us, currently.

wow. wow. Our May just flew by. South Carolina, graduation, and Idaho pretty much took up the month. I can't believe we are already to June.

We remain alive and happy. Chris got his thesis submitted for publication (yay!) so he has very little tying him down to the University of Tennessee these days. Its nice. He's transitioning to Spartan-hood. He left this morning to the Northeast to attend a national academic conference. He will be gone for nearly a week, and since I'm really bad at being a single parent, my MIL is headed down tomorrow to pick up the slack. {We transitioned to talking about me . . .} I'm hoping to get a lot of clearing out and throwing away accomplished while she is here in preparation for the move. We have so much stuff. Its just everywhere: in every drawer and every nook. I just want to throw it all away. So I'm going to. I'm about 98% ready to become a Michigander. The waiting it whats driving me crazy. Lets get a move on already (ha!).

Carly is wonderful and wild. Her mobility is increasing daily, but what is most impressive is her perseverance. When she wants to get somewhere/something, there is no stopping her. She has also begun standing on her own, but only when she doesn't realize it. She will grab something with both hands and stand there looking at it until she realizes she is unsupported, then she promptly drops to her bum. Her hair is getting longer and wavy-er and blonder. It reminds me of a surfer for some reason, the blond wavy shaggy look. Its tres cute. Today she refused to nap for more than 45 minutes, probably because she knew I was alone and wouldn't get the relief of her daddy coming home (ha!). It made for whiny hyper day. But tonight she was so tired she actually laid down and snuggled with me and we just watched House Hunters together. Yes, she knows how to end a frustrating day on a good note.

[picture from my phone]

want to see a million cute Carly pictures?

I thought so.

~

Evidence of Carly's new chaotic hobbies:

*escaping during diaper changes

 

*escaping during meals

*weaving through any barrier we construct to reach the dishwasher

*raiding the fridge (she is OBSESSED with the fridge)

*getting into places she can't get out of

*waving to her loyal subjects from her chariot

*and being ridiculously cute [oh, wait, that's not new]

[yes she is holding a spatula, and yes she held it during her entire bath]

So that's us, currently.

30 on the 30th

happy anniversary to my favorite parents.

[aren't they fabulous?]

they are celebrating the big 3-0 today.

i'm grateful they got married.

i'm grateful they got married in the salt lake temple.

so we can all be together forever.

~ 

without them, there would be no me.

and without me, there would be no Carly.

and what kind of world would it be without Carly?

not any kind of world I would want to live in, that's for sure.

~

anyway, I owe them a lot.

love you, mom and dad.

and here we have idaho.

We love . . .

uncles.

aunts.

cousins.

strawberries.

costco.

books.

yogurt bars.

diamonds.

missionaries.

mexican food.

grandma loves.

grandpa's glasses.

playing games.

badminton.

giant rubber ducks.

playoff basketball.

May snowstorms.

shopping.

beautiful sunsets.

being together.

We love Idaho.

frequent flyers.

A few days ago my friend Stacey blogged about a rough trip she had on the way to visit family in Texas. Upon reading her story, I thought "wow, I'm glad we have always had perfectly smooth trips, especially with Carly!" This is when I should have said "Knock on wood" and knocked on the cabinet next to me. But I didn't . . .

~

Yesterday morning, it was time for our Idaho vacay to come to an end. We were late on our way to the airport in Salt Lake. My parents were dropping us off, then heading down to Provo to take my brother to the MTC. Was that nuts? Possibly, but that's what we did and we were late. So upon our arrival to the airport we bid quick goodbyes and ran to our gate, making it just in time to board. Ok, we made it . . . smooth sailing from there, right?

[Carly loved looking out the window at the other airplanes.]

In the air on the way to Chicago, the captain came over the speaker repeatedly telling us about being rerouted. Over and over again. Then we were in a holding pattern outside of Chicago. Apparently, severe thunderstorms meant nobody was getting to O'Hare. And apparently all our rerouting and holding used up all our fuel, because we were headed to Rockford, IL to refuel. Things were looking good [this post will be heavy with sarcasm]. We landed, but so did a bunch of other planes. We had about an hour until we could even find out when we could leave Rockford. And we weren't allowed off the plane because the airport didn't have security. So for . . . oh, 2 1/2 to 3 hours we sat in the tiny plane in Rockford. With lots of unhappy people and a really unhappy baby. But when Carly is unhappy she doesn't cry, per se. She gets hyper. She is everywhere and needs to be moving constantly and get into everything. Like she is just beside herself. Makes for some fun times while trapped on a small un-moving airplane.

