Lingards & Lovin' It!

Too Much Fun

2009-04-12T16:25:00.011-05:00

We've been having a lot of fun since we got here. Matt loves his job and we love being in a new place. Although we are still settling in and figuring out where things are we have made time for fun. Below is a photo of me with the kids at a cool park we like to go to. We are finding St. Charles to be a very family/kid oriented place.

Not too long after we arrived in St. Louis we bought a membership to the MO Botanical Garden. The first time we went there wasn't much blooming except in the Chinese Garden. On the whole we are finding this to be one of the best activities for our family. The kids can run around and go crazy and we feel the most peace there. Matt especially loves it. Forever a botanist!

This is Matt and the kids at an Easter Egg hunt at the Botanical Gardens the weekend before Easter weekend.

Ian finding an egg.

Self explanatory.

Me dancing with the kids to the Crawdad Song

I don't remember what was going on here. I just like the picture. Lily is a total mess like always. She's my messy kid.

Ian and Lily decorating/eating Easter brownies at Playgroup the Tuesday before Easter.

Silly Lily eating crayons. If I take my eyes off her for any amount of time she will eat crayons, play dough, and dog food. Yes, dog food! Yuck!!!

Ian and I at the Butterfly House surrounded by giant cockroaches. Ian was pretty nervous about getting in the bubble for the photo. We met Matt up at work one day last week to have some fun. Matt had some eye scan thing for work. His pupils were so dilated that he couldn't really work after the test but he couldn't drive home either. So we killed a little time with him till his eyes felt better.

Matt worked late one night so I let the kids stay up a little late, watch an episode of Dora the Explorer, and eat popcorn (We love our new Roku box). I admit it, I was letting them keep me company. They had a lot of fun with the popcorn.

A couple days ago Ian and I made cool Easter Eggs with wax paper and crayons. I got the idea off some other lady's blog. She made shamrocks. I saw it and thought, "You could do that with Easter Eggs". All you do is shave different colored crayons with a pencil sharpener onto wax paper. You fold the wax paper in half and iron it. Then you draw egg shapes all over the paper with a sharpie and cut them out. To be truthful Ian could only help with the shaving and spreading out part. Obviously I'm not letting him near a sharpie, good scissors, or an iron.

In other news, we have drastically reduced the amount of t.v. our kids watch each day. They watch from 0-1 hours of t.v./day. I've decided against letting the t.v. socialize and enculturate my kids. And there you have it. Some of our happenings as of late. Until next time...

What Else Is Your Nose For?

2009-04-11T20:12:00.000-05:00

Confessions Of A Bad Blogger

2009-04-03T23:09:00.004-05:00

Thanks to our readers it has come to our attention that we have been negligent in certain aspects of our blog. First, it is true we are no longer Houston Lingards. In light of the fact that this is the third state we have lived in, in the last three years I felt it wise to remove any references to geographic location in our blog title. Second, we have been remiss in posting any photos of our new doggie. Third, to commemorate our big move/new job, etc., a blog makeover seemed timely and appropriate.

Introducing "Gizmo"!!

Gizmo is half Yorkie, half Bichon. His previous owners felt guilty about keeping him penned up all day as they worked full time. So they sought to re-home him for the mere sum of $100. He came to us pretty much potty trained and well-mannered. He is 8 months old, has the sweetest temperment, and has unending patience for "the Puppy Bully" (Ian). Gizmo actually gets along really well with the kids and they really seem to love him. Ian amuses himself for a good hour or so just laughing and squealing playing chase/run away with Gizmo in the back yard. Gizmo has adjusted really well to our home and seems to be very happy.

You may be asking, "What happened to Roxy?" Just as we got her out of the puppy phase and pretty well trained we had to re-home her. It was too difficult to have her at Marjie's with us so we found another family to love her. She was a very sweet wonderful dog. I miss her but not her hair. One thing we made sure of with our next dog is to get one that doesn't shed (virtually). Gizmo fits the bill perfectly! Also, we've never had a small dog and we're finding that we really like this small dog. BTW, Gizmo doesn't look like the above picture anymore. We shaved off all his hair because he kept getting junk tangled in it. He started looking pretty Natty Dred. More later...

Happy in St. Louis

2009-03-29T19:57:00.002-05:00

A little Ian update: We were on a role getting Ian potty trained back in February, then we got the news that we had to put together a move to St. Louis in two weeks and we all fell of the potty horse. Ian is now completely uninterested in using the potty. Otherwise, he continues to be active and fun. We got a dog this week; Ian and Gizmo love to run all over the backyard exploring and searching for treasure. Sometimes they just sit together in the sandbox and play.

A little Lily update: Lily seems to have good pitch. She can match whatever tone that I hum or sing at her. She started saying ‘I love you’ this week and loves to scream at the top of her lungs and run around in circles, especially if Gizmo is around.

A little Matt update: My new job seems to be great. My coworkers seem very nice and extremely competent. The work seems like a lot of fun, we basically do the same kind of things that I did in graduate school, but on a much bigger scale using automation and robots whenever possible.

Our new ward (the St. Charles Ward) has a lot of really nice people, I’ve never showed up new in a ward and had so many of the members introduce themselves to me. I was given a calling, second counselor in the young men’s presidency, on our second week before our records had even been transferred.

I’ve had a fundamental change of attitude since moving to St. Louis. Up until this point of my life, I’ve always been working to get somewhere else; to graduate, publish, or finish something so that I could get a good job at some point in the future. Now, I have a 'good job' I find myself much more inclined and happy to do workspace or social maintenance, meaning that before I have always resented the time that I had to dedicate to common lab chores, now I am perfectly happy to think about and do routine things like thinking about safety or thinking about ways to make my workspace a more enjoyable environment. Whereas I have tended to resent the time that church calling have taken out of my family or social life, but fulfilled my obligations out of a sense of duty, trade (if I serve the Lord then he will bless me), or fear. Now, I am actually looking forward to working with the young men, going to the activities, the campouts, the dances. I guess you could say that I’ve finally arrived at the place that I’ve been trying to get my whole life and now I can start giving more focus to living my life.

"Meet Me In Saint Louis, Louis..."

2009-03-07T20:20:00.004-06:00

Yes, we are here! We arrived yesterday. The move has gone pretty smooth so far. Of course, that is due to the two awesome men who were hired to move us. Marvin and Abel from New World Van Lines did a great job. They have a giant truck with the coolest horn. Ian had fun getting into the cab and pulling on the horn.

It was really hard and sad for us to say good bye to "RandyGen" and other good friends we made in Houston. We will miss them so much. But we are happy we arrived here safely and hope to sign a lease agreement tomorrow so that Abel and Marvin have somewhere to bring our stuff.

Monsanto generously provided an agent for us to help us locate a home. Joann is very knowledgeable and has been so helpful. We saw a lot of dumps today and figured out pretty fast we had to up our price or move further from Monsanto. We're staying in an awesome hotel, also courtesy of Monsanto. We really appreciate all they have done for us thus far and are very excited about our new relationship with them. Below is a little video of us at the Marriot Residence Inn. Hopefully we will blog again soon with a video of our new home!

Sayanara Sucka!!

2009-02-18T14:24:00.005-06:00

We're moving to St. Louis. Matt got a bad ass job at Monsanto. Yay! We're not going to live like students anymore. It looks like we'll be moving there the first week of March. Can't wait!!!

Life's A Beach In Port Aransas

2008-12-30T18:12:00.007-06:00

We are having the best time ever hear in Corpus Christi/Port Aransas! Matt and I arrived in Corpus Christi on Christmas Eve. Since my niece, Jennifer, lives in Corpus we thought it would be great to spend Christmas with her. To sweeten the deal even more, my brother (Jennifer's Dad) decided to bring his family from California to Texas to be with his daughter and us for the holiday. So we got to spend Christmas day with my brother, Eric, and his family. A day and a half later Matt's family met up with us at Jennifer's house in Corpus Christi. Then on the 27th we all (Eric's family and the Lingard's) headed to Port Aransas where John and Eric rented some beach condos. We are here till New Year's Day.

So far we are having so much fun spending time together. We have done a lot of relaxing and playing on the beach. Ian can sit and play in the sand for hours. Also, Ian has been a lot more interested in using the potty since Nana Jeanne gave him some Bob the Builder underwear. In fact, for the first time ever he went poo poo on the potty. Matt and I were totally thrilled to say the least. The picture below shows Ian in the very moment of this historic act.

