I can't believe Halloween is already over-or maybe I can't believe it's November already and October is gone:( I think I've come to the conclusion that as long as it doesn't snow, October is my favorite month. I love Fall and October is when I feel like it all begins: the beautiful leaves (which we have yet to go see in the mountains), the crisp air, the smell of cinnamon and all the wonderful desserts associated with it, the upcoming holidays, and just the overall calm and reflective feeling you get on a quiet October evening that you don't quite get any other time. Obviously Halloween is also a highlight of October-though not my favorite holiday- we did have fun this year dressing Asher up and having some of my family over for dinner.

When Asher was born my mom said he looked like a troll. A cute treasure troll that is-nothing offensive:) So, I thought for Halloween we'd see what we could do in the way of making him look as trollish and cute as possible. After a few unsuccessful attempts we finally got him some pretty good hair using a beanie, spider web cotton and colored hair spray. For his outfit I cut up an old onsie and found some brown pants and added a nice rope belt to complete the look. The best part was he didn't mind the hat/wig at all and was pretty content. He was really tired when we finally got around to taking pictures, so no smiles, but still cute if I do say so myself.

My sister Annie was an oven, with a bun inside that should be done in just a few weeks:)

My mom was...well, I'm not sure, but she came out in her costume dancing to a hip hop/soul song that she loves. Needless to say it was very entertaining. I think Kelly is still in shock and learning more about my mom's crazy ways.I think my favorite part is that her "microphone" is diaper rash ointment.

There are our pumpkins, the two slightly withered ones we had fun carving with Aaron and Krystal and the kids last week. Originally I think Kelly was assuming the pumpkin he carved would be Asher's and that he didn't need one, but we added another one later because it just didn't seem right to have only two when there are three of us in the family. Kelly did some great last minute decorating of our porch with spider web and spiders that turned out pretty cool.

So, there you have it. Happy Halloween and goodbye October, till next year!

Let the chasing begin! I'm ready...kind of

 

So, he's probably still a few weeks away from moving like lightening, but its still pretty exciting that he's up and ready to crawl:) 

Rise and Sprout the Lentils are Out...

So, I've recently taken an interest in sprouting. I don't even know how or why I started looking into it, but last week I decided to give it a go. I think I had avoided it before because I thought I needed special equipment or seeds, but as it turns out, you don't. So, with our one lonely mason jar, a porous rag, rubber band and some neglected dried lentils, I conducted my first intentional sprouting experiment. I say intentional because technically that bean I put in a wet paper towel in a cupboard under our microwave as a forgotten science experiment as a little kid was sprouting-and what a sprout it was when I found it weeks later-probably could have gotten first place at the county fair...Anyway, the lentils were super easy. I let them soak in the jar overnight, then did about 3-4 Rinse and Drain cycles every 8-12 hours, straining them through the towel on top of the jar and putting them in a dark warm place in between. I'm so proud of those little sprouts:) They taste great-really. It sure beats the heck out of boiling the lentils for who knows how many hours until they're soft enough and then trying to disguise them in a soup or chili so Kelly doesn't notice them. He willingly put these sprouts on his sandwhich and thinks they're great, I do too! I'm excited to try other sprouts-currently I've got some pinto beans in the jar, but the possibilities are seemingly endless. Kelly put in a request for Mustard sprouts, so if I can find some seeds, those will be next. Sprouts are super nutritious and a fantastic way to have fresh "veggies" on hand. If you're interested in the world of sprouting there is tons of stuff about it on the internet, especially Sproutpeople.org

Half a cup of dry lentils yielded about 2-3 C of sprouts!

Clearly that didn't focus like it was supposed to-oh well

Firsts

I love the constant stream of "firsts" that we get to experience with Asher, and while it's probably one of the less joyful firsts initially, I'm still so excited to announce that Asher got his first tooth today! He's two days shy of six months and it's his bottom left tooth, I expect the other will follow soon. At any rate its a relief to know why he's been a little cranky pants lately. And speaking of pants, he also wore his first pair of jeans the other day (mostly because he didn't have any that fit him before now and even these were a little too big), he looked like such a cute little boy, not just a cute little baby:) I just love him so much!

Taking a picture of his jeans was a lot easier than trying to get a picture of his tooth, go figure.

Sometimes at the end of the day Esther shows me pictures that she has taken of Asher. And I think it is all that she can do to keep from exploding as she tells me how ahhhh CUTE! he is.

