Hamster Attack

Rule #413: If a toy has wheels, it shouldn't be run on the Mommy head.

Flagrent violation of this rule may lead to imposed hair accessories that strongly resemble said toy, severe fits of laughter on the part of otherwise kind onlookers, and premature balding.

Play at your own risk.

Happy Halloween!

BOO!

From about age 14 until I had kids, I didn't really care much for Halloween. It's kind of a weird holiday, with excessive amounts of candy and a strange focus on death and black magic. Plus, it's always so cold on the actual night for Trick-or-Treating that your carefully planned costume is pretty much ruined by the long johns, coat, hat, and gloves you needed to survive the harrowing journey around the neighborhood.

But this year my attitude changed, mostly because it was fun to watch Felix get the hang of Trick-or-Treat! Our Ward held a Halloween Carnival and Trunk-or-Treat, which were great. Plus, on the actual night of candy collecting, the temperatures were in the upper 50s. Wowza!

And you know, there's something days-gone-by fun about walking up to strangers' homes and asking for candy. It seems like a relic of a safer time. It's rare to even chat with neighbors anymore, so it's kind of a unique experience to walk around with the whole neighborhood on a common quest for sugary goodies. (To which, I must confess, Brian and I applied a 98% tax when we got home. Ouch!)

Felix the Monkey with Grandma!

And Ezra the Dragon!

Oh my goodness. Someone's maxing out the cuteness factor.

SCORE! They're both looking at ME and looking PLEASANT!

This is proof for my dear friend Laurel that I don't completely deprive my son of all that is chocolatey and delicious in life.

The next morning he promptly returned to his regular daily diet of grape-nuts, tofu, pasta, cheese, homemade graham crackers aka hardtack, and more fruit and vegetables than normal human beings care to eat in a week.

Pumpkin Patch

Today's trip to the Pumpkin Patch was brought to you by my lovely mother.

With a generous contribution of 2 uber-cute pumpkin hats from our friend Vicki

First stop, the barn.

Then, snack time. Fresh apples and apple cider!

Ezra will have the milk. Organic please.

Then onto the HAYRIDE! Felix was in paradise. I think he hopes we'll trade in our Celica for a tractor and trailer. (Hmmm... we could fit a lot more kids in that way...)

Ezra samples the local fare.

Felix decides that not a bad idea.

My babes!

EzBabe!!!

Then Felix and I went in search of the perfect pumpkins. Found them! Med for Felix, smallish for Ezra.

Over to the lake for some pictures to capture brotherly love

Agrotourism at its best!

Thanks, Mom!

Take Me Out to the Ballgame!

Laura was lame and worked on her thesis while Felix, Brian, and Grandma went to an Akron Aeros Game!

Felix is now obsessed with baseball, and tells me he's going to be a baseball player when he grows up. Grandma's house is across the street from a baseball diamond in Hardesty Park, so we go over and throw the ball around and run the bases every once in a while.

It's so quintessential American, and it's fun to watch Felix develop and understanding and love for it!

Going to the OHIO

We're off! Tomorrow morning we'll pack up our lives and go to Akron for an extended visit with my family. Don't get this confused with moving in with my family. That would require moving boxes (we're just using suitcases), changing our address (we'll be pretending we still live in MI), and humbling ourselves and facing reality (nope).

So here's to my mom for putting up with us for the next few weeks! (Or months? We'll see how long this job search takes.)

A note on the job search: Brian's dream is to work as an Assistant Brand Manager at a major Consumer Packaged Goods company (like Kellogg's, General Mills, Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, etc...). That means he'd like to market everyday products to you all.

His background is a little non-traditional (undergrad in Music, experience in music retail, dual degree in Music and Business, and an internship in Marketing at Steinway & Sons), and CPG Brand Management is notoriously hard to break into. Combine those factors with a frigid economy, and you see why we're in month eleven of our job hunt!

We've considered conceding Brian's dreams to the reality of bills and rent. Maybe we could find a lower-level job at a CPG company (like an Analyst position), or a Marketing job at a smaller-name or non-CPG company? We've finally started to apply for some jobs like that, but we haven't been having much more luck than with the "dream" jobs and companies. It's hard to get your application noticed, among the hundreds, without a current empoyee's name in your cover letter, so Brian has been networking like crazy at like every company ever. This helps him get a decent number of phone interviews, which almost always leads to a fly-back interview, which almost always leads to rejection...

Days have turned into months, and now semesters, and we're seeing just how bare-bones our budget can get so that we don't have to start spending our savings. So now summer's drawing to a close, and we've decided to move Brian's job-searching headquarters to my Mom's house.

