... When No One Else is Watching

Two Beauties

This is my favorite picture at this moment in time. Aren't they beautiful?!

Grandma and 'The Girl'

Two Years and Going Strong!

My husband and I celebrate our second wedding anniversary tomorrow and I can't believe how much my life has changed in this short span of time. All for the better, of course.

For those who don't know, Rob and I met on a return flight to Salt Lake City from Baltimore on July 11, 2003. Well, actually, we met on the connection flight in between from Cincinnati to SLC. I was extremely irritated because I had not been upgraded to first class - I was a platinum SkyMiles member after all - and to make matters worse they had stuck me in a middle seat! Not happy people, not happy. I went to the desk to see if I could get my seat switched around to an aisle or window, batting my eyelashes the entire time to see if my obviously non-existent charm would work, but no,,, no good seat available. They did put me in an exit row though, so at least I had some leg room. In the meantime, Rob had been called up to the desk and was asked if he wanted to move to a window seat rather than being in the back of the plane, they had an exit row window available (what the????) Rob, of course, jumped on the opportunity to have some leg room and once the ticketing agent took his ticket to replace it she said, "yeah, you don't want to be in the back of bus by yourself in that row." I think Rob was now the one who was angry because this was a nighttime flight and he could have had an entire row to sleep. He decided not to fight it, and look at his luck, he met me and ended up with me for life! Lucky guy!

I was already in my seat when Rob boarded the plane. He was very polite about telling me he was in the seat next to me and sorry that I had to move to let him in. He also started talking about how nice it was to have some leg room. The only thing I was thinking was, "I hope they call me up to tell me I have been upgraded because this guy doesn't know the first thing about leg room,,, I want my leather seat, hot towel, butt room, leg room and free alcoholic beverage!!!" I think Rob could tell I was a bit annoyed so he didn't try to engage me in a conversation. Once I realized first class was not in my future I decided to give the conversation a try. I can so vividly remember looking at Rob while he was staring out the window. I could tell he was a kind man, and so far, quite friendly. Once we started talking we pretty much didn't stop. We talked the entire three and a half hours and then continued our conversation on the shuttle to our cars since we had also parked at the same park-n-ride. We exchanged phone numbers and I don't know if I really thought anything would come from it but I certainly hoped he would call. Five days later he did, we went to dinner and we have been inseperable ever since.

So much has changed since the day we met almost three years ago. We were married, moved to Austin, Texas, moved back to Salt Lake City, have bought and sold two homes, gave birth to Avery and I have truly loved every minute of it. Sure, Rob will say but what about the times when you would cry about missing your family or the nine months of sickness while pregnant with Avery and so on, and so on. But even with the few things that haven't been the greatest over the years, they are all included in the pieces of time that have made up the most important time of my life. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Her First Pony!!!

Tail that is. Her first ponytail. Granted, I probably could have put her hair in a ponytail on the day of her birth but I'll be honest, I've been scared of the ponytail. Headbands with cute little bows on them are so much easier to stick on her head than gathering up small amounts of hair and wrapping them in a rubber band. The good news is she looks so stinking cute and I am now addicted to torturing my child with hair products. Here's some photographic evidence.

'The Ponytail'

Standing with Daddy's assistance - Soooooo Cute!

Who's having more fun?

This is what happens when we take the ponytail ring out!

Trendy

She's now establishing a new fad,,, again, courtesy of daddy. What's up with men and dressing their kids dorky?

"I'm moving on from armpit pants and adding knee-high socks to my wardrobe!"

Dreams really do come true!

I have discovered the eighth wonder of the world, and it's at the pet store!

My beautiful dog, or as I should call her, my first child, Laila is a very sweet dog if not a bit spastic. The only thing she wants to do is give you bunches of love and lay at your feet and catch any bits of food that may not make it into your mouth. The one time that this sweetness disappears entirely is when we take her for a walk. She tugs and tugs and just aboaut breaks your arm from trying to contain her. I know her senses are on overload and she wants to sniff everything she passes and she wants us to get where we are going much quicker than the pace we are making her follow but good Lord! the dog won't allow us to enjoy a simple walk.  And it can't be enjoyable for her either, having her neck be constantly pulled at and hearing our usually friendly tones become angrier and angrier. The kicker is she knows her commands. If we have food and we bribe her she becomes the perfect dog, better than perfect! Yet, the only time this bribery does not work is when we take her on her leash. But aha! we have found the solution to our problem and it works so well I want to weep with joy just thinking about it.

