8 New Things

8 T.V. Shows I love to watch:

1. Grey's Anatomy

2. Army Wives

3. Jon & Kate Plus 8

4. America's Next Top Model

5. Ugly Betty

6. Heroes

7. Desperate Housewives

8. Biggest Loser

8 things that happened yesterday:

1. Attended my newest cousin's (once removed) baby blessing - Summer Grace Graham, Jeff and Shalene's beautiful baby girl.

2. Went to sunday school of Springfield 4th ward's conference.

3. Watched Ethan run around and play with his cousin Jackson - he's getting so big!

4. Went to a Fine - Graham - Toftdahl - Southworth potluck after the baby blessing.

5. Wrestled with Ethan.

6. Posted a new (short) blog.

7. Snuggled on the couch with my hubby.

8. Started organizing some pictures - came across a CD I made for Sean and I's wedding reception. It's got some of our early dating days, Sean's mission, engagement pics and me at various ages (toddler, middle school, high school swimming/graduation). Is anybody interested in seeing them? I'll post on request only! :) Here's a preview, though:

I'm not sure how old I was there, but is it weird that I see some of Ethan's features in my face?

Sean's average height - definitely not short, but not over 6 foot either, so these guys must be really tall!

8 favorite places to eat:

1. Sweet Tomatoes

2. Red Robin

3. Torerros

4. Quiznos

5. Olive Garden

6. Papa's Pizza or Roaring Rapids

7. PC Market deli

8. My own house

8 things I am looking forward to:

1. Moving to Salem (hopefully next year) so that I can...

2. Be a stay-at-home mom

3. Being debt-free!

4. Experiencing new things through Ethan's eyes

5. Going to the farm/pumpkin patch in two weeks

6. Getting my hair done in two weeks - maybe some auburn highlights??

7. Finnaaalllllly losing the baby weight so that I can be in better shape for when we're ready to start trying for #2 (we're just not sure when that is!)

8. Southern Cali in December to see Sean's family

8 things on my wish list:

1. Getting into pre-pre baby shape so that I can be lifting weights with the 'big boys' at Golds again. I miss the days of being one of the only girls on the weight floor.

2. Debt-free!!

3. Owning our own home.

4. Having a completely organized house - yeah, right!

5. A new laptop with high-speed wireless internet with tons of memory.

6. Sean and I both being done with school and loans paid off.

7. A huge travel fund so that we can explore the world.

8. World Peace! Or at least as much as possible, a happy, loving, healthy family. So far, so good!

A couple of sickies.

Ethan and I played 'hookie' Thursday - me from work and him from grandma's. I had started to feel crummy Tuesday night and by Wednesday was really under the weather, but I braved a full day of work plus another stake meeting. I was feeling pretty miserable by Wednesday night and could tell I just really needed some rest - especially after my early mornings on Monday and Tuesday. Anyway... so Ethan and I stayed home with matching running noses. We were quite the pair - watching Sesame Street, resting, playing trucks and drinking juice. I actually ended up coming home early from work on Friday too and we repeated our Thursday afternoon naps. We're both doing much better - lots of rest and vitamin C.
And as an update, I think we're at least half-way through the 8 teeth coming in right now. He's doing much better now that we've got some night-time orajel. I hope this stage is over soon!

The Rest Of Our Afternoon In Portland

So, here we are, a month later and I'm finally finishing up the details on the rest of our Portland adventure to see Phantom of the Opera. As previously stated, Phantom was fantastic! After the show, we went across the street to this HUGE public water fountain/sculpture/pools - I don't even know what to call it! It's two stories high with all these connecting pools and fountains. People actually came in their bathing suits to play in the water!


The first two pictures are from the upper level and the picture of Sean and I below shows all of the different levels. Pretty cool.









Next we went over to OHSU/Dornbecker's to visit my friend who was working - she's a nurse and just recently started working in pediatrics. After that, it was over to ClaimJumper for dinner. We met back up with my mom, Christine, John and Elisabeth. Elisabeth didn't see the show, but was nice enough to help watch my cousin's little boy while he and his wife went to the temple. Then she hung out at their place while we were at the show.
At the restaurant, Sean went with one of his favorite: ribs.









