THE GOLDEN POST!

I am happy to announce that this post is my 50th post, and thus my golden anniversary (with my blog). What an amazing ride it has been. My blog and I have definitely had our ups and downs, but through it all...I love this blog just as much today as the day I started it. I can't wait to experience the next fifty posts. Sniff Sniff, Tear.

So I've been trying to work out a lot more lately. It is something that I have such a hard time putting in my schedule. I've been getting up at 4:30 and heading to the gym before work. It makes traffic a lot lighter so that has been nice. But some mornings that snooze button is way to appealing. Saturdays have been really great. I drop Carson off at the Kid's Club at the gym and then sweat like never before. I find I push myself a lot harder if I take classes. I'm not sure why, maybe it is peer pressure or maybe I'm just having more fun. When I work late nights though - working out just doesn't happen. I've decided there is no easy way to fit it in.

Today I did a step class and then a lifting class (2 hours - thank you very much). I know I'm not in the best of shape but I feel like I can hold my own. There is something I have to address though. There are several 70 year old women taking these classes with me, lifting the same amount of weights as me, and lasting just as long in the cardio class. Also, they took the yoga class before the step class (I saw them in the room before the class let out). Also, as I was leaving after my two hours - thinking I was going to die by the way, they stayed for the stretching class. Maybe they have a lot of free time but I cannot believe how in shape they are. And how not in shape I am. I feel like I should be dancing circles around a 70 year woman. It's definitely motivating and you have to admire them. I just felt like clapping for them after the class. I hope I can keep up with a moderately in shape 25 year old when I'm 70.

I took Carson out to run some errands today - which is not his favorite activity. Carson likes to be a free bird so sitting in carts and looking at boring things drives him bonkers, which leads to whining and melt downs. So I try and run errands very prepared. I make sure he's eaten, I give him "run outside breaks" in between stores, and I try and find things in the stores for him to look at. He did really great today and I didn't walk away wanting to pull my hair out which is nice. We were taking a play outside break in front of Bed Bath & Beyond and Carson discovered some puddles - yes it rained today, so nice. So I was showing him how to jump and stomp in puddles and he was having a grand ol' time. Then he got in the cart and we went in the store. Some lady came up to me and told me that I was a good mom. I almost burst into tears. I think I'm a good mom and I feel like a do a pretty good job, but it was so nice to hear. Obviously Carson is my first kid so half of my rearing decisions are based on educated guesses (they always say the first kid is the guinea pig). I'll tell Carson about this lady someday when he is shouting "It's not fair" and slamming his door shut. Oh wait, is that a dramatic girl thing? I grew up in a house of 4 girls so I don't know what boys do when they think something isn't fair. Hmmm...we'll see (again, guinea pig).

As I said above, it rained today. I love when it rains - I feel cozy and inspired. Weird feelings together, but that is how I feel. I wish it rained a lot more. I would say once a week is good, maybe twice. I miss it so much. Someday rain...someday you and I will be together again.

Not much new for Carson (sorry mom and dad). I do have a video of him making a mess though. Or maybe I should say Karl in this case. I've always been a pretty patient person, which I try to apply to parenting every day. I do consciously make an effort to relax though. My mantra is "what's the worse that could happen." So as Carson makes messes, I try to grab the camera instead of freaking out. As seen in the video below - what's the worse that could happen. It was me spending less than 2 minutes cleaning up...I'd say it was worth it.

Thank you for attending my 50th anniversary. Please don't forget your party favor as you head out the door.

What's the Haps

Swim lessons - I'm looking for another mom who lives nearby, has a child in between 18 months and 3 years, wants to sign up for swimming lessons, and would like to do it around 7 pm. Very specific I know. This is when I would like to do it but if I can find someone else to sign up with me it won't be labeled a "private lesson" and it would be $50 cheaper for me. If you are interested let me know and I'll email you more details. And by the way...I'm not all sneaky or anything. This is what the swim instructor suggested trying to find.

The ever pressing Carson updates - He has already outgrown the "ho" I put on tape for the last blog. But fortunately, his bonofide hello is just as funny. I keep trying to get it on tape, but no success thus far. I know you've all seen the Seinfeld where they say hello really weird. Well...picture that. Pretty much exactly. It makes me laugh every time. It seems he's learning a new word every day. He is picking up on things that I didn't even realize though. For example, when did he learn to say clock? I don't even think I say that word. But he was reading his book and pointed to a clock and said clock.

