Picking cherries at Green Bluff

Laundry Room Mini-makeover

BEFORE
AFTER I painted it blue, but you can't tell very well from this picture. It's fun having a more colorful room in the house. I usually stick to more "natural" colors, but I'm starting to like blue a lot more lately.

A few pictures

My friend Sarah took some pictures at Build-a-Bear, so thanks to her we have some documentation of Paige's birthday. :)

Paige's Birthday... and a tragedy

These were taken on Sunday before church...

Paige's 4th birthday was yesterday and we had a Build-a-Bear party for her on Saturday. It was fun and she loved it. She had been talking about her party everyday for the last couple months, so it was a much anticipated event. Here's where the tragic part comes in... I just found out that Nate accidentally deleted all of the pictures from the party. I'm so bummed. We used his Blackberry camera to take the pictures and today he tried to transfer them to the computer, but he ended up somehow losing all of them. Wow. He was really upset about it. He spent over 3 hours on the phone with AT&T trying to find a way to retrieve them. Anyway, she had a great birthday party with her cute, little friends. After Build-a-Bear we came back to our house for pizza, a Finding Nemo cake, and Oreo ice cream (all her ideas.) It was a great day. Paige is such a fun, happy girl most of the time. She's really quite hilarious.

I have to tell you a quick story. Today, I freaked out a little (a lot) at Nate because he used my phone to call AT&T and totally refused to give it back to me for over 2 hours, and I was expecting some calls / text messages that were really important and would determine my plans for the evening. So I may have called him a jerk at one point, among other things, and Paige heard me (dang it). So tonight during her bedtime prayer she said, "Help that my mom won't say jerk again. And please forgive her for saying that." Oh man. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. So we had a little talk about how even mommies make bad choices sometimes. Ugh. I hate it when I'm a bad example to my 4 year old.

In the good news department... I ran 12 miles on Saturday morning. Woohoo! 3 more weeks until the half-marathon!

I'm still here

My camera is broken and I'm pretty bummed about it. No camera= nothing much to blog about. I wanted to get some footage of Kate talking and Paige swimming and dancing, but those will have to wait. Here is what's new with us:

Kate had an ultrasound done of her liver yesterday, which was not pleasant. We had to hold her down for 15 minutes and she had to be fasting, so she was not happy to begin with. But the good news is that I just got a call that everything looks normal and healthy. We're so thankful that she is doing so well with her condition.

Paige is doing swimming and ballet lessons, and she loves both of them. She is such a fun, happy, outgoing girl. She has a spicy little attitude, which is funny, but it can also be embarrasing at times. She is my little buddy though, and I treasure our time together when Kate is napping or asleep at night. Paige really needs extra attention because she gets sad whenever we are admiring the things Kate says and does. It's hard to give equal attention all the time, but I'm working on it.

Nate is busy with school and work. He's really enjoying his MBA program, even though he feels over-worked sometimes. He has been considering Medical Sales for quite a while, but he isn't sure if the timing is right for a career change. We'll see...

My Half-Marathon is 4 weeks from tomorrow, and I'm excited/nervous. We are running 10 miles tomorrow morning and that's pretty terrifying, if you ask me. I hope it goes well. The smallest mistake can result in a bad running experience (ie. eating too much, not eating enough, drinking too much, not drinking enough, not enough sleep, a poor-fitting article of clothing, a dead iPod battery, headphones that are too big, I could go on and on...) I'm still learning how to make everything go smoothly.

We are trying to plan a few trips over the next couple months and I'm excited for a change of scenery and something new to do. We're planning on going to Mount Rainier and doing a big train ride around it, and we want to go to Bend Oregon and the Coast too.

First Words

Kate has started to say quite a few words lately. It's so fun everytime she randomly says something new. Here's what she can say so far:

Thank you! = Day doo!

Hi

Hello

Buh Bye

Uh Oh

Mama

Ashley = Ash-ee (How did she learned that? Paige calls me "mom" and Nate calls me "babe")

Paige = Pay

Cheese

Shoe

Banana = Nana

Owie

No

Nose

Stop! = Ssssaw! (when you do something she doesn't like)

What's New

I haven't been able to think of much to blog about lately, which is frustrating. I used to be more open and write more about myself. I guess I just don't feel like anything is blog-worthy lately.

The main things on my mind lately are:

#1. Training for my Half-Marathon (August 6th)

#2. Getting pregnant

#3. Trying to lose a few pounds (surprise, surprise.)

#1. My training is going well, and I'm really enjoying running. I never thought that day would come. Running with friends has made all the difference for me. The longest we've run is 6 miles so far and it was actually one of my most enjoyable runs. Saturday we ran 5 miles and it was really tough for some reason. Every run is so different. I'm so happy to be doing this because I've wanted to do a Half-Marathon for a long time. I love the challenge and it's such a great feeling when you push yourself to do something hard.

#2. About getting pregnant... I'm a nut case. For some reason I've never been able to "relax and let it happen" like so many people do. I don't know if it's because I have Endometriosis or if I would be like this anyway, but I worry so much about not being able to conceive that I just obsess over the process of getting pregnant. I'm not one of those people who can say, "Let's try for a baby!" and then is pregnant 2 weeks later. It took about 6 months to get pregnant with both Paige and Kate. I know that 6 months isn't terribly long, but when you are paranoid about infertility, each month is like eternity. See? I'm crazy. I've already been wishing I was pregnant for the last 6 months, and I haven't even had a postpartum period yet. Ugh. Who knows when Baby #3 will come.

So here I am again, obsessed. If I'm not tracking ovulation, stocking up on pregnancy tests at the Dollar Store, reading babycenter articles, etc., I feel like I'm not doing enough to make it happen. Maybe I'm just extremely impatient. I wish I was super fertile. But then again, I know some people who are super fertile and wish they weren't.

#3. I wish I didn't love food so much. I've cut back on my baking addiction drastically though, so maybe that will help. I would love to start out my next pregnancy at a better weight, so that I won't have as much to lose afterward. Don't we all wish that?