Mega Update!

Blogging just hasn't happened lately, but there are a few things to talk about.

On Sunday, Molly got her first hair cut. Her hair was getting so long and scraggily. It was a hundred different lengths and hard to keep out of her eyes. So, on Sunday night, my mom said she would trim it. It's shorter now, but looks really cute. All of the curls are still there, but any chance at strawberry blonde/red is gone now. Oh well. No, I didn't keep the hair. I'm just not

that kind of mom.

The last two weeks has officially been "baby season." James' cousin Stephanie had a new little baby boy named Tyler (#4 to their family). My cousin Melanie added a new baby girl named Kate (#2 to their family). And, James' sister Annie had a new little girl named Elizza Noelle (#4 to their family). We haven't met any of them, but we hope they and their moms are all healthy and doing well. Hopefully we will meet Elizza after Christmas and maybe the other two at some point in time. What did these three babies have in common besides being related to us? None of their parents chose to find out the babies' genders until they were born. Interesting.

James is trying to join the Air Force. He's not trying to get out of being deployed in June, but he's trying to get out of being deployed as a grunt mechanic on prison guard duty. There is absolutely no possibility for advancement as a nurse in the Utah National Guard at the moment, and that's what he'd like to do to finish out the next 6 years until his retirement. What are the benefits of being in the Air Force? He says they treat you better, deployments are only 6 months instead of 12, he gets to be an officer, would fly to Tacoma, WA for drill, and would not have to sleep in a tent ever again. There is a lot of paperwork to fill out and several fiery hoops to jump through, but we're keeping our fingers crossed.

I just finished another semester of my master's classes at USU. I am behind by 1 class, so even though next spring should be my last semester, I'll have 1 more class to do in the summer. Oh well.

Annie, Melinda, and I got all of my Grandma's Christmas presents wrapped in 1 afternoon and 1 night. That was a record!!! My grandma buys gifts (at least 2 or 3 things, if not more) for all 52 members of our family. That means that we wrapped at least 200 gifts or more. Crazy!! Christmas keeps Grandma going, though, so its a good thing.

My dad got a job!! Well actually, it's an internship, but it is still a job. He'll be doing some type of medical parts management something or other for Stryker Medical. It has been over a year since he stopped working for Ottowear and we are so proud of him for what he's done since. He's gone back to school and has re-emerged as our smart-intellectual-life-is-good-and-I-am-with-it dad again. He's just finished up a 6 month part-time job reorganizing the biology lab at SLCC and now will start this new adventure in January. Good luck!

I had each of my ESL History students do a project called "My Immigration Story." Oh my goodness! If you ever want to be humbled and meet some amazing kids with some amazing stories, I can introduce you to a few of my students. Our country may not be as strong or as perfect as it may seem to have been on greener pastures, but it is still good.

Festivus Photos

Molly Update

Hi everyone,
It's Molly! My mom told me I needed to write a blog post. (She's so demanding. It's way past my bedtime.) So, what's been going on lately?

• I've been sick. My mom talked about my bad day Wednesday, but that was only the beginning. I got worse before it got better and then I just didn't want to eat or drink anything for the whole weekend. My mom was so worried about me that she took a day off and made me stay home on Monday. Since I didn't want to drink out of a bottle, she kept giving me juice, water, and Pedialyte through my medicine syringe. It was kind of fun and I liked to drink it that way.
• My face is really sore. The doctor says it's eczema, but it's really only on my face and it drives me crazy. Well, actually, I really don't notice it except that my mom is always putting stuff on my face to help it and that gets annoying.
  
• I'm excited for Christmas. My mom's been telling me about this guy, Santa. She said he hasn't really come around our house for the last couple of years because she and my dad are too boring for him, but this year, he is coming! Good thing I sleep in my mom and dad's room so I won't be scared.
• I like basketball! I like the noise in the gym and all of the people cheering. I go to Utah games and have now been to one of Uncle Willie's high school games. It's a lot of fun.
• I am growing like crazy. I have almost grown out of ALL of my 12 month clothes and I'm moving into the 18 months. I've noticed that some of the things my mom has bought lately to put in my clothes bin are 24 months. HOLY COW! That's what my cousin Wyatt wears and he's much older than me.

Stories of Poo!

So, I guess this is what my blog has come down to. I have nothing else to write about except Molly's bodily functions. She had two clothes changes at school today. On her board it just said "11:00 BM Blow Out," then a little further down it said "1:00 BM Blow Out, Major :)." Oh dear. This happens, you know, she is a baby after all. She's had poop explosion issues since the day she was born. In fact, the day after she was born, the pediatrician in the hospital made the comment that "she could clear a room" and then there was that one instance when she was a month old or less that the lamp on her changing table got splattered upon (it now sits at the head of her changing table instead of the end).

Unfortunately, her terrible mother, who according to school day care rules should supply 2 spare outfits for infants, forgot to take a new outfit back after the last blowout. You do the math.

2 blowouts in one day - only 1 clean outfit = . . . the daycare's spare field trip t-shirt.



Other things worth mentioning . . .

She ate really well at school today (probably because of all the spare room in her stomach), but she wasn't too hungry tonight. I tried to keep feeding her even though I was thinking, "I think she's full." She eventually had a major spit up, too, which led right to the bathtub. Not counting the pj's that went on next, I think that made 4 outfits for the day! Way to go Molly!

Molly also threw her first temper tantrum tonight. I laid her down on my bed while I was folding some clothes and she grabbed a wire hanger that was left on the bed. Oops. I immediately took it from her, but she screamed bloody murder! Oh well.

One of these days I might actually figure out how to be a good mom, while being a good teacher . . . and a good wife, a good stake primary person, a good sister, a good daughter, good granddaughter, good house cleaner, good bill payer, good dinner fixer . . . you get the idea. Right now I am just very mediocre at all of those things. Oh well, again. Maybe I should stop blogging and get back to work!

Thanksgiving!

Our Thanksgiving came and went yesterday. Molly was a trooper and even with only 2 short half hour naps, she managed to be pleasant most of the day. She's a good girl. I love her!

We started Thanksgiving on Wednesday afternoon at Grandma Huber's. We just went to visit, but ended up helping cousin Peter set up some things for Thursday. For the actual Turkey Day, we started at my mom's (with my Dad's family, minus a few) and ended at Alicia's house in Ogden (with James' family and some of Ina and Rex's family.) I made sugar cookies. They were good, but I used almond extract instead of vanilla. Did any of you out there who tasted them notice a difference? Better or worse? (I forgot to ask anyone yesterday.)

Today, James had a few visits for work and Molly slept in until 7:00 and then had a good nap later. After her nap, we went to do some black friday shopping. We went to Kohls, Sears, and Walgreens. My mom met us a Kohl's. The line was long, but moved pretty quickly.

Tonight, James, Molly, and I headed to Old Navy and Target to get a few more things. Doh! I just realized as I wrote that, that I had a gift card I was going to use at Target. Crap! I forgot I had put it in my wallet. That's why we went there. Duh, me, spells dummy!

On a side note, you may know I have this guilty pleasure for bad country music. Driving around over the course of the last few days, I've heard this song a lot. It's kind of a pretty song, but it is a little depressing and weird. I have absolutely no idea what it's talking about. Do any of you know? Does she think her life is at risk? Is she planning to take her own life?