Blackmail photos below. I'm not sure when and how I will use these...but they have to be worth something to him when he is 15. (Just kidding, I'm not that mean, but the photos are still kinda funny).

His hair grows super fast and I get so tired of paying to have it cut. So Karl attempted a hair cut. It wasn't horrible but not mother approved. So then I just buzzed it. It was my first time buzzing anything, so also not perfect...but good enough. Next time will be better. He looks like a real boy now (as opposed to a baby). See the buzz below.

I got a visit from my good friend Julia. We grew up in Spokane together and then went on to be college roommates. She was in town to visit her grandma and she, her husband, and two little girls stopped by for an afternoon. Emmy (her 2 1/2 yr old) was super sweet and wanted Carson to play dolls with her. Unfortunately, Carson is a boy and was in his own little world. He'll realize girls are cool someday. It was so great to see Julia and reminisce for a little bit. Karl loved having an XBox buddy while us girls chatted and the kids played. Here is a pic of Carson and Emmy on the couch. Emmy is very seriously feeding her baby a bottle - so cute.

We're Going Green

Not the environmental kind - although we do try and do our share. But the Irish kind. We are 2/15 part Irish (Office Quote). Actually, I don' think we are Irish at all. I always thought St Patrick's Day was fun as a kid though. My mom would get out the green food coloring and we would have green pancakes with green milk. We would get a visit from the leprechaun and I'd wear some elaborately green outfit to school. I definitely don't plan my outfits around the holidays anymore, but being a parent makes holidays fun in a whole new way. Carson is still young so I probably won't pull out all the stops, but soon I can do all these fun little holiday things.

Carson used to say "Hey" whenever someone walked into a room, when he played with our phones, etc. He is trying to switch to "Hello" though and it is pretty cute. He says "Ho" now whenever he is saying hi. Every time he says ho I feel like I should throw my hands up in the air, and wave them like I just don't care (Hip hop hooray, ho, hey, ho). Here's a video of him saying Ho.

I have this Moss Adams free hand out IPod speaker. You plug your IPod inside it and then it plays out loud (crappy quality, but it was free). Carson likes to carry it around. He threw it at the camera though, which then hit me in the face. It hurt pretty bad, but every time I watch this I laugh. Maybe you'll laugh too.

Carson is also trying really hard to jump lately. He does it daily. He'll stand on a book or a pillow or something and get into jump position. He'll crouch down and then say "pump" as he tries to jump (he's still not making it off the ground though). Here is a video of that too. Lot's of video this time.

Carson, my sis Vickie, and I went to the Zoo again this weekend. Last time Carson didn't even pay attention to the goats in the petting zoo, but this time he loved them. He made sure to touch every singe goat. Below is a video of Carson and a few of the goats.

Oh so Sweet

Carson has been a little sweetie lately. He went through a bit of a whiney stage and I feel like my happy little boy is back. His huge toothy grin just melts my heart. He's been "able" to say mama for a long time. He just doesn't. But the last few days, he's said mama a few times to get my attention. What a sweet sound - to have him call for me (without crying). Of course, he's up to his usual hijinks, but he's a year and half - that's what he should be doing. The other day he got into a cupboard and dumped a ton of pasta all over the floor. I had to laugh, and then sweep it up. He'll also take things of ours and then I find them in the most random places days (or weeks) later. I recently found our mouth wash in the bottom slot of my hanging shoe rack - a logical place if you ask me. A perfect fit. He has learned to take off his jammies. Every morning when he wakes up his jammies are unzipped. The other day when I went in to get him he had taken his jammies totally off and we was freezing. The next thing we don't want him to figure out is how to take off the diaper. Below is Carson in our back yard. He loves to pull all the flowers off this vine - and hey, the vine looks pretty good, right? Right? The other picture he's just being too cute, all scrunched up in his T-shirt. And then, of course, notice the pasta everywhere.

Below is a video of Karl tickling Carson. Carson was Lauging a lot harder right before, but once I turned on the camera he was starting to get tired of being tickled. I'll post some more videos later - but it is bedtime.

