YEAH!!!!! Finally!! We have POOP!

Today is one of the 3 happiest days of my life, so far. The day I was married, the day I had Jacob and today, the day Jake pooped on the potty all by himself. I am reeling from the happiness!

I have been trying since he turned 3 (8 months) to get him to go on the potty and he always said,"no, I am not ready". I have purchased 100's of diapers in frustration and promised treasures untold for Jake, if he would just go on the stinkin' potty, with no success. I did all of this for months praying for of the beautiful day of potty to come. Well, friends, that day is finally here.

I decided yesterday to just do a day without diapers (at Jake's request) and he was willing to do #1 all day long with no problem. It seemed that #2 was just out of the question. I went to bed happy that he did have a 1/2 success but hoping that Jake would try his luck with #2 today. I knew he had to go, but he is a kid with a strong will.

Well, today I got him all set up to watch Curious George (in the buff) and gave him cereal & Juice and voila, we had magic. One minute he was singing along to the theme song, and the next I heard, "uh oh, its time to hit the potty" and ran upstairs on his own . I waited downstairs thinking it was a false alarm again, but to my surprise, it was the real deal. He showed me the evidence and boy, I have never been happier to see poo! Cries of happiness and chants of "You did it, you did it" and "I did it, I did it" rang out in happy voices.

I was finally able to give Jake his reward: his "poo toy" (as we call it). You can see it in the picture below. We bought it back in Seattle. He has wanted to play with it from day one, but I held out and stayed strong. I refused to give it to him until he had his first successful "poo on the pot". Ahh, success is sweet. Well, maybe stinky in this case, but at least I don't have to clean it up! So I will call it a huge success none the less. Now we just have to have him naked all the time. Well, maybe not, but I am just glad that he gets the point now. I think clothes will be an option again in a few days. I guess we will be on house arrest until Grandma & Grandpa Shumway come to visit tomorrow. I want to see if I can get one more success from him before we clothe him again.

What Are We Up To You Ask??

Hi everyone,

I thought I would catch everyone up on what is going on in the household. We have been pretty busy but we are all looking forward to a visit from Ricks parents this weekend. I love when we can get family to come visit. Any of you who want to come out need only say the word. We miss you all. Anyway, I have been trying to catch up on household stuff so that when they come everything is tidy.

Rick is busy with work doing lots of great projects that will be great for his resume. He loves it and really likes his co-workers (thank goodness!! It sucks to work with people you don't like). Rick recently received a calling as ward mission leader and was set-apart on Sunday. He is excited to dig in and I think he will be wonderful at it. It plays on all of his strengths (communication, leadership, organization, enthusiasm for the gospel, and once again, he gets to be a great missionary). I cant wait to see how great he does in the calling.

As for me, I have been busy with Jacob and keeping him busy. We do park days, McDonald lunches (nuggets and the playground mostly), library days, pool, kids club at my gym daily, movies, water parks, etc. (here is are a few pictures of last Tuesday at the local water park, Sand Castle, with his budy David, and then alone on the rides):

Well, Summer is on the way out and Fall is not far off. I love fall and I am excited for the change of seasons. Speaking of change, her is some fun info: (well, fun /scary) I got another calling yesterday too. I was serving as the 2nd councilor of the Primary and yesterday the bishop let me know that they would like for me to serve as... guess...nope.....nope.... okay, I will tell you.... Primary ...PRESIDENT!!! HOLY COW! I have never served in the primary other than these last few months. I have a lot of reading, question asking, etc. to do.

To make things even better, I have to do a primary program for late Oct from scratch. Nothing was done on it before and now my only councilor and I get to do it. I get to call one more person to help us and then we are going to be off with a bang. Oh yeah, there is also a fall festival to plan and execute (probably before the program) and so much more. I am gong to be one busy lady! I was nervous at first but now I just figure it will be tough sometimes, but it can't be as scary as going to Italy and teaching people about religion (in a language that I don't know yet) right? I guess I will just do what I always do, ask for help, pray and work on it. I feel like what ever I cant do, others can, so look out, I may call you for help!

Aside from those things, not much else (big) is going on. We have done a few small things like on Saturday, Rick and I watched our friends 3 kids while they moved into their first home. They have a 7 year old girl (super cutie), a 4 year old boy (Jake's friend) and a little boy 18+ months (adorable child!!) and the mom is 5 months pregnant. They came over and we just played all day until their parents came to pick them up. I love the child swap thing. Our friends and us don't have to pay for child care to go do something. We just trade kids for a few hours a month for free time to go on dates, clean, shop, whatever. We almost never need it, but I am glad that there are people to help when we do. It was fun having 4 kids around. It made me excited to have more kids. A house full of kids running around is like music to my ears. Maybe I am crazy, but I think a day full of kids is a perfect day.

