au revoir.

so how about on Wednesday night Chris played church ball and royally messed up his ankle. like, he-is-currently-using-crutches messed up his ankle. and his thesis was due today. and Carly and I are getting on a plane and leaving him tomorrow. poor guy. thank goodness some friends let him borrow their crutches (they have had church ball injuries of their own) so the hopping has stopped. i kept telling carly that her daddy was the easter bunny "because he hops, hops, hops around." pretty sure there will be a wife-imposed ban on church ball.

~

my child crawls . . . backwards. she went backward from that book to her location in this picture. it was highly entertaining. you can see how proud she is of herself. she is delicious. every day i tell her I'm going to eat her for lunch.

speaking of delicious, Carly liked this apple more than a friend. i can tell she is getting frustrated with baby food because it smells eerily similar to baby poo. she looks at our food like "hey, that actually smells good!" shortly after we let her suck on this apple, i fed her pureed green beans. she was definitely not pleased with the switch.

oh, yeah, we are leaving tomorrow. can't really tell you how excited i am (minus the leaving Chris part and flying alone with an ultra-energetic baby part). that last few days i've done a billion loads of laundry trying to catch up and cleaned the house what feels like 10 times. and packed 3 times. did you know i'm a chronic over-packer? i am. i pack way too much, then unpack and try to weed stuff out. today i had to have chris intervene and help me. i have serious issues, and its only worse now that carly is aboard.

~

but we are leaving tomorrow.

exactly 24 hours from now i'll be in the car with my daddy driving to pocatello.

glorious.

(minus the no-chris thing, don't forget).

au revoir.

up in the air.

Its been a bit of a hectic week or so in the C house. After being told by many a Michigan folk that a program graduate was getting a job (good sign) and selling her little house, we decided to contact her. After several long emails back and forth, lots of pictures (such a cute house; all redone inside.) we started contemplating actually buying this house and actually trying to be in contract by April 30 to qualify for the first time homebuyers tax credit. Oh, so naive were we. We had calculated how much we pay in rent as being how much we could pay in a mortgage payment, which makes sense for us but apparently not for a mortgage lender. Lenders assume you have credit card debt and student loans and car payments, etc, so they only allow your payment to be a certain percentage of your income. And if you don't have ANY debt or ANY payments to make because all your furniture is hand-me-down and you live on a tight budget? Too bad, the rules still apply. And since our income is, ummm, low, we would only qualify for a too small loan to buy a house that is actually worth the trouble of buying. So at this point our living situation is up in the air. Too up in the air for my taste. The door is still open to buy, but at this point it is likely just not worth it. Was I crushed? Only very, and only for like a few days. I'm starting to remind myself of the perks of renting and we have found some cute townhouse-type things to look into instead of hard-core apartment living. I'm praying we are done with that. My dad reminded me that with me being a stay-at-home mom and Chris a full-time student, its pretty amazing we were able to even consider buying a home. So true. Here's to buying a house! . . . . in four years.

what might have been.

our living room. 3:00 this afternoon. the hangers prove i actually tried to put the laundry away.

poor child wouldn't go down for her morning nap. so she was REALLY ready for her afternoon one. i ran to the restroom and came back to find she had tapped out.hey look I made Carly a blanket. the stitches are a mess and are everywhere. turns out sewing in a straight line is not as easy as assumed. she will have 10 of these blankets before i figure it out. thats ok, though, because they are my favorite blankets ever. On St Patrick's Day morn I got a call from my dad asking if Carly and I would like to come out very soon, as Chris is in a rather intense segment of his thesis. Sounded like a good plan to me, so we are headed West this Saturday. I really am so excited. I feel like I could use a little "getting away from it all". And Carly has grown up so much since Christmas and I'm excited my family gets to see her an extra time before May (when we are going to see my brother off to his mission). And I love going home. Carly has become a bit of a golden ticket in that regard. But I will miss my main man dearly. I'm not sure what he is going to do with himself, as he won't have to make me dinner, clean up all my dirty dishes, and stay up all night listening to me freak out about being homeless in Michigan. But when we get back his thesis will be *done* (except revisions), and he will defend a few days later. Big days in the C House. I was 15 when I first stepped foot on an airplane, and 19 for my second flight. Carly will be heading up in the air for her second time at just 7 1/2 months, and for her third at 9 1/2 months. She is quite the golden ticket.

