To Blog or Not to Blog?

I'm rethinking the whole blogging thing, which makes me a little sad because this blog was mostly for myself. At any rate, I'll be taking at least a brief hiatus.

Don't worry mom, I'll just email you pictures.

And to the rest of you, lots of love!

Steph

A monster in the house

I saw these hooded towels online and I really wanted one for Creed so I decided to try my hand at it. It took me a little while because I had to make up my own pattern and I made a few modifications, but I think that it turned out well.

It's still a little big, but I think that Creed is happy with it too!

I've also been meaning to post a picture of some more hair clips that I made. My friend Nikki loves elephants so I had to figure out how to make some elephant clips. Which one do you like better?

Another project?

I came across this painting online and wouldn't it make the coolest quilt? Yeah, yet another reason to head to JoAnn's!

Addendum

Before you worry too much about me after reading the last post, just look at the face and you know that I can't be depressed for long with this cute face to look at all day.

The life of a doctor's wife

I can’t deny that there are perks to being a doctor’s wife; when Creed’s spit –up is neon yellow I can page Larry and ask him what could be wrong and if I need to take him to the pediatrician, when I wake up at 2 a.m. with intense stomach pain he can tell me if I need to go to the emergency room and when we get there and they know Larry’s a doctor they are super nice and helpful, and we’ll never have to buy another pen because we have pens from drug reps everywhere that you look.

That said, I fell in love with Larry, but I have never been in love with the idea of being a doctor’s wife. Isn’t the point of getting married that you want to spend the rest of your life with someone so it’s ironic that I spend way more time by myself since I’ve been married than I ever did before. I’ve always done my best to have a life of my own so that when Larry’s around I can enjoy him, but when he’s busy I have plenty of things to keep me busy too. Looking back, I probably overdid it at times. Larry’s third year of medical school I worked full-time, went to graduate school at night and had a second job on the weekends as a wedding photographer’s assistant.

I love staying at home with Creed, but it’s difficult with Larry’s hours. I hate rotations like the one he’s on this month. When Creed’s fussy there’s no one to give me a break. When I have freelance work due I end up typing with one hand while I hold Creed in my lap. Larry is the best dad in the world so it’s so sad to see how much Creed already prefers me to Larry simply because he doesn’t see Larry that much. And some nights like last night I get so lonely I break down and cry.

The rock quarry by our development throws a big party every year for surrounding neighborhoods as a thank you for dealing with them all year. They provide dinner and dessert, huge inflatable toys and slide for the kids, they have all sorts of tractors and dump trucks that kids can climb on and play in, balloon artists, face painters, bus tours of the quarry, and a huge fireworks show at the end of the night. Sounds fun, right? I’ve loved going with Larry in the past, but it’s just kind of depressing by myself. Larry was working a late shift and my neighbor Jessica’s parents were in town so I ended up deciding to brave it on my own with Creed. He was great, but there’s something about sitting at a table in public and eating dinner by myself that I just made me sad. I just ended up feeling so lonely so after wandering around without seeing any neighbors I headed home early. I got home hope that there would be phone messages from my family returning my calls, but there wasn't and I seriously started to cry. Then I packed Creed back into the car and headed to JoAnn's. I didn't actually need to buy anything, but I just needed to not be sitting at home alone, and I couldn't have been more thrilled to hear one of the workers say hello as I entered the door, and she was PAID to say hello to me. Yeah, see this is why I've been working on craft projects; I keep myself busy at home and I have lots of excuses to run to JoAnn's and I can wander the aisles until they close and have long conversations with cute old ladies about what kind of needles I should buy for my sewing machine.

Now I’m trying really hard to be supportive of Larry’s fellowship. I mean come on, two more years before we can settle down with pay that probably works out to be less than minimum wage when you break down all of the hours that Larry works so that Larry can have even fewer jobs options and might even make less money than if he didn’t do a fellowship, and someone else has the final say about where we will move? Alright, sign us up!

One Step at a Time

This is Creed

This is Creed holding his head up

(that's actually last week so he can hold it up a little higher now)

This is Creed trying to walk

Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share PhotosI can't believe that he's almost three months old!

