Choo Choo

A package came in the mail yesterday. It was a surprise from Nanna and it was BIG. I had to wait for Glenn to get home because I couldn't carry Tate and the package up the stairs at the same time. Tate was pretty excited when he found out what it was.

He found the little box with cars and trains and started pushing them around immediately.

He called the table a castle and wanted to climb around in it while Daddy was building it. Then when he figured out what it really looked like he could hardly wait to get in there.
Little Man stood there intently playing with his trains for quite a while. He was so focused he couldn't even answer any of my questions or talk to me. He just wanted to keep pushing his trains through the bridge over and over.

This set is amazing. It's just the right height for Tate and it has a bridge, a big hill, an airport, a farm with animals, an airplane, helicopter, tractor, trains, trucks, an ambulance, a firetruck and tons and tons of other little pieces. It's going to be very well loved and played with for a very long time.

First thing in the morning Tate wants a drink of milk. It's an urgent need most every morning. Not this morning. Tate woke up and as soon as he saw me he said, "Train! Train set! Train! Train!" He couldn't wait to get out and play with it. He didn't remember that he wanted his morning cup of milk for about half an hour.

It took a while but we finally got Tate to listen to us long enough to say thank you! So THANK YOU NANNA! Or as Tate says, "Nake you!"

Control

So maybe I like control. I've been doing a really good job, for me, adjusting to our move here. It's three weeks later and today I'm starting to break down a little bit. This is hard. I've been positive. I've made the best. I've been outgoing, and today I'm tired.
It's a number of things really. My sweet Tate has turned into a food and tantrum throwing mess the last few days. I hope that he's getting new teeth. I hope that he's feeling under the weather because those things will pass whereas if this is a personality shift I'm in trouble. I'm trying to cut the kid a break because I did just take him away from everyone and everything he's familiar with, and he does still have so so many sweet moments. I'm just not used to him being so picky and whiney all the time.
I think it all boils down to this: I can't control my life right now. I can't control where we're going to live in 6 or 12 or 18 months. I can't control how many close friends I have here. I can be outgoing and try to put myself out there. (It kind of feels like I'm dating again. Who will be a good match for me? Can I have your phone number? Where are you from? How many kids are in your family? Wanna have dinner sometime?) But ultimately, it just takes time to make real connections and real friendships with people. I can't control what Tate will eat or how many times he spits things out down his clothes and onto the floor right after his bath, though I do try.

Through all of this, I've found that I enjoy my exercise so much more. That's why I'm committing to training for a half marathon. I'm recording it, I'm committing. I've been training for about three weeks with the attitude of, "I'll try it and see how hard it is. I don't know if I really want to run 13 miles. Who wants to do that? I just won't tell anyone in case I decide not to." I want to do it. Not because I like running. I don't. I really like the feeling when I'm done but honestly, I have a hard time pushing myself very hard or very far. It's all a mental game and it's hard. But I like being able to exercise and it's the easiest way to exercise with Tate because I just push him in our jogging stroller. I've been running for over a year and my body can take it. It's starting to get easier. I want to be able to push myself that hard. I want to be able to tell my son that he can run and be in good shape because I can do it. I don't love to run, but lately, in my out of control state, I'm really enjoying the feeling of pushing my body harder and farther. I tell it not to stop and it won't. I tell myself to ignore that little voice telling me how bored I am and how I'm tired and would like to just stop, and then I just ignore it.
So now I'm committed. I'm going to run the Galveston Seawall half marathon on November 20th and as of today, with my run of the day complete, I'm feeling optimistic.

I know the adjustment will continue to get easier. It really hasn't been too bad. Today has just been rough and thus the venting.

Fun at the Beach

Glenn gets off work at noon every Friday which means we get wonderfully long weekends! This last Saturday we decided to check out the beach so Glenn did some research on good beaches and we drove down to Galveston.

We got in our suits and as soon as Tate saw the water he just took off. He ran right into the water, walked around, dug up handfuls of mud, splashed and didn't want to come out. Then he played with his new beach toys (purchased on super sale at Walmart. One time that I was grateful for the ridiculously early season changes at retail stores.) He played with his new shovel and dump truck and sand molds for hours. He was in heaven. It was so fun to sit in the sand by him and watch him enjoy himself. Every once in a while he would look at his hands then look up at us and say, "Muddy. Muddy." There were "she shells", birdies, lots and lots of dirt, other kids to play with, people flying kites, and these crazy things called waves that would knock him over in the water. It was a day full of discovery.

