The Big 2-5

Tomorrow at 9:30AM Central Standard Time I will officially be 25 years old. That's a quarter of a century. That's 25 years. That's 300 months. That's 1304.4 weeks. That's 9131 days. Believe me. I checked. I never felt "old" before. I still feel like I'm 18. I feel like I have so much of my life behind me but I have so much of my life ahead of me. I wonder day in and day out what the remaining days, weeks, and years will bring me. Will I have more children? Will Ralph and I ever get out on our own? Will I be able to be a stay at home mother? I don't think the questions will ever end!

I also sit hear and wonder what I have done with my life up to this point. I have graduated from college. I have graduated from high school. I have gotten married. I have had a baby. I have accomplished so much and yet I feel like I have SO much left to accomplish. I have so many dreams to fulfill. The number one dream is that we will go to Papua New Guinea in the next 5 years or so. I am DYING to go and I would really like to go while Ralph's parents are still alive and active enough. I worry about them all of the time because his mom is constantly having health issues and his dad is constantly not taking care of his health issues.

I finally wonder what I have to show in my life from a spiritual standpoint. What is my testimony of the gospel like? Do I truly believe in the the Church? I know I do but it seems like my birthday is the perfect time to reflect on life.

Let's hope that as I go through this life that I can accomplish so much more. Let's hope that I can reach my potential as a daughter, wife, mother, and child of God.

Conversation and Dr visit

Yesterday marked a milestone with Addison. We had her first conversation! Well...maybe not REALLY because I don't think she understood what she was saying BUT what she said fit perfectly into the conversation so I am going to say that it is our first conversation together. The story is that Addison had crawled over to my mom yesterday when my mom was eating her breakfast. She picked up Addison and continued to eat. She was examining my mom's breakfast which was oatmeal. I said, "Hey Addison! Do you want oatmeal for breakfast?" She quickly responded with, "Hmmm...BABA!" Her baba is her bottle. That is what we have shortened it to so it is easier for her to say. I just laughed then and went and made her bottle. My mom put Addison down a couple of minutes later and she shouts, "HEY!" in a tone that was a cross between anger and confusion. I guess she thought my mom was going to feed her. I guess this is one of those situations though where you have to be present to understand the hilariousness/beauty of it.

On another note, we FINALLY made it to Addison's 9 month Dr. appointment. We had it scheduled for February 8th but because I had hurt my wrist so badly I wasn't able to take her then. She is growing nicely. Here are her stats:

Height: 29 1/2 inches 95%
Weight: 21 pounds 12 ounces 85%
Head: 46.2cm 95%

She is a healthy baby!!

Spring oh spring...WHERE ARE YOU?

I am SO ready for sunny days and warmer weather. I am tired of staying indoors. It is always so yucky out. Even on a good day you don't know if the weather is going to change in 2 minutes or not. It makes it so hard to go outside with Addison because I have no idea on what to dress her in and then if I go outside it could start raining on us and Addison wouldn't like that very much. Today, for example, I had plans to take Addison to the park (among other plans) so we could get some sun and she could swing. Well, by the time we were both ready to go it had started to sprinkle and had clouded over. So that trip was a bust...it didn't matter though because we still needed to got out to the grocery store and run a few more errands. So we did venture out but we didn't get any sun...sad day. Here are a couple of cute pics of Adders that I have taken as of late:

Oh Addison and her scruncy face. This is a skill that her Grandma Saffell taught her. Now she does it ALL the time.

Sorry for the poor quality of this picture but my phone was the only picture taking device I could find at the moment. Here is the story: I was making my breakfast and I peeked around the corner to check on Addison and when I saw her she had her hands between the box and the T.V. stand trying to get the movies that the box is blocking. Her feet were sticking up in the air and it was REALLY cute. By the time I could get a picture though this is what I got. She is already a monkey and she can barely stand holding on to things! Oh my life...how I love it! :)

Valentine's Day

Today is one of the days of the year when I wish that my husband was a romantic. I am TOTALLY a romantic and would have LOVED to shower him with sweet gifts and a sappy card but I knew that 1) he wouldn't appreciate it and 2) I would get nothing in return. Alas I will have to give him romance lessons. It's a good thing I have the rest of forever to transform him into the romantic man I know he could be! Happy Valentine's Day to you all! :)

Post Number 101

So I just noticed that I have 100 posts on my blog! Yay! I am happy that I am just keeping up with it. Usually I will start something and then I lose interest quickly. Anyways, I just wanted to share some cute photos of Addison. She found a bow so I peeled off the backing and this is what I got:

Budding Photographer?

A couple weeks ago Addison and I had the opportunity to hang out with our good friends' child for a little while until her older siblings came home from school. Since we aren't really equipped to entertain a child in our home (other than a baby) I let her play with my camera. It turns out she has some real talent! She took the following pictures (except for the last one) and even got Addison to smile which is something I can hardly ever do! Maybe she has a future career as a photographer!

Addison and me.

Addison was kind of shy at first...

but she quickly started smiling and posing for the camera.

Having some fun now.

A friendship in the making!

