Mission Accomplished

First of all, I apologize for the pictureless blogs lately. I guess I've gotten out of the habit of taking out the camera. I need to start that soon. I just wanted to share the good news: As of Saturday, I am back to my pre-pregnancy weight!! It is very bittersweet. Of course, I am thrilled to have lost 22 pounds in 2008. I definitely feel more confident and more myself. I enjoy feeling healthier too. The bitter part is that, even though I weigh the same as I did before the pregnancy, I still don't fit into my pre-pregnancy clothes!!! The baby did a number on my tummy, I guess. So that was kind of a letdown. I guess my next goal is to get back to what I weighed when we got married. I'm embarassed to say that that means there are 10 more pounds to go... No excuses for that one except that I guess we just had a really fattening "honeymoon period." So wish me luck with my next endeavor!!

Shoot. Me. Now.

Do you remember this post? The one where a guy tried to come into my house and I was freaked out because I was in my pajamas? He said I had "an attitude?" I have been embarassed to see him around the complex ever since.

Well, Brooklyn and I went grocery shopping while Jason was at home studying for his last final. He left to take his test before we got home. I didn't realize until I was pulling into the parking lot that I didn't have my house key! I thought about taking Brooklyn over to the Wendy's by our house and waiting in the air conditioning until Jason got home. But, I didn't want our groceries to sit in the hot car for that long. So, I went over to the office to see if somebody could let me in. Office hours are from 12 to 3, and I got there at about 3:02. Just my luck, the office was already closed. I wandered around the complex until I saw somebody mowing the lawn. Of course, it was the same guy from my previous blog!! I swallowed my pride and asked him if he could let us in. He turned off the lawn mower, went into the office to get the key, and opened the door for us. I didn't even have to tell him what apartment we lived in because apparently he remembers the girl with "the attitude." I was so embarassed.

Of course, the story doesn't end there... I unloaded the car, put all the groceries away, checked my email, and then put Brooklyn in her high chair with some snacks. I then grabbed the mail key and went to get the mail, which is just across the hall from our apartment. When I went to go back inside, THE DOOR WAS LOCKED!!! I couldn't believe it. I guess I must have locked the door out of habit when I left! I still don't remember doing it, but there I was locked out for the second time in 30 minutes. I was absolutely NOT going to ask the guy to let me in again. I could see Brooklyn through the window, happily eating her raisins and cheese. We had gotten a magazine in the mail and I just kind of stood there flipping through it and waiting for Jason to come home, however long that might be. In the meantime, the maintenance guy was going around blowing the grass off the sidewalks. My natural mother's instincts began to tell me I was being irresponsible. Yeah, I could see the baby, but what if she started choking or something and I couldn't get to her? When the guy got around to blowing off the grass by our apartment, I got up the nerve to ask him to let me in again. He had to turn off the machine and go back to the office again to get the key. Talk about HUMILIATION!!! It was bad enough the first time, but the second time I was mortified. Let's just say that I learned to be grateful the complex keeps a key to our apartment, even if that means they might come in when we're not expecting them.

Lettuce all Rejoice

So far, the only word that Brooklyn says frequently and well is "Dada." She will repeat it back to you if you say it to her, and she is always calling out for Jason when he is home. She has said a soft "tick tock" a few times, but she doesn't do her tick-tock motion as much anymore so she also doesn't say it much. We've been waiting for her to add to her word repertoire, and she did tonight! We had lettuce wraps for dinner so I gave Brooklyn her own piece. She chowed down on it and really liked it. After Jason was done eating, he went over to her and picked up a piece of it and said "Lettuce. Lettuce." Then, to our shock, Brooklyn repeated "Yettuce." We laughed and thought is was a fluke so he tried it again. Again, "Yettuce." And a third time. By then we were laughing and clapping and telling her how smart she was. She grinned and picked up the lettuce, held it up in the air and proclaimed: "YETTUCE!!"


I admit it was cute, but I don't know how I feel about the fact that my child learned to say "lettuce" before "mama." Hooray.

Stuff We Eat

My sister-in-law, Lashelle, started a blog all about the recipes she tries out with her family and how they like them. Great idea, Lashelle! I've kind of been doing that with our family blog and all of our Weight Watchers escapades. I like posting our ideas because I know some of my readers use them, and it also makes it easy for me to find them again. However, I don't really want them printed in our family blog when I finally get around to making our blog into a book. Rather than editing them out then, I thought I'd make a separate blog full of Weight Watcher's ideas and recipes. So, if you're interested - check it out! There's a link at the side of our blog, or you can go to manercookbook.blogspot.com. I just copied some of my old posts over and also added a few mores ideas. I plan on adding more soon. Enjoy!