Silly boy was so busy playing that he wouldn't even stop to eat lunch or take a drink.

On our way home we drove over a bridge and we told him to look out the window at the ocean. He looked out the window and exclaimed, "Huge, huge water!" What a great day!

Birthday Celebration

Glenn's birthday celebration started with Tate and I bringing a cake to his work on Thursday. It was nice to see where he works and meet some of the people he'll be working with. Mostly, we wanted to embarrass Glenn and let everyone know it was his birthday. What's a birthday without a little embarrassment?

Then Friday he worked a half day and then we took off for Dallas. Glenn found out that the Red Sox were playing the Rangers, so of course he wanted to go see them play for his birthday. It was a longer drive than we thought, but it was bearable. Our good friends the Jenkins live just outside of Dallas and were nice enough to ask us to stay with them. We were running a little late and then Tate threw up all over the place so we called Sterling and he drove down to meet us at a gas station and he and Glenn ended up going to the game while I took Tate back to their house to clean up the mess. It was so so great to see them again and especially nice to have a place to do laundry and clean up the car and car seat. It worked out perfectly that Glenn still had someone to go to the game with when Tate was feeling icky.

Tate had a blast playing with Molly and Calvin. They had a little sand box on their balcony which he thought was the coolest.

Molly showed us her many different smiles she saves especially for the camera.

Then we put the Tate and Calvin to bed and Liz and I stayed up talking for hours. It was so fun.

Glenn and Sterling had a great time at the game. They saw some empty seats in a lower section and continued to move down until they ended up four rows behind the Sox dugout. The game was great. It lasted 11 innings and had something like 9 home runs. Very exciting. It was perfect for Glenn's birthday. Of course, the red sox ended up losing but the guys had a great time.

Saturday morning we had a great breakfast with the Jenkins and then went to a nearby splash pad. This was the first time we'd taken Tate and he was really hesitant at first. He's been such a wimp lately about getting water in his face, but by the end of our play time he was walking around getting squirted and splashed like a champ.

The Jenkins were amazing hosts. Liz even made Glenn a baseball birthday cake.

We had a blast. It was so nice to see the Jenkins family again. It's only been a few months but it was crazy to see how much their kids have grown. And it was so fun to spend time with them and catch up.

Tate had another melt down on the way home. We thought he was going to blow again. We had to stop and get him some milk, even though he just finished some, because he was so so mad.

Here is his little puffy face post freakout.

It was a very fun and eventful weekend!

Bad Luck

Glenn has been an amazing good sport for the past two years and taken the bus to school. It has been at least a 40 minute ride and as much as an hour and a half on bad days with traffic. So a couple of weeks ago he finally got what he deserved. His own new car to drive to work! He'd been test driving for a while, but he always knew what he really wanted. A Honda Accord. It's actually a dark grey but it looks black in this night time picture.He's seriously in love with his new car. It's exactly what he wanted, it's pretty zippy, and it's very nice inside. That's why our latest streak of bad luck unleashing itself on Glenn, and more specifically, on his car, has been so sad.

We decided to have the movers move Glenn's car. It was an option and we figured it would be nice to drive together and only put the miles on one car, etc. As the movers were loading it on the truck the ramp slipped just enough that the car smashed against the side of the truck. They tried to correct it, but what resulted was a huge scratch in the side of the car. Their insurance will take care of it. But it was still pretty sad after not even owning the car for a week!

Then on Glenn's second day of work he caught a huge rock in the middle of the windshield resulting in a rock chip almost as big as a penny.

THEN as we were driving to Dallas this last weekend for Glenn's birthday (more details to come) I was trying to keep Tate happy in the back seat and we were watching little videos of him on my camera and he just errupted. It was so so very much vomit. It was a lot and it was over and over again. He probably threw up 4-5 times in a row and by the time we could pull the car over his car seat was soaked and it had run down the cracks, through the back, and down the sides and all over the car. It was just pouring down into the seat belt slots. So gross. We have no idea what happened because Tate didn't throw up again. We think he must have just been car sick. Glenn was a great sport. We had to adjust our plans a bit but we eventually got it cleaned up. Now his car smells great again.