Anyway, we are good. I wish we could hang out with everyone I miss. Lots of new things are happening and I find myself missing family, my BFF's from Seattle & Utah (all the mission buddies too). I love my time here, but I wish I could drive over to bug everyone for a while and see the kids play. Oh well, maybe someday soon, right?

That is it for now. We love you guys! Keep in touch.

Sad News for Parr

Well, everyone read just below that we welcomed Parr (the fish) into the home on Thursday August 21st at exactly 1pm (.002 oz.) and that we were so excited for Jake to have a little pet.Sadly, I regret to inform everyone that Parr did not make it. We found him this morning at the top of his little bowl without his little spunky dart for the food that we have come to love these last 4 days. He was a very good fish and, though of the minnow persuasion, he had the spirit of a beta king. It was a short time to love our little fish, but it was real none the less.

I hope he is in heaven right now with Prince (1st fish), Pricoli (2nd fish), and any other fish that did not survive our home along the way. We all loved him and that we are very sad to see him go. I feel good to know that he surely had a few days longer life than if we had left him at Wal-Mart's "fish mill".

With that said, all I have to do now is find a way to break it to Jake. What do you think guys? Should I:
A. Give it to him strait and fess up that the fish is goners, or
B. Should I sneak back to Wal-Mart and replace it with another fish, or
C. Should I tell him Parr is dead (Explain death), offer to buy another one (beta this time) and get him an ice-cream cone on the way home?

I am leaning toward #3 but I am not sure. You guys vote and I have about a day or so to decide.

A New Addition To Our Family (not a baby) PARR The Fish

I was at Wal-Mart on Friday and promised Jake that we could get him a toy. I usually just grab a toy and let him play with it while there (he looses attention after about 20 minutes) and then put it back, but this time I said I would get him one to go home (He was a good boy all week). I was getting things for the house and we passed the aisle for fish and he squealed with delight and said "oh mommy, I want a fish. Please can I go see the fish?" I said that we could go look but not buy one, and stopped to look. Jake persisted to ask and finally said that he would rather have a fish than a toy. I was ready to say no again, but after thinking about the pros -v- the cons, I realized that a toy would be about $10.00 (If I was lucky) and a fish was only $0.89. Well, you can only guess what my answer was after that; "Of course you can have a fish Jakie" We already had everything from our last fish "Pricoli", (the beta king) who died unexpectedly of the cold (when we forgot to have him fed, and turned off the heat during our weeks long trip out of town) at Christmas last year.

Jake was so excited and said, "I know which one I want. I want that one." He pointed to about the most plain fish in the tank (again nice because it was only $0.89). The helper put in the net and started to get a fish that was all black and Jake yelled, "no you have to get Parr." We both looked at him with blank expressions unsure of what he wanted. Jake stared at us for a second and then explained that the plain fish with only some black was the one he wanted and that his name was Parr. Jake loves to name his animals (real or stuffed) funny names. Some previous pets (real or stuffed) have been Pricoli (as mentioned before), Prince, Paddington, Redverd, Polly, Beaky, Mimi, Jaxon, etc. He is quite funny with the names.

Anyway, we finally got Parr and brought him home and Jake has loved him since. We placed him up high on a shelf to ensure his survival but Jake gets play time each day with him. Here is a video of him welcoming Parr to the family. Enjoy.

The Red Caboose

So, anyone that knows Rick knows that he loves to discover hole in the wall places that offer yummy (greasy) foods for cheap. He loves fine foods as well, but since we are semi-poor the trend is the first one mentioned. Well, I gave him a bang for his buck when I turned him onto the Red Caboose. It is a hot dog stand (essentially) that offers many types of hot dogs and toppings for like $0.70 - $1.50. My real estate agent told me about it when he was showing me a home in a really little community near by (The home was great but too far out). On the way back we passed this place and he could not resist. He said that he comes here every chance he gets and we tried it.

It was super yummy and the Pittsburgh news crews chopper in (yes, I said "chopper") in right before they do the news shots for the days. The place looked a bit shabby at first so I was skeptical, but when I saw that people chopper 20 miles out of their way to eat something, it would be good.

I took Rick on Saturday after I saw the house and true to form, the line was about 20 people deep (it is always that way) and Rick was excited. I think he really liked it and luckily for us, it is 7 miles away, so we wont go to often. I don't think his arteries could take regular stops there. It was fun to try though. I think that one of our favorite parts of being in new places is that there is so much to discover.

Come visit us and we will take you to try for yourselves.

