Scenes from a Weekend

Shye swang (swung?)

We played.
We checked out some fountains.

We hung out in the mother's room for almost the entirety of church.
Shye took EVERYTHING out of my purse. 

We hit a neighborhood barbeque for Memorial Day.
It was a good weekend. 

Get In My Closet

Happy Memorial Day! It's officially Summer!

Here are some things that my closet is in dire need of for the summer.

Nothing says summer like chambray, stripes, and gingham.

American Eagle, Aeropostale, Old Navy

A few breezy skirts.

Madwell, Asos, Emerson Frye

Sandals. Lots of sandals.

Madwell, Blowfish, Saltwaters

A panama hat or a straw cloche hat.

Gap, Urban Outfitters

And last but not least a cute beach/pool bag.

Madwell

What's on your wishlist for the summer?

Life Lately

We are still struggling to get back to some semblance of normalcy around here. We've had car issues (windshield replacement, suspension replacement), computer issues (RIP laptop), camera issues (power cord that went missing), teething issues (molars!!! wth? I thought those didn't come until around 2), blah, blah, blabbity-blah. You get the picture. So forgive me for making this post short and just leaving you with a few pictures instead.

Shye loves her cousin Kimberly who lives just down the street.

Kim-bear!

Kimberly's blessing day.

Ice skating with my nieces.

Olympic hopeful?

I have no idea who these people are.

SOMEBODY taught Shye how to climb stairs.

The queen of the stairs.

I just love how Shye is looking at Bernice in this one.

Shye at the splash pad at City Creek.

She was totally entranced.

This picture was taken .2 seconds before some kid pushed Shye down. There was no recovering from the hysterical crying that followed so we just went home.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, Brian and Darlene finally finish my our closet.

After 3 weeks of separation, I'm finally reunited with my clothes.

That's it for now folks. 

Peace.

Introducing...

Our newest roommates.
(Brian's mom's cats)

Scaredy Cat Cole

 This cat literally went into hiding for 8 days after we moved in. Yesterday he showed himself and today he actually let me come within 10 feet of him.We are making progress.

Next we have Pee-Pee Cat Belle. 

 Belle likes to pee on everything that seems unfamiliar.

 That includes the pile of fresh laundry belonging to the new humans that just moved into her house.

 This is Klepto Cat Ariel

 Ariel's pastime is stealing. 

So far she has stolen one of Shye's hair flowers, a stuffed animal, and my hearing aids.

This is Killer Cat Stripes

 He is always plotting your demise. 

Always.

 And finally, this is Sweet Kitty Mickey.

So far, Mickey has been the only cat to let Shye anywhere near her. In fact, she really seems to love having us around. She keeps trying to sleep in our bed and is constantly coming for rubs. She is very patient with Shye and always lets her pet her. Such a sweet kitty.

We love our furry new roomies!

Except for Stripes, he is evil.

It's Kinda Like a Birth Story

Remember how I said a week or two ago that moving was worse than labor/childbirth?  Yeah, it's definitely true. Like childbirth, I was nervous. Like childbirth, I had a plan. Like childbirth, pretty much everything in my plan went to poop. Like childbirth, it has taken me days to recover and I'm just now starting to feel "normal" again. 

Here was my plan for our moving week:

Saturday: Load the truck with the help of the Elders from our ward (leaving only enough stuff for us to stay overnight). Spend the rest of the day cleaning the apartment and tying up any loose ends.

Sunday: Get a good night's rest and hit church in the morning to say our goodbyes. Take a nap. Hit the road at 6pm that evening with the hopes that Shye would sleep most of the way since her bedtime is 9pm.

Monday: Arrive in Utah in wee hours of the morning. Brian and I plan to take turns watching Shye throughout the day while the other catches up on their z's.

Tuesday: Unload truck. Find a storage unit to store our extra stuff. 

Wednesday & Thursday: Unpack and get settled in.

Friday: Get ready for Shye's birthday party

Saturday: Shye's birthday

Here was how it actually went:

Saturday: Only 2 guys show up to help us move. I commence freaking out.

As you can see, Shye was absolutely no help at all during the move.

Sunday: We go to church, say our goodbyes, come home and take a nap. It ends up taking us until 8pm to load up the last of our stuff and do a final wipe-down of the apartment. Gah. Then Brian attaches the car dolly (to tow his car) to the truck only to realize that the brake lights on the dolly don't work and one of the safety pins for securing the tire straps is missing. Since it is 9pm there was nothing we could do except go back up to our empty apartment and wait till Monday morning to take the dolly back to Budget. Since we had just packed all of our linens, pillows, and clothes, we end up spending the night on the floor with one blanket and one towel between the 3 of us. It was a very sad night. 

