It's been a while...

Wow, um, yeah, I totally skipped January. My bad. The beginning of the new year has been kind of crazy. I have all these goals for this year and things I want to improve. My resolutions list is pretty long, maybe too long. But it's doable.

Looking back over last year, I realized that I didn't do much. Nothing major happened and I just kind of floated along in life and didn't accomplish much of anything. But this year will be different. The key will be to not get overwhelmed.

I'll just briefly go over some of my goals:

1. Improve my spirituality. This includes going to church every week (I get lazy, a lot) and doing the daily stuff of reading my scriptures and saying prayer. I've struggled with that one for a while.
2. Make and keep to a budget. Another thing we've been meaning to do for a while, but just keep skipping over. But this year we're going to start knocking out some debt.
3. More discipline and structure for the kids. Jacob is totally passed the do whatever he wants all day stage and I need to get William ready for preschool.
4. Health stuff. Daniel and I are going to start working out regularly and I'm trying to do more good home cooked meals and less fast food.
5. And finally, my writing goals. Which include, finishing my current project (which might happen this weekend), start a new project and to update my blogs once a week.

It's a lot, but I've got a year, so I think I can do it. Just have to adjust the daily schedule a bit and stop being so lazy. I'm insanely lazy.

Anyway, as I said in #5, I'm going to keep up with my blogs this year *pause for laughter* yeah, yeah, I know. :) But I've got a lot of ideas and stuff.

So what do you have to look forward to? Well, I plan on updating this blog every Friday and the Writing blog on Wednesdays. Some topics we'll cover here are, Kricket Krafts, Kricket Kooks, more Mommy Konfessions, more book reviews and just whatever else I do in my life.

So please, stick around, I want to do more with this blog and I can't do that without your help and support. :)

Happy Valentines Day and have a great weekend!

P.S. I'm going to be doing some adjustments to the blog today, so it might look weird for a bit.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

And here follows the obligatory gratitude post. ;)

But seriously, I have a lot to be thankful for. If you're friends with me on Facebook, you'll notice that I don't do the daily gratitude thing in November because, well, why try to do something I know I'll forget to do two days in?

So here follows some things that I am grateful for this year.

1. My family. Daniel is the most amazing husband and father ever. My boys are gems (most of the time). I'm so lucky that I live near my sisters and that my parents are able to come visit us, as well as being not too terribly far from Daniel's family. Oh, and Happy, I love my dog. :)
2. My job. I'm so grateful that I get to be a stay at home mom. As hard as it can be sometimes, I love being home with William and Jacob. Also, I love being able to spend a whole day in my PJ's. ;)
3. Writing. I love to write and create new worlds and characters to populate those worlds. I love coming up with stories. Again, it's not always easy, but it's worth it.
4. All the material things I take for granted. I live in a nice place. We have a good car. I'm able to buy food, clothes and other, less essential things. I love the internet and the TV. And books, so many books!
5. My religion. I'm grateful to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-Day Saints. It gives me peace and direction in my life, as well as connecting me to good people and new friends.

Well, I think that about covers it. I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving (if you celebrate it) and try not to over eat.

Oh, a programming note: Starting next week I'm going to start a series of writing tips over at Kricket Writes. I've been thinking about doing this for a while and I finally figured out a plan. So look forward to that. :)

And Happy Thursday! Thanks for reading!

Happy Birthday To Me!

I have a cold. Picked it up at the in-laws, go figure. :)

Anyway! Vacation was great, the boys had a blast. I know they've had a good day when Will comes up to me and asks to go to bed. But, it's good to be home.

Anyway, I'm not sure what I'm going to do for my birthday. I want to go out and stuff, but it all depends on how I feel by the time Daniel comes home from work. So off I go to make my self feel better.

Have a good week, dear reader! And HAPPY BIRTHDAY to all my birthday buddies out there. 9/9 is the best!

Kricket's Happy Korner: Father's Day

So yesterday was Father's Day and of course I got to thinking about the fathers in my life.

And, obviously, the first one to pop into my mind was my own dad.

Dad and William on a merry-go-round

He's kind of awesome, but I'm kind of biased. :) I know I'm really lucky to have such a great dad in my life. He's happy, fun loving, and smarter than a lot of people give him credit for. I've been told we're a lot a like and I used to hate that growing up, but now I'm proud of it. He's a terrific dad and an amazing granddad. William and Jacob adore him.

