My Places

When I lived in DC, back in my single days, I loved to visit Old Town Alexandria.  It was just a few metro stops down from mine.  I would often run down there in the evenings and walk down King Street.  I'd look in all the shops and take in the unique scenery.  It was one of the places that I call mine.

Do you have places that are yours?  Places that mean something to you, where you made discoveries about yourself.  I have them all over the world.

There's Michelangelo's Hill in Florence.  I can remember vividly standing on the top of this hill and looking over the city.

There's the Lincoln Memorial in DC.  I would sit on the steps and watch the people and think about my life and who I wanted to be.

There's a place in Machu Pichu where the water system splits in lots of directions.  I can remember sitting there and writing in my journal and thinking.  I was about to enter my senior year of high school and had so many big life experiences ahead of me. 

So we went into Old Town for dinner last weekend.  We wandered along the waterfront.  We went to Paper Source (perhaps one of the most charming paper stores), we ate dinner at a new Thai restaurant(Mei Thai).  I love being able to share places with Heber.  I'm pretty sure he likes it as much as I do.  

On the Waterfront

Leo's favorite balance trick.

I can think of so many more places.  Where are some of yours?

Leo and the Girls

Last Friday, our cousins came to hang out with Leo and I for the afternoon.  Their mom has been out visiting family in Sweden (so jealous).  We went down to the Hidden Pond Nature Center.  A pond that looked like a field of grass.  It has been mistaken as such by several children, I hear.  What a mess that would be.

Leo loves all of them. He is thoroughly entertained by them.  

Logan, Again

Are we destined to live in Logan?

As I've mentioned before, we've been having the serious conversations of what to do next in our life.  Those big questions of where to settle and what job to pursue are hanging heavily over our heads.

We lived in Logan for almost a decade (on and off before we were married and then after) and with Heb's company located there, there is the potential that we will return to live there.

Logan really was a great place to live.  I could point to a hundred things that we liked about it: the proximity to our families, recreation, the arts opportunities like the festival opera and Lyric Theater, a great library, interesting downtown and then there's the great medical care (you should see some of the Dr. offices here.  So run down).

Graduation day with Old Main.  Brings back lots of good memories being in school.

Center Street in Logan.  Home to the Lyric and Great Harvest  Bread.  One of my favorite parts of town.

The farmer's market.

But there are some major downsides like the LONG winters.  We're talking nine months of the year cold.  And it is fairly transient with people moving in and out, making it difficult to make friends.  Or the fact that we've already been there and done that.  Will we like it without being students?

Heb discovered some websites where you can answer a series of questions and it will spit out a city that would most fit you.  Guess what city was at the top of the list?  Logan.  It was kind of creepy.  I mean, of all the places in the country, the one place that we just moved away from turns out to be the "ideal" city for us.  I am not making this up.

And today, I ran onto an article on Facebook.  Apparently, Logan is the third best college town in America according to a rating by livability.com.  Heb and I like the idea of living in a college town.  There are so many benefits that come with living near a campus.  There are arts and theater opportunities, diversity and community educational opportunities.

Here's the link if you want to check it out for yourself.
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=21904424

For now, we are at the "who knows?" part of this decision.  But does it seem like it's all pointing to a return to Logan, or is it just me?

Leo Lately: The Lost Mom

 We were folding laundry in the bedroom today.  I plopped on the bed and continued to fold.  I guess I was too quiet and that Leo thought I'd gone.  I heard him crawl down the hallway.  I hopped up the find him and he looked at me, laughed and quickly crawled to me.  You could tell that he'd gone looking for me.  

 Here's a couple more pictures of lately.  Just look at those thunder thighs.  He's crawling and standing and developing quite the personality. 

Our Favorites

Leo is almost nine months old.  I can't believe he is such a big guy.  He's crawling like a champ, standing up and really enjoying solid foods.  He is still a major wiggler which has only improved since he became mobile. We are loving (and trying to keep up with the messes) the new stage we are in.

I thought I might post some of my favorite baby items.  These are ones that have saved our bacon a time or two.

Favorite books:
Leo LOVES books.  I will often find him turning the pages of a book that he crawled over to.

Some of our favorites (and by our I mean, ones that I can bring myself to read over and over again.  Like Brown Bear, Brown Bear what do you see - not making the cut)

Little Puppy.  For some reason, Leo will laugh and laugh every time I read this one.  Perhaps it's the puppet in the middle or that it's a dog.  We have a lamb one of these and he doesn't love it nearly as much.  Decent story and entertaining every time.

My friend Kate sent this book to me and it is my absolute favorite to read.  Such a fun one!

