments. We feel pretty blessed.

So here's the timeline for everything we're doing in the next couple of weeks (forgive us if during these said weeks we don't keep in contact very much).

Thursday, July 24: a.k.a. Pioneer Day in Utah (it's a state holiday so we don't have to work). This also means that we are packing and our ABF trailer gets delivered for us to load. Mind you, this was the last ABF trailer available in the month of July. Good thing we didn't wait another day to call.

Friday, July 25: Our official last day of work (we'll probably end up going in for an hour or two on Monday to wrap things up). Bryce is also taking me up to Midway for some time to ourselves before things get crazy.

Saturday, July 26: Bryce has a BYU softball tournament game and my mom comes down for the night to see us (she's taking care of her father out here).

Sunday, July 27: Mom leaves, Church, and dinner with some of Bryce's sisters and their families.

Monday, July 28: Real last day of work. More packing and cleaning.

Tuesday, July 29: ABF takes our trailer away and drives it out to Maryland for us (for a small fee of course). We're going to stay through the day to say bye to some friends and hopefully see Tiff and Kyle, some of my best friends that are arriving back from a year in China tomorrow! Welcome home guys!! We're very excited to see you.

Wednesday, July 30: Drive two cars out to Colorado Springs.

Thursday, July 31st-Saturday, August 2: Stay with my dad in CS for a few days. We'll probably visit some friends, see a movie, and then on the 2nd Bryce's mom comes out so that she can help us drive to Maryland.

Sunday, August 3: Start the long drive out to Maryland. We'll probably stop in Kansas City that night.

Monday, August 4: Continue the drive. We're going to stop in Columbus for the night and meet up with some friends from BYU that are doing medical school at Ohio State.

Tuesday, August 5: Finish our trek after 4 glorious days of lengthy driving. In total we'll drive about 2100 miles.

Wednesday, August 6: Bryce goes into Baltimore to get everything done that he needs to for school.

Thursday, August 7: Orientation for med school starts.

Friday, August 14: Move into our apartment at Winterset (yes, to our friends James and Amy that live in the same complex, we seem to have gotten an apartment, final approval pending. It's looking like we have it though--yeah!)

So some of you may have noticed that week between when we get to Maryland and when we move into our place. Yes, we noticed that too. We'll be hanging out wherever we can find a room until we can get in, but we really like the apartment and are glad that there are some other med and dental school couples that live in the complex/area. We are just glad that Bryce is in and are more than happy to cope with any temporary inconveniences that come with it.

Relief, Shock and Excitement - University of Maryland School of Medicine Class of 2012

2008-07-16T00:46:00.000-04:00

Is that a long enough title for this post? On to the news...last Thursday, July 10 was the end of a very long and disappointing application process to medical school. The University of Maryland called me Thursday morning. I saw the area code, 410, and recognized that it was from Maryland, but it wasn't until I let it go to voicemail that I recognized the rest of the number. I just about lost it. I called them back and they asked if I was still interested in the U of MD? My first thought: Is that a rhetorical question?!?!? I know they had no way of knowing if I'd been accepted anywhere else, but from my standpoint, of course I was still interested because they are the only school to have offered me a spot. I was really starting to think I wouldn't get in this year. The Medical College of Wisconsin had sent me a letter the previous week saying they wouldn't be able to offer me a spot this year. I had also been job searching in NC for about two weeks. So, when Maryland called, I was ecstatic, relieved, shocked, etc. I still am shocked. We both feel very fortunate that I've been accepted after going through this crapshoot of a process. Ok, so maybe it wasn't a crapshoot for my two brothers-in-law, but for the rest of us, it is.

After calling Cathi, my family and a couple of friends, I started thinking about times where I had wanted something so much, had worked hard for it and had prayed hard about it, that once it happened I didn't feel like I deserved it. This is one of those times. I have friends that are as "qualified" (whatever that means, considering you're relying one or two people who meet you for 45 minutes to convince 15 other people that you'll be a good doctor and are a good fit for their school) or more so and weren't accepted. I think it's ridiculous.

So, prior to Thursday, we had told lots of people we were moving. Their response: "Oh yeah, where to?" Us: "Don't know." I kind of liked answering it that way just to see people's reactions. But I like it even more now that I can say Maryland. We're in the process of finding an apartment, packing and planning the trip. We'll stop in Colorado for a day or so. The next stops will be Kansas City and Columbus, OH where I'll remind my dear friends at the OSU School of Medicine that a terrapin could take a buckeye any day, anytime, anywhere - unless it smells bad (And for those of you wondering how a tree and a turtle would fight each other, don't worry about it).

