Animal Farm Days

Every year NC State hosts Animal Farm Days, where people can come learn about farm animals. I've known about it for a few years, but was never able to take the kids before. Then this year, Kevin went with his preschool class and had a fabulous time. He came home and told me, "We are going to get a chick. We are going to get a hen, and a rooster, and lots and lots and LOTS of baby chicks." Heidi was sad that she didn't get to go too, so we decided to go as a family the next day. We had such a good time!

The battery was dying on the camera, but Ryan actually managed to get several pictures while we were looking at the tractors, which Kevin loved. These are for Grandpa Glenn and Grandpa Great:

Other highlights of the day included holding the chicks, meeting Cowboy the police horse, and getting free ice cream made from milk from NC State cows.

highlights of my Utah trip--a travelogue

Last week I took a trip to Utah and had such a great time. My parents are coming to visit us in a few weeks, but I felt like I needed to see my brother and sisters and my grandparents, so I decided to make the trip with a newborn baby by myself. I thought it was so interesting that people were impressed that I was travelling with such a little baby, because I thought it was really easy. Try travelling with Kevin--even when we took him to Utah at about 5 months he was bouncing off the walls. With Heidi all I had to do was feed her and hold her and get her to sleep. I just put her in the Baby Bjorn and that left my hands free for my suitcases (which hook together) and backpack and her car seat.

On the way there I had one long flight to Phoenix and another short one from there to Salt Lake. On the long flight I was very fortunate because I ended up in the same row as another mom with a lap child and another lady, but they asked the lady to move because there are only four oxygen masks per row, so the other mom and I got to share the empty middle seat. The extra space was awesome. I wasn't quite so fortunate on the long stretch of the flight home, though, because the person in front of me reclined her seat (I know, I should have asked her to put it back up). I know plane seats don't recline much, but space is really nice to have when you have a little baby, and it's already pretty cramped on airplanes.

My family picked me up at the airport and took me home. It was so exciting to see them. It was the first time I had been home for a year and a half. On the way home I was really surprised to see that they are still doing construction on I-15! I was also briefly amazed at how expensive gas was there, except then I remembered that gas is actually even more expensive here.

My sister Michelle (16) had stayed home instead of coming to the airport. When she came out of the house to greet us, I started to say, "Hi, Michelle," except then I realized I was looking up at her and I said, "Holy cow, you're taller than me!"

I'm already missing the water. It tasted so good, even when it wasn't very cold. I guess the minerals in the water are different here in NC. I always have to put a lot of ice in it before I like it. What I really miss is the well water we drank at our old house in Idaho.

Elizabeth (my eleven-year-old sister) was so nice to let Heidi and me sleep in her room. Heidi didn't sleep very well the first night for some reason. She kept waking up every couple of hours, and normally she only wakes up once in the middle of the night. She did better the next few nights.

Ellen (my seven-year-old sister) loves Heidi. She loved helping me take care of her, from diaper changes to dressing her to entertaining her during tummy time. She's a natural mother already. She did a good job holding her, and Heidi even slept in her arms a few times. When Heidi took a nice long nap one afternoon, Ellen kept saying that we should check on Heidi again because she might be awake. Everyone enjoyed meeting and holding Heidi. It was great to be able to ask who wanted to hold her whenever I needed a shower or wanted to have both hands to eat.

Ellen holding Heidi--she was so excited that Heidi slept on her.

Most of the time we just spent time at the house talking and spending time together, but we did do some fun things together. On Wednesday we went to the bishop's house and picked apricots, and then we spent the afternoon canning them. We tried making apricot sauce using the strainer, but Ian (my 9-year-old brother) was the only one who liked it. It was like baby food. My grandma also brought over some green beans, which we snapped and canned.

On Thursday I went with my mom and Ian and Ellen to swimming lessons. It was the last day, so they were doing tests and also did some races. Ian and Ellen both had friends who were also taking swimming lessons, and they invited them over to play afterwards. In the afternoon Michelle got a text from Melissa (almost 21) saying that she was on her way home from BYU. When Melissa arrived, she told us about a recipe for Orange Chicken that was really good, and we decided to have it for dinner, so we went to Walmart to get the ingredients.

