WARNING: Picture overload

We just got back from a trip to upstate New York. It was a lot of fun. I'm going to include a few details that you might not find that exciting, but I want to write them down so I don't forget.

Tuesday morning we flew out of Houston. We got to Buffalo around 6:00 p.m. and took a rental car over to Rochester, NY to stay with some law school friends. Actually we weren't really friends during law school. I don't know why. Turns out Amanda and I have quite a bit in common including hair straighteners, retainers, toothpaste, and hair brushes. And sons who were born 6 days apart. But she was already in NY at that point. (Sam looks like a giant, but they're actually about the same size.)

Wednesday we went to the quaint little town of Palmyra. We saw the Hill Cumorah, the Smith Family log home, the other Smith home, and the Sacred Grove. We also drove through the Palmyra Temple parking lot.

After lunch at DiBellas and a nap for Sam, we headed out again with Amanda and Ethan to see the Whitmer Farm in Fayette. It was cool. The missionaries kept asking us questions and putting us on the spot, which was slightly uncomfortable, so I eventually refused to answer. Amanda took one for the team.

For dinner, the Mudricks whipped up a delicious feast, we played some Bananagrams, and watched So You Think You Can Dance using their awesome DVR. What a blessing to mankind. That third judge guy really bothers me.

Thursday we said farewell to the Mudricks (Thank you SO much for letting us stay!) and went back to Palmyra to see the Grandin Print Shop, where the Book of Mormon was first printed. We ate lunch at Nima's Pizza which took like 3 hours longer than anticipated. Perhaps that's because Dan ordered a calzone which ended up being the size of a real pizza, but folded in half. We saw Alvin Smith's gravestone and then headed down to one of the Finger Lakes - Canandaigua. It was a little early as far as catching the fall colors, but some of the trees were really pretty and close down to the lake it was GORGEOUS! We really enjoyed that drive and are thinking it would be a great trip to do that another time a little bit later in the year when the leaves are peaking.

We stopped at a state park called Stony Brook and thankfully it was a free day. We were some of the only people there and the waterfalls were really pretty. It was perfect weather, too. Sam was a rascal (he wanted to walk by himself) and Dan went crazy. This picture sums up that moment perfectly.

After playing on the playground for a little while, we headed back to Buffalo, where we ate at Charlie the Butcher's Kitchen. Apparently he is famous. But I don't think it's for his cooking. It was not good. In Western New York, "beef on weck" is a local favorite. Dan said he'd rather had Arby's. Me too, and I don't even like Arby's.

Friday we went to Niagara Falls. It was super cold that morning, but warmed up throughout the day. It was really picturesque. Dan had never been there before (nor had Sam) so it was nice to see his reaction to it. We took a ride on the Maid of the Mist down near Horseshoe Falls. Right before our maiden voyage, they rang the stupid boat bell and Sam flipped a lid - ensuring that the rest of the trip was a nightmare. He hated it. Dan and I thought it was pretty cool, though. You can't really see anything since you're being pelted with mist, but it's fun.

Dan climbing close to the Falls after our ride. We ate lunch at Top of Falls on Goat Island. Once again, lunch took forever. After lunch we walked around some more and then went to Old Fort Niagara which is actually quite far from Niagara Falls. As the name implies, it's pretty old.

We spent our last night at the Holiday Inn Express near the airport. We had been assured by reading TripAdvisor reviews that it was quiet and there wasn't any airplane noise. WRONG. It was like planes were taking off right outside the window. At 6 a.m.

That roach picture was gross, so I'm going to swap it with an oldie, but goodie. Happy fall! Here's hoping it actually starts to FEEL like fall in Houston. Fingers crossed.

Buggin'

I was really excited to have our house back up to woods. Maybe I've changed my mind. Every day there are bugs in this house. We kill at least one spider per day, but I'd say the average is more like 4. We also have these beauties:

GROSS!! They're called wood cockroaches and they just crawl inside every once in a while. The other night I found one upstairs in Sam's bathroom trashcan. So sick! I sprayed that thing with Raid like it was going out of style and I still don't think it died. We eventually just bagged up the trash and took it outside. Also, did you know they're 1 inch long and can FLY? I didn't before. Now I do.

The other day, Dan saw a black snake out back while he was mowing the lawn. Last night I saw an orange-colored snake out front before we left for a walk. I'm now familiarizing myself with the poisonous and non-poisonous snakes...

I think I'll ask for an exterminator for Christmas! Well, not an actual person, but you know what I'm saying.

