Ouch!

This guy was a little fussy yesterday, and for good reason, seeing as a sharp little baby tooth was making its grand entrance. Aww, my baby is growing up. I couldn't get a good picture, but trust me, it's in there and this little grin has begun the process of becoming a Toothy Grin!

So, my internet privilges have been revoked...

because Jason just can't trust all the other internet people to refrain from getting me paranoid about silly things. Okay well, clearly not REALLY revoked but theoretically revoked.
Here's how it started:

- Noticing unusual smells
- Queezyness
(are you thinking what I am thinking?)
- Slight freak-out (the "caught of guard" variety, not the "OH NO" kind, just to clarify)
Pregnancy test: negative
- Tugging of the *family* heart strings while listening to the living prophet at general conference.
-Feeling a pulse in my belly button that I have only noticed during pregnancy
- Crying over nothing... twice.
- Random prickly feeling in the bottom of my lungs- another thing that has only happened when I have been expecting.
Second pregnancy test: Nothin'! (though I wised up and bought the 2 pack)
Next...
- Saw a clip of a lifetime movie where a woman thought she was pregnant but it was cancer
-Jason's response :" oh brother"
- I then found this little treasure on the WEB : "The motion of the child is regarded by women of experience as an unfailing sign. But cases are common where the throbbing of a tumor and other causes have been mistaken for fetal movements," ... and so naturally I sent it to Jason, to which he replied,

"That's it, I'm revoking your internet privileges"


So there you have it. Meanwhile, i've been a girl for all eternity, and been in this body for a couple decades now, yet the inner workings of being a girl are still a mystery to me. Despite this, i'm so glad to be a woman, 'cause how boring would life be otherwise!

Blog comments!

Okay, so I have two problems with blog commenting.

1.) I hardly ever comment on blogs because I can't do it right from google reader- Does anyone know a way to leave comments without having to open a new window for every blog I check??

2.) I never know when someone has commented on my blog, but other people seem to always know when there is a new comment on their blog. Every once in a while I happen upon a comment on an old post that I never knew about. Is there a way to change the settings or something so I get a notice when someone comments on my blog?

A little quirky...

Amanda tagged me!!
Here are the rules:
Link the Person who Tagged you.
Mention rules on your blog.
Tell about 6 quirks of yours.
Tag 6 fellow bloggers to do the same. Leave a comment on their blog to let them know.

Lucia's Quirks

#1. My taste buds never tire of flavors I love hence: when watermelon is in season, I will eat it for breakfast, lunch, and all the meals in between. For that same reason, it is not uncommon to find me sitting down to a bowl of pickles.

#2. I will let my house get A LOT messier than most folks before it bothers me enough to do something about it.

#3. My mind frequently wanders off to random things. Jason can tell by "The Look" on my face that I have gone on a silent tangent, and asks what I am thinking about- usually it's about 4-8 topics off from what we were originally talking about.

#4. I am very easily intimidated by regular tasks. For example: Taking prenatal vitamins- I can't get over the pressure of needing them EVERY SINGLE DAY, and the guilt when I inevitably miss a week... or a month... or a whole pregnancy.

#5. Oh, this one is a good one! I can't stand when things are stacked unevenly, thus making it inevitable that this next item will cause the pile to come crashing down on me. No, seriously, I really can't take it. The closest I ever come to cursing is when I put something on a shelf, and it falls back at me because the other stuff on the shelf is out of place. I am actually cringing just thinking about it.

#6. I always call my close friends "Dude" even if they are a dudette.



I will TAG Sylvia, Emily, Kelly, Jessie, Megan, Ginger, and whoever else thinks this would be fun!! You dudes are "IT"

the next best thing

Since only a lucky few of you have actually been able to play with my SWEET little guy in person- here's the next best thing. Without further ado, I bring to you (drum roll please) Athen, in his almost live internet debut:




Note: yes, he's this cute and this happy every day- so if you happen to be a movie, commercial, or magazine producer spending valuable time and money trying to get a fussy baby to be happy for your camera: sorry about your life.

the next Mrs. Ratliff

To my dear future daughter-in-law,

Have you ever heard that the trouble you cause your parents comes back to you two fold when you have children? Well, Jason's mom swears he was no trouble, so I'm guessing the following picture is just a fraction of what I deserve for that one time I picked up a handful of baby rattlesnakes and brought them inside to show my poor sweet mother when I was two, not to mention the many times I wandered to the other side of our little town without letting anyone know. So anyways, I've been on my toes for about 8 months now, and I thought about you the other day when I could not, for the life of me, find the tomatoes I had just purchased for tacos. This should have been my first clue:


I quickly remembered the egg incident, and checked the most likely place, and sure enough, right in front of the toy kitchen...

all FOUR tomatoes, "stirred up" just like this one- yes, that is carpet under the tomato.