Primary Pride

I just love Primary! I have been serving as 2nd councilor of the Pittsburgh 2nd ward Primary for about 1 month and I just love it. I get to be in class to watch Jake learn and almost as much fun, I get to watch all of the children of the ward grow and learn. My duties range from keeping time on meetings, aiding the president in her needs, conducting meetings, making cookies and ,I don't know, pretty much anything needed. I also get to teach sharing time every 3rd Sunday or so and I think that is my favorite thing to do. I have done a few now and each time I have just loved sharing my simple testimony with about 15 little tykes that really want to learn. I have been surprised by the nerves I feel as I prepare the lessons and right before I teach and hate those, but I am blown away by the spirit I feel as I tell them special truths.

Today my lesson was on being reverent and thinking of baptismal covenants during Sacrament. I prepared a lesson that was pretty sound in doctrine but cut out each principle and put it on bright colored paper and made little reverence books (you see them in the Friend this month) for each child to do at home. As I taught I spoke of what the Sacrament is, why we have it, and what we should do during it. We learned thought songs, colored cut-outs, wiggle activities, and pure testimony. I really got a bit choked up as I told them of my testimony of its importance. I had so much fun with them and was shocked by their intelligence. Those are some really smart kids! They knew the answers to everything and really listened! I loved it. I think my favorite part of the lesson was when the little sunbeams in the front row came up to me after my lesson with their arms stretched wide and said, "we want to hug you." I hugged 3 of them and they said thank you for your lesson. AWWWW! How cute, huh! I seriously almost cried. They were so sincere and they just wanted to love me for teaching them. I love kids. Jakie hugged me too and then promptly licked my face and laughed so I was brought back to reality, but it was sweet anyway.

Well, I sure hope I get to do this calling for a while because I think experiences like that are what it is all about. Isn't Primary great? I am so glad that Jake loves it. I think it is so good for him and I just love the chance to help him grow closer to the Lord each week.

What the ????? Movie Review

Okay everyone, I just saw the freakiest, most whacked out movie ever!!! We took Jake to the $1 theater today to see Space Chimps and wow, I seriously think someone was on crack when they made that movie. The graphics for the film were okay for some parts and really primitive (like the aliens scenes). I am 29 years old and I had a hard time following what was going on for about 1/2 the time (bad writing, not because I am slow). Have you all seen it? I hope you got to see it for $1 like us. I wanted my money back and it was only $1, so I could only imagine how much it would have irked me to have paid $9.50 per person in a regular theater. If you paid full price, sorry. If you are contemplating taking the kiddies, well, do it on a night when there is nothing better that you could possibly be doing and don't pay more than a $1 for it!

Rick and I thought, what the heck are we watching the whole movie, but the funny part is that when I looked over at Jake he was loving it! I guess that if I think about it, there is not much for kids his age to dislike. There are chimpanzees, a space ship, random aliens and bright colors. What does a little thing like no plot, psychadelic scenes, funky aliens that make crazy noises (like loonie bin noises) matter? I guess that is why Rick and I go see these movies in the first place, fun time with Jakie. In the end that is all that matters on our family night out.

Tender Moments!

I just love the tender moments with Jacob when I see what a sweet, funny, expressive little man he is. We were walking home from getting the mail and Jake decided to practice skipping. He was laughing and looked back at me while in motion and fell. He skinned his little leg and his ankle started to bleed.

Jacob is much like me and does not like the sight of blood. Rick can see a hand hacked off and not get too phased, but paper cuts and scrapes make me woozy and even cry if it is mine. Jake cried when he fell out of embarrassment, but when he saw blood on his ankle he freaked out. He cried saying that he did not want to be broken and battered. (YEP, his word for hit is battered. We love it when he uses that word. He thought of it on his own.)

So, I picked him up and carried him back to the house, cleaned him up. His reactions were so funny and cute that I decided to film his sorrows. Here is what we saw:

Don't you just love him after that pitiful display! We sure did and we did give him a popsicle (his favorite treat!).

Our Apartment:

Mom, this one is for you! My mom loves to see where we live so she can imagine where we are when we are talking on the phone so I took pictures for her of the apartment to see. The upstairs in generic and nothing to show but the downstairs is where we spend 90 percent of our time. Take a look and enjoy.

What An Interesting Night!

What An Interesting Night! Rick and I decided to change things up last night and take Jake bowling for the first time. Rick got home at 6:30pm and we headed right out the door. We decided to go get dinner first and Rick suggested Chick-fil-A(amazing chicken sandwiches etc. Love it). I was not in the mood for chicken and I had a craving for Chinese food so we searched for the closest Chinese food restaurant on the GPS and found that it was 2 miles away. They must not love Chinese food here, because in Seattle there were literally 30 restaurants within a 1 mile drive or less.