This is Leo's other favorite book.  He will always pick it when given the option.  It's a story where the animals have different emotions and how they can change.  Love it.

Favorite Toys:

The first toy that Leo ever reached for was this little birdie set from Skip Hop.  They are so charming!  They make a tinkling rattle.  Leo spent countless hours playing with these.



My sister makes this darling octopus.  It has been a real hit!  Leo will bite or chew on the legs.  Loves it.  It makes a great baby shower gift too.  It's so hard to find darling boy things and this is definitely one of them.  Her shop is Polite on Etsy.

Although this is technically not a toy, a car mirror has been so useful.  It goes in the car and makes it so Leo can look at himself but more importantly that I can see Leo in my rear view mirror.  This has been so helpful when trying to keep him entertained in the car.

General Baby Care:


When Leo was small, he had very dry skin.  We tried every lotion out there and nothing worked.  Then we tried the most inexpensive one of all, Vaseline, and it worked!

Since starting to eat solids, Leo has wanted to be able to pick things up and put them in his mouth.  These mesh pacifiers make it so he can try lots of foods without the worry of him choking.

There are a lot of burp cloths out there.  Most work just fine but cloth diapers work the best.  They are so absorbent.  I will pick these every time.


So there are some of our favorites.  Mostly to help me remember for the next babe. 

My Buddy

Heb's been out of town on business this week.  It's just been me and my little buddy.

It's been a surprisingly easy couple of days.  Leo's been sleeping so well.  We fill the days with walks, playgroups and stories.  He watches the washing machine, looks out the windows, and follows me as I clean the house.  I turn around to see him smiling at me or reaching out to give me a big slobbery kiss.

 

  
And I just feel grateful.  Grateful to have a little buddy.  Grateful to be his mom.  On those hard times (which we all have them), I remember that he's never going to be this age again, that the time passes so quickly.  Already he's not my baby anymore, he's a little boy.  Grateful to be here to watch, and teach, and love. 

Babywearing

Did you know that there is an organization called "Babywearing International".  I sure did not.

This week I attended one of their meetings.  I'm on the market to find a new carrier for Leo.  A friend recommended the organization and I attended.  They did demonstrations on all of the different types of carriers and even helped me to try some out.  Really, a helpful service. 

What was so entertaining was the people in attendance.  I'm pretty sure Leo was the only bottle fed baby in attendance and there were some that were upwards of 4 years old.  There were several food allergy kiddos and even a baby sans diaper.  In public.  On the carpet.  While I can understand that there are different parenting styles, wow. 


As a parent, I am ever in awe of the resources available to us.  But I think I may attend with Leo fully diapered.  At least until he's older. 

Exploring

I have a fascination with caves.  I think it is the neatest thing to wander through caverns under the earth's surface.  I'm thinking it originated in Ophir by my grandparent's cabin.  There was an old mine entrance right across the way from them that cool air always billowed out of.  I always wanted to go into one but never had the chance. 

Years ago, while celebrating one of our first anniversaries, we went to Minnetonka Caves near Bear Lake.  Since then I've associated caves with being together and special times in our life.  And ok, I may have some flashbacks to Goonies (A great sick day movie). 

Last weekend, while down by the Shenandoah Mountains, we stopped in to see a cave.  The Skyline Caverns were unlike any cave I've seen before.  Their formations looked like plants you would find on the bottom of an ocean.  We were excited for Leo to see his first cave.

Virginia is for Lovers

We just got back from pretty much the most interesting weekend ever. 

We went down to southern Virginia to get away for a day or two and spend some time talking about what's next for us.  You know, the future and what in the heck we're going to do. (We still don't know, but progress was made).

The whole trip was memorable.  Heb and I aren't real planners (which is ironic because that's what I did for a living for several years).  We usually decide a location and wing it.  Not always the best idea. 

I found a hotel online, which is a risky business, that turned out to be the longest operating inn in America.  That's right, oldest continuously operating inn.  They didn't say that on their site.  You should have seen the hotels/motels that we passed to get to that one - there was the Super 8, the Motel 6 and any number of disgusting looking establishments.  Believe me, we were happy with where we stayed.

We spent quite a bit of time in the Shenandoah National Park.  When did Heb and I become city people?  I didn't realize how much I missed mountains and being alone.  That park is one of the most stunning things I have seen in my life.   It was so peaceful and it filled me up.  I think I understand why people love nature.  I got my summer wish to sit around a campfire and to see fireflies. 

Oh, and Leo was crawling all over.  He loves to be standing up and is quite a big boy.

