Edarthwaite

Hello Buzz!

2012-01-28T17:24:00.004-06:00

Trotwood has really grown to love the Buzz and Woody plush dolls we got him for Christmas. Scrapbooking has been a good outlet for me lately so I thought it would be good to just keep track of what we've been doing.

A closetful

2012-01-22T21:49:00.002-06:00

I love all these girl clothes we had for our daughters. Some of them were outfits bought for our first daughter and others specifically for our second daughter. I just felt like scrapbooking about them...

January 9th

2012-01-15T12:18:00.005-06:00

I just sent out this as an email to those friends and family members I have email addresses for.

My dearest friends and family,

It is with great sorrow and a heavy heart that I once again relay to you sad news concerning our family. On Monday, January 9th, our daughter came into this world and remained with us for only a short time before returning to her Father in Heaven. Our daughter was born via emergency c-section and had many of the same medical issues as our first child. Although after an autopsy and discussions with different doctors concerning the death of our first child, no one could provide us with an explanation of what caused her condition. Because the two circumstances are almost identical, we plan to investigate this as much as possible to determine if we will be able to have any more children. Once again, we are so grateful to the organization, Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep and for the photography service they provide to people in situations like ours. Funeral services were held on January 14th for our sweet baby girl.

As we mourn the loss of another infant daughter, we once again are able to find comfort in the gospel of Jesus Christ and the knowledge that we will be together as a family again someday. I have grown to treasure these words by the Prophet Joseph Smith: "The Lord takes many away, even in infancy, that they may escape the envy of man, and the sorrows and evils of this present world; they were too pure, too lovely, to live on earth; therefore, if rightly considered, instead of mourning we have reason to rejoice as they are delivered from evil, and we shall soon have them again..." We thank you all, again, for your love, support and prayers as we adjust to life without our daughter.

Celebrating Seven Years

2011-12-29T15:10:00.003-06:00

My how time flies...and I still love you, Mr. Rochesters!

The Piano Guys

2011-12-21T13:51:00.002-06:00

I should have heard of this group before now, because I know the cellist from my MPA program. I knew that he was a musician but I didn't know much more about his background than that. He was always a really nice guy to talk to. Anyway, his sister, who is also a musician and was also in my MPA program, posted this video on facebook today. I watched it and I love.their.music.

I've always liked Jon Schmidt's piano, but like I said before, I had no idea this group existed. I hope you enjoy the video as much as I did! They've got a ton of other great videos on their website www.thepianoguys.com.

Everyday You

2011-12-21T08:00:00.001-06:00

I made this layout a few weeks ago and meant to post it. The pictures are from over a year ago, but going outside is one of the things Trotwood loves to do every day. He used to just stand and stare out through the back glass door and actually, he still does this! Also, he went through a huge Toy Story phase and he's wearing his favorite pajamas. Many times he would insist upon wearing his Toy Story pajamas and unfortunately, we only had one pair. Now, I think we currently have two pairs of Toy Story pajamas that fit him but right now, he's more into Timmy Time, Shaun the Sheep, and Wallace and Gromit. His very favorite show is Timmy Time right now and thank heaven, all three of these shows are streaming on Netflix!

I used 52 Template Thursdays – no 25 by Tiffany Tillman, Remarkable – Elements by Karla Dudley, Vintage Findings – Blue & Gray by Jen Allyson, and Vintage Collage by Agnes Biro - all available at Design House Digital! Things have been so busy lately, I haven't had much time to sit down and scrapbook but I'm hoping to find some more time over the next week when I'm off of work.

An attempt at photos...

2011-12-20T08:00:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago, we took some family photos for our Christmas card and I thought they turned out okay, minus the fact that we all needed haircuts at the time. So, post-haircuts, here is our second attempt at family photos...and this is what happens when you have afternoon church and meetings, your two-year old doesn't get a nap and thus falls asleep on the way home from church, you arrive home around 5:30ish...allow your two-year old to sleep just a little thinking he'll wake up soon, when he doesn't wake up you just wake him up after 6 pm sometime because didn't I take so much time getting ready that morning in expectation of taking pictures after church and by golly, we are going to do this tonight?! So...of course, Trotwood was not happy whatsoever about waking up, hence the constant scowl on his face. I thought you might enjoy these funny pictures.

The date is set!

2011-12-19T08:11:00.005-06:00

Well, a few weeks ago we set the date for the C-Section. My doctor wanted to do the surgery on January 18th, which will put me right at 39 weeks. When our doctor first mentioned this date, I was a little unsure about it. January 18th is the day our first child, who was also a girl, died. Yet, after thinking about it more, Mr. Rochester and I agreed that the 18th would actually be a really special day for our second daughter's birthday...as if the Lord is blessing us with a new child on the day we lost of our first one. Of course, our second daughter will in no way replace our first daughter, but I feel peaceful about the date. We still celebrate January 16th as our first daughter's birthday but we focus on her birth and not so much her death, mainly because we're grateful we had the few days we had with her and that she is a part of our eternal family. In no way will the death of our first child overshadow the birth of our second daughter. As with my last pregnancy, I still think often about the uncertainties involved in having a baby. Although we haven't had any problems so far, ultrasounds have looked great, and I'm being monitored each week, anything could happen. There's nothing to guarantee me that my baby will be born healthy on the day she is supposed to arrive, but I still hope and pray for it...and I feel like everything is going to be okay.

The Coat

2011-12-15T12:53:00.003-06:00

I love this...

A Light Unto All: A Christmas Gift

2011-11-30T14:50:00.002-06:00

Layout: On Becoming a Mother

2011-11-29T08:00:00.004-06:00

I loved creating this layout. It seems when I scrapbook, I rarely scrapbook about myself and my own experiences because lately, I've been working on Trotwood's one year scrapbook. This is something I can include in his one year scrapbook and even though it's about him, I feel like it's more about me, which is okay. I plan to eventually do a second page to this layout mainly because I like the continuity of two-page layouts in a book, but I thought I would go ahead and share. For this layout, I again used Tiffany Tillman's Artistic Photo Masks and then I also used papers and alphas from Gennifer Bursett's Baby Boy Sweet Child of Mine kit. Other elements alphabets are by Karla Dudley, Sara Schmutz, and Robyn Meierotto all available at Design House Digital.

Layout: Family

2011-11-28T11:00:00.004-06:00

This photo was taken over a year ago, but I still love it. We are so overdue for some family photos! I really loved using the four kits chosen for this feature, especially the Artistic Photo Masks by Tiffany Tillman and the Renewed Spirit Elements by Agnes Biro. You can see my layout and others created for this feature at Design House Digital here.

I'm going to be published!

2011-11-23T08:40:00.005-06:00

So, I recently posted a digital layout entitled Me and My Poppy on my blog. Well...I also submitted it (at the very last minute) for consideration for publication in an upcoming issue of the Creating Keepsakes magazine. This morning I got an email telling me that my layout was chosen to be published in an upcoming Baby & Toddler special issue of the magazine. I can't tell you how excited I am!! I submitted a few layouts to the magazine many years ago when I was doing paper scrapbooking and never heard anything back, but this is the first time I've submitted anything digital for publication consideration. So, I have to remove it from any online sites where I've posted it, which I believe includes my own. Anyway, just wanted to share the good news! I still can't believe it!

It breaks my heart

2011-11-22T08:00:00.001-06:00

I turned 31 last week. And no, that isn't quite what breaks my heart. I'm actually okay with being 30, oops, I mean 31. Besides being my birthday week, last week was also pretty much the busiest week of my life, so Mr. Rochester and I didn't celebrate until a few days after the day of my actual birthday. And so it happened that on Thursday night, we decided to go out to eat and Mr. Rochester's mom was all set to watch Trotwood for us.

Mr. Rochester's mom arrived and Trotwood was, as usual, excited to see his Nana. We snapped a few photos and happened to catch on camera the most heart-breaking look on Trotwood's face when the realization hit him that Mom and Dad were leaving him for a few hours, even though he'd get to play with his Nana. Apparently, this has happened before and it's only happened a few times when we've left him with a baby-sitter or with his Nana. Usually, the kid jumps at the chance to play with someone other than Mom and Dad, but it seems like every so often, he has separation issues. He doesn't scream or throw a fit...he just gets this look on his face and a single tear will escape from one of his eyes. It is absolutely heartbreaking and that night was the first time I'd ever seen it! Mr. Rochester had described it to me before but I'd never actually witnessed it.
Mr. Rochester's mom said it took her about 30 minutes to calm Trotwood down after we left...it's just so strange because he has never been like this until the last couple of months. It made me almost not want to go out because he looked so heartbroken. I couldn't get his sad, little face out of my mind the rest of the night. Actually, it's just burned into my consciousness and now that we have it on camera (which was a complete accident), I don't think I'll ever forget it. I hope we see more smiles and less sad faces in the future!

So excited!

2011-11-21T09:02:00.007-06:00

Okay, so I know the whole concept of this book is barbaric and I'm not sure if I'd want my teen (if I had one right now) to read it, but I enjoyed the excitement in the books and I couldn't put them down. I can't wait to see the movie!