the golden ticket in her new umbrella stroller. i figured we ought to get one for our frequent flying.

girls.

yesterday marked one year since we walked into the ultrasound room and found out a Carly was on her way. I remember counting forward and realizing that one year from then, our baby would be 7 months old. At the time, I couldn’t even imagine having a 7-month-old. Now here we are.
~

I was shocked she was a girl. I was convinced we were having a boy. I was happy either way, of course. Convinced we were having a boy; kind of wishing for a girl. And then she was a girl. Suddenly I was looking at life through pink-colored glasses.The prospect of having a girl was not too daunting at the time. I thought so much about having a baby girl--all the bows and clothes--that I didn’t think about Carly growing up. These past few weeks I’ve been thinking about how fast she is growing, how she won’t stop even though we have asked her nicely too. I’ve been thinking constantly about teenage Carly.

~
I work in the Young Women organization at Church. I look at what these girls deal with every day, at school, with friends, with boys. I look at how much more they have to stand up against than even I did, and I wasn’t in high school all that long ago. There is some seriously scary stuff in the world today, and it will change so much in the next 15 years. What kind of world will teenage Carly call home? What kinds of things will be on TV, what gadgets will be popular, what fashions acceptable? How do I make Carly strong enough to not just survive it all, but to thrive despite it all? How do I make her see the bigger picture, to understand the importance of modesty, prayers, virtue, temples, scriptures, kindness, service, and all of the things that lead to happiness? Its so hard to see that when you’re 16.

~
A few weeks ago I was putting my make-up on and Carly was sitting in her bumbo watching me. She stared at my blush brush, so I ran the empty brush across her cheeks and said, “There, now Carly is pretty!” As soon as I said it, my heart sank. Carly is the most beautiful thing on this planet. And no blush, or lack thereof, can make her more or less beautiful. I vowed to never say something like that to her again, and to never talk about myself that way in front of her either. I don’t want her thinking make-up and clothes are what makes her beautiful. We can tell already she is a fun girl with loads or personality to go around. Its my job to make sure she knows that, too. Its my job to be an example to her, in word and deed. I’m beginning to realize that motherhood is even scarier than anticipated.

~
I consider my mother one of my best friends. She is my example, the kind of woman, wife, and mother I want to be. Home was always a safe place, and my mother was always there with open ears and a bowl of dark chocolate covered almonds. Because of that, I always knew where to go when I needed help or a pick-me-up. I pray that Chris and I can create that kind of home for Carly and crew. I pray she will love me as much as I love my mom, and as much as I love her. And I pray she will come to me, she will open up, she will learn from the few tiny pieces of wisdom I have to offer. And I pray she will know who she is and love who she is and be grateful for who she is. Because she is awesome.

~
And to think, I thought having a girl was all bows and dresses.

tape measures are totally hilarious.

the ides of march.

Guess what the ides of March brought me?

Want me to sew you something?

Because I totally will.

As soon is I figure out how to get the string around the round thing and through the pointy thing.

Thanks, mom and dad.

her hair is bronze.

We often get asked what color Carly's hair is.

And by "asked" I mean the people are right there looking at her.

"Is she a redhead?" they ask.

Its hard to tell.

Her hair is a perfect combination of red, blond, and brown.

I like to call it bronze.

~

Carly is strong.

She is pulling herself up on things.

Its getting hard to hold her down to change her or get her dressed.

You can feel her ripped little muscles in her arms and legs.

Chris calls her the warrior princess.

~

Here are a million bajillion pictures of our bronze-haired warrior princess.

