One year ago

Right now there is a heat wave going through Houston.  The heat index has been around 110 degrees for the past few days, and the upstairs air conditioning unit is broken.  It's actually not too bad, but when I think about what I was doing exactly one year ago in Canada and Washington, it makes me wonder if Brandon can find any job openings in Calgary when he graduates.  I was:

hiking through a rain forest

walking along cool, foggy Rialto beach

 tossing starfish into Discovery Bay

 swimming in a glacial lake

 hunting for a waterfall in a gorge and looking out for bears

drinking snowmelt off a rock

and seeing the most beautiful lake in the world.

Oh... and it never got above 80 degrees.

This is why I worry about our next child

a big milestone

Violet has been going nuts this week.  My dad has been gone and she has had no one to play with.  Today I broke down and improvised with the sprinkler because the pool was closed, and a miracle happened: she actually played in it.  I know I've posted pictures before where it looks like she's playing in the sprinkers, but she wasn't.  Until today she has danced around it, stared at it, and watched her cousins play in it.  Today she consented to getting wet.  And watching her try to drink the sprinker was magical.  She inspired me so much that I joined her in my swimsuit.

 

She also liked playing in the bucket, which she eloquently calls the "buttchuck."  We had a blast until it started raining on us.

My good news week

Last week was a bit of a roller coaster for me.  You can only get rejected from so many places to live before thinking that you will never, ever find a place to live.  But this morning I put down a desposit and signed a contract for a place we really like.  The realtor made a point of telling me several times what a good deal I was getting.  He kept saying that they should have listed it at a higher price, that a lot of people wanted it, that it had a lot of upgrades, and that it was worth more than what we are paying for it.  Well, too bad for him. We got it.  Here's a list of why it is nicer than our old place:
-Washer and dryer-- in the unit and NOT coin-operated
-ground level (no taking away my stairs and trapping me in the house with toddlers)
-200 sq.ft. bigger
-wood floors (no scrubbing Violet's messes out of the carpet)
-new appliances
-2 concrete patios instead of one rotting wood balcony that I thought I would fall through every time I walked on it
-covered parking so that I don't burn myself when I get into the car
In other good news, I got my ticket to see the Poodster in DC. I know, everyone thought I would be too cheap to fly out and visit.  Turns out I'm full of surprises.
We found a free bed for Violet.
And finally, I'm almost done with Violet's elephant.  I could have finished it last week but on most days I was too frustrated to paint.  Not this week.

Will we be homeless?

This is a real question for me right now. We have been looking for a new place to live for the past couple of weeks with no luck. We have found two places we really liked. After we applied for the first place they raised the price and asked that we pay 3 weeks extra rent. Sorry, not going to happen. Then we found another place. After we applied for that one, we were informed that it was already leased (apparently it was already leased when we looked at it, the listing realtor just didn't bother telling us) and that it actually went for more than asking price. Seriously? Is this some sort of auction that we haven't been invited to? Finally I broke down and gave my realtor a list of places and told him to just start applying until some place accepts us. If you want to know what that's like, try writing down a bunch of addresses, sticking them in a hat, and picking one out. Surprise! That's where we'll be living for the next couple of years. And I am beyond caring.

from the other camera...

All of this stuff happened over the 4th of July weekend, so nothing is really new here.  I've just been too lazy to get the pictures off our underwater camera.  Anyways, Violet is still stinkin' cute, even under water.

 And since Mom and Dad came to the poo with us, she now wants them to come every time.  Fat chance.

 But how could you not want to play with this little face?

 On one night I kept Violet up way past her bedtime to teach her how to hunt toads.  We found 3 or 4 just within a few yards of our house.  She LOVED them.  When I would put them down and they hopped away, she would point at them and whine until I picked them up again for her to pet.  I got peed on many times.  The things I do for this girl.

 But she did FREAK out when we put one on her.  That was really funny.  I've never seen her kick something so fast before in her life.

 Daddy was good at catching them, too.  She got really attatched to him after his long weekend and now goes around the house saying "daddy, daddy" all day.

And if you're wondering what exactly we're doing out here (I know some of you are), we are living with my parents for the summer while Brandon does his internship.  Go ahead, make fun of me-- you're just jealous that you can't live with my parents. The internship is great. Brandon gets fed a couple times a week for free, has half days on Fridays, had two days off for the 4th, and has already been offered a full-time job because he's just that smart and awesome.  But we are set on doing a Ph.D, so instead of going to work he will be going back to school in the fall.

the 4th

This 4th of July was all about the essentials.  Like bomb pops.  I'm pretty sure I could have eaten those and hot dogs the entire day and been happy.  Oh wait, I did.