And finally, to conclude (hopefully) this string of bad luck Glenn got a brand new phone for his birthday on Friday. It was very nice and very high tech and exactly what he wanted. He did research on services that are the best in the places he will be traveling for work this year and found the perfect phone. He played with it all weekend and uploaded apps and all sorts of other things. And then on Monday he took it to work and it got stolen. Ah...good times. Luckily we got insurance on it so they're going to get us another one eventually (it's on back order), after we pay a nice deductible of course.

28

Happy Birthday honey! Today, my man turns 28! I have a feeling it's going to be a great year.

We just wanted to tell you thanks for being such a dedicated, serious minded, hard worker, teaching us all the things in life that really matter, showing us by example how to lighten up, slow down, and enjoy the good things in life,

spending real quality time with us,

sharing so many amazing adventures as a family,

and being an all around fantastic dad and honey!Happy birthday and happy first week at your new job! We're so grateful for all that you do and proud of everything you have accomplished to land yourself such an awesome job. Thanks for taking such great care of us my honey! Have a wonderful day!

Love,

Kim and Tate

New Digs

Here are a few pics of our new place:

View from the entryway. Kitchen directly to the left. Little dining space directly to the right. Master bedroom and bath are to the left after the counter and Tate's room, guest bath, and the third bedroom which we're using as an office/sewing space right now are all to the right past that closet.Nice big family room. The little sun room back there has my piano in a little nook to the left, and Tate's toys in a nook to the right.View of kitchen and front door from the family room. Yes, it's messy and the counters are really cluttered right now. Judge if you must.

Our swimming pool which is just down the stairs from our place. Very nice. Cool fountain, big sloping area meant for lounging in chairs in the water but it's perfect for little man to walk and play around in. The only issue I have with it, and I'm really really hoping it's because something is broken and will be fixed, is that it is warm. I mean like warm bath water warm. Not refreshing in 100 degrees plus humidity. Seriously, something must be broken.

The gym/club house with arcades and pool table is the building to the left. View from the hallway outside our apt. The freeway is on the right and those are some garages. Our garage is literally the very furthest one from us, way down the line there. Hopefully we will be able to change that as others become available because right now we're not parking in it, just using it to store Christmas stuff and winter clothes and such.It's a nice, comfortable and spacious apartment. Anyone wanna visit?

The Move

This was an awesome way to move. Having done it ourselves a couple of times now, it was absolutely amazing having someone else do it for us! Glenn's company paid to move all of our stuff to Houston and it was bliss. Wednesday three movers showed up in this beast. No, we did not fill it. We probably filled 15 feet or so with our stuff and then there was plenty of room for Glenn's car. I mean, if they're going to move a car for us and we can drive together down to Houston then why not take advantage, right? The movers spent the day boxing EVERYTHING in the house. They left out our bed and Tate's crib so we could sleep there that night. We spent the day running errands, going to a movie (thanks Janelle for watching Tate-0) and going to the children's museum with the Cluffs. Tate loved the train set, (The train is through that window and goes around the ceiling of the museum. This is Tate's friend Lizzy, who he recently started calling "lizzy lou")the giant connect four game,
And the fish tank.

When we got home our kitchen looked like this:
our family room

our living room
Tate's room.
It was awesome. I kept thinking, "I forgot to leave this out so it wouldn't get packed away!" But then I'd remember that we're not moving across the country and we would be able to unpack everything in just a couple of days so it was really no big deal.

Thursday the guys showed up at 8 ish and loaded all the boxes and furniture into the truck. We took off to the outlet malls to get out of their way. They were all loaded by noon. The cleaners came at 2 and cleaned for a couple of hours and then we locked up our house, said another tearful goodbye, and drove to Houston. The Cluffs gave us a really sweet moving pack, complete with tissues (certainly came in handy), snacks, new trucks and books for Tate to play with (super thoughful considering all of his were packed away for a couple days), new grocery lists and baby sitter info sheets. It was perfect.

We stayed in a hotel Thursday night, woke up early Friday and as we were getting packed and ready to leave Tate went over to the door, grabbed the doorknob and said, "Home. Home. Go home!" Glenn and I just looked at each other all sad. Sorry buddy. We're not going back home. We're going to a new home. Poor kid has been so confused.