Job Update

I did not, unfortunately get the job. I am ok with that though for some reason. Also, I am probably going to be even more sporadic with this blog because Ralph is back in school and I'm doing the one parent thing for now since he is gone everyday from 7AM to 6PM and once a week he is gone from 5:30AM to 7PM. At least he is enjoying school. I however am not enjoying trying to keep Addison out of the movies and away from the Game Cube. She is like a magnet for them and knows EXACTLY where she isn't supposed to be. She will even look at me and deliberately disobey me. She knows where she isn't supposed to be but she just doesn't care. I can tell that a reading of the book, The Strong Willed Child will be in order so I can learn to deal with her stubbornness. I love her though and I am truly grateful to spend everyday with her.

GOOD NEWS!

Ralph would want me to keep this on the down low BUT I just can't! I have an interview at Western Oregon University on Jan. 5th at 11AM! It is for the admission's receptionist position. I am SO nervous about it. My mom's boss has been kindly helping me prepare so I am truly grateful for that.

Also, yesterday I had an impromptu phone interview with Washington Federal (a bank here in the Northwest). I was very nervous but Ralph said I did a wonderful job...what a nice husband! I just have to wait for the main boss to review my resume to see if she wants to interview me for the position.

I just want to put it out there that we could use ANY AND ALL prayers that we can get on our behalf. We are fasting on Sunday for me to do the best I can at my interview and to hopefully get a job. Anyone and everyone is welcome to join us in that fast as well.

On a lighter note, I am hoping to get my Christmas post done tomorrow...sorry for the delay!

Happy New Year to you all! :)

Advice Please

I have been wanting to switch Addison from her bottle to a sippy cup ever since she started feeding herself. I have tried two kinds of cups. First is a hard plastic cup with handles and is not spill proof. The second is a silicone top which is like her bottle. She refuses to stick either of them in her mouth. I have tried putting her formula in both and she just won't take a sippy cup. It is borderline irritating to me. Any advice on how to make the transition or what brands/cups to try?? If you can post links to the product it would be wonderful as well. Thanks for the help! :)

Santa Clause and Excitment

Today Addison had the opportunity of meeting Santa Clause!! He is actually a man from our ward at church (the Relief Society President's husband) but don't tell Addison that because we don't want to spoil the secret. Haha...Anyways, I was feeling kind of nervous as to how she would react to him. A lot of babies REALLY dislike meeting Santa and she has been going through a shy phase so I thought it would end in tears. This was not the case though! She didn't really smile at him but she didn't cry either. She just looked stunned. Towards the end of her visit, I think she was more interested in Santa's dog and cat than Santa himself. Here are a couple of pictures from her visit:

Addison with Santa. She is wearing the Christmas dress that my Mom and I made. It isn't what we had originally planned on making but my mom got sick the weekend we planned to make her dress so we went to the alternative. I think it turned out nicely. Also, notice how she has a death grip on that beard. Hair holding is how she calms herself.


Santa even had a gift for Addison!

There was a bunny inside! She loves bunnies so this gift was perfect.

Addison and Santa finally beginning to bond.

On another note, we had planned to meet up with my sister and brother-in-law after this to go see the Chronicles of Narnia in Albany. We did meet up but it seemed that nothing was going as planned. The movie ended up being in only 3-D format which would have cost us $12 per person and instead of being at the time we thought it had started an hour earlier. So we went to my sister's place, got some Panda Express and settled in to play Mario Kart with my bro-in-law's father and brother. Technology is a wonderful thing because they were in Iowa (my bro-in-law's father and brother) and we were able to connect up with them over the internet and race each other. The whole time they were on speaker phone so we were able to smack talk (which is a VERY important thing when racing). It was a wonderful time full of friendly competitiveness. After that, we read the Christmas story and started driving home.

On the way home, we turned one of the tight curves on Suver road (for all of you who know that road you know what I am talking about...when I say tight I mean they are more like taking a turn than a curve) and happened upon a fresh accident. A younger man, probably around Ralph's age was standing on the side of the road next to his car that had gone into the ditch and hit a utility pole. He was ok physically which we were grateful for but mentally he was shaken up. Let me just say that if you are an LDS Church member and you have daughters, MAKE THEM GO TO GIRL'S CAMP! This is a true testament to the usefulness of attending it. I could tell that he was going in to shock and all I could think of was A) Make him put his coat on to keep him warm and B) Make him talk about anything...just make him keep talking. This knowledge all came flooding back to me from girl's camp.

The young man was flustered and unsure of what to do. All he knew was he needed to call his wife of only 6 months. He got her coming on her way from Sweethome and a tow truck as well. He didn't really know if he should call the police or not because no one was hurt but I told him that because he had hit a utility pole he had to because there was no way of telling if the pole was ok. I dialed 911, spoke to the operator who patched me through to the sheriff's office who responded to the scene. The whole time the young man is telling us that he is ok and that we could go home but i was adamant about staying and making sure he was taken care of first.

Finally, after about 30 minutes, the sheriff came. He assessed the situation. Then, he did something that caught me completely off guard. He asked Ralph and me to step away with him for a moment. I thought he was going to ask about the situation or something. NOT EVEN CLOSE! He asked us if we had been drinking!! I was so surprised by the question that for a moment I couldn't respond. It was so far from what I was thinking he was going to ask. I assured him that I had not and Ralph did the same and then it was time to go. I will probably never know what happened to the young man but all I know is that I helped someone in need. I am grateful that I got to serve the Lord on this Christmas Eve. I am grateful that I had some knowledge of what needed to happen when I needed it. I am grateful for my family and for us making it home safely.

Merry Christmas everyone!