500 Business Cards

So my company is getting to be pretty big...so big, in fact, that we have run out of 3 number extensions. As a result, several weeks ago we were given notice that we would be getting new extensions, and that they would be ordering us new business cards. I looked over at my box full of old business cards that I am not sure I've ever even opened and wondered if this colossal waste of quality paper was even necessary.

Despite my insistence that if I ever actually used a business card, I could just write a 1 in front of my old extension before I gave it to the person, I received my new business cards today. Sure enough, the only difference between them and my old cards is the 1. So now I have at least 500 outdated business cards (cursed 1) that I have no idea what to do with. It seems a shame to throw them away...they're so professional looking! Any ideas of what I could do with them? So far the only thing coming to mind is giving them to Addison to play with.

Fixin' The Fence

So yesterday Bart & I basically spent ALL day doing yard work! For those of you who haven't seen our house lately, the lattice on part of our fence was destroyed in one of our many winter storms. Yesterday we finally decided to fix it.

We pretty much had to take the fence apart and then put it back together. About half way through (right as we got done with the "taking the fence apart" part) I was having serious doubts about our ability successfully complete. But it ended up looking pretty good. And we were able to do get it all done while Addison was taking a nap! Now all we have to do is stain it.

In addition, we replaced the weed cover in part of our garden, built a new planter box (the old planter boxes are looking pretty worn), and pulled up the decaying bricking around the water spicket in the garden. We only did one planter box because we want to do them with wood that will last...but wood that will last is quite expensive, so we're going to do part of it this year, and part of it next year.

It was a lot more work than we were anticipating, so as you can see in the picture below, we still have a lot of work to do..including clearing the planter box, putting bark over the new weed cover, and replacing the worn out bricks that were around our spicket. But I'm still proud with what we were able to accomplish. As hard as it is, I love yard work.

Home to Cali!

Well, we got to take a brief, but very enjoyable trip to California for a few days last week (sorry to everyone we didn't get a chance to see, it was very short and jam packed).

I think Addison's favorite thing there was the dog. Every time she woke up...well really, it was almost every waking minuet that we were at my parent's house, she wanted to be out to see the dog. It was pretty funny.

She also loved playing in the pool. There is this giant shallow part (really it's the first step to the stairs, but my parents made it big so little kids could play on it) that has bubblers on it that shoot up water. Addison LOVED these! She loved sitting right next to them and splashing the water that was squirting up. The only tricky part for her was the actual sitting down. She'd get close to the bubbler, and then bend over to set down and get a face full of water. It was pretty fun. She had a great time.
On Thursday we went to Balboa and Newport Beach. That was a lot of fun. I can't remember the last time I rode the ferry.

Addison LOVED the beach. At first she wasn't sure about it, but she settled in pretty quickly. I realized she's never played in a sand box before. She thought the sand was the most entertaining thing in the world. She would pick it up, throw it, and then laugh. It was pretty funny...as long as you kept your distance. On the way home from the beach the Vaccination clinic called from Provo and informed us that we might not be able to get the Yellow Fever Vaccine before our Africa trip because of the huge waiting list. I was not very happy since a month ago they told me it shouldn't be a problem. I called several other clinics in Utah to no avail.

Friday morning we frantically called clinics around Southern California to see if any of them had it. We finally found one and booked it over there. When we got there, they only had one left. Bart gallantly let me have the shot and declared that he wouldn't mind getting sick, "Yellow's a pretty wussy color, how bad could it be?" (I'm sure his gentlemanliness didn't have anything to do with how much he loathes getting shots.) Fortunately the nurses at the clinic were amazing and were calling around town for us while we were waiting. They found another clinic that had one just down the street. So a few hours and $300 + later (it would have cost us half as much in Utah), we went back to the house vaccinated against the wussy Yellow fever.

That afternoon we went to Discanso Gardens. I forgot how beautiful that place was. It was supposed to be cool that day, but it ended up being pretty warm. We decided to go home a little early because Addison seemed to be getting pretty hot. I think she was also allergic to something because her left eye was watering like CRAZY by the time we got home. She also had a good time watching "Increadibles" on the big screen downstairs that day.
The next day I think I had some reactions to the Yellow Fever shot. NOT fun! I got this TERRIBLE headache, so I took some pain killers and took a nap. When I woke up I felt better for about 5 min, then the headache came back. I decided to tough it out and Bart & I went to lunch with my sister and brother in law. Then we went to a movie. It was a lot of fun, but by the time we got home I was feeling HORRIBLE! I started feeling nauseous, and got a fever. I thought for sure I was getting Yellow fever. Fortunately that evening the fever broke, and I've felt fine ever since. I wasn't too excited about being sick on our vacation, but in retrospect I think it was a good thing. If I had gotten the shot here and had that reaction, I wouldn't have had anyone to watch Addison. Blessings in disguise.