We've made several purchases at the local kite shop here and spent tons of time playing with fun little flying toys and kites. Eric and his gang of course have all their kite gear and some really cool giant power kites we've been playing with. Today we walked around this really beautiful bird sanctuary on a marsh. Anyway, there's too much to tell. I couldn't choose just a few photos to share so I'm posting a slideshow of our trip thus far below. We have really enjoyed spending time with both our families and are sad to see the time coming to a close. This has been a great trip for us and we look forward to many more with our awesome families!!

"This is Halloween. This is Halloween."

2008-11-03T21:51:00.005-06:00

Yay, Halloween! I love Halloween! I love Halloween because it's low stress/high sugar, no obligatory gifting/shopping frenzy, pure fun, scary movies, make believe, dress up, crisp Fall air, and macabre mayhem. And as "Michael" the angel says, "You can never have too much sugar." Well, maybe you can consume too much sugar, but you can NEVER have too much sweetness. And here's some sweetness. Our little Lily two days before Halloween when we carved our pumpkin.

She's so cute it hurts.

Ian and Daddy carved the coolest pumpkin ever.

Ian wanted our pumpkin to have square eyes. Probably because he likes Sponge Bob Square Pants.

On Halloween we went to our Ward Chili Cook off/Carnival/Trunk-or-treat. Here are Matt and Ian in a Cake Walk. Everybody was a winner!

I was a hippie, Lily was my flower (Give flowers, not fights). Ian was the best, most scary dragon ever.

He won at the duck pond game. Actually he won at every game he played, which makes me think the games may have been rigged.

Matt with Lily flower.

We got through the games pretty fast and truck-or-treating didn't start for a while so we snuck out and trick-or-treated the neighborhood for a bit. Ian really got into it. He would say "Trick-or-treat! I'm a dragon! Rarr!!!" The people would laugh, give him candy, and ask, "How old are you?" To this he responded, "I'm Ian!"

Check out his loot! What a haul! Yay, I'm going to get another ten years of Trick-or-treating out of this deal! Woo hoo, parenthood!

Actually, I really had a great time. It was so fun for me to enjoy this holiday with my little ones. By the end of the night we were all so tired, but not too tired for a few more houses on our street and one more walk through the cool haunted house on the corner. Yay! Only 362 days till the next Halloween. Can't wait!

Our Little Lily Flower

2008-10-23T20:21:00.005-05:00

This last year has been so great. Our little Lily has added such joy to our home. Today she is one and I thought it appropriate to show a few photos from her first year with us. We are so grateful that she is with us. She is happy and fun and brings a softer dimension to our home with her squeals and laughter. In this photo she is only minutes old. She came three weeks early, in time for Halloween, and I couldn't have been happier to finally hold her in my arms.

These are her little feet at about six weeks old.

Here she is with Ian, her reluctant big brother. She is 4.5 months and he is almost 2 in this photo.

Here are the kids having fun at the neighborhood pool last May.

Lily still toothless at eight months.

Lily and Ian this past July playing on their horsey with Daddy.

These last two photos were snapped within the last week. Her hair is getting longer and lighter as she has gotten older. It looks like her eyes are settling in on a beautiful hazel or steel gray color. Also, she has two bottom and four top teeth coming in. Little cutie!! We love her more than anything!

Pretty, pretty, tutu. She's almost walking. Pretty soon she'll be twirling everywhere. Our little Lily flower is such a delight. Happy birthday, little love!

Back In Time

2008-10-21T15:40:00.005-05:00

Halloween is my most favorite holiday. We kicked it off by decorating our house around the first of October. Shortly thereafter we decorated our Potato Head Pirate Pumpkin. Ian helped while Lily was sleeping. He loved it so much that he played with it for about an hour or so after we had created it (Way worth the five quid I spent on the kit!).

My birthday was Saturday, October, 11th and to celebrate we took the kids to a cool pumpkin patch and fall festival. It was so much fun to be together even though Ian whined a lot.

I thought this was a cute shot of my kids' biscuits.

This past Saturday was real low key for us. We lazed at home in the morning and then went to the mall in the afternoon so I could get some clothes for Lily. After stopping at the library, Matt drove us to his old elementary school. We stopped there and let the kids play on all the cool toys. They had the best time ever! It's great how entertained they are by free things like parks. Anyway, it was fun to see the beautiful neighborhood and school Matt lived in and attended as a child. It's kind of crazy that now we only live a few miles away from it.

Here's Matt in front of his elementary Alma Mater.

Win A Free Handbag

2008-10-13T09:58:00.004-05:00

Handbag Planet is doing a promotion for the launch of their company. They are giving away 24 handbags in 24 hours on the day of their launch, which is October 15. Enter to win. What have you got to lose??

http://www.handbagplanet.com

Better Than We Deserve

2008-10-07T23:18:00.004-05:00

Sorry about not posting since Ike, but our internet has been horrible since then. During the storm and after we never lost power, though we did lose internet for a while. Mostly everyone else that we know lost their power. In fact, the power was out in our old neighborhood for about two weeks. Anyway, we were fine and our house sustained no damage. Just a lot of scattered debris. Also, we had fun having Matt home for a couple extra days.

Now that our internet is really back up and running well I wanted to post a link to a little video of Lily that I made a few days ago. I hope everyone likes it!

Escape Pod

2008-09-30T19:52:00.003-05:00

One of my favorite podcasts is called Escape Pod. Every week it publishes short science fiction stories that are almost always fantastic, including Hugo award nominees. The voice talent is generally excellent and it is by far my favorite way to spend my commute. This week, the story was 'Usurpers' a futuristic take on high school cross country meets. The language is pretty strong, but the story put me right back on the Davis Dart’s cross country team. I was never any where near as intense as the runners in this story, and it kind of reminds me why I got away from competitive running. The runners out there will appreciate the story, and lover’s of science fiction will enjoy the podcast.

I Like Ike

2008-09-12T20:19:00.008-05:00

Since yesterday we've been getting ready for Ike. We have not been asked to evacuate so we decided to stay and "shelter in place". We have our 72 hour kit, as well as water, food and whatever else we can think of. Here is a picture of Matt putting things into our garage that were in our yard.

Our good friend Gwen Anderson is spending the night with us so we are having a bona fide hurricane party. We made yummy bean dip and chicken broccoli. Random!

Here's Matt and the kids enjoying the bean dip. Yes, I wrote kids, plural. Lily LOVES to eat any and everything.

This was taken a couple of days ago but it showcases Lily's first little teefer. She's almost 11 months old. A little slow on the teefers there but I think I remember my mom saying I got mine in a little late too.

This is a little video documentary of current conditions in our neighborhood. Check back as we will post developments as we are able to. So far we are safe and well fed.

Camping's not as fun as it should be

2008-09-02T21:05:00.005-05:00

Erin, the kids, and I just got back from a nice weekend trip to Corpus Christi. In spite of dire warning by park staff about a plague of mosquitoes of unusually large size, number, and vigor, we decided to go with our original plan to camp at the National Seashore on Padre Island. This is the campground where my family spent many a happy week camping when we lived in Houston. Though after this last weekend, I’m pretty sure that we must have been older than Ian (2.5 yrs) and Lily (10 mo) are now. We arrived Friday afternoon, hooked up with Jennifer Chase in Corpus Christi and headed over the bridge to the island. The drive was scenic, a straight shot through coastal prairie with occasional glimpses of dunes, the ocean, and wind-shaped trees. Cloud cover threatened rain all afternoon and evening, but provided shelter from the hot August sun, making for a very nice afternoon on the beach.

We stayed at Malaquite campground. The campground has been upgraded since my vacations there as a child, it now has private showers and the efforts of the park staff to anchor the dunes with grass and hardy runner plants seems to have succeeded; the sandy dunes that we used to camp among are now completely covered in green. Once we stepped out of the car, we were assaulted first by the heavy sea air, and immediately after by mosquitoes the size of quarters. A flock of them could easily have made off with Lily, but were much more interested in munching on Erin and Ian. On the beach the mosquitoes were practically non-existant, so we decided to set up camp on the beach. The beach below the campground has a strict no car rule, but Erin and Jennifer figured rightly that it would be much easier to unload the car if it were on the beach, so we unhooked the chain and drove 100 yards through the dunes onto the hard packed beach sand. We set up the Springbar screen shelter that mom and dad Lingard gave us for Christmas several years ago, securing with with a dozen foot-long sand stakes and one 2-foot-long superstake. Ian spent two or three hours running around scooping fine, white sand into his bucket and building a small city of ‘sand castles’ while we got camp and dinner set up. Jennifer was a huge help, mostly by helping to wrangle Lily, who is too young to leave unsupervised on the sand (she likes to eat it, or anything that she finds in it). Erin made some yummy chicken pot pie in our new 10 inch Dutch oven and we started getting ready for bed.

