What Punctuation Mark Are You? (#2)

This is Jon's punctuation:

You Are a Comma

You are open minded and extremely optimistic. You enjoy almost all facets of life. You can find the good in almost anything. You keep yourself busy with tons of friends, activities, and interests. You find it hard to turn down an opportunity, even if you are pressed for time. Your friends find you fascinating, charming, and easy to talk to. (But with so many competing interests, you friends do feel like you hardly have time for them.) You excel in: Inspiring people You get along best with: The Question Mark

What Punctuation Mark Are You?

Our Trip Home

We got the chance to make a whirl-wind trip home last weekend. 24 hours of trying to visit as many people as possible. I wish we could have seen everyone, but it just isn't possible to do in 1 day (the one disadvantage of us both being from the Basin but not living there). Next trip we'll make sure we make it to see Tami/Dick and Jodi/Bruce (Jon's sisters and their fams).

I love going home. We haven't been home this semester because of Jon's math class. Each week we spend a few evenings and several hours on Saturday doing homework. It has been hard to make time to go home. I'll sure be glad when this semester is over...

While home, we were able to see Sherrie (Jon's mom), Jenae (Jon's step-sister), Renae (Jon's oldest sis), Jake/Danille (Jon's brother and fam) and Grandpa Dye (my parents and Taryn met us at grandpa's so they could see Tae). It was so wonderful to see everyone. I especially liked seeing grandpa. We don't always make time to see him when we are home. It dawned on me that I don't know how many more trips we'll have the opportunity to see him.

Here are a few pics from Jake and Danille's. Tae loved seeing her cousin, Evey, and Buster (their dog). Tae loves pets, but Jon is such a germaphobe that he doesn't let her touch them. Buster had just been washed and trimmed so Jon didn't mind her touching. Thank goodness he is used to Evey; it didn't bother him that Tae did so much tugging on his ears, legs, moustache, etc.

Oh the Title Possibilities

Like "Our Little Distraction" or "No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed" or "Tae and Daddy: Each Other's Entertainment".

Jon and I were working on his math one evening. We are night owls at our place. This was slightly after 10:30 p.m. Tae crawls around and plays with her toys while Jon works on math and I check his answers and ask him questions when he gets stuck. I took a break to go to the restroom. Jon was supposed to keep working on his math. When I came back, this is what they were doing. They kept it up for over 15 minutes! This is one of the 7 videos I took during this period. This is why we haven't gone home lately. We struggle to focus on math for any extended period of time. By we, I of course mean Jon.

Let me apologize for the head tilt required to watch this video. I know I realized that I needed to not rotate the camera, but in the moment, I always forget!

They sure are cute and I love watching them together. It always warms my heart.

Filing Taxes

Boring subject, but always entertaining when it involves a baby. My goal this year was to file early. The plan was to e-file using my work computer. We found an evening that was open and Jon and Tae met me at 5. I hadn't anticipated how distracting Tae would be. To help distract her, I gave her a sucker that I had put in the diaper bag for such a time. Obviously this served as more of a distraction for mommy and daddy. Eventually we finished our taxes...except I forgot to grab Tae's SS card. I still need to find it so that I can finish e-filing... Look! She even tried to share with daddy!

What Punctuation Mark Are You?

Trudy, my friend and former mission companion, is alive. She sent a group email to let everyone know that she had changed her email address. After a few short emails, we exchanged blog addresses.

I got this off of her blog and was intrigued.

You Are a Colon

You are very orderly and fact driven. You aren't concerned much with theories or dreams... only what's true or untrue. You are brilliant and incredibly learned. Anything you know is well researched. You like to make lists and sort through things step by step. You aren't subject to whim or emotions. Your friends see you as a constant source of knowledge and advice. (But they are a little sick of you being right all of the time!) You excel in: Leadership positions You get along best with: The Semi-Colon

What Punctuation Mark Are You?

And the most interesting thing? Trudy is a semi-colon. At least this random quiz is right about some things!

I'm not sure I agree with the 'brilliant and incredibly learned'...

What do you think? I am a colon(:)?

Croup and Double Ear Infection--Round 2 *DING*

It started with a cough on Saturday evening. By Sunday morning we were well into it. Her temp. maxed out at 101.6 that night. I stayed home with her on Monday, and Jon on Tuesday. She sounded better that evening, so Wednesday we both come to work. She fell asleep on the way, so I kept her in my cube until she woke up. Just as we were about to head down to the day-care, she started a huge coughing fit and coughed up several mouthfuls of phlegm. It was followed by the saddest, most heart-wrenching "Ma-ma" I've ever heard. That is when I caved, took the rest of the day off, and called the doctor again.