And then there's Daniel.

Jacob, Daniel & William

I could not have asked for a better father to my children. He loves hanging out with his boys and is willing to do everything for them. He's patient when I'm not and shares in all the responsibilities. I couldn't do all of this without him.

So Happy Father's Day to my dad, Daniel, and all the other great fathers out there. I hope you had a good day yesterday and that those feelings will lift you up throughout the week.

Kricket's Happy Korner: A Slice of My Life

Hello lovely readers and welcome to the first episode of Kricket's Happy Korner! This is where I share the stuff that made me grin or laugh or whatever happy response you prefer. Let's get started shall we?

To start things off, I'm grateful for long weekends where I get to have Daniel home for an extra day and we all get to play together as a family.

Ke$ha's new CD. I've been listening to it non-stop for like a week. It's a great mix of peepy and soulful songs and it just makes me grin and want to dance or sing along when I listen to it.

So You Think You Can Dance is pretty much the best competition show on TV. Who wants to watch mediocre singers stand on a stage when you can watch amazing dancers fly across one? I mean really. Also, way better than Dancing With the Stars because these dancers actually know what the hell they're doing and they're damn good at it too.

I've become addicted to this game on my Kindle Fire called Dragon Story. It's a game were you hatch, raise and breed pretty dragons. The dragon designs are great and very diverse. I find it great fun, but I'm pretty easily amused.

And now for a book review. :)

I'm giving Mockingjay 4 Stars. I really liked it, and felt it was a good ending to the series. Not a happy ending but a real one. I've read other's reviews and understand some of the negative ones but I like that this story didn't end happy for Katniss. At least not fairy tale happy. It's more real. Some reviewers wanted her to be a super hero, but she's not really, she's just a 17 year old girl trying to survive and sometimes only kind of succeeding. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the movies.

I am a big fan of Felicia Day and she just launched a new YouTube channel called Geek & Sundry Vlogs and on it is one vlogger who talks about comics. I'm kind of new to comics and Amy Dallen does a good job of introducing the world of comics to people. Also, she's kind of cute as a button. Here is the first video. You should check out the rest of the channel as well, it's nothing but geek stuff.

And that's all for now, friends! *reads over blog* Yep, that kind of sums up my life and all the things I like to do.

So tell me, what makes you happy? Is there something new you've discovered that you'd like to share? I'd love to hear about it in the comments. *hint hint nudge nudge*

Have a happy start to your week!

Recent Adventures

This is a photo dumb that I'll try to make interesting. ;)

William (2, almost 3, years old)
Jacob (5 months old)

An X-Wing replica at Wings Over the Rockies

Daniel pushing William around in a peddle plane at Wings Over the Rockies.
He tried nearly every plane they had.

Me in a tiny plane named The Cricket.
We thought it would be fitting. ;)

In other news, I got my hair cut and dyed this weekend. I'm still trying to take a good self portrait so I can share it but my face just doesn't want to be photogenic today.

Thanks for reading! Happy Monday!

Mommy Confessions

Seeing as this blog is titled "Kricket's Konfessions" I've got somethings to confess that I haven't before and it has to do with motherhood. Most people know that being a mommy is freaking hard. It's hard with one kid and then it just gets harder with a second. But for me, in some respects, Jacob has been a lot easier than William was at this stage.

You see, giving birth to William was one of the worst experiences of my life. I was in labor for over 24 hours and I spent two and a half hours trying to push him out. There were a lot of things that went wrong in the day and a half it took to bring Will into this world that made an already scary thing that much more terrifying. And even though William came out perfect and healthy, I ended up being torn up physically, mentally and emotionally.

I am not exaggerating when I say that I remember next to nothing about the first couple months of William's life. Because of how much physical pain I was in I was taking a lot of Percecet for the first couple weeks. I forced myself to stop taking it, despite the pain, because I didn't like the way it made me feel. Also, I was worried about how it was effecting Will.

I tried to nurse Will for the first three weeks of his life. It was agonizing. Will didn't take to nursing very easily and I learned very quickly that I could not function without sleep. After only a few days, I dreaded feeding my baby. According to my husband and my mother, I cried every time I had to feed him. It was a miserable experience for all of us.

It took my mother, who is a huge nursing advocate, to tell me that I should formula feed William for the misery to stop. It's like I needed someone to give me permission. I felt guilty for not giving my baby what everyone said was best for him. But once I started bottle feeding him, things began to get better.