Layout: Me and My Poppy

2011-11-15T16:30:00.004-06:00

I've been wanting to do a layout about Trotwood and his grandfather who recently passed away. When Trotwood was much smaller, we were trying to teach him how to say Grandpa and he would never say anything other than "Poppy" for the word Grandpa. So, Poppy stuck and ever since then we have referred to Mr. Rochester's dad as Poppy. I think we'll probably always refer to him as that. I enjoyed putting this layout together although at times, I felt sad thinking how Trotwood will miss out on getting to know, in this life, what a wonderful man his Poppy was.

And the winner is...

2011-11-11T10:09:00.002-06:00

Desiree! Congratulations! I used random.org to choose the winner from all 7 of the people who commented and even though there were only 7, I thought that would be the fairest thing to do. So, Desiree, I'll be sending you an email sometime today with more information about the gift certificate. Hooray!

DHD Gift Certificate Giveaway!

2011-11-09T14:24:00.003-06:00

Do you love to do digital or hybrid scrapbooking or have you been wanting to get into it? I have a $10 Gift Certificate to Design House Digital that I'd love to give away to someone and it'd be perfect if you're just starting to dabble into the area of digital scrapbooking. Design House Digital has some amazing supplies to choose from! If you didn't check out the recent Digital Scrapbooking Day blog hop, see the list of designers and their free kits here and also check out the QuickPage blog hop here.

All you have to do to be considered for the giveaway is leave a comment on this blog post! The winner will be announced on 11/11/11.

Christmas Traditions Layout

2011-11-06T08:00:00.002-06:00

Here are a few pictures from last Christmas which I don't think I ever posted. Don't mind how awful I look in the photos, I really just wanted to document the tradition that we are creating for Trotwood and our future children of letting them open up a present of pajamas on Christmas Eve. Mr. Rochester's family always did that when he was growing up and I just love the idea of giving our kids new pajamas to wear on Christmas Eve and having them wear them on Christmas morning to open presents.

I usually like to do 2-page layouts for most of my scrapbooking, mainly because I think the consistency looks nice in an album. Eventually, I'd like to print all of my pages out into neat, orderly albums and someday it will happen!
For this layout I used Karen Funk's Brown Paper Packages Mega Collection and Tiffany Tillman's Holiday Template, #17.

Digital Scrapbooking Day Freebie!

2011-11-04T00:00:00.020-05:00

Happy Digital Scrapbooking Day! This is my first time to participate as a Decorator in a Blog Hop sponsored by Design House Digital. I've only been a part of DHD's creative team for a few weeks but so far, I love it. The designers and the decorators are a super fun, talented group of women. For this Blog Hop, many of the Decorators have designed a quickpage for you to download. All you have to do is download the quickpage and drop your photo into the picture. Easy peasy! The zip file includes a 12 x 12 and 8.5 x 11 quickpage. Here's my quickpage and a link to where you can download it. Click here. Please note that if you dowloaded this file prior to 11/7/2011, the 12 x 12 page was only set at 650 pixels. It has been fixed now and is set at 3600 pixels. I apologize for any inconvenience and thank you to the person who commented on my blog and pointed that out!
Be sure to stop by all the Decorator's blogs to download their free quickpages:

Digital Scrapbooking Day Designer Blog Hop

2011-11-03T17:26:00.003-05:00

Design House Digital is doing a blog hop for Digital Scrapbooking Day. It includes 43 papers, 62 elements, a full alpha and and a template and it's all FREE! Here's a look at what you can get at the blog hop.
To participate in the blog hop, just hop around to the different designers websites:

Audrey Neal

Angie Hinksman

Celeste Knight

Dana Zarling

Deena Rutter

Gennifer Bursett

Jen Allyson

Karen Funk

Karla Dudley

Robyn Meierotto

Shannon Hegarty

Tiffany Tillman

And stay tuned for more freebies tomorrow! I'll be participating in a DHD Decorator Blog Hop where you'll be able to download quickpages made by each of the Design House Digital Decorators using the free kit featured above!

One Kit, Many Ways layout

2011-10-27T14:30:00.000-05:00

Wahoo! As a DHD Decorator, I participated in a One Kit, Many Ways event using Shannon Hegarty's new Zoey Collection and a template by Tiffany Tillman. This has been the first time one of my layouts has been shown as one of the featured layouts on the DHD website (you have to scroll down to see mine). Since this page is also for Trotwood's one year book, I made a second page to go with it. You can see them below.

BIRTHday layout

2011-10-27T09:00:00.000-05:00

Here's another layout I did from pictures of the day Trotwood was born.

I'm sure someday he'll be thoroughly embarrassed that I posted a picture of his brand new baby bum on the internet.

If you're at all interested in doing any digital scrapbooking, almost everything I used on this page was free. Here's a list of my supplies:
Template: Jen Martakis, SimpleStarts No.1 free template available here
Patterned Paper: Twelve by Twelve Designs, Bloom, Free kit available here
Stamped font: Karla Dudley’s Digi Essentials 5 brushes, available for purchase at Design House Digital)
Button: Ronna Penner, Express Yourself Kit, free kit available here. This website has a ton of free digital kits you can download and play with and so does Two Peas in a Bucket.

Trotwood at one month layout

2011-10-26T11:29:00.007-05:00

My goal for this year was/is to complete Trotwood's 1 year scrapbook, which I am doing entirely digitally. It has been a fun project and is far from finished, but I still have 2 months left, right? Doing everything digitally has made finding time to scrapbook so much easier since I don't have to get out all of my supplies. Don't get me wrong, I still have a love for paper (yes, Joy, I'll admit it, I love paper!), chipboard, rub-ons, stickers, glue and all traditional scrapbooking methods, going digital has just simplified everything since I keep it all on my external hard drive! Anyway, here's my latest layout of Trotwood. I took these pictures of Trotwood and Mr. Rochester when Trotwood was only about a month old. They are some of my favorite pictures because of the lighting and I can just feel the emotion in them. I may even get a a little misty-eyed looking at them because my little boy has grown up so much since then. Enjoy the layout!

DHD Decorator!

2011-10-21T10:04:00.005-05:00

I should have already blogged about this, but as you may have noticed, I've been a bit behind on blogging. I'm so excited, I was recently chosen to be a Decorator for my absolute favorite digital scrapbooking website, Design House Digital! I couldn't believe that I'd been selected and I am just so excited and honored to be a part of such a fun, talented group of women. What this basically means is that I get to design scrapbook layouts using DHD designs at no cost to me and have a chance to host fun activities like monthly challenges, 1Kit4Ways, 4Play and speed scraps! If you're into hybrid or digital scrapbooking at all, come on over and check it out! I plan on posting some of the layouts I do for the DHD website on this blog, so be on the lookout for more pictures and posts!

It's a...

2011-09-05T13:00:00.000-05:00

Girl. My official due date is January 25th but since I'll be having a C-section, we'll probably have the baby a week or so before that. We're very excited and also a bit nervous to have a girl. I mean, c'mon, we're used to what boys are like right now but I'm sure we'll get used to having a girl around. Before Trotwood was born, I was nervous about having a boy.

Tomorrow

2011-09-01T14:48:00.002-05:00

We find out tomorrow what we are having! Of course, we'll be happy with either -- I'm just hoping the ultrasound shows that all of the baby's parts are growing the way they should be and there aren't any problems. Any guesses as to what our little surprise might be? I'm going to go with a girl, not for any reason in particular but at the beginning of my pregnancy I thought for sure it was a girl, now I have no idea.

Favorite activities

2011-08-19T07:29:00.006-05:00

Hanging upside down from the low-hanging clothes bar in my closet (notice there are no clothes on this level - Mom and Dad learned quickly).
Filling up my crib with all my stuffed animals - this must occur at least twice a day.
Putting together my animal puzzle - this happens many, many times throughout the day. Mom and Dad should really get me some more puzzles with animals on the pieces.
Playing outside. I don't get to do this enough. Mom and Dad say it's too hot outside but really they are just tired in the evenings when it's not too hot. I still get to play outside but I want to play outside all day, every day.
Swinging! My Grandma bought me a swing for my birthday and it's one of the best.things.ever.
Watching the Black Stallion. I can't get enough of this movie. There's a wild, black horse and a boy. What else could there be to life?
Playing horsey with Daddy. My dad is so much fun and he'll let me climb on his back and pretend like I'm riding a horse.
Reading books. One of my favorite books is I'm Looking for a Monster. There's a really scary monster in the book and the other night, I wanted to give it a kiss. So, I did. And then I wanted to give it another kiss and Mommy pretended like it was going to bite me and I got scared so I don't want to kiss it anymore and now the monster kind of scares me even though I saw Mommy give it a kiss to show that it really doesn't bite anyone. I'm not sure if I can give that monster another kiss. It might try to bite me.
Playing with my Woody and Buzz action figures...and watching Toy Story. I just love that Woody and Buzz.
Climbing in the dryer and pretending to take a nap on any of the clothes that may still be in there. I really just like to play in the dryer. Sometimes I hide in there but I can't shut the door all the way but still, if I'm really quiet Mommy and Daddy have to look for me. Lately, they've been finding me a lot faster than they used to though. I may need to find a new hideout.

March 2012

2011-08-12T09:22:00.003-05:00

I'm so excited for the new Hunger Games movie - I hope the movie does the books justice! This poster's been out for a few weeks but I just found it - I can't wait to see the trailer for this movie whenever it's released!

