A luxurious night

Right now I'm laying in my bed, propped up by a couple pillows, with Sadie laying next to me sleeping. It's almost like the perfect setting, except Sadie keeps farting. The only reason I'm afforded this luxury is because Jeff has a nasty cough, and has to sleep in the living room. His coughing makes me feel like I'm being infested with germs, and I have to stop breathing. I should be going to sleep now, but I've been taking naps off and on all day. I've gotten to the point in my pregnancy where moving at all is almost impossible. I don't know if I'm low on iron or if I've just been lacking sleep, because I can feel all of Jeff's spit falling on my face as he coughs next to me. I have lost all my energy. I can't even carry a laundry basket downstairs right now, and that means that out of the two outfits that fit me, sometimes neither one of them are clean, and I can't get dressed at all. Not that it matters, because going somewhere means I have to put makeup on, which makes my arms tired. Jeff thinks that this means I'm in the final stages before I go into labor, which is probably true, because I'm having contractions all day long. We're in a real predicament, though. If I go into labor before Jeff gets over his sickness he's not going to be able to come to the hospital with me. I try to imagine that I'm going to be feeling so good with my epidural that I won't mind, but I think I really will. Plus, if I go into labor before January 1st then our insurance deductible won't have started over yet, and it will cost us $400 that we could have saved. I only pretend to care about this part for Jeff.

Tonight we put Grace's little kitchen together. It's the Christmas present I'm most excited about. She's going to love it, and I can't wait to see her see it on Christmas morning. We've been trying to start some traditions this year, now that Grace is a little older, and can understand things. I bought her a little book about the reason we celebrate Christmas. It's really short and simple, so it's perfect for her. She loves reading it, and brings it to me all day long. We also want to do some kind of service on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. We want to make sure our kids grow up knowing how good it feels to help someone else. I feel like I'm more excited about Christmas now than I was when I was little. Christmas morning cannot come soon enough.

Sorry I don't have any pictures to post. I did get pictures of Grace after she tried to paint her own nails yesterday, but getting up to get the camera would probably take me longer than it took to write this whole blog post. 

A Christmas Emergency

I'm starting to panic about Santa. At what age do you start teaching your kids about Santa? Like how long can I go without it? I'm really bad at telling lies. It's almost painful for me. I actually perfer the awkwardness of the truth. Always. What if my kids catch me in the lie? How much time are we going to spend on something, every Christmas, that's totally made up? It seems so wrong. I don't want my kids to be those weirdo's at school who don't participate in regular traditions, but Santa is just so much work. I want my kids to understand the real reason we celebrate Christmas. Not just some made up story to keep them behaving all year round. And I want all the credit for the presents they get each year. Is there some alternative? Would it be weird to tell them that Santa fills our stockings, and that's it? Will they get confused when they talk to other kids about Santa? Help me.

A Christmas Miracle

A miracle has taken place in our family. If you've read my previous posts about sleep deprivation you know that we've struggled with Grace's sleep habits for pretty much her whole life up until this point. We started out with her in a bassinet next to our bed. I'd wake up and feed her throughout the night, and then put her back in the bassinet when she fell asleep. After only a few days she quit going back to sleep very easily. I'd be up with her for hours in the middle of the night singing and swearing and rocking her back to sleep. I couldn't take this anymore, so I started laying in our bed while she nursed, and just falling asleep. This worked like a charm. She'd wake up and eat a few times throughout the night, but I'd mostly sleep through it, and she'd go right back to sleep herself. Once she started getting a little bigger, and moving more I decided we needed a new arrangement. Our bed was only a full size, and someone was always getting pushed off. I started nursing and rocking her to sleep in her room. and then putting her down in her crib, and that worked for a while, but then she started waking up when I laid her down, and she ended up back in our bed again. That's about the time that I got pregnant. I was exhausted, and struggling with morning sickness. Her kicking me in the stomach in bed was the last straw, and I got really desperate. I tried several different things to get her to sleep in her own bed, and through the whole night. I'd always been against crying it out, but I was willing to try anything, so I started putting her down with some lavender oil in the humidifier, and just letting her cry. This actually worked really well. I think that by this time she was old enough to understand bed time, and she didn't have any doubts that me and Jeff were there to take care of her no matter what. We had let her run the house up until this point, and I sort of realized that we were the problem, not her. We had never taught her proper sleep habits. We let her run her own schedule, which resulted in all of us being over-tired, and miserable. Sometimes what's best for your child will not make them happy in the moment, and I needed to learn that. All of the details of what happened between now and then are a blur, but for the last 2-3 weeks we have been telling Grace it's time to go to sleep, giving her hugs and kisses, laying her down in her crib with her baby, stuffed puppy, and blanket, and leaving. Every night she tells us, "Bye" and "Love you," and I don't hear a word from her again until morning. Today I did the same for nap time. I wish I knew exactly what combination of things made this possible, so I can repeat it with the next one, but I almost think that God is just making up for my own parenting mistakes, and giving us a little break. We really needed some structure, and I had been praying for a solution to Grace's sleep issues. I didn't know how I was going to handle a newborn baby while still having to take care of Grace throughout the night. Problem solved.