Oh Bother

I feel like I haven't posted in a long time. Not much has happened and I haven't taken any "good" pictures, but I wanted to blog.


I've been out of town for a weeks for work so Karl was holding down the fort. Unfortunately, Carson got pretty sick and Karl had to deal with it all by himself (he had a few helpers - THANK YOU). Karl went to get Carson up one morning and he had thrown up and had a fever. After a few days of fever and mucus, Carson went to the doctor. He had ear infections in both ears. I don't know if that is what caused all the other symptoms or if the ear infection was a symptom of something else, but needless to say the kid was miserable. Karl would tell me over the phone at night that Carson just slept in his arms all day. If you know Carson, you know this is sooo unusual. Sleep in some one's arms? No way. So after 4 prescriptions and a week or so, Carson was back to himself. Just in time for me to come home. I felt awful not being the one taking care of him, but I knew Karl was doing a good job. Karl had to take some days of work though so that wasn't great for him.


There were a few times Carson's fever got pretty high so Karl stuck him in a cold bath to cool him down. Although it worked to bring his fever down, Carson developed a complete fear of the bathtub. He'd just cling to our necks and wrap his legs as far around us as they go. He never cuddles. So while he was probably scared to death, I still loved the cuddles. But then when we forced him into the tub he would just cry and say up over and over. So I went to Target and bought him a ton of new bath toys. Luckily, that's all he needed. The first bath with all his new toys, he still didn't want to get in, but once he was in he didn't cry at all. In fact, he cried when he had to get out. YEAH for toys!

Carson, as always, is a handful. The new struggle is throwing, hitting, and kicking when we are playing. We've worked on the no hitting when he's mad at us. But he's reached a stage in his humor development where he thinks these actions are hilarious. Sometimes, they are, and Karl and I have to work so hard to not laugh. Especially when Carson did this total round house kick to Karl's stomach the other day. I just think it's really hard for him to see the line. The throwing one is hard. I'm sure he's thinking "Why is it okay for me to throw this ball or this plane that will fly, but not okay to throw this book or drumstick at your head?" He'll eventually see the difference, but for right now, check the kid for weapons. And I would suggest not laying on the ground at his feet when he is standing - you are bound to get a kick.

But he is cute as ever and keeps us laughing. He is so good at saying please now, but thank you is no where to be seen. Why would he learn to say it if he already got what he wanted, right? He is still very independent and gets frustrated when we don't let him do everything himself. The two pics below: 1) Sleep while eating hits again. This was after church and we were trying to get him to eat lunch before his nap...didn't happen, 2) Karl teaching Carson one of his favorite bad habits. It was kind of cute to see my two fellas both taking whipped cream shots from the can.





On a very positive note, I just received a letter from the AZ State Board of Accountancy. I got the ninth highest score on my CPA exam in the state of AZ for 2008. I was pretty excited. The AZ Society of CPAs honors the top ten (barely made it). I'm not sure what "honors" means though. Will they make me a T-shirt "I survived the CPA exam." Maybe they will just send me a letter "We honor you." We'll see. I hope it isn't the T-shirt.

That's all for now. Happy Valentines Day!

Nothing Much

So life has gotten a little crazy. Karl just started his LAST semester at ASU. This is going to be a busy semester for him. His "capstone" class will be extremely time consuming. But then he'll be done and have his masters! Work has gotten really slow for Karl. His company has also had a LOT of layoffs. The newest development was a whole slew of "cost" cutting. So there have been quite a few perks Karl no longer has, etc, etc. Karl has also had to cut back his hours at work because there isn't enough work to fill 40 hours a week. But, with his crazy semester it might be for the best for a little bit.

Karl and I worked on our little side yard the other Saturday. Carson loves being outside! So we are going to get some little outside toys and let him play as much as he wants. Carson loved helping us get the yard ready. Karl and I are pretty bad at the whole keeping plants alive thing. We never remember to water and every drip system we have bought has broken (3). So we have a water hose system thingy now, hopefully it lasts. We have two vines that have survived our care taking skills. We planted a rosemary bush this weekend. We have no clue what we are doing. Oh well - we'll learn through trial and error.

We have a few Carson developments. He is definitely starting to try and talk more. It still comes out as mostly gibberish but you can see how hard he is trying to communicate. I can only imagine how frustrating it is to know what you want and not know how to tell someone. Here are just a few cute pictures. He loves putting on every ones shoes. The second one was at night and I went in to check on him. He looked so funny with his legs crossed and out the crib I had to take a picture. It flashed and then I ran for it.