These days

Time just seems to fly by sometimes, doesn't it? Asher will be 5 months in a few days! He is getting so big so fast, and it is so fun to watch him grow and learn. His current interests include sucking his thumb/fist nonstop, rolling from his back to his front at every opportunity, caterpillering (his little version of crawling), jumping in his bouncer to the rhythm of some children's folk tunes (kind of), watching the iTunes visualizer and having his first taste of rice cereal. He also has a lot of fun flying with dad and laughing at mom for no reason:) I'm hoping his interests will soon include sleeping at least a 5 hour stretch at night.

Kelly has been working at an architecture firm nearby doing drafting and has really liked keeping busy. School starts up on Monday the 22nd and then he'll be working as a TA, as well as at the architecture office, and being the EQP on the side, so Asher and I might see him sometimes:) Actually, he does a wonderful job of balancing things and never ceases to amaze me with how well he can prioritize and get everything done and do a great job at that.

I'm just working a few hours a day and enjoying watching Asher grow. I daydream about running ridiculously long distances sometimes, but then have to pull myself back to the reality to get my 1 or 2 miles in. I'm mostly working on trying to get in the habit of running again and then I can focus on the distance and the ulitmate goal of next summer. I like this quote I found a while ago: "Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be breakfast. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn't matter whether you're a lion or gazelle - when the sun comes up, you'd better be running."-The quote doesn't mention any turtles and their race for survival, but I can still kind of relate.

Last week we got to go down to Provo to celebrate Kelly's brother Aaron's graduation from graduate school, as well as Lincoln and Adelia's birthdays. Kelly's mom and dad came into town for the event as did his sister Lisa and her kids and it was so good to see everyone.

That's about all for here. Except, I did make a chocolate cake that is worth mentioning :) The end.

Miles and miles to come and go...

It's late fall 2008. I've been out of school and working full time for a few months now. I'm still living in Provo and life isn't exactly going great. Monotony combined with some frustrating/difficult relationships is making me feel more than a bit depressed and lost. I just want to feel like I can control something in my life and make something work. In the end I discover that while I can't control some situations and external influences and least of all other people, I can control myself-my actual physical self, and so I decide to run. I'd run a little bit before, mostly just as part of a split triathalon, doing at most 6 miles (probably a little more because surprise, surprise I got lost on the course). However, I'd never been really serious about it, it wasn't my thing, until that fall. I didn't just decide to run, I decided to run a lot, setting my sites on a Marathon that coming summer. And so, I laced up my shoes and set out time and time again with a big 26.2 in the back of my mind becoming my defense against anything more complicated than shoe laces and anything that I couldn't cope with or fix.

As summer 2009 approached, as part of my training, the runs got longer and coincidentally life got a little harder. In a frantic attempt to have something, anything to do to stop from wallowing in "Woe is Me'" that summer, one marathon turned into 3 full marathons and 3 half marathons. Running was a big part of me at that point, a runner had been pounded into me with all of those countless steps and miles. Even though I'll be the first to admit that I'm no record breaker, shoot, I'm not even a contender (I'm what Runner's World refers to as a Penguin-do I really need to explain?), I liked running and had to laugh at the truth of the slogan for the Utah Valley Marathon: "26.2 Miles of the Pain You Enjoy".

I decided to take a little break from big races at that point, because lets face it, for a rookie like me 3 marathons in one summer is a lot and I was burned out. Well, life got better, as it always does. I kept running on the side and planned to do another marathon the coming summer in Newport, OR for a change of scene and fun and to keep up conditioning, but it didn't happen. Life got crazy-great, but crazy. Kelly and I got engaged in March and married in April 2010 and soon thereafter we were expecting Asher. I was definitely not one of those pregnant women who could go out and run several miles up until the day they gave birth, in fact I was the opposite, I went on a complete hiatus for 9 months (well, I did go running twice one week when I was about 5 months along and all I can say is, Ouch!-bad idea, I was so incredibly sore I could hardly move).

Now we're in the present. It's summer 2011 and life is awesome. Asher came on March 19th and is now 4 months old. Despite the fatigue that seems to be ever present and sometimes a bit overwhelming, the desire to run is resurfacing. This time its not because I want to escape or because I feel out of control, I think it's because as I said, after that summer in 2009 running became a part of me (and it might be a good way to get back to pre-pregnancy shape:).