Then we drove to our apartment complex to sign contracts and get keys. Bad news, 18 wheelers are not allowed on the property. The guys were not happy. That meant they had to park the truck outside the gate and carry everything across the lot and then up three flights of stairs to our apartment. Sorry guys. SO SO glad we didn't have to move in all of our stuff up three flights of stairs. Seriously, how lucky are we? It would have been really bad.
We spent the rest of the day unpacking, throwing stuff away, and organizing our new place. Throwing out all the tissue and boxes proved a more difficult process than we had thought because our trash bin is across the complex.

It was seriously a heavenly way to move. Here is Tate checking out the view from his new room. I'll work on taking pictures of our new place today.

Dear Austin, We miss you.

We've moved. We now reside in Houston. It's been a crazy week and a very bitter sweet process. I've been actually categorizing the bitter and the sweet of this experience in my head this past week and this is the list I've come up with.
Bitter:
- Houston is not Austin. I've really grown to love Austin. There are so many amazing parks, cultural events and opportunities, places to swim and shop and eat out. It's big, but not too big. There are tons of trees and it just feels kind of cozy but we still have access to all the great big city perks. It's just a great place to live.
- Leaving so many friends who have become like a second family. Some really close friends. Some amazing people who I look up to and go to for help or just for company. People I completely trust to watch my little boy and little friends he asks for by name, sometimes first thing in the morning. It's so hard leaving that network I've worked so hard to build over the last two years and to start over.
- I miss our home. I have to not think about it or I just start to cry. I miss the beautiful neighborhood, the jogging paths, the swimming pool, the four grocery stores within a 5 minute drive, the outlet malls just up the street, the neighbors who were ready and waiting to help with any problem or question we had. My own space. My own garage. My own little world. The room we painted and decorated to bring our baby boy home to. The room where we paced the floors late at night with our crying newborn baby. The room where I played the piano and Tate danced around. The room where Glenn recovered from his surgery. The kitchen where I learned how to bake really good bread. It was our first home. The first place that really felt like ours. I have so many wonderful, tender, and precious memories in that house. I'm so so grateful for our time there. I miss it.
- I finally had Austin figured out. The freeways, the good places to eat, how to get around, and now I have to start all over in a MUCH bigger place.

Sweet:
- This move means we're on to bigger things in our lives. Glenn purchased a new car (more to come on that later. Good gracious I have so many things to record!). Glenn is finished with his masters degree. He is starting a fabulous new job tomorrow. A job that will be his career, his life for a really long time. It's wierd to be starting a phase of life that will be longer than a year or two. This is big and pretty permanant and it means a steady and comfortable income. That will be so crazy.
- Leaving Austin meant an excuse to see and spend copious amounts of time with great friends to "say goodbye". We only live a few hours away and we do have a house there so hopefully we'll be back for weekend jaunts. I had an extended girl date with my wonderful friend Lindsey, the Cluffs arranged a little going away partay where we were able to see lots of our favorite people, and we spent a few days hanging out with the Cluffs while the movers took over our house. It was awesome.
- It's comforting to look back on our experience in Austin and know that I will become familiar with my surroundings here eventually. I will grow to love this place for the experiences my little family will share here. It seems so foreign now, but so did Austin a couple of years ago.
- While I am so nervous about a lot of things this move means for me, I'm grateful for this time with my little family. Tate and Glenn and I have spent a lot of time together over the last couple of weeks and will continue to be alone a lot of the time until we get ourselves committed to various activities around here. I love the closeness that this experience brings us. We're really all we've got down here for a while. That's kinda nice.

Lake Powell 2010

Week three of our marathon vacation: Glenn flew straight home from Vegas to finish thesis revisions and I went back to Utah to chill with the fam on our fabulous Lake Powell vacation. Nanna and Grampa have a time share in a house boat and we've been every year since...well, for a really long time. This year was super fun because EVERYONE was able to come. Mal home from her mission, Cody and Aubry and their two girls, Adam and Camarie, of course Nanna, Grampa and Kenzie, AND Aunt Kimber with her three kiddos! It was a fantastic time.