As soon as the sun went down the mosquitoes came out in force. At one point, Ian’s legs were covered in a black mat of mosquitoes, there was literally no visible skin! We got everybody bundled into the tents as quickly as possible, but not before Erin and Ian had received dozens of bites. I was moderately bitten, and I only found one bite on Lily after the entire weekend. Lily and I likely make more natural mosquito repellents than Erin and Ian. The four of us piled into the screen shelter, and Jennifer hurried off to stay in the cheep dome tent we gave her. I discovered that there are some cool beetles, about 0.5 in long and quite narrow, with two bioluminescent spots (bright green, like the green fluorescent protein from jelly fish that I engineer into my plants, also like firefly luciferase - a peroxisomal enzyme btw) at the base of their wings. One of these beetles hitched a ride on my back into the tent, so did a handful of mosquitoes. That night, we discovered a design flaw in the screen shelters - the doors do not seal at the base of the tent, providing a convenient entrance for mosquitoes attracted to CO2 that we respired into the tent all night long. Mosquitoes are also attracted to body heat, but the air was about body temperature, so that wasn’t likely as much of an attractant. I got maybe one or two bites during the night, Erin and Ian each got easily three dozen. In the morning, Ian’s fair skin on his neck and legs was red and swollen from all of the mosquito bites. Whenever he saw one of the buggers land on him or felt it bite, he would point and say ‘ahhhh’ and wait for somebody to slap it off of him.

We had a great time playing in the beach the next morning. The mosquitoes were pretty much gone with the morning breeze, which also helped to keep the sun from being too hot. Erin made yummy cinnamon rolls, Ian played in the sand some more, and I got to break out my Ocean Kayak. We all took turns riding it. There were just enough waves to make it interesting. I made Ian come out with me twice, he took a couple of waves full on in the face and decided that he was done. I couldn’t get him to come out with me for the rest of the trip and was reminded of all the times that my dad had to force me into the sailboat with him when we were at the beach. I was always terrified and would cower in the bottom of the boat trying to disappear into my life vest. At the time I really hated it, and probably was pretty mad at my dad. Now, I’m glad that he forced me to do it, eventually I learned to love the speed and the challenge of sailing. I could see a similar pattern begin to establish itself between me and Ian.

After 3 to 4 hours of playing on the beach, Ian started to go completely crazy, he was hot, thirsty, tired, and done being sandy. Erin and I realized that we are not ready for beach camping with babies and threw all of our stuff back into the minivan. On the way back to Jennifer’s house, we hooked up with her roommate, who was sailboarding in the park at a really cool beach called Bird Island. It is on the bay side of the island, so the water was flat (no waves) and shallow for hundreds of yards off shore. There were easily 40 people out on sail boards enjoying the light wind. Jennifer’s room mate is a champion amateur wind surfer, and she agreed to give me some pointers. I was mostly interested in learning to beach start. After about 15 minutes of instruction and pointers, I was off and running. I brought the board that Erin’s brother Eric gave me, but ended up using Jennifer’s roommate’s board. In the end, we left Eric’s windsurfer with Jennifer. It is too hard for us to find time to use it with two babies to wrangle, and the best chance that we will use it is if we go and visit Jennifer again. With both kayaking and windsurfing under my elastic waistband, I was feeling like the day was a complete success. We stayed the night at Jennifer’s house, a nice little red brick 1920’s house that is a block from the beach in Corpus Christi.

We spent Sunday doing a few touristy things in Corpus Christi. I fell completely in love with the town and would move there in a heartbeat. It is not often that you find an area with year-round warm, white sandy beaches and blue water near a relatively large town that is as underdeveloped as Corpus Christi. The houses by the beach in town are all charming Mediterranean or plantation style, or pleasing blends of the two styles. Housing seems to be very affordable. A&M has a small campus there, I’ll have to watch for when they hire a new biology faculty member.

Overall, we learned that the cheapest option for a weekend getaway - camping - is pretty unaccessible to us until we can either fix our tent or have older children or both.

We are not cool, but we know how to stay cool.

2008-08-12T14:24:00.003-05:00

It's official. All the things we said we'd never do, we have now done. The last things on the list were buy a van and have a DVD player in the car. After our only vehicle broke down last Saturday we finally decided to buy a van. It was on the todo list. We just pushed it up 8 months because it's really difficult to always be stranded at home with two kids, an old lady, and no way to escape. Anyway, we found a great deal on a slightly dinged up 2004 Honda Odyssey EX. It is awesome and we love it!!!

I have to say that the DVD feature is by far one of my favorite. It's almost like putting the kids in a cone of silence.

We initiated our van by driving to the beach the day after we got it. We went to Quintana. What an awesome trip!!! I can't believe how well the AC works throughout the car. Also, it is extremely comfortable: Captains chairs, arm rests, great sound and entertainment, power seat, doors, window/locks...the works. Lots of space too. We had plenty of room for everything. So we removed the back row and took everything with us.

Ian really loves his sweet new ride too.

Playing on the beach and being there reminded of our great Lingard vacation there last summer. It was about the same time too. It was a perfect day. Bright, sunny, warm, and lots of good fun. Our time there was too short. Next time we will leave earlier in the morning. Our new job gives us more financial latitude so we can definitely make this trip more often.

A Tribute To Matt

2008-07-24T15:34:00.004-05:00

Matt is a wonderful husband and father. He is someone I look up to very much. His very essence inspires me to want to be more. I'm posting a little blurb on him because I am so proud of him. He recently received notification that he will be awarded a USDA grant to study rice. This is so exciting for our family. It is a great accomplishment on his part. These grants are very competitive and require tremendous effort just to submit. It's hard to do science. Research takes tremendous patience and perseverance. I call it "A lot of stick, no carrot". But Matt loves to do it and he's great at it. I love the example that he is for all of us and how tirelessly he works to promote our family's economic and spiritual well-being.

Ian and Lily love their Daddy so much because he always plays with them.

Ian loves to wear his Daddy's clothes. I hope that he wants to be like his Daddy.

Lily gets so visibly and audibly excited when Matt comes home. She is a daddy's girl.

All Fun, All The Time

2008-07-01T23:34:00.004-05:00

Here are some of the boys at the pier in Redondo Beach. Brandon, Adam (Seanna's sons), and Davis (Craig's boy) were so great to Ian.

We went to the L.A. Natural History Museum with Seanna's family, Craig's girls, and my parents. We had so much fun there, saw dinosaurs and animals. Here's a shot of Brandon and Ian. He was a great helper with my kids.

Here we are in front of the T Rex and Triceratops skeletons in the museum rotunda.

July 1 was Adam Jolley's 8th Birthday. We had a great time because we got to go to Chuck E. Cheese. It was Ian's first time there and he loved it!!!

Here's Ian asserting his dominant position over his sister while exercising his God given right to mine his nose. Nice, Ian.

That's all for now. More updates to follow. Matt arrived in L.A. this morning and we are so happy he is here. We missed him terribly. It was four years ago on this day (July 4th) that Matt came to CA with me and he "busted a move" on me while cruising in my brother's boat. That's when I realized he liked me. Soon there after we were engaged. So the 4th of July for me also marks the beginning of the best part of my life.

Feeling The Love

2008-06-29T12:30:00.004-05:00

Yesterday we went to the beach. It took several hours to get there but we eventually made it. It's hard to get four different families and their kids organized and out the door. Even though Lily has chicken pox she's been in a great mood during the day and then becomes a demon at night. Anyway, Eric put up his Easy-up and I sat in the shade with Lily or in the sun with her covered the whole time. It was beautiful out but windy and a bit chilly for my taste (68 deg F). Here's Ian with Jennifer and Ryan (Eric's kids).

Eric and Brandon getting ready to fly a cool kite Eric has.

Ryan kite flying with the Palos Verdes Peninsula and Pacific ocean behind.

Jennifer and Makenna.

Finally, here's Ian sampling some So. Cal sand.