The Results Are In

The Zozes came over at noon today so we could check our fellowship matches together. here are Larry and Donny making sure everything was in working order so we could get our results on time. And the Zozes will be moving to Vanderbilt next summer!

And the Fords matched too!

In July of 2008

they are headed to . . .

The University of Utah in Salt Lake City!!!!

The Eve of the Match

The dreaded match is tomorrow! I'm finding it hard to sleep, but I feel totally different about the match this time around. Before Larry's residency match I had totally prepared myself for change even though I had this feeling we would be staying in Columbus, and I was surprised how disappointed I was with the news that we wouldn't be moving. I felt we were meant to stay in Columbus, but I wasn't exactly happy about it.

This time I don't even have an inkling of where we will end up, and it doesn't even seem real to me since we won't be moving for another year so nothing will immediately change. It's hard to predict, but I don't think I will be disappointed with any of our options when one of them appears on the screen tomorrow at noon. Oh yes, you can quote me, I'm saying I won't be sad if it says we are staying in Ohio. We'll be here seven years and what's two more in the grand scheem of things. A new adventure would be nice, but we have so many wonderful friends here that I'm not prepared to say goodbye to.

My friend Kristi just posted her guidelines to moving on her blog and she says before you move, you should make a list of the things you love about the place you're leaving. Today I also came across my friends Robin's post on her favorite things about Columbus so to remind myself of all the reasons I would love to stay in Columbus and all the things that I will miss if we move, here's a list of some of my favorite things about Columbus:

1. Our cute home. It's small, but it's ours and it's in a neighborhood that we absolutely love.
2. Jeni's ice cream. Where else can you get Thai Chili or Savannah Buttermint ice cream?
3. The Book Loft in German village. 32 rooms of books that you can get lost in and great bargains. (and they have some coupons on their website right now)
4. The Columbus Metropolitan Library System. It's number one in the nation for a reason! We haven't rented a movie in years because we can get them for free from the library and they have a bigger selection than any of the rental shops. I love reserving books and having them sent to the library closests to my house.
5. Shakespeare in the Park during the summer in German Village, and it's free!
6. The CAPA summer movie series. I love watching old movies in the Ohio Theater. The theater is so amazing I would pay to watch just about anything there. This year the list includes Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest and The Rope (which Larry is dying to see on a big screen), Lover Come Back with Doris Day, Meet me in Saint Louis (a movie I watched a million times with my sisters), and Charade with Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn.
7. Gallery Hop on the first Saturday of every month in the Short North.
8. COSI. If we stay I can't wait to introduce Creed to it when he's older and can appreciate it.
9. The Columbus Zoo. Another place I can't wait to take Creed.
10. Cheap plane tickets on SkyBus
11. The Pumpkin Show in Circleville. Where else can you find every variety of pumpkin food known to mankind?
12. Rita's Italian Ice. I know they have them other places, but I've only been to Rita's here and I hate to think of a summer without Rita's.
13. The North Market. I just took a friend there for lunch this afternoon. It's one of my favorite places to meet people for lunch because there are so many different kinds of amazing food that there is something for everyone to fall in love with.
14. Buckeye Football games. No one loves their football team like OSU does.
15. The Blue Jackets, Columbus Clippers, and Columbus Crew. It's fun to see professional hockey, baseball, and soccer fairly affordably.
16. Our married student ward, something you don't often find outside of Utah. It's been so nice to be surrounded by thoughtful friends who know exactly what I'm going through because they're in the same situation.
17. Shopping for Halloween and Christmas decorations in cute little downtown Worthington.
18. Daytrips to so many fun places: Amish country, Kirtland, Cleveland, Cedar Point, Cincinnati. And it's even reasonable to drive to spend long weekends in Nashville, Louisville, Chicago, Pittsburgh, New York City, Toronto, and D.C.
19. Columbus Metro Parks, which I'm just beginning to discover.
20. A temple just a few minutes away from our house.
21. My children's literature book club. It's been great having so many friends to discuss my favorite books with.
22. Cover to Cover Children's Books. The best children's book store around. they really know what they're talking about so I never miss their fall book talk.
23. Scholastic warehouse book sales (although my bank account will not miss these sales). Who can resist such amazing bargains?

