My Man...

This picture was from our anniversary trip 2007 to Disneyland, hence the donkey ears. I was tagged by Alayna with a husband tag, and since right now he is definately the most neglected person in the house, I need to pay a little tribute to him.

1 )Where did you meet? We were set up on a blind date by Blake's cousin's wife who I worked with at the hospital and was a friend of mine. First date he showed up to my parents house driving a truck, sporting a goatee, talking about these two new hound dogs he had just gotten. I was thinking...this date can't end soon enough. I was texting other people all during our dinner at Ruby River, making plans for doing something after he dropped me off at home. I thought I would never see him again, and then when he said goodbye to me on the doorstep he asked me out on a second date to some Halloween party his friends do every year. He snaked me in.

2) How long did you date before you got married? Our first date was the week before Halloween, we were engaged on January 27, and married June 9.

3) How long have you been married? 3 Blissful Years.

4) What is your favorite feature of his? First his smile, second his arm and shoulder muscles.

5) What is your favorite quality of his? Blake is someone who would do anything for you. He is very willing to serve and give of himself to others (sometimes a little too much).

6) Does he have a nickname for you? He calls me sweetums, which I'm still not quite sure how it got started. My favorite nickname for him is Sugar Plum Fairy (which I kind of got out of the habit of calling him but I think it's going to make comeback).

7) What is his favorite food? Anything Grandma Hall makes. He's a meat and potatoes kind of guy. He says the only thing I make better than Grandma Hall is my waffles. I think it's going to take her dying for me to replace her as head chef.

8) What is his favorite sport? Snowmobiling and Killin' Stuff.

9) When and where was your first kiss? Our first kiss was on our second date. After the Halloween party he asked me if I wanted to come over to his house (side note...He's 28 years old, I'm 18, he wants to "take me to his house", I was nervous) He slipped me the smooch on his couch in his house after my first Halloween party with the friends. His canteen was definately running low.

11) Do you have any children? 1

12) Does he have a hidden talent? I don't know how hidden it is anymore, but he is a great cook. He loves to smoke meat on his ridiculously large redneck smoker, grill, dutch oven, and he wants to start his own smoked meat catering business (lucky me).

13) How old is he? 31

14) Who said "I love you" first? He did, because I refused to say it first. We were sitting on the couch in my parents basement and it was around my birthday, the first week of December.

15) What is his favorite type of music? Anything old from the 1990s that I have never heard of.

16) What do you admire the most about him? I admire about Blake that he is such a hard worker. He is one that cannot just sit around, he has to be doing something. He putters out in his sheds, the yard, other peoples yards, fixing and working on things. He will always have some project he is working on.

17) Do you think he will read this? Are you kidding? No.

Don't Watch Oprah

I somewhat got back a glimpse today of what I felt like before Brody. Alyson Hall watched Brody so that I could go get my hair cut and colored. I was SOOOOOOOOOOOO needing a break from him. He slept horribly last night, Blake and I both were really frustrated. He had been fussy when I took him to my Dr.'s appointment this morning. He was just driving me crazy, so needless to say, I wasn't really sad to drop him off. I was even resenting having to go pick him up. I did though and came home, of course he was crying, he was hungry and wanting to be fed. I sat on the bed, grabbed the boppy and started to feed him. I know I was prompted to turn to Oprah for some reason (I don't watch Oprah...ever...). Her show today was on miracle children who had surpassed the odds and are thriving now. The story though that I caught was on baby Elliot. I didn't even catch what was wrong with him exactly except that he had a whole in his heart and I think a collapsed lung. Anyway, this young couple, who looked closer to my age than Blake knew that there son was going to die shortly after giving birth to him. This couple knew that he wasn't going to be around for very long. So every day at 4:59 p.m. they celebrated his birthday. Everyday they took a picture with him and had in the picture how many days he had been alive. This mother lovingly held her baby every chance she could because she knew that it wouldn't be long before she wouldn't be able to hold him. She even took him to a NICU reunion to show him off and how proud she was that he had lived so long. The piece on Oprah showed every milestone he made, when he turned one month, two months, three months and each was celebration that he had lived so long. Baby Elliot died on day 99. At his funeral (and of course they show the little tiny casket) they released 99 balloons to celebrate each day that he was alive. The mom said that she didn't have time to feel sad because she wanted to be happy with him and enjoy the limited time she had.

