Touches my heart

I went to school at Rick's with Jared's wife Amy. I haven't talked to her in a couple of years,and I don't really even know her that well, but she is one of my heroes. What a difficult situation she has been dealt, but if you watch the video on KSL.com she is so upbeat and positive. They aired a special on them the other night because he just got a new wheelchair. It totally made me cry and made me extra grateful that my husband can talk to me.

I found this description from a newspaper article (the picture I found on another blog)
Jared Nelson, 23, is one of the two survivors of the Utah State University van crash last year that killed eight students and one instructor. The USU van was returning from a field trip when a tire blew on Interstate 84 in northern Utah and rolled over several times, ejecting all passengers.

Jared suffered major brain damage and currently has limited mobility with his arms and legs. He also lost the ability to speak. Jared was taken back to his family home in Woodburn, Ore., where he is taken care of by his wife Amy, his parents and his brother.

Jared had only been married 38 days at the time of the accident. He is currently undergoing intensive physical therapy, trying to learn how to walk again.

Bare Bum

Why do babies love to walk around without diapers? Lately, after I change Gracie's diaper- before I can get the new diaper on, Gracie has been standing up and walking all around. She climbed in her toy box and sat down to play. A couple of times she has tried to climb onto her rocking horse with no diaper, and today when she was about to get into the bath, she first ran over to her spring horse in hopes of a naked ride. Am I mean for not letting her?

Anyway, I've noticed that a lot of little kids adore being naked. Is it the sense of freedom? Being at one with nature? I guess if you're confined to a diaper- the fresh and free world is more appealing. More power to the babies for loving the skin they're in.

Fit as a fiddle

I'm not sure if I posted about Gracie's ear infection, but we went in to see the Doctor almost a month ago and he said Gracie had an ear infection. He gave her amoxicilin (sp?) to get rid of it and told us to come back in two weeks. Two weeks later, she still had an ear infection so he told us to come back in two more weeks and gave us another antibiotic to try. The good news is that we went to see the Doctor yesterday and her infection is gone. This also means that Gracie is now peacefully sleeping through the night again. Ahhhh.

As for the thumb sucking, the cast was awesome and worked wonders. We are still dealing with the thumb sucking, but now it seems more of something Gracie likes to do to aggravate her parents rather than a habit. She'll smile at me and keep her thumb right by her mouth (not really sucking her thumb, just making me uncomfortable because she's putting her thumb in her mouth). She is such a tease. So... Justin and I are mostly trying to ignore it. We've noticed that if we mention "thumb sucking", she can tell what we're talking about and puts her thumb in her mouth.

The other habit that Gracie developed when her right arm was in a cast was sucking her pointer finger on her left hand. Who knew that she was such a talented ambidextrous finger sucker? For a few days we put two casts on, but I stopped because it seemed like too much work. We'll have to see how the next few days go. We still put the cast on at bedtime and naptime.

Almost inactive in St. George

The title of this blog entry isn't really true, although it crossed my mind several times on Sunday. First off, I'll tell you that I love being a mom and I want to teach my children the importance of going to church. That said, going to church with an active, curious, and tantrum throwing toddler can be quite harrowing. Hopefully this stage will pass. On Sunday we sat down. Gracie sat on the bench for 2 minutes tops and then started to climb down. Then she walked over to a bench across the aisle from us and tried to climb up on some nice old man's walker. Then I brought her back and she sat on the bench for 30 seconds. Then she walked out in the hall. Justin stayed there with her for a minute and brought her back. Imagine this routine continuing for all of sacrament meeting. I've heard of parents just not letting their kids down if they go out in the hall, but Gracie screams bloody murder.

Anyway, I know that some smart and experienced moms read my blog and I would LOVE to hear how you get through church with a little toddler around.

Parade of Homes

This week I've had a lot of fun going with my hubby to see some homes in the parade of homes here in St. George. I love seeing the gorgeous homes and dreaming of my future dream house. On second thought, maybe it will always be my "dream" house because I'm too good at dreaming up expensive things that would be "so nice" to have. For me, it feels a little bit like window shopping- I get enough of a fix sometimes just knowing the nice things that are out there- even if I don't get to enjoy them all.

I was going to include a list of the details I love most in the homes, but the list would be long and probably obvious- Of course we would all love a kitchen with the works, crafting room, master suite, exercise room, pool, and my biggest wish, a casita (I'm not even really sure why). Ahhh. I heart home shows.

