I Won the Lottery!

Just kidding. Not really. I've never even played the lottery. But I feel like I've just won some sort of lottery or prize. ... Except I paid for it...

It's a brand new freezer!
Fully stocked with meats, fish, prepared meals, and veggies!
Mmmmmmm!
We signed a contract with Country Pride Food Services. And, ya know, we paid for all this food and the freezer, but they delivered it and stocked it and sorted it and will refill it with whatever we want (and pay for) whenever we want!

I've been living with one tiny little above-the-fridge freezer for way too long. I can never stock up on bread or cheese or (ahem) cookie dough. I could never do the "make two meals instead of one and freeze the extra" thing. But now I can! Wa-whoo!

Every time I tell somebody about this they say something like, "Oh, now you can freeze ..." And insert their favorite thing to have on hand in the freezer. I'm most excited about bread. We always have to make a mid-week extra trip to the store for bread. What about you? What are you so happy to freeze (or would be if you had a big freezer)?

A New Skill

I have been such having a blast lately figuring out embroidery. I don't recall ever before sitting down to learn a variety of stitches (although I'm sure my mother tried to teach me at some point). So I did what every self-respecting Worth does - I went out, bought a book, and taught myself. I have learned a whopping 3 stitches so far. My favorite is the wrapped backstitch (because it seems very forgiving of my messy,uneven stitches). I think I'm enjoying it so much because it's seems to be a great way to perk up these drab Winter days.

This is the second set of burp clothes that I've done. These ones are for Richard's baby sister, Karen (shh, don't tell Karen!), who is about to have her first baby. I love baby presents with the child's name on them because they're perfect for keeping as heirlooms. (Which sounds very snotty, like I deem these heirloom-worthy, but really it's just that I appreciate gifts like that, so I enjoy giving them and thinking that the receiver will enjoy them the way that I would.)


Don't look too closely at my amateur stitches, but I'm very happy with how these turned out! (My secret weapon is a fabric pen with disappearing ink which makes it so that I can write on the cloth and embroider right over it, but then any visible trace of the ink disappears within 72 hours.)

Side note: I am totally inspired by this blog. I think my next project may be a little stitched house that looks like ours.

Naomi's Slow Leap

Naomi can read. She just doesn't know she can read. She refuses to admit it. She's so held up by the fact that she has to take her time and concentrate that she can't see that she just finished an entire book. I am anxious for her to figure it out (figure out that she's already figured it out, that is) because I just know she'll be so happy to sit and read for hours.

So, that's why I'm calling this her slow leap. Here's a little video of her reading. You don't have to watch it - I won't be offended - but I had to put it up for posterity... and cuteness.

Asher Makes A Few Leaps Of His Own

Yesterday I wrote about the "big jump forward" that Isaiah has been making in his speaking. Today, Asher makes a few leaps of his own.

Isaiah Speak

Isaiah has hit a big jump forward in his learning to speak. He suddenly jumped to trying to say words even if he can't really say it right. It's a very exciting bit of progress. The other day we were walking in a parking lot and he said, "Ho me ha!" So I held his hand. Another day we were at the store and he saw a Diego backpack and said, "ba pa!". So what could I do but buy him the backpack? Like I said, this is really very exciting.

But there are still a few adorable Isaiah-isms that I know I should break him of using, but they're just so cute that I have a hard time finding the motivation.

ew ew ew ew = Diego
ha ha = dog
ho ho = Christmas or Santa
eh me = help me
wo mo = one more (usually said with one pudgy finger extended to illustrate)

I'm rather desperate for him to learn to speak, but at the same time I'll miss these little things. I guess that's true for any little person who's growing up. You always miss the phase they're just growing out of (well, most of them anyway).

And while we're talking talking, here's the first 30 words that Isaiah really learned to say correctly:
Mama, Dada, wa-wa (water), bubbles, bye bye, nigh-nigh(t), one more, me, you, more, no, whoa, yeah, ball, uh oh, hi, ow, wow, boo, hot, achoo, what, why, baby, pee, poo, new, no way, go, one.

My week

Pretty much immediately upon my arrival home from my trip, Richard took off for a conference. The conference happens to be near our house, so technically he's been sleeping at home all week - but I still have hardly seen him. He comes home long after I'm asleep and leaves within 30 minutes of us all waking up. At several points in the week our house was a kind of "home base" for other people who are working on/attending this same conference. The video below is what my house looked like all day on Wednesday (and yes, that's a genuine green screen you'll see). The link below that is to a blog post from one of these techies that will give you a picture of my house on Friday night.




Click here for Ralph Whitbeck's blog post showing the activities in my house last night.

There will be a couple more guys hanging out and sleeping at our house tonight. Nothing personal to them, they're really all very nice and well mannered, but I'm thinking it might be an excellent night to go see a chick flick by myself.

Donation

I had to do a little searching to find the best way to donate money to the Haiti earthquake relief. So since I did all the work, I thought I'd give you the link if you're interested.

http://american.redcross.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ntld_main&s_subsrc=RCO_ResponseStateSection

I'm Pregnant!!!

*I wrote the following on the day that I found out I was pregnant this time around, but didn't publish it on my blog. For the record, I did manage to keep the news of my pregnancy mostly to myself for a month or so. Getting super sick made it harder to keep to myself since I felt like I needed an excuse.*

I miscarried about 6 months ago. And it was hard to tell everybody or to let the word of my miscarriage trickle down the same way that my pregnancy had. A month or two later people were still asking me how the pregnancy was going and it was always awkward and hard. So I swore that I would stop my habit of announcing my pregnancies the second I knew I was pregnant. I swore I'd wait at least a couple of months.

