Date Night

For teacher appreciation I received some gift cards; one to the movies, and one to Cafe Rio. Well tonight we decided to use them.

Since Brandon has the Z running we drove that. He was telling me that he was surprised the fuel gauge was still on full and that it would probably drop down quickly to empty. Well, after dinner (which was delicious) we were headed out the movie. As the light turned green we started to turn into the intersection, then the car died! We were blocking traffic and people weren't all that happy with us, but there was nothing to do.

Brandon got out to push the car, and three very nice men came to help. Once the car was out of traffic Brandon tried to figure out what was wrong. I said it was out of gas, which he replied to with a very firm NO! I told him that we could walk into Wal-Mart since it was right there, get a gas tank, walk to a gas station, and see if that really was the problem. He agreed.

Silly man! I was right the whole time. The car was out of gas. We missed the movie since we were cutting it close anyways. After everything was all settled we would have been an hour late to the theater. We went and got crepes for dessert, then headed home. On the way we stopped by the high school so I could have a driving lesson. I didn't do that great, but that's fine right? Stick is hard!

Well, that is all. It was a good night, very adventurous to say the least. I love hanging out with this man even when things don't work out, he always tries to make things great!

Patience

If you ever need some patience, tell your spouse to have one of the cars out of service for 8 weeks! That's right, 8!

I am not joking. This project of rebuilding the engine on the 240Z took forever. Things just kept going wrong. It seemed like every time we were just about done something would happen that would set us back a week or two. We rented an engine hoist three different times and only used it the last time. I think that we have spent enough money on renting that we could have bought one for ourselves.

It took all my patience to not get mad at Brandon. However, by the end my patience was done. I wasn't up for taking any more set backs. I made sure Brandon knew I was frustrated, but I did it the nicest way I could.

This past weekend Brandon's parents were wonderful enough to come out to visit. His dad helped him all day on Saturday work on the car, and by 6:20 it was running. It was even his parent's anniversary and they spent the whole day with us, and even went to dinner with us. Thank you for coming and helping! If it wasn't for them coming it wouldn't be running.

Babysitters

Brandon and I have been talking recently about how you worry about your child when you are leaving them with a new babysitter. However, when we first started need some sitters everyday this year we weren't worried at all. We had the best sitters that we could ask for.

We are switching to help out a good friend but I will miss these wonderful sitters. They have loved Austin. Due to them, we have a very social little boy. He loves to be around people and isn't afraid of meeting new people. He learned to do a "somersault," fake sneeze, climb down the stairs, dance, kick a ball, and so many other things from them.

He loved both sitter's houses. There were kids at both houses that he could play with and that would entertain him. I never had to worry that he was just watching T.V. all day with them.

One of the sitters was in our ward which was nice because Brandon could drop him off a few mornings a week. They would have some Daddy/son bonding time in the mornings before they would leave. I would come home and find things strewn around the house but that meant they had fun.

The other sitter was right by my school. If something happened, he was just 3 minutes away. It was fun to see him at school when she had to come to bring something for her kids. She even kept him late on the parent teacher conference nights. He missed them went they went to Brazil for two weeks, but that didn't stop him from grabbing his breakfast, like normal, as soon as he got back to their house.

I know that I can never thank these families enough, and I know that they will be terribly missed. I am so grateful for their wonderful service that they have performed for us.

Rant

So, just to warn you, this is a rant. Feel free to skip this one if you want but I am just annoyed.

I hate my neighbors! They aren't nice to us and just end up flipping out before talking to us. In my mind you should talk to your neighbors nicely about the things they are doing that are upsetting you, but not ours. Now, the way that our town homes work all the garages face in towards each other so there is I guess you could call it a common driveway.

About 4 months after we moved in Brandon had some ROTC guys over building bookshelves for a few of the teachers at my school. It was probably about 9 pm when all of the sudden our neighbor comes out yelling at them. She is mad that they have been painting on the driveway area and that they are talking, "being too loud" as she put it. Brandon tried to explain what they were doing but she wanted nothing to do with it and said if they didn't stop she would call the cops. Well, sorry lady but unless it is after 10 pm the cops can't do anything.

Then, the same lady just about 1 month ago called the cops on us. Brandon had changed the oil in the garage the night before, then when he was dumping it into the containers to get rid of it he spilled a little, like maybe 1 quart, if that. He tried to clean it up but it was dark out and couldn't see if he had gotten all of it. In the morning when he left for work it was still dark so he couldn't tell if there was anything left. Now, I know that he should have put some stuff down just in case but it was late and he was running late and didn't have time to get to the store. I realized that I had the garage opener from his car so I opened the garage up around the time he would get home. 10 minutes later there is a knock at my door. It wasn't my front door though, it was the garage door. I open it, not sure what I am going to find, and there is a fireman at my door. He tells me that there is oil on the ground and asked if I knew anything about it. I had no idea. I told him the truth and said that Brandon had changed the oil in the garage the night before and that was all I knew. Seriously, there were like 5 firemen, 3 Eagle Mountain city trucks, a Hazmat team, and a sheriff all there about this oil. Sure it looked like a lot, but people had been driving on it and spreading it all day. I was home because Austin had the chicken pox so I had no idea. Why in the world didn't this stupid lady come knock on our door and ask me about it?

Well, I had to go to the school and get some of my lesson plans done since Austin was sick and I was stopped in the garage area. The sheriff took my name and date of birth and then asked if my husband was home, which he was. As I am pulling out that lady comes out and says, "Do you need my statement? I am the one that called it in." I was thinking of course you did. Well once that was all sorted out, like 4 hours later, we were a little annoyed to say the least.