I opted for a sandwich. I thought that the tri-tip/ham/turkey sandwich sounded yummy. I should've known, though, when it was labeled in the menu as 'The Motherload" - this is what arrived at our table:












Holy moly, that is a BIG sandwich! I even asked the server, "how do people eat this?!" He just smiled and said, "enjoy your meal!" Gee, thanks. Well I managed to disect and eat 1/2 the sandwich in sections. I saved the other half and made TWO full sandwiches for Sean and I for lunch the next day!
Finally, we got some dessert - to go - and stopped by my cousin, John and his wife, Stephanie's new place in Beaverton. They have a nice new townhouse with an awesome floorplan and great storage - I'm totally jealous! We brought them a slice of motherload chocolate cake from ClaimJumper - yep, just as tall as the sandwich - in honor of their birthdays and anniversary (all on the same day, earlier that week). After lots of chatting, it was back on the road to pick up one very sleepy little boy from some very loving and generous great grandparents that graciously watched him for us the WHOLE day - Thank you!! It was a fun day and great to spend so much time with my wonderful hubby. :)

5:30am Wake-up Call

Let me clarify... other than the kiss on the cheek I get from my husband before he leaves for work, I do not particularly enjoy being woken up at 5:30 in the morning. Ethan has been sleeping through the night since about 3-4 months old. The past couple weeks, however, we've gotten a couple EARLY morning wake-up calls each week. I can't say that I blame him for this morning, though. Poor kid has 6-8 teeth coming in (I'm still not sure and it could be 2 on each side, upper AND lower) and now a slight cold - mainly a runny/plugged up nose. So he woke up screaming at about 5:35am, just as Sean was leaving for work. We got out the 'sickie snuggle blanket' and curled up on the couch to watch "Handy Manny" on the Disney channel. After a warm bottle, some Tylenol and about an hour of snuggling on the couch, it was back to bed. Now he's asleep, then it will be off to grandma's in his comfy pants and I've got to try to keep my eyes open at work. It's going to be a long day...

Stuck!

Ethan learned a new word yesterday... "stuck!"
In the morning, when I went to get him up, I noticed that he had put his foot in sideways between the slats of the crib. "Are you stuck?" I asked. That was all it took - he caught on to the new word immediately!
"Stuck!"
"Stuck!"
I heard it all morning during breakfast and while we were getting ready to leave.

Later that afternoon, when I picked him up from his first Wednesday at the Wrights (with his buddy Isaac), I was putting him into his carseat and the shoulder strap was a little tight against his arm. He turned and looked at me and said, "stuck!" And then, after dinner, he was trying to get out of his highchair and got... stuck. So we heard it again all evening.
"Stuck!"
"Stuck!"
It's exciting, though, that not only did he learn a new word he also understands the meaning of the word.

Army Wives: Our Summertime Addiction

Last summer Sean and I started watching this show, Army Wives. For MONTHS I had seen it advertised on Lifetime while I was watching reruns of Reba and nursing Ethan. With all the hype it built up, I thought, "I gotta at least watch the first epsiode. Besides, the executive producer is the same guy from Grey's Anatomy and I love that show." So I set it up to record the premiere on a Sunday night. The next morning, while I was feeding Ethan, Sean says to me, "If you watch that show, Army Wives, go ahead and delete it. I have no interest in watching it." And off to work he went.
That afternoon I watched the premiere and LOVED it!! Being the good wife that I am I decided to save the episode on the off-chance that I could convince Sean to watch it. That very day he came home from work hoping that I hadn't deleted it! Apparently the show had gotten rave reviews at work and he was afraid he'd missed out. We watched the first episode together and our now completely wrapped up in the lives of all of the army wives.
We're coming up on the end of season 2 and I'm afraid to see how many story-lines they're going to leave hanging with the season finale...

