Boy Scout Recognition Dinner

Aaron and I got to do one last thing for scouts before we moved away from Ogden.  We headed to a Scout Recognition Dinner for some free food and to cheer on the people that we knew who were being recognized.

I'm glad that the church and scouts are family friendly organizations so that I can have my little baby get used to going to activities....because pretty soon he will be a little scout himself.

Caged Animals

Zach has a brand new favorite thing....and it's crawling into cages.  He LOVES getting to snuggle with the puppies in their rooms.

The house will get quiet and I'll look around.....and I'll find tiny little feet sticking out of the kennels.  Bambi looks so exhausted.

I can just hear her saying, "Why are you going this?  I just want a nap....by myself."

This is what happens when Pippen tries to gain higher ground.....the pillow gets shake shake shaken.  These poor puppies.

I'm glad Pippen and Bambi love this little boy because as he is getting bigger, he is getting more and more in their space.  He loves to chase them around the living room and snuggle up to them.  He likes to try and climb over them or use them to help him stand up.

This is Bambi thinking, "Why does he do this?  I've only ever keep kind to him."  I know, Bambi....when he's bigger, I promise he will get nicer or at least he will stop fitting in the kennels.

Overwhelmingly Far Behind and Our Big Announcement

Do you ever get so overwhelmingly behind with something that you just give up?  Scrapbooking, cleaning dishes, or raking leaves?
That's what I've been feeling with my blog.  I've gotten so many things that I've wanted to blog about all piled up on me.  I'm going to try and catch up.  I'm hoping that I'll get a chance to breathe pretty soon  but I can't really count on that.  If it's not one thing, it is another.

So, I might have to just dive right in.

Aaron and I are MOVING!!!  Oh my gosh!!!!!  Yes.  We found out in the middle of March.  People have been asking me for details on what all went down.

Here it is:
Aaron and I agreed that we would live in Ogden for 5 years and see how things were going and how we felt about moving.  Well, this winter Aaron and I talked about how the 5 years was almost up and we made a little game plan.  Since we wanted to move by summer, we decided that Aaron would send out some resumes in January to other military bases and see if we got any bites. If not, we would start looking in the private sector.

He sent out a bunch of resumes and we didn't hear anything back for two months.  So at the beginning of March, he sent out a bunch more.  But, the government, as you have probably heard, moves very slowly.  And they got his bunch of resumes from January processed and looked at in March.

He got a TON of calls from around the country.  California, Florida, Oklahoma, and Nevada.  We knew that we could take our time and be very picky.  So, when he got a call saying, "You got the job in Nevada"....we were confused.  Aaron hadn't done an interview for a job in Nevada yet.  He told the lady on the other end that he didn't know what job she was talking about.  She was a hiring authority and so she didn't know either!  It was just her job to make the call to let him know.  She gave him a number to call the next day (which was Monday...since it was Friday afternoon when she called).

He came home and told me about this random call.  He asked me, "Is it okay if I don't take this job?  I know that it is in a bigger city and a warmer place, which is something that you want......but I think that I know what job this is....and I don't want it."  I told him that it was fine because he's had a job before that's he hasn't enjoyed....and NO ONE was having fun when he came home grumpy.

Well, he called them that Monday.....and it turns out that he DIDN'T know what job it was for.  The project combines two things that he worked on already and he gets to test equipment which is his absolute favorite thing to do at work.  His future boss said, "I didn't need to interview you because your resume was perfect.  You were exactly who I was waiting for.  I actually wish that I could get 2 more of you.  I didn't care who you were or what you were like."  Lucky for him, Aaron isn't a super weirdo.

Aaron called me up and told me all about it and I was completely on board.  Our life has been a whirlwind of activity ever since.

We had been planning on trying to sell our house this summer anyway (my parents were buying a house that we were going to move into and baby sit for them) but this sped up our plans.

I had to say good bye to my nursery with its light green walls and beautiful trees.  I actually never finished half of them because Zach came a couple weeks earlier than planned.

When I painted them, Aaron said, "We aren't going to live here long enough for Zach to remember these trees.  This is so pointless."  So, he felt pretty vindicated in saying that.  I always knew that I was painting them because I wanted something special for my baby boy.

We also had to finish painting the kitchen.  So late one night, Aaron and I worked on that together.  I even got behind the fridge and swept up years of dust under there.  The people who move in won't know that that floor is spotless, but I do.

 We also had a project in the living room to tackle.  You might remember this from our roof redo.  That's right.  We have been living with that patch for almost 2 and a half years.....and we FINALLY tackled it.

The Realtor told us that we needed to patch it up really well so that people wouldn't walk through and think that it was water damage....because then they might worry.  So we called in a friend that was a lot more capable than us at patching it up.

This is actually one of our friends that helped us with our roof (but not the one who made the hole.  That guy wanted to help but he is MAJOR busy now).

We've also painted the living room a nice neutral color and cleaned up the trim work.

The house is almost looking so nice that I don't want to move......almost.

Home Improvements: Laying Sod

We got sod today!  EARLY today.  They told me that it was going to be delivered at 7:30am and apologized for the early hour.  I told them that it was fine because I have a baby who usually wakes up that early.  Well, they dropped it off at 6:45am.  Yikes!  But at least we could get it laid faster.

It is so weird to watch grass rolled out like carpet.  I found it pretty mind blowing actually.  After staring at my dead lawn for about a year and just a patch of dirt for 6 months, it was pretty crazy to look out the window....

...and see this.  Yup, that's a lawn that you could really enjoy.  We have the laundry poles ripped out, the sprinkler system under ground, and now we have some beautiful grass.

This lawn is my new baby.  I've never watered and babied a patch of grass so much in my life.  What's sad is that we've made the lawn super nice for SOMEONE ELSE.  *sigh* Happy to be moving....but sad to be leaving our house.

He's A Climber

Zach is not focusing his attention on learning how to walk...at all.  He's 10 months and so he's got plenty of time to work on it.  I'm not a pushy mom when it comes to milestones.

But he has been working one favorite task and that is climbing as high as he can.  Sometimes, if I'm sitting on the floor, he will use me to try and climb up onto things, so I have to be careful what I'm up against.

The other day, I watched him climb up on this box of diapers.  He was so proud.  I was really impressed because you can see the green bottle in his hands that he brought up with him. 

Then he started to try and climb into the cabinet.  Unfortunatally the books that he grabbed onto were not a solid thing to pull on.  He fell backwards and took the books with him.

Oh....but that's not what he has a bruise on his forehead and blood on his face....no....that was later.

After he fell off the box of diapers, he was a little upset.  He started to cry a little and so I scooped him up and tried to comfort him.  I was sitting on the ground by our chaise lounge and when he stopped crying, he tried to get away from me so that he could climb onto the lounge.....and his foot slipped off of my belly (that he was using as a foot hold) and bonked his face into the wooden base of the chaise lounge.  And I assume, bite his tongue.

Aaron asked about the bruise on Zach's head when he got home.  Nope...not from doing things dangerous....from being held by mom.

I found him a couple days later, sitting and contemplating the universe on my luggage.  The bigger suitcase like this, was the first thing that I saw him climb on to and that was right after my trip to Illinois. 

I love that he is a little climber.  I LOVE IT.  I was a super cautious child, always aware of my mortality.  I want him to always feel like doing exciting things and reaching new heights.  The other day, when we were painting, we moved the chaise lounge in front of the picture window.  He used my body to climb up onto the back of the lounge and watch all the cars go by. 

I'm proud of my climber.  

And I'm fully aware that that might mean stitches are in our future.