Behold the eighth wonder of the world,,, the Halti. I was skeptical at first because everything we have tried to get our dog to behave during walk time seems to result in failure and me crying myself to sleep at night hoping when I wake up my dog will be perfect. My mother was in Australia for the past few weeks and was with a family friend of ours. He was walking his dog, a labrador like Laila, and she told him about our troubles during walk time and how in the world was his dog so well-behaved? He told her that he too had tried everything to get his dog to behave and the only thing that worked for him was the Halti collar. Supposedly, his dog was just as spastic as Laila and he was so frustrated he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown before he decided to try the Halti in a last ditch effort to tame the dog during walks. What do you know,,, it worked.

When my mom told me the story I told her we had tried something like that when she was a puppy but it didn't seem to work. I figured we would give it another go since she is now two years old and the collar would probably fit her better than it used to. I told Rob what I would like to do and he thought the same thing I did,,, "it will never work!" Well, obviously we know nothing because the second we put this thing on her her behavior changed immediately. She didn't like the piece being around her nose, which is why it works. Every time she would pull it would put uncomfortable pressure along the bridge of her nose and correct her pulling behavior instantly. Sure she would try to fight us a few times when she saw another dog she wanted to sniff or when she wanted to get to the park much faster than we were going, but it was nothing compared to the daily fight we used to have with her. Incredible! It was so incredible that two mornings ago when Rob and I were walking, he turned to me and said, "this is really enjoyable!" How sad is it that we haven't been able to take an enjoyable walk with our dog for two years?

So, if any of you have unruly dogs,,, you should really buy one of these miracle collars. They work,,, they really work!

And as you now know, no post is complete without new pictures of Baby Avery. Here are two shots that show you how much she changes within two weeks!

The first picture is of Mama and Avery at grandma's house before she took off for the land of Oz. And the second picture was taken two weeks later when we went to pick up the goodies she brought back for us! Gotta love grandma!

 

Lesson Learned

I have learned a HUGE lesson the hard way.

When I found out I was pregnant I was bound and determined to have a fit, healthy pregnancy. Unfortunately, by week five of my pregnancy I was sick multiple times a day and the only thing I wanted to do was curl up in a ball on a big, comfy chair. As you may already be able to tell, exercise was the last thing on my mind, almost as much as putting anything in my mouth. Since I was not eating a whole lot it was hard for me to be physically active and the exercise went caput! The one thing that was ultimately very surprising for me was that I lost quite a bit of weight during my pregnancy. I am by no means saying this is a good thing but since I was overweight when I got pregnant it wasn't really a bad thing either. My doctor said not to worry because, in the end, the baby was taking what she needed from me.

Now to the meaning of this post. Since I have lost quite a few pounds since when I found out I was pregnant I figured getting back to exercising would be simple. I would hop right back into the flow of things and now that I'm lighter, exercise would be easier, who cares that I haven't had a hard workout in over a year. Ummm,,, that's not how it happened! I have been working out on our eliptical trainer at a low level in our home for the last few weeks and figured I wanted to rejoin my gym for some variety. On Saturday I went to the gym for the first time in well over a year and all I can say is I got my butt kicked! I felt really good about how well I did when I finished my hour-long session, I was sweating from a good cardio workout and I had energy to spare. It wasn't until about six hours later that I started to feel the effects of what I had done. It wasn't the kind of pain you would feel from drinking one too many shots of tequila, it was the type of pain you feel from having someone taking both your legs and wrapping them around your head! Oy! Rob was very comforting, telling me that all I needed to do was keep stretching out my muscles, keep stretching, keep stretching, keep stretching. And I did! I swear! But nothing could have prepared me for the pain I felt this morning when I tried to get out of my bed. A simple task of sitting down on the couch to feed Avery was turned into my screaming for God's mercy. My thighs and glutes hurt to the point that I was complaining every two minutes. And as you can already imagine, Rob had plenty of advice,,, KEEP STRETCHING! Yeah,,, I got it!

Even though you would think the gym has become my enemy, it has not. I'm going back again tomorrow evening for a step class that used to be my favorite. I'm hoping not to make too big a fool of myself - no tripping, no tripping, no tripping - and also that my thighs won't rebel against me this time. Wish me luck!

Hair!

"Flow it, Show it; Long as God can grow it, My Hair!"

"I want it long, straight, curly, fuzzy
Snaggy, shaggy, ratty, matty
Oily, greasy, fleecy, shining
Gleaming, steaming, flaxen, waxen
Knotted, polka-dotted; Twisted, beaded, braided
Powdered, flowered, and confettied
Bangled, tangled, spangled and spaghettied!"

Yep,,, she will probably be able to do all of the above with it pretty darn soon!