But today I found out I'm pregnant. And it's big news! It took me 6 months to get pregnant this time - the longest stretch yet. And I was really starting to stress about it. And people know I was stressing about it. And now, knowing that it's finally real again, all I want to do is call everybody in my phone book and start bragging. I admit it, it's selfish, but I want to hear the "Ohhh! Yeah!!! I'm so happy for you!!!" And I want to start talking names and room planning and all the other fun details about welcoming another baby into the world.

But I don't want to have to talk about a miscarriage again. I really don't want to HAVE a miscarriage again, but since that's out of my control I'll settle for just not having to talk about it.

So I'll try to sit on this news. Except, I already called Angela and Mom. I HAD to tell them! And then Ruth called and it didn't seem right to not tell her. And every time I talk to my friend Stephanie she asks me if I'm pregnant yet, so I'm sure I'll let it spill to her pretty soon. And when we start talking about Girl's Camp in Young Women's, I'll have to admit that there's no way I'm spending the whole week up there, because I'll be 7 months pregnant at the time. And if I go to book club or get together with any of my girlfriends, I'm sure to spill it then, too.

But I'll try to keep the count down. I'll try to keep it to honest-to-goodness good friends. People who I'd tell about a miscarriage anyway.

But who'm I kidding? I'll be lucky if I can keep this from going public for 2 WEEKS, let alone 2 months. It's just too exciting!!!

OR and CO trip

I'm officially back from my week-long trip ... Physically if not mentally. I have never had such a hard time coming back home. I love home and all the people in it, but my personal space bubble had expanded to a size larger than toddlers permit. I was use to people talking to me with respect and being polite. Home was a harsh reality. But don't worry, after just one day my personal space bubble is back to non-existent. There are goobers on my shoulders again. Life is back to normal.

But let's do a little flashback and show you some more of my trip.
I did NOT take enough pictures in Oregon! You already saw the pictures of Stacy and I at the falls, here's one of my with my nephews Scott and Andrew. Andrew made me feel especially loved when he cried to his Mom, "You're hogging Aunt Nancy!" It was so fun to get to be the fun Aunt instead of the cousin's Mom.
Also in Oregon, I was introduced to Zuumba by Stacy, who is an instructor. Ate so much food that I was still full when I woke up the next morning. And shopped 'til I dropped with Stephanie as my person shopper.

Then it was on to Denver to meet up with my college roomies, Amanda, Shanae, and Erica. Here's Amanda with her sweet baby Kyra.


We ate out and enjoyed being served instead of doing the serving. And, yes, we talked about our kids for a good portion of the time. We ARE still Mom's! Below are Erica and Shanae.
It was our tradition to drink A&W and eat peanut butter M&M's. We use to have to pool our money to buy one bag of M&M's.
Our tummies have apparently matured a bit, and could barely handle the combo of root beer and candy.
Erica is learning a new hobby. Photography.
Below is all four of us at the fanciest hotel I've ever been in: The Brown Palace. We felt very pampered and loved that people were eager to jump to our assistance whenever asked.
Amanda and I at a 50's diner.
Who knew that Indian Poker could be this much fun? We were totally dieing in fits of giggles by this point in the evening.
And to top it off we bought a copy of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and took turns reading it. It was hysterical ... and gory! But nobody can beat Shanae's English accent.... Except maybe an actual Englishmen.
These are memories that will get me through many a tough day of parenthood. It was just so, so, SO much fun!

And the kids and Richard were even still alive when I got back!

Postcard From Oregon

Greetings from Oregon! I'm having a wonderful time! I've done a lot of playing and resting and sleeping and eating and shopping and site seeing. These pictures are from Multnomah Falls. It was very wet! Uncle Carl let me borrow his raincoat or else I would have gotten totally wet. Tonight I played games with cousins Cameron and Hyrum and Andrew and Scott. Scott gives me lots of loves and it makes me miss you kids even more. I love you! ~ Mommy

While you were out

We miss you Mommy. Glad you're having so much fun.

Things are alright here. We haven't left much. Oh, except today. We went and saw baby Ethan. And held him. My goodness were the kids cute. Here are some pictures for you to enjoy.

Out of the Office

I'm sorry, Nancy is out of the office right now. She is in Oregon or Colorado visiting girlfriends. She isn't taking any complaints for the entire week. No snot will reside on her shoulder. She will only be wiping her own mouth or...er... anything else.

If you have any whining, complaints, requests, etc you will have to deal with them yourself or wait until she returns next Monday. (No guarantees that she'll do anything about it then, either, but she won't even be processing Whine Applications until her return).

In other words:
See ya!!

The Curse of the Trains

{insert musical "dunh dunh duuuunnnhh!" here}

When my Mom was in town last month we wanted to go see a model train display at Union Station. But instead we drove around D.C. for two hours because we could never find the parking garage.

So today we decided to give it another shot at a closer location that we knew we could get to - with free abundant parking. So we got the kids all excited about it and headed off. ... But we only brought a credit card and they only took cash. Doh!!! Foiled again!!!

Luckily, next door was an indoor carnival! And they happily took our credit card. (Not so lucky was the cost of the carnival - an arm and a leg plus half your spleen. But what could we do at that point?) The kids bounced in bounce houses, did science experiments, watched ballerinas, ate candy, rode rides, etc. All inside - because it was like friggin 20 degrees outside with 40 mph winds!

It was a good compromise and a fun Saturday, but I still really want to take those boys to see some model trains! What's a girl gotta do?