Weekend with Eli

Last week I had the privilege of watching Eli for 3 whole days. His parents got to go away for their anniversary (lucky them!) and I got to be the babysitter (lucky me!) We had a good time together. He's such a good kid. My kids like to smother him a little too much. You could tell he wasn't too fond of them at times, but he was a pretty good sport. My girls think all babies are like dolls -- you must hold them and feed them at ALL times.

Thursday night we had to treat Eli to some Cold Stone. They were giving out free ice cream for a Make-A-Wish promotion. We couldn't pass that up, so even though it was tough to squish it in between dinner and getting me to book club we made it work. I left Brandon in charge so I could go to book club. I love my book club to death, and couldn't miss out, plus I was in charge of the discussion this month. We read Randy Pausch's "The Last Lecture." Love it, Love it, Love it!

Saturday we spent the morning in the car. We had to go down to Salt Lake to a hardware store to get more wood -- to start the next set of shutters! Then we drove out to West Valley City to drop off a bag of clothes to a mom who had posted an ad online needing clothes for her kids (I had 3 other bags I dropped off at DI the day before, and this is just the beginning!). And then we drove all the way over to Cottonwood Heights to look at some flooring for our kitchen. It didn't work out, so we're still looking for something there.

I'll also make a note here that Brandon got his birthday present a little early. I knew this was going to happen when I bought it so far in advance, but after all the driving around Saturday I couldn't hold it in any longer. I gave it to him a day late -- but we now have a portable GPS car navigation system. It should come in handy with some trips were planning to take, and all our day trips "down south."



This is Eli on a little walk we took together Thursday.

Homework

Coming from a homeschool perspective, I don't believe in homework. I'm not going to use this post as a soapbox, but just some background to let you know where I'm coming from. I found a wonderful book by Alfie Kohn called "Unconditional Parenting" -- I'd recommend to any parent. Alfie suddenly became one of my favorite authors, and when I saw he had also written a book called "The Homework Myth" I knew I'd have to read it. This book basically has the research to back up what my heart already knew. I thought I'd have to read this book to arm myself with data to use in conversations with teachers that tried to give my children homework I feel is inappropriate; however, that has not been the case. We got 2 wonderful teachers this year, both of whom made clear that they don't believe in unnecessary homework so it hasn't even been an issue for me. YEAH!

Well, lately, Chloe has been receiving the message from outsiders that she needs homework (this makes me squirm!) She keeps asking me why she isn't getting any. I explain my position, as well as her teachers. But this morning I was putting her lunch in her backpack and I found this note inside it:



I thought it was TOO funny! She's forging notes to her teacher to BEG for homework. Do you think she pulled my signature off? And don't you love the instruction to "take to Chloe" -- yeah, just bypass mom, she doesn't need to know about any of this!

And the Verdict Is...

I know some of you have been waiting to hear about what our future holds. We finally got the offical word yesterday that the deal is sealed, and they are moving Brandon's department to Riverton (about 40 miles SW of where we are). It looks like the move won't happen until April or so -- much later than we were expecting, but with all the delays that's probably a good thing. We still have some things to talk over, but it looks like chances are we will move too. Of course, there are some apprehensions that go along with it, but I feel up to the challenge! Some people like to put roots down, I like to have wings to fly. Let's see where the wind blows us.

Shutters!

It's been a long time in the making, but last night "we" (and I use that term loosely) FINALLY completed one window. This was about 99% Brandon's work, 0.5% Chloe, and 0.5% me -- so that's how I get to include myself. I'm not going to cover all the details; that's for Brandon's blog. He actually decided not to post instructions on the first one, and just use it as a practice. He'll start the next window sometime soon, and he'll document that one (for those of you just dying to learn how to make shutters). Since he already took pictures of it for his blog, I'll just "borrow" his pictures. BTW: you're only supposed to be looking at the shutters, not the messy scrapbooking center -- that doesn't even get used.

Friday Night With the Morris Family

I got to do a photo shoot of this cute little family yesterday. Their oldest daughter, Gloria, is one of Sophie's friends. It was really easy because the mom asked me to do it on Tuesday, so there wasn't much time to fret. We just did it in their backyard -- which makes things pretty simple, and I don't have to pick the location :) Plus, they're such photogenic people, which always helps.



After I got home, I noticed Brandon was over at our neighbors. They are building a shed and I had offered to help them. They told us they might need us on Saturday, but I guess they got ahead of schedule. I went right over there and I think I was just in time to help. We put the walls up, and I told Brandon it felt like we were doing an Amish barn raising.

* Latest Projects *

Can you guess what I've been up to lately? I know I'm pretty new to the blogging world, but I've felt like my blog was seriously outdated for a long time! It really frustrated me that the frames were so tiny. Now it is large enough for me to blow my pictures way up! I'll put more thought into my header sometime, but I just threw something together so I could get it up. I want to thank Brandon for all his technical help! He gets pretty excited when I ask him for help. It's very cute. Way cuter than watching him try to staple the tilt bar onto the shutters.

I spent all weekend working on my "real" website. I had put it together over the summer, but left a lot of things hanging. Wendy got married on Saturday, and since she was going to be handing out my business cards with my website address on it, I figured I better have something worthy of showing people. Of course, I waited till the very last minute and finished it Saturday evening. If you check out the galleries, you might recognize a face or two! So, those are the two big projects I've been working on. Now I guess I should return to scanning pictures -- I'll get them crossed off my list one of these days.

The Conclusion of Our Weekend

As if that primary parade wasn't enough excitement for one day, we also had a ward activity that same night. It was a swimming party at the rec center, including a light dinner. We had a good turnout. Brandon, the party pooper, stayed home because he had things to "worry" about. The kids just played in the pool and I got to visit. I complain a lot about the lack of activities our ward has. This will let them off the hook for awhile -- but not too long.


That is Chloe peeking through the sprays of water.

Now to be fair to Brandon, I'll explain why he was SOOO stressed out. His car was leaking antifreeze (more than normal), and it looked like it was leaking into the oil. He was pretty sure this was the death of his car. I'm not sure how staying home from a party helped the situation, but he's a strange one (which goes without saying). He also stayed home from work today to try to bring his stress level down, and to take his car into the shop. We got it there just fine, and they called to say they couldn't find anything wrong with it. I see this as a blessing. Brandon sees it as an incompetent mechanic who's just not finding the problem. We'll see how it works out, but I don't think we'll be buying a new car soon. I hope!