our life this week

Like I mentioned Delilah has been sick before and since Collin left. It has left us in a crappy situation, we can't leave because we are sick, but we both want to leave because we are sick of each other.

Most of the week Delilah has only wanted to lay on my lap. She refused to eat or drink, and I tried everything at a moment of desperation diet coke may or may not have been poured into a sippie cup.

When she wasn't in my lap she looked like this I've never seen her so docile before. She was such a loaf and literally just wanted to be snuggled constantly. (notice the full sippie cup that hasn't even been touched).

I thought for sure it was just a cold and it would go away but it wasn't. She quit eating and then she quit drinking. The morning she woke up with a nearly dry diaper and a fever was when I decided to take her in. It took about 48 hours for the drugs to kick in but she is slowly getting better.

On Wednesday she started feeling better but she hadn't slept the night before which meant I hadn't slept the night before, and during her nap I had to work. So her and I went in her room in the late afternoon and shut the door, I laid on the floor and let her "play" I was so exhausted I didn't care what she did and was just happy to keep it contained to one room. Here is the result.

Today she was doing much better, I am still giving her Motrin once or twice a day because she is still coughing like crazy and gets clingy if I don't. She no longer has a fever and last night slept for most of the night. I decided to get us out of the house we would go for a walk. It was in the mid fifties and felt great outside. We ended up walking 3.8 miles round trip (according to google) and probably would have gone longer if Delilah hadn't started to melt down for being in the stroller too long. The way back to the car was more of a speed walk than a leisurely stroll, at one point when she was screaming and throwing things I started to jog but my pants started to fall down so that was cool. I also tried getting her out and letting her walk around but there was a canal on one side of us and a river on the other side and she wanted to jump right into both. So she was pretty ticked to be put back in the stroller (which is near impossible when she turns into a screaming board). In the end she was given my phone, unlocked, and took pictures with it. These are the results

Needless to say we have missed Collin this week, Delilah is still asking about him. I know I have said it before when he goes out of town it is impossible not to feel envious of him. Montreal does look pretty cool after all, but rest assured he is under a lot of pressure to win and his phone calls are sounding a little more stressed. His current schedule has him getting home as 2 in the morning on Monday, which lucky him he starts school on that very same day. When he gets home we will both be exhausted.

Anyway this is pretty much our week in cell phone pictures.

Tomorrow Delilah and I are going to try to spend some gift cards, but who knows how that will go.

sleeping arrangments

So last night around one in the morning I was trying to go to sleep. Something I struggle doing when Collin is away.
I kept adjusting and fidgeting but couldn't get comfortable then the thought came into my mind, "you can cross the line"
You see Collin and I have very different sleeping habits. He would love to snuggle, hold, and spoon all night long, you know very sweet and romantic like. I on the other hand would not like to do any of the above when I am sleeping. I mean I've been snuggled, held, and dragged around all day, by an toddler mind you, but still I would like a little personal space at some point in my day and I choose to claim it at night while I am sleeping.

Most nights we get in bed and snuggle all of about 90 seconds when I do the "roll over", at which Collin will attempt to follow me and move in for a snuggle. Depending on my mood I will either A. allow it for another 90 seconds or B. demand he get on his side of the bed. Now depending on Collins mood he will either A. get on his side of the bed or B. proceed to snuggle and love on me just to bug me, more than not it's B. (this my friends is what you get when you marry an oldest child) At which point I will get more annoyed while Collin revels in his accomplishment of bugging me and proceeds to try to "love" me.

It usually ends with me saying get on your side of the bed and don't cross the line. I don't know how many times I have wanted to draw a line down the middle of our bed and threaten couch time if he crosses it. He eventually gives in and will stay on his side of the bed with the occasional toe that creeps over to snuggle my foot which almost as a reflex I quickly pull away, only to just as fast return the toe stroke with a few of my own then quickly go back to my side of the bed.