Sunday we came home...unfortunately. Vacations are always too short!

Depressed!!!

Okay, so vacations are awesome, the one bad thing about them is that it seems like EVERY time I come home from a vacation I get SUPER depressed!

Don't get me wrong. I love our house, I love being home, I love my life. But no matter how great life is, vacations are greater aren't they? That's why they're vacations right?

So I always find myself depressed when I have to leave my dream worlds and come back to reality. :o) Oh well. I'll get back into the swing of things soon enough. And when I get a chance, I'll tell you about our awesome vacation. :o)

Reading on the...well, you know

So the other day Addison grabs one of her books and heads toward the back door. I said, "Addison, what are you doing." She just points, and turns down the hall. She doesn't go out the back door, instead she went into the bathroom where we have her little potty, sat on it, and opened her book...Bart is not allowed to take magazines into the bathroom any more.

Day 6

Well, I have to admit, our final day was my least favorite day. We decided that we just had to visit Bourbon Street in the French Quarter...after all, we were in New Orleans.


If any of you ever go to New Orleans, I have a suggestion... Don't visit Bourbon Street. We went there in the middle of the day, so it was mostly empty (thank goodness), but even then it just smelled of booze and puke! It was nasty. There were strip joints galore, and More bars than I have ever seen. I even saw a place where they vended margaritas out of Slurpee machines...which would have been cool if they had virgin ones...te he he. But it really was just gross. If you HAVE to go to Bourbon street, at least do it on your first day instead of your last. The rest of our trip was so enjoyable. I was sad to leave New Orleans with that last impression.


Other than that, though, our trip was thouroughly enjoyable. Here's a little video of the trip.

Day 5

On Day 5 we got to ride the street car to the New Orleans Museum of Art (Do you honestly think I could go to a major city with my husband and NOT go to the art museum...te he he). It was really cool. They had a George Rodrigue show there, which had a blue dog in a lot of the pictures. Addison loved it. She kept saying, "Dog! Dog!"My Favorite part was the sculpture garden though. It was AWESOME!!! My favorite one was the giant diaper pin, but there were a lot of other cool sculptures too.

The street car ride was pretty cool too. We got to see more than just the down town area, which was nice. There were some really cool looking houses...I wish we had gotten pictures of them.

We also saw the saddest thing of the trip on the street car ride too. As we drove under a freeway overpass, there were tons of tents under it where people were living. It was a sobering reminder of the poverty that remains there, even this long after Katrina.

That night we also got to go to Emeril's for dinner. It was AMAZING!!! I have never had such delicious food! I LOVED it!!! The service was incredible as well. The only thing that could have made it better is if we hadn't had a toddler who loves to throw her food around with us. It was still great though! By far the most expensive dinner Bart & I have ever had, but totally the best!

Day Four

On Day Four, Addison and I went to the Oak Alley Plantation. It was a beautiful plantation with 200 year old huge oak trees. The house was actually a lot smaller than I expected it to be. It was still big, and probably amazingly huge for the time. I guess I was imagining something more like Versailles...I don't know why...now that I think about it it was a silly expectation, but for some reason I was.

In retrospect, though, I think this would have been one that I would have not gone to considering it was just me and Addison. It was an hour each way to the plantation, and then it was a tour of the house...I really don't know what I was thinking...like an 18 month old would sit still as someone in a hoop skirt told you interesting historical facts about a house...especially after an hour car ride!!! It would have been a lot better if someone else could have been there, then we could have taken turns holding her while one of us listened.

Oh well, it was still cool to see. It was nice after the tour letting her run around the property. And she did do very well in the bus ride. Thank goodness!

Socks in my Pocket

So this morning, as I walked to the break room at work, I put my cold hands in the pockets of my sweater to try and warm them, and found two different baby socks in them. It instantly put a smile on my face as pictures of my daughter pulling her socks off, holding them out for me to take with a proud smile on her face ran through my head.

Every time I find a little discovery like this it just warms my heart. It's a little embarrassing to admit, but I find myself not putting things away when I find them so that I can have these happy little mementos throughout the day. Don't get me wrong, if it's in the house, I will put it away, but if it's anywhere where I might see it at, or on my way to or from work..or basically anywhere where I'm not with my daughter, I will leave it.