Christmas and Babies and Barfing

I've all but given up on blogging, but I'm back because Grace is asleep, Jeff is at work, and I've already watched 6 episodes of Jon and Kate Plus 8. I've been meaning to write a little update on our lives, but my memory only goes back about 2 days, so here is an update of the last 2 days. I threw up 12 times. I'm not exaggerating this time. Did I get enough g's in that word? Spell check takes too long. Anyway, stomach flu from hell. First Grace, then me, then Jeff. All in a matter of 24 hours. We had to call both our mom's to come take care of us. I don't know what we would have done without them. Today I'm feeling much better, and I've already disinfected everything. I've gotten obsessed with cleaning. Like I can't stop. Jeff keeps telling me I need to cut back, and not in a caring, thoughtful way. In a mad way. It's giving me contractions. Not those braxton hicks I'm always hearing about, but real ones, and if I don't take it easy we're going to have an early baby. So I really need to stop. But can I just admit how nice it would be to get this birth thing out of the way? I've never been more excited to go to the hospital. I black friday shopped for all of Henry's newborn clothes, I've finished the nursery, weaned Grace off of breastfeeding, and packed our hospital bag. There's nothing left for me to do now, but clean insanely, and have a baby. I'm just 2 days shy of 33 weeks, so we're almost there.

I'm so excited for Christmas this year! I don't think I've been this excited since I was little. I started decorating the day after Thanksgiving, and haven't really stopped since. I love our Christmas living room. It feels so cozy to me. We've actually completely finished christmas shopping already. This year we wanted to consentrate on not overspending, so we decided to get ourselves a camcorder that we've been much needing, and then just do stockings. For me and Jeff at least. For Grace we got lots of clothes, and some really fun toys. I can't wait for her to get up on Christmas morning and see all her new things. She absolutely loves getting new things. It's sweet how much she appreciates getting a new toy, no matter how small it is. Now that we have a camcorder I will post some videos of her. She's getting so big. She's such a good little girl. She's extremely helpful, and I love spending my days with her. I'm a little worried about how she will react to sharing attention with a new baby, but I'm trying to talk to her about it and prepare her as well as I can. I probably should have gotten a book on how to best go about that, but I'm not that responsible, so we'll just take it as it comes. Hopefully the next time you hear from me it will be announcing that our new baby is here. Happy Christmas!

Feed me more candy

This Halloween season has been so eventful that today at Costco I kept asking Jeff why they were still selling costumes. I thought it was over. I only just realized that Halloween isn't even until next week. I also just remembered that Grace has a bucket full of Halloween candy in the cupboard. I never knew how fun Halloween was until I became a mom. My mom never let me go trick or treating, because she thought it was rude, so I'm like one of those deprived kids that goes crazy when they are allowed some freedom. Like today I ate 3 doughnuts, and 2 candybars. I'm eating for 2, though, so really it's like I ate 1 1/2 doughnuts and 1 candybar.

So far this month we've gone to the pumpkin patch, carved pumpkins, made lots of hot chocolate and sat by the fire, gone to Jeff's work party, a friend's party, the ward trunk or treat, and had a birthday party for Sadie with the neighbors. Have I ever mentioned that her birthday is on Halloween? Awesome. I don't have any pictures of any of these activities. I'm so bad at taking pictures when there's stuff going on. But I will post our recent pics of sitting around at home, doing nothing, because that is when I think to take a picture.

 

This is Grace's costume. A garden gnome.