So, I just wanted to say that I hope you are being REALLY easy for your mommy, or we can expect apocalyptic messes from my sweet little grand babies someday. And, yes, I will think it's cute, because that's what grandmas are supposed to do.

Love,
Lucia


PS: Brooklyn thinks you are her friend Issac's little sister, and if she's right, you might not have much to worry about because you are a sweetheart!

With general conference around the corner, a friend suggested having family night about when King Benjamin addressed his people at the temple . So, we went to our temple and pitched our tents (across the street)...
And listened to "King Benjamin" teach about serving our God by serving our fellow men...And then, about 2 minutes later, when we reached the end of our attention span, we looked at the fountains and found this big bug...



who, apparently, also found us.
We also tried to take a cute picture of the baby and realized we are now in the stage where every cute smile turns into a puzzled "what is that thing" face as soon as the camera comes out.
It was fun, and we can't wait for conference, especially because BUGGA and auntie Ebonnie are coming!!!!

Blog Therapy

I really don't mean this to be a "my life is so hard" blog, rather, I'm finding it speeds up the process of "we'll laugh at this one day" and helps me laugh today as I'm handling all sorts of sticky situations. Even if you don't have a blog, I recommend taking pictures of the REALLY big messes. Half the time, I realize it was not that big of a deal as soon as it comes on my little camera screen, and the rest of the time it gives me a sense of accomplishment when it might look like I haven't done anything during the day.

I might have only spent 15 minutes total on the kitchen and living room, but if you don't see spaghetti on the kitchen floor, or an abandoned diaper in the toy room, or broken eggs in the toy kitchen, or groceries on the kitchen table, or cereal on the floor- well, that means I have had a pretty successful day. So for all reading this:I'm feelin' pretty good about life.
Isn't he cute? He makes the biggest messes but is also a great cleaner! BTW I scored that adorable Saks outfit for only $8 (plus $5 for the saddle shoes).

Sunday Dinner

I've noticed that Sunday dinners have the highest potential for being interesting at our house. When we were newlyweds, we would sit in our tiny apartment and hope someone would invite us for dinner so we could eat something other than our top ramen. Thanks to our awesome extended family in Rexburg, we usually had an invite every week!

Perhaps it's because we are a little more experienced at cooking, but these days, we are a little more prepared for Sundays. Don't get me wrong, it is still cereal for breakfast and probably for lunch too, but dinners are better. However, that doesn't rule out the occasional random improvisations.

This week, for example we had taco fixins, but no tortillas. Not enough lettuce for taco salad...hmmm... what to do? Then I discovered THIS in the back of the corner cabinet:

Tada! Corn tortilla mix. Although, no tortilla press. But a rolling pin covered in waxpaper will work right? The first and last time I attempted this, I had a kitchen full of smoke, but like I said, what better day to try something new or re-try something than Sunday? So...
a smokish kitchen, a few burnt tortillas later, we finally had a couple great tortillas! And, I might add that even this burnt tortilla was 10 times more delicious than the store bought cardboard variety.
These were actually the yummiest taco's i've had in a while, and it makes me miss the REAL torillas in San Diego.

Looking back

It's crazy to me how quickly kids change! If it weren't for pictures, I would say that our baby looks the same
Today ---->
as
the day he came home

<-----





Either way, it has been a fun 4 months!

Unsolved Mystery

Does anyone have an answer to the roaming kitchen chair problem?

It's pretty mysterious, I suspect that my kitchen chairs have a life of their own and are moving to other locations :
- The cupboards
- The entertainment center
- The kitchen sink
- The freezer

And then leaving messes in their wake :

- A bag of sugar puffs dumped onto floor
- The DVDs in disarray
- The faucet's sprayer on and drenching the kitchen floor/ counter tops/ stove
- Distributing Fudgesicles to the indigenous little folks.


If you have any clues that may lead to the solving of this mystery, please notify me immediately, also, if you happen to know a way to magnetize wooden chairs to ceramic tile, that would be helpful too.