• Roxy and Trevor have been having problems, mainly because of Trevor's pain-killer addiction. Plus, he was in a minor car accident in the last episode.
• Joan and Roland are new parents, but Joan is in the ICU after delivery complications.
• Denise and Frank are seperating just as Frank is going back to Iraq and their only son just shipped off to Iraq as well.
• Claudia Joy was literally fighting off a foreign dignitary that is trying to take advantage of her.
• Pamela has a SCARY stalker and no idea when her husband should be back.

I've never been in to the daily soaps, but I sure love the weekly dramas! And I'm glad I have a husband who gets almost as involved in their lives as I do!

Teething and Soy Formula

Ethan is officially in Round 2 of teething. He got his first tooth back in the end of October of last year. After that, he was getting 1-2 new teeth a month for the next several months. By his 1st birthday in April he had 8 of his front baby teeth - 4 on top and 4 on bottom. He hasn't cut a new tooth since and is now paying the price. Poor little guy is getting at least 3, maybe 4 new teeth in right now. He's a pretty good 'teether' - not too cranky and no orajel. He's doing ok during the day, but the past 4-5 nights he has woken up SCREAMING anywhere from 2-4 in the morning. Saturday night it was so bad that he had to come into bed with us for a while - it was a looong night.

And, as a sidenote. Is there anyone in the Eugene/Springfield area that is interested in some soy formula? We got a whole can of it when Ethan was really sick and just on fluids. They wanted him to use the soy formula because it's supposed to be easier on his system - he'd have nothing to do with it. Formula is so expensive, I hate to just throw it away if someone can use it. Let me know...

9/16/08: Teething Update
I discovered this morning that Ethan is also cutting 2-3 teeth on bottom as well as the 3-4 teeth on top. So he's got about 6 new teeth coming in! On the bright side, there was no late night/early morning screaming today - yay!!

Let the Construction Begin

So, the construction on the new Fire Station officially began this summer. Previously, we had been looking at a nearly condemned building. The fire trucks and ambulances have already been stored in a large tent structure (see below) for over a year and the firefighters and paramedics that are on duty have been living in portable housing even longer.














They finally tore down the old building and we were even invited to the ground-breaking ceremony. We regretfully declined - Sean and I were both working that day. It has made for great entertainment for Ethan. He LOVES trucks. Trucks, trucks, trucks. He shows us the trucks. He hears the trucks and runs to the window to watch the trucks. Or he hears the trucks and says, "truck?" like 'did you guys hear that, too?' So far, the only irritation the construction has been was a couple of mornings when they were cutting down some trees (I know, [gasp!] - cutting down trees?!?! and so close to hippie, tree-huggin' Eugene?! :) - I swear it was like 6:45am, but it was probably closer to 7:30am and I just wasn't up yet! Other than that, it's not bad.














One thing I would like to do soon, though, is to take over some goodies and let Ethan meet the guys (and girls) that drive/ride in those fire trucks that he loves so much. He even has a fire truck t-shirt that his great-grandma got him that he can wear. I think he would get a kick out of seeing the trucks up close and I'm sure the crew wouldn't mind meeting one of their littlest fans! We feel a little safer living across the street from the fire station, especially with our adventurous little Ethan. And they kinda keep an eye on us. A couple of months ago, when the Honda stalled in the center of the street, perpendicular to traffic, they came right out to help us push it back into place. So it would be nice just to show them our appreciation.

Elmo's World

Ethan gets dropped off at my mom's house for the day by 9am, so he doesn't ever watch Seasame Street at our house. Apparently, though, he has become a big fan of Big Bird and the gang - especially Elmo - in the recent months. I wonder if him liking the Elmo's World segment has anything to do with the fact that I used to sing the Elmo's World theme song to him when I changed his diaper. I would open the clean diaper and put it on his head and then change the words to "diaper head". He would just laugh and laugh!!

"La-la-la-la. La-la-la-la. Diaper head!"
Good times.

Mmm... Blackberries.

A few weeks ago, Sean, Ethan, my mom, sisters and I took advantage of the blackberry bushes that grow on Sean's grandma's property out in Thurston. We had already missed the cherries, so we wanted to be sure we got at least one berry-pickin' session in this summer! This was Ethan's first taste of the sweet berries and I think he was a fan!