In summary, we're looking forward to finally leaving Provo and starting this next phase. Feel free to visit us in Baltimore. Cathi will enjoy the company.

Tagged for the Very First Time

2008-07-02T23:10:00.005-04:00

Well, we'll see how many of these tags I actually do, but Bryce is playing basketball with some of the guys from church so I figured I might as well do something. My friend Michelle is always getting tagged and decided to tag me this time since we've finally started the blog.

On a side note, my friend Kallista and I went to see Michelle down in Tucson a week ago to keep her company while her husband is deployed (if you want to see what we did, go to her blog). But, her husband gets home on Saturday night and I am so excited for her!! Have fun Miche and say hi to Blaine for us! Ironically, Michelle and I were freshman and sophomore year roommates while her husband, Blaine was Bryce's MTC AP. Small world.

Okay, here it goes:

What I was doing 10 years ago: I was 14 and had just finished middle school. I was probably babysitting for some kids up the street a few days a week for very little cash, but it was fun and at least I had something to do. High school was just around the corner and I was excited to get to go to school with my sister, Joy, again (she's two years older than me), as well as the brand new high school. Good times. Awkward times. Wouldn't go back either.

5 years ago: The end of my freshman year of college. The only summer I went home. I ended up meeting some friends in the singles ward and a group of about 6 or 7 of us probably hung out 5-6 nights of the week. I think my parents almost had a heart attack with my sudden change into a socialite. During high school it would have been a good week if I went out once.

1 year ago: I was working full-time at Graduate Studies for the summer and entertaining myself however possible (I even started crocheting) so that Bryce could work on his med school applications. There was lots of softball of course, and fun with friends, especially our neighbors below, Ryan and Sarah, and across the street, Chris and Julia. And of course, Kallista, Dave, Tiff, and Kyle. Then all but Kallista and Dave moved. Thanks guys. Well, at least Na and Devin came back.

Yesterday: Worked. Made dinner. Did some laundry and dusted. Watered the lawn. Watched Star Wars III on and off, and read some. Yes, it was a really exciting day.

5 favorite snacks: Hard these days as it seems to constantly vary. Chips and queso (especially On the Border queso), ice cream, fruit (when I remember to buy and then eat it), cookies, and brownies.

5 favorite books: How about the last five books I've read? 102 Minutes, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse. Yes, I read the Twilight series. It's a great no-brainer and was great Hawaii reading.

5 fave places to run away: Gym, outside, mall, friends or family, Italy.

5 bad habits: Trying to be responsible for everyone and everything, not eating well, criticizing myself, worrying, bad posture.

5 things I would never wear: If I had a choice for the rest of my life? Pantyhose. Hate them. Uhm, also bikinis, shirts that show your stomach, super low rise jeans (they make everyone look bad, no matter how skinny), and tube tops.

5 pet peeves: People that cross the road where there isn't a crosswalk, people that go around someone turning left and thereby almost hit the person turning left from the other direction, people who don't call you back, not being able to do everything I want to do, people who are inconsiderate.

5 things I enjoy: Hiking, working out in general, going to sports events, spending time with Bryce, going out with friends

5 people I want to tag: This was fun and all, but I'll let anyone who wants to do it. No pressure.

Softball

2008-07-01T00:22:00.003-04:00

As many of you know, I grew up playing baseball and absolutely love the sport. A couple of summers ago, I started playing slow-pitch softball as it's the best I can do (I wouldn't be able to do much in an actual adult baseball league). I played on several teams last year and this summer hasn't been any different. I'm playing on a Provo city team, a BYU intramural team and a Pleasant Grove city team.

The last few weeks have been pretty full because of regular season and tournament schedules overlapping. Just three weeks ago, I ended up playing in 7 games in 4 days - 1 game on Monday, 3 on Tuesday and 3 on Thursday. We ended up winning the BYU intramural division we were in that week. The next week however was an off week as I didn't have a single game. Cathi went to Arizona for a few days so I entertained myself with golf and basketball instead. Last week, I had another 7 games as the next BYU term started and I played for another team that needed a sub. It's been nice because the times haven't conflicted nor have the days of the games. On the other hand, there's no time for my shoulder to heal in between games. I hurt it soon after the summer started and have a shearing pain every time I throw the ball somewhat hard. Oh well, no lasting pain...yet.

Back to the recent games: Tonight we played two games in the Provo tournament and we are in the losers bracket. We pulled off two come from behind wins tonight. In the first game we were down 11-5 in the top of the seventh. We scored 9 runs and didn't allow any in the bottom of the inning to win 14-11. The second game was similar as we were down 9-4 in the top of the sixth. We went ahead 10-9 and then added three more runs and held them in the bottom of the seventh to win 13-9. I swear we don't try to do it on purpose, but it's something about our team that we don't hit until later in the game.