It had been over 40 days since our last double ear infection treated with amoxacillin, so the pediatrician was able to prescribe it again. After only 3 doses, she is already seeming much better. She is at home with daddy today.

In addition to the bilateral ear infection and the cough, her nose is constantly...runny...just doesn't seem to be strong enough a word. I don't know which is worse, a constant stream down her lip and into her mouth or constantly having to wipe it (not my effort, but the effect on her). It has left her cheeks and upper lip chapped and sore. Oh, and she is drooling like mad. I wonder if we have more teeth coming.

Last night we were watching Monarch of the Glen and we forgot to check on the baby for 5 minutes. We were on the couch and she was on the floor 3 feet away. When I looked down, this is what I found. Yup, she has figured out how to pull a wipe out, watch a new one magically appear, and repeat. You can see her poor little chapped face and the drool spot on her shirt.

Show Me Your Teeth

So I decided to take a picture of Taelyn's teeth. Here is what I got... I finally gave up. Poor thing got a double dose of stubbornness (and no matter what Papa-G says, only one dose came from her mommy). Speaking of mommy being stubborn, I wasn't about to give up before getting my picture! By this point, I think she realized I was serious and decided to cut me some slack. I'm slow at getting these pictures posted. They were taken a few weeks ago, so her teeth are showing more now.

Bike-A-Thon 2009

So this is the third annual biking competition in our office. We started earlier than usual because Charlie was excited to get it underway. There are 10 participants this year. In 2007, I 'participated', meaning my name was on the tracking sheet but school made it difficult to ride. In 2008 I was again on the list, but maternity leave helped me justify not ever riding. Well, I actually rode yesterday. It was awesome! It felt good to ride. I haven't really been on my bike for any amount of time since my mission. Brought back a lot of good memories, and some not-so good ones (like the time the tow truck ran me off the road and down a rocky hill). Ah, memories.

Anyway, Jon dropped Tae off yesterday so I could ride on my own and scope out our route. There are only 2 blocks that don't have a bike lane. I've also figured out how to avoid having to cross traffic. I was a little worried about how many garbage cans and parked cars were in the bike lane... Next week I'm going to hook up the bike trailer and bring Tae with me. I'm a little excited and a little nervous, too. Reminds me a little of when we came home from the hospital with Taelyn. I was terrified that some idiot was going to hit my car and hurt my baby. We'll be so much more vulnerable and people in the city aren't very friendly to cyclists. I did get the brightest trailer I could find. I would still like to add a flag and a taillight to the trailer before we ride on Monday.

Back to the Bike-A-Thon, ranking as of today: Jenni-three-rides, Charlie-two-rides, and Tamaran-one-ride. The funniest thing is that is how we refer to each other at work! We are the only three that rode in February. We'll see what March brings. Hopefully many beautiful riding days!

Jon's New Calling

Did I mention that Jon got a new calling? High Priest Group Leader. The startled look you have, that is how I looked when President Thorp extended the call. I was totally caught off guard...Jon was too. We were expecting him to be called as an assistant. That is what we get for making our own guesses, I guess.

A Most Productive Weekend

I think this past weekend was the most productive 3-day weekend I have ever had. We got so much accomplished.

Before our Valentine's dinner, we spent 4 hours working on math. It is Jon's last math class, and we are determined that he will pass it the first time. After dinner we set up the baby crib in the living room. Here are pictures of her getting used to it before we moved it to our bedroom. Sunday, after staying late at church, we spent the afternoon with Riley. We finished the day by running to see a friend that is in the hospital.

Monday morning we did 3 more hours of homework. In the afternoon, I moved all the boxes that we haven't unpacked out of Taelyn's room and did some organizing. I had Jon and Riley move the storage closet, put together the day bed and move the crib to her new room. We vacuumed and baby proofed the room. Look how happy she looks to have her own room! That evening we did another hour of homework on the floor in Tae's room. In the middle of it, I noticed that Tae was standing next to me and not holding on to anything. I don't know how long she had been there. We are very excited, but I'm not sure that I'm quite ready for her to try to walk...
It took us a long time to get ready for bed because I was dragging my feet. Last night was the first night that Taelyn wasn't sleeping in the same room we were in. Jon teased me because it was so hard for me. He laughed because our room and her room are connected by a door. We closed both doors that open to the living room and opened the connecting door. He had to convince me that we would be able to hear her fine. With the 10 foot ceilings, the echo made it impossible to miss any sounds she made.

I was nervous because I usually wake up and check on her 5-6 times a night. Poor thing has gotten used to me putting my hand on her belly or back to make sure she is breathing. She even puts up with me putting my finger under her nose when the first option doesn't satisfy me. I was proud of myself-I only snuck in there twice to make sure she was alright.