Sam's bedroom walls are pretty bare. (As are all of the other walls in our house...) I wanted to spice them up a bit. I saw this in a Land of Nod catalog and thought I could probably make something similar using my Cricut. So I got to work. I wanted paper with a pattern similar to the kind they used, but I couldn't find any so I bought a packet of little-boy themed paper at Michael's using a 40% coupon. Two hours later I had this:Granted, it's not made out of wallpaper like the catalog's version. And they hung theirs with shoelace. I used string. But I like it! If I had bought their version, and done the alphabet, it would have cost around $90. I did it for under $10.

Today Dan and I got callings at church. We're the new team teachers of the 7 year olds. Should be pretty fun!

Not to copy Kaylyn, but we've been working on body parts with Sam as well. He had "ear" and "mouth" down but then we taught him "head" and now that's his favorite. Let's just say it's a work in progress...

And the award for first overnight houseguests goes to...

We had Adam, Yinelli, and their adorable kids over to our house for Labor Day weekend. It was so much fun! (We thought so, anyway. Hopefully they feel the same.)

Saturday we went to a fun pool, the Houston Museum of Natural Science, and dinner. Sunday we went to church, fed ducks, had a barbecue, and played some major Ticket to Ride. I never won, but I still had fun. We also stayed up late talking. I hadn't gone to bed that late since the day I went into labor. I was SO tired the next day! It was great to have them over and the house feels so empty now without them. Thanks for coming!

The Evolution of Sam's Walking Skills

While out and about the other day, I noticed that stores already have their Halloween decorations out. It made me happy. I LOVE Halloween! I mean, candy and scaring people? Nothing could be better. When I was little, I used to hide in the closet waiting for my mom to put the laundry away so that when she opened the door I could really scare her. And I did. And she got mad at me.

After Dan and I got married, we used to scare each other sometimes, but it's not as funny when it's just the two of you and you get freaked out if you think it's really a burglar or something. So we made a deal that we wouldn't scare each other anymore and now I don't have anyone to scare. I'd scare Sam, but that's just flat-out cruel.

So anyway, I've been thinking about Halloween lately because I want some ideas for Sam when the big day rolls around. In the past, I've just resorted to quick, easy costumes for me and Dan. But I'd like something better than that this year (mostly for Sam). Here are some ideas I've had so far: a mime or a leprechaun. That's it. Hopefully something will come to me in the next few months.

Dan wanted Sam to be the Joker from Batman. Can you imagine how sad (not to mention sick and twisted) it would be to see a baby dressed like the joker for Halloween?

The latest on Sam

We are so happy to have Sam in our lives. He always spices things up. He's currently working on his fourth (top front left) and fifth (top second to right) teeth. He likes to play on our bed, crawl up stairs, give kisses, and spit out his food. He knows sign language for "milk" and "more" although he used to think the sign for "more" really meant "Get me out of this high chair!!" But now we think he really understands "more." He takes a few steps here and there - his best stretch was about 8 in a row. I've tried to get it on camera but he always falls. I'll keep trying.

He used to like playing with light switches. Now he is OBSSESSED. Whenever we enter a room, he knows just where the lightswitch is and points and points until we take him over to it and then he just clicks the lights on and off. On and off. On and off. On and off. I wouldn't mind if it didn't mean I had to hold him there the whole time.

How could you not love this sweet face?

And we spotted this license plate the other day. It made me think of Candice.

Please excuse the mess. And the wine. That was a gift from the seller dude. Nice gesture, but we threw it away! This view is from the breakfast area looking into the kitchen with the dining room beyond. That door is a pantry.

And this is taken from the dining room. Pretty sweet!

That's all for now, folks. I'll take pics of the backyard and master bedroom later.

Guest room. Obviously needs some work!

Sam's bathroom.

An open area at the top of the stairs.

Giants.

I wanted to use the tripod so we could all be in the picture, but a piece of it got lost in the move.

A few pictures, but like I said, there's not much to show because we don't really have much furniture right now and we can't really decorate until we've got the furniture. But here are some pictures anyway.

This was after we sealed the deal at the title company place. We had intentions of looking nicer for such a momentous occasion, but time slipped away and we were late as it was. Oh, well!
This is the view right when you walk in.

Dining room to the left:

And study to the right:

:

Above is the view from the "great room" looking towards the front door.

Back in business

I know you missed me. Well, maybe not considering my last post only garnered 3 comments. Ouch, people. But we got internet in 8 days (instead of 30) so I will not let my joy be squashed. Our house is still in disarray but I'm loving the suburbs. City life was good to us for a year, but I like being able to go on walks without wondering if a homeless man is going to follow me home. Pictures to come later.

Sam doesn't really like this floaty a ton when it's in the water, but I found him sitting in it the other day. Guess he'd prefer it on land.

