Dandelion Day

We went to the playground on Sunday, and it was blooming with little white balls of fluff. Carly was excited, and as much as we tried to teach her how to blow them, she was more exciting by trying to bite them. Here are some pictures of our little family:

AAHHH!

My stomach is doing blackflips.

I'm so excited...

That's right!....

SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE IS STARTING!!!!!!

Ta Da!

Check out Carly's new and improved nursery/play room:

North Wall

East Wall

South Wall

West Wall

(you just went in a circle)

Nothing too fancy, we're renters afterall. But I was excited to move around the furniture and get some actual play space in there for her. There is a gate at the door, and a camera in the corner. We can let her play and actually go to the bathroom without her ever being unsupervised. LOVE IT!

Speaking of bathroom, since Carly is a self sufficient walker these days, we decided to get her a potty chair for her first birthday in a couple weeks. Don't worry, we'll go at her pace. We actually just plan to have it in the room and get her used to sitting on it at first. But with any luck, it won't take the whole year. Wish us luck!

Motivation

[moh-tuh-vey-shuhn] (noun)

1. the psychological feature that arouses an organism to action toward a desired goal; the reason for the action; that which gives purpose and direction to behavior; "we did not understand his motivation"; "he acted with the best of motives"
2. the condition of being motivated; "his motivation was at a high level"
3. the act of motivating; providing incentive
4. My mother in law



Marshall's mother has a way with him that I will NEVER have.


Londa came to visit earlier this week. We had the carpet relayed in our apartment the day before she arrived, and our house still looked like this:The entire contents of Carly's bedroom (minus crib and dresser) were in our living room. She was staying at Russ's house, so I wasn't too worried, but she did come down on Wednesday for the morning. The room still looked like that when she arrived (not to mention the pile of laundry on the lovesac).

When I returned from work, my living room was clean. Shocked, I asked my 4'11" mother-in-law if she had moved all the heavy furniture herself. Nope. Sure enough, she had asked Marshall to help and he had. Our house looks SO NICE!

The next day, after Londa had left, Marshall said "I'm glad my mom came because otherwise our house would have never been put back together." I asked, "You wouldn't have helped move furniture if I had asked?" His answer: "Probably not, that's why I said I'm glad my mom came." I need to learn her secret...

P.S. Thank you so much, Londa!

It's begun

Today I found a centipede and 2 beetles in my house. Okay, so Carly found them and alerted me by pointing and going "ooh! ooh! ooh!" But regardless, they were in my house. Bug season (otherwise know as summer) has begun.

The Lord's Prayer

Just about the cutest thing ever.

Boo!

Marshall gets to go see David Archuleta sing tonight. Without me. I'll go pout now.

Good Shepherd

Today in relief society a story was shared that really touched me. I thought I would share:

"Some years ago, it was my privilege to visit the country of Morocco as part of an official United States government delegation. As part of that visit, we were invited to travel some distance into the desert to visit some ruins. Five large black limousines moved across the beautiful Moroccan countryside at considerable speed. I was riding in the third limousine, which had lagged some distance behind the second. As we topped the brow of a hill, we noticed that the limousine in front of us had pulled off to the side of the road. As we drew nearer, I sensed that an accident had occurred and suggested to my driver that we stop. The scene before us has remained with me for these many years.

An old shepherd, in the long, flowing robes of the Savior’s day, was standing near the limousine in conversation with the driver. Nearby, I noted a small flock of sheep numbering not more than fifteen or twenty. An accident had occurred. The king’s vehicle had struck and injured one of the sheep belonging to the old shepherd. The driver of the vehicle was explaining to him the law of the land. Because the king’s vehicle had injured one of the sheep belonging to the old shepherd, he was now entitled to one hundred times its value at maturity. However, under the same law, the injured sheep must be slain and the meat divided among the people. My interpreter hastily added, “But the old shepherd will not accept the money. They never do.”

Startled, I asked him why. And he added, “Because of the love he has for each of his sheep.” It was then that I noticed the old shepherd reach down, lift the injured lamb in his arms, and place it in a large pouch on the front of his robe. He kept stroking its head, repeating the same word over and over again. When I asked the meaning of the word, I was informed, “Oh, he is calling it by name. All of his sheep have a name, for he is their shepherd, and the good shepherds know each one of their sheep by name.”

It was as my driver predicted. The money was refused, and the old shepherd with his small flock of sheep, with the injured one tucked safely in the pouch on his robe, disappeared into the beautiful deserts of Morocco."

-John R. Lasater, “Shepherds of Israel,” Ensign, May 1988, 74

I don't know what more I should, or could, say that wouldn't take away from this beautiful analogy. I just thought I would share.

My house is a wreck!

Our house flooded mysteriously on Sunday (yes, almost a week ago...I know, I've been a bad blogger). We woke up to water throughout the hallway, kitchen, bathroom, and most of Carly's room. Even stranger: the water had been shut off the building, so ours wasn't the only unit affected. So we tried to mop it up and determine from the neighbors what happened. Kiernan had been visiting that week, and lucky for her she had just left hours before it happened.

Our efforts to mop up the flood waters with towels were futile at best. Putting towels down was like putting a band-aid on a shark bite.

The landlord had to hire a clean-up company to come out and de-water my house. They pulled up the carpets, pried off the baseboards, cut out the padding, and disinfected the concrete under it all to prevent mold. They then sucked as much water out of the carpet as possible, and set up fans throughout my house.

Did I mention that we had to move everything off the wet carpet and into the living room?
So we had no water for a couple days, and had to sleep for 3 nights with the whirring and wind of all those fans. It is expected to be another week before we can put our house back together.

But all in all, it wasn't too terrible.

Some positives:

-We finally get our carpets cleaned! (yay!) We moved in as sub-leasers, so the carpets were never freshly cleaned for us.

-I think our ANT problem drowned!

-It gave us the motivation we needed to clean out Carly's room. This has been a project for a while.

-I moved the washer and dryer for the first time, probably ever. So I had a chance to clean underneath, and I also found some missing tuperware.