I have been running once or twice in the last month or two, and I'll admit it was really disappointing. It's not that I expected to magically be in great running condition, its more the disappointment of knowing what I've lost and having to start at the beginning in terms of physical ability and endurance. Barely being able to run 1 mile is really distressing when your last recollection of that type exhaustion and huffing and puffing was at mile marker 25 in a marathon. But, I am determined to get it back and to bring out the runner that I know is in there somewhere, the one that can do 26 miles and maybe more. For now I'm officially announcing my goal is to run the Utah Valley Marathon on June 9th, 2012.  I wanted to blog about it because it makes me feel accountable, knowing that other people know I said I would do it. I don't expect anyone to follow up with me or even read all of this, its just good to have it in writing somewhere to someone, even if that someone is me. I may write again from time to time about the miles and miles to come and go and what happens on the way, just so I stay accountable:) Thanks for reading!

 The Little Grand Canyon Marathon,  The lady in front of me told me to stop so she could take a picture.

At the finish of LGC, with Lien, the 50 year old lady who was in front of me a few yard the whole time and kept stopping to take pictures and enjoy the beautiful scenery, she was great:)

At the finish of the Utah Valley Marathon 2009, my first one. My dad and sister ran the last little bit with me.

Races of 2009
Provo River Half Marathon
Utah Valley Marathon
Bryce Canyon Half Marathon
Mapelton Moonlight Half Marathon (a night run)
Little Grand Canyon Marathon, (aka The marathon from Hell, for me-pardon my language, but honestly there is no other way to describe it)
St. George Marathon

Giggles

So Asher was jabbering up a storm the other day and I decided to tickle his feet a little to make him smile, when much to our delight he started giggling-a lot. He's done it once or twice before, but never for very long. I didn't think anything could compare with his little grins, but his giggles certainly do:) Kelly is the best at bringing out the best in the little guy. Enjoy!

It was a beautiful spring morning...

and not knowing quite what the day would hold for him, Asher decided to spend some time with his good friends Nigel, Jeffe, Panda and Squeak. They had, after all, been so diligent in watching over him as he slept the night before that he thought it a good idea to pay them a friendly visit on the floor of the living room on the blue blanket where they often got together.

"Beautiful morning, isn't it?" Asher said cheerfully. "Have you all had your breakfast? I had mine at 5:30 this morning, but I was a bit peckish durning the night and so I had a snack at 12:30am and 3:30am as well and I felt much better after that....Did you all sleep well?" Asher's friends were oddly silent this morning, but thinking that perhaps they had not gotten a snack last night and that they might be out of sorts, he thought it best to change the subject.


"Panda, your fur is looking very nice today, very fluffy. My hair gets fluffy too after I get a bath, but not so nice and fluffy as yours. And I do quite like the color of your spots Jeffe, they suit you. Your stripes make me smile Nigel. And Squeak your tail is looking quite curly." Still, none of his friends replied and Asher started to feel a bit uneasy, as though something were not quite right. Nothing bad of course, Nigel's grin told him that much, but still, he wasn't quite sure what was going on.

"Say, is everything all right, friends?" Asher asked. Still there was no answer. Then he hear a faint shuffle as Squeak made the first move.

Then, before he knew what was happening, in a flurry of black and white and blue, yellow and brown, fur and fuzz, Asher was attacked!

 "WE LOVE YOU!" His friends cried as they piled on him in a giant, fluffy, fury, stripey hug.








"Isn't it wonderful to have such good friends!", Asher thought to himself as they tumbled off of him.

It was going to be a good day.

The Beard... Almost

Well this is about 9 days and that's probably as long as its going to ever get. I am also covered from head to toe in river water residue and sweat after a week long rafting trip. Esther would like me to point out that it was a little bushier than it looks in the pictures :) Maybe some day I will try for real.

