i have SO much to do today... but...

A - Age: 25
B - Bed size: queen
C - Chore you hate: sweeping & mopping: you can't get it perfect
D - Dessert you love: cookies
E - Essential start your day item: getting out of bed
F - Favorite actor(s): mathew mcconaughy (i like him so much i can't spell his name), sandra bullock, julia roberts
G - Gold or Silver: platinum
H - What happened to H?
I - Instruments you play: flute, piccolo, oboe & piano
J - Job title: full-time mom/part-time accountant
K - Kid (s): clara jane, 5 months
L - Living arrangements: house in mesa w/ NO storage
M- Favorite month: hmmm, all months have good things going on
N - Nicknames: anna banana (of course only my dad calls me that still)
O - Overnight hospital stay other than giving birth: nope
P - Phobias: germy people, public restrooms, gas nozels, water at night (even swimming pools)... i have lots of issues ;)
Q - Quote(s): too many to name
R - Right or left handed: right
S - Siblings: 4 sisters + 4 brothers + 1 me = ONE LARGE HAPPY FAMILY
T - Tattoo(s): no
U - Unique talent: wow, this one always stumps me... i can stick my stomach out real far... it was neater before i gave birth and had a smaller waist
V - Vegetable you hate: i think i like all the ones i have tried
W - Worst habit: eating junk food whenever i want
X- If you were told to Xerox a part of your body what would you agree to: anything that wouldn't compromise my standards or my health
Y - Yummy food you make: pasta milano (when i don't use sweetened cream), any cookie & pretty much anything with a good recipe
Z - Zodiac Sign: scorpio

almost a hero...

before i tell my story, i need to make sure it is known that I AM NOT A DOG PERSON. i didn't grow up with dogs and while cute, they stink and are too dirty for me. i am afraid of them and have a few of them biting me. i don't like to touch them and try to stay away from them. i have nothing against people who are dog lovers, but i don't see myself having a dog ever. i will just have a few extra kids instead. :) anyway, tonight as angela and i were driving home from the gym (10ish), a black dog on the side of the road caught our eye. now, this was significant because the woman i used to visit teach moved a few days ago and just days before she was to leave, her two dogs ran away. she was very upset and hoping to find them prior to her move. one of the dogs was black, which explains why when we saw the dog both angela and i asked outloud, "is that her dog?". i flipped a 'u' as quickly as i could and pulled off on a side street. as i'm waiting to turn onto the side street, i had the window rolled down and we yelled "TJ!" (the dog's name). so we got out and i was trying so hard to be brave and get the dog to come to me. i am pretty sure i did a good job of not thinking it was going to bite me. i called my vt all while i called the dog, whistlee, got it to run to me and grabbed it's collar. surely, i am going to be a hero. my vt answered and within seconds i learned that she found her dogs and had them with her in utah. i asked, so this means i can let go of the dog i am holding? i was glad she found her dogs but felt pretty funny that we yelled at a dog and i touched and petted some mangy dirty stinky dog. so this will be the day that i was almost a hero. oh, and i decided swiss cheese is cute and it tastes really good.

memorial day

we had a great memorial day yesterday. it was nice to spend time with jason pretty much ALL day long. that hasn't happened for a while. we drove around and looked at houses, we went swimming (this time clara had her own attire)hung out with angela and clint (clint explaining to clara why it's not okay to cry for no reason),ate ice cream and laughed when it smelled like my computer was on fire. don't worry, it was just the plastic on the power cord melting. apparently i will be needing to purchase a computer sooner rather than later. all in all, it was a great day and we found some pretty neat houses that are possibly in our price range. we'll see if they are still for sale when our home in utah sells which is when we'd be able to afford to move.


