The Latest

We haven't been very good at updating our blog like we used to. Mike has been very busy working, having an hour and 15-30 minute commute each way is making for some very long days and too short nights. The Plan has changed again. Sigh, you'd think I'd be used to the plan changing all the damn time, but I'm not. The latest was Mike's branch here in Tucson was going to up and opened yesterday, the 18th. Turns out that really isn't the plan. And we didn't find that out until the 16th. Now the new plan is we have to wait until he gets back from Vegas (Oct. 4th) for some convention thing and then he's suppose to be certified or whatever it's called by the man who owns the whole company and then we're on our own.....maybe, I guess. Keep your fingers crossed that whenever the opening day comes, work comes smoking in off our fax and Mike can quit having to drive way too far to start his work day. Can you tell I'm fed up too? Just a little. Not knowing is starting to take its toll on me as well. Maybe I should be the one in charge of the damn Plan?!

On a good note, we got a package the other day from Jen and the kids. Peanut has some new sandals and they are mighty cute. Bright green thongs. At first he kept scrunching up his toes and trying to eat them, but once he realized they aren't like socks and can't be simply pulled off, he moved on to a different thing to chew on. Big thank you to Jen for the present and the beautiful pictures of Peanut. All of the photographs she takes are photos to treasure. And thank you for the clothes and toy you got Peanut. Between drool, spit up milk, baby food, and rolling around on the floor, he's never able to wear his clothes the next day without a washing.

Some great and exciting news....Peanut's very first tooth popped through last Friday, the 15th (Happy 34 anniversary day for my folks!). The night before was pure torture for all of us. We got about 3 good hours of sleep, the rest of the time, we all were up and down since his poor little gums were so swollen and sore. Tylenol just wasn't kicking in fast enough for us all. I was too exhausted to try to think that sleeping on the couch propped up on me would of given us both a little more sleep. But it's here, and the very brief glimpses I get of it show it to be uber cute. Like I expected anything else out of my child. It's the bottom right tooth, and the bottom left is going to come through in the next couple of days.

Peanut will also sit up all by himself and play. He isn't able to push himself up to a sitting position yet, but if he's placed in one, he's now staying. Before, he could hold himself up but just didn't. Now it's no problem. And he can push himself up to a crawl position, but not strong enough to hold it for any length of time and doesn't know what to do once he's there. Some very slight rocking is going on which ends up into a nice face plant into the carpet or blanket and some screaming and Mommy flying to the rescue.

I've been experimenting with making Peanut's baby food and have had some success. Bananas, sweet potatoes, and avacadoes are easy, quick and some of his favorites. Squash didn't turn out quite like I wanted the first time and neither did my first attempt at sweet potatoes. Did ya know sweet potatoes in the US really aren't sweet potatoes at all, but are yams? No, I didn't either. But being the US, we had to mix things up and confuse poor baby food making moms like me into searching for the "real" sweet potatoes when the yams at the first grocery store were exactly what I needed. Ok, I'm over it now and Peanut has some real sweet potato in the fridge when he gets a little bigger and it's ok to give him that stuff.

Unpacking is *almost* done. Now we have the chore of finding spots to put all our stuff. Or moving it around again because the first spot just isn't good enough. More would be accomplished this week but my back went out again over the weekend so I'm on limited movement for the next week or so. It did force me to find a new chirportactor and she seems nice and can get my back adjusted. I go back on Thursday, and then hopefully once a week after that since it adds up expense wise in a hurry.

Ummm, not much more than that has been going on. Only 7 working days left until Mom and Dad come visit us. Woo hoo. And only a month and half until Peanut and I go home for the quilt retreat and a visit. My poor sewing machine(s) sit lonely and quiet since I don't have much time to organize all my stuff and get going on a new project or one of the many I have started. And school takes up most of my "spare" time. Almost done with this term and then I get a week break from school.

This is all for now. I gotta go jump in the shower. If Mike gets home in time tonight, I'm going to a fellowship meeting with a new friend. It's called After the Boxes and is for women who have recently moved to this area. Three good points about it: I get to meet some potential friends; I get time out of the house without Peanut where I can just be Crystal, I don't have to be Mommy; and it gives Mike good bonding time with Elliot.

Peanut is screaming at me and then smiles his uber cuteness at me when I look at him. I am now deaf. He has a very strong set of lungs and to listen to him now, you'd never think when he was born, his lung development was a worry for us all.

