A New Year Begins

53: August 3rd - August 10th


Well, now that we have been here a whole year, I think I'm going to start being a little more creative with our titles. I'm still going to keep track of the weeks, for some reason that makes me feel like the time is going by faster.


Morgan has been home this week since he hasn't had any classes or clinical hours and hasn't had any shifts at work yet. It's been so nice to spend extra time with him; he's going to be super busy this Fall semester and I think it will be the toughest on us. I'm glad I won't be working and I'll be able to have two babies to keep me company...well, Logan is more of a little boy now, but still he'll always be my baby. (sorry if that song is stuck in your head now).


Speaking of Logan, he got his first shiner this week. He was running around in the office being his hyper self and then all the sudden just tripped on the carpet and went head first into the futon and just happened to miss the cushy part and hit the metal frame with his face instead. At first he just cried really hard and I thought he might have broken his nose or teeth, but after a quick check, there was no blood and everything was in tact, but about ten minutes later we noticed some swelling in his eye and then the colors started appearing. Poor kid. He'd also taken a tumble earlier near the futon and had a big goose-egg on his head, which is now another bruise adding to his collection. He had a really rough day with all those falls...alas he'll learn. You just feel so helpless as a parent when you see it coming, but there is nothing you can do about it or nothing you could have done to foresee it or prevent it other than living in a soft cushy bubble.


This week we had a little "sizzle" added to our life and by sizzle I mean trial. In our most recent family home evening we talked about prayer and how sometimes our prayers aren't answered immediately or that they are sometimes not even answered the way we want and that sometimes a little "sizzle" or struggle is needed to help us remember that trial. We're feeling that way about our townhouse we're trying to sell in Lehi (small plug here, anyone want to buy the most awesome townhouse in the most awesome location?), but I digress from our real sizzle this week:


So, we were at Walmart running some errands and trying to track something down for a craft project of mine and Morgan noticed that the steel belting? (The metal wiry looking stuff inside your tires) was showing. We had figured that we needed new tires on the Camry and after checking our records we really did. So, rather than risk a blowout on the tire and something worse we decided to just bite the bullet and get the tires replaced at Walmart right then, it would either be then or very very soon. We probably could have made it another month had we put on the full-size spare for a while, but it just felt like time. We asked how long it would take and they said about an hour and half. Lowe's was just across the street as well as IHOP and it was about 11:30, so we decided to wait it out and go eat lunch and then pick up a few things at Lowe's that we were going to get at Home Depot and hopefully save a trip. So...we walked and walked on the hottest day of a very hot summer in Oklahoma with the humidity drenching us. And, oh yeah, did I mention that I'm due to have a baby in less than 6 weeks! I have to get some complaining out, the good part is coming. So we ate at IHOP and it was delicious and then walked around at Lowe's and ended up back at Walmart in an hour and a half. Perfect...except they hadn't even started on the car!!!


Logan was getting sleepy, and ended up falling asleep so we decided to keep waiting...I think it was another 45 minutes before we had our car done. We noticed several times one worker actually working on the car while two others were standing by...sheesh. Sorry that was such a long story, but here is what we learned:


*Sizzle:
1) financial hit having to buy 4 brand new tires-expensive even though we got the cheap ones.
2) Sitting around waiting for over 2 hours
3) Walking in near-death heat while pregnant and carrying Logan--well Morgan carried him whiile I carried Damon.
4) Not being able to find my craft stuff :(
5) Not finding what we needed at Lowe's


*Blessings:
1) Logan and I weren't by ourselves stranded on the side of a road because of a blowout that could have caused a major accident harming all 3 of us (in over 100 degree weather I might add again).
2) We got to go out to eat lunch with Morgan and Logan devoured his food and it was nice and cool at IHOP and we got to sit and enjoy a meal that we didn't have to rush.
3) We got to be together as a family.
4) We got some good exercise and I didn't feel bad at all about not going for a walk that day or for relaxing and watching "Wipeout" later that evening :)
5) We have 4 brand new tires on the Camry that will last us another 5 years and we'll feel confident this winter knowing that.
6) It was just by "chance" that we even noticed the tire based on how we parked since you could only see the damage from a specific viewpoint.
7) We had all our "big" projects done yesterday, so we didn't feel like the day was completely wasted.
8) I was able to order my craft stuff online and get exactly what I needed.
9) We didn't have to carry anything extra with us from Lowe's back to Walmart since we didn't get anything.
10) Morgan does have a job this Fall teaching, and I still get to work for 6 more weeks.


So, even with all that trouble, there is still more to be grateful about, even if it were only for the #1 blessing of our family's safety. I'm sure this isn't the first time the Lord has protected us from something like this. I know that was quite the winded story, but I really wanted to share it.

Morgan has an overnight Scout Camp this weekend. We're going to miss him. It's a good thing I got "Breaking Dawn" before and got it all read before he left though, so Logan would have some sort of supervision while I was lost in the book, which was everything I hoped it would be. I loved it. Anyway, here are some pictures of Logan just before Morgan was getting ready to leave and getting packed Thursday night.

See how grown up he's starting to look. It makes me sad and happy all at the same time. I think we're having another baby just in time. :) Logan had a Dr. appointment this week and is still growing, he's about 50% for height, I can't remember on his head, probably still around 16% and probably the same for weight. He's healthy, just skinny. He was being a nice little hyper jabberbox at the dr.'s office. It was fun...until the shots, you'd think he'd taken enough beatings this week. He's a tough kid though. His appointment was the day Morgan left for camp, so me and Logan just cuddled all day and watched some movies, and I did a little bit of sewing while he was sleeping. Ooohh ooooh speaking of sleeping. He slept ALL night in his toddler bed last night. WooHoo! I don't want to get too excited yet, but it's definitely progress...granted he was already asleep when we put him in there. He had a pretty tragic experience with a tick. We have no idea where he got it, could have been a million things from the tent that we were airing out, anything of Morgan's camping stuff...etc or even our own front yard, but last night after we finished our movie, we found a tick buried in his neck.

We got some tweezers and tried to hold him down to get it out, he cried and cried and cried, it took us a while to calm him down enough to pull it out, but we're pretty sure we got the head and everything is okay. After that, Morgan spent another hour or so tick-checking everything to make sure there weren't anymore. I think we're safe for now, but we'll keep an eye on things. Wherever we end up, I hope there aren't any ticks! And now finally, the end of the post with some shenanigans that Logan was up to last night as well.

"Logan, what did you do?"

"Uh-Oh!"

"But, it wasn't me mom, it was like that when I got here."

"Okay, okay, it was me, but, I love you!"