i have decided that the two hardest things of being a mother to a 5 month old are 1. washing out the spit up under the top fat roll in her neck (the bottom fat roll doesn't pose as big of a problem) and 2. cutting her fingernails. you see, clara is somewhat high strung (surprise surprise) so she is constantly clenching her fists, making it extremely difficult to cut her nails since she is moving all of the time. but hey, if those are the two most difficult things, i suppose i have to admit having just one kid is pretty easy.

it being memorial day, i would like to say thank you for all those who have fought and continue to fight for our freedom here in america. i love the freedoms we enjoy!!

a little of everything

so, i have lots to say and i am going to say it. primarily because i discovered through browsing blogs the other day that YES! you can print your blogs and have them bound in a book. now let me tell you why this is cool: it is like a journal with pictures. plus, it doesn't seem that expensive. hence, i have decided to make this like a journal, which means there will be a lot more writing and pictures. once i have maxed out my space, i will print the beauty and continue. here is the website: http://www.blurb.com/create/book/blogbook.

next item of business: sunday at my mom's was grand. my little brother steven is moving back to utah (bye bye steven!!) tomorrow. we will miss him. he would hold clara all the time so i will miss having my cute little brother saying, "let me hold her". i guess that just means that now i have to go visit him and rachel in utah!

after dinner, clint decided we should have a "jowling" session.

for those of you that don't know what this is, well, it is HILARIOUS. clint also refers to it as "shake face". these are not pretty pictures and you

have to be very secure to let someone take a picture like this of you but it makes for a fun photo session. in fact, this could possibly be the ugliest picture i

have EVER seen of myself. i look much like a horse, which i find very funny. here are jowels of me, jason, clint,

angela and james. i'm pretty sure clint's was the best, although jason made the best noise.

you shake your head side to side as fast as you can with your face completely relaxed and have someone snap a
picture for a jowle... or is it jowel? who knows... maybe that is why clint started calling it shake face.

i also am thinking about buying a new lap top. i don't want to spend the money until we sell our home in utah, but i really need one. my current lap top has been around since my college days... i believe just a bit after i met jason, so summer of '02. it has been through a lot and the connection between the power cord and the computer is bad so every two seconds the battery starts flashing on and off and the screen goes light, then dark, light then dark, and i'm pretty sure i might throw it down and break it one of these days. my question for all of you is mac or pc. years ago, i believe it was pc hands down, but i think macs are improving. clint is also buying a computer and i think he has been swayed toward a mac. i just laugh because this is such an emotional topic for people and as i told jason on the way home from my mom's, if you were choosing between a honda and toyota, no one would care! but a mac or a pc and a good number of people i know get all worked up. so, please, share your advice because i have always been a pc fan, but i'm not a mac-hater like my sweet husband. so the vote is on: pc or mac & why.

what would we do w/out aunt kathryn?

i promise this is my last post for today, unless something super crazy happens in the next five hours (judging by the prior 25 years of life, don't count on it). today, clara went swimming for the first time and LOVED it. i had a feeling she would since she loves taking a bath, and as i told her, a swimming pool is like a giant bath tub. without kathryn, this picture would have been a naked clara in the desert (aka, our backyard). we used kathryn's 'little swimmers', borrowed the swimsuit and borrowed, of course, the pool. it was fun and i wish we had a pool. until then, we are glad other family does and hope to frequent them often this summer. i do have some questions though, where do i get a baby one-piece swimsuit? i found some online at old navy, but they don't have them in the stores... i think the little bikinis are so cute, but what a pain to hold a slimy skirmy baby in the pool in a two piece. also, any suggestions on where i can get a good swimsuit for myself? i ordered one from shade clothing and let's just say the medium top was not such a good idea. i plan on returning it, but had it been a smidgen smaller, i probably would have had to cut it off and wouldn't have been able to return it. anyway, like the swim suit, but not a great fit.