We headed to the Royal Chinese Restaurant with excitement only to find 20 minutes later (yes, 2 miles here takes 20 minutes because everything is so hilly and I swear that the city planners were drunk when they made the roads!) that the restaurant was closed! UGH! I was ticked.
We decided to just got to the bowling alley 2 miles away and find something to eat near by. We headed over to the bowling alley and one rude attendant later our name was on the list for a lane and we were off to find somewhere to eat. We set the GPS to a Pizza Hut near by and lo and behold... they were closed too.

Jakie was now pretty irritated and said he still wanted pizza so we set the GPS for another pizza hut (when we got there 10 minutes later... )and they were take out only. No dining area!
So now we are all really hungry and ready to eat and there is no where to eat that is open or does not require us to eat in our car. I was beginning to think that a pizza on the tail gate of the van was in order but, luckily, we saw a tiny hole in the wall Chinese restaurant on the way back. We stopped to go in and found a dirty, empty restaurant that only had 2 tables (one open) to eat at. Things were over priced and the conditions looked scary! So, once again, we got into the van with Jake, crying about not wanting to get back in the car, and headed off to go anywhere that was open and clean.

All cravings were out the window at this point! We just wanted to eat somewhere, anywhere. We were all frustrated and I thought," hey, I saw a DQ not to far from here" so we headed in that direction. How many of you think we go to eat there???? Well, if you bet against us eating pizza, you were right! No luck for the hungry Shumways! We pulled up trying to smooth things over (promising Jake a dipped cone if he ate his dinner) only to find, moments later, that they only served desert. They did not offer any food! Since when does a restaurant only serve desert???

I could not believe that we had hit our 4th place and that an hour after we went looking for food we were still hungry. So, with Jake loaded up once again, listening to whimpers of starvation and frustration from Jake, we headed to the one place that could not fail, the one place that is last resort, sure thing, never gonna change, always gonna suffice: McDonald's. We saw the golden arches and with a sure mind filled Jake's head with visions of dinner, ice cream and the "tubes" (the play area). We once again pulled up, unloaded on the back side of the restaurant and rounded the corner to the front only to see that the freaking drive Thru was under construction and that they whole McDonalds was CLOSED! It was closed!! Since when does McDonalds ever close!!!!??? It is always open. Why else would we choose it! I could not believe it. I thought, we are in HELL!! I stopped in the middle of the drive thru and thought, "oh my gosh, Jakie is going to have a nervous break down." I picked him up, mid fit, and rushed back to the van to tell him and strapped him in and broke the news that they were closed. I was so irked that we had just spent so much time finding somewhere to go and we were now going to a place that we had passed over an hour ago! I did not care at this point. I was going to eat paper if need be.

It was now about 8pm and too late to eat and get to go bowling so we abandoned our activity in search of Chic-fil-A and hoped that their play ground area was still open. When we got there, we were in luck. They were both open and Jake went into the play area after a nice meal (we were starving!!). Our dinner conversation had been about us missing great friends like we had in UT and Seattle. We love it here, but we really wanted to meet more people that wanted to spend time and get to know each other.

Rick and decided to join Jake in the play area, to be sure he was not killing the 2 other kids in there, and while watching Jakie, the man next to us (father of the other 2 kids) started to talk to us. He was from the moment he spoke one of the most genuine, interested people I have ever met. Rick and I love people like this. All of our friends are like this in one way or another. He said his name was Dan and we began to talk about work, Utah, Seattle, Pittsburgh, family, kids, food, you name it, we were talking about it. He was probably 8-10 years our senior but still just a fun guy. His wife was home having some alone time and he was taking time with his boys. Jakie played happily with Dan's 2 Children (Johah and Josiah) and we chatted happily. The kids decided to be super heroes and called to each other as it was the others turn to "die".

We ended up letting the kids play for about an hour and 1/2 as we talked and at 9:30pm we realized that we were past bedtime. We told Dan it was a pleasure and on our way out he invited us to dinner to meet his wife and hang out. They have a lovely home here in Jefferson Hills on 13 acres not far from our apt so we were close and could accept the invite. We left sure that we had just met one of the nicest people in Pittsburgh and as we left Rick said, "well, now I know why everything was closed or did not serve food. We were supposed to come later, that's all." I had never considered that but I guess if you wine for something like we did, the Lord can certainly make it happen. In our case, it was just a fun friend to hang out with. I bet his wife is just as fun as he is. We will let you know. I was glad to see that our night was not in vain. Jake had fun and we met a friend.

