Bye Bye Baby

Our little baby is growing up and becoming a big girl. Tonight is her first night in a toddler bed. We painted the office a gender-neutral green and moved her into her new room since it is larger than the one she's been in. She'll have it all to herself for a while, but once Junior is a little older the hope is to have the sibling share the space.

Since we were already in painting mode we decided to give the dining room a face lift as well. Yellow seemed an upbeat color and complimentary to our avocado living room. Wow -- let's just say that it will be hard to get depressed while sitting in the dining room.

We took some photos and footage and we'll see if we can upload them soon.

B

just wanted you wanted...more math!

After my last post, my sister sent me one of those never-ending forwards. Usually those types of things just make me despair at the apparently low average IQ of working adults with access to a computer, but -- whatever this implies about me, it's probably true -- I loved this one since it was a bunch of math jokes. In particular, this student's exam answer vividly captures the way I was feeling last week on my econ final:



To see the others, click here.

language breakthrough?

They say that when you're learning a new language, you know it's really starting to stick when you begin to dream in that language (or, at least that's what all the eager new missionaries said in the MTC). I must have turned the corner somewhere in studying four full days for my macroeconomics final -- for two nights now, I've dreamed in math.

Who wouldn't want that floating through their head all night? Thank goodness this quarter is now officially over.

followup is key

For the record, here's how my report card stacks up for some of my goals over the last six weeks:

1.) Keep a food journal every day for one month -- solid A. Having a target number of calories to stay below each day is kind of like a game. Who doesn't like games? In the end, this may have been the most productive thing for me to do. Just knowing that I would have to record something was often enough to keep me from ingesting it if I knew I shouldn't. By the way, did anyone even look at my online food log? Ungrateful punks.

2.) No seconds -- A-, for a few weak-willed moments with a tater tot casserole.

3.) Six servings of fruits and veggies every day -- B. The beginning of the week is always easy, but as the week wears on and the produce disappears, not so easy anymore.

4.) Drink 10 glasses of water per day-- A. By far the easiest goal to meet. My water bottle and I are good buddies now. I have also become much more familiar with the men's restroom in my department since I have to visit it about, oh, 10 times a day.

5.) Oatmeal 5 times a week for breakfast -- A. I even liked it.

6.) Eat fish once a week -- C. We had fish three weeks out of the six. Given B's distrust of seafood, I consider that this was actually somewhat of a victory.

7.) Test my cholesterol at the end of the month -- F. I thought about doing it, though. I promise I did.

So overall, my first real attempt at setting some fitness goals was a self-esteem builder. Now, on to bigger and better things, I suppose. Watch for the new goals in the upcoming days.

Fun in the LA Sun

What a lucky girl I am. Q agreed to spend a couple of days playing Mr. Mom so that I could go visit an old roomie in LA and enjoy some sun and relaxation before Q Junior arrives. So Karene, Brian, and Cole played great hosts -- we spent time at the beach, the pier, Universal City Walk, and the park. They also introduced me to Trader Joe's and Joe's Crab Shack. I can't even explain how amazing it was to have a BBQ in their backyard with the sun washing over me (I did feel a twinge of guilt when I thought about Q and L back in Columbus and the cold grayness there). We did a lot of girl-gabbing and catching up... especially since we had about 12 hrs in line for THE PRICE IS RIGHT! Yup, we braved the rain and the crowds and showed up at 1:00 am the morning of the taping. We didn't start the taping of the show until 1:15 pm that afternoon, but it was SO COOL to be in the studio. I'm glad that Cole woke us up at 11:30 pm, because if we would have gotten in line when we'd planned on it we might not have made it in. Anyways, watch the March 20th show and I can almost guarantee a good crowd shot with me in it. Jamie (a firefighter from Connecticut who looks like Brendan Frasier) was sitting RIGHT next to me in the audience and he got called to Contestants Row.

After a canceled flight (an extra day in LA!) and an overbooked flight that had me taking a cab from Cincinnati to Columbus I finally got home to spend the evening with my Valentines. Q and L had gotten me flowers, my favorite ice cream, and a special Valentine shirt. It was great to be back home where I felt so loved. Thanks for the chance to recharge Q -- you're the best!

2 Years Old!

Today is the day that L officially becomes a 2 year old. We had a crazy party last night and I think L is still working to get through her sugar-high hang-over. It was lots of fun though and we're excited to see what life with a 2 year old brings. If you want to see more pictures of the party, we uploaded a couple more to our 1st Picassa web album.