So all in all, I've played 16 games in 21 days and have at least one game on Wednesday, and could play as many as 3 more games this week. As you can imagine, I don't look forward to the day when I can no longer play and I become one of those parents that tries to live vicariously through their kids. I will say I don't think my parents ever did that so hopefully I don't. But then again, I hope my kids are somewhat atletic only because it's a good way to stay in shape. And who knows, they may even get to win a championship of some sort in their 20's or 30's. I also have to say I appreciate the fact that Cathi lets me play so often and attends so many games. Thanks babe. Sadly enough, it'll end someday.

Father's Day

2008-06-15T22:37:00.021-04:00

As I was perusing other people's blogs tonight, I noticed a common thread. Perhaps there is an excess of love for men today, or more realistically, it's Father's Day so we are thinking about our husbands and fathers and how much they do for us. So, since Bryce is up in Park City presenting at a conference for his work (yes, only chemists would schedule a conference over Father's Day), I have free reign to write whatever I want about him without any sort of censoring. Oh, the power. Use it wisely, Cathi, use it wisely.

I guess I'll begin with two pictures. First, Bryce in Hawaii taking our niece, Grace, to the pool. He had no idea I was taking this, since, if he had, he would have put a hand up (see picture #2).

It is with our nieces and nephews that I see glimpses of what Bryce will be like when we have our own kids someday. He is always so loving and kind towards them. He will play all of their silly games and go to extraordinary lengths to make sure they are happy. I know there will never be a lack of laughter in our home. Yet I also know that he will nurture them, help them to grow up to be responsible, and hopefully, love the Lord and have a desire to serve Him as they follow their father's example. I anxiously, but patiently, await for those days to come. Thanks Bryce for always making me happy and putting up with me when I frustrate you (trust me, this is a frequent event and Bryce is very, very patient). I love you with all my heart. Happy Father's Day.

And next, my father. (This part will probably be a lot longer seeing as I've got 24.5 years of memories to draw from.) It seems fitting to have two pictures of him as well. The first is on top of St. Peter's Basilica (the Vatican) when he, my mom, and Joy came to pick me up from my mission. He looks happy but try to get him to let go and look over the edge and you'd realize how tightly he was gripping that masonry. Second, is obviously, from my wedding. It almost makes me cry every time that I see it.

I really appreciate everything my dad has done for my sisters and me. He has worked so hard to provide for us, and for that we are all truly grateful.

But, more than the temporal help, he has been a great dad. It's been a few years, but we used to watch old 8mm films of us when we were little. I still remember the one where he was playing bucking bronco with us. We would climb on his back and he would try to bounce us off. We never won.

Of course there are the daddy-daughter dates, the numerous AFA hockey games where I could get a sip of Coke from him if I begged long enough, and plenty of mini-golf (which he always won, of course). As we got older, I recall him coming to our lacrosse games when he could. It's not easy to get away from his work, but as much as I generally played worse with him there, I still appreciated seeing him in the crowd. My favorite was when Joy's team played mine (we went to separate high schools). She was on offense and I was the goalie so he was always hoping that Joy wouldn't score on me. She never did, but her team beat us every time, so I'm not bragging.

Dad's never been a man of many words, but there's a lot to be understood in what he doesn't say. I am grateful for his commitment to the gospel, and as we've grown, I think we've seen it, especially as he serves in the temple. I also know he loves my mom and my sisters and me and that he would do anything for us. I love him very much and hope he really does know how much we all honor him, especially today. Love you Dad.

Fruit Basket Adventure

2008-06-14T17:25:00.009-04:00

One of our former employees had to come home about a month and a half early from her mission due to some health concerns. She had been in the hospital in the country she was serving in for three weeks so our office got a package together and sent it to her, just in time for her to miss it on her early return. We all wanted to do something for her still, though, and since her family lives in Provo, we decided to make her a fruit bouquet. Mind you this was a first time experiment, so it didn't turn out quite as professionally as those you can buy for a few hundred dollars online (Google search edible fruit and you'll see what I mean), but we were fairly proud.

All of the full-time staff were at a planning meeting on Tuesday so Maria, Sarah, and I decided it would be the perfect day to work on our creation. Here's a rundown of what we did:

First, I used a letter opener to shave pieces of stryofoam down to put in our sand pail.

Second, Maria skewered the strawberries and grapes

Third, we cut the fruit (pinapples with mini Reeses Peanut Butter cups, cantaloupe, and honeydew melong for the other flowers, centers, and leaves).

Fourth, we assembed the arrangement.

