details...details...

Look! Our kid is a genius- he figured out the puzzle!!!
Okay, so I've decided that the Soup on E! has to be one of the funniest shows on television! I love it! I have to watch it every week. I actually even find myself watching a show and if I see something that is absurd or ridiculously funny, I always think to myself-"Oh that's gonna be on the Soup". If you don't watch it already, start- you'll die laughing. I know this probably sounds so dumb, but I'm totally excited for Monday cuz "The Hill's" is back on!!! I wish I had more friends who lived close by who actually appreciated watching "The Hill's" for entertainment. I'm so excited to see what happens to Heidi and her creepy boyfriend Spencer- (by the way I think my Spencer is a little upset with how creepy Spencer from "The Hill's" has misrepresented his name). I don't know why I love this show so much- I'm 26, the mother of two kids, and do mommy things like scrap booking- I guess I should act my age instead of indulging in reality TV that follows the life's of spoiled rich Cali kids, but I love the drama! I'm also excited to watch the new show "Newport Harbor"- if you weren't aware-it's the new show replacing "Laguna Beach".
So the last few days have been terrific- I love lazy days, and things have finally begun to slow down around home- temporarily that is. I've been sooo busy the last month, my body was begging for some extra nap time! Noah completed his 3rd course in swimming lessons. He participated in a two week swim session. This being his 3rd time around- regretfully I can't actually say as of yet that he swims on his own. In fact, I think his progress in learning to swim regressed during that class. He just thought he was there at the pool every morning to strut his stuff and show off his Buddha belly to all the other kids- with which he got quite a bit of attention. Actually, one morning during class his Grandma Campbell stopped by to watch him swim, but instead of swimming, the entire time Noah blew her kisses and waved to her from the water. I think if I ever want him to actually learn how to swim we'll have to hire a personal swim instructor so he can focus- I've learned one thing and that is that Noah is definitely a "Showman"- he loves attention and he'll do just about anything for it!!!
He certainly hasn't lacked any attention recently. Just after his swim lessons ended my family from California and New York came to Utah to visit. My aunt and uncle flew out here with my grandparents from New York, and my parents, along with my sister and her two kids and my brother, his wife and her brother all drove here. We spent a busy week and a half with all of them and my other two sisters and their families (two of my sisters live in Utah now). Among the list of things we did, I especially enjoyed our picnic up at Sugar House park. We picnicked near the creek where the kids all tried to build a dam and we fed the hundreds of ducks that swim in the lake there. By the way, despite my bad experience owning the baby duckling during my mission, I would still like to have a duck as a pet- they're just soooo cute!
One day we all drove up to Park City to do a little bit of sledding on the Alpine slopes. The kids totally love the Alpine Sleds and Spencer is crazy about it! If my nephew Idrese hadn't gone before him on the same track, I'm positive Spencer would have pushed it full throttle down the mountain- thank goodness he didn't though, cuz he had one of the twins on the sled with him- they're so light, they would have probably blown off if he went too fast! I think he said he tailgated Idrese down the hill. I hate tailgaters! :) Despite Spencer's initial doubts, Noah went down on a sled with me. The regulations state that kids must be two years of age to ride, but since Noah's only a month shy of being two, I kinda stretched the truth about his age so he could go. OOOOPS! He loved the ski lift ride to the top of the mountain and he actually got a big kick out of the sled ride down the slope. I like to use a little more caution than Spencer while I ride the sleds, but I think Noah must take after Spencer because he was trying to push the gear forward to make us go faster!!!
Noah had such a great time hanging out with his cousins- there's so many of them, if he ever got tired playing with one of them, he had so many others to choose to play with. Ian even loved getting extra hugs and kisses from everyone. (He's been extra smiley and giddy lately- it's so fun!) This visit was actually his first time meeting a lot of my family members. He loved when my grandma held him- in fact he couldn't stop chuckling while she held him- it was darling. My grandparents bared the heat here pretty well, and lucky for them, things actually cooled down a bit while they were out here visiting. Of course it's hot again now that they've left- I can't wait for fall weather!!! This was my grandparents and aunt and uncle's first time visiting Utah- they'd never seen mountains like we have out here. I had a great time seeing them, although I know they're a bit relieved to be back home in their somber little town of Barker, New York.
I've been using map quest online quite a bit lately- now that Spencer's beginning to look into different graduate programs at schools across the country- I like to figure out mileage from potential city's we'd move to, to where my family members live. I think I'm beginning to get anxious to find out where we'll be moving at this time next year- it could be anywhere really. Seriously- he could be going to school in Alaska, or Montana, or Idaho, or Mississippi I think he's even mentioned. That would be a change....I think I could learn to love collard greens. His top choice is a school in Ohio- I'd love to see him get into school there, especially since it would only be a 5 hour drive to visit my grandparents. Spencer not only would love to go to school there in Ohio because it has a great majors program, but also because it's only 4 hours from Chicago- he would LOVE to go to a Bears football game there in their home stadium- I wouldn't mind going to see "Oprah" live!!! Just a couple more months before he has to submit his applications and then after that, we wait to find out where he go's. Really, I'm game to go anywhere- and while I remember Montana being beautiful, I also remember nothing being there, and don't they get like 50 feet of snow there in the winter??? Let's hope he makes it into school in Mississippi before the school in Montana...
