I Miss California!

Don't get me wrong, I love it here in good old Idaho too. But I just get in such a dilemma as to where I really want to end up someday. There are good things about everywhere I guess. It's just hard to find the right balance between affordability, good work environment, good area to raise a family, and on and on. A lot is just going to depend on where we get job offers. But how can you not love the beach, the awesome weather, the fact that there is always something to go and do, etc etc. Yeah, I'd miss snow... on Christmas. But I guess in a bigger city I'd miss Michael more, since he's probably have to work a lot more hours. We'll see. Why can't there just be an easy answer? Maybe we'll just move to Honduras, like Michael wants. Oh the decisions!! :)

Michael Insert: Well, about this Honduras thing...I think the only time I want to LIVE there is during law school finals when I just feel the need to throw the books away and live in the jungle (like those Brazilian, "lets shoot the airplane with our bows and arrows" tribe). However, once finals are over, I'm content to just visit my beloved Hondo. Just wanted to make that clear.

My New Do

I did it. I went and got some hair chopped off. We kind of used the pictures from the last post to go by and went from there. I really like it. I think I'll like it even more once my new bangs learn how they're supposed to hang and once I get back a little bit of length. It sure does feel good to have a change!

Time for a Haircut

I've decided that it's beyond time for me to get my hair cut. Someone told me once that if you haven't gotten a complement on your hair in the past month, it's time for a change. Now I'm just kicking myself for putting it off until now when I don't know of a place that would do a good job. Kristi, I need you to come to Idaho to do my hair!!! Stupid me. Oh well. Here's some pictures of what I've been thinking. Any thoughts?

Photoscape and Blurb

I'm toying with some new things. A friend of mine just got a Blurb book printed. Basically you make your own book using their software, etc and they print it out in a nice book. It would be so nice to be able to do digital scrapbooking (I HATE having to drag everything out to do normal scrapbooking, only to have Jessica wake up 2 seconds later or have her try to get into everything), AND be able to have a good way to have it printed up. I've been using Photoshop to do my stuff so far, but my friend told me about this free editing software called Photoscape. It doesn't do as much as Photoshop, but the more I get used to using it, the more I like it. Here are a couple things I made today during Jessica's nap.

Softball

I was really hoping to have some pictures of Michael's work softball game last night. But rather than take pictures, I had to play. Let's just say that I am NOT a softball player. Michael did a really good job. When I was up to bat not only did I strike out, I struck out on a swing to a very over my head ball. The ref was like, "Well... she swung at it, so I guess it's a strike." :) Luckily my next time up I actually hit the ball and eventually scored. Hopefully me playing will not be a trend.

Jessica was super funny the other day. At breakfast she looks over at Michael and says, "Daddy is so beautiful!" I just love to see how her sweet little mind works.

More about Jessica

OK, let's face it - pretty much 99% of this blog is dedicated to Jessica. But that's ok. She's the cute one. :) Summer is in full swing (even though it was snowing here like a week ago). Jessica is LOVING the whole yard thing. She's had the chance to try out all kinds of fun new things. First off, we got out an old tricycle to let her play one. She still has some time before her feet will reach, but it's fun to watch her try.


Our next-door neighbors have these great push cars for little kids. Jessica was SOOO excited when they told her she could come and play on them whenever she wanted. She spends more time in their yard than ours! :) She's still figuring out how to go forward instead of backwards, but she loves every second of it.

Jessica also learned the joys of ice cream on a stick today. We just sat her outside in her diaper and let her go to town. She was one happy little camper.

Afterwards she played in the hose and got clean-ish. I think after all that cold water from the hose she was happy for her nice warm bath.

Adjusting

Jessica is in the process of adjusting to life in Idaho. Michael and I are also. But the inevitable happened today. Jessica walked up to me and was all, "Mommy, go to the beach? Play in the sand?" Poor girl. How do you explain the fact that you are hundreds of miles away from the beach to someone her age? I just pointed out the fact that it was raining outside and would be much too cold for the beach.

Speaking of the rain... once it had stopped raining there were a decent number of worms out on the sidewalk. Jessica was very excited about these "snakes." I explained to her that we shouldn't touch them, but just look at them. She understood and every time she pointed at one she'd say, "don't touch it!" Then she noticed a new one and without thinking she reaches down and grabs it. I immediately tell her not to touch. She dropped it in a heartbeat. Then she did something that totally surprised me - she started to cry. Not because she was upset, but because she was so sorry to have done something she knew she shouldn't have. It was like she was apologizing. I had to spend the next couple minutes reassuring her that it was ok, that she forgot she wasn't supposed to. Poor thing. Such a sweety.

There is something else I have to mention because it is just so darn funny. Michael joined the law firm softball team today. He said he figured the last time he played something even similar was back in elementary with T-ball. Let's just say that I am super excited to get pictures at his game next week.