Waiting for daddy to wake up from his Sunday nap.

The last of our crap. I hate this stuff.

Monday: We wake up at 6:30 and are at Budget by 7am. It takes them FOUR hours to fix the dumb thing. At 11am we are finally on the road. Brian suggests that we stop by and see his grandfather in Yucaipa on our way out. (He is 93 and at this point, every time we visit him it feels like it might be the last time) We leave his grandfather's house at 2:30 and finally start making our way to Utah. Shye sleeps for the first 3 hours, plays and sings to herself for next 2 hours and then cries the rest of the way. It was another very sad night. 

Waiting at Budget for our dolly to get fixed. Shye was getting impatient and tried to drive away on her own.

Grandpa Faye

Shye still doesn't like kisses.

Tuesday: Shye and I roll into Brian's sister's driveway at 3:30 am. Despite my explicit instructions to sleep in until at least 9, Shye wakes up bright-eyed and bushy tailed at 7am. We spend most of Tuesday walking around like zombies. 

Wednesday: We start unloading our truck. It's a very slow process mostly because it's just the two of us and my injured back makes it pretty much impossible for me to lift anything over 20 lbs. 

Thursday: We unload all our extra stuff into a storage unit. Shye gets the stomach flu. This is the first time she has ever been sick. (Back in January when she had a fever, she had four teeth break through a few days later.) I spend most of the day cleaning up vomit. 

Friday: Shye starts to recover and Brian comes down with the stomach flu. I have a tire blowout on my way to the store to pick up food for Shye's party. I spend the rest of the day prepping for the party and listening to my husband moaning/vomiting.

Saturday: Shye's party actually turns out to be pretty good. I was slightly disappointed that she didn't dive into her cupcake like normal most children do. But she has a fun time with the bubbles and opening presents. Brian's mom comes down with the stomach flu.  

"What is this stuff?"

So there you have it. 

Dolly malfunctions, repairs, crying babies, sleep deprivation, stomach flus, and tire blowouts.

I think it's time for me to start repressing some memories. 

Even though I am missing my CA friends, I'm happy we are here. It was definitely the right choice. We excited to be near family again and I must say that the scenery is waaaay better.  

The view from my back porch in CA.

The view from the back porch in UT.

1 year

Soooo...I moved to Utah last week. And while it was right decision and I'm happy we are here, the move itself was terrible. We are starting group therapy tomorrow. I'll write more about that later. 

But for now, I just wanted to do  quick post about my sweet girl who turned 1 yesterday!

Here are some photos of this last month.

Waiting for her birthday guests to arrive.

She started walking on May 1st.

She is teething so she is always chewing on her fingers.

She is still a bit wobbly.

She is getting pretty good at the sharing thing.

This is her thank-you face. When she gives something to me I always cuddle it and say "thank you!". Then I give it back to her and she copies me.

This just cracked me up, she was sniffing her feet and snorting.

I caught her making out with herself in the mirror.

She is such a good buddy.

This might be my all-time favorite picture.

We love our little Shye-shye!

What Procrastination Looks Like

"When they write my obituary. Tomorrow. Or the next day. It will say, "Leo Gursky is survived by an apartment full of crap." - The History of Love 

I should be packing right now. 

Instead I'm making a list of all the things I need to pack, blogging about our move, and researching tips on how to make moving/packing easier on Pinterest. Gah. I hate moving. And now that I have given birth I can honestly say that I hate moving more than labor/childbirth. I'll take being strapped to a table and sliced open any day over this prolonged torture of boxing up my life and transporting it elsewhere. At least with childbirth there is a cute baby at the end of your troubles. What do you get when you move? You get to unpack all those stinkin boxes. Woo-freakin-hoo.
Ok, I'm done whining.

 Here's what procrastination looks like.

 Playing with momma's sunglasses

 Foot rubs from baby: child labor at it's finest.

 Six(!!!!) teeth coming in at once makes for a clingy baby.

I sometimes beat my husband. 

Just kidding. He got hit by a flying rock while shooting a short film with the young men from our ward. Whoever thought that telling a group of teenage boys to throw rocks over his head must have been a genius.  They thought it might be a concussion but I wasn't that worried. I mean, just because he occasionally slurs his words and starts flapping like a chicken doesn't mean he has a concussion. It just means we don't have insurance.


Ok, I've gotta go throw some more of our shiz into some boxes.
Peace.