So….we’re moving back to our old blog address. Just think, this is like a treasure hunt in cyberspace! I can’t guarantee that we won’t move again, but I think we’ll be at this address for a while…..okay, here it is:

http://88milesperhour-willard.blogspot.com/

Sarah Ragozzine and I have started a new Monday morning babysitting swap. And today was the first day. So Chloe came over to our house to play for a few hours. Only, both girls spent most of the hours sleeping! Chloe slept for almost 5 hours! (and Lucy slept for 3) By 2:45, I decided to go check on Chloe and make sure she was still breathing. And there she was, just sitting up in bed, awake, clutching her little doll, and not making a sound. It was adorable. I guess she just needed some time “wake up”. I feel the same way on most days.
Once the two girls were awake, however, they had great fun following each other around the house, taking bites of my cheese sandwich, and playing on our back porch. They both stood at the railing and copied each other, slapping their hands on the rail. It was really adorable. Here are some pics and a little video of the fun we had (please note Lucy’s face about 1/2 way through the video):

Lucy’s favorite thing to do is organize. We haven’t decided if it’s just a child development stage or if she’s really developing a future career in…organizing?
She can easily spend an hour pulling the same items out of a bowl and putting them right back in, over and over again. In fact that’s what she did all last weekend at Grandma Willard’s house.
The other day I was putting things away in her room and had left a paperbag full of bottles in there. She wandered in and when I came to check on her, she was sitting on the floor organizing the bottles. She lined them all up in a semi-circle and made sure they were each standing properly. It was so adorable! So there you have it folks…..our future Gerber Baby Factory Line organizer! (I hope not)

Lucy doesn’t usually let me put hats or headbands on her head. She immediately pulls them off. But lately we’ve been playing a little game with her baseball hat (it’s real cute and tiny). She’ll put it on my head and laugh (”mommy’s hat!”) and then I’ll put it on her head (”Lucy’s hat!”)…okay…this is sounding real retarded. But it’s cute because she’ll leave the hat on her head for a while and just waddle around the house with it on.

So today I put one of my headbands on her, and she loved it. She tried to take it off a few times, but then decided she still wanted it on. I thought she looked real cute.

Fat guy in a litttttttle coaaaaat. I mean, small head with a big headbaaaand. (sorry)

This past Memorial Day weekend was great! We spent 3 days hanging out with two other couples in our ward at one of their parents’ homes in LaVerkin, Utah (about 30 min from St. George). Sarah and Darin, her husband, both grew up in the area, so we had the perfect tour guides for our Southern Utah weekend. One day they gave us a little driving tour of LaVerkin, Hurricane (pronounced “hurrikin”) and Toquerville. We were shocked that home prices are in the high $200s for a starter home (one day we’ll live in a house, right?) And some homes go up to the $500-$600ks! But LaVerkin is only 20 min from ZION National Park, so hey….I can see why real estate is hot.

The drive there wasn’t too bad, once we got out of LA. We left Lucy with Casey’s parents so we really had a quiet drive. We even got to watch a movie when we found ourselves stuck in the Virgin River Gorge for an hour right outside of St. George. There was a horrible accident. So everyone came to a complete stop. We all shut off our engines and lights and just sat there. It was a strange feeling.

The first day was spent hiking in ZION, which is absolutely gorgeous. We did the “Angel’s Landing” hike. It’s about a 3-4 hour round-trip hike, all up-hill to the top. In fact, there’s even a spot that looks like Lombard street in San Fransisco…short little switchbacks going up, up and up. The final summit point is rather steep and narrow, so there are chains bolted to the side of the rock for you to grasp and climb with. I actually found it less scary than it appeared. The only hard part was that people were trying to come down while we were trying to go up. So we would take turns letting people pass. Human traffic. Once at the top, there was a spectacular view of the park. Beautiful red rock everywhere, speckled with green trees. The perfect complimentary colors. We stayed at the top for an hour, enjoying the view (and wishing we’d brought some fruit to eat. We thought about asking the people around us if we could buy their oranges off them. But we stuck with Trail Mix instead). The hike down, of course, was easy and all down-hill. At the bottom we stuck our hands and feet in the river and really cooled off! The hike was great. I’d do it again.