~
The thrice-daily meal battle.

(yes, she is wearing my t-shirt. i got sick of washing her clothes out

and changing her outfit 3 times a day.

"Nap time is over, mom!"

So this week before the rains began, Carly and I went to the park. I took our jogger instead of our regular stroller. I put Carly in the front like a big girl (for the first time). I was feeling pretty good so I thought, "why not jog?" So I started jogging.

Carly did not like that one bit. I jogged, she screamed. I stopped, she was fine. I jogged, she screamed. The speed terrified her. And by the time we got across the park, she had had enough.

She required me to carry her. No more stroller; it was too scary. Remember how I said we were on the far side of the park from the parking lot? So I carried and rocked Carly with two arms, and pushed the stroller with the third arm [?]. Somehow we made it back, though I looked crazy carrying my whining baby and pushing an empty stroller.

And of course she fell asleep 25 yards away from the car. She traveled the final stretch in peace. Good times.

We call her The Carly Bat.

We call her the Carmaid.

I put her pants on while Chris held her up, and about 15 minutes later noticed she was moving strangely. Ooops.

"Ok, I'm on my hands and knees! Now what?"

"I'm gonna crawl . . . I'm gonna crawl . . ."

"Maybe I'll stop to suck my thumb . . ."

"Yeah, I'll just hang out and suck my thumb."

The Climber.

She loves to climb on mommy and daddy.

[excuse my work-out clothes].

But she recently discovered the coffee table.

And I recently discovered the fear of her bashing her head on the coffee table.

warrior princess.

Can you tell she is our pride and joy?

Because she is.

keeping calm and carrying on.

I can't even tell you how much I love this poster.

I think its classic and stylish and you can't beat the message.
Then I read the history behind it and I love it even more.

[I'm a history buff and a royalty buff. Nerd alert.]

It was a symbol of calm and assurance in the chaos of WWII Britain.

It said that even if everything is crumbling around you, keep calm and carry on.

Because sometimes that is all you can do.

I must have this in my house. Soon.

And I would love a similar frame, as well.

Its been one of those weeks in the C house. One of those weeks where you are like "Aww, man, but we were doing so good!" One of those weeks where you can't help but feel a little gloomy. And the non-stop clouds and rain didn't help

~

Our Tuesday surprise was a financial one. One that requires us to crunch a few numbers and tighten our belts and consider bidding farewell to the hopes of a summer beach vacation for three. But do you know what? There are a lot of problems we can face in life. And I would take financial concerns over every single one of them. We are healthy, we are safe, we are sealed, we have Carly, we have wonderful families. We are blessed.

~

That doesn't mean there was no panicking on my part. You know when a big stupid thing happens so all the little annoying things that happen every day seem way worse? Last night shortly after dinner my stomach felt the all-too-familiar chopped-up-by-an-ax feeling. Somehow some wheat sneaked in with my taco salad. I was not happy. In between my restroom visits, I decided I should wax my eyebrows, as they were becoming jungle-like. I've used these wax strips multiple times, they work great, and I HATE plucking. But last night? Last night they took a layer of skin while simultaneously depositing a layer of wax and leaving all the hairs. Really? With everything else going on, maybe, just maybe, my eyebrow wax strips could work. But it was not to be. My jungle eyebrows remain.

~

But I think we are reaching a calm after the storm.

We are waiting on one last phone call,

and I'm hoping the lady has good news for me.

But if she doesn't? It will be all right.

We have a plan.

Keep praying for those whose burdens are much greater than ours.

Keep paying tithing.

Keep clinging to each other.

And carry on.

~

~

~

Now I must go. The Young Women are having an auction of baked goods tonight at the Ward Talent show. I'm making Butterfinger Cake and Rocky Road brownies. Neither of which I can eat so it won't be hard to let them go. But I will say, I got a gluten-free yellow cake mix so I can make some of the Butterfinger Cake for myself. It looks fabulous.

Happy Weekend.