After reading these books, I tried reading a few other series about dystopian societies and I haven't found any others that I absolutely love. I enjoy the idea behind classic books like 1984 and Brave New World but in the end, they're all just kind of depressing. I love the Hunger Games because, for me, it had the right mix of sadness and overcoming in it.

So behind

2011-08-08T09:49:00.006-05:00

Goodness, I'm so behind on blogging. It's all because I never take the time to take the pictures off of my camera and upload them to our blog, and sometimes, you just need pictures!

Trotwood turned 2 years old on July 30th. It really is unbelievable to me that my sweet, little boy has gotten so big. We had a small, family get together for his birthday and I think he really enjoyed it, especially the toys. He's really into Toy Story these days so his grandma bought him a Toy Story themed cake and of course, one of the Toy Story movies was playing in the background.

He also received several Toy Story themed toys. His Meme and Grandpa got him the Evil Dr. Pork Chop spaceship from Toy Story 3 and a Woody and Bullseye figurine. He absolutely loves the Pork Chop toy and has been running around the house with it yelling "Poke Shop!"

And Mr. Rochester and I got him the trash truck from the third movie.

All the photos are courtesy of my grandfather, who unlike myself, immediately emailed out the pictures the day after the get together. I love this one he took of Trotwood (just ignore the woman holding him).

Trotwood loved playing with his cousins, whom he hadn't seen since he was just a baby. Thanks, Grandma, for bringing them by!

A few days after Trotwood turned two, we went to his 2-year checkup. He's off the charts for his height and his weight has finally caught up with him. Although he's no chub, he's in the 75th percentile for his weight. The boy is 30 lbs and he's almost getting too heavy to hold!

Lately

2011-07-29T15:37:00.005-05:00

With how hot it has been outside lately and how awful I've been feeling with these first few months of pregnancy, we've all been spending a lot of time relaxing indoors. Let me restate that, I've been relaxing, Trotwood doesn't do much relaxing unless he's asleep. All of this relaxing on my part brought about more movie watching and Trotwood's new love is the 1978 version of the Black Stallion movie. One day I noticed this was streaming on Netflix, and when we were kids, my sister and I used to watch this movie all the time, along with the sequel The Black Stallion Returns. So, naturally, wanting to relive my childhood memories and being exhausted from working all day, I coaxed my toddler into watching the movie with me and now, he's hooked. He runs around the house yelling "hors-ee, hors-ee" and has replaced his old horse sound of "neigh neigh" with a throaty "mmmmrrrpphhhhhh". It's hard to type out - I'll just have to get it on video so you can experience the cuteness of it.

I thought I'd read all of the Black Stallion books by Walter Farley when I was a kid, but after looking at the number of Black Stallion books on the website, I'm doubting that I read all of them. And even after all these years, I still love the 1978 version of the movie, especially because it's so fun to see Trotwood enjoy it.

The end of Harry

2011-07-18T11:59:00.005-05:00

On Saturday, the mister took me to see the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 and my wonderful mother-in-law watched our wild child so we could go. I will admit a few things about the movie. I thought it was fabulous. I am sad to see the end of the Harry Potter movies. I laughed. I may have wept in the dark for a good bit of the movie. The movie was just fabulous. And if you didn’t think so, I’m sorry. If I had it on DVD today, I would watch it again.

Also, I’m loving BYU and Divine Comedy today. If you like Harry Potter and you haven’t see this, watch it. I laughed. A lot. Sometimes, I truly miss the nerdiness that is BYU.

In need of another bed...

2011-07-14T09:18:00.004-05:00

We'll be needing to buy a new crib in January as ours is a dropside and Trotwood still sleeps in it. Don't tell on us! Perhaps, I'll refer back to my previous salivating over cribs from a few years ago. Any crib suggestions?

P.S. Yes, this is an announcement. Hooray for babies!

Lo-kee

2011-06-30T08:40:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, while I was at work, I called home to check on my boys to hear that Mr. Rochester had just finished cleaning up Trotwood in one of his fiascos. And this is what happened. It all started the other day when I was at the store. I bought a half gallon of chocolate milk, which Trotwood most tenderly refers to as "lo-kee" and brought it home and put it in the fridge. Over the course of a few days, the half gallon was reduced to about a quarter of it's original volume and it was frankly just "chillin" in the fridge (yes, I did intend the pun here - I couldn't resist). Now, Trotwood has gotten very good at opening the refridgerator. Usually, we can hear him when he does this and even if we're not in the kitchen we'll yell from another room for him to close the fridge doors.

Well, this very thing happened yesterday. Mr. Rochester was in the living room, he heard the fridge doors open, he yelled to Trotwood to shut the doors, and Mr. Rochester heard the doors shut. What usually happens after the doors shut is Trotwood will run back into the living room with a sheepish grin on his face because he knows he's not supposed to open the fridge doors. However, this time, Trotwood did not run back into the living room. After a few minutes, Mr. Rochester went in the kitchen to check on all of the silence Trotwood was making in the kitchen (never a good sign). What he discovered was Trotwood with chocolate milk smeared all in his hair and dripping from his face while he happily drank the remains of our half gallon of chocolate milk straight from the jug. Of course, Mr. Rochester cleaned Trotwood up and removed the offending milk jug. As he took the milk jug away, he noticed something clanging around in the small amount of milk that was left in the jug. Yes, Trotwood had added something to the already-made chocolate milk. What Mr. Rochester found in the bottom of the milk jug was an orange crayon Trotwood had recently been using to color. Perhaps, Trotwood thought it would add flavor to the chocolate milk or perhaps, he thought it would serve the purposes of a spoon and he could mix the milk. Either way, I'm not sure we'll ever solve the mystery of the orange crayon in the chocolate milk. I only wish we had a few photos to remember this fiasco, but at this point, words will have to suffice.

Clean-up Time!

2011-06-24T13:44:00.006-05:00

One Sunday morning, not so very long ago, Trotwood made a decision. He decided all by himself that it was time to clean his room. Mom and Dad had no part in this whatsoever. Look at what a great job he's doing putting his book back on the shelf! Or is he, perhaps, putting it somewhere else..Where on earth could he be going?
Why not just put everything in the crib - at least it's off the floor, right? Ah, the treasure trove!

Cleaning up is so much fun!

Extremes

2011-06-22T16:02:00.008-05:00

I feel like the last few months we've had some extremes in weather. In May we had lots of rain with scary looking clouds like this:
And now in June, we've had unnaturally hot temperatures for this area. Because of the heat, Mr. Rochester and I haven't been as eager to take Trotwood outside and play as much as he would like. We were at ToysRUs the other day and found this fun sprinkler attachment for our hose for only $8 and thought that Trotwood might enjoy running through the sprinkler some. At first, he wasn't quite sure what to think about it.

Once he figured it out, I think he thought it was pretty fun.

The boy still doesn't own a swimsuit, as he has never been to a pool yet. That will be next on our list. Looks like he likes being all wet.

B-Ball!

2011-06-21T10:36:00.007-05:00

Saturday, Trotwood attended his first baseball game. This was quite an event for him since like his father, he is obsessed with as Trotwood calls it "B-ball!" Our very good friends had some free tickets to attend the minor league team that plays here and we went with them. The game began at 7 pm and of course it was hot and humid but we all really enjoyed ourselves. Although our tickets were for seats, our wise friend suggested that we all sit over in the grassy area in back of the field.

I will admit, at first, I doubted the wisdom of our friend's suggestion because of the hotness of the day, and the grassy area was in full sunlight. However, after about an hour, the sun disappeared behind some clouds and the evening actually turned into a nice evening to be outside. Of course, there was even more wisdom in our friend's suggestion: we both have small children. They have a son who is about six months old and Trotwood is almost two. Sitting in the stadium seats would have been absolute torture for Trotwood. Where we sat on the grass, he was able to run around and roll around in the grass and we could more easily keep him entertained. Oh, and the grassy area was much closer to the children's playground on the ballpark grounds.
The evening turned out fabulously, and I'm so glad we had the opportunity to go. I know Mr. Rochester really enjoyed being at the game with everyone.

Trotwood loved yelling and clapping along with everyone else at the game. He also enjoyed stealing his daddy's hat.

Hooray for baseball!

Happy Father's Day!

2011-06-19T23:00:00.001-05:00

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there! We had an enjoyable, maybe little exhausting Father's Day. I will admit that on Mother's Day, Mr. Rochester does everything so, of course, I must reciprocate on Father's Day, hence the exhausting day. Mr. Rochester got to enjoy the morning with a lot of "me-time" before church while I entertained Trotwood. We read lots of books before church yesterday. Along with his older favorites, Trotwood has two new favorite books: Giraffes Can't Dance and Olivia, or as Trotwood would say "Li-Li". It's so cute. We actually only own one Olivia book but I checked out a couple more from our library and they were a hit! Although the books have great stories, I think what makes Olivia so appealing to Trotwood is the stylized artwork. It's truly fabulous. But I digress, this post was supposed to be about Father's Day. Mr. Rochester is proudly displaying his Father's Day gifts above. He got a new Dodgers shirt - he is a huge fan - and he has recently begun to relive his childhood hobby of collecting baseball cards. He is holding up his two new baseball cards: Johnny Podres and Carl Erskine. I know very little about who these people are - all I know is they were on Mr. Rochester's list.