And the final product...although we did add some wrapped peanut butter cups to the base as decoration after we took these pictures. Not too bad for a first time try.

Sarah, me, and Maria holding our prized gift. (it's a bit fuzzy).

As fruit doesn't hold up that well, we had Maria and Sarah run it up to her house. She was very excited and has finally started doing a bit better.

Much Needed Amusement at Work

2008-06-07T11:00:00.005-04:00

As most of you know, I work for Graduate Studies at BYU. During the summer, it is notoriously slow, especially when the full-time staff are at a conference and it's only the student and other part-time employees. I'm not saying that we don't work, but we have to get pretty creative sometimes to make up a project to keep busy. We can't really cut down our staff all that much because we all do have assignments, they just rely so much on the full-timers that when they are gone, it can be a bit rough. Wednesday afternoon was one of those afternoons. Fortunately, fate seems to see our misfortune and creates amusement every once in a while. What I'm going to attempt to explain has happened four times in the last year and it baffles us every time. There is no explanation.

On Wednesday it all began when the front desk phone started ringing. I looked down at the caller ID and it said it was the front desk's number calling itself. Odd. Shortly thereafter our data analyst got a phone call on his cell phone that showed the front desk number was calling him, despite the fact that no one was on the phone. He answered and after a moment of silence it started ringing as if he were calling someone. Then my cell phone started ringing. I look down to see that it is also showing that the front desk is calling me, but obviously that's not true. I didn't answer it and then Curt heard my voicemail and actually left me a message. Various scenarios of this type happened for about an hour. People's cell phones called the front desk, and then when someone picked up, it would ring to another person's cell phone under the first person's number. Never does it show on the phone that starts the cycle that a call was made. It's just weird. The first time it happened last year it was initially between Verizon phones so we called customer service (you can imagine their confusion), but then phones on Tmobile and land lines also began to do similar things. We've tried searching the internet to see if it happens to anyone else, but to no avail.

We were naturally suspicious as to who might be messing with us. We originally thought it might be the data analyst, but he can't figure it out. We also suspected the webmaster or publications intern, but both were out on Wednesday and were doing things that wouldn't have allowed them to spend time creating havoc. Of note, it only involves cell phones that are in the office, and generally only rings to office phones where people are working; it didn't involve any of the staff that were at the conference or out for other reasons. So, since that seems to limit how an outside person could be involved, and we've checked with IT and they can't seem to find anything behind it (although they would love to figure out how to do it), we've come to the conclusion that it's got to be some signal issue with our building. We are moving offices within the week so I'll let you know if it happens again...in some ways I hope it does. It provides much needed amusement on those slow afternoons.

Just B.S.

2008-06-04T22:23:00.006-04:00

We finally graduated. Cathi and I completed our B.S. degrees in Exercise Science and Biochemistry, respectively. We also had two minors each. Cathi’s were in Nutrition and Business and mine were in Business and Spanish. We hope they’ll come in handy down the road.

It seems like I’ve lived in Provo forever, considering I started at BYU in August of ’01. Cathi started a year later. We’re excited to be moving in August. Given the time we’ve been here, it goes without saying that we’ve both taken classes we didn’t have to, but we enjoyed them and would probably take them again if we did it all over again. Along with that, we probably graduated with enough credits for three people instead of two. We’re definitely excited to be done and to not have anything else to worry about during the summer.

I guess that’s only a half-truth as we do wonder/worry about the medical school situation. You have to catch me on a good day for me to enjoy talking about it. I’m currently on the wait-list for 4 schools – University of Maryland, Virginia Commonwealth University, Medical College of Wisconsin and University of Toledo. I have no idea where I fall on VCU’s waitlist, but I do know about the other three. I’m designated as high priority for Toledo, am in the 2nd quarter for MCW and am in the first half for Maryland. That last one doesn’t tell me much as I could be fifth on the list or 105th because there are 220 people on the waitlist. So we’re just hanging out till we hear something, which could be as early as June or late as August (or Sept. for Toledo). If I’m not accepted this year, the plan is to move to NC and work for a year before re-applying. For now, we’re both working full-time at BYU at our same jobs.

Besides work, Cathi is participating in a BYU wellness program and wears a pedometer all day (she’s supposed to walk at least 8000 steps per day), has read the Twilight series and is re-reading it, and I play about 3-4 softball games a week and basketball twice.

I Guess It's Finally Time

2008-05-28T23:55:00.004-04:00

Despite all attempts to avoid starting a blog, we finally decided that we could fake enough interesting things to keep one up to date.

Well, that's up for debate, but we'll try to keep you all entertained with all of our comings and goings, the joys and ironies of life, and anything and everything else.