Seeing Our Little One Grow

So I am not sure that everyone kows, but I was called to serve in the Primary (second counselor in the presidency) and I am so excited about it. I started about 3 weeks ago and just love it. It is so fun to work with the kids and especially Jacob. He learns so fast and it is fun to see him blossom in the Sunbeam class. He started out a little rough but he finally understands the following:
1.He has to stay in his seats.
2.He cant lick the kids in front of, or behind him.
3.He cant pull his arms into his shirt and swing his sleeves at other kids near by.
4.He cant sing a solo rendition of the song for the class, immediately after they sang it as a group.
5.He cant lean forward to put his head on the floor while simultaneously balancing his stomach on the chair and humming words to a song of choice (it was a freak show that week).
6.He cant yell the answer "Jesus" to every question asked (funniest when irrelevant).
7.He cant hug the teachers and say you are so pretty and special in front of the whole class during sharing time.
8.He cant lift the little girls pretty skirts to see what they are wearing underneath. (we looked like total perves!)
9.He cant pull off his clip-on-tie and swing it around above his head, like a hellicopter, at the poor kid next to him. (they can really hurt!)
Incase you are wondering, YES, he sure did do all 9 of those + a few others that I cant think of off hand. I so am proud of him now. He goes through the class and participates and only occasionally needs the "death look" from me. He loves to answer questions and is lovingly referred to as "Primaries most enthusiastic supporter" by the teachers and councilors. He yells out "Yes" and "Why" or "How" to every question asked. He loves to show he is listening and that he really cares. Today he told the class that He just loves Jesus because he is the only brother he has got and that it makes his heart sad when he does bad things because he cant make his only brother mad at him. It was cute but it would have been cuter if they were not looking for the answer to why do we read our scriptures. At least he gets the principle, Right?
In any case, I have had the chance to witness so many sweet moments and see him understand things that are so exciting to me. I never really know how much he gets but when he explains the story of Alma or Abinadi or Jesus on the boat, I feel so good that he knows those things. He sings the songs with such excitement and really gets a kick out of learning. I am so glad that I have the gospel to teach to him. He is a good boy. He is everything I could ever have asked for, and even more, if you can believe it.

This evening we invited over Ricks colleague, Toshana and it was a blast. I made Zucchini Pie (Sounds sick but it is amazing!!!), fresh corn on the cob, a home made Caesar salad and home made Pistachio ice cream (yep, I made it myself) for desert. She is such a fun person and I love knowing her. She gets me and it is nice to have a chat buddy again (miss ya Rachel, Laura, Kim, Steph, Jenn, Mel, and everyone else). You know how I love to chat! Jakie of course thought that she came to visit him and called to her for her thoughts on everything. She is married but her husband is in another state for Med School. We were glad to have her in our home and hope she will come back soon. Jakie loved her and I think the feeling was mutual. We had a great time and I am excited to get to have all of Rick's co workers (Fellows) over as well. We will invite them all!

We had a visit to Dr. Heart (love him!!!), Jakie's Pediatrician, for Jake's check up and he said Jake is "super healthy, super bright, super energetic and super HUGE!" He measured in the 98th percentile for height and 95th for weight (40lbs of pure muscle). He has always measured in the 96-99th percentile for almost everything but the Dr. said he measures the height of a 5 year old and weight of a 4 + year old. I guess I had better start saving for extra tall clothes and extra huge beds, cars, etc. for this little one. I come from a family of tall men and Rick has 7ft uncles & cousins so I figured that would happen. I am no shorty at 5"11", so the writing was on the wall. I am just glad to know that he is so healthy. If you are looking at pictures and thinking, wow, Jake is growing like a weed, it is because he is. I cant keep him in pants for longer than 3 months at a time since birth. The waist is never a problem but the length always kills me. I had better have a boy next because we have tons of little boys clothes. We probably have 2x's the wardrobe of a normal child because we needed a wardrobe in every size at one point or another.

Well, we love you all! Hope you enjoy the update and have a great Sunday evening!

How does this happen in 5 minutes time?

So, any of you out there with toddler age or older, do you ever feel like you clean and clean and it is all in vain?? I DO! I cleaned up Jakie's room, Organized, washed, etc. and then today I went in and here is what I found: Scary huh! I heard him banging around in there, i thought putting things away, and then when I went into his room I found that scene. I asked what the heck he was doing and he said that he was looking for Edward (a specific tiny train maybe 2 inches long). He never found Edward but his room is a disaster area. The worst part is what can I do? I could punish him but he does not get it. I made him clean up the tracks and train and exiled him from his room while I finished cleaning the rest of it up. Ah, I need to store or get rid of about 1/2 of those toys. Anyone want some? We need a house!