I'm so grateful for Mr. Rochester in my life. He is a wonderful husband and father, and I'm so lucky to have him! I've also been blessed with great examples in my dad, my step-dad, and my father-in-law. Hoping you all had a great Father's Day too.

Trotwood's favorites

2011-05-26T14:15:00.000-05:00

Every night before Trotwood goes to bed, we read stories to him. He has a bookshelf full of all sorts of books that Mr. Rochester and I have acquired for him, including ones that we used to have when we were younger. And, yet, despite the ever-growing library of children's literature that appears on his bookshelves, Trotwood really only has interest in the following books:
For the longest time, I'm Looking for a Monster! was the only book Trotwood wanted to read. His favorite books are pop-up and touch-and-feel books and this one is a pop-up book. All of the pictures are also done in colors that contrast each other like black and red or black and lime green or black and turquoise. This book has actually gotten so much love that a few of the monsters have been torn and one of the monsters is actually torn completely off. Since it was such a favorite of Trotwood's, I've considered buying a newer copy just to have on hand.

We discovered Matthew Van Fleet books one day at Barnes & Noble when looking to see what kinds of pop-up books are out there. One of Trotwood's aunts bought him the Heads book for Christmas and we bought him the Alphabet book, also as a Christmas present. Although these books are a little pricey, they are definitely worth it. The art is wonderful as are the different interactive parts of the books. We recently discovered a Dogs book by Matthew Van Fleet. Since Trotwood is completely obsessed with dogs, I think this might be a good birthday present!

Someone gave us this Baby McDonald on the Farm book. Honestly, it's not my favorite book but Trotwood adores it. He loves the pictures of the farm animals and it's also another touch-and-feel book.

And just recently, Trotwood has started watching TV! I don't know if this is awful of me or not, but I'm so happy about that. Because now when I need to empty the dishwasher or cook dinner, I can put on a DVD for him to watch and he will actually sit down and watch it! This keeps me from worrying about whether he's "helping" put away the clean knives while I've got my back turned putting dishes away. Pretty much the only time we park him in front of the TV is if we're desperate to get a few things around the house done. It doesn't always work though because most of the time, he'd much rather be outside.We're not sure how this happened, but somehow, Trotwood discovered Elmo. I swear, one morning, he just woke up with the word "Elmo" on his lips. Months ago, Mr. Rochester and I had purchased The Best of Elmo's World, Volume 2 but we'd given up on that after many failed attempts. So, it had truly been months since Elmo's name had been mentioned in our house. Anyhow, he absolutely loves Elmo now and it might be about time for us to get The Best of Elmo's World, Volume 1.
Trotwood's other favorite movie right now is Bolt. Of course, he loves it because it is about a dog, but it is also very action-packed. Actually, it's a really cute movie. We're trying to get him to delve into other dog movies but usually he just wants to watch Bolt.

Tornado Warnings!

2011-05-25T13:02:00.005-05:00

Usually, I don't get all worked up whenever I hear about tornado warnings in our area. However, in light of the awful tragedy in Joplin, which is only a short distance from us, and an email that was sent out at the University yesterday entitled Today's Storm Potential, I began to consider the possibility that our area here could be hit by a tornado. Truthfully, I think the email is what really worried me. The email came from a local fire department that had participated in a weather webinar where the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) stated that last night it was very likely our area would see "long lived, violent tornadoes..that multiple super cells will form and produce violent tornadoes with hail potentially the size of a baseball to softball, followed by a large squall line with intense thunderstorms, lightning, and heavy rainfall...the National Weather Service is predicting that today will produce the worst storms to date for our general area for this year." Now, I don't know about you, but that all sounded pretty darn scary to me and it was all supposed to begin in our area around 8 pm last night.

After discussing the potential awfulness headed our way, Mr. Rochester and I decided we would stay up late so we could be informed about any change in our climate situation. Usually, we'd just go to bed and let the thunder and lightning lull us to sleep. Around 9:30 pm last night we started loading supplies in Trotwood's bathroom, which is in the innermost part of our house. Once we'd gotten a few of life's necessities stowed away in the bathroom, we decided to go ahead and use the space available in our linen closet, which is the only other space in our house that doesn't share an outside wall and has a door. You may laugh at this, and that's okay, but I threw aside many of the linens in the closet and instead stowed away many things near and dear to our hearts that would be impossible to replace like photographs, scrapbooks, etc. Doing this reminded me of a time when I was kid and for some reason, I just knew our house was going to burn down so I packed all of my belongings in plastic grocery stores bags and set them by my bedroom door so I could grab them and run as soon as that fire started. Of course, our house didn't burn down and I eventually had to unpack my things, but the point is, I was prepared, and that's what Mr. Rochester and I were trying to do last night - to just be prepared! Anyway, last night it was a little unreal for Mr. Rochester and me to walk around our home with the uncertainty that we might not be seeing the walls of our home again the next morning.

Earlier that day, I'd had a traumatic experience at the dentist's office (any visit to the dentist, aside from a regular cleaning, is a bit traumatic for me - I rate dental work along the same lines as childbirth), and by 10:30 pm, I was exhausted. I collapsed on our bed and fell asleep while Mr. Rochester stoically sat by the television to hear of our impending doom and report it as soon as it was upon us. An hour later, I was awoken by phone alerts of tornado warnings in our county - we had three such warnings between 10 pm and 1 am. I got out of bed and paced around with Mr. Rochester until about 12:30 am when the tornado warnings for our county had all been cancelled. Then, we went to bed, grateful the storms had missed us while our hearts went out to those to the north and south of us who had been hit by recent tornadoes. We slept peacefully for the next six hours until Trotwood's oh-so-patient-yells woke us from our slumber. *yawn*

Cornbread Lover

2011-05-23T21:00:00.001-05:00

Ever since my freshman year in college, I have been trying to find a really good cornbread recipe. When I was growing up, my mom would make fabulous cornbread by just slapping things together in the kitchen and I grew to love a good cornbread. Of course, I have not yet developed that talent of throwing ingredients together in a pan and producing a masterpiece - I still need to use good old-fashioned recipes, of which many are found on the good, old-fashioned internet! Many of my attempts to make cornbread have been disasters where the bread didn't cook all the way through and the entire bread pan turned out to be a big pile of mush. Another disaster involved me accidentally using a large portion of salt instead of the required amount of sugar. I believe the salt incident happend my freshman year of college, perhaps some of my old roommates will remember that debacle - I'm sure, at the time, I was sufficiently dramatic about my kitchen disaster.

Finally, I have found a wonderful cornbread recipe that goes perfectly with a nice pot of beans, which is just what we ate for dinner last night! I can't believe I haven't blogged about this cornbread recipe before. It wasn't too long ago that I discovered it and ever since then, it's the only cornbread that has graced our kitchen. It is Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbread by the Barefoot Contessa and it is deeeelicious! Try it and you will never go back...unless you're just in the mood for plain cornbread...or sweet cornbread...both of which I am still searching for the perfect recipe.

Becoming a domestic goddess

2011-05-14T10:00:00.000-05:00

On Tuesday night, I tried out a new spaghetti and meatballs recipe. Originally, Mr. Rochester was going to make this dish and he bought all the ingredients for it. It's finals week, Mr. Rochester is swamped, we needed dinner and I volunteered to cook the meal.

This spaghetti and meatballs recipe comes from our America's Test Kitchen Healthy Family cookbook. So far, we have enjoyed most of the recipes from this cookbook, especially because when we cook from it, we feel good about ourselves in the thought that we are at least trying to eat more healthily (of course, what I really need to do is cut out all the cake and chocolate that I like to eat on the side). However, these recipes are notorious for taking a long time to make. Despite the simplicity of a recipe for spaghetti and meatballs, this recipe would live up to the infamy of the last few we've made in taking a long time to make.

Because of a confusing note in the cookbook about which kinds of ground turkey to buy, Mr. Rochester made the mistake of buying turkey breast cutlets instead of ground turkey. I discovered this mistake after I'd already started making dinner and I didn't just want to throw everything away but I no clue how to make meatballs with turkey breast cutlets until...I remembered that somewhere tucked away, I had my grandmother's old meat grinder attachment to the old kitchen aid she used to have which I now use on a regular basis. After a few minutes of digging around in my kitchen, I found the attachment, cleaned it, googled how to use it and let me tell you, folks, much to my surprise and delight, I successfully ground up turkey breast cutlets to use in meatballs!

During the entire time I was trying to figure out my dilemma with the meat and the meat grinder, Trotwood needed something every five minutes and goodness it's hard to ignore those persistent screams to pay attention to him! I tried putting on 101 Dalmatians for him to watch but he won't watch anything for more than five minutes except Bolt, so after 45 minutes or so of an unhappy Trotwood, Bolt once again made his appearance on our television screen.

And so, three hours after beginning the spaghetti and meatballs, Mr. Rochester and I sat down to eat it. By this time, Trotwood had eaten something else and long been in bed. I was exhausted and you know what? It was alright. The food was tasty and I realized the next time I wanted to make that recipe, I'd make sure I wouldn't have to grind my own meat for meatballs. But in case I need to, I now know how to do it, which is just one more thing I can check off on the proverbial list to becoming a domestic goddess.