As I said, there were also some mental/emotional concerns as well. During the delivery, I felt my mind crack. I was so panicked and out of control and terrified. I thought I was prepared. I went to all the classes, read all the books, but I had no clue. And honestly, no one really does their first time, but other circumstances just made everything worse.

I was a mess when I got home. With my mental state and the hormone changes that all new moms go through, I was barely sane. Little things would set me off. William crying would send me into a panic. There were many, many times that I just had to leave him in his crib and close the door while he screamed. I was horrified by the waves of violence that would surge through me.

In retrospect, I had quickly crossed the line from baby blues to full on postpartum depression. And poor Daniel, he had no idea how to help me. Luckily, my mom came to help.

Two things pulled me back to myself, bottle feeding and going back to work. When I switched to the bottle I was finally able to get some sleep as well as do other things instead of holding a baby to my breast all day. And even though I really didn't want to go back to work, having something else to focus on and interacting with other adults really helped me. There was a time where every morning I'd wake up and think "Oh, I just found another little piece of me."

It hasn't been until just recently that I could admit that I was very very close to the edge there. It's terrifying to think back on but it also makes me so grateful for what I have now.

Giving birth to Jacob and this first month of his life have been a breeze in comparison. I was calm and relaxed through the delivery; no panic, no loosing control. And while I'm still sleep deprived most days, I can't help but smile at my sweet little boy.

Of course, that doesn't mean that I don't loose my temper sometimes or even wonder why in the world I had a second baby; but at the end of the day I can still look at both of my sons and smile and feel this overwhelming love for them.

I am not a perfect mom, but they are perfect spirits that Heavenly Father has graced me with. I don't know how I deserve them and I pray everyday that I don't screw them up. I try my hardest everyday and some days are better than others. Being a mom isn't easy and some days I really wonder if it's worth it, but as long as William keeps smiling at me and Jacob continues to sleep best when I'm holding him then I guess I'm doing something right.

William 2.5 years old and Jacob 1 month

He has arrived!

This here is Jacob! He was born Monday, April 23, 2012 at 4:58pm. He weighed 6lbs 9oz and is 19.5 in. long. He's perfectly healthy and is a strong little boy.

I was induced Monday morning and the whole process was actually pleasant. I was nervous because I'd heard that being induced was hard/long but I was pretty relaxed most of the time.  Of course, my previous experience with giving birth was rather traumatic, so anything even marginally better would have been fine. But this was a complete 180. I can now finally see what women mean when they talk about how beautiful giving birth is; I never believed it last time.

So everyone is settling in fine. William is fascinated with "Baby!" and is still trying to get used to the new routine.  I'm already suffering from lack of sleep, but it's not that bad. Physically I'm doing a lot better now than I was this time after Will was born. I foresee things just continuing to improve from here on out and that gives me a lot of peace of mind.

Even Happy approves of our new addition. :)

My boys!

So there's the baby update!

As of now, I have no clue how often I'll be able to update this. I want to get back into a normal schedule, but my real life has to get in line first. So I guess I'll see y'all when I see ya!

Happy Thursday! and Thanks for reading!

Life, it's like, life.

I'm actually updating on time.  And I'm not doing this to procrastinate the cleaning that needs to be done, not at all.  :D

Life has been pretty good lately.  Things are relatively normal around here.  I'm now 31 weeks along in this pregnancy.  9 more weeks to go seems pretty surreal.  People have asked me for pictures of my big pregnant self, but I just haven't had the time, or honestly really care, to take any.

Will is getting smarter everyday.  We're starting to work on letters and I'm sure he learns at least one new word everyday.  I'm hoping to start potty training him in the next week or two.  It'd be nice to have him out of diapers by the time this new baby arrives.  So does any one have any suggestions for books or techniques on potty training?

And now to pimp myself. :P  Daniel came up with a great idea for a blog and we got it all put together on Saturday.  Siemens Bottling Co is a blog about building little model ships and putting them into bottles.  Daniel builds the ships in bottles and takes the pictures while I do a lot of the writing and the actual blog managing.  We'd love it if you'd take a look and even leave a comment. *hint hint nudge nudge*

Well, that's all I have for today.  Happy Monday/President's Day!