When we got back to Sarah’s house, her mom had a huge plate of homemade oatmeal raisin cookies waiting for us. Thanks mom! Her parents were amazing hosts the entire time. So luxurious to be so catered to! They immediately asked what we wanted from Cafe Rio for dinner. Then they called in the order, drove into town to pick up the food, and let the rest of us swim in the heated pool. Great amenities at the Beacher home. Her mom even stopped by the movie theater, while we swam, and bought our tickets to Pirates 3 for that evening. The movie was horrible and confusing. But the company was great. And Cafe Rio is always yummy.

On Sunday, we went to church with Sarah’s family. I love going to church in other cities because you really get a feel for the people that live there. It’s so great! And without Lucy, we had a very quiet Sunday experience. What a treat. Casey loved the teacher in Elder’s Quorum. And I was spotlighted in RS for being dressed modestly. It was fun to model off my throw-it-in-the-bag outfit. Sarah’s mom made a delicious Sunday lunch/dinner. But I’m not sure what was better: the food or the conversation. We went around the table and each couple told about how the met, and funny things about each other. You think you know a person, until they ask what your spouse’s favorite color is. Yikes. After lunch, Casey and I drove into St. George and took a tour of the Brigham Young House. Then we visited his grandparents. That was a real highlight for me, since I don’t know them very well and they’re getting quite old. Around sunset time, we drove back to ZION with the Cannons and enjoyed a short hike to another amazing look-out point above a huge natural arch. The colors were spectacular (and the hike was very pleasant). Back at home, we played games with everyone. Sarah and Darin warned that they weren’t good at movie trivia. And then, wooooah….they beat us all. Tony, Shelley, Casey and I were all impressed with Darin’s quick puzzle-solving skills. Someday he’ll be on Wheel of Fortune and win a free car.

The last day was spent golfing (for Casey and Tony) and shopping (for the ladies). We had a yummy Memorial brisket lunch and then…we swam again! Casey took a nap, gearing up for our drive home and by 8pm we were on the road, headed home. It was an amazing drive. Not a bit of traffic and we were home in 5 1/2 hours. Woohoo!

What a great weekend getaway. It’s always fun to get to know each better (aside from church and playgroups). I really missed Lucy, so I loved picking her up at Linda’s the next day. Thankfully, she remembered who I was and came running over to give me a hug. Oh, it’s so cute. We’ll see how loving she is when we leave her for a week with the Sumans and head off to NY. But I’ll hope for the best!

The real Rick:

And last night’s Family Guy:

(homage to Back to the Future AND a great 80s song?! I love FAMILY GUY)

Jeremy, our nephew, turned 5 at the end of April. So my sister Camille threw him a totally fun SpongeBob Squarepants Birthday party with all of his friends on Saturday. Since I’m not familiar with the show (yet, that is. Give me 2 more years) I was totally confused by the sign at the front door that pointed to “Bikini Bottom! this way!”. But once in the backyard, I quickly soaked up all the SpongeBob lingo.

In the backyard, Camille had made the most adorable props and scenery. There was a “Snack Bar” that looked like a bamboo hut (where Eric, Laura, and Meredith spent most of the day making snowcones and cotton candy for the kids. I think the record was 6 cotton candy sticks for one kid. Yikes). There were cute cardboard cutouts you could stick your head through and take a picture (of course I had to do it too).
There was tons of good food (thanks mother Cindy).
And just what the kids always love…a jump house. It was so much fun to see the little kids running around and having a great time.

They even played along with the “cakewalk” game (prob since they all won prizes). The spongebob music was a nice touch. And the adults seemed to be enjoying the chitchat with each other. I spent most of the afternoon taking pictures of everything, which was fun. And my favorite pic of the day was the little blond girl who just loved her cotton candy, despite her missing teeth. So perfect.

Great party Camille!

The best part for me….I didn’t have to worry about anyone but myself the whole day! (how selfish, I know). Casey’s guy friends were shooting a film at his parent’s house in Simi Valley that day, so he needed to be there for it. So…he took Lucy along with him! Woohoo. Freedom for a day. It was a nice break after a long week of Lucy being sick. Today, however, she’s been a doll. Back to her normal self: smiles, laughing, toddling around the house. It is such a relief.

I like ebay. I’ve sold many things on there, I’ve bought many things on there. I no longer have to go to garage sales cause I can find all my deals online!

