Horseback Rides: 50 cents

Ride ends. "Come on, horse!"

Pumpkin Carving in the City

One of my most favorite memories of fall is carving pumpkins for Halloween. Deciding what type of scary face I'm going to give my jack-o-lantern, carving it, sticking a candle in the pumpkin, and then realizing it doesn't look nearly as good as I thought it was going to. Great memories!

For some reason, though, I never remember the preparing of the pumpkin to carve until I actually start the process. Then I remember that it's kind of disgusting and by the time all the pumpkin guts are cleaned out I'm not really interested in having anything to do with a pumpkin for the rest of my life.

Up until this year I've had a hard time finding a place within walking distance that sold pumpkins. But Evan came back from the store one night and told me they had some small-ish ones for way too much money in case I was interested. Luckily I had already devised a plan for a guts-free-pumpkin-carving Halloween this year.

The first thing I do when I go to Target is look at their dollar section. I generally load up on a few things that I don't need and then end up putting most of it back before I get to my actual shopping list. But, I saw a Styrofoam pumpkin and thought it would be cute to put outside our door. I talked myself out of it until I found this:

And in the dollar section of the Atlantic Terminal Target I had an epiphany: this year we will carve a pumpkin...city style! Well, city/mom is 8 months pregnant/Blake is going to lose interest in carving a pumpkin in 2.34 minutes/we don't have a porch to display this pumpkin style. So I grabbed the Styrofoam pumpkin I had put back and I had myself a nice little craft project for Blake. No pumpkin guts required!

We ventured outside one morning to "carve" our pumpkin. Blake decorated and I snapped a few pictures. I was all set to display it outside our front door when Blake decided he wanted to carry the pumpkin around for the rest of the day. And put it in his room. And rearrange all the felt pieces.

Wait. We're just going to stick it outside our front door?

I tried putting the pumpkin outside our door after Blake went to bed, but the next morning he saw it on our way outside and couldn't resist bringing it in. I let him pick out one of those tiny decorative pumpkins at the store hoping to draw his attention away from the fake pumpkin. Now he's enamored with both.

I like both of the little pumpkins that I keep finding in random places in our apartment. And while I kind of miss roasting pumpkin seeds to snack on, I certainly didn't miss touching the insides of a pumpkin this year.

This Morning I

played with cars.

whined when Mom asked me to jump off the bottom step so she could take a picture.

fell off the step while whining.

was really just milking the situation for attention, but Mom kept snapping pictures.

eventually jumped off the bottom step.

played with my cars again.

put my cars in perilous danger and yelled, "Help!" a million times.

went to the playground up the street and then pitched a royal fit when Mom said it was time to go. She had to throw me over her shoulder and carry me home. She wasn't very happy about that.

Love, Blake

cravings

Every time I use soy sauce in a recipe, I immediately crave sushi. A wonderfully kind woman at church brought me most of the supplies I'd need to make my own (and a container full of some sushi rolls she made. Totally almost cried.).

I bought the rest of the ingredients I'd need to make California and Philadelphia rolls (which I was able to find, no problem. But I still have a hard time finding apple pie filling).

I went to Chinatown and spent too much money on a sushi dish set at Pearl River Mart.

I made the rice (which wasn't hard at all).

I assembled the rolls.

That's right. They make special soy sauce for sushi and sashimi.

So, not perfect. But delicious!

And I stuffed myself so full of sushi that I'm no longer craving it. In fact, I was so uncomfortably full that I probably won't crave sushi for another 6 months or so.

I cannot say the same thing about the consumption of M&M's. I could eat my weight (and probably have) in those and still crave them.

Labor Day

7 month bump

Hopefully in 3 months I'll be having a very different labor day!

I haven't done a very good job of documenting this growing bump of mine mainly because I've been too tired to really think about it. And most days I DO NOT feel like having my picture taken.

So there it is, posterity.

Love Stories

(How it all began here.)

A fish funeral.

Never in a million years did I think the story of how I fell in love with Evan would include a funeral for a fish. A fish named Milkbone.

