Recent Fun

We recently went to Texas for a job interview and got to stay with some great friends.  While there, we ate some good BBQ at the Salt Lick and had a fun day with some of Will's friends from his cohort.  We even got to hook up with my high school friend Kylee and her sweet family on our way home.  I took our camera, but I'm horrible at remembering to actually take pictures so this is the only one we got on our camera.

I did get a couple of phone pictures of Emerson while we pitstopped in Nowhere, TX, and when I took him to a park while Will was interviewing.

  

Another bit of fun we've had lately is going through all our stuff so we can scale down before we move.  We filled a huge bag of clothes and hauled it to the Goodwill.  When we were tossing items into the bag, one of the shirts Will decided he wasn't going to wear anymore caught my eye and I thought I'd try to turn it into something cute.

It started out as a plaid tent...

...and with a little bit of transformation...

...I turned it into a short sassy dress (the black bag in the background is our Goodwill bag - it was pretty full!).

I tried wearing it with some silver leggings and a coral belt (see Will's bday party post for a pic), but I like it better with the jean skinnies instead. 

I must say I feel pretty accomplished because, when I started, I wasn't sure if it would even turn into something recognizable much less something that fits and looks cute, too.  Just imagine me trying to one-handedly measure my bicep with a tape measure and then add a seam allowance and adjust for some give as well.  There was no rhyme or reason to it - just a bunch of 'measure seven times, try on 3 times, cut once' going on.  Overall, I'd say a success, though.  What do you think? 

And now for some Emerson cuteness.  If you're up for a dizzying video, you'll like this.  If you'd rather not go in circles for about a minute, then I'll catch ya later. 

3rd Quarter Update

I'm baaa-aaaack!  It's time yet again for another goal update.  Here's a reminder in case you don't yet have all MY goals memorized ;)

1. Get prego. I know a bunch of people that are pregnant right now (Will and I counted and it's a lot) and we're hoping and praying and wishing upon a million stars that we join that number soon. Maybe this one will have to roll into next year's goals....
2. Update personal history. I am planning on finding the cd with my saved history later and am now just recording it without the file.  I'll combine the two eventually.
3. Food storage. I quote from last quarter's update: "This one never ends, and we're still working on it."
4. Compile Emerson's 1st year. I have finally decided that I'll make a really great photo book of Emerson's first year (and I'll probably do this for other children as well) and then get a nice case so I can have a place to put additional mementos like his first haircut snippings, hospital bracelets, etc.  I'll work on it and then wait until I get a coupon to have it printed.
5. Read the 4 books listed:
1. The King's Cavalier
2. The Name of the Rose
3. Approaching Zion - haven't even started and thinking I'll have to tackle this one next year beccause I know I won't have enough time to really devote hours of studying to it.
4. Increase in Learning: Spiritual patterns for obtaining your own answers - I didn't get very far in this book.  I'm still hoping to finish it, but got sucked into leisure novels for a while instead.
6. 72 hour kits. Done!  Hurricane Isaac helped kick this goal into high gear and now we are way more prepared for small emergencies/disasters.
7. Blog weekly. Still going strong with more posts in the works.
8. Workout 3 times/week for 20 min. The past couple months have been great for this goal because I was able to obtain a guest pass for the military base.  Because of that, I was able to go to the zumba class that they offer on base 3 times/week.  I have loved it and will be continuing it until we move.
9. Go to the temple. We have a plan to go before we leave.  I just need to find a babysitter for Emerson to finalize our trip.
10. Finish Ensign conference issues. Almost done with April's issue.  I will be done before October's session issue comes out.

I'm shocked that the year is winding down and almost over.  I'm already making a list of next year's goals so I can have it ready to go in a few months, but I still have more work to do before this list is finished. I have love-love-loved having this list all year long to keep me on track with my goals.  I can't wait to compile next year's list and start tackling it.  I suggest making your own list and working towards your goals because it's thrilling and refreshing to accomplish them.

Anyone plan on making a list for next year?  Start thinking about it now so you'll have your list ready to start on in less than 90 days (eek!  2013 is just around the corner!).  Share your goals and your progress.  You encourage me and I'll encourage you!

the Dirty Thirty

Happy 30th to Will!!

We celebrated Will's 30th birthday yesterday and had a party with lots of friends.  The theme was the Dirty Thirty (I got the idea here and ran with it) and everything had to do with dirt.  Invitations were sent out via email (we missed you family/friends who are out of state).

In order to keep the dirt theme, we had brown decorations sans brown balloons because apparently brown balloons aren't fun enough to produce.  Gold was the next best. 

Our menu was simple and all dirt-related:

Pulled pork 'dirt'wiches topped with 'a side of grass' (coleslaw)
'Fresh from the ground' fruit
'National Dirt Sample' (brown candies)
'Muddy Water' (root beer)
Boston 'Mud' Pie

After snacks and dessert, we lit the candles (yes, all 30 of them) and watched Will blow them all out.  He did it on the first try!

Then Will opened his gifts.  He received a shoe shine kit, the first season of Thundercats, a Pizza Hut gift card, cookies/candy, and a TomTom.  The pictures of gift opening came out horribly, so I won't put them all up, but I do want to show his reaction to the big gift that all the family shared buying. 

He loves it and has hardly put it down since opening it late last night.  Now we don't have to borrow from friends when we decide to gallavanting around unfamiliar territory (thanks M&J and V&H for being so generous).  We had such a great time with all who came and are grateful they were willing to spend the evening with us. 

