Random

We have lots of random things to say, so if you'd like to be in the know, read on.

-Carly doesn't have a stuffed animal, she sleeps with books. She insists on being laid in her crib with a small board book and she's usually still clutching the book when she wakes up.

-Jay thinks everything that comes out of Carly's mouth is "gaGA" (emphasis on the 2nd GA), so he uses the word constantly. For example "Mom, watch me gaGA", or "Carly wants gaGA for lunch". He even sings entire songs replacing all words with "gaGA".

-Most of you know that shortly after Carly was born, she developed a hemangioma under her left eye. (She also developed one on the back of her head, and one on her back, but the one under her eye was the most noticeable.) There was a possibility that the one under her eye would need to be removed for fear of it interfering with her vision, but thankfully it was not a problem. We were told the hemangioma would fade over time and go away by the time she was 2, but currently the hemangioma is almost completely gone. Here are 2 pictures for comparison:

6 Months Old

1 Year Old

-Carly is almost walking. Actually, she is walking, but won't do it if she thinks you're watching. If you turn around and pretend you're not looking, she'll gladly walk across the room.

-Jay now officially has chores to do. His chores include unloading most of the dishwasher, making his bed, and picking up toys all over the house. He does a pretty good job and is still pretty excited about doing them, but I'm sure that won't last. Sometimes he gets a quarter for doing them, but he really doesn't care about the money.

-Yes, I am likely allowing my 3 year old to be the same thing for Halloween as every other 3 year old boy. Spiderman.

-We're buying a house and just have a few more hoops to jump through before we can close. We really love the house and are really excited to have a permanent place of residence. We'll show you pictures as soon as we close! (yes, its stucco and has a flat roof)

-We really want to purchase Beatles Rock Band for the Wii. However, since we don't want to use money from the monthly budget, we're trying to find creative ways to find money to buy it without using "real" money accounted for in the budget. So far, we're cashing in the spare change, and using Amazon giftcards earned through Swagbucks to raise money for our cause. We're about half way there, so we're hoping to be able to get it by Christmas!

-Chad and I are getting back into shape and even trading off days running at 6 am. (Chad's parents have a treadmill and it has been very convenient) I am not a morning workout person, but we've been consistent for a few weeks and it feels good. We're searching for a race to run, but all races around here seem to be on Sundays.

-Chad's parents have a fabulous apple tree in their yard and so we picked tons of huge delicious apples. I tried my hand at making applesauce and it turned out quite yummy. I was going to try canning the applesauce, but I got a little overwhelmed and decided to just freeze the applesauce instead.

-Speaking of how domestic I am, did you hear that I won a pie contest? Some attorneys at Chad's law firm invited us to a pie party and I made a lemon meringue pie fro scratch to enter into the contest. To my surprise, I won! (It was delicious if I do say so myself)

I've got another edition of "Loving New Mexico" almost ready for publishing, so stay tuned!

Loving New Mexico - 1st Edition

My goal is to find 100 reasons I love New Mexico by the end of the year in order to encourage a more positive outlook on our current situation. I better get cracking.

1. Sidewalks everywhere - Ohio is seriously lacking in the sidewalk department. Who's dumb idea was it to build 95% of Copley, OH without sidewalks? Albuquerque has sidewalks everywhere and me and my stroller love them.

2. Tortilla availability - It's true, you can find a huge selection of tortillas and green chilies everywhere. One time in Ohio we couldn't find the tortillas at the grocery store, so we found an employee and asked:

"Where could we find the flour tortillas?"

to which he replied,

"Is that hard taco or soft taco?"

3. Explora! The kids science museum here is fabulous! Jay and Carly love it (there seriously is even stuff for Carly to do), and we go almost weekly. We split a year membership with Chad's parents and it has already paid for itself several times. They even have Adult Night every other month and Chad and I are really excited to go this month and explore the place by ourselves.

Albuquerque Living

Well, we've been here in Albuquerque for almost 2 months now. We're still staying with Chad's parents while we try to find a house, so it really still feels like vacation. Every couple days (alright, just about everyday) I say something to Chad like "Do I really live in Albuquerque, New Mexico?" or "I never thought in my wildest nightmares I would be living in Albuquerque". Truth be told, it's not all that bad. I just try not to think too much about my brown surroundings and the Ohio green I miss so much.