After spending a few hours with Evan and his friends at a bonfire in Provo Canyon the night before, stealing his hat in a rousing game of ultimate frisbee, then being largely ignored for the rest of the night, I had developed a small crush. Well, maybe it wasn't even a crush yet. I didn't know Evan hardly at all, but I did know I wouldn't mind bumping into him again in the near future.

When my friend Kristi told me her brother was going to be having a funeral for Milkbone and that some of his friends (not the fish, her brother) would be there I nonchalantly mentioned that I'd tag along. How often do you get to attend a fish funeral, complete with a presiding bishop in attendance? This was some pretty serious stuff.

It was a Sunday and out of respect for the deceased I thought it appropriate to wear my Sunday best, which just so happened to be a cute black number that was extremely flattering. (Oh how I wish that dress still fit...) We walked into the apartment where the funeral was to be held and I did a quick scan for Evan. Well, let's back up. At this point I don't think I knew his name was Evan. All of his friends had nicknames for each other and Evan's was "Magic". And when I asked Kristi what all of her brother's friends' names were, she wasn't even 100 % sure. So I knew him as Magic.

I saw Magic and apparently caught him off guard. He wasn't expecting me to be there. And in the wake of such tragedy, he wasn't going to get his hopes up in thinking I might make an appearance. Eventually he made his way over to where I was sitting and sat behind me. As my heart started to beat a little faster, I did my best to pretend like I hadn't seen him. The funeral began and there may have been some faux tears here and there. When everyone was invited to go outside for the burial (and I think it was at this point that the bishop in attendance had started to wonder if any of these boys would get married), I turned around and said something to Magic. (Or he may have initiated the conversation. Or maybe it was Kristi. I can't remember, but someone started talking.) Plans were made to get together the next week at our apartment and have a barbecue. Magic would be there and so would his friend Jex.

I'm not sure if I expected to be asked on a date at that fish funeral. I do remember leaving a little disappointed. I would have said yes to a date, even though all I really knew about this guy was that everyone called him Magic and he liked bonfires. Magic still thought I might have a boyfriend and was kind of testing the water to see how a group hang out would go. Surely he'd find out if I was dating someone if I showed up to this barbecue with a guy. Or at least it was bound to come up in some sort of conversation.

I left the funeral with a little bit of hope. At least I knew I'd get to see him again.

What I didn't know was that hours before our next encounter, I would be running several blocks to a friend's house with shower essentials and clean clothes in an effort to look somewhat decent after our toilet backed up into our shower. I was really excited to see Magic again and I wasn't going to let a little poop ruin that night.

Morning routine

3 out of my 5 weekday mornings go a little something like this:

wake up
breakfast
combination of laying on the couch/playing with Blake
convince myself we'll walk to the far playground since we haven't been there in a while
talk myself out of doing that (too far, too hot, it smelled terrible last time we were there)
convince myself we'll go to the not-as-far-away playground
talk myself out of doing that (still too far, still too hot, last time we went Blake threw the mother of all tantrums when it was time to go)
convince myself we'll go to the super close playground
talk myself out of doing that (we go there all the time, no shade, shirtless old men sitting around)
think of something to do on our stoop

By the time 10am rolls around I've gathered what energy I do have to get myself ready for the day and we're out the door to sit on our steps for a little while blowing bubbles, painting the sidewalk with water, or collecting leaves.

On the rarest of occasions I'll think of a fun activity we haven't done before and it will come together beautifully, with very little effort and planning on my part.

So today at 10:30 when it was apparent we weren't going to do any of the grandiose things I had laid on the couch thinking about doing, I thought I could handle walking to the closest 99 cent store, picking up some paint, and letting Blake paint outside for a little while. We got our supplies and headed home, where I was able to fashion some easels out of an old diaper box. Once outside, I explained to Blake the basics of using watercolors and let him go.

one for Blake, one for Mom

so focused he didn't notice me snapping pictures

chasing the fly that wouldn't leave him alone

Ahhh, much better

Gallery worthy

So that fills my good mom quota for the week, right? I don't have to try to come up with anymore fun stuff to do until next week, right? Ok good.