Home to Roost (As In Chickens)

2008-06-27T18:25:00.007-05:00

Well, we arrived in L.A. on the 25th. It was a long day of travel. Especially with two babies and no Matt to share the effort with. Anyway, we arrived without event (other than me getting horribly motion sick). The following day at my parents house proved to be more interesting though. My sister, Seanna and her brood arrived around 6pm, having driven to L.A. from Utah. She quickly noticed a funny little blister under Lily's chin. By this morning the now big blister under Lily's chin had several friends.

So now I'm in L.A. and under quarantine. My Lily flower has the chicken pox. So far she's in great spirits and is acting like she feels fine. She hasn't had a fever and doesn't seem uncomfortable. But this is only the first day.

In light of these findings I spent the day trying to figure out how to see a doctor out-of-state. It was quite a challenge. The HMO's definitely make it difficult. I had to contact my doctor back in Houston and get them to refer us to some local clinic Aetna told me I could go to. In the end I had to pay in full for the visit ($85) and I'll have to submit the bill to my insurance company because the clinic was filled with jack asses. By the way, the visit was not for Lily. Although the doctor confirmed that she does have chicken pox. The visit was for Ian. I decided to vaccinate him in hopes of preventing him from getting it so I don't have to spend all my time in L.A. in quarantine.

The doctor visit was interesting because the medical people at the urgent care weren't very compassionate. They gave me a hard time about my insurance issue and then made us (Seanna, me, and our 3 restless kids) sit in the waiting room filled with people. When we arrived we informed them that we should be put in a separate room because of Lily's contagion, but they just ignored us. Then because I got my paper work in later than Seanna they were going to make us wait even longer to be seen by a doctor. At that point I had, had enough. So I addressed the entire waiting room, told them that my baby had chicken pox, and asked them if they would mind if our crew was seen ahead of them. Basically all the people in the waiting room freaked out and 30 seconds later we were escorted to an examination room.

Ian didn't like the shot at all. He cried but at least he got a sucker out of the deal so he can eventually go to the dentist and get more painful shots. I think these health care people are in cahoots and have a conspiracy with the government. So now I get to hang out here while everyone goes to dinner. And so it goes...

2008-06-27T09:12:00.002-05:00

This morning I woke up with the idea that I would indulge in another of my favorite Mexican breakfast: pastries bought from a corner bakery together with Fanta Naranja. I waited until I started feeling hungry (a mistake that would later limit my options). Feeling sadistic, I decided to ask for advice from the Concierges, all of whom have the impression that anybody staying at their middle-end hotel wants to spend money freely and keep sending me to unreasonably priced locations. After a muddled exchange in Spanglish, English, and Spanish with two different Concierges, I was given directions in English “straight down the street two blocks past the Plaza de Bandejas (‘You know flags. Si, FLAGS’) and you will find a ‘very important’ panaderia. After walking the two blocks, I found neither the flags nor the bread, though in all fairness I have a notably poor sense of direction and ability to follow directions. Starting to feel that first of hunger panic set in, I returned to my original plan of wandering the streets until I found a suitable-looking place.

Fifteen minutes later, well into the dizzy symptoms of hunger pains, a woman asked me to help her lift the metal grating to open her store. Feeling chivalrous, I easily lifted the portcullis and seized the opportunity to ask a ‘native’ for her bakery recommendation. After some consideration, she mentioned the Wal-Mart that I had disdainfully passed 30 minutes ago. Before she could finish with a second recommendation I blurted out “El WAL-MART!?”. Seeing that further details might confuse her poor gringo, she smiled and said “yes, the Wal-Mart has a very good bakery.” Lacking the strength and mental fortitude to argue any further, I retraced my steps to the Lair of Westernization. With my stomach digesting my backbone, I stumbled into the bakery section and found all of the delicious pastries that I had sought all morning. My elusive corner bakery had been relocated to a inside corner of the Wal-Mart. I choose out some of my favorites (I love shopping for pastries in Mexico, they give you an aluminum tray the size of a large circular pizza pan and a pair of tongs. Shoppers pick up pastries and place them on their tray, which are then bagged by a nice cashier), grabbed a Fanta Naranja, and beat a hasty retreat. They were as good as any that I have ever had. Oh well, when in Rome . . .

Chichen Itza

2008-06-26T18:52:00.006-05:00

This is Matt, I am publishing my first post to our blog.

I am in Merida, Mexico for the annual meetings of the American Society of Plant Biologists. The meetings occur in difference cities every year, this is my 4th year attending and my first one that is outside the USA. I arrived 1.5 days before the conference starts so that I could see some sights. Erin has spent quite a bit of time in this part of the world, but it my first time to be in the Yucatan peninsula and my fourth 7-10 day visit to Central America.

Because I got in late last night (about 10 pm), this was my first full day. I woke up with only a vague idea that I would like to do the Ruta Puuc, a bus ride that tours 4 to 5 of the local archeological site. The Ruta Puuc is enough to make Mesoamerican archaeologists salivate, hence one of the motivating forces for me was to live vicariously for my sweet wife who is stuck in LA, CA, USA. I decided to walk from my hotel, partly out of a desire to see the city and mostly to save 50 pesos (the current exchange rate is about 10 pesos/US dollar). It ended up being about a 30-40 min walk, the weather was perfect (mind you, this is in comparison to Houston), about 80F and cloudy. Merida streets don’t drain after rain in many places and so I was constantly avoiding getting splashed by overlarge buses. I had one of my favorite Mexican breakfasts, Fanta Naranja (I will soon regret indulging in that slightly bitter orange goodness that is so superior to the USA version, keep reading) with freshly baked tortillas that I found at a Mercado on the way to the bus stop. I also passed, quite by accident, the LDS micro-temple. It was fun to walk onto the ground and notice how the stress of walking the noisy streets of an unknown city melted away and was replaced by peace. I always wonder if this peaceful feeling is bread of the comfort of familiarity or the Spirit. Given the startling difference between the streets and the temple, I have to conclude that it is both.

Because of my several detours, I missed the Ruta Puuc by about 10 min. Instead, I bought a ticket to travel to Chichen Itza. Erin had told me to get a first class ticket, but I wasn’t fast enough on my feet to ask when the first class bus left and got put on a second class bus. The drive, costing about 50 pesos, is supposed to be about 1.5 h, but the second-class bus stopped at just about every intersection and tiny hamlet on some out-of-the-way back road to Merida. Normally it would have been fun to see the countryside, but about 30 min into the bus ride I ‘had the feeling that I had to go to the bathroom’ (thank you Elmo). This feeling only intensified as the ride lengthened, with no way to get off the bus without being left in the middle of the Yucatan countryside miles from Merida or Chichen Itza. About 2 hours later (2.5 hours into the ride), I found myself searching desperately for something to relieve myself into. I thought that it would be a bust, because the only bottles that I had were full of water, and I was not about to drink any water to free up some space. Then I found the plastic bag that housed my tortillas. The pressure and pain had mounted so high that I stuck the bag up my pants and tried to relieve myself. This was of course a bad idea that most likely would have lead to getting urine everywhere. Fortunately, my native ‘stage fright’ took control at this point and there was no relief. By this point, I could feel my kidneys starting to ache and my whole body was shaking. By the time I got off the bus (my 1.5 hour ride had magically transformed into 3 hours of agony) I could hardly walk erect and had to hobble into the Chichen Itza ticketing area. Not being able to immediately pinpoint a ‘servicio’, I snuck around back, kneeled down next to a chain-link fence facing the jungle and relieved myself while pretending to search for something in my bag. That sort of relief is one of the most underappreciated feelings in our culture.

Chichen Itza itself was marvelous and swarming with people, an interesting mix of Hispanics, gringos, and Europeans. The first thing that I came upon a central plaza with a typical Mayan pyramid (like in Tikal, or Star Wars, depending on your cultural reference point), surrounded by several rectangular buildings. I was preparing to be unimpressed by this rather typical scene, when I noticed a road lined with vendors leading off into the woods. Then I realized the real draw of Chichen Itza. It is enormous and has a striking variety of seemingly unique (to me, not the archeologists) features. One building that particularly impressed me was composed of hundreds to thousands of columns etched with carvings of various warriors. My favorite two features were the cenote, a water-filled circular pit about 100 meters in diameter and about 200 to 300 meters down to the water. There were not very many people in this area and it was relatively peaceful. The next was the Observatory, an impressive cylindrical structure built on top of a platform. I haven’t seen anything like that in the other sites that I have visited. I also succumbed to touristic pressures and paid too much for a little bamboo noisemaker to give to Ian and Lily.