The apron

2011-05-13T08:00:00.000-05:00

Trotwood to the rescue!

Trotwood has recently taken a liking to an apron we bought in Spain that Mr. Rochester likes to wear when he is cooking. Mr. Rochester recently most prominently displayed the apron on Mother's Day when he cooked a delicious dinner of pea and asparagus risotto. The dish, another one of those that takes awhile to make, was absolutely delicious. I think risotto is in my top five meals of dishes-I-never-want-to-do-without-and-should-make-more-often.

A sad day

2011-05-12T10:00:00.001-05:00

Mr. Rochester's dad passed away this morning. Even though we've known for a year that this day would come, it is still so very sad. I'm so very grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the knowledge that we will all be reunited again someday.

We appreciate all the thoughts and prayers that have been directed towards us over the last year since we found out he had cancer. The funeral will be on Tuesday.

I have a few blog posts that I'd already scheduled to post over the next few days but I just wanted to let our friends and family know what was going on.

Kashi Deliciousness

2011-05-11T14:24:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, I ate this for lunch. I wish I had another one today! It's the first time I've tried one of Kashi's entrees and I can't wait to try some more. The Mayan Harvest Bake is only 340 calories and it is packed with fiber and protein. And it only cost around $3.50.

Mr. Rochester and I like to buy Kashi frozen pizzas to keep in case we're in a hurry and don't want to spend the money to eat out. We've haven't tried them all but so far, our favorite is the Mediterrean.

Planting

2011-05-11T12:16:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago, Mr. Rochester and I decided it was time we tackled the flower bed in front of our house. So, one Saturday we bought some mulch and some different plants and shrubs to plant and thought, "Oh, all we'll need to do is pull up a few weeds and we'll be ready to plant. However, the flower bed had other ideas. Apparently, we had actual grass growing in the flower bed...grass that was growing through old weed control fabric that had been put down who knows when! Plus, there were huge roots to old shrubs under the old weed control fabric. I battled some nasty weeds for awhile. Here I am holding up my prize.

Trotwood is just happy to be outside. We planted all sorts of different green and flowering shrubs and a few different decorative type plants. Although I feel that owning a house is making me more domesticated, I still cannot tell you from memory the names of the plants we planted aside from boxwood and rhododendron.

It took us a few weeks to find the time to finish our flowerbed and Mr. Rochester and I are really pleased with how it turned out. Also, we no longer feel like our yard is the complete shame of the neighborhood...although we still have a weedy yard and a tree that needs to come down. All in good time, I say.

Easter

2011-05-05T20:20:00.003-05:00

I know I'm a week or two late, but we had a wonderful Easter! On Saturday, we met with some friends and had an Easter egg hunt at the church. Of course, the hunt was supposed to take place outside but due to the constant downpour, we moved the hunt inside.

At first, Trotwood wasn't quite sure what to do with the eggs. However, once he figured out there was candy inside the plastic eggs, he wasn't as interested in acquiring more eggs as he was in breaking open and shoving candy into his mouth with the ones he already had.

On Sunday, we had a visit from the Easter bunny. That's him below. He lives in our backyard under our shed and amazingly enough, he made an appearance on Easter Sunday between rainstorms, of course. (For those of you wondering if I am serious, I am - this rabbit actually does live in our backyard under our shed.)
As you can see, Trotwood cleaned up on Easter morning!

Once we began our Easter Egg hunt in our living room, Trotwood cracked open his plastic eggs and went to town on the jelly beans inside. Since he doesn't often eat candy, we let him spoil himself that morning. Notice his cheeks full of jelly beans as he reaches for another egg.

Then we went to church...and Trotwood had no nap before our 1 pm church. And guess who gets to be in nursery with him. Yep, that's me. A few months ago I was called as nursery worker. And can I just say that I think my child was not the only one who'd eaten lots of sugar and had no nap before church that Easter Sunday. Boy, did we have a fun and noisy bunch!

Weather

2011-05-05T20:09:00.003-05:00

We've had some some pretty crazy weather around here lately. This was our backyard a week ago. Outside of the Philippines, I have honestly never seen so much rain in all of my life. And not just rain, but constant thunder and lightning! It was just unbelievable. The school here even closed at the very end of the day last Monday because we'd gotten so much rain, roads and buildings were flooding. Lucky for us, we (and all of our loved ones) avoided the awful flooding and tornadoes that hit this part of the South.

Most of the time during the storms, Trotwood had his nose pressed against our glass door leading to the backyard. The thunder and lightning didn't scare him a bit - he just wanted to go outside and play! And between thunderstorms, I would have considered letting him go splash around our lake of a backyard had it not been so cold. Thankfully, we have a bright, sunshiney day outside today. Ever notice how people's moods seem to be affected by the weather? I swear, it was one gloomy week at work when we were having all those downpours and now, with the sun out, everyone seems to be much cheerier! I sure am.

{On a side note, I absolutely love our neighbor's red metal roof...}

Visits

2011-04-09T09:00:00.000-05:00

Mr. Rochester's dad isn't doing very well so the last several weekends we've made the four hour trek to visit with him. We're very glad that we can spend this time with Mr. Rochester's family. Mr. Rochester and his dad have spent much of the time watching sports together. You can't see it but Mr. Rochester is sporting an LA Dodgers t-shirt. "Let's go, Dodgers!" or as Trotwood would say, "Do-Dee, do-Dee!"

The card rides have definitely been a challenge. Trotwood just isn't the sort of boy who wants to sit still for any period of time. We tried getting him to watch DVDs in the car but that usually only works for about 30 minutes. And the only DVD Trotwood is remotely interested in that we own is Disney's Bolt and he's only interested in that because there are dogs in it. We've tried books, toys and music and yes, even neck pillows. That pillow entertained him for about 2 minutes.

I am so open to suggestions on how to keep a 20-month old entertained on long car rides!

Indian Butter Chicken

2011-04-08T09:00:00.002-05:00

Last night I made this Indian Butter Chicken recipe over white Jasmine rice and it was divine! Usually, Mr. Rochester and I eat long grain brown rice but I just knew Jasmine rice would be perfect with this dish. And it was! A few years ago, Mr. Rochester and I were in London and we met my cousin for dinner. She ordered Butter Chicken and I had a taste of it. Ever since then I've wanted to eat it again but never got the chance...until now. I'm not sure how authentic this recipe is - all I know is that it was absolutely delicious and super easy to make. The $11 we spent on the cardamom was totally worth it (we already had the other spices the recipe needed). This is definitely going to be made in our household again!

Shop Hop

2011-04-07T20:40:00.003-05:00

Last Friday, my mom came to visit and we participated in the Spring Fling Shop Hop where we visited many of the quilt stores in this area. We've done this every spring for the past three years and it's so much fun.

We shopped.

And we hopped.

And we got t-shirts.

Because I feel like I already have so many unfinished projects, I made myself be really good and I didn't buy anything. However, now I'm regretting my decision just a teensy bit. One of the stores we visited had some beautiful orange fabric in just-my-style patterns and upon closer inspection, I found out that some of the fabric was from Denyse Schmidt's Katie Jump Rope line! That's not something you see every day at fabric shops in this area. I'm proud of myself for resisting and I think it's time to finish up some of my current projects before I go buying more materials!

Sweet ride

2011-03-29T16:13:00.004-05:00

My good friend has the connections and I got to take a ride in this baby today.

What is that you may ask?

That, my friend, is what is known as the

Razorbug.

And apparently it is one of a kind.

It's outside overflows with school spirit

and it's insides smell of crayons.

Love

2011-03-15T11:27:00.004-05:00

I'm in love with these shoes.

I saw them at Dillards the other day and have been thinking about them ever since. It must be love.

It's been over 10 years since I've owned a pair of red shoes, not because I don't like red shoes but mainly because when you or your husband have been in school nonstop since you were married, practicality is usually what I go for when I shop.
But I don't want to be practical.

I don't even know if the shoe would be comfortable (you know, for a heel) or if it's available in my size (9) but these shoes would work with jeans, skirts, or dress pants...I can see myself in them!

And yet, although I have spent as much on shoes before, practicality wins again because the cost deters me.

My only hope is...
maybe they'll go on sale.
Check them out here at Dillards, but beware,
you may also be hit by Cupid's arrow.

P.S. They also come in nude if you're a size 10.

Funk

2011-03-11T10:16:00.003-06:00

I've been in a funk lately, not about anything specific just everything in general! Does that make sense? It's okay if it doesn't because it doesn't make much sense to me. I think it all began with our entire household being sick a few weeks ago. My brain and body have just been all jumbled since then. Before we got sick, I was on a great workout schedule and could really feel myself getting stronger each day. On Monday I started working out again and even though I only missed two weeks of working out, I just feel weak now. My body won't do the things that I was doing before I got sick and I've been exhausted all weak. For crying out loud, it was only the stomach flu/a cold/and possibly the regular flu all mixed together and passed among the three of us!