TTFN ~Crystal

3 Day weekend

Dad and Mom decided to take a trip up to the Grand Canyon this weekend, so I spent the last 2 days (Wednesday and Thursday) working by myself. Had 2 small jobs here in the Tucson area Wednesday and 4 jobs up in Pheonix yesterday. Both days were short and it felt good getting home at a decent hour and being able to spend some time with Crystal and Elliot for a change. Several times lately I've gotten home just in time to either help give Elliot a bath, or just take him out of Crystals arms and put him in bed...I dont much like those nights.

I asked my dad not to schedule anything for me today (Friday) so that we could all have a long weekend, and he obliged. So, today we are going to just sit back and relax alittle. We still have lots to do here around the house, including putting up some new ceiling fans we got yesterday at the Home Depot. I think they were maybe mislabeled or something cause they are the bigger 52" fans and have a nice brushed nickle housing, they were only labeled at 37.86 each, then they were having a fan sale and we got another 20% off of that price. In the end, we paid less for 2 than we thought we were going to pay for 1...I love shopping trips like that!

We drove the car up to the DMV yesterday to get it registered and to get our Drivers license numbers, turns out we have to have a notorized "power of attorney" from VW saying that we are allowed to register the car....lame. I cant wait to get pulled over for not having Arizona tags, thats going to be alot of fun. Crystal forgot her Birth Certificate so we couldnt get our licenses either, so we might go back up and do that today, havnt decided yet.

I think tomorrow we are going to take a drive out to the Suagaro National Park and check it out, then depending on how Elliot is doing in his car seat, we might hit the Air and Space Museum too. Then Sunday I think we will likely get more house work done, unpack a couple more odds and ends boxes, get some things hung up on the walls, stuff like that.

Crystals Mom and Dad come to visit in just 15 days! Then I leave the day after they get here for Vegas....kinda lame on their part to schedule a visit for when I'm leaving, just goes to show they hate me :) Just kiddin'...you dont really hate me do you? Come on! I'm so loveable!

Elliot is just days away from crawling, last night he finally got it all together, up on his knees, and up on his hands...just cant quite figure out what to do from there, so he moves both knees forward and falls down on his face. Then he gets mad cause it didnt turn out the way he wanted it to and starts to grunt. Hilarious! He's also making these new panting dog sounding noises, so I call him Dog boy, probably shouldnt do that much longer or he will develop some kind of a complex.

Crystal just got him to go back down for a nap, so I think I'm going to go in and try to "rest" my eyes too.

Moved into the new house...kinda

We moved into the new house last Friday, here its been almost a week and things are almost unpacked...I use the term "almost" very loosly. We still have a butt load of boxes to unpack, but hey..they arent going anywhere :)

Soon as we get things unpacked and organized, I'll get some pix up of the inside of the place. For now, you get other things to look at (sorry Ronda, no nudity in these).

Some of you may still be thinking we are crazy for moving to the surface of the sun...and you may be right..but thats not the point I'm trying to make here. The weather down here in Tucson (we are actually 25 miles north of Tucson) is actually alot more....tollerable....than it is up in Pheonix. Yes its still hot, but its a dry heat after all :) On most days, its about 10 degrees cooler here than it is up there. Which doesnt sound like a lot, but when its the difference between 107 and 97...trust me, its huge! I'm out in it every day working so I've become alot more used to it than Crystal is, after all, her day is filled with sitting and watching Oprah and eating bon bon's all day...soon as she reads that I'm going to get popped in the mouth, but its funny and sometimes you have to pay a price for good comedy :) (love ya honey!) Actually, my day is alot easier than her day is, she has to watch after a fussy 7 month old allllll dayyyyyy long. I'll take the heat! Its not that I dont love him, or want to be around him, its just alot of work..and I'm lazy...or it just seems alot harder after working all day then coming home to take over for awhile so mom can get her wits about her again.

The Monsoon rains have been sticking around alittle longer than they usually do, or at least the weather doofus on TV makes it sound that way. The other day it rained harder than I think I've ever seen rain fall before. Big huge drops of rain, and not just for a few minutes...I'm talking hours of heavy hard rain. It was actually kinda cool...in a weird, wet kind of way. For those of you that dont think water can fall on the surface of the sun...I have proof.

Thankfully, the rain stopped, and the sun came out. Not only did it come out, but it went down with a pretty good show that night. Once the rain stopped, we decided to go out and check out the area, so walking we went. Dont think we realized what good views we had til we were actually out walking around....here's some teaser's (see, the surface of the sun can be pretty at times!)




Well, thats all for now. I have to get up early...again. It's an hour drive to Dads house in the morning for work...then an hour back at the end of the day...ok I'm done complaining..gosh!