I had to say goodbye to yet another friend today. Krista is moving to Austin after her husband was laid-off by Pulte (and rehired by Pulte in Austin. Go figure). Total bummer. While we didn't spend a ton of time together, she was a great friend. I met her when we moved here. She had just had her second daughter and I had just had Keegen (they're a week apart) and she has a daughter a year older than Bode. We related very well to each other since we were in the same mode of life, learning to juggle two small children. Last summer we spent loads of time walking to the park and hanging out. Then baby schedules got in the way (our young-uns schedules never matched up), but it was nice knowing she was just a few blocks away. And now she's off. Again, bummer. We had a nice little send-off at a local pub, a girls' night that we need to have more of!


Kole came over today for one final playdate. Man, she and Bode play SO well together. And she's got this fantastic imagination that Bode enjoys. It kind of sparks his imagination, too. They just play differently. They still play trucks and trains and dig in the dirt, but it's different. Still wild and crazy and loud, but somehow it feels mellower. Less conflict somehow? Anyway, it made me that much sadder to know they were leaving. One less pal for B.

Now I guess I have to go make some effort and make some new friends?...

A glimmer of hope

Stop the press!! Bode has recently willingly sat on the potty and PEED. He's informed me of the need to poop and sat on the potty a number of times for a long time (with no result but I'm happy with the willingness). He sits there and unrolls all the paper on the roll, or dumps the trash out on the floor. Tonight I gave him books to look at and he actually looked at them tonight (he's declined the offer in the past) (an Elmo potty book with those annoying sound effect buttons. Perfect).

Maybe all these months of "backing off" do help. I've been very "whatever" about it. "Let me know if you want to use it." Very casual. Or maybe it's just a matter of him deciding he's ready. WHO KNOWS. I just hope this means we're actually going to make some positive progress...

We're So Glad When Daddy is Home

We spent Saturday morning at our favorite outing, the ZOO. It's always fun, but much better when Doug is there too. We enjoyed the usual feeding of the giraffes. Bode rode the little Toddler Train. We got to feed the "Buddie Budgies" (Australian parakeets) off of the seed sticks. Two of them obliged and actually sat on our stick while they nibbled. We spent a bit at the play area and then rode the carousel. We topped it off with an ice cream cone. I forgot my camera (mon dieu!) and missed some GREAT shots, but I guess instead of scrambling to capture the moments digitally I got to watch and savor. The boys had a great time. Bode loved the carousel exclaiming how fun it is. Keegen seemed a little bit uncertain. Keegen's favorite seemed to be the meerkats. He stood watching at their window for a long time. At the play area we ate our sandwiches and threw bits of bread to the chipmunks. Keegen wanted in on that and was holding his crust out to one. The chipmunk reached for it, which startled Keegen. Then the chipmunk simply snatched it out of his hands! Which made him cry and made Doug and I laugh. You really had to see it to appreciate it. During our ice cream eating, a chipmunk jumped up on Keegen's stroller tray and nibbled at some leftover banana, which we thought was cute until he moved on, leaving behind a pile of POOP on the tray. The nerve.

Bode was more than willing to leave the zoo for home because he was excited to play more with his new water aquaduct that Grandma Di sent. It was also the first thing he wanted to play with this morning. (And, YES, that is newly-laid SOD in our backyard, which is slowly starting to actually look like a yard!!).

Last night I asked Doug what he'd like for breakfast this morning. He requested crepes, to which I responded, "I don't do crepes." It can be such a pain to make, but, I decided to give it a try and they turned out pretty well I think. I'm not a fan of dessert crepes (love the ones stuffed with chicken and broccoli though). Doug wanted nothing more than Cool Whip and berries in them, so that was easy (wish I liked berries, but I don't). So that was his own personal eating experience.

This afternoon we drove out to Mueller State Park (about an hour away) for a picnic and hike. The hike was gorgeous--down to a little pond with a fantastic view of the back of the Pikes Peak range. To the west (?) we could see a little bit of the Sangre de Cristos. Bode did great huffing along down to the pond. He was tired on the way back up so we had distracting pinecone soccer competitions to keep him going. And I carried him some and then he rode on Doug's shoulders, too. Keegen got to ride the whole way in the backpack. Gorgeous scenery, beautiful wildflowers (I wished I could just dig a few up and transplant them at home...), lots of butterflies. I just felt so blessed to be hiking along with my little family. It felt really good.

We decided to head out of the park after that hike (the boys were exhausted and wouldn't tolerate another hike). We barely scratched the surface of that park, so we talked about going camping there in the future. On the way back home, we stopped at a county park just a few miles from Mueller where we had a blast. Great play equipment. Keegen is such a little daredevil. It was pretty funny putting him down the slide on his own. Bode was all over the place having a great time. Both boys almost fell asleep on the short drive to this park, but when we got back in the car to make the hour drive home, did they sleep??? Well, Keegen did for about 30 minutes, while Bode was in that I'm-so-tired-hyper-mode, talking silly non-stop. I finally asked him about 10 minutes from home if he could just turn it off for a minute. But he could not...

Anyway, a great weekend. The boys played inside for awhile before baths and then went straight to bed after dinner. I swear, I live for weekends and family time.

It's so ha-a-a-rd to say goodbye...

Ugh.

We've had to bid farewell to our dear friends, Sterling and Chris. Sterling is off to grad school at BYU. I really don't like being the one left behind. It's much easier being the one moving on...They were the first people we met here in Falcon. Sterling worked for our homebuilder. We met him on one of our walkthroughs and when I heard his name I knew he had to be LDS (and seriously, just look at the guy). He ended up being in our ward and very willingly helped us move the few things we had in the apartment we were in for 6 short weeks before the house was done. We met Chris while he was helping us and we all hit it off really well.

