it was only a matter of time...

before nash got his own blog {click here to see it}-i mean, even our house has a blog....it took some prodding, but he finally caved!

start to FINISH ms

finally, here are some pictures from saturday's ms bike tour in logan. the whole team was able to finish the 75 mile route (and by "the whole team was able" i mostly mean me-everyone else was just fine and dandy most of the time with their strong muscles and healthy hearts & lungs!). and i should clarify that each of us rode 75 miles-just so you can understand how amazing we are. it was blazing hot and semi miserable toward the end, but we pulled through. and again, i mean i-because i'm not going to lie and say i didn't shed a few tears or let a few curse words slip out. especially when about two miles after stevie bevie told me we only had about seven miles left and we saw a sign: "12 miles to the finish line". anyway, i have to search through about 1,000 pages of pictures on zazoosh to find all of our pictures, but this is a start....

under contract

remember that couple that was thinking of putting in an offer on our house? well, they did-and for full asking price! hallelujiah! neither steve nor i are very good at negotiating. we're both a little soft. steve always buys junk from salesmen that come to our door. i can't walk past the salvation army collection guys without putting money in there. even if i donated on the way in. i guess, for the most part, these are good things, but when it comes to making much-needed money off the sale of our house so that we can make it through law school without loads of debt, being softies could have gotten us into some trouble. luckily, the couple's offer was for full asking price, so it was a done deal. now my HGTV-brain can get to work on colors and stuff for the new house. oh so exciting...still looking for those porch chairs, so if any of you hit up yard sales keep your eyes peeled!

i haven't posted much about NASH {now 7 months} recently, which is a shame because we've hit some major milestones:

last week he cut his first tooth

he sits up all by his little self

he loves to be startled and laughs his head off

and finally...drum roll, please...today he crawled!

he's also developed a little case of narcissism....my dad discovered this while babysitting around the time of andy & nay nay's wedding. he had the picture of me and nash (the color version of the one to the right ---->) on his desktop. nash couldn't get over himself. i tried to capture it here, but low-budget video cameras just don't quite do anything justice.

the ms bike tour

i'm only two days (and a bit of $$$) shy of the ms bike tour! i've got a family team together to ride in the 40-miler event. we may shoot for 75, but we'll see how things go. none of us have done a ton in the way of training, so....we shall see....

but what we can do is raise pledges. our team is still a bit shy of its goal, so if you'd like to help us out by making an online donation, we'd love nothing more! just go to:

brittany's page,

jp's page,

or team iron myelin's page to donate using a cc or debit card.

and thanks for your help!

things are happening {oh so fast}

we put in an offer last week on a house in salt lake. not the one i posted about earlier. a bigger, better one. yesterday, the sellers accepted the agreement, pending the sale of our current home. and today we had two couples look at it and one of those couples i planning to submit an offer this evening! wow. we only put our house on the for-sale-by-owner market about a week ago, and listed it on the MLS two days ago. it's crazy how fast things can change. in our case, i'm glad it's happening fast, becuase if i had too much time to think about it i would surely wuss out and stay here in my comfort zone. i love our little home and am even really loving our ward (as much as that can happen for me!). let's keep our fingers crossed that everything works out smoothly...i'm pretty sure those motel chairs i'm lusting after will work out perfectly on this front porch!

another good thing, a friend of mine from freshman year is heading to the law school at the U this fall too! he's getting married next month, so we know for sure we'll have one couple-friend up there! that lessens the scariness of it all.

happy father's day {to stevie bevie}

stevie bevie,
happy first father's day.
you are the best daddy in the world. you stay at home with nash and your temper is getting better and better every day! seeing you with nash makes me the happiest mommy in all the land. remember how we used to fight over who had to hold him, and all of the sudden you would rather do the dishes and clean the toilets than have to hold a fussy baby? well now you hurry to his little room to help him when he is crying and you have become so helpful. i know i give you a lot of crap for things (like not closing the formula container or not cleaning the bottles well enough), but in all honesty, you do more than most daddies ever do. and you rarely complain, except when you're too tired to keep your composure! anyway, i love you and nash is lucky to have the best daddy.
love,
eZ

pretty thing{s} thursday

today i'm in love with retro metal motel chairs. who knows....if our new house has a porch or a yard maybe we'll get a few and invite you over for dessert....

