The Generosity of Strangers

We live right next door to a shopping plaza so it's a nice place for Abby and I to run when we just need to get out of the house and pick up a few groceries. Such was the case today. It was a gloomy day outside, Abby had just woken up from her afternoon nap, and we'd been in all day. So when I asked Abby if she wanted to go bye-bye and she was literally shrieking with excitement and we walked outside to find it raining, I couldn't very well turn around and go back inside. That thought did cross my mind since both our umbrellas just happened to be in the car. With Roy. At school. It was only drizzling so I covered Abby's head with one of the campaign ads we got in the mail and walked as fast as possible to the covered stores (way less than 5 minutes for anyone concerned for our health). On our way back home, I checked the rain and it was going a little harder. A man in the parking lot asked me if I was okay and I responded that I was and had just been checking the rain. He offered us a ride, but since the stranger danger lessons I have learned plus the fact that we had no carseat for Abby helped me to say no. Undetered, this stranger said, "Follow me!" and ran into the discount store, grabbed an umbrella, and handed it to me with an, "I'll take care of it."

Now it is my turn to give back. To my stranger, thank you, but not just for an umbrella, but the reminder of doing good to others, friend or stranger.

FOUR!!! (Say it like you're on the golf course)

I never do these, but since Sister Funsch (aka Melissa Nielson) challenged me and I have a hard time saying no to her, here it goes:

A) Four places that I go to over and over: Shoppers, Target, the post office, church

B) Four people who e-mail me regularly: Sarah, my mom, Becky, Roy (yes, I know we're married, but we still email)

C) Four of my favorite places to eat: Olive Garden, picnics in the park, Wendys, Union Hotel (our once-a-week pizza place while we were in CA...yummy)

D) Four places I would rather be right now: I'll be honest, there's really no where I would rather be--Abby is asleep and I'm about to curl up with some chocolate and a good book

E) Four people I think will respond: Sarah, Liz, Steph, Becky and whoever else can't say no to a challenge!

F) Four TV shows I watch: We watch everything online, but I enjoy Bones, Fringe, Numbers, and The Unit

I tag Sarah Morrow, Becky, Liz, Steph, and anyone else who wants to!

Two Weeks of Catch-Up

I'm not sure how Abby got the coolest parents in the entire world, but this girl is lucky! We have had so much fun recently, but a lot of that is because she is hysterical and ready to have fun. Instead of doing a lot of writing, I'm going to tell about the fun things we have done through pictures.

Just over a week ago, Roy had an interview just two blocks from the National Zoo. So Abby and I dropped him off and went to the Zoo and Roy met us after his interview. How, you ask, did his interview go? Well, he knew it would go great when the first question was, "How much prosecution experience do you have?" Hmmm, the answer to that is none. Apparently, when Roy sent his application to work for the county civil division, it went to the prosecutor's office and since they didn't look carefully at his resume to see that he had zero criminal law experience, he got an interview. The interviewer was really nice though and they talked BYU football, which is never considered a wasted conversation!

This past weekend we went to a Fall Family Festival that was at Mount Vernon. We went on a hay ride, walked through the hay bale maze, made a corn husk doll, and listened to live music from the time of George Washington. It was a great morning!





Other exciting events include:

eating yogurt

doing the laundry

Abby refusing to eat food from a spoon and forcing Michelle and Roy to get really creative with what Abby eats (if anyone has any grand ideas of food, most especially veggies, that can be finger food, please let me know). Don't worry, the puffs container was empty, but we just thought Abby was hilarious trying to get every last drop.

and Abby getting to play guitar with Roy.

Oh, The Horror!

My sister-in-law used to be able to cut her son's fingernails when she turned on the vacuum. He was so scared of the vacuum that he would freeze and stare at it, thus making the dreaded fingernail trimming an easy experience. You would think that Abby would share some of the frozen fear of the vacuum with her cousin, but such is not the case. Yesterday during Abby's lunch, I got the floor all ready to be vacuumed. I cleaned up the toys, picked up the crumbs that were too big to be sucked up, and moved chairs and the coffee table (we now get crumbs in all sorts of good places so we have to move everything) to the other room. Then I opened the closet door where the vacuum is. During this whole process, Abby was pleasantly chatting and finishing up her food. Then the vacuum came out of the closet. Fear and terror were definitely the response, but instead of freezing, Abby began shaking her arms and screaming. Loud. I tried to calm her down to no avail. Then she refused to eat, keeping her eyes on the vacuum the whole time. Keep in mind that at no point has the vacuum been turned on. I ended up vacuuming with Abby on my hip, her face buried in my shoulder and her arms flailing throughout the horrific experience. While I wrapped the cord up when we were done, Abby stood staring at the vacuum and would start to reach for it and then pull her hand away. A couple minutes of trying led to success and she touched it, screamed, and lunged at me for a hug. Who knew the vacuum itself could be so scary?

First Official Camera Steps

Abby has taken steps by herself for a couple of days, but not when I have had the camera out and ready. So last night we were doing the classic walk-between-Mom-and-Dad game and I caught her on our camera. I think she's pretty cute!

Abby has begun standing up in her crib, as you will see in the picture a couple posts ago. So she started crying in the middle of the night and it took a couple minutes for me to register, "Go see what's wrong." By the time I got to her room, her cry had escalated to terrified screams. It turns out that she was standing in the middle of her bed with one arm holding onto one side and the other arm on the opposite side of the crib. It was dark, but I felt tears on her face (she usually just gets plain old mad and doesn't have tears so I knew it was serious). It took her a while to calm down and stop shaking. I'm sure she was just freaked out because she had no clue what was going on. I was laughing so hard and had to go share the funny Abby moment with Roy. We both laughed so hard, while Abby was still recovering. Man, we're mean parents! We laugh when she gets scared!

On another note, we were able to watch the BYU-USU game last night. It was a little bit of heaven for Roy. Living in VA is not really conducive to a BYU fan who likes to watch the games since not too many games are broadcast. It was really fun to watch the game. BYU was so fun--seeing the game and some of the commercials about BYU made me miss it a little. So many fond memories!

Ready, Set, GROW!

Abby has the go-ahead from her doctor to eat table foods (yeah for all of us!). I have some ideas, but I was hoping some of you might be able to offer some creative suggestions or ideas of what your kids have enjoyed. We've done lots of fresh fruit and veggies, grilled cheese, toast, and graham crackers. Any other ideas? Thanks!

A Picture's Worth 1000 Words