As I was looking for some postcards, I lucked into finding the vendor for return bus tickets tucked away in a corner of one of the gift shops. The bus schedule was clearly presented this time and I booked a first-class ticket back to Merida. This bus was equipped with a WC (bathroom, which of course I did not need) and showed movies dubbed in Spanish. Best of all, it drove on the freeway and made the return trip in 1.5 hours. Just as I was leaving the site, it had started rain as is only seen in the tropics: hard, large, fast-hitting drops that will soak you before you know it is raining. The rain kept up all the way home, so I ponied up the 50 pesos and took the taxi back to the hotel El Conquistador (incidentally, this is a much more manly-sounding place to stay than the alternate, the Fiesta Americana).

All in all, it was a great day. My Spanish was remarkably good considering that I don’t practice that often (I served a 2-year LDS mission in Madrid, Spain). I did notice that by the end of the day I could hardly speak because my mouth is not used to making Spanish sounds and had gotten tired. Mouth fatigue was something that I had forgotten about since I left Spain. I missed my wife terribly. I found myself looking over my shoulder all day, wanting to ask her questions about the buildings and trying to make sure that I was taking care of all of the details (I did a horrible job on the detail front, no rain jacket, no food, no camera and hence no pictures in this post, no guide book, etc), but did manage to get there and back by myself with no real trouble. I always have a hard time imagining how Erin did this kind of traveling without a complete grasp of Spanish, I don’t know that I would be brave enough without being able communicate.

Free iPods Only

2008-05-29T21:58:00.009-05:00

A while back I was looking into how to get an iPod for free or cheap and I came up with some really great ideas. First, it's entirely possible to buy brand new iPods off of Craigslist if you live in a big city. People get them as gifts or whatever and then end up selling them. If you are patient and watch you can find a brand new iPod whatever for around 30% less than retail. Second, I learned that there are companies that will give you a free iPod for completing an offer from another company. For example, last October I went to www.myeasyrewards.com and applied for a Discover Card. After I was approved, received my card, and made one purchase with it I received this iPod shuffle totally FREE.

In fact, they even shipped it to me for free. The whole process took about three weeks. After doing some more research I found another company that gives you a free iPod Touch for completing one of their sponsor's offers and then getting others to do the same. Many of the offers are free trials for things you may already want. So, I'm asking for help in getting a free iPod touch. If anybody is willing to help me it's very easy to do, costs you nothing, and takes a small amount of time.

1. Follow this link http://www.YouriPodTouch4free.com/index.php?ref=4667480

2. Sign up for a free account. This requires your address and email.

3. Complete one offer. Many are free trial offers. The easiest ones to complete are Netflix and Stamps.com. Both give you a free trial period. You just have to remember to cancel it before the trial period ends. Also, be sure to read and do what it says about how to complete the offer in order for me to get credit for it.

Note that only adults can sign up for an account and participate in this process. Also, only one account per household and computer IP is allowed. Finally, you have to complete an offer that is new to you. For example, if you had Netflix once a long time ago and decide to complete this offer you'll get a free trial of Netflix but it won't count toward helping anyone get a free iPod. Don't worry about getting spammed like crazy for signing up for the free offer account. They don't sell your info.

Anyway, that's it in a nutshell. Email me if you have any questions. Any help is appreciated. You may be asking why I want to go about getting an iPod Touch in this way. Why not just buy it? There's the obvious reason: moola or lack thereof. And then there's the overriding reason...I like getting cool stuff for free or cheap. I guess it's sort of a hobby. By the way, I sold the iPod shuffle on eBay but the iPod Touch I'm keeping.

We're Here!

2008-05-28T23:36:00.004-05:00

So we didn't get the Sid thing but something way better came along. About three weeks ago we moved to the Houston suburb where Matt grew up to live with and take care of an elderly deaf woman. She is very agreeable and so is the new location. All I can say is that so far we love it here. Especially the house. It's modern!!! There are outlets in the bathroom so I can plug in my hair dryer. Anyway, here is a video tour of the new casa.

Clarification

2008-05-02T21:22:00.004-05:00

Regarding my "Burn Sid" post, Sid Rich is the name of the dorm we were hoping to live in. The residents refer to it as Sid. It's a tower on the Rice campus famous for wild parties and falling objects from above. The picture on the "Burn Sid" post is one that I fabricated, depicting us in front of the Sid Rich tower. The last "question" on the RA application was a square box that above it read, "Fill this box with something that appeals to you." So we filled it with a picture of us living at Sid.

"Here's lookin' at two, Kid!"

2008-05-01T20:57:00.004-05:00

So Ian turned two on the 23nd and what a birthday he had!! Grandma Jeanne was in town, which was a special treat all on its’ own. His celebration day began with two big surprises.

A brand new shiny red Radio Flyer scooter (or googah in Ianese) and ...ya-ta-ta-dah...

...a new kitchen! Complete with fake produce, junk food, and miscellaneous kitchen wares. Following our delightful breakfast of German pancakes (made by Dad), and some play time with the new scooter and kitchen, we went to the park to really give the scooter a good test drive.

Then we went to Hermann Park and Grandma took us for a fun birthday ride on the cool train that circles the park.

Later than evening we had cupcakes and opened presents at home.

The following day Grandma Jeanne and I hosted a little party at the park for Ian’s friends from church. We had Ian’s favorite foods: pizza, cupcakes, and juice.

It was a truly awesome day! The weather was great and a lot of Ian’s friends were able to come. Later that day it was still warm enough that Ian got to try out another one of his new toys. Our neighbors, the McMillan’s, got a cool Elmo sprinkler for Ian. He’s a big fan of Elmo and playing in water, so this was a perfect gift.

Lily and Grandma had fun being outside too.

Burn Sid!

2008-04-24T22:52:00.003-05:00

A lot has happened since my last post. I always think of things I’d like to post and then never do it. I’m going to blame it on Lily. She’s not on a schedule yet so I have a hard time finding time when I have both my hands free. She is starting to go to sleep at around 9/9:30pm and even sometimes stays asleep till midnight or 1am. So this is my time to get things done.

About a month ago Matt and I began a totally crazy pursuit. He received an email about an opening for a resident associate (RA) at one of the dorms at Rice. He proposed the idea to me and I ran with it. Our minds boggled as we contemplated the possibility of an extra thousand dollars a month. All we had to do was convince the student committee of nine that we were indeed the best candidates for the job. The job: Live in the dorm with the kids, mediate disputes, play on their intramural sports teams, eat meals with them, and thwart suicide attempts. The hitch: The accommodation for said RA was a converted two bedroom dorm with one room as a kitchen/living roomette not big enough for a full sized futon. The challenge: Condense our 1800 square foot, 4 bedroom, 2 bath, 2 car garage home into a 300 square foot 1 bedroom, 1 shower apartment. And by the way, we do have two kids under two.

Anyway, that thousand bucks was real attractive to us, especially since we spend all our money every month making ends meet. So we got psyched, went to Ikea to get ideas, and then wrote a great application. There were 20 applicants in the beginning. Miraculously we were chosen as 1 of 5 finalists for the position. For a whole month we did everything we could to convince these kids that we could A) do the job better than anyone else, and B) make the space work for our family. In reality we thought we would likely all end up sleeping in the one bedroom. But it was worth it because we were going to sock away money like mad and buy a house with cash much sooner than we thought possible. We drug our kids out to that dorm every night to have dinner and schmooze. We went to every activity. We knew all the kids on the committee and many in the dorm by name. The only other candidate who came around (but not as much as us) was this smarmy blond grad student. We gave it our all.

In the end it was yet another exercise in futility, or faith (you choose). They chose this couple who hardly came around and looked like (physically) they wouldn’t be participating with the kids much at all. We just got their “thanks for your effort but take a hike” email yesterday. I vacillate between being somewhat relieved and annoyed. After all we did quite a song and dance for them, poured out our souls, and let them into our lives. We are a bit embarrassed about groveling to a bunch of kids for their crappy free apartment. In the end I’m sure they didn’t choose us because they probably thought it was somehow inhumane to stuff a family of four into 300 square feet. But I say, “Screw you!!!” We would have been way better RA’s than baldy and his wife. In addition, then we would have really had something cool to blog about. Who wouldn’t want to read about how we were going to make something like that work out? Or, maybe we owe those kids more than we think. Perhaps the confined quarters would have driven us to sheer insanity. No, I’m staying with, “Screw you!!! You all suck! Burn Sid!” As Matt says, “I only have to be a good looser to their face.” So here, among all our friends we can express how we really feel. Their loss because we wanted and needed it more than anyone. Because of that we were greatly motivated and would have been the best RA’s they every had.