Balloon Chase!

Today was the hot air balloon kick-off of the Freedom Festival,and the kids were more than excited to watch all the "in-normous balloons". On the way home from an errand, we caught a glimpse of one coming down nearby, so we just had to follow it. We soon discovered an entourage of minivans doing the same, and followed it to a park to watch it land. The highlight was the super sweet balloon team who invited all the kids , old enough to walk, to help to fold up the balloon. SO FUN!!!

YOUR KIDS AND MY KIDS MIGHT BE LONG LOST TWINS IF...

Your little person thinks flour is a tasty snack, and the kitchen counter is the best place to enjoy it.
Your little person lacks the coordination to avoid dropping the flour jar off the counter while snacking.
You cleaned jello off the tile, and oatmeal and salad dressing off the couch.
You have ever had to figure out where to put back the buttons on the computer keyboard.

And lastly, your kids and mine might be long lost twins if this all happened before lunch.

Announcement

Let me tell you, it is SO nice to have talented friends! Laureen and her sweetie took these pictures, and then used awesome photoshop skills to doctor it all up into cute announcements ! Thanks Laureen!



PS: As an ode to my space-case-ness... so...yeah, I told her the wrong weight- he was 7lbs 14, not 13, but it's only an ounce right? Hopefully, he will see the humor in it someday, if not, there's always therapy. But in my defense, I was having surgery when the blessed event occurred, so I'm not really surprised that the details of the weighing, etc. were a little fuzzy.
Just imagine an extra ounce of cuteness and your set!!

Slightly old, but still exciting news!

Our baby arrived at the beginning of the month, and since I still haven't posted about it, i'm borrowing my sister SOCHI 's web post (above). She's so clever with the digital collages.

Here is the sleepy little guy! He is more awake these days, and looking more like a baby than a newborn. I'll post the baby announcement pics asap.

Moving memories

-Every time Diego heard the "Fasten you seatbelt" *ding* sound on the airplane, he would perk up and say, "Pizza's Ready!!"

- With each toy that the moving guys would bring into the new house, Brooklyn and Diego would get so excited! It was like Christmas morning.

- "Jason is wondering what he will smell like in 7-10 business days." This was J's facebook status when the washer (which broke en route) repair man had to order a new motor.

16 days of washer in transit
5 days of waiting for it to "thaw" before plugging it in
2 days to realize it wasn't working right
4 days establishing warranty/contacting fridgedaire/ setting up appointment
1 day to establish what was wrong
4 days for the new motor to arrive
+____________________________
Way too long without clean clothes! (yes, we did wash our clothes, it was just time consuming and inconvenient!)

- $25 in Direct TV credit card charges. So worth it for the kids to watch Dora and Diego on both plane rides!

- A huge "full size" rental car in GA, vs the little tiny "full size" in UT.

- The flight attendant looking at Diego, and telling Jason, "SHE has a beautiful smile!" then acting dismayed at his surprised pause. She assumed it was perfectly clear what she meant- "I was referring to your bride." Very sweet of her, though.

- Stake president Bradley in GA, shaking Jason's hand: " So I heard you got a job at BYU."
Jason: Yeah, we are going in a couple weeks
Prisident Bradley: "You dirt bag!"

Husband!

My friend did this survey, and it looked like fun so here goes a survey about my sweet husband!

What is your husband's name? Jason
How long have you been together? August will mark 5 years.

Who said I love you first? So here's how it went- I kind of freaked out and broke up with him after a DTR ( define the relationship) where I realized he was serious, and I was terrified! But the absence of him for the next 2 weeks made me realize that I was WAY more attached than I had realized. I finally figured out that I wanted to claim 'dibs' on him him FOREVER and so I went to his apartment, asked him to go for a walk with me . I was just going to talk it out, and find out if he might want to date again, but I was too excited! So, we barely even get across the street and here comes the L word( in the *romantic* location of the STOP sign in front of the MC):
Lucia: Guess what?
Jason: What?
Lucia: I LOVE you!
Jason: Really? Because I totally love you too.