I don't know why I have such a hard time sleeping when he is gone, I mean I should be sleeping better. Then like I was saying it was last night that I realized that even though he is gone, out of habit I am still only sleeping on my side (left hand side closest to the door, in case you were curious) of the bed. At this realization I decided to sleep diagonally across the bed. Who knows how I'll sleep tomorrow, maybe I'll sleep on his side just out of spite. :)

collin

This is a picture Delilah took of Collin the day he left to canada. We miss him but wish him luck on his competition, and hope he stays warm in the negative degree weather.

These are the pictures she took of me. . . .

the past ten years (in photos)

china

I delivered 3 weeks after this photo

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Gingerbread House

The Roberts gave us this wonderful gingerbread house kit. Delilah and I worked on it together. I would put gum drops on then give gum drops to Delilah. She copied me and put her gum drop in the icing. Looked at it with admiration, then picked it off and ate it. It didn't take her very long at all to stop helping and start picking. I'm not sure how many times I've said it but it's a good thing she's cute, because this house didn't have a chance.

Thanks Roberts

Christmas 2009

Remember our Christmas from last year? The engine fan in our car flew into our radiator and busted everything up then when we were looking at it realized our tire had a buldge in it so we had to put a TON of money into our car. There was a moment this year when we thought we were going to have a repeat.

I made a quick run to the store to get some butter to make this toffee. Which was easily hands down the best toffee I have ever made. I got the recipe here.

I also made caramels but they didn't turn out as well as I would have liked them to. They were a little too soft, you know the kind you can't even get out of the paper and you end up looking like an idiot biting it off of the paper. Yah that is what I made.

Anyway back to the car. I was coming back home from the store when I hit a pothole and tore the side wall on our front passenger side tire. I was only a mile away from home but didn't want to risk ruining the rim by driving on it and for some reason our tire iron wasn't in our car with the spare. So I called roadside assistance (included in our insurance) and very friendly man came and fixed up my tire and gave me the advice to get a tire iron .. . . um...thanks for that tip.
I know a busted tire isn't that big of a deal, but our car is all wheel drive and that is the tricky part. When you replace one wheel you need to replace all four or it will mess up the transmission. Hence the reason we had to replace all four last year. I took the tire to pep boys (where we got it) and they were super nice and told me the tire couldn't be replaced but our tires are new enough and have hardly any miles on them, that it wouldn't effect the transmission if we just replaced one tire. Oh and the tire we replaced, still under warranty. So what could have easily cost us 400+ dollars cost 11.62.

We are truly blessed. This is the picture I sent to Collin with my phone while I was waiting for roadside assistance. It doesn't really show it well I should have taken a picture of the two big holes.

Collin's family has a tradition to go out to breakfast on Christmas Eve morning so we hit up the waffle house.

2 waffles

1 egg and cheese biscuit

1 egg, bacon and cheese biscuit

hash browns

diet coke

chocolate milk

12. 36

Collin loves the waffle house and according to him we don't go enough. It's literally right up the road from us.

We came home and rocked out to guitar hero (an early Christmas present from my brother Daniel and his wife LeAnne)

Collin had his traditional hor'dorves. For those of you who aren't Shaw's the consist of summer sausage, cheddar cheese, and dill pickles skewered on toothpicks. Very tasty I am sure, but wouldn't know. I felt bad for Collin lately because he told me he isn't eating enough meat, that's why I got him some summer sausage. It is Christmas right?

Here is how we spent Christmas Eve night. It was our first (of many I'm sure) to be santa's little helpers and assemble D's adorable nursery toys.

This is a picture that was difficult to take, due to Collin's "IT'S CHRISTMAS EVE, LETS GET HYPER" mood. I thought it would be fun to get a picture of the two of us in front of the presents, and this is what I got. eh.. what do you do.

Christmas morning came and we videoed the entire thing but on our camcorder so no video but I'll paint the picture. She walked in the living room and with out a second glance at her new toys grabbed the stroller and started pushing it around. She then moved on to everything else gleefully playing with each new toy. She was adorable until the melt downs started as seen below.

We went to the Hilton's home (a family in our ward) for dinner/late lunch. It was a lot of fun and the kids all played well together. Thank You Hilton's.

We then returned home web cam with my family to open presents. We hooked up the laptop to our TV and enjoyed watching all the chaos from our apartment while Delilah slept. Thank you for all the gifts we enjoyed them.