We drove down on Sunday and got everything situated and unpacked and enjoyed a night in the slip with the AC. Then on Monday we took the boat out and found a great spot really close so it wasn't too crazy to drive back at the end of the week, a major concern for my dad, seen here snuggling with his favorite grandson. I can say that for sure because he's only got one so far.Those first couple of days were filled with tons of swimming out the back of the houseboat, great rides on the speedboat that greatly aided with naptime

A wee bit of tubing, (Adam showing off his skills, Camarie, and Kenzers)

and of course, feeding the gross carp at the marina store. Also known as "Whoa, Big Fish."Tate started throwing up on Tuesday night. It just kept coming. He probably let loose 6 or 7 times that one night and was up in the night to boot. I thought he was better the next morning so I gave him some juice. My mistake. He just barfed it all up and then after a minute or so he looked at my shirt, pointed his little finger at it and said, "agusting!" Yes, Tate, that was disgusting.

I really wasn't too worried for the first few days. He'd never really been sick. Never had a real cold or flu before so I figured he was due and it wasn't much to worry about. He just spent most of the time in a diaper or swimming suit so as not to get too hot and although his whining when we were eating and he couldn't was pretty sad, ("pancakes, eggs, french toast, cereal, please, please.") he was really a trooper.

The rest of the fam came on Wednesday so as not to miss a full week of work and school and Tate was in heaven with so many kids to follow around. He loved Mya of course and he constantly hit Maggie for some reason. And he found Janie and Charlie absolutely fascinating. In fact, we were at a car dealership this week (another story entirely) and he met a girl and boy in the toy area and he kept following them around calling them Charlie and Janie. So sweet.
The kids had a blast watching movies on the little DVD player, swimming, climbing off rocks, tubing, and jumping off rocks too. I was reminded how gutsy little Charlie is. It's kind of cool and also freaky that he has no fear whatsoever. Is that what I'm in store for raising my own little boy?Seriously, the boat had some kind of sleeping power over the kiddos. They all fell asleep minutes into every ride we took.

Little Maggie, swimsuit bummies don't get much cuter than this:Little man Tate continued to vomit everything we put in him and he got more and more snuggly as the week went on. Auntie Mallory loved it. He was just a limp, sweet, tender little kid after a few days. It was SO nice that he wanted to be snuggled all the time, but pretty sad that my active little boy truly didn't want to do anything else.We all managed to have a great time despite the fact that people kept dropping like flies. It was like we had our own little plague. Mom got sick on Wednesday. On Thursday night little Mya started throwing up. Every 15 minutes. All night long. Poor little thing. Then Kenzie tossed it too. I sat up thinking to myself, "Who is going to go next?"
Poor little Tate got really good recognizing when he was going to lose it. The first few days he just tossed it out and was surprised after it happened. But after a few days he would tell me when he was, "all done mom" after he'd heaved or thrown up a few times. So so sad. By Friday he looked like this:Days of throwing up left him totally exhausted and visibly thinner too. Friday was the first time I got nervous. He slept all day. His body was limp and loose and I couldn't get him to wake up and open his eyes for more than a few minutes at a time. All day long. It was scary. So we took him to the medical clinic in Bullfrog to have him looked at. The doctors were nervous and called in another doctor to take a look at him too. They said it might be wise to take him to the hospital, but they wanted to try to wake him up and get him to eat something while they watched for an hour or so. We hadn't been able to get him to eat or drink anything for a couple of days so we laughed at them a little but then Tate sat up, at a popsicle and kept it down for an hour and they told us that he had turned a corner and we should be fine. Mom and I didn't buy it and just waited for him to toss it all up again but he never did. He didn't throw up again after that. It took almost 5 days to get him to eat and drink normally, I guess I would be the same after a whole week of vomiting, but he's fine now.

We took him to the doctor here in Austin the day we got home. He weighed 25 lbs and 3.5 oz. at his 15 month visit and at his 18 month he only weighed a flat 25 pounds. He'd lost a few ounces from his weight a few months ago. Dr. was worried that it couldn't have all been from just being sick for one week. I just thought, "You didn't see how much he threw up then did you?"

Anyway, it was actually a great week. Just the right amount of sunshine to get a little color but not be miserable outside all day, the food and company were great of course, and it was just so much fun to be back there. We didn't get to go last year and I forgot how gorgeous it is there. It was wonderful just to be in nature, swimming every day, and lounging around in one of the most beautiful places God has created.

It was a wonderful week to spend with the fam. Thanks everyone for helping me out so much with 1 barfing little one and no husband. It was so great that everyone just jumped up and started grabbing towells and bowls and rags to clean up when they heard the gagging start. Truly amazing. That's love folks!