What I Am Thankful For

So, as most of you know, yesterday was Thanksgiving.  I got to spend it with my sister and some of her in-laws and we had a great time.  But, because we were there most of the day I didn't get to say what I was thankful for, so I'm going to take that opportunity now.

I Am Thankful For...

• My husband Daniel.  He spoils me rotten and takes such good care of me and Will.  He really is the best husband/father ever.
• My son William.  He is the joy of my heart.  He is so sweet and funny and he is growing up so fast and gets smarter everyday.  I can't believe he's two years old already.
• Being pregnant.  I know I complain about it a lot because I've been pretty sick this go around, but over all, I'm excited and happy to bring this new little life into our growing family.  I feel it is an honor, given to us women by our Heavenly Father, to have and bear children.  I am proud and grateful that I can.
• Our new life here in Colorado.  Daniel has a great job, we live in a decent area and we are in love with our new ward family here.
• My family.  My siblings both near and far who I can talk to and who I know, despite everything, love me.  And my parents, who did a great job raising me and are always there with advice and laughter.
• My membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  I'm grateful for the peace that the Gospel gives me and the truth it teaches me.  I know I'm not always a perfect example of my faith, but I do try.
• Being a stay at home mom.  After having to work for the first year of Will's life, being able to stay home has changed me.  I'm happier and more at peace with my self and I love spending everyday with my Little Man, no matter how many times he makes me watch Cars with him.
• Being a writer.  I love to create new worlds and characters to populate them and then write fun stories about them.  The act of writing is exciting and frustrating at the same time, but I wouldn't have it any other way. 
• All my friends, both in real life and those I've met on the internet *coughAWcough*.  My life just wouldn't be complete without y'all.  You teach me, keep me grounded and make me laugh.
• And finally, I'm grateful for all those little things that we take for granted everyday.  Like having a car or electricity, the internet or food on our table.  There are a lot of people either in this country or around the world that don't have these comforts and we must never forget that it is a privilege to have these things, not a right, and we must strive to be worthy of them.

And that's all folks!  Well I guess I could go on and on, but I'm sure you have better things to do right now.  So thank you soooo much for reading and I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and continue to have Happy Holidays this year. :D

Depression Hurts...

Have you seen those ads on TV for that anti-depression drug? Their motto goes something like: "Depression hurts, X-drug can help." Well I came up with my own motto today, and it goes something like: "Depression hurts, getting off your ass can help."

So I've been pretty down the last week or so. As you may know, Daniel has been trying to find a job in Colorado. He had a really promising interview two weeks ago and we have heard nothing back from them. Now I know this kind of stuff can take time, but the person Daniel interviewed with made it sound like it was a done deal and he would get in touch in a few days.

Two weeks later, nothing. We were really pinning our hopes on this. It felt like everything was going to fall into place and it's been hard for me to accept that things aren't moving as fast as we had hoped. Thus, I got depressed.

When I get like that I just want to shut down. All I want to do is watch TV and sleep. And unlike a lot of people in the country, when I get upset I can't eat. I don't feel like eating and the thought of food makes my stomach turn. So for the last couple of days that is what I have done. I've shut down, minus the time and energy it takes to care for Will. If it wasn't for Will, I might not have gotten out of bed.

Now I know this all sounds really melodramatic and that's not my intention, I'm just wanting to share my experience and the things I found that help me get out of it. So, as I said in the beginning, "Depression hurts, getting off your ass can help." And that is what I have done. I've gotten up, I've gotten dressed, done a little cleaning and now I'm updating my blogs. Once Will wakes up from his nap we're going to go shopping and maybe after dinner we'll go play outside or something. It's amazing the difference you feel just getting out of your PJ's and into real clothes. Not to mention how nice it is to walk outside and see that big orange ball up there that keeps us warm.

I wouldn't say I'm a depressed person or anything, but these moods come up every once in a while. And even though I know it's happening, it's hard to pull out of. It takes a good cry, a bit of whinnying about why my life sucks and then talking my self out of it. It's a load of fun.

I wouldn't say I'm totally happy right now though. There's a lot of things I'm not happy with in my life right now, but most of those things are out of my control, a.k.a. trying to find Daniel a job/moving. I'm a control freak, an impatient control freak, so this has been rough for me.

BUT, as long as I get off my ass and do stuff; as long as I keep moving forward and just take stuff a day at a time, I'm sure it'll all turn out fine. :)

So kids, what's today's motto? Depression hurts, getting off your ass can help. :)

Thanks for reading!