The list could go on and on, but I have to get to sleep before Creed wakes up.

Tennessee Time

Larry had a miraculous three days off in a row so we took advantage and drove to visit Marissa and Mike in Tennessee. They live out in the country. Wouldn't you love to have this view from your backyard? We made it there Friday evening just in time for the first harvest from their garden. Mike was pretty excited.

Creed cuddled right up to Aunt Marissa and his future cousin.

Marissa and Mike are much cooler than we are because this is what's in the middle of their living room.

We spent most of Saturday in Knoxville. We caught the end of a farmers' market in Market Square. We learned how you make pie a little bit better; you deep fry it of course!

We found Fort Kid while we were roaming Knoxville.

It was nice to celebrate Father's Day with a new dad and a soon to be dad. Larry bought himself a tie and pizza cutter for Father's Day. He loves my nephew Cole's pirate hat so I got him two so he can play pirates with Creed when he's a little bit bigger and I also bought Creed some "I love Dad" pajamas.

We celebrated Tennessee style with a good ole watermelon seed spitting contest.

Thanks Marissa and Mike for being wonderful hosts!

Happy Father's Day!

I don't think that I will be taking time out to blog on Father's Day so I thought I would post this today. I designed this to wrap around candy bars that they are giving out in church on Sunday (the little boy is from a stock photo and I just created the background).

A little sugar and spice and everything nice at our house

Audrey and Nikki came to our house today, and the babies hung out while Nikki and I made some cute felt baby barrettes. Maybe Creed thought the barrette part of the afternoon was boring because here he is nodding off while Audrey watches. And here's Audrey modelling one of her new hair clips.

Here are a few that I made. I think they turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself

I may have to make some bigger ones for myself!

A walk in the park

Nikki called me yesterday and invited us to join them for lunch and a walk in Goodale Park. It's always fun to see Creed next to Audrey he seems so masculine and sturdy and she's so feminine and petite. The weather was perfect. I wish it could be like that every day!

And I had to share this picture because I think Creed looks like he's ready to head to the Outback in that hat.

I'm bringing mullets back!

Since Creed was born, most of his darker hair fell out and platinum hair has grown in to replace it. So this is how he looked earlier today.

Business in the front

Party in the back!

The baby mullet really had to go so Creed got his first haircut today (ok, it was really just a quick trim). He looks pretty bald because it's hard to see his blonde hair, but losing the mullet is making me think that bald is beautiful!

Lookin' Fine!

Hi, I'm Creed and I just got all dressed up for my dad's internal medicine department dinner. Thanks Uncle Scott and Aunt Janelle for my suit! Here I am lookin' fine with my mom.

What? Did I just hear you say, "Fat guy in a little coat?"

What you talkin' 'bout Willis?

Oh, that was just a joke? Now I get it!Thanks for checking us out!

Movin' on up!

For the last two and a half months Creed has slept in our room in a bassinet that we borrowed from the Dehners. We put off moving him to his crib because we knew we'd have visitors who would be staying in his room (and also because I'm lazy and wanted to save myself middle of the night walks to his room). Well, we could no longer put it off because the bassinet has become a pretty snug fit and when he flails he hits the sides and when he rolls over he cam only go halfway and then he gets stuck with his face pressed up against the side. Poor guy! So here's a picture of him in the bassinet one last time.

And here he is in his roomy crib.

And here's a picture of Larry getting Creed to smile because it's just too cute to leave out.

A Major Award

Well, it's no leg lamp, but Larry did receive a major award tonight; the award for most outstanding housestaff from the OSU graduating medical school class of 2007. We brought Creed along to witness his dad's achievement, but it doesn't look like he's getting a lot out of it, does it?

Unfortunately Creed HATES clapping so I spent most of the ceremony out in the lobby with him, but we did get to see Larry receive his award.

Creed still wasn't impressedThe night was bittersweet because we had to say goodbye to a lot of friends who are graduating and moving away. I've managed to see Jessica every day this week, but I still wasn't ready to say goodbye and I know Larry will really miss Jared too.