Princess Paradise

I made a whirlwind trip to see my family and attend a very special princess party for my two two-year old nieces. It was tons of fun and Gracie officially loved being a princess. We even lucked out and had some princes in attendance. So cute. My sis-in-law, Luci, made the awesome prince costumes.

Crazy Princesses

I thought this picture was funny, especially in light of the princess birthday party we just attended. Pictures to come.

Two Sparrows in a hurricane

Click on the video for the background music for my post.

Valentine's Day is the anniversary of our engagement. This year marks 3 years since that day. For those of you who don't know , have forgotten, or just wanted to reminisce in the bliss and happiness, this is how it went.

I didn't really know that I was going to get engaged on the day I did. I wouldn't say it was out of place for Justin to propose to me, but I would say that he didn't know for sure if I would say yes. He sneaked up to Salt Lake a few days before to ask my dad's permission- I'm still happily shocked that I had no clue and that my parents didn't leak the info. We went on a date for Valentine's day and then went to the LaVell Edward's Stadium Parking lot to exchange gifts. (The stadium parking lot was where we had our first DTR and decided to date). In addition to our gifts we had decided to write each other love notes. Justin wrote a beautiful letter and when I finished reading it, I noticed another letter on the back seat. I asked him what it was and if I could read it. He gave it to me and it had the words to Tanya Tucker's song, Two Sparrows in a Hurricane. He had heard the song and it reminded him of us. The letter included his proposal and I was shocked and ecstatic. He couldn't have chosen a more perfect way to ask me. I also loved the giant fake ring he gave me and wore it for a good month until my real ring was ready.

So, today is a tribute to the love of my life. Justin is the most amazing person I know and I'm grateful that we get to fly through all of life's hurricanes (and sunny skies) together.

Some recent pics

Gracie made her first banana bread the other day. I've been making Valentine surprises for Justin ever since February 1st. Some have included: banana bread at work, his favorite mints, reece's peanut butter cups, a mostly clean house, dinner, a poem, cold stone ice cream, and the last nice thing I did was make cookies. I haven't gotten to it every day, but hopefully he has felt extra special.

This is Gracie chillin' in her doll stroller. She likes to climb in there every once in awhile. I'm kind of surprised she fits and it hasn't broken yet, so whatever floats her boat.

This is Gracie eating dinner. I love the perplexed look on her face.

Obsessed or MIA

I seem to only have 2 blogging modes- obsessed and MIA. I was going along and being really diligent at blogging and then WHAM, I suddenly don't post for an entire week. What is that? I've been a little busy. Gracie got sick, and then started to feel better, and then I started at LDS family services working part time. I'm doing about 7-8 hours per week. It's been a little intimidating to do therapy after being off the work/ school scene for 9 months. I've been blessed with great clients though, and it's nice to know that the training returns. Hopefully nobody will be forever scarred because I wasn't a great therapist.
Anyway, I felt like blogging today, but thought I'd better clean my house before I blog. I also have some fun pictures to post. I'll be catching up today and tomorrow. I'm glad to be back. I missed you all.

Herzlichen Glueckwunsch zum Geburtstag

Today is a tribute to my "little" bro Tommy. Tom is just two years behind me so we've done a lot of things at about the same time. He left on his mission two months after I did to go the other side of Germany (he was in the Berlin mission and I was in the Frankfurt mission). Tom also got married two months after I did. Tom has the biggest heart in the world and reminds me of a big teddy bear. He is always really great with kids and pretends to be the mean uncle, which all of the kids love. Tom also has a really tender heart and has always reached out to others and loves animals.
Some of my favorite memories of Tom include driving to and from school in the Gold Truck, singing at Carnegie Hall, sending and receiving letters from each other in Germany, and of course, seeing him get married to Jessica, his fabulous and darling wife. Happy Birthday. We love you.

On the mend

I'm happy to report that Gracie is starting to feel better. I just thought I would post some of the fun pics from the last few days. The first is of Gracie looking out the window and watching the neighbors- her favorite past-time.

The other two pics are Gracie playing in her box of Kitchen toys. Yesterday she just climbed right in and was so cute. I looked over and she was just sitting there playing. I bet she played by herself like this in the box for a good 30-40 minutes

Happy Birthday Mom

I posted my mom's birthday tribute on the Profi Frau blog (I thought it was only fitting). Happy Birthday, Mom. Fried Ham, Fried ham...