To thank them for their help moving us into our house, we had them over to dinner. Bode instantly LOVED Sterling. Bode was in a very slow-to-warm phase (that he's only recently somewhat come out of) and I was almost shocked at how easy Bode was around him (check him out on his lap in the above picture--he would not do that with anyone else!). We would see Sterling driving around the neighborhood in his truck for work and had almost daily chats that both Bode and I enjoyed. I was still pregnant with Keegen and just off bedrest, still didn't know anybody else and really appreciated friendly conversation. It's a sweet memory to me remembering how Bode would always point out Sterling's truck going by. It took him a LONG time to wave to him/it, but he was always happy to see him go by.

We've enjoyed lots of barbecues together, lunchdates, pedicures (me and Chris, that is). They've watched the kids for us. Sterling has helped with all sorts of house stuff. We've enjoyed celebrating the addition to their family, Brooklyn, with them. We're so lucky to be able to call them our friends and will miss them dearly.

"CrAsh"--A Flashback Friday

In my post, "100 Things," I mentioned the fact that I once broke my wrist while running. I'm not sure why that's crossed my mind, but figured I'd try to get out of my blogging rut by telling that story.

It was late May 1996 and I was running on the path that goes along the Provo River. I was running with ROTC in mind, as I would be off in mid-June to Fort Lewis in Washington for 3 weeks of what you would think of as boot camp and then off to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio for a month of training specifically for future Army nurses. I was really excited about the nurses' training, but completely dreading the field training. I had gone back and forth in my mind about my commitment to ROTC. I wasn't sure it was a good fit for me, but decided that my indecision wasn't enough to get out. I decided that if I went through with the dreaded field training, I wouldn't back out of my contract and I was doing the best I could to prepare.

I had my Walkman blaring (was it a Discman by then??) as I ran along. I hadn't run on this portion of the path before and came to a chain hanging in the middle of the path. In hindsight, I later realized that the chain was just a way of warning that if I continued straight I would be off the path. Had I gone down to the right, I would have stayed on along the river. I should have chosen the right...

I remember having this instant of indecision. Not about going right or staying straight, as I didn't even notice the option of staying on the path. My indecision was about whether to go around the chain or, since it was only a few inches off the ground in the middle, if I should jump over it. At the very last second, I decided to jump over it. And I totally bit it. The dirt, I mean. I tripped and fell HARD. My Walkman flew and smashed on the ground and so did I. A guy in a pickup truck stopped long enough to ask if I was OK. Yes, I'm OK, just totally humiliated! Please, drive on! I scraped up my hands, knees and elbows. And MAN, did my wrist hurt...

I hobbled back home and cleaned myself up. The next morning my wrist still hurt, so I went in for an x-ray. Sure enough, I'd broken it, right at the "anatomical snuffbox." I'm such an anatomy geek. I remember that one well from my sports medicine classes. I was put in a cast for what would be 6 weeks. I remember asking the doctor about going to my boot camp and his response was, "If they'll let you with a cast on your arm." Dur, probably not.

Because of my broken wrist, my camp was deferred to the following summer. (Instead of spending the rest of my summer as planned, I went on a trip to Boulder and did lots of camping in Utah with friends, one--Sarah-- who dubbed me "CrAsh." Some of the best times I'd had at BYU to that point). To make a long story short, I took this experience as a sign to get out of my ROTC contract. It was an incredibly difficult decision. I'd promised to serve my country. I'd taken their money to pay for school. Part of me felt like if I were an Army nurse, it would partially make up for my dad getting out of the Army prematurely because of my mom's health problems. I thought maybe it would be my way to "serve a mission" since I knew an actual church mission was not for me. I met some of my closest friends in ROTC. I felt awful backing out, but ROTC had never felt right to me. The idea of Army nursing did, but the path I'd chosen to get me there didn't. Maybe that doesn't make sense, but there you have it.

I sometimes think of how different my life would be if I'd stayed in. I know I would have had some very interesting experiences as an Army nurse and I'd have learned a lot. I also know that the 4-year active duty commitment I would have had would have finished up December of 2001, just 3 months after 9/11. And then I would have had another 4 years in the reserves. Knowing the crunch the military has had I think I would have served a lot longer active duty. I can only assume I would have spent a lot of time deployed and I seriously doubt I'd have the family I do now. It was the right decision for me and I'm happy to say that I don't regret any of it--being in ROTC and the decision to get out.

All because I tripped and broke my wrist.

The First Step is the Sweetest

Keegen took his first steps today! I tried to capture his "second steps" on video but he was not interested in participating in the reenactment...He's been cruising furniture for what seems like forever, and walking while holding my finger, but today he actually ventured out for a few steps solo.

We'll see if that means he'll actually be walking on his own anytime soon, or if he's just teasing us!

Breakfast at Ash-a-lee's

Today was the "It's My Birthday Week All Week" grand finale. Doug invited some of our friends over for a very tasty breakfast. I made a hashbrown casserole of sorts and put some fruit together. He manned the grill where he used our camping griddle to make pancakes and omelets (on the side burner). It was very fun. Fun to do breakfast as opposed to the usual dinner BBQ.

I miss my friends and family back in VA/MD but I'm so lucky to have good friends here now, too! Without actual blood-related family here, our friends are just that to us!

I wish I'd taken some pictures, but I was having too much fun talking and eating!...