Unfortunately, we were still a little early (and we thought we might have missed them!) - but we did get enough for two YUMMY blackberry cobblers! I always use my Grandma Mary's recipe for cobbler - it's not a traditional biscuit cobbler and you actually put the berries on top of the batter. It's so good - I've included the recipe below for your enjoyment! :)

* Grandma Mary's Fruit Cobbler *

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter or margarine

1 cup flour

1 cup sugar

dash of salt (sorry, not really sure how much that is!)

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

2/3 cup milk

2 small cans peaches (with juice) or 1 can pie filling (cherry and blueberry are good)

(Note: For fresh berries, rinse and add about 1/4 cup sugar to about 2 cups berries - stir in 1 tsp. lemon juice.)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and place butter in shallow baking dish (9x13 for thinner cobbler and 8x8 for thicker) and into the oven.

2. Mix flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in large bowl. Stir in milk.

3. Remove baking dish with melted butter from oven and pour in batter.

4. Add fruit evenly throughout batter - DO NOT STIR!! While baking, the batter will cook up over the fruit.

5. Bake 40 minutes or until golden brown.

Delicious served warm with vanilla ice cream!

That night we went for the very first time to Fins drive-in. How have we missed this place?!

Other than Ethan being tired and a little cranky, we had a good time. Excellent diner food - which Sean and I always crave whenever we catch any of that show 'Diners, Drive-ins and Dives' on Food Network.

Finally Got Some Pictures!

So last night I finally made it to Wal-Mart and got our most recent pictures put on CD. Hopefully this means I can get caught up on some posts! I'm working on the berry-picking one right now!

We Heart Phantom

Two weeks ago Sean and I had the opportunity to go see The Phantom of the Opera on stage in Portland. Sean has always been a big fan and I fell in love with it more after seeing the movie. We've made it a tradition to see at least one Broadway musical a year and for the past 3 years now have see some of the major productions up in Portland at the Keller Auditorium. In '06 we saw Wicked - it was wicked awesome! Last year we saw Spamalot - hilarious! It was then that we saw the posters advertising the Phantom production - a full year in advance! From that point on, Sean kept an eye on the website and watched for the tickets to go on sale. In May I got an email for advanced ticket sales and the next weekend Sean went up after work (it helps that he has a head-start working in Salem) and hand-picked our seats. We ended up in row D - super close and great seats!

My mom, Christine and her boyfriend, John, also went with us. Below is the picture of the chandelier that they raise out above the audience. The overture was definitely one of my favorite parts! The stage is set for the auction scene when you first walk into the auditorium. Everything is dark and grey. The chandelier is covered by a large grey sheet and so are the sides and top of the stage. When the auctioneer says his "perhaps with a little illumination" line, two people throw the sheet back, their is a big spark and it slowly lights up and comes to life. The overture starts and the chandelier raises above the audience and all the sheets are removed to reveal the gold angel ornamentation of the old opera house. Meanwhile everything on stage is also transforming - angled curtains are raised back into position and the balconies appear. It was awesome. I got a little teary-eyed when the overture started because it was just so cool. One of my other favorite numbers was the actual "Phantom of the Opera" song - when the Phantom is leading Christine down into his lair. Thick fog starts rolling across the stage and candles appear in the 'water' - the Phantom rows out with Christine in his boat and it looks like he is gliding through the water. Phew. You have to experience it at some point in your life!

I'll share the rest of our Portland adventures when I get more pictures. We did leave our little guy home for the day - but he had a great time with great-grandma and great-grandpa Toftdahl. Apparently, he occasionally likes to pretend that he is the Phantom!

Complaint Dept.

So I've gotten some complaints that I haven't updated my blog recently - mainly from my little sister, who apparently checks my blog every day and has been thorougly disappointed that there hasn't been anything new lately! She actually told me that she is sick of looking at my tag post! The reason for the delay? I'm still lacking in pictures! I think our old computer has officially ran out of free memory space, so I'm going to have to get to Wal-mart and get our recent pictures put on CD. I guess I know what I'll be doing this weekend! For now, I'll try to get a post up about seeing Phantom of the Opera on stage. Stay tuned...