Hooray for the Olympics!

So I admit that I'm not much of a sports fan, but I thought I'd be festive anyway. There are two things I'm looking forward to: gymnastics and swimming. Jason is looking forward to watching basketball. I mostly just think it's cool that they will be starting on 8/08/08. It makes me wish I was pregnant so I could have a baby with a birthday on that day. Maybe we'll have to shoot for 9/09/09. =)

UPDATE: Jason says we can shoot for 12/12/12... :'(

Bako Pics

So I found our SD card and realized I only have 3 pictures from our Bakersfield trip. I remembered that our camera was running out of batteries at the time, so most pictures were taken with my mom's camera. Anyway, I thought I'd post the pictures that I do have.

While the girls (Brooklyn and Lucy) were playing around in the backyard, a ghost appeared right between them. It was scary, but that didn't stop me from taking advantage of the photo op. Take a look!

I hope you realize that I'm totally kidding. I always think it's hilarious when they have paranormal documentaries and they use photos like this as evidence that ghosts exist. Now, I'm not saying that they DON'T exist, but I'm pretty darn sure the weird orange blob in this picture is NOT a ghost. We spent a lot of time outside while I was there. The weather was surprisingly decent for this time of year, and the girls enjoyed playing in the little kiddie pool. This meant that both of them were unclothed for the majority of the visit. Notice Brooklyn has no pants on. By the way, nice legs, Tyler! lol =)

These next pictures are my favorites. We have discovered that Brooklyn likes big men. She generally bonds with men more than women, and it is especially true if they are large and scary-looking. This means she really liked my brother Brady. (Haha, Beez! I just called you scary-looking on my blog!) Here is some evidence: Brooklyn Sad.
Brooklyn Glad!!

Whenever she was fussy, I would send her to Brady and he could cheer her right up. I've never seen her act that way with ANYONE. It was SO cute. She adores him.

My mom emailed me this last picture. My dad has an inversion table to help stretch out his sore back and shoulder. The idea is to spend some time upside-down and basically reverse the effects of gravity. I don't know if I noticed any difference in my back, but it was sure fun flipping around on it!

A few other highlights from the trip:

We got to go shopping quite a few times and I actually found a few things that I like.

We made about 10 batches of Chex Muddy Buddies and I gained 2 pounds...

Mom, Brooklyn and I went out to lunch at Red Robin.

Brady took me and Brooklyn to the movies. We saw "Get Smart." It was cute. At one point, Brady took Brooklyn out cuz she was being loud and showed her off to all his friends. (He works at the theater.)

Katy and I ran into our neighbor growing up at Rubio's. It was kind of fun to see him after several years.

We got to see Jennifer and her baby Annie who is two weeks older than Brooklyn. My child is huge.

We went to dinner at Cactus Valley with my parents.

Katy, Lucy, and Tyler came over for dinner a few times.

My sister and I made lettuce wraps together.

I got to see ultrasound pictures of my little nephew.

Brooklyn learned how to take naps.

We went to Babies R Us with Katy so she could register.

We saw some old friends, Lisa and Hannah, and their babies at church.

We went to my friend Amanda's new house and took the grand tour. Then we went to her grandma's house for dinner.

We went to Trader Joe's and got some great Weight Watcher's snacks to bring home to Jason. I loved going but it made me sad that we don't have one here.

I really enjoyed the trip. The flight was AWESOME!! We took Delta's direct flight from SLC to Bakersfield and were there in about 90 minutes. That's the fastest, easiest way I have ever traveled to Bakersfield. Too bad they are discontinuing the flight in the Fall. Boo. I loved being with my family, but I missed Jason the whole time. It's also really tiring to be in charge of a baby 24/7 with no husband to help you out. I guess we need to move there so I can have the best of both worlds. Coming home was very bittersweet. Thanks for putting us up, Mom and Dad!!

A Conversation with Brooklyn

We chatted for about 5 minutes this morning. It went a little something like this:

Me: Say ma-ma.

Her: Da-da.

Me: Say ma-ma.

Her: Da-da.

Me: I'm not your daddy, I'm your mommy. Say Maa-Maa.

Her: DAA-DAA!!!


Oh, brother.