So this week, I’m selling: g Diapers. Have you heard of these? They’re like the modern cloth diapers….environmentally friendly, yet disposable. Basically, you have “little g pants” with a plastic liner inside, then you put a disposable pad inside that. And there’s your diaper. When the pad is used up, you just flush it down the toilet! (or you can throw it away) and load the next one into the little g pants.

I really liked the idea/concept. Especially when I learned that it takes hundreds of years for normal disposable diapers to biodegrade (although, since disposables haven’t been around for hundreds of years, I’m skeptical of those numbers). But still, I do worry about environmental impacts. I’m no granola, but dumping masses of dirty diapers into landfills just can’t be good for the world. So, I decided to try out the g Diapers. Cost wise, they’re about double what I pay for Target diapers (yikes). But I picked up a starter kit at Wild Oats for $22. Comes with 2 pants and 10 disposable pads.

And….the diapers work pretty well. Plus, the little g pants come in really cute colors. It was nice to double-up the pads at night too since Lucy normally seems to leak out while she sleeps. But, the downside I’ve decided, is that the diapers are really bulky. It gives Lucy a total bubble-butt! Her clothes don’t fit right over them. I’m sure this was the same with cloth diapers when we were kids. But once you’re used to how small and compact disposables are, it’s hard to change Lucy’s wardrobe to accommodate bubble butt. So basically, I’m here to report that I’m choosing fashion over the environment. Sadly, it’s true.

Which leads me back to…..ebay and why I find it funny. So I bought the diaper starter kit for $22 at Wild Oats Market. You can also buy it directly from gdiapers for $24.99. I used up 5 of the 10 pads, and I used one of the g pants a few times and then washed them. Basically these are used goods. So I posted the remnants of my starter kit on ebay for $9.99, and a week later, it’s now up to $25! Check it out HERE. This is why I find ebay to be funny. Why are people willing to pay MORE money for a used, 1/2 full kit when they can just go to the store and buy a brand new one for less?! I’m not complaining. Believe me, it’s awesome! But some people make me shake my head.

Bottom line: Go ebay. And Go g Diapers. If you don’t mind the bulkiness, I think they’re a great idea.

So I have to admit, I don’t really like the design of the template I picked here.   It’s an “adjustable width” template (I only realized this recently), which means that this white box you’re reading in right now can get wider or skinnier, depending on your computer.  Just drag your browser window out or minimize it a bit and you’ll see what I mean. There’s no SET size.  So basically, every person will see my posts a little differently depending on the size of their computer monitor and their browser window.  LAME!  Why am I telling you this?   Because I spend time placing my pictures in a nice design, only to realize that when you look at them, they probably look like a jumbled mess.   Did I mention this was annoying?  So, I apologize for the sore eye candy when my pictures don’t seem to be in any reasonable location and they just look scattered all over the page.  I won’t try to be creative anymore.  And yes, I should just find a new template.

Okay, I’m done.

Well, this marks the second year I was able to stand up in church for being a bona fide mom (and not just for being a woman over 18 years old….although I never mind getting free stuff). Our ward gave out huge Hersheys Bars. They’ve figured out that what we women love most is chocolate (or food).

But of course, I love flowers too. And since Lucy’s too young to make me Breakfast In Bed (although Casey did offer)….my sweet husband treated me real nice by buying me tons of flowers! He went to my favorite flower stop: Trader Joes and bought me three bundles of flowers. So I had tons of fun arranging and filling our house with pretty flowers. I had enough for the front room, on top of the piano, and even our bedroom. Thanks honey!

And even though we were running late for church, I thought Lucy and I should take a Mother’s Day picture. We took 4 shots, and each one of them turned out the same: Lucy with a worried look on her face. Oh well, it must have been a worrisome Mother’s Day.

We spent the evening at The Willard’s house in Simi Valley with Casey’s parents and his brother and sister-in-law, Chad and Lauren. We had a nice dinner (eating outside under their gazebo, which I love), had YUMMY chocolate coconut cake (compliments of Lauren), and celebrated Linda’s birthday as well by watching her open fun presents! It was a nice relaxing evening. Lucy was still feeling sick and only wanted to be held. So that was a bummer. I just hope this fever passes soon. She woke up this morning still feeling hot. But after a kick of tylenol, she was found doing this in our bedroom closet. She may be on the road to recovery! ?

So Happy Mother’s Day to all you moms out there….especially the new-timers. Welcome to motherhood! I love it!