I love opening the back door of my car to stow my laptop for the ride home, and seeing the ball that she so enthusiastic reaches for whenever she sees it. I love seeing the chapstick in my purse that I have to hide from her because if she sees it, she'll try to eat it. I LOVE having little reminders of all the things I love about my baby. I never would have thought that simple things like these could brighten my day so much! Life is just better with Addison in it...EVERYWHERE! :o)

Day Three

In the morning on day three, Bart, Addison, and I went to the aquarium. Addison was SOOOOO cute! She kept saying hi to the fish.

After the Aquarium, Bart had to go back to the conference, and Addison and I took a paddle boat ride. It was a lot of fun. The only sad thing is that Addison's cute little bucket hat blew off into the river.

I went to get her another one the next day. She refused to put any of the ones we looked at on. Finally I just bought one, took her to the hotel room, had her look in the mirror and put it on her head. She looked at herself, tilted her head to the right, smiled, and was willing to wear it from that time on.

Day Two

I like to call this the Art day. We got to see several artists that day. We started off seeing Dan Dunn. He is an artist that plays music and paints right there in front of you. It was pretty cool! You can find out more about his stuff at this website: http://www.paintjam.com/.

The crazy thing is several months before my mom had sent us a video of him painting, so it was kind of cool actually seeing him in person. It was very enjoyable.

After that we went to the vendor exhibits. It was basically a trade show for art teachers. All sorts of different art vendors were showing the art teachers the latest and greatest products in the industry. It was awesome...especially since there were so many free samples! Addison fell asleep while we were there.

That afternoon we got to see Faith Ringgold talk. (You can find more of her stuff here http://www.faithringgold.com/). We got to see Her "Who's Afraid of Aunt Jemima" last year at the Utah Museum of Art. She used to be an art teacher too. It was neat seeing her.

It was a cool day.

Day 1

Okay, so technically Day 1 was spent traveling...and after a two hour plane delay we got to our hotel at 2:00 a.m. on Day 2, but since that isn't very exciting, I'm just going to pretend Day 2 is day 1. :o)

So, Bart began Day 2 way before Addison and I...it was so nice sleeping in for a change..poor Bart. But when Addison finally woke up, we headed over to the Conference center to visit Bart at the NAEA student chapter table. Addison charmed everyone we passed. She would wave, smile, and say hi to EVERYONE! I don't think a single person passed us without smiling.

While at the conference center, Addison and I visited the "Badge Enhancement" table. This was basically a table with every crayola product imaginable. You could use them to decorate your Conference badge. I let Addison have at it, and wound up with a beautifully decorated badge. :o)

For lunch Bart & I went to Mulate's right across the street from the conference center. I had a craw fish Poboy, and Bart had an alligator one (yes, alligator, it tastes remarkably like chicken). It was delicious food, but I wish we had gone at night. They have a live band and a dance floor for people to dance on. I bet it's AWESOME!

That night the company that owns Crayola threw a party at Mardi Gras World for everyone attending the conference. It was AWESOME!!! I think it's just the warehouse that they keep all the props that they bring out onto the streets for Mardi Gras. But it was incredible! You walked in and were just surrounded by huge statues of everything from jesters, to Sully from Monster's Inc. At one point they had a parade going around the perimeter of the warehouse. There was a live band, and Addison and Bart had a BLAST dancing!!! Everyone was taking pictures of them.

On our way out we found some masks that the people in the parade had been wearing. We just had to take pictures in them. :o)

It was a great first night!!!

Easter

Okay, so we've been on vacation for the past week (which is why I haven't had a chance to blog) but that post is going to take forever to finish, so I figured I'd do the Easter post first.

We had an extremely enjoyable Easter despite it's early appearance, and some miserable colds.

Addison got to wear her Easter dress from her Grandma Collyer to sacrament meeting (we went home after that because we didn't want anyone else to get our colds). It was absolutely adorable.




In her Easter basket, she got a stuffed duck, and little bucket hat (that was lost on the Mississippi...but I'll get to that in the next post). Bart and I got some chocolate eggs, and the family got some AWESOME Easter baskets and candy from Aunt Amy (whose name Addison is very good at saying now).

Although I didn't have time to do all the things I wanted to do this Easter, I did find myself reflecting on the last week of the Savior's life all week long. These little reflections brought a lot of peace to a very hectic week.

I am so grateful for my Savior; that he went through everything he did so I could return to live again with him and Heavenly Father. And I can't imagine the love that Heavenly Father must have for all of us as well. I would do absolutely anything to keep my child from experiencing pain. He had the ability to keep his son from experiencing the pain he had to go through, and he let him go through it anyway. I cannot imagine the amount of love he must have for each of us. I am so grateful for him.

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter as well.