 

I don't know why, but I think Grace sitting at the table in the morning, eating her breakfast is the cutest thing ever. I think half the pictures I take are just of this.

Hi Sophia

The other day I bought Grace a toy dog at DI. I don't usually buy toys at DI, because they're disgusting, but ever since Jeff put me on a budget I started being more responsible with money I've been getting really bored. I decided to go find some old furniture to refinish and sell for way more than it's worth, so I could buy myself some new fat maternity clothes. While we were there Grace fell in love with this little dog toy. I could tell it was supposed to talk and stuff, but there weren't any batteries. We brought it home, and put batteries in, but it still didn't work, so I said a swear word, and then went about my day. Later while I was in the bathroom doing my semi anual toenail painting I heard this child talking. I stopped and listened, and distinctly heard someone saying, "You take such good care of me Sophia." I came out to find Grace holding her DI dog, and laughing. Apparently it's one of those things you can plug into your computer, and program to say your kids name and stuff. So now all day long I hear about this Sophia person. It's creepy and funny at the same time. Sadie hates it. She gets super jealous when I touch it, and starts barking and growling. Sometimes I see her run by at full speed, with it in her mouth, whipping it back and forth.

 

"Brush me Sophia."

Things that make me want to not have any more kids

Dumping milk on the dogs head

Stealing all of my food, and then saying thank you.

Hearing "Mommy" over and over all day long as if it is the word to use for everything.

Hearing the word "Ew" which means that Grace has pooped, and it's coming out her pants.

Playing with dog poop in the backyard.

Asking for cheese, and then feeding it to Sadie. Actually asking for anything, and then feeding it to Sadie.

Falling asleep with Grace in our bed, and being kicked all night.

Grace asking to be picked up after I've made her upset about something, so she can hit me in the face.

That hand that's always groping my boob in public.

Screaming in church when everyone is quiet, and then laughing.

Finding KY and using it as lotion.



And....our latest pictures. Lagoon, pumpking carving, and our new favorite activity-fires. No pictures of me, because pregnancy makes me too fat.

Thou Shalt Not Kill

Yesterday in primary we learned about the ten commandments. One of the kids in my class raised his hand and said, "If you kill someone with their head off, and then you eat it then it's called the hunger games." I have the best children in my class. So spiritual.

Vitamin D

I tried putting a new background on my blog the other day, and all hell broke loose. Why are there random birds at the top of my page now? I hate them. I hate the whole computer. Anyway, here's a good article about Vitamin D and vaccinations.

Twenty reasons why vitamin D is better than a swine flu vaccine
By: Mike Adams
Source: Natural News
Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:29:18 CST


The news is out: Vitamin D is better than the swine flu vaccine at halting H1N1 infections. In fact, without vitamin D, chances are that a vaccine won't generate much of an immune response in the first place.

That's because vitamin D is essential for healthy, active immune function. That's just one of the reasons smart people are choosing vitamin D instead of the swine flu vaccine. Here are nineteen more reasons:

#1 Vitamin D activates your immune system to respond to any viral exposure (not just one virus).

#2 Vitamin D naturally belongs in your body.

#3 Vitamin D has been functioning as medicine in the human body since the beginning of the human species.

#4 Vitamin D is available right now and there's no shortage of it.

#5 Vitamin D won't cause your brain to swell and put you into a coma.

#6 Vitamin D doesn't require an injection with a scary needle.

#7 Vitamin D is found naturally in many foods such as sardines or salmon.

#8 Vitamin D has a perfect safety record. No one ever died from consuming it.

#9 Vitamin D is affordable. You can even get it for free (from sunlight).

#10 Vitamin D doesn't contain viral fragments from diseased animals (like vaccines often do).

#11 Vitamin D doesn't contain thimerosal or other chemical preservatives.

#12 Vitamin D doesn't need a warning sheet describing possible side effects.

#13 Vitamin D doesn't hurt your arm when you take it.

#14 Vitamin D also improves sugar metabolism, bone density and healthy moods.

#15 Vitamin D is safe for the environment.

#16 Vitamin D doesn't contain squalene or other inflammatory adjuvant chemicals.

#17 Vitamin D works on everyone and is safe for everyone, including infants and children.

#18 Vitamin D is made in nature, not a laboratory.

#19 Vitamin D is found naturally in breast milk.

#20 You can walk, and chew gum, and generate vitamin D from sunshine all at the same time!

