I Love This House

A month or so ago we got a little scare when I told my landlord we were planning on being here through next spring (our contract goes til September) and he told me that he had broken up with his girlfriend he was living with and had been planning on moving back in but would think about letting us stay.  What?  I had just assumed we would be able to stay, and was not excited about another move just yet.  And I started thinking about how much I love this house, and all the things I have been taking for granted-

I love having a yard of our own for the kids to play in whenever they want

I love our neighborhood and all our neighbors are so nice, that little pool they are playing in was given to us by one of them.

I love how it is small enough that I don't feel overwhelmed by cleaning, but that there are three different levels in it so when the kids get bored in one area they just head upstairs or downstairs and it is like a whole new place. 

I love having a basement for them to run around in and make a mess when we're cooped up in the winter and a cool place to go when it starts to get hot out.  Along with an area for food storage and laundry.

I love how bright and cheery the kitchen is.

I love how you can hear the church bells ringing when you are outside, but not when you are inside.

I love the location and how central it is to all our favorite places.

The price is right.

So I freaked for a few days then realized there was nothing I could do about it and decided to just roll with it and wait. And, thankfully, last week he told us that we could stay as long as we needed!  Phew!  It was a good reminder I guess of how lucky we are to be living here.  Now if I could just relax and roll with all the big things we have going on the next year with residency applications, big tests, etc. I will be good ;)

On Hiking With a 3 Year Old and 1 Year Old

Now that Josh is in his internal medicine rotation and is done with surgery (woohoo!) he has every weekend off, which seems like a real treat now!  Yesterday we decided to go do something and went for a hike at the Shiawassee Wildlife Refuge here in Saginaw.  We brought our hiking backpack back from Dominica so we put Marissa in there, but this was the first hike we set out to do with Shane actually hiking.  Josh wanted to bring the stroller for him, but I told him that if we wanted to be able to do these things we just needed to start doing it.  And I'm so glad we didn't bring it, because (after a lot of encouragement) he hiked the whole 2+ miles by himself!  And Marissa had a lot of fun in the pack too, so I'm excited and hopeful for more hikes in our future!  Here's what we learned about how to get a 3 year old to keep walking for over 2 miles and a 1 year old to stay happy for the length of time it takes for him to do it!

Make sure to give Marissa a hat to wear- not only will it protect her from the sun, it will keep her occupied taking it on and off of both her and daddy's heads and you won't even be annoyed because it will make her so happy.

Tell Shane there's a really cool creature just ahead for him to see, and when he scares them away applaud him on his scariness (he is very into that right now).

When he starts to get tired, tell him you want to stop and take his picture with you.

 Set him on the continual quest for the perfect walking stick.  Make a game out of throwing them into the river or crevices in trees.

 And make sure to give her one too so she can entertain herself by chewing on it and poking her dad in the back of the head

Constantly tell him what a big boy he is and that only babies need to be carried.

And when all else fails, tell him that he can stay in the forest if he wants but we are going to keep walking.  Works like a charm.  Then do the happy dance with him when he's done and go to the splash pad afterwards to cool off.

A Change Will Do You Good

(Do you have that Sheryl Crow song going through your head like I do right now?)  I got brave yesterday, or maybe just sick enough of my same old hair that with a little encouragement from Josh I decided to do something different with it.  I kind of had a vague idea in my head of what I wanted but wasn't sure how it would actually turn out or look on  me but luckily the girl who did it (at Walmart by the way, yes I am that white trash ha ha) seemed to know exactly what I wanted and I am SO glad I did it.  I love it, it is easy to do, and I think it will be just the boost I need to get me to do my hair and feel good about myself.

Those Durhams

I still think it is so cool that of all the many, many places the wind could have blown us on this med school journey, we ended up just 2 hours away from my favorite aunt and uncle.  They are so good to us and I am continually amazed at their thoughtfulness.  They are always thinking of others and what they can do for them.  I drove out to their house a couple weeks ago to see my cousin Corrie who was visiting from Florida and they sent me home with a pizza for Josh from the pizza place in their town that makes a gluten free one.  Then on Monday they drove out and John took Josh and I golfing while Pat watched the kids, then took us all out to dinner afterwards.  What a treat, I had not been golfing since before Shane and we had a lot of fun (and disregarded any scoring for me ;) ).

 Shane had the time of his life with Pat while we were gone and got her mostly to himself because she was there through Marissa's nap time.  And yes she read all those books to him, multiple times I am sure! 

Then the next day I got a fun surprise in the mail from Corrie.  She had seen an article in her paper about Dominica and sent it to me because she knew I would enjoy reading it.   Thanks Corrie, I loved it!

