A Glorious Break

Hello everyone! I'm sorry that Pam and I haven't posted anything for two weeks! And yes, this is Austin. I decided to post this time since it has been so long since I posted, and it is break-time for me. As you probably know, I finished my 1st year of podiatry school last week (congrats to all my fellow classmates) and now have 2 weeks off before we start up again. There are a few things that I plan on doing during this break. #1: Spend more time with family. Although I have been home a decent amount this quarter since I study at home, we haven't spent a lot of quality time together these last few weeks. #2: We will try and get Maxton's bedroom ready as much as we can. We also need to prepare ourselves mentally (I still can't believe that in less than a month, we will have two kids!!) #3: I have some reading to catch up on. I checked out Crime and Punishment and Julius Ceasar from the library and need to read those. I also need to work on the book I am writing. I have been stuck at chapter 6 for way too long.

As you can see, we really are pretty boring people. Lots of my classmates are heading for vacation in cool places like Las Vegas, Colorado, etc., but we are homebodies.

Yesterday we fed Makenna a Lunchable and it came with a little Airhead candy. She liked it quite a bit, but when she was finished, we realized that her entire mouth and tongue were blue! Pam tried to wipe it off, but it didn't work so well. Here are a few of the pictures we took after trying to wipe her face off:

We really like the first picture because it shows off Makennas eyes. We still aren't sure exactly how to classify their color. Dark Blue? It might be kind of hard to tell by the pictures, but Pam dressed Makenna up very patriotic for Memorial Day. You can see the red t-shirt, and maybe the white hairbow, but what you can't see are the skirt with red and white stars on a blue fabric, and the American Flag in her hairbow. Thanks Mom for the cute 4th of July outfit that we used early.

Wow, there is so much more that we haven't commented on since we posted last time. I don't want to rehash the entire last 2 weeks for everyone. Let me just say a few things on a few topics. I apologize in advance for the randomness of these things, and I hope you bear with me.

First, as yesterday was Memorial Day, I spent some time thinking about those that have gone on before us and paved the way for us today. There are many examples in nearly every facet of life that deserve our respect, and there continue to be many that follow in those footsteps of greatness and live for something greater than themselves. It reminds me of what I felt a few months ago at my Grandpa's funeral: "As I watched the local VFW officer offer it's full military burial rights upon the casket of this WWII Navy vet, I was overcome by an emotion foreign, yet well-known. Tears freely flowed down cheeks which had previously only been dampened by the falling snow. The words 'On behalf of a grateful nation...', uttered softly and sincerely, caused my mind to reflect on the sacrifices of The Greatest Generation. More acutely than ever before, I feel weak and humbled." I just hope that I can live up to the standards that have been set by some of my "unknown idols."

Second, and on a less serious note, congratulations to Kris Allen for beating Adam Lambert on American Idol. I actually care less that Kris won than I care that Adam lost.

Third, we rearranged our furniture last week. I actually moved our computer desk into the dining room so that we could have room in the living room to put a swing up for Max. After spending the time to move the computer desk and bookshelf over, I tried to hook up the internet and it wouldn't work. So I called tech support and they said that only 1 cable outlet in the apartment is set up for internet. So, instead of paying for them to come out and set up the outlet in the dining room for internet, I moved everything back into the living room. Oh well, it was a good thought and it took my mind off of studying Physiology for a few hours.

I figure I will finish off this blog entry with a picture of some feet. My feet actually. If one of the feet looks redder to you, it is. This is right after Morgan Kizzar performed a complete ankle block on me in lab (you can still see one of the needle pokes on my leg).

If anyone is home during these two weeks and wants to get together and go swimming or something like that, let us know!

Mother's Day

I wish we could have Mother's Day every day! I'm not sure why exactly; we didn't really do anything exciting. But maybe that's exactly it-- I didn't have to really DO anything all day!

Makenna actually slept in until 7:30 and then she and her dad woke me up singing, "Happy Mother's Day! Happy Mother's Day!" (they made up this song themselves!). Makenna had her breakfast (which Dad fed her and I didn't have to do!) and went down for her nap. She played in bed for a long time before sleeping which meant she didn't get up until like 11:30. Nice! This meant I had like a two hour nap and Austin listened for her to wake up for me! Extra nice! Then she got up and ate and off we went to church.

Makenna actually made it all the way through Sacrament with having to be taken out! This is the second time in her LIFE! That's right, LIFE! Even as a baby... never made it through a Sacrament meeting! So I was really excited about that-- I figured that was her Mother's Day gift to me! We did sit in the hall for Sunday School and she did have to be taken out of Relief Society, but I actually heard the talks in Sacrament meeting! Pretty exciting!

Afterwards, we came home and put her down for a "rest" and Austin made dinner. It was just chicken nuggets and fries but here lately I have only been wanting fries! So I ate so much I was almost sick! Then I took a nice hot bath to rest my aching back while Austin watched Makenna. Then we put Makenna to bed and I took another nice long bath (yes, back still aching!). While I was in the bath Austin cleaned the kitchen AND the living room. I got out and Austin made me a big bowl of ice cream with chocolate sauce. The perfect end to a great day!

Thanks Austin for letting me be a lazy bum all day! And I didn't even feel guilty because you took care of the chores for me! I love husbands, I love it when kids are so good, and I love Moms! Now if only Mother's Day were more often... : )

A Little Surprise at Bunco...

Once a month, several of the wives get together to play a game called Bunco. It's a really fun time to gather at different people's houses and eat yummy food and play a fun game and chat with each other. There usually aren't kids running around, so it's just a nice adult, girls night out. I (and I'm sure most of the other girls) really look forward to Bunco each month!

Well last night we were scheduled to have Bunco at Jenn's house. Annie and Shanda picked me up as usual and we went over to Jenn's house. Well we were one of the first people there so we just sat around talking for a while. I was sitting over in the corner in a rocking chair talking to Jenn and her husband Nate. Then everyone started showing up so I moved over to the living room. I saw some presents on the table and I said, "Oh fun!" Jenn is having a baby so I assumed she had gotten some fun baby gifts. Well a little while later Frankie said, "Were you surprised?" And I said, "About what?" "That all of this is for you!" "What?!?" Ha ha, it was a surprise baby shower! And I had been there for about fifteen minutes and it hadn't even clicked that it was a surprise baby shower for me! As Jenn pointed out, all of the presents were blue and she is having a girl, but that never clicked either! And there was a blue table cloth on the table and I thought, "Jenn is really dressing things up for Bunco tonight!" And everyone brought food and I thought, "Shoot! Why do I always do this? I didn't even think to bring anything! I'm crappy!" And there was a baby banner hanging right over my head at the rocking chair and I didn't even notice it! Hopefully it's just baby hormones because I would like to think I'm usually more observant!

Anyway, it was a really fun time. This was sort of my first baby shower ever. In Idaho, they had a baby shower for me at school, but it was mostly a faculty meeting that everyone brought a present to (don't get me wrong, that was very appreciated as well!)! So this was the first "real" baby shower. Everyone brought really yummy food and baby Max really racked up on a lot of awesome presents! I wanted to take pictures of each individual thing and tell what it was and who it was from, but Austin wouldn't let me. He said that was a bit much. So instead I put everything on the couch and tried to get pictures of it (if you are really interested, you can click on it to make it bigger to see things better):

So yea! Now we could actually bring baby Max home from the hospital and clothe him and put a diaper on him and everything! : ) Thanks to everyone for everything! We are so lucky to have found such awesome friends here! Love you all! (By the way, I was so excited about everything I kept Austin up until almost 11 talking away! And I have already written everything down in Max's baby book! Ha ha, love it!)