Skip the vaccine. Get more Vitamin D!

http://www.naturalnews.com/027385_Vi...u_vaccine.html

I hate you blogger.

Title

I've started putting Grace to bed without feeding her to sleep first. So far tonight she has been crying for 12 minutes. I have visions of breastfeeding two babies at the same time and waking up with both of them all night long. I'm afraid if I don't do something quick I'm going to be one of those mom's with crazy hair that yells all the time. I should have been working on this for the last few months, but it's hard for me to not let Grace nurse when she wants to. For now I'm just working on getting her to go to sleep on her own, and then we'll work on weaning completely. I started out with Grace very unorganized and completely without structure. I thought it would be better that way, and everybody knows I can't plan more than 5 minutes in advance anyway. It turns out that I was wrong. As usual. Now I'm stuck nursing all the time, and never knowing when bedtime is. People with kids Grace's age always ask me how many naps she takes, and how many hours she sleeps. I don't know the answers to any of those questions. She sleeps when she sleeps, and I can't remember how many hours that is from one day to the next. Now we are working on a routine, which I've always heard is good for kids. I think the truth is that it's good for parents. I now at least have Grace on a regular nap schedule, and it's been so nice! I can actually plan on having 2 hours to myself every day. To myself means picking up dog poop in the yard and doing laundry. Poor Grace had to be our trial baby. Now that we've made all the mistakes we know what to do better with the next one. Speaking of the next one, his room is almost finished, and I'm so in love with it. I hope he likes it. If not, then he obviously has no style.

I have officially switched doctors, and hospitals completely. I'm so unimpressed with the nurse midwives in Orem. They aren't midwives at all. They're just nurses, and if that's going to be the case then I might as well use a doctor that's just around the corner. I was starting to feel uncomfortable with delivering all the way down in Orem. What if I don't get there in time for an epidural? What if this baby comes even faster than Grace, and I don't even make it to the hospital in time? Plus Grace will be staying at home with my mom, and she wont be able to visit very easily when I'm so far away. Alta View hospital is just a few blocks away from us, so we have decided to deliver there, and we have heard great things about our doctor there. I feel alot more comfortable with this situation. We're super excited for a new baby in our house. Grace is obsessed with babies, and I know she's going to be such a good big sister.

Lately I've been thinking about how much mom's compare themselves to each other. I do it too. Sometimes I find myself feeling inadequate to raise children. I'm way too irresponsible. I don't even think I'm old enough to have kids. I'm only like 19 in my head. But being a mom is hard enough without having that anxiety. The truth is, we are mostly all good mom's. Different, but good. There are mom's in my ward who stick to perfect schedules, and have perfectly behaved children. There are mom's who have no schedule, and horribly behaved children (I think I'm the only one really in this category). I don't like feeling guilty when my child can't sit still in church, and runs around laughing and screaming instead. During my nephew's baby blessing a few weeks ago Grace was awful. My whole family was there to witness the naughtiness, and were talking about it afterwards. One of my cousins commented that she seemed happy. It's true. She is happy. We have alot to work on, but we're raising a happy child, and that's the most important to me. It's proof that I am a good mom. Even though I don't have a Petunia Pickle Bottom diaper bag. Anyway, Grace has gone to sleep, so it's time for me to eat a big bowl of ice cream, and do a word search. Have a happy week.

So long sweet summer

It's only 9 in the morning, and Grace is already in her pool in the backyard. Naked of course. I'm sad that Summer is ending. We've been spending all our time at the pool or the splash park this last week. It took Grace until now to finally start having fun in the water. This has been an exciting week with Jeff taking his second CPA exam, and me graduating from yoga school. Jeff will find out how he did in two weeks, so keep your fingers crossed! If he passes then he only has 2 more exams left before he's totally done.

I'm sad that my teacher training is over. I feel like I still have alot to learn, but I also feel like I've learned alot, I'm going to try to keep practicing as often as possible. I'm hoping to start an evening yoga class for the ward or stake, so for those of you who can't make it on Saturday mornings this will give you a chance to come.

Grace is getting so smart. She's still in love with her baby. She carries it with her everywhere she goes, and I always hear her saying, "hi baby" while she walks around with it. She bounces it, pats it's back, and tells it "no no" when it's doing something naughty. She's growing up fast. She actually has enough hair for pigtails now, and we're in the beginning stages of potty training.