Big Sister

Even though things didn't go exactly as planned, we were able to FINALLY share our news with our families. L wore a shirt that read, "BIG SISTER MAY 2007." She was very excited to point it out and let people know that she is going to be a big sister. It was fun to see the surprise and excitement as we let people in on our little secret.

Christmas Break 2006

Three weeks is a long time to be away from your home. You start to forget everything that awaits your return. However, we loved having so much time with our families. We actually got to see ALL of our sisters and had plenty of time to spend each of them. We didn't get to see as many of our friends as we had hoped, but there's always next time!

We were grateful for the extra, unplanned week that we had with everyone, but were sad that the reason for returning to Utah early was to attend Grandpa's viewing and funeral. We had really anticipated being able to see him again at Christmas time and couldn't believe we missed him by only a week.

Q's New Years Resolutions are keeping us on our toes (I didn't really feel the need to make any since I can hardly manage just getting back into the swing of things and keeping up with Q's). You should see the lists we've been working on -- and it feels great!

L looking cute in her Christmas dress.
Q being the first to ever eat bean soup while wearing a gel eye mask.

The Sisters in their Christmas PJs and L enjoying Christmas morning.

IT'S A...

Guess we'll have to start

buying blue!

Baby BOY Beazer

May 2007

what is Q eating today?

After giving myself a little Christmas present of about 7 pounds around the waist, I decided to make some new fitness goals. Here are some of them in no particular order:

1.) Keep a food journal every day for one month
2.) No seconds.
3.) Six servings of fruits and veggies every day.
4.) Drink 10 glasses of water per day.
5.) Go to the gym 4 times a week throughout Jan.
6.) Oatmeal 5 times a week for breakfast.
7.) Daily multivitamin.
8.) Eat fish once a week.
9.) Plan out menu for week.
10.) Test my cholesterol at the end of the month.

So...here's the kind of fun part. You can check actually my progress on a daily basis here. The chart is updated automatically, so every time you click the link, all the info should be current (especially weekdays when I sit at my desk). Just think, now instead of wondering how many fluid ounces I've injested for the day -- you can just hop online and check. Fabulous!

I'm kind of hoping to get helpful suggestions and feedback, so feel free to comment on my eating habits, etc. Keep me honest (if you can).

back in business

Christmas break is over, and the Beazers are back in full force like a bad rash. Just look at all the stuff we did yesterday on our first full day back at home:

• Unpack & put away luggage
• Clean fridge
• Bathe
• Birthday lunch at Bravo's with Nate, Laura, & Magei (awesome ciabatta)
• Replace grill cover
• Wash dishes
• Grocery shopping @ Meijer
• Clearance shopping @ Target and Bed, Bath, & Beyond (new body pillow and serving platters!)
• Work on emergency preparedness kits (new fire extinguisher)
• Install new night light for the chomper
• Play with my new camera phone
• Eat leftovers from lunch
• Buy new music over the internet for B
  
• Get fireproof safebox for all those valuable papers we own
• New printer cartridge and writable CD's
• Email
• Install Skype and webcam with the Oliveros in Tejas
• Work on church calling stuff
• Sharpen our knives (the difference is astonishing!)
• Bake bread
• Omelettes with spinach and swiss
• Mail off a thick stack of bills
• Wish one great mother a very happy birthday

And you thought we were slackers.

-Q

gratitude

Thank you.

We have been blessed this last year, and a lot of people deserve our sincere gratitude for their generosity over the last few weeks. Of course it's impossible to list off everything and everyone that we are grateful for, but I'll give thanks for the things I can remember -

• Thank you for building me the new laptop computer. I am using it right now, and I love it.
• Thanks for giving us the new cellphone that you were not using. We really appreciate it.
• Thank you for picking us up at the airport at 2 am. Even though we wouldn't expect any different behavior from you, it was still extremely kind.
• Thanks for taking me snow-shoeing. I had a blast even if there was bad snow and I was sucking wind all the way up the hill.
• The new cookbooks, clothes, slippers, knife, candy, gift cards, sheets, membership dues, 72-hour kits, puzzles, movies, and other nice gifts are working out great. We already know that you love us without you spoiling us like that. But you don't have to change your ways if you don't want to.
• Thanks for fawning all over our cute little girl and telling us how adorable she is. And thanks for giving her a big head about herself.
• We're glad our friends still want to hang out with us when we're around.
• And to the anonymous soul who sent us some very generous gift cards -- THANK YOU. Very much.
  

-Q

Feeling Grinchy

Growing up we had a fun tradition during the holidays. Every day when we arrived home from school Mom had our stuffed Grinch hidden somewhere in the house. We searched (sometimes for hours) trying to find him because if we couldn't locate him, there would be no Christmas. We pondered all during school where he might be hiding and how we would be the first to find him and save Christmas -- at least for one more day. It was a great way to give my mom a little extra time to get our after school snack out and to finish up projects she was working on.