To the women in my life

I just wanted to take a second and tell all the wonderful women in my life how much they mean to me. I love you all, whether you are pictured of not. You are wonderful examples to me. You have shown me love I often did not deserve. You are friends and mothers and sisters in the truest sense. Thank you for being a part of my life! Happy Mother's Day!

I'm in love!

Ever since track in college (which could have been a much more enjoyable experience), I've kind of been exercise-averse. I've noticed that my not so good fitness habits are finally starting to catch up with me. So spur of the moment, Michael and I bought an infomercial exercise DVD set. Silly, I know. But I am SO in love! I have finally found something that I don't get bored with or have bad flashbacks to days running 300 meter repeats for time. It's called Turbo Jam. I really don't like things like yoga or pilates. They just aren't fun and exciting enough to keep me going. I like aerobics, but some aerobics DVDs and instructors are a little cheesy and over the top and the music is lame. The instructor of these videos is perky and the music would be a little crazy to listen to for whenever, but they both work really well for me. I'm only a few days in, so I can't really talk about results, but I can tell it's something I'm a lot more likely to stick with. Sorry for the weird post, but I just had to announce my exciting new find. :)

An exciting first day

We had a fun first day here in Idaho. A lot of it just consisted of getting things set up and settled in - not so fun. But after Jessica refused to take a nap (we don't have her crib set up yet, so she can just hop right out of the pack-n-play) we decided to go and get some zoo passes. The zoo here in IF is definitely not the caliber of the San Diego Zoo. But it's still fun. And an annual pass is pretty cheap and will get you into a bunch of other zoos around the country. Michael stayed home to get some more done while Jessica and I went. It's only about 1 1/2 miles away, so I think I'll just walk or run with the jog stroller next time. Pretty nice. Jessica had a blast.




Jessica with the otters. If you ask her about otters, she'll say, "They're swimming in the water!" These were very cooperative otters that liked to show off when people were around.











Jessica is smaller than a lion. Wild!












She wasn't so sure about the petting zoo at first, but pretty soon I was having to chase after her, rather than her clinging to me.













Ahhh... the lion drinking fountain. This was one of her favorite parts.













Jessica LOVED the peacocks! Like in a lot of zoos, they were just roaming around. She was able to be pretty close a couple of times. She's just saying "hi" here.







It was a fun afternoon. The plan was that it would keep her busy enough that she would forget about her nap and then maybe go to bed at a reasonable time in this new time zone. But instead, we left her alone for a few minutes after we got home and this is what we found:


Poor thing. She is not a "sleep anywhere" kind of a kid. Every now and then she'll fall asleep in the car, but I have NEVER seen her do something like this. She must have been really worn out. So instead of going to bed around 8:00, she wasn't asleep until well after 9:00. Oh well.

Heading to the Gem State

With of course the "Gem State" being, as referenced in Napoleon Dynamite, the great state of Idaho. All in all, the drive wasn't too terrible and Jessica did much better than expected while traversing the 1,051 miles to get here. I think jumping on the trampoline with grandma in Vegas and BYU bookstore fudge made it tolerable.

Well it all started on Saturday when Michael finished his last final (Ethical Lawyering/Professional Responsibility). By noon we were packing everything into a storage unit close to our SD apartment. Thanks to Michael's parents and brother, it was done quickly and by 3pm we were off to LA to spend the weekend with them. On Monday morning, Michael and Jessica washed the car because it getting pretty filthy. Even though we hit almost every insect between California and Idaho with our windshield, it was still good to get it washed before leaving. Jessica just couldn't resist the urge to "help" daddy clean and continually found more places for him to clean a little better.

On Monday night, once we were in Vegas, the Hales took us to Michael's favorite place in town, Lone Star Steakhouse. They have amazing hot wings, steaks, and baked sweet potatoes with butter and cinnamon-sugar (which is really more like a desert). Then we were off to the Winders where Jessica got to bounce on the trampoline with her grandma and later with the cousins. By 10pm when we were still trying to get her to go to sleep, she would beg to go "jumping" in between her sobs. Needless to say, she had a blast.

Emma, thanks for helping Jessica!

On Tuesday morning we were back on the road and got to Provo just in time for lunch. We got Jessica a sandwich, but all she wanted was her Strawberry Nirvana Jamba Juice.

We were also able to have a quick visit with Landes, my former boss when I worked at BYU. It was just fun to walk around campus, see guys try to pick up on girls, and see the new Alumni Building. We went to the track to let Jessica do some laps before strapping her in her chair for the last 4 hour drive, but the mens team was practicing so we didn't get any pictures of our future All-American getting her early start at the Clarence F. Robison track. Next time.


Now we're here. It might be cold and windy with snow still on the hills just outside the city, but gas is 50 cents cheaper than San Diego so that's some consolation. Even so, Michael's decided to ride his bike to work and back in order to save some money, the environment, and get a little more muscle. He starts work tomorrow so we've spent the day getting settled and buying a summer zoo pass, which has Jessica ecstatic! She loves those animals. We're just excited to be here and plan on having an amazing summer.