Merry Christmas to everyone we had a good one and hope you had the same.

Merry Christmas

A shower for Taylor

My good friend Taylor had a beautiful baby girl. We didn't know she a baby girl until she came so we waited until she was here to have her shower.

*adorable baby cake made by cara (lady in purple)
*Taylor (the proud new mamma) is the one in the brown, tourqoise, and purple shirt,
and if you look all the lovely ladies are checking out sleeping Evelyn.
*veggie tray and fruit pizza by Erika.
For Evelyn's little presents I made her some onesies with iron on patches. I hope she looks adorable in them, unfortunately they probably won't be handed down to the next child because I also put a her name on the back of each of them. I thought they turned out so cute that I am jealous of them and am starting to wish I had made some in Delilah's size.

Thanks Taylor for letting us snuggle on that little girl of yours.

another trip to Charleston

Collin and I truly love Charleston. Collin even applied for a few jobs in Charleston. Collin's mom Mary Lou came into town so we took it as an opportunity to go to Charleston. It was a foggy kinda cold day but we still made the most out of our trip.

The beach was empty good for us, too bad Delilah doesn't realize now isn't the best time of the year for swimming. We knew she would splash and get soaking wet so we planned for it and let her play. She is adorable and I loved watching her play in the water. I have seen star fishes before but never when they are still alive, Collin found this one so Delilah and I could touch it. She wasn't too interested in it, too bad because it I didn't realize how much they feel like a lizard.

Usually when we go to Charleston we spend most of the day at the beach, but since it was so cold and gloomy we were able to spend our time else where on this trip. We looked at the houses downtown and did a little shopping in the market (which are actually old slave trading buildings). We went to eat at the Crab house where Collin got shrimp, Mary Lou got crab, Delilah got the mac n' cheese, and I got the only non sea food item on the menu. :) One day I'll enjoy sea food, one day.

After downtown we spent the rest of the evening outlet shopping. I have never seen Collin so helpful and content shopping, I think it had something to do with his mom being there, because I know if it was just us there would have been some whining. (love you babe)
All in all it was a great trip, so someone else come visit us soon so we can go again.

My computer

Here is the story of why my blog was vacant for almost two weeks. It sounds funny that after such a short amount of time we were getting some phone calls and concerned messages from people wondering where I went. Sorry for the scare, we are healthy, safe, and okay my laptop just finally gave up the ghost. and I'm sorry Misty, but I don't like blogging on a mac it's all just a little too foreign.

We bought my old lenovo laptop (may she rest in peace) about three years ago when I was going to school full time as well as working full time. I felt like I was never home to do homework because most of my days were wake up go to work, go to class, go back to work, go to class, back to work then home then to sleep. I was really lucky I worked on campus and had a job that was willing to be flexible with me and my school schedule but my grades were starting to slip (3.2 ish) and I was exhausted. We finally broke down and got a laptop for me, the semester I got it I got my second 4.0!! The first one was during a summer semester, I was still working full time and Collin was in China and my classes were body image and eating disorders, human sexuality, and women's health concerns, and one other I can't think of at the moment (I truly love my major). Ever since I got my laptop my life seemed all that much easier I could do homework in the halls waiting for class, in class, at my parents, at my in laws. Wherever I went my laptop is not far behind and it hasn't changed to much.

When we made the big move my laptop was more than just a convenience she was my life line. I didn't know anyone in SC, I didn't have cell phone reception in our apartment, Collin was in classes ALL DAY, and I usually didn't have the car. I use my laptop to chat with Collin through out the day when he is in class (with the occasional web cam session during class, when Delilah needs to say hi to daddy) I use it to chat and web cam with my family, and obviously to blog and read blogs so I don't feel so far away from my extended family. SIDE NOTE: I love blogs, how else would I know my nephew calls gas x kick A$$, or see how cute everyone is in their Halloween costumes, thank you family for updating them for me, it really means a lot to me.