nash's first ouchie

nash fell off the couch today. i didn't even see it coming. wait-yes i did. i watched the whole thing happen. i'm not sure what i was thinking. i saw him slipping, tummy down and feet first off the couch. i saw him stand for a second groping the couch. then i saw him tumble to his bum and saw the back of his head smack floor. i just watched the whole thing happen. i guess for a moment i forgot that he is still a baby. when he landed on his feet i looked at him, thought nothing, then looked back to the computer (i was working on my townhome blog). then it hit me-wait, he can't stand up on his own like that!-but it was too late. down he tumbled. needless to say we both had a good cry (while daddy watched and laughed). i guess it was a not-so-gentle reminder that nash is still an infant and still needs me. sometimes i get so caught up in the big boy-isms (eating with a spoon, holding his own bottle, laughing like a little man) that i forget that. man, i love that kid.

it's time to move {on}

we've decided to list our townhome and move to salt lake. we are still looking around at our options up there, but it is time to get this place sold and make some mulah! it's pretty sad. we've only been here for a year, but nash was born here and it's our first "real" home. i don't know how people who raise their kids (and even grandkids) in a home could ever move....it would break my heart to do it. maybe we'll have to keep moving often enough that i don' t become too attached to any home.

anyway, we are going to try and sell the place ourselves. it's a great place so we're pretty confident that it will pretty much sell itself. i've begun the process by taking lots of pictures and creating a blog (yes, even my townhome has a blog of its own!). check it out and if you know anyone who's looking, send them over!

our townhome's blog

let's all keep our fingers crossed, shall we?

lexis lucille III

now that there's a new baby in my life, my first baby hasn't been getting the attention she deserves. lexi has been the best stinkin dog ever, especially considering the neglect and abandonment she must certainly feel since nash has entered the world. don't get me wrong, lex still gets tons of attention, but she was majorly spoiled before nash came. we would cuddle for hours at a time during my pregnancy-after work i'd come crash on the couch and we would just lie there all night long watching HGTV till stevie bevie came home. now i'm hard pressed to find ten minutes to do that with her. she has handled it so well. she loves nash (and nash loves her). whenever nash sees lexi run by him like a black flash, he kicks real fast and gets a big dimply smile on his face. lexi is probably more attracted to nash's spit-up than to his companionship at this point, but hey, it's a start. nash is very cooperative-he opens his mouth wide when she comes near so she can clean it out. i know, i know; it's totally gross, but we're having a hard time keeping it from happening when we aren't looking!

anywho, today lex and i were out in the backyard taking pics for the new blog i'm starting (i'm using it to sell our house) and she was just as perfect as always. "stay" is one of her best (and only) tricks. i felt i should give her a "bark out." so...here's to lexis lucille III. sitting pretty like the princess she is.

{to buy or not to buy (i.e. to rent)}

stevie bevie and i have decided to journey north to salt lake this fall. we anticipate a stay of around three years (the length of law school). we have begun the housing search/dilemma and we seriously need your input, bloggy friends. i found this cute little remodel in salt lake. right downtown in the action. new electical wiring, new plumbing, new flooring, fully fenced huge yard (i mean HUGE for a downtown lot). and...here's the kicker: exposed brick. have i ever mentioned how much i love exposed brick? it makes me week in the knees. stevie bevie asked me the other day if he were made of exposed brick, would i love him more? the answer is a definite yes.

so, let's start off with some pictures, shall we?



this is the living room. exposed brick. laminate flooring
(because it seems no one will spend the extra dime on
real wood). wainscoting, bay windows. ceiling fan. new
paint...it's basically a new space. it's a good size, clean,
and bright. plus, did i mention it has exposed brick?




this is the kitchen. it is small, but oh so perfect.
dishwasher and sink with these cute shelves on
one side (mounted on exposed brick). fridge and
stove with hood mounted microwave on the
opposite side. the big window wasn't replaced
when the others were, so we'd probably fix that.
i'm thinking glass block (another personal fav).



this is the cute little (and i mean little) bathroom. it's
totally revamped. new tile. new sink and mirror. new
fixtures. but it's a bit awkward, as most city dwellings
are in the bathroom department. there is about two
feet between the tub and the wall that runs parallel to
it. not a lot of storage.



this is just the doorway to the bathroom. to play up
the exposed brick and the large mouldings. which i
like. the 2 bedrooms have new carpet and there is a
small linen pantry in the hallway as well.




pros: a very very large yard. there's no garage or extra storage (except for a crawl space below the house), but there is plenty of room to build both. the location is awesome; just down the street from the Gateway (where I may be working) and a Trax stop (so Steven can take trax instead of driving). The only things that I would like to fix are mostly aesthetic and aren't urgent. it's small, so any updates, additions, changes would be low in cost. it's perfectly livable and cute and there is plenty of room for improvement (i.e. raise the value) later when we have the time and money to do it. plus....we'll own it. and i hate renting.