I have more to say but it’s about Ian. I love him and I don’t want to include him in this post, which is about angst.

BURN SID!

Doin' It Dave Ramsey Style

2008-01-28T15:23:00.001-06:00

Last year we sold our home in AZ, paid off all our debt, and began a new and exciting journey. Debt free living! It has become a fun hobby for us to work together to budget and live within our means. We enjoy the freedom and peace that we feel and hope to be able to keep this up for the rest of our lives. This sketch was on SNL. Aside from being really funny it pretty much encapsulates the way we feel about consumer debt and how we make purchasing decisions. So here it is for all of you to see.

So far...

2008-01-07T15:02:00.000-06:00

Today is our anniversary. Three years! Although it’s not a long time, Matt and I both feel like we’ve always been together. Until I met Matt I always felt like that circle in Shel Silverstein’s book. Just rolling along till I found my missing piece. Matt is such an extraordinary man. I feel privileged to be married to him. Every day with him is a gift. I feel like my real life began when he entered it. I love that the New Year ushers in our anniversary.

Things have been really busy since we returned from our holiday in Utah. Both kids have been sick and Matt and I felt under the weather too. Everyone seems to be doing better now and I’ve finally got all the Christmas decorations put away. So now that I’m a little back in the swing of my pre-vacation routine I thought I’d offer a little recap.

We introduced Ian to snow at a community holiday festival here in Houston prior to leaving for Utah. In an attempt to demonstrate what you can do with snow I accidently got the little guy in the face with a little ball of ice/snow. To say that he was stunned is an understatement.

When we got to Utah where the real snow is Ian was already somewhat familiar with the concept. We had so much fun there. The first few nights we stayed with Seanna’s family. Adam and Brandon took really great care of Ian.

Matt and Ian went sledding with Seanna’s family and Uncle Thomas, who came over after work.

This was fun for me because I got to stay home and hang out with my sister. I also got to go shopping with Seanna the day after Christmas. That was a lot of fun because Matt kept Ian so I would get to enjoy myself instead of wrangle him. (He is a handful these days.)

From Christmas Eve till New Year’s Eve we stayed at Matt’s parent’s house. We also had a great time there. There were so many people to help with my kids and hold them that I really did feel like I was on vacation. Ian got a lot of great presents and so did Matt and I. But the best gift of all for us was just getting to be with family.

After Christmas my family trickled into town. Matt went snow boarding with Eric and his kids, Seanna’s family, and Thomas while I spent the day in Sandy with Cathy. The day before Lily was blessed my sisters and niece, Patience threw me the best baby shower I’ve ever had! It was just with family and a couple of close friends. Jen Powell (mission buddy) came as did Susan Westover (Young Women’s leader). It was a special treat to get to see them.

On Sunday, December 30th we blessed Lily in Matt’s parent’s ward in Kaysville. It was a very special experience for Matt and I. Even my brother Craig made it to the blessing on his way to Idaho. I was so overwhelmed with love and joy as I saw my brothers and Matt’s Dad, Grandpa, uncles, and brother go to the front of the chapel and surround our baby. It was a moment I’ve always dreamed of and that I’ll never forget. My family made such a great effort to be there and it really meant a lot to me. It was so wonderful to share that with those we love so much.

Following the sacrament service we returned to John and Jeanne’s for a great luncheon. We really appreciate them hosting all our family and providing such a great feast. Sadly, we packed that night and had to get ready for our flight home the next morning.

The trip home was especially interesting because we had to get 6 checked bags and four carry-ons to the airport, on the plane, and then in our little CR-V. Miraculously we made it home with everything except a jar of Aquaphor. What a great trip we had!!

Since then we have just been getting over illness, organizing, and getting back into our rhythm and routine.

Our Lily

2007-11-15T15:07:00.000-06:00

On the 23rd of October Matt, Ian, and I went in for my 37-week check up. After waiting for over an hour they were just going to send me home because the doctor had been called away on an emergency. So before leaving I asked if they would just listen to the baby's heartbeat. I had felt kind of funny all day. I had been having increasingly more contractions over the last couple of days. Also, I had been having these sneaking feelings that I should be more prepared for the baby to come. But, since Ian was two weeks overdue, I pretty much ignored my feelings to "get ready now". Anyway, the baby's heart rate was too high. So they monitored me in the office for a while. Then they had another OBGYN take a look at me and listen. Before I knew it, we were on our way to St. Luke's hospital, just across the street, to be monitored. They put me on an IV and after a couple of hours the baby's heart rate was fine but I was in labor. I was having four-minute contractions and not dilating.

We were not prepared. Ian was with us and we didn't have anything for going into the hospital. While Matt took Ian to a friend's house to spend the night, my doctor, who had been monitoring me at the hospital, came in and told me that we'd be having the baby that night. When Matt had left with Ian we were under the impression that we'd be going home after a little more monitoring. So I called him on his cel and told him that the plan had changed. By 7pm I was signing admission papers and being prepped for surgery. By 8pm I was lying on the operating table soon to meet our new baby. Lily arrived at 8:09pm healthy, screaming, and pink. And, she came with a bunch of dark hair. After they got her cleaned up Matt went with her to the nursery. I spent the next hour getting sewn up and trying not to go into shock. I don't know why but I was a lot more freaked out then when I had Ian. I spent the next few days in the hospital and then got released on Friday the 26th of October. We are so happy with our new little girl. We love her so much. And we are especially happy that she came early so that we could enjoy her sooner. She is very sweet and mellow.

We have been very blessed to have Matt's mom, Jeanne, with us since Lily was born. I've had a harder time recovering from Lily's delivery because I kept trying to pick Ian up when I first got home from the hospital. After hurting myself and seeing my progress grind to a halt I realized I had to take it easier and stop lifting Ian. So I had to turn it all over to Grandma. Jeanne became the mother of our home and did a great job taking care of all of us. I can't thank her enough. On top of all that, I got the worst breast infection I ever had. Jeanne had to take care of both the kids and me while I recovered from that. Having Jeanne with us was really great because she got to spend a lot of special time with Ian. Ian, of course, has been having a difficult time not being the only child. He seems to have a genuine affection for Lily, he just doesn't like having our attention divided. Ian was cheered greatly when his "Papa", Matt's dad, John, came to visit this past weekend. We didn't really go anywhere because that's when I had my breast infection. However, John was busy enough while he was here building the most awesome doll house for Lily.

So my mother, Joann, and I want to express our deepest heartfelt gratitude to Jeanne for coming for three weeks to take care of Matt, Ian, Lily, and I. And I want to express my sincerest gratitude to all our family and friends who have prayed for us, brought us meals, wished us well, and who have called or written to express their love and support. This means so much to us. We have loved hearing from you and have greatly enjoyed sharing this happy time with all of you.

Grandma Jeanne went home yesterday so now I am at home figuring out how to shower, eat, and get things done with two kids in tow. It's a lot fun and I enjoy the new challenges.

Think Pink

2007-10-17T15:02:00.000-05:00

I know this is a bit earlier than my normal update but I just wanted to let everyone know how the ultrasound went. We had our 36-week check-up on Monday. The baby looks good and healthy. Currently the baby weighs a little over 6 pounds, which is good. In addition, I asked them to check the sex again and our baby is still a girl. As everyone knows I've been very skeptical of this because of what happened last time. But now I am pretty convinced that we are in fact having a little girl. Of course, we couldn't be happier. Mainly we are just thrilled to know she is doing well. We could see her face pretty good in the ultrasound and she looks really pretty. We are so excited. Ian has no idea what's about to happen. Although, we have been talking to him about it since the beginning. I have felt the baby move a lot less lately, but that's probably due to the fact that there isn't much room in there. Over the last week or so I have felt increasingly more cramped for space. Otherwise, I feel really great and power walk 2 miles a day.