About a year ago my laptop got a NASTY virus. I had to start from a clean slate in order to get rid of it, since then she has never been the same. She was working slower and would do weird things every now and then. We started to have to reinstall windows about ever other month. Collin and I had it down to a science and we could reinstall windows on my computer in about 2 hours. I knew that she wouldn't last long and would eventually die on me, but I was hoping she would pull through until next fall when we would actually have an income. With us in school right now I knew we couldn't afford or rationalize the purchase of a second computer when Collin has one that I can use when he is home and not using it for studying or working. It would be a sacrifice but it is what we would have to do. Then something happened unexpectedly.

I have been meaning to blog about this for a while but thought it would make for a weird post. I now have a part time (more like when they need me) job at a consulting firm doing important research that I can't comment on (it's all confidential). This last semester Collin was going to school and still doing some part time work for the consulting company he did his summer internship with. One night he was swamped with both homework and work so I asked if I could help him. I did some research for him and put a table together and thought nothing of it. A few days later I heard him talking on the phone with his boss.

"....Michelle ended up helping me do a lot of the research so I was able to get it done.

A-huh, yah she has a degree.

Community health promotion.

pause

Yah, well she's smart and knows computers.

I'll ask her. . . ."

I laughed at Collin when he told me they wanted me to help them do research and put together documents for their clients. I mean I can do it but. . . I wipe a bum, a face, dirty little hands, all day along with the occasional coloring and knocking down blocks, not really the professional type. They know that I am a mom and that I can work for 2 hours during nap time and then after 8, and their cool with it. I mainly use Google and excel and they pay me for it. I mean every stay at home mom's dream job, right? Weirdly enough Collin said that most MBA students would love to work for a top consulting firm as well.

Back to my computer. It broke right? She made funny noises, was working really slow, wouldn't open certain files and then a few weeks ago she no longer would keep a charge, then she would just randomly shut off, right in the middle of what I was doing. I will admit I came so close to throwing my trusty laptop right against the wall. Especially one night when I had been working on a spread sheet for a few hours and hadn't been saving regularly. I need to remember the good times we spent together, she lived a full very labor intensive life and she was cheap to begin with.

I am just happy I was able to get a new one because we found a killer deal on tigerdirect.com and I now have a "job" and important things to do (I don't think Collin considers blogging "important" I think I will start referring to it as "family history work" so it sounds more essential to my celestial well being). and seriously Collin and I can't share, a laptop. How am I suppose to gchat with him on his own computer?

So there you have it long story short

I'm back online!

My 27th

This picture was taken at the end of the day on my birthday when I realized I hadn't taken a single picture of myself on my birthday.
I had a great birthday this year. Many of you know that last years birthday was . . um. . I'm not sure how to put this but, it . . well it sucked! I guess that's the only way to put it. This year was MUCH better. My super terrific family sent me gift cards which Collin made sure I spent all of them the night before, he said if I didn't use them all to get myself something he would inherit what was left over. With such a strong motivation I got a new crock pot (the locking lid one), a new apron, and two pairs of jeans. Thank you Family. The morning of my birthday I slept in until 11, did you catch that ELEVEN!! Collin got up and made sure Delilah was taken care of and quiet and I slept like the dead.
During Delilah's nap Collin proceeded to make my birthday cake. He was determined to do it all on his own. So with some supervision Collin made his first cake, using the kitchen aid for the first time, using a piping bag for the first time, using pretty much anything you need to make a cake for the first time. At his request I did make the frosting. Collin was SO proud of this cake. He has been commenting about it ever since he made it. "Remember that awesome cake I made?"

After Delilah's nap we got lunch. We were going to go out to eat and I couldn't even think of anywhere I wanted to go. But while Collin's mom was in town we tried Pop's NY Pizza for the first time, and it was so good we had it for my birthday. This is the smallest size of pizza you can get. It fed us for 3 meals. It was such a good Birthday

Delilah picking all the olives off, not eating them just picking them off.
The day after my birthday we had our ward Christmas party. After the party some of my best friends from the ward went to catch a 9:50 movie. I haven't been to the movie in so long. It was so nice to have a girls night out and who wouldn't want to hang out with such wonderful ladies. I need to get out more often.


Rebbecca, me, Angel, Naomi, Cara

Thanks for such a great Birthday it was a good one.