And that was that. I love that he added a "Totally"

Who is smarter? He always tells me I am, but I don't see how that can be. I think he's basing that on the content of stuff I learned in my good suburb schools vs. what was available in his struggling big-city schools. That said, he's one smart cookie, plus he works harder, so there's definitely something in his brain that's wired a little tighter than mine, since he actually DOES his homework, and goes to class!
Who does the housework? We both do housework, I am home A LOT more, so I might do a little more, but not nearly as much more as I could, and probably should.
Who sleeps on the right? Me
Who pays the bills? We both take care of it.
Who cooks dinner? We usually make it together, it's so fun!
Who drives when you are together? I do, unless we are crunched for time and I need to apply make-up on the way.
Who is more stubborn? I am, most of the time.
Who kissed who first? It was so cute- he was gently stroking my hair, and lightly kissing my forehead, and I couldn't resist!I looked up and planted and big one smack on his lips. He was definitely surprised, but clearly happy about it because he kissed me right back.
Who asked out who first? My best friend and roommate,Taryn, set up a double for us with he and his roommate. He initiated the one-on-one dating after that.
Who proposed and how? Jason. He had the guys in the dorms spell out "Will you marry me" in black paint across their chests. ( So funny! Especially the "?" because the guy on the end was black,and the paint wouldn't show up, so they painted on him with bright white paint. Classic!)
Who has more siblings? Me.
Who wears the pants? Jason likes to issue an arbitrary, or ridiculous "Decree" now and then, but all in fun and usually to voice objection to something inevitable like assembling toys in the midnight hours preceding Christmas.


This was fun! My husband is so awesome!! I recommend doing something like this about your sweetie!

While we still can...

My sister snapped this picture of the kids (all 3 of them!) and I napping. Thank heaven for the huge blessing I've had this pregnancy of 2 little angels that will take a long nap with me every day- something that is so wonderful since the biggest pregnancy side effect for me has been major fatigue!

Week 3 Highlights!

1. Wednesday: Unexpected trip to the labor and delivery for a stress-test. All is well, the place and people were nice. Better safe than sorry, although I do wish the timing would have been a little better so that we could have been reassured in the doctor's office instead of the expensive hospital. Oh well, what can ya do?
2. Thusrday: I have no idea- so obviously nothing earth shattering.
3. Friday: Provo Temple! Holy cow! I have NEVER seen a temple that jam packed with people! It was so cool! I ran into my friend's aunt working in the dressing room. Literally, there were so many patrons that her whole assignment was to stand by the isle and direct each sister to the appropriate row- there was another temple worker to designate a specific locker. It was almost like those people that tell you where to park at Disney! So cool! Not to mention the coolness of our ward hosting free babysitting during, and pie and hot cocoa after!
   
4. Saturday: First visit to family in Idaho! It was so nice to be back. Dinner at the Golden Corral was my nephew's birthday request. I felt like we WERE in a corral, but it least the rolls and honey butter were yummy, and I didn't have to clean up after the toddlers- always a plus!
5. Sunday: The kids loved having cousins to entertain them during church. Diego only tried to run on the stand twice (If you have a 20 month toddler, you know this is victory!). Even though my sister was in primary, everyone in relief society knew who I was- we really are a similar as two people can look without being twins. Jason returned to Provo that night. Work shmurk!
   
6. Monday: Lounged around my sister's house.
   
7. Tuesday: Watched 'Amazing Grace' and reccommend it! Drove back to utah in our *NEW* VAN! I feel so old owning a van, but it is definitely more roomy and deluxe than the civic. ( don't tell Bessie sue I told you that. She is very a temperamental civic!) * used, but it's new to us*
   
8. Also tuesday: New Callings! more later...
9. Today- Chicken taco salad for dinner! Navajo tacos if I am feeling ambitious! Yummy!
   

OKAY!! We made it Provo! I finally get to see for myself this place that SO many of our friends hold near and dear. And, well... I'm guessing they remember it like in this picture, and not what it looks like in mid- February, because it does NOT look like this now. Coming from sunny, lush and green Georgia, our first impression was that we moved to death valley. But it has been growing on us, so when it becomes more than the various shades of brown and grey, we will love it even more! Brooklyn's favorite thing about it is the MOUNTAINS!! Holy cow, those things are RIGHT there! I feel like a could throw pebble and hit them from anywhere in town!
We love that Jason's commute is only a few minutes, and that the Temple is so close! No more 90 min car rides to and from the temple. Well, there's so much more to tell but no time to tell it in because the kids are at my sisters and I NEED to do some unpacking before they come home tomorrow! My stamina for pulling all day and night unpacking parties is just not up to par with this whole 5 weeks to a new baby thing!