Then, about 1 1/2 weeks ago Brandon is in the garage working on his car and he could hear our other neighbor chasing his little girl around for 45 minutes, screaming and cursing at her. She was in tears and was trying to get away from what he could hear. He came in and called CPS which called the cops for us. They came and I don't know what came of it, but the cops came. I was so proud of Brandon for calling. He is so amazing, and it just broke my heart knowing that something really bad could have been going on.

Now tonight, which has put me on this rant. Brandon is getting ready to start up the car after about 6 weeks of rebuilding the entire engine. He has the hose in the radiator to help it maintain the temperature. The hose was just running, send water through the radiator and out the bottom. I went inside and the next thing I know there is that same sheriff from the oil incident talking to Brandon. The stupid guy from next door call the cops on us about WATER!!! Really!?! We were using the hose! Brandon snapped at the sheriff at first saying, "Come on dude, it is just WATER!" then he apologized for that saying that he wasn't mad at the cop, just that our neighbor called over water. Brandon thinks that it was his way at getting back at us for calling CPS. Good job buddy, you called the cops on us for using water when we called them on you for hitting your child. I'm sorry but yours is way worse then anything that we have ever done!

I love my house, I just wish that my neighbors weren't so close and rude. Have some common courtesy and talk to us, find out what is going on before you call the cops over something that a: we didn't even have time to take care of on our own, or b: to find out what we are using that is spreading over the garage area.

Funny Boy!

Austin has had us cracking up laughing lately. He knows he is funny which is the best! Here are a few recent examples:

- Today on the way home he was taking a long drink of water. After the drink was over he kept saying "num, nummmm, nnnuuuummm, num," all the way until he had his next drink. He continued this for about 7 minutes, and it only ended when he had no water yet.

- Once he wakes up he will just play in his crib. If you come in before he is done playing and ready to get out, he plays a game where he tries to stay away from your reach for as long as possible while he is in the crib. He is just laughing so hard while he does this that he keeps on falling over.

- When you play peek-a-boo he will hide his face, but that means that he is squishing his face. Once he uncovers his face he just starts cracking up.

- He will try to ride on Gus' back. It never ends well but his efforts are fantastic!

- Him dancing! I will try to get a good video of this but it is so funny. He will turn in circles with one arm out in front of him.

He is a very fun, loving kid, and we are so lucky to have him.

Chicken Pox!

That's right, he caught the chicken pox! I have no idea where he got them, but he did. I took him to the doctor on Monday after I picked him up from the babysitter to have the rash looked at. My pediatrician had no openings so I took him to InstaCare. I was told that he just had a rash and that it would be gone after a few days.

Two days later I pick him up from the same babysitter and she is telling me how you can tell he isn't feeling good. He was just sitting around, when he did walk he was very wobbly, grumpy, not eating much, and so on. Also, the rash was looking worse. As I drove home I decided to call the pediatrician and ask to talk to a nurse. I did and she told me to bring him in. They had me wait in the car just in case he was contagious.

After the doctor took one look at him it was decided that he has chicken pox. The funny thing is that it really isn't slowing him down. He has a mild case which helps. Brandon has started to refer to him as Mr. CRAZY pox because after dinner last night Austin was so silly.

I am home from work today and tomorrow at least, maybe more days then that. We will see.

Hard to see, but if you look closely at his hand you will notice them. Poor guy!

14 Months

Not too shabby! He loves to feed himself.

 Well, Austin is all over the place. On Feb 11th he started taking steps with us noticing. Before, if we ever saw him standing he would sit right down like you can't see what I am doing, not yet. Then, on Feb 28th he started full on walking. He at first looked like Frankenstein monster, his arms up in the air, bending his knees only enough to walk forward. It was so funny to watch him! Then, by the weekend he was confident and walking normal. He is getting faster and faster each day.

Shape Sorter

His cute PJ's that Auntie Lissa got him. Love the robe with it!

Here are some things that he loves:
*Read! He will say ba and point at a book, then turn around and sit down on our lap for us to read to him
*Eat - he loves to eat, especially yogurt and banana's. All you have to say is "would you like a na-na?" and he starts loudly saying "nana, nana, NANA!" and walks over to his chair. As soon as we get to one of his wonderful babysitters, he grabs the bananas out of the bag and goes straight to his chair.
*Outside - if this kid could be outside all day, he would be. He even knows how to get out the door by turning around and going out the door and down the step backwards.
*Walk - he will grab his diaper bag and just walk around the house like he is doing laps. This will go on for 20 minutes at a time.
*He loves using his color sorter that I made for him. He uses pipe cleaners and puts them in the holes that I made on a Crystal Light container. This is great for church.
*Blankets - when he sees one of his blankets he gets really excited, grabs it, and snuggles down into it.
*Baths - he would be happy to play in the bath for 30 minutes, pruny fingers and all.
*His push cart - He loves to stand and sit in it.

Other fun things:
*He can say Jesus, banana, mom, dad, bye, this, that, gus, car, yum, uh-oh, book, cheese, moo,
*He has started laughing when we are laughing which is funny because he doesn't know what we are laughing at.
*He can fake laugh
*Loves to snort!
*Gets really excited when he sees a stuffed animal
*Has learned to climb the couch

Here are some stats on the boy:
*12 teeth - all 1 year molars are in
*32 in. tall - he grew 11 inches in his first year! WOW!
*24 lbs. 5 oz.

Loves to slide!