cons: it's 917 sq ft. the furnace is just fine right now, but it's old so there is a chance it will need replaced ($2500 ish). there is no A/C, but the house is surrounded by mature trees and stays quite cool. the bathroom is funny (remember the 2-foot space between the tub and the wall/). there's not a lot of storage so we'd have to get a shed right away ($300 minimum) to store bikes, lawn mower, tools, and my loads of christmas decor.

so....is it even possible to find something to buy that is in our price range that will be better? i don't know. from what we saw yesterday, i'd say no. we love the idealisms of the place. tree lined street, big fenced yard, exposed brick. but will we feel too crammed in? will it appraise enough to make it worth it? and will we be able to haggle it into the middle of our price range? so many things to think about... input please!!!

more maple canyon pics

more pics from our maple canyon trip a few weeks back. this is sad because ance & lali are now in san antonio and there is no basement in the alamo.

{my bikini bod?}

my post-partum diet has been...well, non-existent. i've had an "excuse" for just about every day, week, and month (now six of them) since nash's birth. thanksgiving, christmas, new years, my birthday-the party just hasn't stopped. i can't keep my hand out of that cookie jar! did i say "cookie jar"? what i meant by that was the five 5-lb bags of cookies that have been sitting in my pantry (i hope you noticed that that totals 25 lbs of cookies). that's right. my mom's in town...and within a few days of her arrival she usually finds her way up to logan/wellsville to the pepperidge farm outlet. this year, she decided she better really stock up-just in case the wedding/shower plans didn't include enough cookies of their own.

i've been living on brussels, mint milanos, orange milanos, and pirouline's for days now (listed in order of preference). every night before bed i think to myself, "tomorrow i will start eating healthy food...". every morning that follows i find myself sneaking cookies in the pantry before stevie bevie gets up so he can't hear my crunching (the brussels are extra crunchy). i didn't have this sugar-tooth before my uterus waged war against the rest of my body. in fact, i didn't even have this problem during the war! i craved fruit, and salad, and salmon and all things refreshing and healthy. so why, then, do i have this curse NOW? maybe it's because i can cleverly hide my tummy with my cute baby boy (with him around, no one's looking at me anyway). maybe it's because i was always lucky enough to have a flat, hard tummy with little to no effort and the thought of having to work for it now is one i just can't bare. maybe it's because now that i've made it through pregnancy, stevie bevie thinks i'm such a trooper that he wouldn't dare comment about my post-baby body. maybe i've....let myself go?

or maybe stevie bevie figured out that the only way to change this so-called diet of mine, is to put something in our pantry that isn't full of fat, sugar and chocolate. today i got home (dizzy from a day of starvation) and went straight to the pantry for a quick cookie. it was the worst battle yet-i just made it a whole day without eating junk. granted, i had to eat nothing in order to do this, but i did it! why would i ruin that by eating a cookie? well, because THERE'S NOTHING ELSE TO EAT! out of desperation i decided to check the freezer....wedding cake, rhodes rolls....wait!!! chicken...vegetables....REAL FOOD! stevie bevie pulled through. my sweet stay-at-home, do-the-laundry, clean-the-house hubby went grocery shopping too! i am so damn lucky. with this sort of treatment, maybe my bikini bod will emerge from this flab before the bikini season is over!

{black & white}

{we're pooped}

after a long & exhausting week, we finally got today off and played a bit. we went shopping, ate lunch, and went swimming (and took naps at the pool). we had to say goodbye to great-grandma martin-it was a teary goodbye-nash is her second great grandchild, and she doesn't get to see the first one, so this was a special trip for her. it was fun to have company (especially company that helped out with laundry, dishes, made us pancakes for breakfast, and bought us random kitchen ware that we wouldn't have purchased ourselves!).

{sleep-talkers}

i come from a family of sleep talkers. and walkers.

last night, i jumped up in the middle of the night and exclaimed: "what?!, what?!"
to which stevie bevie responded: ""huh?"
i went on and on: "andy, andy; there's green stuff all over the pillow!" i turned toward my pillow and brushed it off.
stevie bevie started laughing, which upset me: "i know what i'm talking about. i'm not sleeping!" stevie bevie laughed even more. i went "back to sleep".

i know this because i was completely coherent, while apparently incoherent! i remember the whole thing, and at the time it made perfect sense that there was "green stuff" all over my pillow. i even remembered it this morning when i woke and rolled over to stevie bevie and whispered "there's green stuff all over the pillow..."

andybob, my little brother, roomed with our cousin mitch a few years back. One night, in his sleep, he said: "oh, there's a new movie coming out."
mitch, who knew andybob's tendency to sleep-talk, decided to play along.: " oh, really? what sort of movie?"
although he was asleep, andy sensed the sarcasm in mitch's voice. there was a long pause, then andybob came back with: "ROT IN HELL!"