~

But finally, FINALLY we landed in Chicago. Of course, the time for our connecting flight to Nashville had come and gone, but if we couldn't get in, then maybe that flight couldn't get out? Ummmm . . . O'Hare is massive. And it was packed with people thanks to the missed/delayed/cancelled flights. And our flight? Cancelled. We got on the standby list for the next flight to Nashville, which was 3 hours away. Aww, yes. More waiting. Oh, and I packed just enough food/formula to last the length of the planned trip. So our exhausted baby was also receiving rations of sustenance. Anyway, we were numbers 10 and 11 the the standby list, and the screen showed 4-6 available seats at any given time. Our chances were not looking good. I began wondering how we would spend the night in Chicago. The cost of shuttles and hotels started to tick through my mind. Could we spend the night in the airport? Maybe it would be worth it. The panic began to rise in my chest. Luckily, Carly had passed out by this time, and I was left to worry without any distractions.

[But isn't she yummy? Could have eaten her here. I was starving.]

What we were praying would be our flight to Nashville got delayed . . . twice. Two hours after its original departure time, and five hours after our arrival in Chicago, they called for boarding for the Nashville flight and started calling out names of standby passengers. I heard some names being called repeatedly. The people weren't showing up! "Chen. Passenger Chen!" they called over and over. Please, don't show up, Passenger Chen! I thought. Just then Carly woke up and I lifted her to find . . .

Yes, I kid you not, the child had peed on me. At exactly the perfect time. I ran to the bathroom to change (luckily Chris had gym shorts in his carry-on), praying they would call our name, but not right then. Because if we didn't show up right away, we were out of luck. I got back to Chris just as I heard a miracle in my ears: our name called over the loudspeaker. I grabbed Carly and told Chris to run to the front. I grabbed our things and our still soaked-in-pee baby and ran. We went out on to the tarmac and Chris hollered in victory and tears sprung to my eyes. I have no idea how we got on. We were the very last two seats on the plane, and it took off minutes after we boarded.

~

The plane, however, turned out to be the smallest plane I've ever been on. And it was also about 8 million degrees. I changed Carly and didn't bother finding new clothes for her. It was too hot. The guy across from us said "I wish I was wearing what she is wearing!" I wished I was too.

[Not gonna lie, we sure looked classy.] 

As our plane took off and beads of sweat rolled down my stomach, I said a small prayer of thanks for our little miracle. What a blessing it was to be on our way to Nashville. Our trip had been extended nearly 8 hours. But we were on our way.

~

Rather than drive the remaining distance to Knoxville in the middle of the night, we got a hotel in Nashville. We stumbled into our room with a bag of Wendy's, covered in sweat and grime and more than a little Carly pee. But we were in the right state, and after a good meal and some Sportscenter and showers for all, we settled in for some quality sleep. And woke up just in time for check-out.

~

Did I mention we had a wonderful trip? Because we really, really did. But more than ever, I am grateful to be home.

a day with the fam.

today:

• we went to Molinelli's and got all our wedding rings dipped and polished. my rings look bright and dazzling and brand new. i'm a little giddy.
• we went to the big messy unorganized glorious used book store. chris and i came out with 3 books for $10. soon i will know everything there is to know about queen noor. i love autobiographies.
• we went on a long walk after dinner. it was chilly. idaho can be like that in may. but we passed by our old old old house that we lived in as children and reminisced.
• we watched the single family home video the T family has. good thing its the most entertaining minutes that could have possibly been captured.

who knows what tomorrow will bring.

under one roof.

for the first time ever, all 10 members of the new and improved T family are all under one roof.

we are partying it up before our baby brother heads out to the mission field.

~

chris and I don't see a lot of Carly, but between the happy squeals echoing through the house, giant jaguar, giant duck, and lots of aunts/uncles/grandparents to play with, we think she is doing ok.

xoxoxo.

master of the house.

We made it out to Chris's graduate hooding ceremony on Thursday.

Did you know I love graduations?

Wait, not graduations.

What I love is academic regalia. The robes and hoods representing different universities and degrees. I find it fascinating. As I watched the PhD students get hooded by their mentors, I couldn't help but skip ahead 4 years in my mind and imagine Chris getting his green and white hood placed over his head as I sit with 4-year-old Carly, and hopefully her little sibling. Crazyness.

It was nice, especially since I sat through the whole thing while Carly wandered through the halls with her ma-maw. And the Mexican food following was even nicer. Chris sees this as just another stepping stone. The next step until the ultimate goal: the giant PhD hood from Michigan State. But Carly and I, we are proud of our boy. He worked so hard. He did so much.

Yes, we are very proud of our boy.