There's Gotta Be A First Time For Everything

My little boy is all grown up and swimming! We went to St. George this last weekend and kept my dad company at his Judge's Conference. I decided that Brody was going to go swimming for his first time. We went out and bought him little swimmy diapers, little man boardshorts and the floaty object you see in the above picture. I think we are going to have to coerce Uncle Jerry and Aunt JoAnn into renting us some pool time because Brody LOVED it. He kicked his little legs around and made terradactyl screaming noises at the top of his lungs. The pool was cool but we went during the afternoon so there wouldn't be any other kids to splash on him and cause me to go into growly protective mommy bear mode and haul out on them =).

Là breith sona dhuit

No that is not a bunch of jib jab, it is how you say Happy Birthday in Scottish Gaelic! Today is Alyson's 21st Birthday. I wish she was here so we could do the following things:

1. Birthday Mani/Pedi
2. Birthday Cafe Rio Pork Salad and Tortilla Soup
3. Birthday kiss from Brody
4. Birthday shopping trip to Gateway (Victorias Secret, Wet Seal, Abercrombie for me)
5. Birthday spankings from me
6. Birthday Jamba Juice
7. Birthday present in person

8. Birthday lick from Angus
9. Birthday cake and ice cream
10. Birthday arguing and making fun of David

We love you Aly and miss you. Brody is wearing his U of U red for you today! Happy Birthday!

New Years Resolution #2

This piece of paper is insignificant to all three of you who read this blog, but to me, it is one of the most valuable pieces of tree that I could own. This is my car title. We are one step closer to being debt free. Thanks to Dave Ramsey we paid off my car 2 years early, and when I got this in the mail I cried. I'd like to thank Dave Ramsey, myself, and Blake for making this possible. Yipee!

And You Said Nothing Exciting Happens...

Sunday I worked for 4 hours from 05-09 in the morning for one of my co-workers. This fact is insignificant except that because of this reason I got home at 10 or so, showered, got ready for church, ate breakfast, got Brody ready, packed the luggage for church, got Blake ready and we were actually 5 minutes early for church and got to sit on a padded bench (my bum thanks me for it). There is an elderly gentleman who is in a wheelchair and is not normally in our ward a couple of rows behind us. While the sacrament is being passed his cell phone rings...loudly. He answers and in a normal volume voice and tells the caller he is in sacrament meeting and will have to call them back. Then the counselor in the bishopric gets up and prefaces the speakers by saying that they are speaking on a very spiritual topic and hopes that all of us can have open minds and hearts and really be in tune with the Spirit during their talks. The first speaker gets up, says just about the same thing as the counselor does that the topic is very spiritual and she is very nervous to speak on such a sensitive subject and then...Whom Whom Whom Whom Whom "Please Exit the Building" Whom Whom Whom Whom Whom Whom Whom "Please Exit the Building"...you guessed it...the fire alarm goes off. We're all sitting there scanning our eyes around the room wondering if all 110 of us are really going to evacuate or if we're just going to sit on our benches and die in a fiery blaze. The Bishop gets up and says for all of us to stay in our seats while he goes and investigates. Of course there are 5 or so men who think that because they have once put out a fire camping they need to get up and go help. The Bishop comes back and reports that there is no fire but we do in fact have to evacuate the building because it is the protocol. So out we go, all 110 of us carrying crying, screaming children outside. We stand out in the cold for a couple minutes and then preceed to go back into the building. We all get settled back down again into our seats, the speaker gets back up and then...the elderly gentlemans cell phone rings again. This time instead of just saying he is in sacrament meeting he carries on a full conversation with the person on the phone.

I tell you this because I had never been in church while the fire alarm went off and I would say that it was a pretty good way to kill about 10 minutes of sacrament meeting. Second, I couldn't help but giggle thinking that if there had been a real fire we might have had a couple of George Castanza's in our ward who would check the elderly widows in our ward to get out of the building.

Really Describes Me

Found on a strangers blog while blog stocking:

"There really is a skinny girl inside me...I can usually shut her up with a few cookies."

Yum. Especially when they are Grandma Hall's Chocolate Chip Cookies, warm with milk please! By the way, this is really not funny because I have hit a plateau in my weight loss. Guh.

I'm Having An Affair

If any of you are in the market for a new vacuum, look no further than the Kenmore Progressive with Inteli-Clean (the one on the left). I was going to get a Dyson when I was searching for a new vaccum last year, but after doing some research and talking to some friends I decided to get this one. It is amazing. The thing sucks like no other. I love using tools to do the edges of my room and to get cob webbys from the nooks and crannys around my house and it has the strongest suction for tools of any vaccum I have ever owned or used. The downside...Brody screams like I'm tearing his arm off everytime I turn it on. I think he thinks it will eat him.