body worlds 3

last night we went to the body worlds 3 exhibit at the az science center. it is $16/person if you go after 5pm and it's going to be open 24 hours a day this last weekend (www.azscience.org). if you pay with a chase credit card, you get $3 off (learned that after my mom bought 5 tickets and jason went to buy just one more, bummer). anyway... you weren't allowed to take cameras in; i was hoping to get some pictures, but i understand. this exhibit was neat. i thought i'd get grossed out, but it almost doesn't seem real. they use real bodies, but the plastenation process makes them look more like plastic. so to me, it was much less "gross" than cadavers or anything of that nature. it was fascinating to see what we look like inside, to see how big our organs are relative to each other, to see what different cancers and tumors look like and most of all, how absolutely AMAZING our bodies are. WOW! it was great. my two favorite things were: 1. seeing a uterus (wow, to think it goes from the size of the one on display, about 2-3", to be able to hold an 8lb baby) & 2. the fetus exhibit. this one got me teary-eyed. they showed babies from about 5 weeks to 33 weeks. at about 21 weeks, they start looking like little babies, so it was fascinating, but the 8 week stage was unbelievable. the amount of detail on those tiny little unborn children. in fetal position, they are less than an inch long, but you can see fingers, toes, a nose, little eyes, everything. that is how big clara was the first time we saw her on an ultrasound and as the dr. pushed on my belly, she kicked her tiny little leg up. in all the wonder, i had to ask myself, how can people say they aren't alive? i will argue until i die that from conception, a little life, a little miracle has begun. after that exhibit, we played around a bit. here is my friend that came with us, nylene (also the one who painted clara's room while i was at work, sewed her bedding and was the head honcho of organizing my shower... let's just say she's rad). she lifted 1/4 her body weight and i did 1/6... but i still think it was harder for me. :)wow, 5 months old and clara can already stick her tongue out at the camera and say "plppppt"

clara has, up until this point, pretty much enjoyed the car... well, she screamed all the way home from phoenix. so when we got home, i hurried and fed her. when she is all fed and overly tired, she gets WAY hyper and giggly. so, i just had to take some pictures of her. the only problem with this is it makes it harder to put such a sweet baby to sleep. :)

shoes

yesterday i decided i feel bad because i hardly ever put shoes on clara. only trashy people take their babies everywhere without anything on their feet, right? well, i decided to change that and put these cute little shoes on her.

the second we put her in the car, i'm sure the thought entered her mind: wahoo! a new toy, and so easily accessible because it wasn't long before she grabbed her foot (with the shoe) to chew on it.

i laughed, took a picture, turned around... and less than a minute later looked back and hmmm, she had pulled both shoes off. so, we are done with shoes except for special occasions for a while, call me whatever you would like. :)

the hair

this morning, after i fed clara, i was laying in bed singing to her (the rough life, i know) and i felt a 'hair' on my leg. this is a common occurrence since i am back to my pre-pregancy shedding volume. i figured the fan was just blowing it... felt it again and realized it was traveling upwards. so i looked at my leg and turns out this 'hair' was actually a spider! i used my ninja moves and squished it with my heel. gross. i hate spiders... and did it really have to join us in bed? just wait 'til i tell jason; he HATES spiders more than anything.

on an even grosser, yet more exciting note... tonight we are going to see the body worlds 3 exhibit at the arizona science center. i am so excited and am looking forward to a fascinating experience!

narcissism

so i bet a lot of people have blogs to show off their kids. but me? i like to post pictures of myself on here, which was my primary motive in starting one. HA! j/k... this one of clara and i just happened to be the best one of her. (obviously not so great for me, but hey, these are the kinds of sacrafices us moms make...) it is from a few weekends ago at jason's younger brother's wedding in eagar.

so the last couple days were a bit crazy. i did my first payroll for the company i am the accountant for and so far, no one has complained that they got paid too much, too little or not paid at all... so i'm hoping it stays that way. oh, and i was quite relieved to know that so far, people haven't had a problem cashing their checks. :) the problem isn't necessarily that i am incompetent, but that not only did i become the new accountant, we also switched software. needless to say, i suppose it's good for me to stay up until 3am every now and then. building character... what?