(Corrie and I with our two kiddos, within months of each other)

Clare and Shane

 I had to include this one because it made me laugh- it is pretty indicative of their different personalities! 

Thanks for always thinking of us Durhams/Hillarys.  We're so glad to be so close!

This Boy

Oh I just love this boy so much it's a good thing I haven't kissed his cheeks off yet!!  He is at such a fun age right now and is like a sponge just trying to take everything in and it is funny to hear how he applies things he hears.  Here are just a few from the past couple days-

-He wanted me to move the couch to get something from behind it and I told him that I thought he could do it.  After he did it I told him, "Shane, you are such a strong man!"  And he beamed up at me and said, "I tugged and pulled!"  (like the Little Engine That Could:) )

-Today we went for a walk around the neighborhood and he wanted to push Marissa so I let him for a couple minutes, but we were moving pretty slow so I asked if I could push her again.  He very sweetly said, "Can I push her?  Say everybody gets a turn!" How could I turn that down!

-Maybe it's not the most proper or whatever but I say "you guys" all the time.  To Shane the natural extension of that is "we guys."  As in, "what are we guys having for lunch mom?"

-If you haven't seen SuperWhy this might not make sense but in it they read part of a story and when there is a problem they "zap" a word to change the story.  Today Shane was asking me to sleep in my bed, which means he wanted me to pretend I was sleeping and then he would pretend to be a tiger or dinosaur and wake me up with his roaring.  We were in the family room so I said let's just play it on the couch and I started pretending to sleep on the couch.  Then he said, "I need to change this story." So I asked him what he was going to change it to.  He said, "Zap!  To the bed!!"  And again, how could I resist? :) 

I love those pictures above and it is classic Shane right now- shorts on backwards and unbuttoned after going potty (he insists on stepping out of his clothes when he goes).  I included the second one so you could see his new flip-flops.  He is the BEST person to buy things for because he is always so appreciative and excited.  I bought those last night at Old Navy for him and the whole ride home he was saying some variation of "I love that you got me these flip-flops mom!!!"

Summer Loving

It was about this time six years ago that I moved in with a few of my friends to the Sparks II apartments. It was my first time staying in Provo for the summer and it was so much fun. The weather was great and there was always someone to do something active and outdoorsy with. It started with some impromptu doubles tennis games with a boy I wasn't super interested in. Then this boy started tagging along with me and a couple friends on our early morning runs. It became completely apparent that he was chasing me when he pushed his way to the front of the line at 7-11 to pay for my Slurpee after a group of us went country dancing (ha ha we still laugh about that one;) ). But it didn't take me long to realize what a great catch he was, and we fell in love quickly and spent the summer together with many a tennis match, volleyball game, hike, round of golf, dip in the pool, and even a half marathon. So when the weather starts to turn and I can feel summer in the air, it always takes me back to that first summer together. So on Friday night I was so excited that some friends of ours hosted a kickball game in their backyard, and when Josh had a couple hours to spare yesterday I struck a babysitting trade with my friend and we snuck out for some tennis. And Josh still has it- the ability to cream me and simultaneously make me realize how much I love to be with him.

Then we picked up the kiddos and stopped off at 7-11 for some Slurpees.  Only now that we live in Saginaw, we have 15 different ones to choose from (I'm not even exaggerating, I just googled it out of curiosity ha ha)

Love you babe!  Can't wait for many more summers to come!

It's A Good Thing...

It's a good thing Marissa LOVES cars because we sure have a lot of them around here:)

It's a good thing Shane can ride his trike now because he is so happy and proud of himself (next step- bike!)

It's a good thing it is so nice out now so that when daddy has to be at the hospital all night we can while away the time outdoors.

It's a good thing he only has two more weeks of surgery left, because getting to the hospital at 4 am every morning is just a bummer (he is working with a different doctor this month who is nice but is a workaholic).

It's a good thing berries have been on sale lately because this little girl is OBSESSED.  I have learned I have to visit the produce aisle last because she is tortured walking through there with the sights of all those fruits!  It is so fun to see the different personalities in your kids.  With Shane I have to make him eat a fruit before he can eat anything else for lunch and that is the only way he would ever eat any.  With Marissa, she would choose berries over pretty much anything else and I have to cut her off so she doesn't have too many digestive issues!

It's a good thing this little boy is so sweet in real life because he is always pretending to be a bad guy!

It's a good thing with digital cameras you can take as many pictures as want- or is it;) 

P.S. that is her signing "eat!!"  It was almost 7 and she realized she wanted some dinner!  And that adorable top she's wearing- 50 cents at a garage sale! (Along with Shane's trike for $6) This town is like a garage sale mecca!