Here are some cute tub pics. He loves these sunglasses. Also, I was pretty brain dead - you'll notice I didn't remember to take everything off him. I laughed pretty hard when half way through his bath I saw his foot.

We have also entered the land of full blown tantrums! I am so excited for this milestone (sarcasm). He already is getting better but when he first discovered them he was pulling it 3 times a day. We are talking all out screaming, writhing on the floor spasms, kicking, and flailing for ten minutes (he doesn't give up easily). Trying to comfort him is impossible. He'll just run from you and freak out even harder. The first few times Karl and I were trying so hard to figure out what was wrong - we were handing him blankies and sippy cups and nothing was working. Then we realized it was a tantrum and we switched to ignoring him. The other night he wanted dinner but didn't want to sit in his high chair. He started a lovely tantrum! Karl and I just ignored him and ate dinner, carrying on small talk like everything was dandy. All the while Carson is in the living room sounding like he is dying. After a few minutes Carson composed himself and came over saying "sit, sit" (which is what he says when he needs help getting into a chair.) We lifted him into his chair and he ate dinner with us happy as can be. I felt like we were the best parents for five minutes. It was so great to see him respond positively.

Other Carson happenings, we've given up binkies. I think it might have been harder on me. It was sad to me to end another baby thing. He doesn't have very many baby things left. He is growing up too fast. Every time I look at him I am amazed at how big he is. Every time he does something new I just realize he's more and more toddler and less and less baby. He did really well giving up binkies though. The only annoying part was that Karl and I used it as a silencer (which was heaven for us) but then we had to deal with quite a bit of whining while he figured out other ways to comfort himself besides sucking. He since has become pretty attached to his blankies. Just like we used to have to hide the pacifiers, we now have to keep the blankies out of sight. If he sees them, nothing else matters and he will die unless he gets one (his words, not mine).

Well - that's our lives for now. Hope everyone is doing well!

Christmas and More

First things first...I passed the last section of the CPA exam with a 90! I am so excited. I am all done with the exam and never have to study for it again! I started jumping around after I opened the letter and Carson thought it was hilarious. He spent the next half hour trying to jump around and celebrate. He can't quite make it off the ground yet though so it was pretty funny to watch. Now...I just have to get my experience, 5 recommendation letters, transcripts, etc and I'll be a CPA. It feels really good to have this hurdle done with, but I still have a ways to go before I'm licensed.


So Christmas was a blast. We spent it at Karl's parent's house with all of Karl's family. There was a lot of cookies/candy, games, movies, gingerbread houses, and Rock Band. Carson was really excited about all his new toys. A little while into opening presents he just wanted to go play with the toys and didn't want to open any more. So he ran off and played while we all finished. We got Carson a little musical instrument set. He loves the drums sticks a little too much. They are dangerous weapons in the hands of a 1 1/2 yr old. Karl's family puts up a sheet into the Christmas room to avoid early peeking...Carson cheated as seen in the picture below.

New Year's Eve was also fun. Kari and Garrett came over and we partied like never before...or I fell asleep on the couch at 11:40 pm and they woke me up 1 minute before midnight and handed me a glass of sparkling cider. Then I toasted the new year and went to bed. Wow...I'm really that lame. I can remember the excitement of New Year's Eve as a kid and staying up way past midnight to bang pots and pans. Hmm...times change.


New Year's Day we headed up to Flagstaff so Carson and Kenzie could experience the snow. We all had so much fun. We went sledding and played in the snow. Carson and Kenzie loved it. Carson ate a bunch of snow. Yes, I made sure it wasn't yellow. And yes, it seems he likes to try everything (sand, snow, etc).

Yesterday we went to the Zoo. Carson really liked the lions, the warthogs, and the snakes. A lot of the animals were asleep or hiding, but anything that moved he liked. He was really sweet and would say bye to all the animals as we moved on. We took him to the petting zoo thinking he would like it but he could care less about the goats. He was more excited about the cool benches he could climb on. I kept trying to get him to pet the goats and he would just walk off.

Carson also has a new favorite activity...don't ask me why, I have no clue.