I was so excited when this year we found Dr. Seuss characters for only $5 at Kohl's. So we decided to pick up a Grinch and continue the tradition. We're going to add on to the tradition by having the kids tell the Grinch 1 nice thing they have done during the day once they've found him. That way the Grinch will get into the holiday spirit and not want to steal Christmas after all -- at least for one more day.

L is already attached to her Grinch. And by the look of that second picture, I don't think she's about to let him out of her grip long enough to even contemplate stealing Christmas.

B

Giving Thanks

Even though family was far away, this year we were lucky enough to be surrounded by friends. Not that last year with Daniel (from Q's department) and a pork roast wasn't great, but it definitely felt more like Thanksgiving this year. Daniel was once again present, along with Yoonah (another student from the department), the 4 Buxtons, 3 Bennetts, 2 Sullivans, and Ruth's younger brother Adam. That brought the total to 11 adults and 4 kids. Let's just say everyone had a place to sit but things were cozy in our little apartment. Lydia was so exhausted that around 6pm she fell asleep on my lap even though everyone was crammed into the living room, laughing and singing to Karaoke Revolution on the XBox. She was wasted.


The turkey ended up a smashing success (no one got food poisoning), and since everyone else brought the other food items it turned out to be a low stress, high enjoyment day.

Hope your Turkey Day was great!

Bird Bath

FYI: We started brining our 20.54 pound turkey tonight at 11:34 p.m. It will emerge from it's saltwater bath in approximately 11 hours to head straight into a 500 degree oven for 30 min. After that, slow roastin' at 350 degrees ought to finish the job.

I just wanted to tell somebody about what we were doing for Thanksgiving. More details to follow.

Halloween 2006

L seriously made the cutest giraffe you've ever seen. We won a prize for the "Most Creative Costumes" at our ward party. That doesn't say much for the effort ward members put into it, because Q was a zoo keeper and I was a tree. L had a great time with Magei and Lily trick-or-treating. She had a hard time keeping up with the older girls -- she usually got to the door just as they were turning leave, but she caught on very quickly that you get to that door, shout trick-or-treat, and then someone appears with a bowl and you get to grab a handful of candy. Her bucket go so heavy that Q tried to carry it for her, but she wasn't about to release her grip on the goods.

Q and I had went to an awesome Halloween party that the Fords hosted. Everyone was assigned characters from Hitchcock movies and then we ran around the neighborhood trying to solve clues to who kidnapped Alfred. They put on a great party and we had a smashing good time.

Pumpkin Festival

Fall is in the air and with the new season comes fun activities like the Annual Circleville Pumpkin Festival. It was the 100th anniversary clebration last weekend and we were there to witness the pie eating, 1340 lb. pumpkin, 14 ft. pumpkin pie, pumpkins with human faces, and more carnival booths and rides than I think I've ever before seen. This party was CRAZY! Nate and Q tried all sorts of pumpkin dishes including: pumpkin pizza, pumpkin crepes, pumpkin buckeyes, pumpkin cream puffs, pumpkin fudge, pumpkin taffy, pumpkin burger, fried pumpkin blossoms, mini pumpkin doughnuts, and pumpkin cheesecake. This may have to be a yearly family tradition.

Fall is in the air

We've been home a little over a week and things are starting to get back to normal. L saw the first snowflakes of the season this week (you probably won't notice them in the picture, but she dug it). She's also really in to her new hat and gloves and wants to wear them everywhere- even to bed.

Portland Trip

A week of total relaxation and fun. Just what the doctor would have ordered for a worn out, over worked Q. We left the day after his generals finished and I think it was just in time. Kim was a fantastic hostess (she even gave up her bed) and really showed us a great time. We had fun riding bikes, playing frisbee golf, watching 2 complete seasons of The Office, cooking, watching the Cooking Network, playing games, hiking at Silver Falls (about 6 miles), just laying around bonding, and my favorite day -- going to the beach and aquarium. I think Lydia's favorite day was at the beach too (until she realized how cold she was) and she loved watching Kim feed fish heads to the seals because they would clap and make noise and show off (luckily we weren't the recipients of their other tactic -- splashing stinky seal water at the humans until they dump all the fish in the water and run). Our trip was an awesome reminder of just how much we love Oregon (and Kimi). Thanks Kim!

- B

Until further notice...

...we are on vacation in Portland, Oregon.


By the way, I passed my generals. Mercifully.

-Q