Top tooth numero UNO! Total tooth count: 3. At this rate, he'll have a full set by age 7.

When talking to the Comcast folks about hooking up internet at our new house, one man mentioned that because our house in new, on a new street, it could take 30 DAYS to get connected. Say WHAT?

So this might be my last post for a LONG while. We'll see. I hope he's wrong. How will I live without blogstalking?

But hopefully next time I write, I'll have pictures of our new place! (Fingers crossed that all goes well tomorrow with the closing.)

And good luck to my brother who's taking the BAR EXAM! On his birthday, no less.

My sis took these cute pics in VA.

Well, I don't have much to say but I wanted to put up something new to take the top spot. We had our "walk through" today of the new house which consisted of us putting little bits of painter's tape on every flaw we saw - weird paint spots, mostly. It still doesn't seem real that we're going to be living there in ONE WEEK!

Who knew that so much was involved in buying a house? Mortgage company, inspectors, meetings, homeowner's insurance, hooking up alarm systems, internet, etc. It's stressing me out. Well, it should be, but I don't think I get stressed too easily.

They put on the front door today. (Before that it was just a janky piece of wood.) It looks super cool. It has a little window in the middle that actually opens. So now we don't have to open the door if there's a salesperson there. We just open the little window and say, "No, thank you. Please go away." Then you don't feel bad for shutting the door in his/her face. You just shut the little window in his/her face. Much more courteous, yes?

So, have I mentioned that I auditioned a few weeks ago for "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" Well, I did. Needless to say, I didn't make the cut! After standing in line for about an hour, they shuttled 400 of us into a room to take a 10-minute, 30-question scantron test. Of the 400 who took it, they called out about 15-20 people who passed. Ouch. At least I tried!

And I promised a while ago that I would talk about my budgeting thing. Not that anyone other than myself remembers, but that's okay. Dan and I haven't been the greatest at budgeting and after reading some good articles in the Ensign, decided to work harder. We took a look at our expenses from previous months and found that we were spending much more on groceries than we had thought. Our plan, then, was to set a goal to not go over on groceries. On June 1, I walked over to Bank of America and took out the grocery money in cash. For the rest of the month, I only bought groceries using that money. (Or if I accidentally forgot, I would take the appropriate money out so that we were still on track.) It worked! We spent over $100 less than the previous month.

Since I was gone a lot of July, I went to B of A today and only took out half of what we used last month. So far, so good. It feels nice to know we're being more mindful of our finances - especially since we're buying a house in a few weeks. I'd heard of the cash concept before and I'm here to say that it worked for us! I just hope that we keep it up.

And on another unrelated note, I just wanted to mention that Sam can now say two words - dada (Dad) and daga (dog). He says mama a lot now, too, but I'm not quite sure it qualifies yet. He also says dada a lot for other things, but he always says it to Dan so I think it's legit.

I am finally back from my fabulous vacation to Virginia! It was so much fun. Dan, Sam and I arrived in Charlottesville on July 2. After a few hours at my parents’ home, we packed up and headed to West Virginia to go white water rafting down the New River. On the 3rd, Mom and Dad watched Sam and his cousin Carter while Kirk, Gretchen, Candice, Craig, Dan and I went rafting with our hilarious guide, Heather. Heather was the best. She picked on Kirk the whole time (which was funny for the rest of us), and called Gretchen and Candice her “pants-less wonders.” She had a ton of jokes and told far out stories which ended up not being true. Random, but I guess it’s probably fun to make up outlandish stories of near-death experiences for strangers you’ll never see again. That day we drove back to Virginia.

On the 4th we attended our first Earlysville parade. My parents have lived there for 12 years but never went before. It basically included anyone who wanted to participate, and people in the crowd got lots of free candy. I was all over that! I was beating 7 year old boys to get to those tootsie rolls. They were too slow. Sam hated the fire trucks. Later that day, K and G created a scavenger hunt for us on the downtown mall. Dan and I won. We’re the bomb. Once again, Mom and Dad watched the boys while we went to the fireworks. This is getting long so I’ll summarize the rest faster.

Sunday I got to see my friend Katrina. It was so great to spend time with her and see her cute pregnant belly!

The rest of the trip included the UVA cemetery, Bodo’s Bagels, a driving range, a date with Dan to Putt-Putt, slurpees, a peach orchard, a splashpark, haircuts, games, a movie, more Putt-Putt, walks, bowling, a picnic, more slurpees, good food, and great company! I really wish Ryan, Teresa, and Zoey could have been there, too. I miss my family so much already!

When I arrived in Houston it was 97 degrees or something. And I saw Chloe from Project Runway at the airport.

It’s nice to be back with Dan, but this weather is ridiculous!