Spending so much time with extended family over the past few weeks has caused me to reminisce a lot about growing up with my brother. For the longest time, he was obsessed with the idea of converting a school bus into an RV and travel the country with his 10+ adopted kids. Sometimes he'd have a wife, but most of the time he was a single dad. I guess it depended on how much I was getting on his nerves that day.
Anyway, when we were out yesterday I saw a converted school bus! They were towing an older green minivan behind the bus and I saw a number of small children through the lightly tinted windows. It's said that everyone has a twin. Maybe Austin does and his twin is fulfilling the childhood dream. Who knows.
Ends up on the internet.
All things considered, our trip to Vegas was good. Grandpa's memorial service was brief, but nice. A number of family was there and it was also really encouraging to see people from the community there as well.
My cousin Ashley and her family were there as well. It was so fun to see Ashley and her baby! Ella and Sophie are four days apart, although Ella's claim to fame is that she's the first great grand baby. It was really cute to see the two of them together. On Sunday, we got them dressed up in matching outfits and took pictures of them with Gigi (great grandma). A lot of folks in the hotel lobby thought they were twins, though after you look past the almost bald heads and blue eyes, they don't look anything alike! Ashley and I were both able to commiserate over the fact that our little girls both look like their daddies. Maybe the next babies will look like us!
Sunday morning found us at the church my parents got married in 32 years earlier! It was so neat to be able to see how much they've grown. The sanctuary where they were married has now become the nursery! I got to meet the lady who made Mom's wedding dress, which was really special.
On Sunday evening, we played the tourists and wandered the strip after the sun went down. There was no way I was stepping foot outside for fun in 112 degree weather with a baby! Thankfully it "cooled down" to 95, so it was manageable. We hit up Treasure Island to see if the out door pirate show was playing, but the winds were too strong. The ships looked pretty cool, so I'm hoping next time we go the show will go on. We then went to the Venetian where it felt like we were walking outside! The ceiling had been painted in the most amazing fashion and there was a light breeze blowing through the shops. All in all it was an enjoyable night, but I was exhausted by the time we got back to the hotel. Ella was, too. Thankfully, the baby girl was very cooperative and the happiest little thing with all our travel.
The rest of my Vegas photos can be found here:
While I'm on the topic of Las Vegas, did anyone see America's Got Talent this week? I absolutely LOVED this act:
My grandfather passed away, so Ella and I are heading off to Las Vegas for the memorial service. I've been MIA due to attempting to get caught up on the household stuff before we traipsed out of state again after being home for only ten days. Thankfully this will only be for 4 days instead of 16, so hopefully it won't be such an adjustment for Ella when we come back home.
I'm not anticipating this to be a horribly sad event. My grandfather accepted Christ a while before he died, so I know I'll see him again. A ton of family will get to meet Ella and we're going to get generational photos taken with my grandma and her two great granddaughters who are a week apart. It's looking like it should be a nice time.
See you on the other side!
poem 00:19
In the silent spaciousness of these precious minutes past midnight
I go online
to see if you are
too.
How many meals do you cook at home each week? What do you do for the other meals?
Unless it's a special occasion or I have a horrible headache, I cook all the meals. Well, that is, except for Aaron's breakfasts. I simply provide the banana muffins and he makes his own oatmeal and scrambled eggs with coffee. We've just found it simpler and much less expensive to eat in and brown bag it while we're out.
Why simpler? Because I can't consume any dairy or soy products. Ella is breastfed and if I have too much dairy, she does a great impression of Old Faithful. Soy seems to trigger the same response. If I had better self control, I would just eat one yogurt a week and maybe toss in a stick of string cheese along a bit of milk over my oatmeal on Sundays. My self control is sadly lacking, however, and I find it easier just to avoid it all together. I never realized how much dairy I consumed until I had to cut it all out!
Before Ella was born last October, Aaron had never held a baby before. Actually, he had never held a child under the age of three! It's been very exciting to see them grow together.
A few months ago, she started squawking the moment he stepped in the door from work and wouldn't let him leave her sight -- even to go to the bathroom! After being gone for 16 days this month, Aaron was a bit concerned that she wouldn't have as much of an attachment to him. He had nothing to worry about. She went to bed before he got home the first day we were back, but she woke up the moment we went to bed. Ella sleepily sat up, whimpered, and crawled right for him. They proceeded to spend the next hour together snuggling in the rocking chair. It was quite obvious she had missed him.
Last night, I stayed up after the rest of the family went to bed and set up Aaron's Father's Day gifts. I had given a lot of thought to them and really felt I had done well. While I'm at work on Saturdays, Aaron and Ella spend a lot of time listening to the radio and dancing to music. He says this helps him put her to sleep when she's cranky. Aaron has often mentioned that he wished the CD player worked and that it was small enough to be on the kitchen counter. I managed to score a cute little CD/Radio in silver that matched the kitchen!
He has also commented more than once that he would have liked a new Bible that had larger type and easier to turn pages. While I was out in Seattle, my mom had an extra Bible still in it's box just sitting around. She gave it to me to gift to Aaron. Turns out it was exactly what he wanted.
Aaron found his gifts by the coffee maker this morning and used both before he headed over to the church to perform his Sexton duties. By the time he got back, Ella and I were both up and I had cinnamon rolls in the oven. We ate those piping hot with scrambled eggs and sausage. Definitely my kind of breakfast!
I'm not sure what we're going to do for the rest of the day after I get off work at 4pm. He and Ella headed over to his folks' house to spend some time with Aaron's dad. They'll be back in time to pick me up, but after that, who knows! Most likely it'll be mundane, day to day life stuff like grocery shopping and our evening walk. Whatever we do, I'm incredibly thankful to spend it with my daughter's daddy.
Ella and I were out in Seattle, Washington visiting my family for sixteen days. My husband, Aaron, despondently commented that he was going to be "so lonely" without us and wasn't sure how he was going to spend the time. Immediately, the gears in my mind began to turn and I came up with an amazing idea that would certainly keep his mind off of how empty the house would be.
I doubt he'll ever fear boredom again.
While his wife and baby daughter were gone, Aaron emptied the entire kitchen, sanded down all the cupboards (there were over 25), stripped off 1950's wallpaper, repainted EVERYTHING, and put everything back together in sixteen days. He had help from his folks and from a friend, but he did the majority of the work himself. I cannot begin to find the words to describe how much I love my kitchen now or how much my appreciation of my husband has expanded!
What is the favorite part of my new kitchen and dining room, you might ask? That is a relatively simply answer: the straight lines
By Malcolm Bullough
Dang, I meant to write about this aaages ago to give people time to decide whether or not they wanted to come along. Then I got ill and stayed that way for weeks, and all plans went down the drain. :-p
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