Also this week, we got our 2nd set of nursery furniture. It took me a while to decide how I wanted to decorate, but I finally have a plan, and I can't wait to start on it! I'll post pictures when it's done. So far I've put the crib together without saying any swear words.

I realize that I never post pictures of anything but Grace, but that's all I've got. I'll try to do better at getting a variety of subjects in my pictures from now on.

Family picnic in Payson Canyon

 

 Swimming at Grandma's

 

 Giving Dad Eskimo kisses

 

 Playing at the splash park

Pardon My French

Tonight was my last yoga class. Thank heavens. I think if I have to do another down dog I'll throw up. Jeff just gave me a celebratory chest bump to the face.

My sister in-law Paulette introduced me to a book called Bringing Up Bebe. It's about an American woman who married a British man, and moved to Paris. When she has a baby she starts noticing the differences in French and American parenting, and how well behaved French children are. She starts researching what they do differently, and altering her own parenting style. The book is awesome, and while reading it I realized that I'm totally a French person. My child is not well behaved, so you'd never guess, but the way they think about parenting, and their methods of raising children are exactly like my own. They are obviously doing a better job, which just makes me hate them, but I'm still happy to know that what I do is actually a real parenting method. They believe in allowing lots of freedom with a few strict rules. No means no, indefinitely. But children should mostly hear yes. They shouldn't be hovered over, and protected from every little harm. They should learn from experience, which means they have to be allowed experience, without constant interference from their parents. They have strict rules around sleeping, eating, and respecting others. As long as those rules are obeyed then the rest is pretty much left up to them. French parents don't worry about damaging their children with every little thing they do or say like American parents do. I love that they laugh at American mom's at the park who run around behind their kids giggling, and narrating everything they do in an awful baby voice. The lady I nannied for in New York actually told me that she wanted me to act more like that when playing outside with the kids. I told her that wasn't my style. Anyway, I'm going to move to Paris, and my kids are going to sit at restaurants and not climb on the table or throw food at me, and they're going to go to bed when I ask them, and not get up until morning. Maybe in Paris everyone will stop talking about Chick Fil A, and glaring at me for sitting on a bench at the park instead of following Grace around making sure she's having fun. Everything is better in Paris.

Things that would be embarrasing. If I did them.

Falling asleep during yoga. Not even during meditation.

If people at the gym could hear the music that I run to.

When our downstairs renter almost catches me in my underwear, but instead just hears me running away from her.

P.S. Grace has added poopy and Jesus to her vocabulary this week.

Smarty Pants

First of all, this...

Grace is getting so smart. Like unnaturally smart. And spiritual. She says 15 prayers a day. I don't even know who taught her to fold her arms and have prayer. It's something we can work on, and now because Grace makes us, we are. She can eat with a fork or a spoon. She feeds herself cereal every morning. She's saying all sorts of words lately. My personal favorite is "baby". She says it every time she sees a baby at the store, or a picture of herself, or one of her nasty dolls. We found out that her little friend in our ward can say her own name now, so I worked on that with Grace, but apparently her name is too hard, so I just taught her her friend's name. That's good enough for now. I can already tell that Grace is going to be a hippie. I always find her outside, naked, eating an apple off the tree in the backyard. I try not to go outside, ever. I feel like as soon as the sun hits me I will throw up or pass out. I've been pretty dramatic about this whole pregnancy thing, and I'm starting to annoy myself, so today went for a walk, and then a bike ride, and then I sat in Grace's pool while Sadie brought me apples off the tree. Sadie is getting smarter too. All this time I thought she was eating apples off the ground, but apparently she jumps up and gets fresh ones off the tree. Maybe she's a germaphobe too. Remember those plants we planted like 4 months ago? We ended up with 4 of them in planter pots. Two tomato plants, one zucchini, and one mystery plant. Everything else is dead, and we have yet to see a vegetable. Gardening sucks.

This whole Chick-Fil-A thing is getting annoying. I'm totally in support of voicing your opinion, no matter how controversial it is. But why is Chick-Fil-A's opinion so controversial? They don't support homosexuality. Who cares. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and I don't know why everyone has to get all judgey about it. Since when do we all have to agree on our beliefs, or bash other people when theirs are different? I'm a Mormon, and I fully support the homosexual's that I know. I don't agree with what they do, but who am I to judge another person and the trial's they have to bear? I feel embarrassed when other Mormon's get all preachy, and start debates with people of other beliefs. You're making the rest of us look bad.

