the park and... our closet. =D

This was sometime in the beginning of March when it was strangely warmish. (The weather has been freakish lately, I mean it snowed twice yesterday!)
I figured you guys might want evidence that I actually exist... even though I don't like this picture of myself (surprise, surprise).
The walk home. They're so cute! =)

Oh and this is from when I organized our closet in the middle of March... it doesn't look quite like this anymore. I need to pick things up again. =P I just think you guys need evidence that I am a neat(ish) person once in a while. We have more brown boxes for the other piles now, too.

catch up

Since we now have an awesome internet connection, I thought I'd put up a few photos (mostly of Nathan, of course) from the past couple of months.

This one to the left is of Nathan playing in what used to be one of his favorite spots - behind the couch. We have a few shelves mounted on the wall above the couch so there's a space back there. And this is when his hair was longer... hm... :sigh: I really liked his hair being longer so I could tousle it and and play with it and stuff, but it would get so matted in the back. Not so attractive. So my mom cut it for me on Tuesday (the 22nd) before she left the next day.










If the picture placement is bugging you - bear with me, I'm still trying to figure this stuff out. =P Anyway, this was just Nathan being goofy one morning in the end of February while I still had morning sickness and had to lie on the couch a lot.









This was that same morning - Jared made a yummy breakfast of biscuits and gravy with hash browns and bacon (I couldn't enjoy very much of it... but Barb, Jared and Nathan loved it!).











This is what Nathan does when he wants to make play basketball. There's a hoop on top of the pantry door. He holds his leg up so you know it's time to pick him up and help him make a slam dunk.






Jared gets a bit of an arm workout doing this over and over... =)












Nathan loves to use our cell phones... although he's not really allowed to anymore, since he broke mine and did something odd to Barb's... but this is him pretending to talk to and text people. (Thanks for fixing the red eye for me, Kelly!).









Nathan sees his grandma Spees (and once in a while Jared) doing crosswords all the time so she let him give it a try.













And this is Nathan wearing one of my headbands... I guess I didn't need to cut his hair after all - I could have just done this. lol.






Anyway, I think I'll make a separate post for the next pictures, since they all go together.

yay!!

This is going to be a fairly short update (for me), but I did want to mention a few things that are going on.

I got a calling to be on the compassionate service committee, which I'm pretty excited about (and I feel like I've already written about that... oh well). And Nathan has finally learned the word "no". Which is both good and bad. Actually, he says "doh". Not "no". Which makes it funnier... plus he only uses it (so far) when we're playing with him, which is nice. =) He just said it this morning when he had my keys. I held out my hands to form a gate and said, "unlock the gate!" when he ran off in the other direction with a firm, "doh!". It made me laugh. He said it a couple of times again when Jared tried to grab him and tickle him. Such a funny kid.

My mom has been here the past few days and that's been fun. She's really enjoyed seeing Nathan (as well as seeing other people, of course) and he hasn't been too shy with her, which was cool. She took a video of him saying what a chick says on her cell phone and if I ever figure it out, I'll put it up here. As long as it's not too big or anything.

...Because... we're finally getting the internet! Huzzah! Somebody's going to come out on Wednesday and hook it up. We're pretty excited. And you should be, too, because we'll finally be able to put up pictures and this blog will *appear* to be so much more interesting!!

Another bit of news: I think the whole 'nesting instinct' has kicked in for me, although I haven't done any painting or anything yet. Just lots of planning, plotting, measuring, and making of lists. As anyone who knows me well can attest, I love making lists. Anyway.

Funnily enough, Jared and I aren't really as gung ho about a bunch of girls' names like we used to be. We had a long list of girls' names when we were pregnant with Nathan (before we found out he was a boy), but now we have only have a few. Jared has one that he likes a little more than I do, I have one I like a little more than he does, and there's one that we both agree that we like pretty well, but neither of us is completely loving it. And we have a middle name that we both kind of like, too. And yes, I'm going to be one of those bratty pregnant women who won't tell you the names she and her husband are considering... not because I think anyone's going to steal any of them - but, honestly, I don't want anyone telling us which one they like better and why. lol... I'm almost never like that. Usually I'm all, "I want to hear what you think!" even when I don't care that much. Oh well, life's funny that way, I guess. You'll all find out what we name her eventually.

Do you love it as much as I do?

Before I get down to business… I just wanted to show you all what I’ve been … yes, I’m going to say it. … lusting after. Never has an inanimate piece of aluminum brought forth such emotions from me. I am such a victim of consumerism here. I was innocently watching TV and had forgotten to mute the commercials like I usually do (I find commercials offensive to the average person's intelligence for the most part). The moment the jaunty little ditty started for this commercial my ears perked up. On screen, something was coming out of the envelope… I started salivating, and I was lost. Behold, my chickadees: (Imagine an Angelic Chorus in the background). The MacBook Air! Believe it or not, there’s a headphone jack, a USB port and a micro-DVI port (I’ll be honest, I’m not entirely sure what that last one is, but it says it comes with adapters for regular DVI and VGA… thing). Plus, if I had a treadmill (which I don’t, and may never have) I could power this baby just by taking my morning constitutional. Sweet! I am aware of the compromises (could be a bit slower, and the battery is not removable, etc.) But, seeing as I will probably never be able to afford something like this (especially since I have higher priorities: like eating and being clothed, plus my eventual plan for world exploration), it doesn't matter anyway. This dream will remain nothing more than... a dream. That is, until someone else I know will eventually buy it and use it in front of me while twirling their evil mustachio.