 Also, what says summer more than playing in the sprinklers?  Even better, playing naked in the sprinklers? 

 Of course no 4th of July would be complete without a parade involving a fire engine. 

Finally... I painted.

This year I made a goal to paint 5 things.  Well it's July and I just finished my first.  I'm lame.  Don't judge it too harshly; it's my first watercolor in years. It looks much better in person (they always do) and Violet is very excited to have it in her room.

Dear Ashley,

 My mommy said that you wanted to see pictures of me with owahs on my fingers, so here is one.  I don't know why you think it's so funny, though, because this is obviously the only appropriate way to eat owahs.

Mommy and Daddy have also been taking me to the poo a lot lately.  They tell me to plug my nose when I go under but I think it's more fun to just look around.  Yesterday Mommy tried to take me to the poo on her bike but she crashed because her legs are too short to reach the ground.  How silly.  We were both wearing our ammets (helmets) so we are fine, even though Mommy keeps complaining about her bruised hip.

Last night Mommy also made caldo.  She really likes not having to cook every day. Reed said it was good but I only liked picking out the carrots and corn.

See, I would much rather eat eggs and watermelon for dinner.  Daddy put feta cheese in with my eggs-- my favorite!

I am getting really good at eating watermelon.  Mommy tells me that I don't have to eat the green part but I think it tastes just fine.  When are you going to come visit me?

Love, Violet

My weird daughter

I know you're all really sad that I haven't been blogging much lately.  I promise, I'm back.  It seems like Violet has changed so much since we moved out here for the summer so I will make this post all about her.  (As if most of my posts aren't all about Violet.)

First, she now LOVES going swimming.  One time she saw me go off the diving board and she thought it was so cool that she tried to go off it herself.  When we didn't let her, we had to take her home because she was screaming so much. I play games like "egg beaters" with her and when I'm done she just says, "Mo, mo, mo!"  (That means more.) Brandon taught her how to hold her nose and go under water, and when she comes up she will grab Brandon's nose because she wants him to go under.

 

 She is a little obsessive about watering the garden.  She tries to do it every day.  Yesterday after dinner when she was playing with her cousins, we came out and she had a pile of green tomatos that she had picked.

 She also likes wearing flowers in her hair now.  Before I took this picture, she was in her regular clothes and I told her that I would go to get her swimsuit and that she needed to take her clothes off to get in it.  When I came back out, I found her butt naked with the pink flower (on the ground in the picture) on top of her head.  Yet another hippie moment.

 This Saturday we went to Mary Jo Peckham park, where I took my first steps as a baby.  Between the playground, the mini golf course, the koi, the lake, and the ducks, she was in heaven.

She has weird food preferences, too.  She loves olives (owah, as she calls them) because Brandon taught her how to put them on her fingers.  So she will sit at her little table with 5 olives on her fingers and eat them off, one by one.  She also loves eggs, because she reads Are you my mother? and there is an egg in that book.  Most of all she LOVES ice cream, but will only eat it from a cone.  She crammed down 2 soft serve cones last week at the restaurant and kept saying "ice cream" the whole time.  She is definitely my daughter.

3 years

Yes, it has been three years since our wedding.  This anniversary was great-- we actually got to go out by ourselves.  Our first was on a Sunday, so we just stayed in and had dinner, and for our second we had to take Violet with us and Brandon spent half his time at the restaurant outside walking around with Violet.  Needless to say, I was very excited about going on a date alone. So excited that I made a dress and stole Mom's necklace to wear with it.

 But apparently I didn't need to steal Mom's because Brandon bought me a beautiful citrine necklace and earrings set.  And this was only after he brought me some peonies (being held in the picture).

 Oh yes, I scored big time with him.

And so far our marriage has survived one child, several trips, a few moves, three years of school, and three rounds of living with or by parents.  Gosh, that last one is embarassing.

Fudge popsicle.

Last night I sat down outside to eat a nice fudge popsicle.  About 2 seconds later Violet ran up and stole it from me.  Dad at least made her take her shirt off so that she wouldn't get it all messy.

 Oh, did I say shirt?  I lied.  Violet doesn't know how to take just one item of clothing off.  As soon as the shirt was off she decided to finish the job and got butt naked.

 This is the part where Ashley calls me a hippie.