I'm not sure if I mentioned this or not in past blogs, but I recently figured out that I need to exercise even if sometimes I don't want to. Exercise helps me regulate myself - my emotions, my physical health, everything - somehow it ends up motivating me in all aspects of my life. I discovered that I feel happier when I consistently exercise and it's easier for me to find joy in everyday life. So, perhaps, this current funk I'm in stems from missing two weeks of exercise and I just need this week to start things over again and trigger my endorphins. I'm not sure but I do need to change something up whether it is dive more into daily scripture study, watch a good movie, change up my blog header (which really does need a change), go shopping or do something artistic. I'm open to suggestions!

On another note, the new Jane Eyre comes out in theaters today, if you happen to be lucky enough to live close to one of the select theaters where they are showing it. We, unfortunately, do not happen to be so lucky and I will just be patient and wait for it on Netflix.

{P.S. For those of you reading this and smirking to yourself, no, I am not pregnant.}

Pardon

2011-02-28T13:13:00.002-06:00

Pardon the blogging absence once again. We've all been sick for the last week. First it started out with the stomach flu. That's always a nice beginner. Then, it became a super, nasty cold. All three of us are over the stomach flu but we're all still suffering from the cold. I feel fine, I just don't sound fine. Mr. Rochester still feels ill and Trotwood still has a nasty cough, but I think we're all finally on the mend, as slow-going as it may be. Oh, the joys!

the Duchess

2011-02-16T14:16:00.007-06:00

I recently watched this movie because it was streaming on Netflix. I'd added it to our queue awhile ago, and it was time for it to not be on our queue anymore. Before watching it, I honestly wasn't sure what to expect out of it. From the previews and the little I knew about the movie, I thought it would be reminiscent of Marie Antoinette type films, of which I am not a huge fan. To an extent, I think it was like those films, but the movie completely caught me off guard.

I'll admit that I can be somewhat of a crybaby during emotional or extremely sad parts of movies and after watching this movie, I may have cried useless tears of pity for the characters. My tears for the characters may have lasted a bit longer than usual and I may have been depressed for the rest of the night after watching the movie, but after thinking about the movie for several days, I think I actually liked it, even though, I told Mr. Rochester that night, through my tears, that this was possibly the worse movie ever. You see, the reason I was so upset at the end of the movie was because I didn't realize it was a true story until then, and up until that point, I'd just thought of it as a movie. Of course, I'm sure the movie is full of dramatization, but I just felt really bad for the characters afterwards. Ralph Fiennes is the perfect villain and I forgot that Keira Knightley was playing the duchess (I'm not a big fan of hers either). Now, I'm interested in reading the biography of the duchess written by Amanda Foreman. All in all, I don't regret watching the film, but I may not watch it again.

New tricks

2011-02-13T22:38:00.000-06:00

See Trotwood's new trick?

This is becoming a daily occurence. Doesn't it look like so much fun? That is until you get stuck.
And can't get out without help.
And the cycle repeats itself...

True Story

2011-02-10T21:00:00.000-06:00

Last week, Trotwood and I went to the grocery store before the big ice/snow storm. No, I'm not one of those people who rushes out to the store at the slightest forecast of bad weather. Really, I just needed some peppers for this enchilada sauce I was making for dinner and when I'd gone the week before, the store was out of peppers! It was just unfortunate that I happened to need the peppers the night before a big storm and all the crazies rushed out for food like there were Black Friday sales. This is something I just do not understand. Why is there such a mad rush to the store if there is bad weather?! Do people just not have food at home?

Anyway, as I was waiting in line to pay for my three peppers and gallon of milk, there was a nice, friendly older gentleman in front of me in line. Trotwood loves people and he grinned and "chatted" with the man. The man smiled back at Trotwood and talked to him for a few moments, then he turned to me and asked, "Does he have an Asian father?" I was a little surprised at his question and responded with, "No, his father isn't Asian, but I can see where you might think that because he does have almond-ish shaped eyes." The man checked out and that was that. I laughed about it to myself when I got in the car and when I told Mr. Rochester later. However, after seeing the pictures below, which were taken a few days later, I can see why that nice, older gentleman might have asked me such a thing.

What do you think?

And more snow!

2011-02-09T17:44:00.006-06:00

I guess it wasn't bad luck to wish for another day off becuase I got it! Unbelievably, we got between 16-18 inches of snow today. The school was closed and this time nobody was sick at our house. I took these pictures by leaning out our back door and have no regrets about not venturing outside.

We were very productive and did laundry today. Trotwood helped.

He really is a great little helper and always wants to help with things like the laundry or just putting things away. This is the first time he's ever tried to get into the dryer.

I'm not sure if the school will be open tomorrow but if it is, we're going to have to dig ourselves out with our garden shovel!

February Snow

2011-02-07T22:26:00.003-06:00

Last week we got a lot of snow for our area! Luckily, the amount of ice we got was minimal and there weren't any major power outages like what happened two years ago. The school closed for three days so I had three days off of work to just be at home. It was a good thing too because both Mr. Rochester and Trotwood were sick the entire time I was home and I was there to act as nurse! Mr. Rochester has a nasty cold and Trotwood had his first real fever ever of 103 degrees and he had it for two days off and on. We even braved the roads to take him to the doctor but he didn't have the flu or strep and he wasn't teething at all, so the fever was a mystery. He seems to be doing better now though.

I sort of had a small freak-out moment when the thermometer went up to 103. Whenever Trotwood gets sick, I worry. I've just heard or read so many nightmarish stories from people who have lost children and of course, those stories are glued to my brain, so I worry way too much when he's sick. I still check on him every night before I get in bed to make sure he's okay and still breathing. I know, that's a little paranoid, and I'm sure I'll grow out of it, especially when we have more kids and I'm more used to them getting sick. We've been blessed that Trotwood has only been sick a few times and he seems to stay pretty healthy. So, as much as Trotwood pressed his nose against the glass panes on our back door to get a better look at the snow, we did not go out and play in it.

We're supposed to be getting more snow tonight and tomorrow. Is it bad luck to hope for another day off when I had three off last week? Here's a picture of what our backyard looked like last week.

Planter pot covered in snow. That plant has long been dead.

Anyone else excited?

2011-02-07T10:40:00.007-06:00

I may be behind the times a bit, but I just found out that a new Jane Eyre movie is coming out in March. Although I absolutely love the 2006 BBC miniseries with Ruth Wilson, who did amazingly as Jane Eyre, and Toby Stephens as Mr. Rochester, this new rendition looks really good! Seeing the trailer makes me want to reread the book. Enjoy the preview if you haven't already seen it!

Kiss me

2011-02-06T15:10:00.002-06:00

I can't resist this face. It's his mom-and-dad-I-want-to-give-you-a-kiss-face. I love it.

True Love

2011-01-27T14:22:00.002-06:00

I've been digging this song lately. I can't embed the file but if you click here your ears will be blessed with the unique and beautiful sounds of one of my favorite bands. The song title is "True Love will Find You in the End" and it's by Mates of State. They are such a cute married couple. And they have kids! Enjoy the music!

Dee-lish

2011-01-19T08:22:00.004-06:00

On Monday, we went to Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and got ridiculously delicious caramel apples. While we were there, I saw something I'd never noticed before. And I had to try it.

Chocolate dipped marshmallows.

The one I got had mini M&Ms all over it. It was deee-lic-ious.

Actually, I've been stretching it out over the past few days and I'm planning on finishing it up today. Mr. Rochester thinks I'm disgusting, but what can I say, I have a thing for marshmallows. I really do. I like them a lot.

I'll even go as far to say that I'm a marshmallow aficionado.

Remembering

2011-01-16T18:20:00.002-06:00

Happy third birthday to our sweet baby girl. You are always with us.

Accomplishment!

2011-01-13T19:01:00.003-06:00

Mr. Rochester successfully defended his thesis today! Hooray! We're both so happy he's finished with it. Last semester was really rough on us because he'd already begun his doctoral program and he still had to finish and defend his thesis. Obviously, the thesis went a few weeks into the current semester, but, no matter, it is finished! I'm so so proud of him for finishing his thesis and for doing such a wonderful job on it! The end product ended up being around 150 pages. His advisor on his thesis committee, a renowned historian in the field of southern history, sang Mr. Rochester's praises and said it was one of the top five theses she'd ever chaired. She thinks his thesis is good enough for publication and she listed a few academic conferences where she wants him to present his thesis.

Creative Team

2011-01-12T14:40:00.005-06:00

In November, I submitted an application to be on the Creative Team for a woman who creates word art for digital scrapbooking and she invited me to be on her Creative Team! Hooray for me! She has lots of free stuff available at her blog, Word Art World, and that's how I originally found out about her Creative Team call. You can see my name on the right hand side of her blog as part of her Creative Team. Unfortunately, if you click on my name it just goes to her online gallery at http://www.gottapixel.net/, the website where she sells her word art. It looks like most of the other Creative Team members have some sort of a scrapbooking website...maybe I should make a digital scrapbooking related blog too, but honestly, I'm lucky if I update this one on a regular basis!

Anyway, being on the Creative Team just means that she'll send me her products and I'm supposed to make scrapbook layouts with them and display them in her online gallery. I'm also supposed to display them in two other online galleries of my choice. Click here to see some of my layouts. I haven't done very many yet, but should be posting a few more each month (even though it's all digital, scrapbooking still takes time)! Most of the layouts are of Trotwood, of course, but don't be surprised if we've seen each other lately and I've had my camera, if your picture shows up in one of my layouts!