The moral of the story is...stop resenting your child and appreciate the fact that you have a healthy baby who does cry at 3:00 a.m., makes messes, and yells and screams if you don't hold him.

Mommy's Favorite Toy

Here is my Brody baby in mama's favorite toy, the bouncy chair. Oh how I love the bouncy chair. Brody sits next to me at the computer when I am trying to do homework and I turn on the vibration feature, he is a happy little man. This is my question to all the moms out there who read this blog...how often do your change your child's clothing? I used to change him head-to-toe if anything on him got poopy or spit up on it. Now it has to be large for me to go through the whole process. Brody has gotten into a little spitty phase where he will, after most feedings, spit up a moderate sized amout of breastmilk/feta cheese smelling stuff. I am getting sick of changing him 4-5 times a day and more sick of doing his laundry twice a day, and frankly, I think Brody is sick of me playing dress-up with him 4-5 times a day. Any suggestions? I think I might be starting to use a bib on him because it's just getting icky.

Oh Stable Boy...

The other morning I awoke to find this in Brody's pants. He was enjoying playing and sopping his foot around in it. If that wasn't bad enough, it was one of my favorite outfits that he has, and after multiple Shout and Dreft treatments you could hardly tell that he had soiled his britches. Brody and I are finally getting into a loose routine. He tends to go to bed between 10-11 p.m. and will sleep to 3 or 4 a.m. I only feed him on one side at the am feeding because he can't stay awake long enough to do both sides, so he's up again at 7 or so.

On a side note, everytime that Blake watches Brody, Brody is well behaved. It makes me so mad, because of course with me during the day he constantly wants to be held, played with, sung too, entertained. But, when Blake is watching him they can just sit on the bed together and watch stupid nature shows about baby puma snow cats or something and Brody just sits there next to him not making a sound. I am tempted to sabotage the next time that Blake watches him and hide all of my pumped milk in the freezer so he can't have anything to eat, take all the binki's, and leave him hungry...wah ahh ahhh ahhhh. (Think of an evil witch laugh...) Then we will see how "easy" it is to take care of Brody.

My Handsome Boy

Driving me to drink...

He looks so innocent...

The last two weeks has been crazy! In the movie Overboard, Goldie Hawn is stressed out after having totally cleaned and overhauled the house and the kids are throwing grapes at her face and she is saying, "bub ba bub bub ba bub." That's how I've felt the last couple of weeks. I am really trying to work on getting Brody on a schedule, this is what is causing me drink....Dr. Pepper. I love Dr. Pepper SO much, it really is my addiction. I tried when I was pregnant to only have one liter pop from the gas station every other week, but it really was once every week. There is a line from friends when Gunther takes a drag of Chandler's cigarette and says, "Oh dark mother, how I suckle at your teet," which totally describes my feelings towards Dr. Pepper. This was going great, I had lots of energy, I was a happier more pleasant wife, until.....I discovered, Brody does NOT like Dr. Pepper through breast milk. The days that I drank Dr. Pepper he was so onery, crying, screaming, whailing, whining. So, I had to axe the one thing in my life that was keeping me saine, the one "spoil" thing that really brings me happiness, for my child. Yet again, another sacrifice.

I was talking to a girl I work with on the phone and she told that it's ok to resent your baby. When you think about how your body is never going to look the same, your relationship with your husband will never be the same, your time is never your own, it's ok to be resentful. There are some days when I really just long for the days of scrapbooking all day, going to the gym when I want, not having to plan a 30 minute shopping trip for 4 hours prior to leaving the house. But then, all you have to do is look in the face of your baby, and your heart melts. I have never felt such instant love, and never thought that I could love a little person so much as I do with Brody. President Monson's talk in the Sunday morning session of conference was about change. Dealing with and accepting the changes in your life. That talk was an answer to prayers. Life is about changes, we're not supposed to be stagnant. You have to take changes, and have faith not knowing what your decisions and new adventures may bring. (Do I sound highly philosophical?)

Another funny story, my boss called me on Wednesday to ask me how I was doing postpartum. She actually called me from her cell phone on vacation with her family. This totally surprised me, because she is not like this at work. As we were talking she kept asking me if I was doing ok, that I didn't sound like myself, and how was I REALLY feeling. I guess that day I must have sounded stressed or suicidal or like I had postpartum depression, I don't know. But, I was flattered that even my boss would call to check on how I was doing.