Back By Popular Demand

So it was called to my attention that our last Called to Serve video was not super visible. I decided to re shoot the childish zeal that Jakie displays while singing it and post it for his fans (i.e. Mom, Dad, Kate, etc.). Here is Jakie in his Sunday best (not the shoes when you can! They are adorable) looking just like a little missionary. So cute!

Getting in Gear!

I had a really great moment that I have been waiting for today. I woke up and I actually was excited about working out. I am now 29 and I swear that I have had the alarm set for 7am since middle school. Why??? To go work out. Problem is that I can count the number of times that I actually got up on 1 hands and even worse, I can count the number of times that I worked out (in a way that would actually do something) on 2 hands. That is not much for a oh, say 15 year span!!
Well, I am not sure if it is the fact that I am finally not working and have time, the fact that I have so many cute clothes that I want to wear again, or if the fact that I turn 30 this year is only 5 months away. Well, actually, when I type it out like that I think it is safe to say that the extra time + being 30 this year is what is kicking my workout mode into high gear. I don't want to be younger, I just don't want to go another day saying that I will do it tomorrow. That new resolution has finally kicked in and now I am on fire. I am actually working out daily and feeling great about it. I dare say that I love it!
I went to the pool today and started out with my routine that I have done for the last week and still wanted more when it was over. I ended up adding on another 24 laps to really work on my form & speed. When it was over people asked me if I swam competitively. I said no and they said that I had good form & looked like a really good swimmer. I was quite excited and feeling good for a while, until it occurred to me, as I hit the shower, that most of them were over 80. I was actually swimming (most of them could not swim, just wade with their water weights) and that probably looked SUPER awesome to them. Never mind that though, I wont let that get me down. I am stoked!
I went and got a book of lap routines that are super effective. I should be able to do a mile in 20-30 minutes before Christmas. That is 62 laps at about 3 laps per minute in a 25 meter pool. I am varying the routine to get endurance, speed and form, but mostly, it is good to feel all of my muscles again. Tomorrow I get to do weights which is super effective, but I prefer swimming. I guess I will just wait for the excitement for the weights to kick in too. I sure hope it does.
Tonight is the start of the Olympics and I am so excited to see them. After working on swimming for so long, I am ready to see the swim parts. Michael Phelps (love him or hate him) is an amazing swimmer.

I am such a want-to-be, but I do love to watch him swim. I hope he takes the Olympics by storm again! I am excited to see the rest of it too. Summer Games are by far my favorite of the Olympic seasons. I love winter stuff, but I really could see myself loving to do all of the summer activities.
Anyway, I hope you all watch this Olympic Season. Let me know which of the games are your favorites and if you swim, we should race one day. Just kidding! Unless you really want to and then you are on baby (after another 4 months of training of course). Hey, maybe Rick would race me??......Nope! He said forget it. Well, at least I know I could kill any of the 80 year old folks at my pool that think I am in training! HA! I guess I will just have to take that for now.

Zaboomafoo??? A Cartoon Jakie Loves

I have a very silly boy! For the last days Jacob has been asking to watch a new cartoon (I think it is spelled Zaboomafoo) and I cant seem to say the name right. He loves it when I try to say the name and got such a kick out of it that I thought I would tape and share it with you. He laughs like this everyday and I just enjoy being a mom to such a happy boy.

Liar Liar Pants on Fire

So, I actually caught Jakie in the act and the camera was nearby to catch proof. Check this little one out and see if you can hear what he said. I laughed so hard at his replies that I finally had to let him off the hook for the lie and naughty behavior.

What you get for the $$

So, Rick and I are in the midst of a househunt here in Pittsburgh (acutally, surrounding suburbs) but we are still so blown away for what you can get here for your $$. These pics are basically from my dream home and you will not belive the price. Not that we have a lot of $$ to spend, but this home in Seattle would be somewhere in the million $ range or so, at least! The home below is like 1/9th of that!! Maybe less. Crazy huh. I cant wait to find the perfect one. We want, basically this exact look, but we need a bigger yard, and a little more room between homes would be amazing. I love when I find something so almost perfect and that is something we can afford. Isn't it so cute! Pretty much everything we are looking at will be along these lines. I will show the homes we are considering for a vote when we get that far. Right now it is just search and dream stage. I love it here!

I Just Love My Little Boy!