(To be honest, it's hard to think that I worked my perfectionistic tail off during high school with my immaculate gpa, perfect attendance at early-morning seminary, intense sports involvement to make it to BYU on scholarship and put myself through undergrad and grad school, marry Mr. Right in the temple, have two perfect babies, and help my husband through the rigors of two master's degrees... all to return home jobless, with a husband and two kids in tow? )

But that's the shortsighted, self-centered way of looking at our situation. In the grand scheme of things, this is a little hiatus in our otherwise pleasant life. A time to refocus on our beliefs, our values, our motives for choices and goals. A time to realize we can't--and never did--do it alone. A time to develop humility and faith. And a time to pray and fast for answers and direction--and the blessing of a "dream" job, in the Lord's time.

You see, the answer we feel we've received is to continue to press forward in our quest for a job that will allow Brian to most fully use his talents, skills, and knowledge, in a field and function that Brian can fell passionate about and rewarded by! So, we've decided this means making some sacrifices, and heading into the unknown for a little while longer, with faith that we will land this evasive job eventually.

This is a trial for us. But since when should we shun opportunities for character development? This life is a time for us to prepare to meet God, and I've got a ways to go... Honestly, my character and faith grow most when I need to stretch and work hard, and sincerely pray for help and guidance because I desparately need it. So, this trial is requiring patience, tears, faith, and earnest prayer. Answers and comfort have come in very subtle but powerful ways, and I have a deep sense of peace about the future that I lose only when I start to feel depressed or angry. We've grown closer as a family through this process, too, and hopefully a little more humble as we've realized how much we truly need the Lord's help!

There are blessings though... the thick silver lining to all of this is all of the time our family is going to be able to spend time with my dear Mom, brothers, and Dad!

Light Bugs

Magic!

1,826 Days and Counting

On Friday, July 10th Brian and I marked our 5th Wedding Anniversary!!! We take turns planning the celebration, and this year it was my turn. In the afternoon we drove down to Ohio to visit my fam and snag a free babysitter. (You're the best, mom!)

I packed up nice picnic dinner in one of these jim dandies:

And we headed off for Stan Hywet, where the Ohio Shakespeare Festival was putting on As You Like It.

I've always loved this old, historic mansion. I grew up within walking/biking distance, and have many memories of visiting the house and grounds with friends and family, on field trips, and for choir performances, festivals, etc. My mom even took Brian and me there when he first visited my family for some casual engagement shots.

Good times. So it was the perfect place to return to celebrate our half-decade of matrimonial bliss.

After taking advantage of the complimentary bug spray, we found a picturesque picnic spot by the pond:

And enjoyed dinner:

Then it was time for the show.

The acting was great, and the play itself even better. Wow, Shakespeare was a total genius--the play gave me so much to think about in terms of social dynamics, gender roles, and relationships (man, I'm such a family therapist). I think every time I read or see a Shakespeare play, I appreciate the old Bard a little more.

But I appreciate my Brian even more! I'm so, so, so thankful to be married to such a sweet, funny, intelligent, hard-working, family-loving, gospel-centered, faithful, forgiving, creative, talented, cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuute man! He totally meets and exceeds all of my girlie, high school lists of characteristics I hoped for in my "future husband".

Here's a list of a few reasons why I love him, just because making a list is so intrinsically fulfilling to me:

• His wacky sense of humor will keep me entertained for the rest of eternity.
• He would walk 10 miles in the heat to save 50 cents.
• He's dedicated to providing for our family through a career that is exciting and fulfilling, and won't sell himself short, even though it means sacrificing right now.
• He listens to me babble on and on when I'm in a philosophical mood. Usually. Or at least he does a good job of fake-listening.
• He plays with my hair.
• He likes jelly bellies, nerds, and mike&ikes. That's so cute.
• He plays the piano like a crazy talented jazz genius. He's got serious mad skillz.
• He wants to have infinity babies with me, and like 6 or 8 of them in this life.
• He despises clutter and disorganization, yet he holds onto school papers like he's gonna try and sell them on ebay, and scatters his clothing like a rock star--He's frugal to a degree I've never before witnessed in any human being, yet he really likes refined food and clothing. (It's our incongruences that make us interesting).
• He always drives the whole way whenever we drive anywhere, as long as I do my duties as navigatress, cheerio-and-toy-and-book-throw-at-kid-er (???), back masseuse, toll ticket holder-oner-to-er/money getter, and snack passer-overer. And English language slaughtererererer.
• He has cute little endearing idiosyncratic habits that I'll refrain from listing, 'cause then they wouldn't seem quite as idiosyncratic. (OK, just one: He wiggles his feet when he's eating something for dinner that he really likes. Ahhhhhhh! SO cute)
• He watches Simpson's on his computer so I won't know, haha :)
• He's a hopeless idealist and pretty much a perfectionist. Just like someone else I know.
• He somehow chose to marry little old me.

Sigh... I think I'm in love.

For eternity.