Heidi has lots of headbands, but most of them are a little too tight and they leave a mark on her head, so I'm afraid they hurt her head. But she has one that is plain pink with no bows that works really well, so while we were at Walmart I bought two packages of little bows that have clips, so now I can clip them onto the plain pink headband, and they look adorable. I could easily have spent $20-30 on clips if I didn't have any self-restraint--but I'm way too cheap to go that far. I'm excited to have lots of little bows to put in her hair. I'm even thinking of going to Michael's to get some supplies for some flower clips . . . except I'm starting school on Tuesday.

On Friday my mom had a job interview for a position as a music teacher at an elementary school. The day after I got home she found out that she got the job! I am so excited for her. While she was at the interview she asked me to make pizza dough so we could have pizza for lunch. Melissa cleaned some things in the kitchen and talked to me while I made the dough.

Friday evening we ate dinner at my grandparents' house. I was really looking forward to my grandparents meeting Heidi, and we had a really nice time. Grandma made roast and potatoes and gravy, my mom made rolls and no-bake cookies, and Elizabeth made homemade brownies that tasted just like they were from a mix (which, in my opinion, is a good thing). My Aunt Maria also came with a couple of her daughters for a while. We had a good time talking. My grandpa said of Heidi: "Well, she's a dandy . . . a keeper, as they say. We haven't had one yet that wasn't."

Dad and Heidi (with Ellen)

Every night I intended to go to bed early, but I always ended up staying up late and talking to Melissa, Michelle, and Elizabeth. The good conversation was worth the lack of sleep, though.

On Saturday I went with Mom, Elizabeth, Ian, and Ellen to Shopko. Elizabeth needed a shirt to go with a jumper she sewed for 4-H, and I was running out of diapers for Heidi. I found some shirts that were on sale that I liked, so Ellen and Elizabeth held Heidi so I could try them on. I'm slowly building up my supply of not-maternity clothes again.

At some point during the day, Ian got wet playing outside in the water. When he came in, he combed his hair with a side part, and a while later Mom saw him looking into the mirror, and saying to himself, "I think I'm pretty handsome!" (He is.) Ian and Dad went together to get haircuts that afternoon. I think it's a fun thing for them to go get hair cuts together.

In the evening we went to a stake party. There were sloppy joes, corn on the cob, salad, and watermelon for dinner, and then there was a talent show and swimming afterwards. The sound system wasn't great, and most people didn't really listen to the singing, but it was still fun to be there as a family and meet some of my parents' friends.

Mom holding Heidi at the stake party

Sunday was church. My parents' ward definitely has a different demographic than our ward. Most of the sisters in Relief Society had already raised their families. In the evening there was a ward ice cream social held down the street from my parents' house. There's a man in the ward who likes to make different kinds of homemade ice cream. Apparently he made bacon-flavored ice cream once--Elizabeth says it's really good. This time there was banana, cherry, and "Barocky road." (The pictures should explain what Barocky Road is--apparently the person who made it got an email with this in the message.)

We took some pictures on Sunday:

Back: Elizabeth, Michelle, Melissa, Me (holding Heidi); Front: Ellen, Ian

All of Mom and Dad's female descendants!

Ian wanted a picture of him holding his cat, Fox. (There's also another cat named Lottie.)

The last night, Ian wanted to sleep in Elizabeth's room with Heidi and I. It reminded me of when he was little and he would come up to my room in the middle of the night and climb into my bed with me.

Monday afternoon was when my plane left, but I wanted to see Ryan's two sisters who live in Utah, so I went to Eliza's house for a few hours that morning. Ryan's mom was there visiting, and Becky came over with some of her kids. I was really glad that I took the time to go see them, and I felt grateful that even though Ryan wasn't there I still felt like I belonged and was part of the family too.

Heidi was excited to be reunited with her Grandma Tanner, who she met for the first time a few days after she was born.