I Miss Her Everyday

Aly is in Scotland interning with a representative at the Scottish Parliament, but during the February governmental break Aly and her "flatmates" took a 10 day trip to Italy. She sent me these pics today and as a proud sister I needed to post them. They went to Rome, Venice, Naples. I miss her so much and wish I could've been with her.

Don't Worry, I'm Here To Save You!

Step aside Emergency personel, I am now an official CERT member. Today was our final "mock disaster" where me and my fellow nerdball class mates had to search, rescue, triage and treat victims. I was commander of the medical post with my partner acting as scribe. I had to create treat and triage areas to assess patients, assign my medical teams patients to oversee, and initially triage and direct victims as they were brought to me. Crazy, mass chaos crazy. After about 30 minutes into the activity I finally got everything, and everybody under control. One of the victims kept yelling and screaming "where's my babies, I've got to go find my babies, can't you find my babies, why aren't you finding my babies," and she tried to run back into the disaster multiple times. Drove me crazy. I finally told her to sit down and shut up, and that I really didn't care about her babies right now (ok I was a little nicer than that). Then there was a 10 year old girl who wouldn't stop running amuck around the hallways. Everytime my treating personel tried to have her sit down she wouldn't listen. We're talking multiple multiple times. We finally tied her to a post with rope. So in between "where's my babies" and Miss won't follow instructions it was crazy. Then I had a 12 year old girl with Downs Syndrome come to me to be triaged. She was so adorable. I asked her what her name was and she signed it for me in American Sign Language. I said, "oh so your name's Megan," and she smiled such a big grin that I knew what she had signed (Personal Triumph right there). All things considered, we did very well. I only had 2 people die because we couldn't get to them fast enough to treat them. Oh well, you lose a few. The pic is of me and my cute professor London.

Nate came to act as a victim. What a trooper. He had a severed ear and a huge gash along the side of his neck and our genius search and rescue personel put that contraption around his head. Obviously the nurse rescuer that put that on him does not do patient care and must sit behind a desk. Our CERT instructor even said he had NEVER seen a device like that before put on a patient.

So all fun and games aside here's the real deal. CERT was awesome. I learned so much about how to prepare myself, my family and my community for a disaster. When, not if, there is a catastrophic situation I will be prepared...remember...if you are prepared "ye shall not fear." I would encourage all those that read this blog (all 3 of you) to make sure you have a 72 hour kit. HUGE DEAL! You need to have enough food, water and supplies to sustain you and your family for 72 hours. Do you know why 72 hours? Because that is approximately how long it will take for outside help to arrive on the scene. I cannot stress how important this is. Just do it. Don't put it off and say you will get to it, get it done, you won't regret it. Also, a plug for the CERT program. When your community offers this program take advantage of it. It cost me $25 dollars to take it. It's an investment in my life. Let me tell you, you will certainly not see me as one of those pathetic Katrina victims...uh hmm!

Excuse me, what's going on?!?

Hey come on, I do have a life besides blogging! I have been super busy being super mom lately. Let me be honest here...I actually feel like I am almost myself again after having Brody. Hey, it only took 6 months. I am within 10 pounds of my pre-prego weight, I am piling on the bronzer, Brody is getting settled into a loose routine and I am happier! We are just hitting midterms at WSU and so I am spending WAY to much time at the computer each night after Brody goes to bed. My last two Saturdays, and this next Saturday, have/will been spent doing CERT training for my Disaster Nursing class. I am trying to construct a replica of the Price is Right Punch-A-Bunch Board. I am trying to master two songs as the ward choir pianist (pee-ann-ist hehehe). Decide on what our OB/GYN monthly out of work unit activites are going to be and post pot-luck assignments at the hospital (I am the head of the party planning committee). Keep Blake happy by having clean garments in his drawers, clean floors to walk on, clean toilet to sit on, and a homemade Grandma Hall rival dinner each night. Putting together pictures and phrases to teach the new song the Primary is learning this month, "My Eternal Family." Drawing up and designing possible logos for RB Hall Construction. Assembling and completing our family 72 hour kit, including Brody's backpack. Working on compiling Brody's baby book and pictures, writing development/reflections in his book.

But most of all....I am now enjoying being a mother. Everyday I give thanks that I am so blessed I get to be a stay at home mom. For some, it doesn't work. But for me, it does now. Tonight I got Brody laughing so hard by just jumping and kicking my legs in the air and snorting at the same time. He laughed for almost 5 minutes straight. I was in tears of joy for most of it. My life is amazing. Never did I think that at 23 I would be married for 4 years (almost), have a little son, and be living in my own home. Simply amazing. What more could a girl ask for?