Jessica and I took guitar lessons together and taught relief society together (remember the lesson that we were assigned to teach on how Bunko is a form of gambling? Ya, that was fun), She introduced me to lemon milk made from the leaves on her own tree and taught me how to make curry (ok so there aren't any exact measurements so couldn't make it by myself, but she did show me what to do) She got me to go to the washboard festival in Southern Ohio, and she gave me one of the most thoughtful Valentine's that I have ever received. She was my visiting teacher, and she was in my children's literature book club. I love talking with her because she's so insightful and thoughtful and she's one of the few people I feel free to share my writing with. She was on the activities committee and I knew I could count on her to do a great job with anything that I assigned her. I know we will still be friends, but is it fair to say that I feel like I'm already mourning the loss of her cheerful presence in Columbus? I always knew that she and Jared would be up for anything and they put a creative twist to everything they did.

A funny story about Larry and Jared: They know each other well from their days in the Elder's Quorum presidency together. Of course Jared knew about Larry's beloved Gnome, but you might not. I HATE gnomes. When I was little I thought there was something magical about them, but when I got older my little brother loved the series Goosebumps and there was this episode when garden gnomes came to life at night and caused all sorts of trouble tying up dogs and attacking children. Ever since them I think gnomes are So CREEPY. My freshman year of college my roommate Dayna said that she also hated gnomes because her little brother loved Goosebumps too and she saw the same creepy episode.

Fast forward to 2003 and Larry and see a gnome in a store and decide to buy it to mail to Dayna as a joke. When we got it home Larry put it on an end table in the living room so it was staring at you when you came in the front door. I felt like it was watching me, and I couldn't wait to get rid of it, but Larry really wanted to keep it. He swears that he loved that thing, but I really think he just knew it bugged me. Well, we ended up compromising and I told him that he could keep the gnome as long as he kept it outdoors and in the backyard where no one else could see it and think that we have the worst taste ever!

A year late our apartment was being reroofed and the workers threw all the shingles down onto our back porch before they cleaned them up. Unfortunately the gnome got knocked off of the table and his arm broke off (Larry swears to this day that I did it and blamed it on the roofers). Larry took it inside and tenderly nursed it back to health with superglue and rubber bands. He tried to keep it inside again, but I reminded him of our deal and once it was healed it went back out onto the patio.

The next winter tragedy struck again and water got in through the crack in the arm and froze, breaking the arm off again. We moved the next summer and I told Larry there was no way the gnome was coming to the new house for all of our neighbors to admire in its armless glory. Jared was there to help the day we moved from our apartment to our house. After unloading the moving van, Jared and Larry took the van back to our apartment to pick up our basement shelves and a few other odds and ends. They were gone for ages and ended up getting back late so we were late returning the truck, and when they got to the house they didn't even have the shelves. A few days later Larry admitted that they lost track of time and forget the shelves because they were busy burying the gnome and having a small service for it! And the worst part? The couple that moved into that apartment joined our ward, and I found myself dreading the day they tried to plant something in their planters and discovered an armless gnome. Wouldn't you wonder a little bit about the last renters if that's what you found?

So last night after Larry helped Jared load up his moving van and they disappeared for a little while, I should have automatically known what they were doing. I won't tell you what they buried in Jared's yard because I'll let that be a surprised to the next people who move in and I'll leave it to Jessica to try to explain that one.

And now that I'm reminiscing about our old apartment life, guess who we ran into tonight? Our old neighbors, Jason and September Rich! Jason's doing his residency in saint Louis and loving it and they were back so he could hood his younger brother Jeremy, who was graduating. It was such a nice surprise to see them so at least we ended the night on a happy note.

Another day, another fun project

My friend Ruth asked me to teach a mini class at her ward's Super Saturday Enrichment. Their theme is "Savor the Moment" and I have a half an hour so I'm teaching a simple mini album class. I just finished the sample tonight, and I was going to email pictures of it to Ruth, but I thought that I might as well post them here for you to see too. They are really easy to make and can even be used as a substitute for a card because they are so small (2" x 2") and easy. I adapted it a little bit, but you can find the basic directions here.

I used picture from the photo shoot Candice did of Creed when he was four days old. Didn't she do an amazing job? I want to blow them all up and hang them all over the house, but for now I just settled for framing the one of Creed on the books.