Heidi meeting two of her cousins, Lucy and Henry. (I love Henry's hand on her knee!)

The lady who sat by me from Salt Lake to Chicago Midway was really nice. We ended up talking quite a bit. She told me about her son who was going to boarding school in Provo. Her husband had passed away a few years ago, and her son never really dealt with it, and she felt that the therapy program at this boarding school would help him. She said she has a lot of respect for Mormons and really appreciates the loving and safe environment her son has in Utah. It would be cool if her experience with her son being in boarding school in Provo led to an interest in joining the church.

It was so great to come out of the airport and find Ryan and Kevin waiting for me. I was sad to leave my family in Utah, but I had really missed Ryan and Kevin. It actually took me a second to recognize Kevin because for some reason I was expecting a smaller version of Ian. Kevin was really excited to see me, and he also was happy to see that the baby was back (so he does like her!). He wanted me to put Heidi right in his lap in the car seat.

Heidi had a couple of victories while we were in Utah. I got her to take a bottle for a full feeding twice while I was there, which means she'll still be able to eat while I go to class. Maybe I can even consider going to the temple sometime soon. I had been starting to worry because we had tried several times to give her a bottle and she would only take about an ounce under protest, but now I think it will be okay with a little more practice. The other victory was that one time she found her thumb and sucked it until she fell back asleep. I caught it on camera. I know that if she becomes a thumb sucker we'll have to deal with giving it up at some point, but she wants so badly to find it that I still feel happy for her. She hasn't found her thumb again since, but I often find her staring at her fists, trying very hard to figure out how to get one in her mouth instead of whacking her eye.

And that's about it. I've been back since Tuesday and I'm still trying to get unpacked. My mom and I got out a lot of my old dresses that I wore when I was a baby, and they still look really nice, so it will be fun to dress Heidi in them. I'm pretty sure there aren't enough Sundays for Heidi to wear all of her dresses.

I bought "fat free half and half" the other day. I'm not kidding, even though it sounds like an oxymoron. I looked it up and apparently they add other stuff to it to make it thicker even though it's actually skim milk. The only reason I bought it was because I had a coupon that made it very cheap.

It's hot. It doesn't seem fair. It seems like just about everywhere you have long winters, long summers, and then at the most two weeks of spring and two weeks of fall. And I don't even get to enjoy those weeks because they happen during school. I love being outside, but I hate coming home so sweaty and smelly that I can barely move.

I'm pretty sure I've become an oven. A couple of days ago I was feeling quite hot, and I asked Ryan if he thought it was hot and he said, "I'm freezing." He's added an extra blanket to his side of the bed (besides the extra one folded in half that was already there--he has that one all the time).

I had to laugh when I was reading through Baby Girl's car seat manual and it talked about using the cup holders. The instructions say to only use paper or styrofoam cups, because hard cups can cause injuries if they go flying and hit someone in a crash. Now, I never give Kevin food or drinks in the car because I'm pretty sure he can go without food for the fifteen minutes it takes to get to the grocery store, so it doesn't really matter to me. But I don't think there are many parents who would let their child have a paper or styrofoam cup in the car--that's just asking for a huge mess. So if you can't use a sippy cup because it's too hard and could hit someone, and you can't use paper or styrofoam because they're messy, why bother having cupholders on a car seat? (Apparently Kevin agreed because he found the removable cupholder and threw it behind the piano--I haven't bothered to fish it out.)

I think Breyer's is getting the right idea with their Mint Fudge Brownie ice cream, although the brownie pieces could use some work. But it's better than most brands of mint ice cream that have bits of black plastic that are supposed to be chocolate chips.

A couple of days ago at my appointment with a midwife, she was feeling for the position of the baby and said, "Here's her face." When I expressed my surprise that she could tell it was her face, she said, "Yep, I accidentally bonked her nose." Pretty cool.

milk food

Today Kevin saw an empty ice cream carton in the kitchen trash can. He stared at it for a while, wanting some ice cream and trying to figure out a way to communicate that, even though he didn't know a word or sign for ice cream. Then he turned to Ryan and very deliberately made the sign for milk, then the sign for food. After all, ice cream is like milk, except it's food, not a drink. That is, he asked for "milk-food." We were very impressed that he was able to synthesize the two words into a new word.

because I want to make some random comments

This evening I was getting myself a bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream. I don't care about losing weight anymore. All the women in the renaissance paintings have muffin tops and soft abs, so who says that beautiful women don't have muffin tops or flabby abs?