I've recently just started trying to get back into scrapbooking and I've started doing everything digitally. There are tons of sites out there with free digital scrapbooking downloads and that's how I got started. I usually just download the free stuff unless I find something I absolutely love and then I'll buy it, but I don't feel as guilty scrapbooking with digital elements (especially when they were free)! The real expense will happen when I decide to print out my digital scrapbook.

A new level

2011-01-11T11:00:00.001-06:00

A new level of lazy parenting...

Trotwood was desperate to go outside and play. It was really cold. And Mom was really enjoying her pajama day that day. So, we came to a win-win solution.
Everyone stayed in their pajamas AND Trotwood got to go play in the backyard.

Converse shoes + footie pajamas + a Gap hoodie.
I see a new fashion trend starting...at least in our household.

Where to start

2011-01-10T22:46:00.006-06:00

Well, it's kind of hard to get back into blogging if you miss a month...I'm not sure where to begin, but I know I should. We had fun celebrating Thanksgiving at Cracker Barrel with new friends

and celebrating with family, where my belt broke (no, I did not lose myself in eating...I've just had that belt a really, long time and well...it just outlived itself - it's okay, I didn't particularly like it anyway).

Then, it was almost Christmastime and we took lots of pictures...
stayed warm by the fire...

and in general, just had lots of fun.

Oops.

2010-12-31T22:00:00.001-06:00

Looks like I dropped the blogging ball for December. Will post soon!

My boys

2010-11-30T22:24:00.000-06:00

On my final day of posting things I'm thankful for, I want to emphasize again how grateful I am for my boys. I'm so very thankful for them! Mr. Rochester is a wonderful father and husband and I'm very lucky to have him. He listens to me and comforts me when I'm upset, we laugh together, we have fun together - he is my best friend. Sometimes, I feel like we enjoy each other's company so much that we don't venture out much to make new friends! I love my little boy so much! Trotwood is such a little ball of energy. He has blessed our lives in countless ways and he is a pure joy to have around. I love being a mother and am thankful that we were blessed with such a wonderful, beautiful, fun little boy. I can't imagine my life without him and I hope I never have to experience that.

Warm fuzzies

2010-11-29T22:00:00.000-06:00

I'm thankful for warm fuzzy moments. Like, today at work, a coworker called me over to her desk to ask me if I'd lost weight. And, well, to be honest, yes I have, but I didn't think anyone would be able to notice. It's only about 8 lbs and I have about 10 lbs left to go before I reach my pre-first-and-second-baby weight, but it's so nice that someone noticed! I love warm fuzzy moments like that!

Heat

2010-11-28T22:05:00.000-06:00

I am thankful for heat and for fireplaces that burn wood...oh, and for Snuggies. Ahhh....

Scriptures

2010-11-27T22:07:00.002-06:00

I'm grateful for the scriptures and how I feel more connected to myself and my Heavenly Father when I read them. I love how we can find answers to our prayers just by reading them!

Books

2010-11-26T13:27:00.003-06:00

I'm thankful for books! Reading has always been a big part of my life and it is something I truly enjoy doing. I only wish I could speed read so I could read more books, more quickly! I just finished the first book in the Hunger Games series and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I think I'm going to have to read the other two to figure it out.

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T22:00:00.000-06:00

I'm thankful for Thanksgiving! I love the food and the time off of work. It's so nice to have a break and just be at home! Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Exercise

2010-11-24T11:02:00.002-06:00

I'm thankful for exercise. I love how it makes me feel after I do it even though sometimes, out of just pure laziness, I don't want to do it. I love how with hard work and eating right, we can watch our bodies become healthier. This is one of the reasons I love watching the Biggest Loser. It's so neat to see people's transformation physically and emotionally. It's amazing how our bodies produce "happy" chemicals when we exercise. After the death of our first child, I exercised a lot. Of course, I'd just had a baby and wanted to get back into shape but the main reason I worked out so much was because I knew that if I exercised it would help me emotionally deal with everything I was feeling. And, with the love and support of a wonderful family and friends, I truly think exercise did help me. I'm grateful for the benefits of exercise.

And these guys!

2010-11-23T23:00:00.001-06:00

I'm very grateful for my dad and my step-mom! Ever since I was a little girl, I've always looked up to my dad. When I was in elementary and secondary school, I had that my-dad-is-the-best-mentality and always thought my dad was more handsome and smarter and better than any of my friends' dads. Even now, I think my dad is probably one of the smartest people I know. I always know that I can go to him to get an honest, informed opinion about things I am concerned about in my life. He has a kind heart and I know he loves me very much. My step-mom is also wonderful. She's a very talented, giving, loving person. I wish that I could spend more time with her because there are so many neat things that I want to learn from her, like how to make and jar this fabulous homemade pickle relish that she makes or learning some new craft that she is mastering. She's amazing! I'm very lucky in the spouses my parents chose for their second marriages. Both are very active in the Church and both are just good people in general! I love my dad and my step-mom!

These guys

2010-11-22T23:00:00.001-06:00

I'm so thankful for my mom and my step-dad! My mom has been there for me throughout all the crazy, sad and wonderful things in my life. She's such a selfless person and is always willing to help her kids out in whatever way possible from helping us move to teaching us things like how to sew and cook. We've had some great times together and I love that I just feel like she is my friend. She is wonderful example of kindness and service to her fellowman and has always been such a great example of love and devotion to her children. My step-dad is a wonderful, smart, generous loving man and I'm so glad that he and my mom make each other happy. Despite what some people may think is a gruff exterior, he has one of the kindest, most generous hearts I have ever known. My mom and my step-dad both have great senses of humor and are just plain fun to be around. I love them so much and I'm very thankful for their presence in my life!

Nursery workers

2010-11-21T23:00:00.000-06:00

Today, I am grateful for those people who serve in our ward as nursery workers. Trotwood isn't quite old enough for nursery yet but the primary president said we could start bringing him to nursery to get him used to it. He's also just such a handful in sacrament meeting and sunday school that we just don't know what else to do with him! Anyway, Mr. Rochester took Trotwood to the second half of nursery today and he said that everything was great and very organized. The kids had a snack, a lesson, singing time and they played. And Trotwood seemed to love it all...although we found out afterward that he dumped out a whole pitcher of water all over the floor! Oh well. Thank you to all the nursery workers out there for being patient with children like mine!

Little Children

2010-11-20T21:42:00.002-06:00

I'm grateful for little children! Some of our best friends just had their first child this past week and I got to hold all 6 lbs of him! He is so precious and I'm so grateful for the joy little children can bring into our lives. As mischevious as our own little boy can be, we are so glad he is ours. It's hard to remember what my life was like before he came into this world!

Church

2010-11-19T19:31:00.003-06:00

I'm grateful to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Being a member of this church has blessed my life in countless ways. I am grateful for the peace I feel when I read the scriptures and the knowledge I have of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Despite the challenges that I've faced in my life, I have always been able to receive comfort and peace from the gospel.

Bunso

2010-11-18T23:00:00.001-06:00

Definition: bunso \BOON so\, noun
1. A filipino term meaning youngest.
The gentleman in this picture surrounded by two children is my younger brother. He is the bunso in our family and I am so grateful for him! My younger brother is a super smart guy with a great sense of humor. Again, I'm not sure if we really became "friends" until we were both older with much of that being due to my being a selfish teenager who thought it was uncool to hang out with a brother four years her junior. Now, I'd say he's pretty cool, at least according to my standards. It's so fun to talk with him about movies, music, or politics and just exchange friendly banter. We don't talk half as much as I'd like (as with all my siblings) but we all have busy lives and I'm just glad we can keep in touch via blogs and facebook. My younger brother has been such a great example of fortitude, determination, and overcoming obstacles in his life. I'm so grateful for his example and grateful that he is our bunso!

It begins

2010-11-17T09:04:00.003-06:00

I suppose I spoke too soon in yesterday's post. This morning, Trotwood woke up at 6 am. After letting him fuss for awhile, I got him out of bed, changed his diaper, and gave him a sippy cup of milk before leaving him to play in his room with his door closed while I got ready for work. He is used to this routine and usually just plays in his room until he yells for another diaper change (it's like clockwork). Around 7:30, Trotwood started yelling and I figured it was time to let him out of his room. Since my ride for work would arrive any minute, I asked Mr. Rochester if he wanted me to let Trotwood out of his room or if he was just going to do it after he finished getting ready. Mr. Rochester said to wait. So, I did. I hurried into the kitchen to get my breakfast together and suddenly, the yelling from Trotwood's room stopped. Oh, I thought, he must have found something else in his room to entertain him for a few minutes. He's probably pulling out all of his clothes from his drawers {a favorite activity of his}. Then, I turn around.

And there he is.

Right behind me.

Smiling.

With a look that says

Look at me, mommy!

I'm not in my room anymore,

and I did it all by myself!

And, so, it begins.

{P.S. I used to be thankful for doorknobs, but now I am thankful for child safety locks. Because, really, they keep my child safe.}

First Haircut

2010-11-16T20:15:00.000-06:00

Last week, Trotwood got his first haircut. In a matter of minutes, he went from this

to this

side view

Family photo at the salon!

