Happy Halloween

a day late, but still.

  

Sept Mois

Actually sept and a half mois old but I never remembered to take his picture until yesterday. We really feel like just in the last month Taft has changed a lot. He has a funny personality and loves to laugh, especially at Seth. He has two teeth that just broke through the gum in the last couple of weeks. He is sleeping from about 7-7,  but doesn't really take longer than 1 hr. - 1.5 hr. naps. He eats well and eats anything he is given. He's discovering he can yell and really likes to try it out while eating oatmeal in the early hours of the morning. He still loves bath time and being outside.

Post Edit: Yes, his duck fluff is starting to lay down and it is sad. I also forgot to mention that one of my favorite parts of the day is when I go to get him in the morning or from a nap and when he sees me he straightens his legs, shakes his arms, and takes a big squealing inhale and smiles. I love it. Also, I think the best sound in the world is when your baby laughs. It is so great.

Getting to Know Belgium

Now that Seth has started his rotation here in Brussels, we've been having a good time doing traditional Belgian things like eating mussels, frites, Leonidas chocolates, pannekucken (something like that) and dame noir ice cream,  walking on beautiful Chateau property, riding bikes with babies, and visiting Pop at NATO headquarters.

(aw...so cute. We're all brown-brown-matchy-matchy)

(probably not the safest way to ride a bike with a baby)

(this one is huge just because i love him so much)

Den Haag

We went to Den Haag in the Netherlands yesterday for lunch and to visit Mauritshuis art museum. This is where the Vermeer "Girl with the Pearl Earring". I also had probably my most delicious European meal yet. SO. GOOD.

Our Trip: Part Deux

Morocco

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

(this dumb slide show cuts some of the pictures off but you get the point)

The first place we stayed- I loved it. It was a small Moroccan B&B type of place and we were the only ones there. We were right in Marakesh and really close to the main Jemaa El Fna Square. Fresh squeezed orange juice was one of the main attractions and it was gooooood. Marakesh stinks waaaay bad so I highly recommend not spending much or any time there if you are in the pukey stage of pregnancy and/or have a sensitive gag reflex. The souks (shops) were really cool and I found some great things. Seth (not a shopping lover) had a great time too thanks to the game of bartering.

Marakesh was unlike anything I have ever seen in my life, it was really incredible. So if you didn't know, but you probably do, most Moroccans are Muslim. We heard the Muslim Call to Prayer over the loud speakers five times a day, including the 5:00 a.m. call. I was expecting people to drop down right then and there to start praying, but shows how much I knew. We had a really great driver at one of the places we stayed that enlightened us on some Muslim factoids and it turns out that you only pray in the mosque or I guess you can do it at home, but you must pray five times a day. Only Muslims are allowed in the mosque. We saw some women covered head to toe, some only had their eyes showing, while others just had their hair covered. Our driver told us it is up to the women to decide, but all women must cover their heads. I asked when women start covering their heads and he said "when they become women" if you know what he means. He was really great even though he thinks that 9-11 was an inside job. It was pretty humbling to see how devout the majority of the country, or at least what we saw of it, is. When talking about praying five times and having to go to a mosque to do it, our driver kept saying it wasn't a big deal, that you just leave work and it takes about 10 minutes. It sounds like a big deal to me!

Marakesh was dirrrrrty and poor. It really hasn't made much progress as far as technology, health care, food standards, living standards, etc. are concerned. Walking through the souks we realized we were no longer in the tourist zone as we heard a chicken squaking as it was heading for the chopping block. Huge carcasses hung on ropes with flies starting to eat away at them. It was disgusting. Moroccans, like Italians, love, love, LOVE babies. Seth was already a little OCD when it comes to germs and especially germs around Taft. But everytime someone touched, kissed, or even looked at Taft, Seth doused him with hand sanitizer.

The second place we stayed at was about 10 miles out of the city and it was wonderful. It was a very relaxing, again B&B type place, about 10 rooms total, Morrocan villa with olive trees all over the property. We were just ten steps from the pool and had breakfast and lunch served pool side daily. Taft loved the pool and took great naps which let up relax by the pool for a couple hours at a time. It was great. Taft never really adjusted from Belgium to Morocco time though, so we all pretty much crashed around 7 or 8 p.m. at night and were up at 5 or 6 a.m.

We took a day trip to a port town called Essouria which was also beautiful, but again very stinky.

Overall, I can't saw much for the food, which is too bad. I guess we just lost our appetite for anything Moroccan after seeing how it was sold in the streets. We did enjoy our Moroccan breakfasts and lunches though. We ended up having spaghetti (safest dish on the planet) four times and our last dinner consisted of Pringles and Snickers. I did expand my three phrase French vocabulary and learned to say "Coca light avec citroen, si vous plait". Diet coke with lemon, please.