Those of you who know of any potential or actual problems with this laptop, feel free to crush my daydreams.

Anywho, enough of my covetousness. On to worthier (and far more interesting, in my opinion) things.

Like, Nathan! And Nathena. That’s what Jared’s calling her these days. Yes, we’re having a girl. I think everyone who reads this knows that by now, but I still thought I’d announce it on the blog.

Nathan is doing well. He can be a huge whiner, but that’s a minor pitfall of this age, I guess. He can also be a real cutie-pie and he cracks me up on a fairly regular basis. It’s also interesting to see him explore and discover things that are new to him. It always brings me up short when I’m in a hurry and he sees something he’s never seen before (like a rock, for instance). He just stops dead in his tracks and has to figure out what it is and what it does. Meanwhile I stand above him trying not to scream in frustration (or trying not to laugh at his curiosity, depending on how much of a hurry we are actually in and how jolly I’m feeling).

Nathan’s latest accomplishments are: feeding himself his breakfast (oatmeal! With a spoon!) if he doesn’t choose to throw it on the floor, turning lights off and on, and mimicking cows, ducks, and sheep. I love the quirks he has with making the animal sounds, though. Like he wrinkles his nose and says “boooo!” for a cow. For the sound a duck makes, instead of “quack” he just kind of makes a threatening face with a slightly disturbing/threatening noise to go with it. I don’t think there’s a way for me to write a description of that particular sound. As for the sheep… he does this weird half-laugh at the beginning quickly followed by an intake of breath similar to a dolphin chirp. Sorry, that’s also pretty difficult to describe in writing. He used to do more of a “baa”, but for some reason he gave up on that after a couple of days. So that other noise is what he’s doing now. I’m sure he’ll fix it again in a little while, but I’m in no hurry. Not when it’s so dang funny.

Anyway, on to the fetus. At least, I think she’s still a fetus. I’m not positive. Whatever. She’s been kicking away and getting bigger. As I’ve told some of you, for some reason I’m carrying smaller this time than I did with Nathan. No idea why, but I’m hoping it bodes well… I’d love to carry this one full term. Jared’s only felt her kick a few times because she still doesn’t do it very often and even then, it’s mostly aimed at my internal organs. I love the kid, but it’s just annoying when someone’s softly punching your colon.

The baby brings me to a semi-related issue: the Prince family reunion. My hopes were pretty high until this weekend when Jared and I actually got down to doing some research. The doctor stipulated that he’d prefer me to fly anywhere I choose to go (if I’m even allowed to go anywhere… he wields the gavel up until the last minute). His logic is that if I fly, I’ll always be close to civilization – and a hospital – in case any emergencies arise. Never mind the three to four hour drive from the Boise airport to the campground. Anyway, so we wanted to take Southwest so that if we aren’t able to go at the last minute, we won’t incur any fees if we need to cancel and change the flight (we’re planning on going to Indiana this Christmas, so we’d need tickets then, anyway). That’s why I said Boise, because that’s the closest airport to the campground Southwest flies to. So I’m starting to realize maybe this won’t work out after all. I’m going to let our doctor know all the details and we’ll see what he says. He may be fine with it. At least the nearest hospital to the campground is less than twenty minutes away. I’d really like us to be able to go. Those of you who know me well know how I am… I’ve been worried each reunion is going to be the last for a little while now. And ever since I missed that last dinner/get-together for Grandpa’s birthday before Carly died, I’ve been trying to take advantage of every opportunity to see our relatives. Yes, I know that makes me one of those annoying people that wants to drag her family all over the place at all times of day in chase of moments and memories that may never actually take place, but I honestly don’t mind being viewed that way. I honestly believe it’s worth the hassle.

Anyway. On to other news. It looks like Jared may still get the Vancouver job, but at a cost. He’s not going to get it for nearly what he thought he would because of some rogue competitor (I’m using his words. It makes it sound a little more Old-Westish.) Well, either way, congratulations Jared!

We all went out to Outback on Friday night for a belated celebration of Barb’s birthday. She was really sick before when we tried to go out, so we had to go back home on the first attempt. Fortunately, she’s been feeling a lot better on that front lately. Nathan was charming until he started throwing pieces of chicken at innocent passers-by. I’m very hesitant to attempt taking him out again. That will last… not very long. I’m sort of a pessimist, but there’s still that old “hope springs eternal” saying that holds true for most of us.

Those of you (my mom and Marlyse) who were hoping to find out what my two embarrassing interests were, I’m sorry to disappoint you. Mom, you already know. Marlyse, if you’re even still aware that you asked me what they were, I’ll tell you later. There, disappointment averted.

Anywho, another long-winded blog is over. Off with you now.

P.S. If any of you know what that quote is from in the blog title, leave a comment with the answer and eventually you might get a prize.