Sweatpants, and dogs and things.

We've been so unhealthy. All I want are treats all the time. The other night I went to Harmons to get us something for dinner, and I came home with cheesecake and blueberry pie filling. I forgot all about dinner. So later when I got hungry I made a bag of microwave popcorn. I know some people who do zumba when they're pregnant. I'm so jealous of them. Are they tougher than me? I hate them. I feel like if I walk down the stairs too quickly things that are supposed to be inside, are going to fall out. If you know what I mean. Sorry. I can't wait to not be pregnant anymore. I feel bad that my family has to live with me. I'm one of those people that wears sweatpants all day. I hate those people.

Grace and I got back from our trip to Oregon late Friday night. We had lots of fun. We stayed with my Grandma and Grandpa, and I loved spending time with them. We also got to spend lots of time with my sister and her family, and take a trip to the beach. Grace was a perfect angel on the flight home, and sat in her own seat reading magazines and eating an entire can of baby cheetos.

All the dog hair in our house has been making me crazy. A couple days ago I brushed Sadie, and pulled out a bucket full of hair, and then gave her a bath and brushed her again. Now she's shedding even worse. I don't know what to do. Every time I put chapstick on, hair floats to me out of the air, and sticks to my lips. Grace's blanket is covered. Our couch is covered. Our food is covered. Yesterday I found my toothbrush in a corner on the kitchen floor in the middle of a hair ball. I was so bugged. Usually that's Jeff's toothbrush. Anyway, I need to go get ready for the day. It is 5:00 after all.

This is our trip in picture form. Minus the pictures I looked bad in.

 Remember this?

The month of July

This month is super busy. Here's a quick update of what we've done so far.

4th of July

Jeff had to work for the first half of the day, so I took Grace and Sadie to Provo, and met my mom for the parade. They both loved it. Grace's favorite part was the fire trucks. We live right by the fire station, so we get to see them pass at least once a day, and Grace gets so excited. I feel weird holding her up to the window to watch when someone else is having an emergency, but she loves it.

After the parade we came home and picked up Jeff from work. We made no plans for the day, so we relaxed for a while, and then decided to have a last minute barbecue. We called Jeff's family, and had them come over for pork chops and corn on the cob. I finally finished the patio dining table, so we ate outside. They left, and we looked up some local fireworks. We found some just up the street by the high school, so we all got in the car with some blankets and pillows and drove over. Grace and Sadie had fun running around with all the kids, but as soon as the fireworks started they both fell asleep.

1

  

On Monday we had Steff's bridal shower. We set everything up outside, and changed the time back a couple hours, so it would be a little cooler, but  I think it was still over 90 degrees when everyone started showing up. They all hid in the kitchen, and would hardly even go out for food. We ended up moving the party inside where it was more comfortable, and it still turned out okay. I should have gotten pictures of everything, but there were so many people there that I hadn't seen for a long time, so I was busy catching up with everyone, and trying to make sure Steffany's Grandma didn't get heat exhaustion. My mom did get a few pictures towards the end, so I'll post them. Sorry for the bad quality.

Wednesday night was the wedding, so we were busy that whole day getting lots of last minute stuff done. The wedding turned out beautiful, and once again, I failed to get any pictures. Steff looked amazing! I'm so happy for her and Michael. Currently they are on their honeymoon in Idaho.

On Sunday me and Grace leave for Oregon to visit family for a week. I'll be flying by myself with Grace, so hopefully she'll behave herself. I can't imagine her sitting still for an entire flight, but it's only an hour and a half, so at least if it's awful it will be over quick. We didn't think Jeff could come, because he's saving his vacation days for when I have the baby, but it turns out he could have come after all. His Grandpa on his Dad's side just passed away. It's a sad time for his family, but also a happy one, because his Grandpa was sick, and suffering alot. He lived with his wife in Washington, so we wouldn't have made it to his funeral, but Jeff still gets a week of bereavement. He's going to take the last couple days of this week off, and then he'll have all of next week off as well. We planned a camping trip at Payson Lakes for the day after we get back from Oregon, and then we'll come home, and celebrate the 24th. That's all. Now I'm going to go clean poop off the couch :)