We stopped for Coca light avec citroen at Dar Essalam. We watched Alfred Hitchcock's, "The Man Who Knew Too Much" with Jimmy Stewart and Doris Day right before we left. It was filmed in Morocco and they ate at this restaurant.

We started the trip off with three binkies and lost the first two. We had three days left, including a plane flight, and only one binky. We attached floss to the binky and attached it to whatever Taft was in, the stroller, the carrier, etc. We had regular binky checks to know where it was at all times. I really need to get those things that they make to prevent these types of crises.

I don't know if we really had highlights or low lights on this trip. Overall was really great and the only thing that stunk (besides the air) was we were all sick basically the entire time. Even still, we had a really great time. Seth is a great trip planner and I never have to worry about one bit of the planning stuff. I love it.

For The Nana

(or anyone else who misses the Bumski)

Dress Up with a T-shirt in a Hotel Room

As a Russian babushka..Oyveh.
As a camel trainer.
As the middle-eastern Pope.

Antwerp

Seth and I went to Antwerp Saturday while Taft stayed home with Grammie and Pop. These are my conclusions about life after visiting Antwerp/Europe in general:

1. The U.S. really missed the boat on good bread. Who cares about sliced bread. I want a baguette!

2. Europeans really know how to dress their kids. Seriously, the clothes are TO DIE FOR.

3. Traveling by train is my favorite kind of travel.

I talked to my dad later that day and if he asked me if I saw Tom Shane buying any diamonds. I had my eye out, but unfortunately didn't see him.

I did see this painting which I think would be so cute in a little boys room.

And who wants to see this movie with me?

Our trip: Part 1



This is Taft as a world traveler. He was great on the flight (about 9 hours) and even slept for a few hours. He adjusted pretty quickly to the time change and has been a real trooper by skipping naps here and there, eating and napping on the go, and staying up past bed time.

This was one of the first towns we went to, but I don't remember the name of it. For a much better description of our trip visit this blog. This town was supposedly known for it's ceramics. I thought these ceramic steps were pretty cool.

The next day we went to Taormina which was really beautiful. We walked around the town, visited this amazing Greek theater, ate lunch with a gorgeous view (the picture isn't very good), and then went down to the beach. Bumski was pooped.

This is how Taft felt about the beach. He loved it. I tried to overcome my fish fear by attempting to snorkel. You can see my attempt here.

To be continued...

September was not our month.

1. My car got towed after parking it in what seemed to be a public parking lot

2. My car got broken into. In our apartment complex. Which is supposedly secure.

3. Our stove broke and started smoking 1 hour before we were supposed to leave for our trip.

4. Our laptop got lost/stolen in the airport/train station in Paris. Taft's life in pictures was on that computer.

The sad thing is all these are pretty much my fault too. I was the one who didn't see the five hundred no parking signs. I was the one that left my purse in the car which caught the attention of the thief. I was the one fidgeting with the burner and probably caused the break. I was the one who took the laptop out of the bag to make sure it wasn't wet and set it next to Seth thinking he'd see it and assume to put it back in the bag.

I really like being right. No, I LOVE being right and I HATE being wrong. Sometimes I gloat about being right. Seth has had at least four huge chances in the last month to gloat about not being the one to do any of that stuff that I did. Do you know how many times he did? Zero.

Today is the last day of September. Here's to a better October. I think it will be better. How can your October be bad if it is spent in Sicily, Morocco, and Belgium?