Our attempt at the splash pad

There is this awesome splash pad less than 5 minutes from my parents' house.  We took Violet there today hoping that she would have fun and play in the water.  Instead, she clung to me like this the entire time:

 This was the only water feature she agreed to play in.

 She did end up having fun on the playground.  There was a cool zipline thing,

 and more fun toys.  But I'm still a little disappointed that she wouldn't play with the coolest thing there.

Birthday bliss

Our family clebrated my birthday today.  Mom and I stayed up late last night making this cake.  Isn't it beautiful?  Let me just tell you what went into it.  First you make two delicious coconut cakes.  Then you brush them with a lime glaze that I licked out of the bowl more times than I care to admit.  When that is set, you frost it with a cream cheese-coconut frosting and top with toasted coconut.  I almost cried when I ate it.

 Dad made us all bleu cheese burgers while I took a nap.  After dinner, Brandon started an amateur rugby league in the backyard.  He even got Mabel to kick the ball.  That only lasted until she accidentally kicked it into Asher's face, and then she (not Asher, he was fine) ran off crying.  Poor girl, I guess the guilt was just too much for her.

 When everyone had recovered the kids played ring around the rosie. 

 And everyone loved their pixie stick magic wands that I made for them.

After that, we took a nice bike ride around the neighborhood.  Despite the previous pictures, Violet LOVES riding the bike now.  It was a perfect day, and it's not even my birthday yet!

What we've been up to

Today is our last full day in Idaho. I know I haven't been posting much, but the beginning of our trip was dominated by vomiting and 40 degree weather, so it really wasn't that fascinating. The last few days have been nice and I feel relatively good, so we managed to squeeze some fun in before we head home.

Violet loved playing with her favorite aunt. I'm not trying to cause jealousy; there really is a clear favorite here. Within a day she was saying "Mia" and squealing every time she walked in a room. Most of the time she will pick Mia over Mommy.
Running around naked in the dirt is always fun.We also played 9 holes of golf.
And sleeping in the pack-and-play gave Violet some really awesome hair.

For the love of rocks

Rice approved Brandon to change from the master's program to the Ph.D program!  That means 1.5-2 extra years of schooling, but when your husband loves rocks as much as mine does, the decision is a no-brainer.
AND since we will be living here for 3 more years and saving on rent this summer, Brandon gave me the approval to start looking for a nicer place to live.  So if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know!  (One with a washer and dryer would be nice!)

Just keeps getting better

Remember how in my last post I mentioned that Violet threw up on Saturday?  Apparently she gave it to me.  On our flight into Salt Lake I started getting really nautious.  When I got off the plane, I promptly went to one of the airport restaurants and asked for a bag.  It's a good thing I did because at baggage claim I sat down on the floor and threw up.  I thought I was better after that but at my grandparent's house I threw up 4 more times, and by the time Brandon's mom came to pick us up, I could hardly walk.  I then got into a cramped, bumpy car for a 3-hour ride up to Idaho. And I threw up every 20 minutes for the first 2 hours of it.  Luckily the worst is over and I now only have flu-like symptoms, but I still feel like crawling into a hole and sleeping all day.  Thank heavens for the 8 babysitters I have at my disposal here.

Highs and lows of my week

Highs:
Talking with Brandon until 1 AM
Seeing Violet DIVE into a pool at play group
Having my parents come to my rescue and help me move
Having a pediatrician with me when Violet got sick
Taking a bike ride with Violet (she likes it now)
Seeing a man in full camouflage (bushes hanging off his back and all) pop out of a field and scare my pants off while I am biking
The miracle of actually getting this all done

Lows:
Taking Brandon to the airport at 6 AM to go on a 5-day field trip, then babysitting until 5 PM when I get back
Being a single mom all week/weekend
Having to clean and pack our apartment while watching 2 kids because we had to move out this weekend
Realizing what a crappy place I have been living in for the past 9 months (stairs aren't evenly spaced, the toilet doesn't work, the tub doesn't drain, the closet is so poorly designed that you can't take your hangers off the rack, mosquitos wait for you outside the door, and it looks dirty even when it's clean)
Seeing poor little Violet throw up all over herself in the car and not being able to do anything about it because we are on the freeway
Getting news that Brandon's flight is delayed and he doesn't have a ride home
Realizing that I will get home from picking him up at 2 AM, and then I have to wake up at 3:45 AM to catch our flight at a different airport (So pretty much not being able to sleep at all tonight)

Well I guess that's it.  Eventful, huh?