We're searching for a house to purchase before we miss out on the tax credit, so the clock is ticking. We're waiting on an offer, and still searching. Hopefully we will soon have a house and be able to get all our stuff back and maybe this place will start feeling a little more like home.

Chad is loving his job. He is busy learning to do complicated estate planning and studying for the New Mexico bar exam he will take in February.

It's been suggested that I start posting "Reasons I Love Albuquerque" posts on a regular basis to convince myself that I like it here. I'm working on it and progressing day by day. I no longer have to hold back tears every time someone says "How do you like Albuquerque so far?" so I consider that a huge improvement. I think I've got quite awhile to adjust to this situation, so I'm going to take it.


The kids are having fun and growing so much. We've posted updates and pictures of each of them below (I know, 3 posts in one day, CRAZY!)

All About Jay

Most of you know Jay has numerous eating/gagging/swallowing/breathing issues due to some ENORMOUS tonsils that took up the majority of his mouth. Every doctor who looked in his mouth says "Whoa, those things are huge!". Well, we finally got him to an ENT here who said the same thing and even went as far as to diagnose him with sleep apnea due to the monsters in his throat. So, for Jay's sake (and the sake of anyone who has had to sleep near the snoring beast) we opted to get his tonsil's removed.

They set up surgery for 4 days later, and Jay did great! Immediately after the surgery, he had a much easier time breathing and sleeping. He had a few really hard days, but quickly began to become his old self again, despite the fact that he didn't eat anything (with the exception of a couple chocolate milkshakes) for over 7 days. All soft items (yogurt, pudding, applesauce, popsicles, etc.) are not foods that Jay touches with a ten foot pole, and therefore he was left with nothing to eat. We had hoped the surgery and subsequent starvation would motivate him to try new foods, but apparently hunger is not a motivator for this kid. He's back to eating waffles and nuggets and surviving just fine.

Jay has also FINALLY entered the big boy world and has started potty training. We've been trying to get this kid on a toilet since he was 2 1/2 with no success. Up until a few weeks ago, he would not even sit on the toilet (even with the promise of entire bags of m&m's for merely sitting on the toilet). I guess it is true that the kid just has to be ready, and Jay was too busy doing other things to take a break to sit in the toilet. He still needs to be constantly reminded to go, but he's pretty much arrived. For the first few days when he would have accidents it was pretty hilarious. We would hear an "Oh Crap!" from the other room (thank you cousins for teaching him such eloquent words) followed by a "Mom! I told you I should wear plastic pants!"

Jay is adjusting quite well to Albuquerque. We went hiking the other day and he was very confused about what we were actually doing because he thinks we can only hike in the "forest". He's gotten comfortable in Primary at Church. Perhaps too comfortable as he fell asleep in his chair during singing time today. He begs to have friends his age to play with, but his mother lacks friends in this new place and therefore Jay must suffer. Hopefully, when we figure out where we're going to live, we can get him some friends and perhaps even preschool.

He's loving transformers, superheros, and the wii. He's all boy and we love this kid.

And don't worry, we got this shaggy kid a haircut last weekend.

All About Carly

Carly has changed so much since we left Ohio. Since we've been here in Albuquerque, she's added 3+ teeth to her tiny mouth, numerous foods to her diet, and about 0 pounds. That's right folks, we've got a little peanut on our hands (ironic considering her newly discovered peanut allergy). At her 1 year appointment she weighed a whopping 17 pounds and some change. According to the doctor, she's off the charts (on the bottom end) for a 1 year old. I'm constantly wondering how Carly and Eliza (her cousin) could be related, Eliza outweighed Carly coming in at 17 lbs 12 oz at only 4 months old.

Carly turned 1 on August 16th and we had a fun alphabet party with family and a few friends here in Albuquerque. Pictures to come as our camera was missing for her party and we had to have one of the guests (who happens to be a fabulous photographer) capture the event.


She's still cruising around while holding onto things with little desire to walk on her own, which is perfectly fine with us. She doesn't say any words besides "mama", but there's not much room to get a word in when you hang out with Jay all day.

She's still quite mellow and loves to giggle at her brother, to which he will reply "Mommy! She's laughing at me", which only makes her laugh harder. She's fearless when it comes to Jay and has no problem stealing toys, pushing him over, or just screaming in his face.

She's constantly fearless. We've started to teach her to swim, and she willingly goes underwater and tries to swim towards us. At the playground, she dives head first down all of the slides (giving her mother a heart attack) and once and the bottom climbs to the top of the playground and dives down again.