I'm back

[Ward Christmas Party December 18th]
I don't know about you guys but it's felt like an eternity. I will fill you in on the story of my sad sad computer soon, along with all the other events that have happened in the short time I have been with out my computer.
I know there are so many of you who don't really care about this blog ;) don't worry Delilah's blog is going to be back and running as soon as I load everything on my new computer, so prepare yourself for cute overload, it seems she has been particularly cute lately.

***Special note, if you enlarge the picture (and I know you will) there is some salad in my teeth, and this is the first time I saw it, I wonder how long it was there. I'm so hot!!***

new laptop in the mail

see you in 3-7 days

In case you didn't know

my computer is broken and will hopefully be repaired or replaced, soon.

Until then

Michelle

get it? (it's milk)

Hot Pot

The pictures aren't the best because I turned off the flash so they wouldn't think I was a weird American with my camera, although I don't think they would have since they all eventually pulled out their own.

The night before thanksgiving we went to the store to get everything we needed. We ran into Yao-Yao while we were there. He goes to school with Collin, and he and his wife are adorable and in love with Delilah. They invited us over for a very special authentic Chinese dinner of Hot Pot. Which Collin loves, I've never met a hot pot I have enjoyed but love the company so we went. Yao Yao and his wife were there along with five of their friends from China. They all loved Delilah (even though it took her an hour to warm up to them) by the end of the evening most of them had taken pictures of her with their own cameras.
The evening was really fun. Once we started eating there was a moment of silence while everyone was chewing and Delilah took that as a sign it was time for the prayer. She folded her arms and bowed her head and whispered a jabbering of a prayer. They looked at her for a minute and we explained she was blessing the food. Yao with the sincere face and sweet smile thanked Delilah with a little bow. It was such a sweet moment I have been thinking about it since it happened.
The hot pot was DELICIOUS!! I've never had one with such great flavor (and I have had quite a few in china, taiwan and America). There was lamb, pork, and beef all sliced paper thin along with sprouts and mushrooms. They were worried it would be to spicy for us but it was perfect for me and Collin kept adding spice, which impressed all of them. I forgot how much I love authentic Chinese cuisine and the culture that surrounds it.
I was also proud that they were impressed with my chop stick ability and pointed it out to everyone as I picked up some cilantro. I shyly said "they didn't give us forks in China", and they all laughed. Delilah is very obsessed with chopsticks (we use them a few times a week) and they all got a kick out of her trying to use them. They suggested we picked up some children's chopsticks for her. I hadn't even thought of that. I will have to get some next time we are at the Asian Market.

FYI

Here

Thanksgiving Day

Now that we are all super full and recovering from our tryptophan induced naps. I thought I would blog our special Thanksgiving day for three.

The last time we spent thanksgiving alone it was here.

This is Collin and I on our honeymoon, we had only been married a day and really didn't mind spending the holiday just the two of us.

Last year we spent it with friends.

This year just the three of us. I think it is more difficult to make a thanksgiving dinner for three than it is for 15. My favorite thing about thanksgiving (aside from the company) is the variety of food. It's like chuck a rama but sanitary, and not disgusting. Collin said we should keep it simple and not make a lot of things, but come on, it's thanksgiving. So I tried to scale everything down. starting with the night before thanksgiving I made pies.

The plan was to buy the mini pie tins and make a few 1/2 size pies but they didn't have any at the store so I risked it and made them in a muffin tin. I have only made pies a few times and not frequently enough to learn from my mistakes or even remember my mistakes so I was excited for the challenge. I made three different kinds of pies.

lemon pie. pumpkin pie. apple pie. pie crust.

surprisingly they turned out nicely. The crust / pie ratio was a little off but nothing a little whipped cream couldn't fix.

When we went to the store we probably spent the most amount of time looking for the smallest turkey we could find. We ended up getting just the breast of a turkey weighing in at 6.25 pounds. It was my first time ever roasting a turkey, enter google. After looking through several websites I came to the decision; olive oil, salt and pepper and that was it. It turned out surprisingly moist, especially for just white meat. we also had mashed potatoes, stuffing (not stove top at Collin's request) and green bean casserole which Collin didn't grow up on so he could barely look at it let alone eat it. And just because we are good Mormons we I threw in some orange jello as an after thought. Thanksgiving dinner wasn't the same as it has been in the past but we were still able to enjoy it.