Actually, I think I might go do some sit-ups.

My spoon broke. It was sort of weird. My metal spoon broke on ice cream. The ice cream was not hard.

I really like mint chocolate chip ice cream, except I hate the chocolate chips. It's kind of like having bits of soft plastic in ice cream. I think they should make mint cookie dough ice cream. Not mint chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream.

I just realized that ice cream is already one of my blog labels.

disappearing ham

It really bothers me when my food disappears. Like the time about a year ago when I thought I had half a bag of carrots and then I went to make some chicken soup and the carrots were all gone. I didn't find out until recently that Ryan had actually eaten them all and thought I knew that. Well, on Thursday I bought a ham. It was a great deal, and it was boneless. I was quite excited about it. Then I came home and put away the groceries, and the ham was gone! I searched the house, checked the fridge and freezer to make sure I hadn't just forgotten it was already put away, and then decided to check the car just in case. No ham. So I'm pretty sure the cute pregnant lady behind me arrived home with a free ham. It was the last thing scanned, so I think it got mixed in with the other lady's stuff, which was already coming down the conveyor belt as the bagger put the bags in my cart. I was pretty concerned, because I didn't want to lose out on the money I had spent. But I went to customer service at the store yesterday since I was on the way home from Costco anyway, and the guy at the desk said, "Oh, just go get another ham, and I'll put it in a bag for you." I did hand him the receipt, but I don't know if he even looked at it to find the ham on it. So if you come home and realize some of your groceries didn't make it with you, that is what you do.

While I was at Costco, I got my eyes checked. I was surprised to find out that my eyesight has actually improved since I was last checked. I've noticed lately with my old contacts that sometimes it seems like I see better once they're out, but I sort of thought I was imagining it or that it was because it was the end of the day. The doctor also gave me larger contacts than I was wearing before. Apparently my old prescription was a little too tight. The larger ones should allow more tears to get beneath the contacts. That would explain why my eyes have been seeming dry at the end of the day lately. I think I'm noticing a difference with the new contacts, but it might just be because it's a new pair, which always feels better than an old pair. I love the feeling of putting a new pair of contacts in. New contacts slide in so naturally and painlessly--quite a contrast to the feeling of putting in an old pair of contacts, which I think could best be described as "like shoving a piece of plastic in your eye."

I'm getting frustrated with all the bureaucracy at UNC. Everything is so disorganized and a lot more complicated than it needs to be. All the important parts of the university's website are buried so deep that you can't find them unless you know what you're looking for, which I don't, and even if I do find them it's hard to sift through all the useless information about all the clubs and dining services and on-campus housing that I'm not really interested in. It does look like I can finally enroll in classes (if there are any openings left in the classes I want to take!). I keep feeling like there are all sorts of things that I'm supposed to do that nobody has told me about. There's just no centralized place to find out what I need to know and do. I'm working on meeting with an advisor soon to get things planned out. UNC also seems to love using the College Board forms. You have to fill out the form on collegeboard.com and then pay exorbitant fees for the College Board to send the form to UNC, which might also ask for additional information. Maybe I should have known what I was getting into when this is what I saw after clicking submit at the end of the UNC application (click to enlarge):

I did not have these problems at BYU.

I love that Blogger fixed things so that I can preview this page and see how it will actually look when it's published, not just a white page with this post showing on it.

On another note, Kevin learned how to knock. He also learned how to throw a temper tantrum.

There was a ward ice cream social tonight, and part of the social included a homemade ice cream contest, so we entered some lemon ice cream into the contest. It was really yummy. This was the first time we have used our ice cream maker, even though we got it for a wedding present. We'll definitely have to use it again soon.