BEST MORNING EVER!

Between 8 and 9 am today, 3 awesome things happened:

I learned that Micah was awarded an NSF fellowship YAY!

I learned that Aaron Thomas Agle, my sister's little baby, was born! ULTRA YAY!

I left Natalie on my bed to hang out while I took a shower and she didn't start crying hysterically for me to return!

When I came back, it seemed that she had made a new friend: the ceiling fan.

Mold

Just pulled some things out of Natalie's closet and noticed mold on the baseboard that had eaten through 2 posters I had leaning beside it. The baseboard in the bathroom opposite the spot is also discolored and looks like it has gotten wet. Maybe the stuff covering up the place in the closet caused it to get worse because it got no air circulation?

My big question is how water is getting in there to feed the mold. I want to have the HOA look into it because when they sent someone out in December to investigate the leak that made it to our kitchen and living room, he said there were many sign of roof leaks in the attic. Micah said that the guy seemed a bit...er... stupid, and our inspection in July said there was evidence of one leak that seemed old, so we didn't press the issue. Now that this has come up, maybe we should reopen the question of whether the HOA should repair or replace our roof.

In the meanwhile, what can I use to clean/kill the mold that won't stain or bleach the carpet?

What a great week! We were up in NY visiting Darlene and Brooklynn. Here are a few of the highlights:

We played with Brooklynn and made several excursions to various parks. Here, a violin player in Central Park helps Brooklynn play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

We got to hang out with Darlene and hear all of the passers-by ask if she is having twins. Natalie here begs her cousin to come out, telling him how great it is to be alive!

I made a few meals and Micah found a BBQ place in Midtown to eat out one night.

Brooklynn practiced her older sister skills by holding Natalie, wiping her and taking her diapers to the trash, holding toys up to her and so on.

Natalie didn´t mind sitting amung Brooklynn´s stuffed animals, but we sometimes forgot she was there. She blends in a bit.

She smiled a lot this week and spent tons of time just chilling and gnawing on her hands. She is making up for the unusually good behavior by crying constantly today.

I was afraid she would be bad on the plane, but she really seemed to enjoy it:

The Joy of Saving

Natalie's neck is strong enough for her to sit in the bumbo chair!....er....almost....

At 10 wks:

I have started doing coupons this last week. Searched for newspaper inserts at the recycling center, sorted, clipped and thenscoured the local store sales flyers for matches. It really took a lot of time last week (thus the dearth of posting) but I then discovered southernsavers.com this week, a site that basically tells you all the good matchups for the week.

Before, I was really trying to hit the good deals to keep our monthly shopping down to $250 and each week we would be completely out of almost everything when I went to shop again. Now, 2 weeks into the month, I have spent about $110 and our cupboards are full with things to eat, there are at least a week's worth of meals and I am even putting away items for food storage. But the coolest part isn't the little bit of money we're saving but the quality of food I am able to buy. I can get many name brand items for slightly less than generic. Also, we are eating new and yummier things that i never considered buying before because they cost too much. These were 2 of my short shopping trips- the first one was $18.32 after $33.88 savings (fluffy dog not included) and the second was $7.55 after $12.96 savings. I was especially proud of the Smart balance spread I got for $.80, the Stouffer's lasagnas that I got for $2 and the $.60 jar of almonds. I also had coupons to get 6 1/2 gallon cartons of nice milk for $1 (normally 3.95), which I passed along to a sister in the relief society since we're going out of town.

A Lot to Look Forward To

Tummy time for one and all!

Put a neat app on the iPod that plays soothing noises: chirping crickets, waves, and-most importantly-white noise. It is one of the steps to helping soothe the beast so now we have that tool for on-the-go. This picture also, unfortunately, doesn't show off the funny little wrapping job I figured out so that she can be swaddled in her arms and have her legs out to be strapped into the car seat at the same time.

Sammy's liking for Natalie's chair has officially become problematic.

"Gee mom, that was a funny joke! Tell me another one!"

She has been a little more independant and can be left alone with her toys for a little while in the afternoon now. She also has been a lot more talkative.

In other news, we are excitedly looking forward to a week in New York visiting Darlene and Brooklynn starting next Saturday. I lined up a girl from the ward who has a pet sitting buisiness. Hopefully they don't have any maor problems while we're gone. They have 2 kids that are younger than her, but I wrote pretty extensive instructions so hopefully she can keep her siblings in line and they won't stress Sammy out too much with wanting to pet him and be all up in his face.

Also, plans for this summer are coming together. We have commited to renting a place in Boston that we are pretty excited about. It's the bottom floor of a house in a suburban street in Burlington, 5 miles from where Micah will be working. It will be furnished, has 3 bedrooms and a fenced back yard. The price will include all utilities and is only $100/month higher than the cheapest 1 bedroom apt we could find. The only downside is that we won't be able to move in right when Micah starts his intership, we'll have to find a hotel for a week or so until we can move in. Also, this afternoon a woman will be dropping by who might live at our place for the summer. The family from our ward who was going to stay here had to change plans so I posted our place on an lds housing site. This gal from the Atlanta ward contacted me and would like to stay here while looking for a place of her own. Right now she is staying near midtown where she works. I'll get the full story when we meet this afternoon!

All in all, things are going alright, except that Micah is pretty stressed about school. He has tons to do.

The Girl Who Cried Wolf

Other new parents have described the horror of hearing their babies cry after getting shots as pretty traumatic. I was prepared for unthinkable screaming and unreachable, unconsolable misery. One friend, however, concluded that it was good that she finally knew what it sounded like when her baby was crying out of real pain- so that she could worry less when she heard her normal cries.

Unfortunately, when she got her shots today and started crying, I didn´t think it was bad at all. She cries like that all the time, often for no reason. In fact, she cried more when they measured her length when we first got there. So, I assumed that this meant that she was fine and, since she quickly stopped crying and fell asleep, I thought it would be a great chance to go shopping!


I popped over to walmart and had barely started shopping when she started crying. And crying. And crying. I wrapped her, shushed her, swung her, all to no avail. And by the time I got to check out, she was SCREAMING and everyone around was staring at me like I was the worst parent in the world for making my child cry like that. She would not be consoled until she finally fell asleep when we got back home. Then she slept for a while, woke up screaming, screamed until she fell asleep and that´s where we´re at now. I guess that she is affected more by the long-term pain than the sudden pain at the moment of the shots. She is sleeping a lot more than usual and in between sleep she is crying.

Her weight is 11lbs 5 oz and her length is 23 in. She is just right' slightly above average in weight and height. Yay!

In other news, I made fried chicken for the first time. Behold my masterpiece:
Okay, maybe it was a little burned but I don´t have a thermometer and wanted to make sure it was cooked all the way through!

Can I have my honorary southerner card now?