P.S. Please leave comments or something, just so that I know people read this. :D kthnxbye!

Interesting Blog About Boring People

Today’s post is brought to you by Daniel. I’m allowing him to do this because his view on the world is often times way more interesting than mine. Enjoy!

So I decided to write a blog. And since my wife already has one, I figured I’d occasionally post on hers. I got this idea from a coworker of mine a while back. You see, I am an accountant. I work with numbers, financials, tax returns, and Medicare cost reports. My wife, who recently became a stay at home mom, worked at a credit union as a teller, receptionist and then a loan interviewer, the usual credit union stuff. So my coworker comes to me one day and says, “So you’re an accountant and your wife works at a credit union….You guys must have very boring dinner conversations. “ I thought about it. At first I thought yea I guess it could be boring to some people, and then I thought naaahh! So I decided to write a blog.

This is the interesting blog about boring people. At least I hope it’s interesting. If not well sorry I can’t please you all. The truth of the matter is there are people like me in the world that for some reason or another love to put numbers in the right places, total them up and call it accounting. Most people think we accountants are nuts. I hear it all the time, “How can you look at numbers all day?” I just smile and say, “Well as soon as you’re done with your sudoku puzzle I’ll tell you.”

The real secret is…and I really shouldn’t be telling you this. It’s kind of the big kept secret of accounting. *shifty eyes to make sure no ones watching* *whispers*The big secret of accounting is that it’s EASY!!! Oop’s did I say that too loud? Really though, accounting is so incredibly simple and pays so incredibly well it’s a wonder more people don’t do it.

I can still remember my first accounting class. I was scared to death because the greatest irony of my accounting career is that I hate, with a passion, hate math. Crazy right? An accounting guy who hates math. So I show up to class and my teacher looks over the class and asks, “So who can tell me what is a debit and what is a credit?” I’m looking at the class thinking I’ll just let you hash it out and wait for him to give me the right answer.

The class on the other hand was hilarious. They went on about banking and some complex theory about how credits were some illustrious thing in a bank account that never happened except when the stars aligned in a perfect pathagramatic formation on the weekends during the full and new moons and only if the job gods were smiling down upon you. Debit’s were like weeds forever growing and sprouting up everywhere swallowing what precious credits you happened to acquire on rare occasions.

My teacher in his ingenious way, said, “Ok I want you to forget all that. The only thing you need to remember is. A debit is a place on the left side and a credit is a place on the right side.” I was boggled. That’s it!!??!?! That’s all I need to know. Really!!! That was the beginning of my love for accounting.

So now I’m blogging about what I find interesting in the boring life of an accountant, a stay at home mom and the craziness we call life. I hope I made you smile.

That is all I will turn this over to my lovely editor and chief who will edit it, hack it all to pieces and put it back together as a lovely piece of art.

Road Trips!

The past two weekends, Daniel, Will and I have been doing a lot of traveling. The weekend before last we drove to Denver, Colorado to visit my sister Michelle and her husband Josh; and then over Labor Day weekend we drove to Idaho with Daniel’s brother, Jared, to visit our friends Josh and Calli. I have found that road trips are very educational. And here follows a list of things that I have learned.

1. Cruise control is the best invention since the car itself. When we drove to Colorado, I started the 8 hour drive. After weaving our way through the mountains to get out of Utah I felt my right leg start to cramp up from my ankle to my knee. Holding the same position for that long, pushing down on the gas pedal, my leg was in rebellion. I was looking for a good place to pull over when Daniel asked, “Are you using the cruise control?” “This car has cruise control?” For some reason it never crossed my mind to check, maybe because I thought my car was too old for that sort of thing. So after spending about 10 minutes trying to figure out how the darn thing worked I was set! I could have driven the whole way like that if it wasn’t past 5 pm when we started. I drove a little more than half way though.

2. Short cuts are not always short. So someone in Daniel’s family told us about this short cut from I-80 to I-25 in Wyoming so we decided to take it. It starts in Laramie, WY and takes you to around Fort Collins, CO. Basically keeping you from having to go to Cheyenne, WY. So at first everything was going good, the road we were on was a little slower than the interstate, but it was late at night with no traffic. But at the end of the road we ended up having to weave our way through a bunch of little neighborhoods to get on to I-25. When you’re driving 20mph for 10-15 minutes, it totally negates any time you just saved. Needless to say, we didn’t take the same way going home.