Happy birthday to our wonderful husband and dad!  We love him so much and so appreciate all he does for our family.

Chomp chomp

Over this last weekend, we hopped in the car and scooted ourselves over to Moss Point which is about 30 minutes east of Biloxi.  We went with our friends the Shurtliffs and had ourselves a great time visiting the alligator farm. 

For only $5/adult, we got to hold a baby alligator, see all the big gators, and walk out on the bayou boardwalk.  Emerson just loved all the excitement and kept pointing at and talking to the gators.

  

We got to see a bunch of grumpy gators up close...

Emerson wasn't so sure about touching the baby gator.  He eventually did, but he was mostly just content with watching. 

Only a visit from Louis himself could've made our trip to the gators better:

We even saw a few gators that were up for a small brawl (thanks for the show, Vance!) Enjoy this short clip that includes some girly screams and a few laughs:

We had such a fun time and recommend this as a great little adventure for all. 

And finally, true to form, here is Will exhibiting his fun sense of humor alongside the ashtray:

the first time i was too tall

Words can't describe an experience I had with the stairwell the other day, so I decided to draw a picture for y'all.  It is titled "Bonk."

First though, a little image to introduce the setting:

I should also note that I rarely try to go under the stairs, but E was pushing my buttons so I took a shortcut.

Enjoy.

In Which Emerson Slides Better Than Oysters Slide

Date night last night gave us another thing on our Biloxi Bucket List to mark complete.  We ate at the Half Shell Oyster House in downtown Biloxi.  We ordered a platter that gave us 3 each of 4 varieties of oysters. 

The flavors were intense and yummy and the presentation was beautiful.  The only issue was that darn oyster in each one.  I haven't quite acquired taste for oysters yet, although Will thought they were good.  And it's a good thing he was there to help me out because I had trouble getting down just one of each kind.  Not my thing.  The other dishes we ordered were fantastic, especially the cinnamon roll bread pudding with spiced rum sauce.  {snarf}

In other news, we took Emerson to the park today.  I've taken him a few times before, but Will joined us today and E had a blast playing with him.  He went down all the slides and had so much fun running around.

This little daredevil likes to climb up the slides, too.

And so we help him be dangerous.

A clip of E sliding down a couple slides:

Will was being goofy with Emerson which was apparently hilarious.  We were happy to catch a good portion of his cute giggle:

Biloxi Bucket List

A few weeks ago, Will and I realized that our time in the south is starting to dwindle.  We decided to come up with a bucket list so as to make sure we do everything we want to while here.

• Ride the carousel at the mall (E has been eying it since we got here.)
• Visit the alligator farm
• Eat at the Half Shell Oyster House and The Shed again
• Go to the blue water beaches, eg. Alabama, Florida
• Have family pictures taken at the beach (easier said than done now that the beaches are filthy a la Isaac)
• Go to the temple
• Watch "The Frog Princess" (We saw this when it came out and didn't particularly like it, but thought it would be fun to give it another chance now that we have experience in the south.) **UPDATE: We loved it!
• Visit Fairhope, Alabama (recommended to me by my old boss)
• Go to Mugshots monthly (August, September, October, November) (For those who don't know, Mugshots is a burger restaurant that has been awarded Best Burger in Mississippi for 5 years in a row.  The award speaks truth.  We have yet to find a better burger anywhere.  We'll greatly miss Mugshots.)
• Do the local driving tours of downtown Biloxi
• Buy a Dusti Bonge print (Dusti was a local abstract artist whose art I have fallen in love with.)
• Survive a hurricane.

This list may still be amended, but I think we have most everything listed that we want to do.  We have three months left and we know it will fly by as quickly as the first eight have.

Isaac

In coming to Biloxi, we knew we might have to deal with hurricanes, but we didn't really expect to.  We hoped we could just slide through this year coming out un-hurricane-scathed. 

Boy, were we wrong.

Isaac started as a tropical storm and stayed that way for a long time.  We thought we'd just get a really big rain storm.  But then he started to veer this way and that way, and then he decided to target our house.  That was when we were glued to the tv and started thinking maybe we would have to plan on being cooped inside without power for a bit.  Then we realized that being without power would mean no A/C, no hot water, no stove, no cold milk, and no Lightning McQueen. 

Huh.  Then we considered maybe evacuating because, honestly, who wants to be in a 90 degree house with a toddler who won't be able to go outside.  Not us.

So we thought and prayed and considered all the options and costs associated with them and finally decided around midnight on Monday night to leave.  After packing up and moving some stuff off the floors and towards the back of the house, we got to bed at 2am and then woke up at 6am to drive away.  We drove to Dallas and then flew to Phoenix and made a great vacation out of it all.  Emerson did especially well considering the 20 hours total driving time plus two red eye flights.

We sure showed Isaac, although he did get the best of our window sills and entry way.  They are water-damaged a bit and I had to clean the mold off the floor and baseboards.  The towels we left in the seals were definitely dirty, wet, and mildewy. 

Overall, we are curious what it would have been like to stay and see the wind and rain, but we're glad we left and had some worry-free fun with family. 

And I brought our camera to take some hurray-we're-away-from-Isaac pictures, but alas, I forgot to even take it out of the bag.  Sorry, Mom.  Instead, here's a phone pic showing proof that we pitstopped somewhere in Texas.