After dinner we relaxed and watched A Christmas Story, which I don't remember there being so much swearing in. (I guess I am a mom now)

We are now listening to Christmas music and trying to plan different things we can do to get into the Christmas spirit.

I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving, because I know we did.

Thankful on Thanksgiving. . .

On this Thanksgiving day I wanted to express some of the many things and people I am thankful for. At the top of my list of course are these two, who I would do anything for.

I am of course also grateful for THESE PEOPLE and every thing they do for us.

Another thing I am so grateful for is that I was able to look like this a few years ago.

I have to thank my heavenly father and a little modern science to look this way

(oh and Collin played a roll too). Part of me thought it would never happen and for that I am so thankful. Thankful I could be a mom.
***Anna informed me this sounds like an announcement, it's not.Sorry for the confusion.

Another thing I am grateful for when I don't have a baby in my stomach is my heating pad :) I couldn't have survived this last weekend with out it. In fact my heating pad is what gave me the idea to do this post. It is such a little thing that is shoved under my bed most days but this last weekend I was so thankful for it. I want to take this opportunity to give a shout out to some of my most favorite things that don't get enough thanks in my life:

Binkies, ipods, 409, spray and wash, Google, Picasa, the Internet, photo shop, bananas, vacuums, prayer chairs, prayer, warm showers, washing machine, dryers, a car, a home, warm blankets, AC, Heat, electricity, Jed Nesbitt, bugs, garbage men, grocery stores, paint, clothing, the scriptures, church, good friends, good books, HGTV and FOOD, cheese, ice cream, lactaid, technology in general, smart people who invent things I use, parents who taught me, siblings who taught me, Utah, airplanes, web cams, digital photography, ducks (to feed, not to eat), food, crayons, glue guns, Mr. clean bars, PB bars, mobility, pain killers, birth control, shampoo and conditioner, slippers, pictures, the temple, church, friends at church, enrichment night, paper, magnets, nail polish, self check out counters, calendars, job offers, schooling, knowledge, refrigeration, inside jokes, breathing, sleeping, trees, plants, slings, spiderweb dusters, avocados, gmail, purses, dogs, digital camera, flip flops, chi flat iron, immersion blender, George foreman and his grill, kitchen aid stand mixer, external hard drive, my laptop, my salad spinner, Delilah's snack cup that keeps the snacks from falling everywhere, my electric fry pan, dish washer, coloring books, hammer and nails, emery boards, lint rollers, planners, alarm clocks, sleeping in, kisses, hugs, emails, hello's, snail mail, Autumn, potatoes, Are you still reading? Anyway I am so thankful for many things in my life, and thankful for the holiday that lets me express my thanks to them and eat pie.

Until tomorrow when I will show you how Thanksgiving went, I wish you a very Thankful Thanksgiving.

Michelle

The anniversary day. . .

Our anniversaries have slowly gotten less couples massage and $100+ dinners and more cheap dinner and movie at home. We decided to spend the evening as a family and Delilah was invited on our Anniversary date. We were going to try out a new pizza place, it was closed down. Collin suggested an Indian restaurant that he had been to over a year ago. We pulled up to it and it was a lot more ghetto than he had remembered.

So we went to Yo Burrito. It was good but the entire time I felt guilty because as I was eating my Santa Fe burrito I was thinking of a California burrito. As we were finishing up I looked down and there was a wire in my burrito, nice huh? I didn't eat it and it was obviously an accident, Collin and I weren't even going to say anything but then I started getting nervous that someone else might get it and eat it, and thought maybe we could get a discount, so I pointed it out. Our 30 dollar meal went to 12 dollars with big apologies :)

Then we went to Sandy's for some ice cream, came home and watched a Christmasy movie and called it a night.

An anniversary is about spending time together and reconnecting right? Well check and double check. I'm sure one day we will go back to getting massages and fancy dinners but we might have to wait until Delilah is in college.