3. Wendy’s doesn’t believe in changing tables, apparently. We stopped at a few Wendy’s on both trips and none of them had a changing table, 0! It was a little bit ridiculous. But, in retrospect, the front seat of my car is probably the cleaner of the two.

4. Formula To-Go is ingenious. Gas stations would make a killing if they sold them.

5. Will loves dogs and dogs love him. I’m sure one of the first things he’s going to ask for as a birthday/Christmas present will be a dog. Michelle and Josh have two dogs and they were very well behaved.

6. There are a lot of cows in northern Utah and Idaho, and where there are cows, there will be flies. Always make sure you have lots of washer fluid and good wind shield wipers, it’s very hard to see through bug guts.

7. Wyoming is quite possibly the most boring state to drive through. There is nothing out there. Just a lot of wind, and scatterings of windmills (which are kind of fun to watch for some odd reason).

8. DON’T FORGET THE STROLLER! Babies are heavy. You should only carry one while walking around a park if you’re trying to get a workout.

9. DON’T FORGET THE DIAPERS! Yes, you can go to the store and buy more, but it’s still a hassle.

10. Tacos are a favorite when you have guest coming over, apparently. That was dinner in both Colorado and Idaho, and both on Sunday night, strange…

11. Be nice to semi’s and they’ll be nice to you. I’ve always had this rule when driving, but it’s always very important to remember while on long road trips. I believe that every time you are nice to a semi you get a couple more points in the Car Karma department and that comes in real handy when you’re milliseconds away from getting in a wreck. Trust me, it works!

And there you have it, the things I’ve learned on our recent road trips.

On a side note, I’m writing this post at work right now, and it’s my birthday. L I hate having to work on my birthday. But I’m 24 today! Yay, I’m old!

Fly Wars! A Special Entry From Daniel!

So for the last couple of days we have been attacked by some crazy killer flies. It started with one fly. It was huge and pestered me by dive bombing at my face and then spinning circles around my head while laughing hysterically. I thought this fly is not going to get away with this. It Must DIE!!!!

Since we don’t own a fly swatter I resorted to other means of fly destruction, the rubber band gun. For those that don’t know, a rubber band gun is a very effective way to kill flies. And it’s fun. The problem with fly swatters is when you miss, the fly takes off and you have to chase it around waiting for it to land on a flat enough surface to smash the pesky thing against. Not so with rubber band guns. Almost any surface works and, if you happen to have a nice repeating semi auto rubber band gun, the flies don’t move if you miss! They are totally oblivious to the fact that a whole bunch of killer high speed bands of rubber are smacking the area around them. Once your aim is honed in they’re done for. There is a down side to rubber band guns though. That is the slim but possible chance of shooting your eye out. So far it’s never happened to me; knock on wood.

So I dug out my trusty rubber band gun I made while I was a teenager. It’s a single shot rifle with a wire connecting the classic clothes pin to the trigger allowing for a nice gun feel and better accuracy. (I’m not obsessed really!!!!) So I dig out my rubber band gun and come to find out I’m out of ammo. I dig through the whole house looking every where to find even one rubber band. …..nothing. I am rubber bandless and the fly keeps mocking me with its hysterical laughter and its loops around my head.

So the fly lives another day and I don’t know how it happened, but it seemed that the fly either thought this was so funny he called in two buddies or he strangely separated into two more smaller flies. So now I had three pesky flies zooming through the house like the Red Baron. Dive bombing me and driving me nuts with the buzzing. I decided I was done!

I resorted to an ancient art I learned from an old shaman aka my father in law. I decided to go at these flies with hand to hand combat using a technique I’ve come to call Flyjitsu. In order to master the technique you need to be as stealthy as a hawk and as quick as a snake….well not really its actually pretty easy. You place your hands in the clapping position about eight inches apart. Wait for the fly to land then go right above him and simply clap. Flies really are dumb creatures. They will see your hands move and think “Oh NO I better take off!” Then being your hands are above the fly they fly right in and are smashed. Then of course you must wash your hands. I killed two flies this way almost in a row but, the other one must have been watching cause he figured out Flyjitsu’s weakness.