now, before i go to bed (i am supposed to wake up in 6 hours and i have yet to get ready for bed), i just need to show you an awesome picture of clara. she is rad. i took this picture in the car on the way to the wedding... yeah, i was sitting in the back seat because jason's brother rode with us, so i had lots of fun with clara. like when it had been over four hours since feeding her and i poured water into her mouth from the cap of my water bottle and she lapped it like a dog with her tongue. isn't that great? her looks just crack me up. oh i love her!! :) she loved the sunglasses and i am sure you'll be shocked to know, she pulle them off and tried to eat them, imagine that.

busy weekend...

last night we went to angela's senior show in downtown phoenix. grandpa melzer carried clara from the car all the way inside and she loves her grandpa!

angela graduated today. YEAH! clara stayed with dad and screamed for an hour and a half (or so he says). i don't think my perfect little baby would ever do such a thing. :) anyway, after the graduation and lunch, we hung out at my mom's for a bit. clara was moving all around the floor and her headband fell onto her eyes. i grabbed my camera to take a picture, but by then, she had pulled it off herself and was pulling on it and sucking it. i should have known the bows would eventually end up in her mouth... doesn't everything else she gets near it?

are you serious?

so i wonder if my children will be upset later in life to know that i occasionally enjoyed life at their expense. last friday i went to a friend's to make bow's for clara. she had these flowers for headbands so i made one. i thought it was large, but thought, maybe it will look cute on. well... it is HUGE (duh, look at the picture) and i thought, are you serious? would someone let their baby wear this for reals out in public? i don't know... you tell me. nonetheless, i had to take pictures. jason called her flower head and i think it fits well, mostly because when you look at her, the first thing you look at is the darned flower! oh... and look who snuck into the big picture of her, little penny rue.

the inevitable

apparently the website didn't work out so well so i have succumbed to blogging. a blog is just much easier to update compared to a website and because the website was free, there are far too many limitations. plus, we all know how much i like to talk, so this will be much more inviting to my personality. i can talk away and people only have to "listen" if they want. i guess i knew eventually i would have a blog, i just didn't want to copy everyone else... nonetheless... here is clara at about 4.5 months. dang! she is pretty cute. it is getting more and more easy to make her smile. when she isn't tired or hungry and as long as mom is within a few inches, she is quite a happy baby. as of yesterday, 5.7.07, she has decided life as a baby is getting boring, so she now rolls from her tummy to her back. she is much better at her trick when she is mad. the first time she did it, i wasn't watching. i heard her cry, looked over the couch and saw her off her blanket on her tummy. man, life just gets more and more exciting all the time. gone are the days of leaving her on the bed or close to other things. her other fun trick, which she does regardless of her mood, is to kick both legs up as high as she can and slam them down on whatever is in there way... me, the computer, the floor... it doesn't matter what, she enjoys the motion. i got a little bit of it on video, which is pretty funny. meanwhile... jason has his last final of the semester tomorrow and then will have just a few weeks before summer school starts up. i'm just looking forward to next year when he graduates. we'll see if he is around more like he says he will. angela is graduating from asu on friday, from the college of design, so i am looking forward to going to that. she is, i must admit, just a hair smarter than i, so i like to brag about her. her and her friend are starting their own graphic design business, so let me know if you need a graphic designer! she is fantastic. oh, i almost forgot: the NEWEST thing in my life: I CUT MY HAIR. i was getting nervous just before the chop... probably because i was realizing the last time i got my hair cut by someone other than my mom and something other than a simple trim was SEVEN years ago in san diego. the only reason i did it was because saleah made my appointment and then drove me to the salon. and that, to my knowledge, was only the second time ever getting a hair cut by someone other than my mom. so, good news for my mom: she can retire as my hair stylist. i am sure i will have some pictures from the graduation to post so everyone can see the new me. don't let me kid you, it's not anything drastic, just a little shorter.