My parents were the last to depart and head back home after our family reunion. Oh I forgot to mention- we finally had Ian's baby blessing while everyone was out here. He looked so cute, but he's finally starting to pack on the pounds after his surgery and his little white blessing outfit was starting to get just a little short on him. Seriously- I think he's actually going to be tall- no one will believe me when I say this because I'm so short and Spencer's not too tall himself- but Ian is really long-he's in the 90Th percentile for height! All the doctors can't believe how long he is for being just 3 months old!!! Spencer actually has an uncle who is considerably tall, so maybe Ian snatched one of his tall genes that skipped Spencer's generation. Okay, back to details about the blessing- Ian did well- I was afraid he'd start to cry, which he didn't and thank heaven because he has a good set of lungs on him- he would have crippled the congregation with his cry! After church we had a luncheon for family and friends over at the park near our home. I love any reason for big get togethers!... Alright,... so like I began to say before, my parents were the last to leave- they left early Wednesday morning. I had planned all week on catching a ride back to San Diego with them, but at the last minute after numerous doubts I declined. Noah, Ian and myself were going to stay with them in San Diego for four weeks before Spencer could come out to join us for vacation. I was looking forward to visiting the zoo all the time and hitting the beaches and visiting with old friends, but I couldn't shrug the thought of how much I would miss being apart from Spencer during the four weeks. I also didn't care to try packing everything I would have needed for four weeks!!! Despite missing my chance to go to San Diego for the summer, I'll have another chance since Spencer and I plan to drive out there just after Labor Day for some R and R. It's actually a good thing I chose not to go early, because as chance would have it, there's a crazy invasion of black jellyfish all over San Diego beaches right now and hundreds of people are getting stung. No joke- I saw it on the news!(somehow my friend Jollie found the news clip online and emailed it to me.) Hopefully the jellyfish will float to some other part of the world by the time we vacation there in September! Just after my parents left to head back home they found themselves in an accident. Fortunately they were unharmed, but they did spin all over the freeway in my dad's Tundra and they ended up stuck on the side of the road after hitting two poles. The highway patrol man that arrived on scene to help them, told them they were extremely lucky no one was hurt and that the truck didn't roll over! Crazy huh?! It was kinda freaky to me that I could have been driving with them along with Ian and Noah when they got into that accident and things could have been much worse! While things could have been bad had we chosen to go and been in the accident with them, the conditions driving 12 hours to San Diego with my parents would have been miserable because Noah had blowouts all day beginning that very same day they left!!! He's been tummy sick the last few days- poor kid- if he doesn't learn his lesson not to drink the water at the pool this time around, I don't know what will teach him!!! He's gonna turn yellow cuz I've been feeding him so many bananas trying to clog him up! So yeah- jellyfish, car accident, blowouts- probably all good reasons for me to have chosen to stay here at home with Spencer and not leave to San Diego early. Oh did I mention, I was almost rushed to the hospital last night! In fact I really should have gone immediately but I was hesitant. I'd eaten something yesterday that had wheat or flour in it (I think it must had been a small piece of fudge I sampled at the store) I didn't realize I'd eaten something with flour in it of course and I became super sick. I thought at first maybe it was the stomach flu that hit me, since Noah's been sick, but just a few minutes after I initially felt super sick, my airway started to restrict and close up. I was starting to go into shock. Fortunately Spencer was around and ready with my EpiPen. He's never gotten to use it before and he's always wanted to (I know that sounds strange- but I guess he was just always interested in seeing how it worked)- anyhow, he gave me the shot with my EpiPen and immediately it began to work letting me breath easier. The shot gave me a pure adrenaline rush- my heart was racing a mile a minute, my whole body got cold and shaky, but the medicine worked. So just in case I ever questioned myself as to whether or not if I'm still deathly allergic to wheat/flour- after yesterdays episode I know my allergy still exists and it hasn't gone away. Can't some doctors hurry up and find some type of cure for allergies like mine?! I'm dying to eat a Cinnabon!
Okay, so I've babbled a lot, but in case you ever asked yourself why I write so much, it's because I'm naturally I person who appreciates details when being told a story, so when I'm the one writing the story, I can't skip out on the details... The details are what paints the picture for people. I try to be the artist when I write- I guess I must be like Picasso because sometimes my stories are way out there! Thanks for following along. All in all, like I said near the beginning of my post, I'm happily enjoying now some lazy days of summer- temporarily- I'm sure something else will come along soon that will keep me on my toes. P.S. Be sure to submit your vote before Friday. Spencer and I are curious to see how many of you actually know how we originally met. I think we may have told a white lie to some of you...OOOOPS!After the poll closes, I fully intend to share the truth of how we met- it's really a funny story!