In other news, as all of you may know, I've been trying to think of ways to bring more money into the house. I've been trading stocks since April and that's going really well. In addition to that I came up with another idea that I'm trying out. I buy iPod's off of Craigslist for cheap and then sell them for a profit on eBay. It looked really promising, since I could make 30-40 per iPod after I pay my eBay fees and such. So I began listing my iPods and that's when the fun started. My first iPod sold easily and made a $30 profit. However, a major problem soon reared its' hoary head. The buyer paid $150 more for the item than agreed upon and required shipping to a "cousin" in Nigeria. Also, the buyer's English was poor and they didn't understand U.S. geography. Although the buyer's address stated they lived in Vermont, the buyer referred to him/herself as residing in Texas (the street they lived on was Texas Hill Rd.). I called Paypal and was able to confirm my suspicions, that this was in fact a scam. Of course, I didn't send the iPod and I alerted eBay...yada, yada. But, that wasn't enough for me. No! I was mad. So I sent an email to the phony Paypal address, called the thief by name, admonished him for being a criminal, and exhorted him to change his ways. This didn't go over so well. And in retrospect I realize it wasn't a good thing to do. I unwittingly called down upon myself the wrath and fury of angry Nigerian criminals, pricked by the truth (doubt it), and desirous to wreak havoc upon my unsuspecting eBay profiteering.

Back in the saddle, I put a second iPod up for auction a few days after these unfortunate events had unraveled. My auction was soon ending. It was going great! Then, the last minute, the Nigerians swooped in and bid $600 for my $200 iPod. Of course this ruined any further bids that might be legitimate, as no thinking person would pay so great a value for an iPod (maybe if it were owned by Elvis). I got the eBay police on it and they discovered, as I already knew, that the bid was placed with a stolen account. The Nigerians clearly did it just to ruin my auction and cause me to incur high fees from eBay. The fees were refunded, but now I feel marked. So I've been doing multiple chats with eBay security representatives, or whoever, trying to straighten out this debacle. I've been trying to convince them that the Nigerian Electronic Mafia is targeting me and eBay needs to do something, like let me change my userid. I will say this about ebay, their web-based help is about as useful as stereo instructions written in Japanese. Oh well, that'll teach me to act in anger. Then I look at my husband, the calm and still lighthouse he is, and realize how badly I really need to let him rub off on me. He already has but I've still got a long way to go.

So all this happened around the time of my birthday. I was a bit embittered at the loss of some extra cash right now. But, my birthday was so great that it cancelled out all the evil. My husband made it such a great day for me. I've never had such great birthdays in my life till he came along. And I tell him I don't need presents because he's the best present I've ever gotten and I don't need anymore. He made me a great breakfast, took me to dinner, rubbed my feet, and gave me gifts too. I got perfume, anti-aging face lotion, and hand-made computer generated coupons. As he said, it was my "pretty, pretty, birthday", i.e. sorry your so fabulous with child that feeling pretty is a forgotten concept. Matt makes me feel pretty, though. Just one among so many reasons why I love him so much and why he's my best friend. And now we get to have a cute little girl. My life couldn't get any better!

"What???"

2007-09-21T14:52:00.000-05:00

Would you believe I was actually in the kitchen with Ian when this occurred? I don’t think I had my eyes off him for more than 30 seconds. That’ll teach me to pay attention to what I’m doing when I’m chopping vegetables.

Where do I begin? This has been an awesome summer! The Lingards visited in mid-August and we had so much fun with them. They were a complete joy to have. It was great to see Thomas, who recently returned from Africa. Aside from the funny accent, he’s pretty much the same, only even cooler than before. Ezra is 2.5 now and he’s a riot. We really loved getting to know him. It was especially fun to see Ezra and Ian together.

The Lingards rented a beach house at Quintana Beach and we spent 5 wonderful days there lounging, sunning, swimming, and playing. Matt brought his kayak and we all took turns paddling around. It was so much fun. Even Ian and Ezra got to take turns. We also got to spend a little time around Houston with the Lingards. It was great because Ian got to know his grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousin. We look forward to next year’s adventure, which consoled us when it was time for them to go.

In other news, life has been good for us. At the beginning of September we were without a car for a week. That was really difficult but interesting. Matt rode the bus to work and I had to ride the bus to my doctor’s appointment. What a day that was! Three hours of bus riding plus three hours for my appointment. My doctor was running REALLY late. As soon as I arrived they suggested I come back, but after all my effort to get there I said I’d wait. So Ian and I walked to Rice to see Daddy. All and all I have to say he was a really good little guy considering the long day. Also, the car thing prompted us to begin re-thinking our finances and plans. No solid conclusions yet, but we’ll let you know.

As of this Monday there will only be 6 weeks left in my pregnancy. It’s really flying by and I’m so glad. We got Ian’s room all set up with a cool car bed and the baby’s room is set up too. I just hope that we do have a girl or I’ll be putting stuff away again. In 3 weeks we will have our final ultrasound. At that point I will believe whatever they say we’re having. For now I remain a hopeful skeptic.

In Ian news...he is doing great. He knows a lot of body parts, several signs, and is very eager to communicate. He is very bright and understands everything I say to him. He’s a genius! What can I say? Also, he will be a dragon for Halloween. Grandma Chase bought him a costume and Mommy is really looking forward to Halloween. It remains my favorite holiday. (See new photos on Flickr for a sneak preview as well as the chicken costume that didn’t win.)

We are all looking forward to Christmas as we will be spending it in Utah this year. We will bless our baby there and anticipate seeing a lot of the Chase’s there as well as Lingard/Neville’s. The blessing will likely be Sunday Dec. 30th in Kayesville and my sisters will be hosting a baby shower the day before in Sandy.

That’s all for now. Love you all...E

P.S. My birthday is October 11th. Just thought I’d remind everyone.

Havin' It Large!

2007-07-17T14:47:00.000-05:00

The last month has been extremely busy for us. First Grandpa Chase visited with us for a few days in the middle of June. While he was here we went to Sonic every day and got $0.99 root beer floats. Believe me, they taste way better than the more expensive root beer floats Sonic wasn’t selling.

About a week after we had Grandpa, Earl and Sarah, their three boys, my sister, Cathy, and her grandson, Cameron came to visit. The three older boys were here to enjoy NASA Space Camp. They had a blast!! (No pun intended.) While they were gone during the day we had our fair share of fun with Ian and Aaron. We went to the Natural Science Museum, a kids play area at a mall, Battleship Texas, the beach, and I can’t even remember where else. We really had a great time and enjoyed all the visitors we had.

The best thing about having our family was that Ian had four cool older boys (4-10 years old) to play with. It was great!! In fact, I believe Ian was so inspired that he finally started walking two days after they left our house. Of course, he started off with a Frankenstein walk. But now he’s really getting around great. He seems to really be enjoying his new form of mobility.

The day after the Fourth of July, Ian and I flew to California to visit the Chase’s. We stayed at Grandma and Grandpa’s house and had a great time. Ian really loved having a giant new house to explore. But his favorite thing of all was when Grandpa would take him to see the horses in the back yard.

While we were there we got to spend time with Uncle Eric, Uncle Craigie, and Aunt Cathy and their families. We even got to spend a couple days with Patience and her kids. Ian loved seeing Cameron again. He also had a great time playing with Peyton, Ella, and Madison.

We went swimming, to the mall, to a water fountain, and for a couple carousel rides. Ian went on his first ever carousel ride, which he loved. Patience bought him his first ever candy. It was a giant, red, ring pop and he absolutely loved it. He pretty much devoured it in no time, while still managing to get it all over his face and clothes. And Ian got to play in a splash fountain with his cousins and Mommy’s best friend’s kids for the first time ever. He was a little unsure at first. But once he got the idea, Ian ran around charging into the bursts of water while laughing gleefully.

All in all it was a great trip!! Ian also loved spending time with his cousins Katelyn, Shelby, Davis, Ryan, Jennifer, and Laura. Although these kids are older, they were really good with Ian and played with him and had a lot of fun too. It was so fun to see everybody. We wish we could see them more often.

Happily the fun doesn’t stop there for us because we are now looking forward to our visit with the Lingards in August. We are so excited to get to see Thomas again (after more than 2 years), and of course everybody else too. We think Ian and Ezra will have a lot more fun together this year since they are both well beyond the Object Permanence stage. Anyway, that’s all for now. We’ll give an update after our next batch of visitors. We are so excited!!

Oh yeah, we were told we are having a girl a few weeks ago. But I’m not convinced. We’ll be having another ultrasound on Monday so I’ll let you know. Bye.

All Kinds of Mobility!