Just a few funny little stories to let you see why I laugh all day long:

I was sick all day today and Jakie was worried about me. I could not play like normal and I was just laying on the couch. Jakie tried everything to get me to come play and finally he asked me if I was going to throw up. He brought me the milk jug in one trip trip to the fridge and the bottle of chocolate on another trip (all while I was on the couch) and told me to make chocolate milk because it made him feel better when he was sick.
A few hours later while I slept I could feel something on me and when I woke up, Jake had climbed up on top of me and was laying on me just hugging me while he watched the cartoon I turned on for him 20 minutes prior. I asked him what he was doing and he said "I didnt know what how to make you better so I am going to love you till you feel better. I just love it when I can love you mommy. I am so happy to love you. Dont worry mommy, you can sleep mommy, I can take care of you. Do you need a bowl to throw up in?"
He is 3 folks! I swear there is a 40 year old in there somewhere! He says things and comes up with ideas that crack me up. I just love him so much. I get a glimpse of his little souls capability to love and I am just blown away by his little thoughts. I feel so lucky to have him for my little boy.

Another funny story showing his drama queen side:

Jakie went to the play room at my gym on Tuesday and a little boy in there was chasing him (they were playing tag together) and Jakie tripped and skinned his knee. He was fine, but when I got to the door he literally limped to me like an old man with a wooden leg and said "Help me, help me please! I'm broken mommy!! I am ruined!" Ha. How is that for dramatic? Turns out all it would take (according to him) was an ice cream cone to fix him.

I Love This Book!

Okay, so I am going to keel over here. I have been reading the book Breaking Dawn for so many hours that I am exhausted. I maintain my life in between readings but I am absolutely blown away by this book. Talk about amazing creativity! I think that Breaking Dawn is hands down, the best book of the series and I loved them all. It was totally worth the weirdos in line on Friday! I am 560 pages into the 768 page or thriller and I am mystified how in the world Stephanie Meyer could dream this stuff up. I so hope she writes more stuff. A new series perhaps? I will read anything she writes after this series. It is truly amazing creativity and story telling. I cant believe this is her first series! I seriously feel like I am watching a movie!

Well, I am off to read again. I am tired but I think I will just read myself to sleep. I have to call it an early one tonight. I pulled a 4am and 2am reading session the last few nights and I have a mile to swim tomorrow (not to mention a kiddo that has more energy than anyone I know)

*****I hope you are all reading with me! Mat, I think your cuz is an amazing writer! If you ever see her, tell her she won over a total skeptic and that I am telling every lady I know about it. I have not met a reader that started Twilight that did not love the series. I love to read and anyone that can entertain me and make me like the characters, like she has, is like gold to me!

Well, off to see how the next chapter will shock me.

Friends and Family leaving comments

Any Friends or Family leaving comments for our blogs; I have a few comments from friends (Matt) that did not leave blog addresses for me to reply to. I would love to reply to blogs since many of you I have not been in constant contact with and dong have your info. If you have an e mail or blog site address to look you up please put that in. You can see if I have it by checking my contacts. All blog sites that I have should be there.
If you see this, e mail me at bellasarah80@hotmai.com with your address if you want it private or post a comment and leave me your blog site (most are pretty private. If your site requires you to let me be part of it, I will sign in or you can add my blog site to it to let me in. Love you guys!

The Days Just Fly By:

Well, it is 10:00pm and I am just waiting to go to the Breaking Dawn book release party at Borders and wouldn't you know it... it just started to downpour! You have to be kidding me! I knew once I wanted to go do something that there would be a freak storm, snow, or tornado, whatever. I don’t care, I'm going anyway!

Well, as I sit here waiting for the hour to hit 10:45 to head out, I thought I would blog about my day. I spend the day getting the site even more updated (I hope you like the music, etc), doing laundry, bills, playing with Jake, making meals and finally, just taking a break. You know, some people say that being a housewife is boring and unfulfilling but I wonder what they are doing because I am so busy all of the time. Every time I turn around there is something else to do (play dates to keep, house to tend, personal maintenance (gym), bills, friends to visit, dry-cleaning to run, groceries to get, and then the fun stuff like bloging, pictures, hobbies). I seriously wish that I could add another 6 hours to my day. 30 hours would be so much more reasonable!

Anyway, I can’t ever believe it when the clock hits 5pm. I always wonder where the heck the day went and then it comes time to switch gears. I never feel like I am stagnant. I get bored for abut a second and then my blackberry goes off with a reminder of something else that needs to be done. Wives, if you don’t have a blackberry, get one. It made a frustrated over worked and perpetually lost lady into someone that can manage her day. I love it!! I just started cooking regularly when I quit working completely and love it. I am pretty good at it and I feel totally successful when I get the oohs and aahs from Rick and Jake (So far the Zucchini Pie, Masala Chicken (Indian), red sauce from scratch on pasta have been the favorites). I no sooner finish the meal and talk to Rick for a bit and then it is bed time. I just wish there was more time to do it all. I guess making the most of the time is the best I can get though. I love being at home. I love spending my day wrapped up in Jakie, Rick and the daily to do's. After being streched so thin for so long, I am just happy to get to do the thing I want to do most: keep our lives in order and take cre of my family. I am lucky that Rick is on board or I would be SOL!