I loved EFY. My first year at EFY was actually then called "Academy for Girls" which was basically EFY for 12 year olds minus the boys. I went with my friend Jamie and we probably fought at some point during the week because I'm pretty sure it was impossible for us to go more than two days without someone saying something that hurt the other one's feelings. We both brought various items from our rooms at home to make our new home for the week seem like ours. I remember my dad sent me a letter while I was there and I cried because I was homesick even though it was only a week long camp. Powerpoint must have been the new craze because the letter was about 12 pages with big font and pictures and each seemed like an individual powerpoint slide. I went to "Academy for Girls" for two years and then when I turned 14 I got to go to real EFY, with boys and everything. I of course developed crushes on at least 3 boys in one week's time and at the end of EFY swore I would never kiss a boy again until I was married. (Uh, in case you were wondering I didn't keep that promise) I have a point to this flashback. One year the theme was Joy in the Journey. I was thinking about this today because A) I was in Provo where EFY took place two of my four years and B) because I was feeling joyful a good part of the day. On my last day of work, my work friends gave me a little journal with the word ENJOY on the front and on each page there is a quote about joy. I was at a baby shower this morning for my friend Melanee who was bursting with joy as she opened her gifts and imagined dressing her new little baby boy. I of course understood her joy as I sat there holding my own little bundle. I also felt joy for my other friend, Jessie, who had her first little baby this past week. I thought how I was just barely there, but six and a half months have passed by and how I hope that I can remember to soak in how great it is to have a baby in our home. It seems like Seth and I are always talking about what we're looking forward to next. It was Taft, then it was Europe, next is residency interviews, then finding out where we'll be moving. I still like thinking about the future and getting excited for it, but I also want to find "joy in the journey" of each day right now. There's a lot to feel joyous about. Today was beautiful, the leaves are starting to change, I spent the day with friends and family, and I ate frozen yogurt. Seth isn't home right now but he'd probably say he found joy in riding his mountain bike from Squaw Peak to Hobble Creek Canyon and then going to the BYU game. Anyway, this is kind of cheesy but it's just what I was thinking about today. Now I'm going to find joy in a bowl of Cocoa Puffs.

When I was in middle school I used to fake sick so I could stay home to eat junk and watch Lifetime movies. I don't know if you've watched a Lifetime movie lately, but it seems like they're always about abused women/kids - just sad stories in general. I LOVED these shows and eventually I think they are what inspired me to go into the field of social work/child welfare. So thank you Lifetime channel.

My last day as a social worker for the State of Utah was a week ago today. I had been counting down the days, but when the day actually came, I had mixed feelings about closing that chapter of my life. I got a thank you card from a client the nigth before my last day. These things RARELY happen but it made my day. Or year. Or short two year career.

As much as I complained about this job and really dreaded some days, I now feel like I really did love this job. I realized that I'm passionate about the field of child welfare and WILL be sure to always be involved in it whether working full time, part time, or just volunteering. When I tell people what I do/did, I get the same repsonses: "Oh that's so sad, I couldn't do that"..."That must be so hard"..."I couldn't work with the parents of those kids, I would just want to take everyone's kids away"...okay, you get the point. Seth typically has a optimistic outlook on life and tends to give most people the benefit of the doubt (except SoCal people) and has said about a lot of people, "Everyone is just doing the best that they know how". I've realized through my time with this job, that 99.99% of parents love their children more than anything and really are trying the best that they know how.

With this job, the success stories sometimes seem few and far between, but it is a great feeling watching someone overcome a drug addiction and having their children returned to them, or seeing someone become self-sufficient and seeing what self-confidence can do to improve someone's quality of life.

There are many, many things I will NOT miss about this job...goat poop is the first thing that comes to mind. I'm super grateful for this job though and feel it was the best first real job I could have had right out of school. I don't think any other job would have given me the experience this job gave me.

I know that there is a time and season for everything and that right now isn't the time for me to be furthering my career in this field, but I'll still miss it a little. However, most of my first week of staying home including going on long walks to parks, The Gateway, and beautiful nearby neighborhoods. Sleeping in a little wasn't too bad either. Oh and I get to be home with pretty much the cutest baby I've ever had. AND the majority of the week I've thought, "being home totally rocks".

Taft turned 6 months old yesterday. I can't believe he's already half a year! As you can see, he learned to sit on his own. We're pretty sure he's well on his way to becoming the next Rhodes Scholar. I mean, look at his shirt, he's six months old and already a doctor. Taft spent the sixth month of his life going to St. George for a little vacay with the Herway family, rolling around our non-carpeted floor, playing with cousins or rather watching them play, figuring out how to lean very unsafely out of his bumbo, and humoring his parents with smiles and laughs.

(p.s. Taft's mom is now a stay-at-home mom. Woo hoo!)

I'm tellin' ya....it's hereditary.

If you are ever going down to Orem to watch a soccer game and decide to carpool with family and decide to meet at the old Lowe's parking lot on 90th south and just leave your car there...DON'T DO IT. Why? Because your car WILL get towed, that's why.

Somehow I didn't see the five hundred signs that said UNAUTHORIZED VEHICLES WILL BE TOWED all over the parking lot when I left my car there.

I went back to get my car after the game and saw my car was gone. My first thought was "Wahoo! Someone stole my car!" If you've seen my car you'll understand why I'd be excited. Unfortunately it was towed instead by a really rude guy who basically wanted my arm, my leg, and my first born child to get my car back. I ended up talking him into just a big wad of cash instead and got my car back this morning.