I almost cried. I can't believe how big my baby is getting. Before we arrived at the salon, I was positive that I was going to have to hold Trotwood on my lap throughout the duration of his haircut. Yet, Trotwood surprised us all by sitting in the chair all by himself and by behaving absolutely perfectly while he was getting his haircut. Of course, all the credit is due to our wonderful hairdresser who supplied him with one tootsie roll pop right after another (he finished two of them at the salon). It's amazing how well a rambunctious little boy will behave when he's busy with a lollipop! Trotwood's new haircut makes him look like such a little boy! Although we like his haircut, Mr. Rochester and I immediately missed Trotwood's unruly baby hair and joked that perhaps Trotwood will not get another haircut until this time next year.

An hour or so before Trotwood's haircut, we went to the doctor's office for his 15 month check-up. Our wild thing of a child is 33.5 inches tall (100th%tile) and weighs 25 lbs (55th%tile). I knew he was getting heavier but I didn't realize how tall he was getting! Maybe that's why he has no problem turning the doorknobs although, thank heavens, he still hasn't figured out he needs to turn and push to open the doors. Of course, at the doctor's office, Trotwood was less than thrilled about getting shots. We had to pin him down to the exam table for his shots where he proceeded to scream bloody murder. Poor guy. Last time he got shots, we distracted him with a book (he was sitting on my lap), and he didn't make a peep!

So, today, I am grateful for our hairdresser for taking the time to cut our little guy's hair and since it was his first haircut, it was free!

Kuya

2010-11-15T20:46:00.000-06:00

Definition: kuya \koo ya\, noun
1. A filipino term meaning older brother.
For some reason, I love this picture. It was taken a few years ago at a friend's house. I know my eyes are almost closed and it's not the most flattering picture of me and my older brother (hello, double chins on both of us!) but I like our smiles. When we were growing up, my brother would always pick on me and do things on purpose to aggravate me. I think all older brothers must do this to some extent to younger sisters/siblings. As I got older, I realized he did all those annoying things not only because he loved teasing me but also because he just loved me. I appreciate all the advice he's given me over the years, all the times he listened to me whine and complain about school, boys, and other silly things, and all the love and bear hugs he's given me. Now we are friends and I love visiting with him and his wondeful family. My older brother is a great guy who, like his big mouth, has a big heart too. I'm so grateful for my older brother. I love my kuya.

Time

2010-11-14T09:02:00.000-06:00

I am grateful for time. I am grateful for the time that I have been given here on earth. Like most people, I've experienced some hard things but I have also had some truly wonderful experiences. I have been blessed exceedingly and I am so thankful for my wonderful husband, my son, and my daughter with whom I look forward to being reunited some day. I'm grateful for those difficult things we experience that help us grow and make ourselves better people. As hard as some of the challenges we face may be, they often mold us into who we are. In the future, I hope that I can handle situations better and sanely apply the things I've learned to future challenges I may face. I read somewhere that Albert Einstein defined insanity as "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results" (not sure if that is an accurate quote or not but even if he didn't say it, I still like the definition). So far, turning 30 hasn't been so bad. Now that it's happened, I've got a few more goals for myself. So, here's to a great year!!

Yum

2010-11-13T21:00:00.001-06:00

I recently ordered this cookbook by America's Test Kitchen and I LOVE it. In my opinion, America's Test Kitchen puts out some of the best cookbooks with the tastiest recipes. They test every single one of the recipes in their cookbooks and then put the "best" one in their cookbook. This healthy cookbook contains delicious recipes and each recipe lists the calorie/fat content for each recipe. One of the things I like most about this healthy cookbook is that the food you cook doesn't taste like diet food. The one thing I don't like about the cookbook is that some of the ingredients for the recipes can be a little hard to find. For example, we'd like to try making one of the soup recipes, Moroccan Chickpea Soup, but it calls for saffron threads. Now, I'm no master chef but I've never heard of saffron threads (yes, I just looked it up on the internet) but I have no idea where we might be able to find those...or how expensive they might be. Anyway, Mr. Rochester and I have been cooking meals out of this cookbook for the last couple months and we've both dropped a few pounds. So, I'm grateful for learning how to cook more heathily.

That feeling

2010-11-12T22:00:00.000-06:00

I'm grateful for that feeling of accomplishment and relief you get after you finish a big project. This past week, we had a big event that I was in charge of planning and now it is OVER. Everything went well and although I learned a lot and gained some good experience, I'm glad it is over and that things went smoothly.

This girl

2010-11-11T21:00:00.000-06:00

I'm thankful for my sister. When we were kids, my sister and I didn't get along very well. Most of that was probably my fault because I was a selfish teenager and older sister. I wish I could go back and change the way I interacted with my brothers and sister was younger but since that isn't possible, I can, at least, use the present to better myself. My sister is a wonderful person. She is one of the most charitable, generous, nurturing people I've ever met. We still have very different personalities and don't talk or see each other very often, but I am grateful she is my sister.

Pillow

2010-11-10T23:00:00.000-06:00

I'm grateful for my pillow. Shortly after Mr. Rochester and I got married, we bought our first mattress, which we still use to this day. You may be thinking, well, didn't you need a mattress to sleep on right after you got married? Yes, of course, we did. However, we lived in Provo, Utah in a furnished apartment and slept on the not-so-wonderful mattress that was in the apartment. After many sleepless nights, we bought our first mattress from the furniture kingdom of RC Willey. While we were there, I fell in love with a pillow. You know, when you're mattress shopping and lay on the mattress in the store to make sure it feels right? Well, I also put my head on the pillow that was on the mattress and well despite the price tag, it had to be mine. I have never once regretted buying that pillow and have slept on it every night I have been in my own bed for the past five years.

Automobile

2010-11-09T21:37:00.002-06:00

I'm thankful for a functioning automobile. Even though Mr. Rochester and I only have one automobile, we've made it work for the last four years. Actually, it's kind of nice sometimes because we get to spend more time together since we usually have to drop each other off or pick each other up somewhere. Eventually, I'm sure we'll have to get another automobile but for the time being, one is still working just fine for us. Oh, and I'm also thankful for friends and coworkers who are willing to carpool.

Chocolate

2010-11-08T14:40:00.003-06:00

Oh, and today I'm grateful for chocolate. Y'know, sometimes, when things just get crazy, I just need to sit down and take a chocolate break. Biting into that delicious piece of dark chocolate helps me gather my thoughts and take a step back. Milk chocolate is, of course, delicious but I've been digging the dark chocolate lately...one piece at a time.

DST

2010-11-08T11:21:00.003-06:00

Like us, I'm sure everyone else with children is suffering from the after effects of Daylight Savings Time but I have some questions.

Will my child ever get used to the time change or will he continue to wake up an hour earlier until we "spring forward"? I need answers, people! I'm not loving my child being awake at 6 am or earlier the last two mornings - I've got things to do while he sleeps!

Saturday night, I thought I was so smart by keeping him up an hour later because I was thinking, of course, he'll be so tired he'll want to sleep in later that next day. Not so. Trotwood's internal alarm clock woke him up at his normal time, which of course, is an hour earlier now. Thanks a million, to whoever thought up Daylight Savings Time!

Glasses

2010-11-07T19:22:00.003-06:00

I am thankful for glasses. They help me see and get rid of headaches associated with eye straining. And, they can be cute accessories.

Shoes

2010-11-06T23:00:00.000-05:00

I am thankful for shoes, especially cute ones.

Nature

2010-11-05T12:00:00.002-05:00

I'm thankful for nature! I love when we have beautiful weather outside. Trotwood always wants to go outside. I don't know what we're going to do when it gets too cold to go play outside. Every day, I'm amazed by how much interest Trotwood can find in the smallest little creation in nature.

Internet

2010-11-04T23:00:00.002-05:00

I'm grateful for the internet and how it connects us to people we love and with whom we sometimes lose touch. I remember in the 90s when our high school became connected to the world wide web. Of course, it wasn't as advanced as it is now and we had those blue screens whenever we used email, but it was still amazing to be able to send a message to someone and then receive a reply a few minutes later! And now besides email, we have blogs, social networking sites, and other websites that help us connect, reconnect, and stay connected with our friends and family members. All of this connection to everyone eventually decreased the amount of phone calling I do to those dear to me and I think, at some point, it will be time to reconnect with the phone.

Goals

2010-11-03T21:20:00.002-05:00

I'm thankful for the ability that we have to set and achieve goals for ourselves. Recently, I was talking to someone about a lofty goal of mine that could also be categorized as a dream, and my friend jokingly said "I think you should grow up!" Instead of trying to achieve this lofty goal, my friend thought I should put aside the starry eyed child in me and accept the life of adulthood, no matter how drab and boring it may be at times. In a way, my friend has a good point. Sometimes, you just need to be realistic, but I also think it is important that we find things in our every day lives that give us enjoyment and achievement. We need to make goals and be able to feel successful about ourselves, and I'm grateful that I can do that. It's nice to be able to make goals and see the progress I've made toward some of them while some of them are more...progressive goals.

Lessons

2010-11-02T20:34:00.001-05:00

Today, I am grateful for the lessons I continue to learn about patience and selflessness. That's all I have to say about that.