2007-05-15T14:29:00.000-05:00

Lots has been going on around here. We visited the doctor in March and found out we’re having another baby. I am due November 12th and we are so excited. Since 5 weeks into the pregnancy until the present I have had horrible morning sickness. It’s been worse than I remember with Ian. Matt has been so wonderful cooking and helping out around the house and with Ian. Fortunately though, I am finally starting to feel better. At least there are days when I feel good as opposed to feeling sick everyday.

We celebrated Ian’s 1st birthday on April 23rd. We just had cupcakes and presents. Ian mashed his cupcake all over his hands and tray and then didn’t seem to like the mess. He was more interested in destroying it than eating it. Also, he liked opening presents. He just didn’t like us taking his new toy away so he could open the next one.

The Saturday before Ian’s birthday we went to the Colorado River and went canoeing. We have been searching for out-door activities we can do with small children. We bought a baby PFD, borrowed a canoe, and set out paddling. It was actually a lot of fun and worked out really well. Ian didn’t like the bulkiness of his PFD though. Also, we learned that we have to tether anything we give Ian to the inside of the boat. He likes to throw things overboard. We had a fun time retrieving his bottle, which happened to be the only one we had brought with us.

A couple weeks later we received a child’s bike seat from John and Jeanne. We spent a whole Saturday building our bikes (they were disassembled from the move) and then figuring out how to attach the seat to one of our bikes. As Matt says, “It always takes 10 times longer the first time you do something”. Anyway, we took our bikes to Rice University and biked around the campus perimeter, which is gorgeous. Matt’s tires were losing air and Ian hated his helmet, but our first bike ride went really well. Since then we’ve gone every Saturday and we really enjoy it. And, of course, now that we’re all set up it takes no time at all to get out the door.

Ian hasn’t started walking yet but he gets around. He crawls really, really fast and he sometimes is known to travel by bike, canoe, and jogger, in addition to the conventional automobile. He’s taking even more notice of Roxy. He likes to crawl all over her and she just tries to get away. Also, he’s become very attached to his dog blanket. He asks for it all the time. And then when he gets it he clutches it, strokes his face with its’ ears, and makes these little sighing noises. It’s very cute. But we will be in big trouble if the dog every goes missing.

I’ve posted new photos on Flickr. You can check them out by clicking on the photo link on the “About Us” page. Also, look for a video of Ian’s birthday in the next couple days. That’s all for now.

Ian's 12-Step Program

2007-03-08T14:13:00.000-06:00

A lot has happened since I last blogged. Most notably, we had Jeanne (Matt’s Mom) with us for 8 days in February. That was so much fun. We really enjoyed having her. While she was here we made great use of our Texas State Parks Pass and went to Varner Hogg Plantation (There was only an Ima Hogg, no Ura, Craig). We also explored in full the USS Battleship Texas and visited the San Jacinto Battleground, site of the famous battle with Santa Ana. In addition we went antiquing, to the MAC store, the Houston Holocaust Museum, and the Houston Zoo. Whew, we were all over the place! Having Jeanne here gave us a great excuse to forsake work and just get out and go.

In Ian news...Ian has finally started signing. Yes, after months of faithfully signing words like “milk” and “more” Ian started signing back in February. I started making signs while speaking certain words when Ian was 4 months old. within a couple months it was clear that Ian understood the signs, but he didn’t make the signs. I knew he understood milk because making the sign elicited an excited response similar to Pavlov’s dogs.

In short order he seemed to have a signing explosion once he learned to make one sign. His first sign was “dog”. Within a couple weeks of that he was signing “bird”, “more”, and “milk”. He has also added “fan” and “light” to his repertoire. Presently we are working on “drink”.

Incidentally, his favorite sign is “more”, which seems to usually mean, “Give me some food!” Ian wakes up from his nap and looks at me very matter-of-factly while signing “more”. Sometimes he applies “more” to other things. Like when Daddy tickles him or spins him around he often asks for “more”. So “more” is sort of a catchall that refers mainly to food and sometimes to a thing or action he wants.

To get Ian through church or car rides we usually bring little snacks for him. We discovered these Annie’s Bunny Grahams that he loves. In the last couple weeks, however, we’ve noticed that Ian always wants “more” of these Bunny Grahams. In fact, he seems to prefer them to anything else we feed him. As we started to go through a box a week we realized that he was addicted to them. The little bunnies were even spoiling his regular meals. So yesterday we decided NO MORE BUNNIES. Cold turkey. We cut him off and so far he seems to be doing really well. Now when he asks for “more” I scoop him up, put him in his chair, and give him a meal. He can snack on Cheerios, but that’s it!

Bunny-Free one day and counting! We’ll let you know how it goes.

Movin' Right Along

2007-01-24T10:50:00.000-06:00

With each passing day Ian grows a little more independent. He has truly discovered why it’s so cool that he can crawl. This past week he has started venturing out into other rooms of the house. He wants to explore, open cupboards, and take things out. For us this means that the game has changed, yet again. So Ian is helping us learn the new rules. Also, it seems like every few days he starts the process of cutting a new tooth. All in all Ian is an absolute delight. He laughs and smiles easily and has great balance. We think he’ll take after mom and be skateboarding by the time he’s four.

Here in Houston it is absolutely soggy! We had a brief reprieve from the rain over the weekend but then the rain returned in full force. So basically Roxy is totally shack whacky because I haven’t been able to get her out for a walk. Still we love it here and are enjoying the novelty of this experience.

Matt and I are still enjoying budgeting together. We’ve learned that we make about $500 less per month than we did as students both working. We couldn’t figure out why things seemed tighter even though we were spending far less than we used to. Bingo!! Duh! Even though we feel greatly blessed and very wealthy. We both feel like we have everything we ever wanted and we lack for nothing. We truly feel rich.

Still the realities of our income vs. expenses pose some wonderful challenges, even opportunities. How can we reduce our expenditures and save money? Well, we’ve looked at our gift budget and decided we could be more creative. So, “Family, you can look forward to some pretty nice home made creations and bargain buys!” Also, there’s thing like yogurt and croutons, which I’ve decided that I can add to our repertoire of home made goods.

I made home made yogurt from organic whole milk this past week. It rocks! It’s way better than any yogurt I’ve ever purchased. Ian loves it. I am going to buy 2% milk and start making it for the whole family. This brings the cost of our yogurt down to like .30¢ per 6 oz. as opposed to 90¢ for good organic yogurt. And then I mix in some home made jam or other fruit into the yogurt and it’s so sweet and delicious. You don’t even need an incubator to make yogurt. But lucky me, my Mom bought me one a while back. If I can just perfect the art of boiling milk then I’ll be good to go.

If I can think of any other money saving or procuring tips I’ll pass them along. Until next time...be happy and have fun!

The Week In Review

2007-01-16T10:45:00.000-06:00

It’s been raining a lot here in Houston. The forecasters have been threatening sleet since yesterday but we haven’t seen any here yet. It seems like the storms they predict bypass us or weaken by the time they get here. Although, it is colder than I like right now (in the 30’s).

This past week end we did chores around the house since the previous week end we went camping at Brazos Bend State Park. That was our trial run at camping with a baby and it went really well. I figured out that I don’t enjoy camping in temperatures much lower than the 50’s. So last week end was perfect. We also discovered that Ian doesn’t sleep well in unfamiliar places so we have to work on that. Also, we love our new tent that we got for Christmas. Thanks John and Jeanne!

Our new hobby is finances. I spent this past week researching and learning about stock investing. I plan to do some paper trading for a while. Once I get the hang of that we’ll start investing for real in the stock market. In addition, we plan to begin our retirement saving this month. We have developed a strict budget, which enables us to save. Rather than feeling restricted by our budget, we have felt greatly empowered. Also, we feel budgeting has improved our communication. We are truly committed to living debt free and are so excited by the challenge of living within our means. This requires us to be more resourceful and creative.

As far as Ian goes, he is crawling all over the place. It took him a few days but he finally realized what the ability to crawl really means to him. Now he knows it means liberation. It seems like he is now in a state of perpetual motion. He even crawls around in his crib. Both of us are learning that this can be treacherous. Twice yesterday I rushed into his room in a panic.

The first time I found him standing up, holding onto the rail. The second time I responded to a distress cry. In his explorations he had unwittingly lodged his arm through the slats of his crib and panicked when he couldn’t free it. Suffice it to say, we have resurrected the video monitor and have affixed it to his wall so that we can see what he’s up to when things get a little too quiet.