It was overcast but there was beautiful mountains (real mountains!) and the Shenandoah River going through a green valley.

I'd say the best part was the Civil War Reenactment.  Oh yeah.  When I called to make a reservation the day before, the innkeeper mentioned the reenactment.  It had been on my list ever since "Lincoln July" and Heb was happy to oblige. 

The. best. people. watching. ever.  Really.

There were a few hundred in all that were participating and watching.  People, apparently, sign up to be reenactors.  They buy whole outfits and act out the battles for fun for days.  You know that I love to watch people who are passionate about what they're doing. 

There were horses, full on cannons and shooting guns but best of all was the crowd.  There were the confederate flags flying and people really got into it.  Definitely something to see at least once in your life. 

All of that and a cave, in one weekend.  Quite the adventure.  But the best part was hanging out with Hebs.  Pretty much anything would be fun, so long as we're together. 

Hotmail

In this digital world we live in, things change all the time.  I have to keep a list of all the sites and things I've signed up for and their passwords to keep it all straight.  I'm sure you do the same.  I don't know how many email addresses I've had over the years...at least 8 that I can think of off the top of my head.   But there has always been one constant through all the years, my hotmail account.

From the very beginning, I'm talking my first email address way back in high school, it was hotmail.  Over the years it's become a clogged junk account but for a long time it was my main one. 

Did you hear that hotmail is going away? 

I  just read an article about it and I have to admit that I'm kinda sad.  I think I'm sentimental about this old account.  You'd think that over the years and it filling up with junk that I'd shut it down like I have all the other accounts but I could never seem to get rid of this one.

 This account reminds me of who I was before.  Two big memories come to mind....

FCCLA
It makes me think of FCCLA (you know, the high school club, Family Career and Community Leaders of America).  When I was a senior in high school, I was a state officer for that organization and it was one of the most shaping experiences of my life. 

I grew up in a small town for my entire life.  Which meant that when I grew up and transitioned somewhat into the real me, people still saw me as I was all the time before.  When I was elected to state office, I was, interacting with people who had never met me before.  They didn't remember what I was like as a 7th grader or any age.  I could just be me and it felt so good.   It was all put together via emails on my hotmail account.

Heber
While Heb and I were dating, we would send each other emails.  There was a summer that I lived in Logan and he lived in Salt Lake, some of our most memorable emails are during that time.  When Heb left on his mission (way before we were married, we're talking almost a decade ago), I would occasionally get emails from him.   When you don't get any contact except letters from someone, seeing an email in your inbox is something to be excited about. 

Well, I guess it's time to see the chapter close.  Since the beginning, it's seen me through some really good times.  RIP hotmail, old friend.

Improvement

Near our house is an old prison.  It was in operation for decades but has since closed. down.  I guess I'm not really turned off by the idea that there was a prison nearby (like it would for some).  Maybe its because I thought that Alcatraz in San Francisco was so neat.  (Have you ever visited?  It's awesome and so worth seeing).  

Last week we walked down by the red brick prison buildings to see an old bridge.  The prisoners built the bridge at some point.  Looking at this bridge, I thought of all the good things that have come to the area because of the prison.  We have trails and green space but most importantly, we have the Workhouse which is prison buildings that have been converted into an arts center (where I do my glass).  I'm pretty sure I talk about it a lot, but the arts and creating are so core to who I am.  

 

 

So, out of something dilapidated (the prison), so much good came.

Ok, so what does this have to do with my life?  Well, I've been thinking about improvement lately.  I don't consider myself dilapidated or even in a negative place but I want to become better. 

I want to discover things that I love and then spend time (you know, all that free time I have with an 8 month old) developing them.  Here's what I've been thinking about lately:

Music

I sang in church last week.  It's been ages since I've sung in public and I loved it and realized how much I missed that.  I think I forgot how important music was in my life and I need to pick it back up.  The fun discovery from that is how much Leo enjoyed it too.  I think we have a budding musician on our hands. 

Discover things that I love:

This calls for stepping out of my box and trying new things.  I've been focused on things lately that I can't control and need to shift over to thinking about developing myself.  For example, I really enjoy web design but haven't really had the time to work on it.  I've felt like those skills are going away, so I checked a book out from the library to learn a new skill (javascript) and I'm really enjoying it. 

Homemaking:

I've never been really good at keeping a house.  I'd much rather be working on a project but a good environment makes everyone happier.  Organized spaces and time make me feel happy, just look at the pantry project.   I want to figure out have to have a beautiful and efficient home.

So many things to think about and to work on but it feels good.  I'm going to keep trying everyday to improve and I'll get there.