Flyjitsu only really works when the fly lands on a flat horizontal surface like a table. If the fly lands on a vertical surface, like a wall, the fly has the option of flying up or down and always picks the opposite of where your hands are. So this pesky. little green. nasty fly seeing its comrades go down decides it will have its revenge by pestering me more and not landing on any horizontal surfaces EVER. It buzzed around for half an hour with out landing at all. Then when it did land it landed on every vertical surface in the apartment. After about an hour of this I had had it. So I called around trying to find any body close by that could get me a stupid rubber band.

My sister Sarah came to my rescue and brought a small rubber band ball she had laying around. I pulled a rubber band from it and went hunting! I spotted the fly and followed it until it landed on yet another vertical surface, which is actually perfect when it comes to rubber band guns. I got in position, aimed and fired. In one shot the fly was down. It’s little life ended with in ten seconds of me having received the rubber bands. I stood pleased at the perfect silence that now filled my apartment. At least until another bullet bike went by.

I felt very accomplished and was very happy to now live in a perfectly flyless apartment. I looked around holding my rubber band gun like an old western sheriff looks over his now peaceful town. Then it hit me. I had all these rubber band’s, a good rubber band gun, and no flies! I’m bored again!!!! All well maybe I’ll take it to my parents house.

The Vacation Log!

Yesterday, Daniel, Will and I returned from our week long vacation to Georgia. We had a blast! But before I start on the log I'll say now that pictures will be coming soon. All the pictures are currently sitting on Daniel's camera, waiting to be downloaded.

Anyway, we flew out to GA on Saturday the 24th at about 1am. Will slept the whole time; he was restless, but he slept. Daniel and I watched Date Night (very funny) and got an hour of sleep here and there. We landed in GA about 6:30am local time (it's a 3 & 1/2 hour flight) and my parents came to pick us up.

This was the first time my dad has ever seen Will. My mom got to see him when he was three weeks old, but my dad wasn't able to come out to Utah then. We went back to my parents house, ate breakfast, talked and napped. My sister Carrie came in from Valdosta, GA around noon and then my mom, Carrie and I went shopping.

I got a new shirt for work and then feel asleep in the dressing room while Carrie and Mom tried on clothes. Went back to the house and took another nap, dinner, talk and then to bed for the night.

The next day, Sunday, we all went to church and it was nice to see some of the people from the old home ward. Carrie left later that afternoon and the rest of us spent the day packing for our road trip to Louisiana the next day.

So, around 7am Monday morning, we drove to Slidel, LA (a 6 hour drive). Most of my extended family lives there and that's where my parents grew up. I hadn't been there for about 4 or 5 years; not since before hurricane Katrina. We stayed at my Grandpop's house (my dad's dad), visited my Grandmother (mom's mom), and played a lot of Wii 100 pin bowling with Grandpop.

On Tuesday, Daniel got to meet a couple pairs of my aunts and uncles and learned the art of poker (they don't play with real money anymore, but trust me, they used to :P). And then we drove back to GA on Wednesday.

On Thursday we went to the Georgia Aquarium where Daniel took about 500 pictures of fish and Will was captivated by all the color and movement. Daniel and I bought a couple shirts and got a cute little book about dolphins for Will that he can play with in the bath.

On Friday Daniel and Dad went shooting (any reason for the boys to play with Dad's AR 15) and I hung around the house with Mom. That evening Daniel and I went to visit my old friend Gina, her husband Josh and their little boy (who's only a month younger than Will) Breyden. It was so much fun to reconnect and catch up on each other's lives. We stayed there way too late and we still had to pack to go home the next day.

So Saturday, we headed home. Our flight was delayed, but not much, and we got back to Utah around 10am. Will was awake most of this flight and only a little fussy because he got tired of being stuck on Mommy and Daddy's laps.

Over all, it was a fantastic trip! Will was in a good mood 90% of the time. He was happy and smiling and friendly and I am so proud of him. He got dragged all over the country and was pretty easy going about all of it.

But I know we're all glad to be home. I love Georgia and I miss it all the time, but it's good to be back in my own space and not be living out of a suitcase. I know Will is glad to be home, and we got back just in time because he's teething again.

It was a very successful trip and everyone was happy. And now i's time to go back to work and back to the real world. Boo! :(

Photo Dump!

Here's some more rescent pictures of Will.

Taken today. He turned 2 months old yesterday! :)
Daddy and Will napping together.

My two favorite boys in the whole wide world!