Yeah, I'm a new Mom

It's taken a few months, but I think I'm finally distinguishing myself as a new mother. I've been working long hours to get the circles under my eyes just the right shade of dark and baggy. I have no qualms against putting my hair up in a bun or pony tail when its still wet and letting it stay that way all day; I have reached a new level of enlightenment concerning makeup-ie, it's mostly just for Sundays. I've been perfecting the art of deflecting spitup from the burp rag onto my shirt and pants so I get those nice white patches in the most random of places. When you talk to me or ask me a question, I can give you a glazed over look and ask you to repeat everything at least twice, and when we're done with our conversation you'll be satisfied to know that I probably comprehended a quarter of it and remember less. I'm qualified to accurately rate a blowout on a scale of 1-10, and can testify to the fact that a baby can in fact pee on his own head, and beyond. I can now talk to adults in baby talk. Walls and closed doors don't frighten me anymore, I can crash into them anytime without hesitating (not while holding the baby of course). I am fine tuning my bink radar, I can sense where it is from a mile away-heaven forbid it ever gets that far. I can anthropomorphize like you wouldn't believe, some of my best conversations are with stuffed animals-(a shout out here to Nigel The Sock Monkey and his delightful British accent). I've almost memorized two entire books, classics at that.* I have taken up songwriting-they have no distiguishable tune, they don't really rhyme and I can't sing them again the same way twice. I'm becoming increasingly ambi and pedi dextrous. And the list goes on I'm sure, but my brain knows when to stop thinking-its top notch, it's even developed a "Random Shut Off" mode that can be engaged several times a day.

*Good Night Moon and Freight Train

Bragging sarcasm aside, I absolutely love being a mom, even with all the hard or seemingly less than convenient things that come with the territory, I wouldn't have it any other way. One smile from Asher is enough to make me forget that I'm not in perfect condition mentally and physically, and enough to make me happy to continue on that way if it means I get him in my life forever. He's getting so big and cute! The other day I was giving him a bath and he started giggling when I was washing his little feet. It was his first giggle (at least while he was awake, he laughs in his sleep sometimes) and it made my week. I'm glad he's ticklish, it will make for many fun times ahead. He's started reaching for things, but is still a little unsure of his ability to control his hands, its funny to watch his little mind putting two and two together. I'm pretty sure he's going to be right handed-no big suprise there, its just neat that you can tell so early.

In other news, I'm so glad to have Kelly home after a week of rafting on the Green River (poor Kelly, I know). I'll ask him if he'll post about it and put up some pictures of his trip and most especially of his awesome beard, I made him take a picture of it for his brother Ryan's sake. It was hard to have Kelly gone so long, but Asher and I got to spend a few days out at my parent's house in Stansbury, where Grandma Morris was really helpful in taking care of Asher. She also introduced him to Fox News on the big screen (he was captivated)-thanks Mom:) Anyhow, like I said, I'm so glad Kelly is home, Asher and I both missed him a ton! He came back right in time for his first Father's Day. I helped Asher make him a little card that said, "I may be just a little guy, but I sure know a lot...I know you're the best Dad ever!" I got Asher to hold it in his hand long enough for Kelly to take it from him, it was really cute.

I sense the Random Shut Off mode starting up in my brain, so this will be all for today. Thanks for reading!

Asher Update

Asher is now two months old. His most recent accomplishments include smiling (a lot), rolling from his front to his back a total of eight times, and rolling from his back to his front once (just got lucky on that one).

One year down, forever to go :)

Well, we made it a whole year of being married! Kelly and I decided it was so great we'd try for another year, and another and another-ok, so we actually decided on eternity together and we celebrated that decision's one year anniversary by putting our health at risk and eating a piece of our wedding cake. It had been frozen in my parent's fridge, biding its time there and fighting against freezer burn for this moment. I'm happy to report that it was edible and neither of us are ill (yet).

It has been a wonderful first year of marriage, filled with a lot of love, laughter, and learning and we're happily looking forward to the years to come!

Asher's Life

Just some more photos in the life of one month old Asher

Asher's Baby Blessing

Asher was blessed at home on April 16th 2011. It was wonderful to have so much family in attendance. The company was great, the food was delicious and it was a gorgeous day despite a weather forecast for rain.

New Title

Esther and Asher decided that the previous title didn't really work for them, so we are trying on something a little less out there. We hope you will read despite the changes.

Be Happy! (or not)

Just a quick video clip for the history books.

For Starters: An Explanation...

So... for those of you that may be reading this, i.e. those that know Kelly and I pretty well, you may be wondering about the fantastic name of our blog. I promise its meaning is not based in sci-fi, fantasy or heaven forbid anime. It turns out that with the power of our three name meanings combined you come up with a really awesome/dorky blog title. :) We both look forward to adding many posts in the future!