So, I am really proud of myself. I bought a book on lap swimming (I am swimming daily now) that has workout programs that are progressive. I started out doing basic lap routines that build good form, endurance and speed that were 500 (a little over) 1/4 mile meters long and actually hard, to having hit between 1000-1800 meters (a little over 1/2 mile - to just over a mile)! I have been talking about doing it for years and I think it may be my impending 30th b-day, but I am done waiting. I am hitting the ground running and really trying to make it count! I do 3/4 mile to 1 mile 3 days a week and then do Upper/lower body strength training in-between workouts directly followed by 30 laps (just under 1/2 mile) in the pool. I can already feel the difference!

I think that I am going to stick to the routine for 6 weeks or so and then switch it up. I have my eye on spinning class, Yoga and Plaits as well. I think I will add an evening class of one of those to my big swim day 2 x's a week or so. Well, what ever it works out to, I am really enjoying feeling good. I am tired when I am done but I love the energy boost I get right after I am done. I am not super keen on diets so I am avoiding them. I just eat 6x's a day every 2 hours from my first meal and only have good options in the house. I am always full but I feel great. The exercise makes it easier to stick to because I take a beating and it is only worth it if I see the results by Sept. Wish me luck!

Well, it is now that time when I must go get my long awaited book. I sure got a lot in there so if you got bored, sorry.

2 HOURS LATER: Man! I just spent almost 2 hours watching some scarry folk buy this darn book. There were some normal people in there but after that, I had better love the book! I will let you know soon.

4th Book In Twilight Series: BREAKING DAWN Comes Out Tonight at 12:01 am

AUGUST 2ND AT 12:01AM. IT IS FINALLY GOING TO BE HERE!!! If you have no idea of what I am talking about, you are either a man or totally out of the loop! Breaking Dawn is the final book in the Twilight Book Series by Stephanie Meyer. I resisted at first too, but after loving Twilight from the first chapter, I read all 3 that were out in 36 hours! Mom, you know you are guilty!! It is for young and old chicks (guys too but you have to be able to deal with a love story). That's over 1700 pages folks! It is such a great book series and soon to be a movie

The story is about Bella and Edward and people around them as He a vampire and she a clumsy accident prone girl do the inevitable; fall in love! It isn't just cheesy though. The story is super clever, hard to predict and the action is great. I should rephrase that.... There is a lot of scary action with other vampires and werewolves, etc. No tacky cliché stuff though. No Garlic, no burning in the sun, no coffins, etc. It is great. If you are not reading them and you like any good read that is super entertaining, you are missing out!

I am going at 11pm tonight to get my copy. If you have not pre ordered, you can get a great deal on Barnes & Noble.com. I think they are only like 12 or 15$ each and the new one is only 20$ or so. I promise that you will love it.

Twilight book 1 , New Moon book2, Eclipse book 3If you already know the series, did you know about the movie coming out. You can see clips at Stephanie Meyers site (http://www.stephaniemeyer.com/) and you can see more about her stuff. It is so good. She even has Midnight Sun info out. Don't know what that is?? It is Twilight re-written from Edwards perspective. She will publish it sometime in the future and it is cool to get more info. I love the series. Check it out and go get your copies!

TO SEE A CLIP OF TWILIGHT MOVIE: Check out the bottom of my U-Tube page. (The link to my U-Tube viedo page is up at the top of this BLOG SITE labled FAMILY VIDEOS. CLICK on it and SCROLL to the BOTTOM of all of the videos you see). I added the official movie trailor and an un-official trailor,that I liked. You can play if you want to get an idea of what is to come Dec 12, 2008.

Called to Serve at 9am! Thank you Primary!!

So I was sitting at the computer and Jakie said, "Mommy, I want to sing you a little song about being a missionary!" I said, "you do?" He said, "oh yes mommy. Get ready mommy, this will be great!" The first time was great, but I decided to have home do it again for the benefit of our viewers. Enjoy!

**IF VIDEO DOES NOT WORK WHEN YOU PUSH PLAY: Just drag the video progress cursor all the way to the left and push play.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Jake serenaded me with this lovely selection as well. Enjoy.

**IF VIDEO DOES NOT WORK WHEN YOU PUSH PLAY: Just drag the video progress cursor all the way to the left and push play.