Moving!

Come August 15 we will be on our way to grad school for Jon to get a Ph.D. in Education Administration.  He wants to work at a university for the rest of his life.  Soooo, for at least the next five years we will be spending our time in Michigan! (<--Note the exclamation point; maybe if I write it enough I'll start to feel that way.)

Not that I'm NOT excited about moving to Michigan. Because who wouldn't be excited to move back into student housing for five years? ....okay, seriously, the thought just almost made me cry.....let's move on.

 With the exception of one city (I'm lookin' at you Detroit), we've heard nothing but good about Michigan. Especially about the area we'll live: Ann Arbor.  It just sounds like a nice place, right?  So we have no worries at all that we'll LOVE it out there. 

We're just gonna miss this little guy:

Our house :(  Sure, to you it may look like a cheap little pueblo with no lawn and a leaky roof.  But to us?  We could comfortably live here for.....forever.  We love this little place.  And we love Cedar City. And we love SUU. And we love our ward.  We'll miss it all, but maybe we'll return someday.  Until then, Michigan here we come! (<--I almost meant it that time)

Winners and Losers

Winners:

1) Luke's cousin letting him ride the 4-wheeler with her. He had the goofiest smile on his face the whole time:

2) Luke's new-found love for being outside. He even learned  how to say "shoes" to let us know when he wants to go out:

3) Luke playing by himself on this slide for hours.  He'll sit on top of it so he can see himself in the tv screen, and then talk and laugh with himself.  Who needs friends? Not this guy:

4) Luke learning to read (what? your kid didn't read at this age?  Hmmm...must be our excellent parenting style):

5) I graduated with my Masters degree in Professional Communication.  I mostly did it so I could intimidate people.  It's working, isn't it?:

Losers:

1) Our tree fell over during a wind storm and blocked one of the drives to an apartment building.  Jon left for several hours to look for a chain saw.  I stayed at home and ignored the knocks on the door from the property managers next door who wanted us to take care of it.  Pretty sure they could hear me playing the piano and then suddenly stop once they knocked.  

2) Our friend setting up an Easter egg hunt for her kids and Luke, and Luke ignoring the eggs to pick up rotten fruit to put in his mouth.  Some things you do are adorable, Luke; other things are just plain annoying:

3) The time Luke wanted to be pulled in his little dump-wagon,  and I didn't realize that the weight of Luke+the force of me pulling him in the wagon would cause him to be dumped right onto the ground.  Sorry about that, kid.

Five Stories: From Our Hearts to Yours

Story 1: We're moving in August

It's true. The time for Jon to obtain a Ph.D has arrived, and we are in the process of finding out where we will be come September. So far, Jon has gotten into Indiana, Michigan, probably BYU (he has an interview, which is usually just a precaution to make sure you're not a weirdo before they admit you), and has been waitlisted at Harvard--but for bragging and intimidation purposes, let's just say he's been admitted to Harvard.

There's a good chance we'll end up in Michigan. I call it s'michigan for fun. No reason really, but you're invited to join me.

Story 2: Luke at the birthday party

Yesterday was our friend Dirk's birthday, so we went over to celebrate. There were balloons all over his front room, and as a playful gesture Jon kicked one towards Luke. It was a reasonable move. Luke likes balls, why wouldn't he like balloons?

The kid flipped. I thought we were going to have to perform an exorcism. We finally got him calmed down enough so we could repeat what happened and get it on video (save any parenting lectures you might have--we have no regrets):

Story 3: In the appearance of a meth addict

A recent medical episode (read: miscarriage) happened recently that has required me to have a lot of blood work done at the hospital. I've had my blood drawn 6 times in the last three weeks. As a result, I have enough needle marks to get me cast as a character from Rent. I even have inside jokes with the hospital phlebotomist.

The medical episode caused me to get really behind on homework, so my mother-in-law came down for a few days to watch Luke while I lived in the library. It helped a ton! Also, she came bearing gifts of cute pajamas for Luke:

I love pajamas on babies! Or maybe I just love them because Luke is so cute? A classic case of chicken or the egg.

Story 4: Jon goes MIA

Jon has been working seven to seven every day this week. He says he's busy at work--I suspect it has something to do with my hormonal changes resultant from story 3. Busy at work? Nice try Jon, but it took me all of ten seconds to catch on to what was really going on. Come home! I'm nicer now!

Story 5: The case of the disappearing chocolate

Case solved.

The end.

Christmas in February

Before we get into our belated Christmas post, I need to recount a sad story. Once there was a boy named Luke, and his parents never called him Luke, but instead called him things that rhymed with Luke: Spook, the Duke, Spadook, daspookus, and the like. The most common one that they called him, however, was the Spook. And then one day, when these parents were eating dinner over a friends house, a friend who happened not to be Caucasian, they called him Spook, and their friends informed them that was a racial slur. The end.

Anyway, onto Christmas. This was our Christmas tree this year, which we successfully kept blocked off from Luke with the two chairs and the ottoman:

The two of us in front of the tree:

Family picture with Santa at my family's Christmas party (Luke is just the cutest thing all lookin' up at Santa):

Luke with the present Santa gave him:

Luke opening his present, looking confused because it looks just like a book he has at home (Spoiler alert: it was the book from home).
We forgot to get him a present so just wrapped up something he already had. Like he knows the difference.

Our fake Christmas morning in Cedar City, Luke getting all the DVD's his Dad couldn't help but buy :):
Luke getting some books from our friend Lindsay Pace--he loves them:

Our real Christmas morning at my sisters house. We didn't have any presents for Luke (again, like he cared) so we just watched my sisters cute kids open their presents. The video might be too exciting for you to handle, so be warned:

Okay, just kidding, it wasn't exciting at all.

Later that night, opening his toy train at Grandma McNaughtans:

And then a few days later, launching rockets with my family, a tradition from our childhood:

Luke really didn't like the rockets though:

Yeah, you can hear me and Jon laughing when he starts crying, that's our parenting style. You can also hear other babies crying in the background. Maybe this isn't as happy a tradition as we originally thought (just jokes...they'll toughen up).

Welp, that's all.

Happenings with Luke

It's a been a while since we've visited the old blog, and Luke has gotten considerably cuter since the last time. So to catch up on the latest shenanigans of Luke, he's:

1) Being cute:

2) Embarassed about being the cutest kid at church:
3) Stealin' Dad's car keys:
4) Has bad dreams sometimes and needs Dad to read him some late night stories:
5) Loves playin' in the fridge:
6) Loves playing with the grocery bags:
7) Grows nails like a weed that need to be cut every three days, I swear:
8) Is pretty good at finding where Mom hides the cookies:
9) I actually don't know what this next one is. Being drunk, maybe? There is an empty medicine bottle next to him:
10) Wrestling with Dad and his new big dog:
11) Pulling out the tupperware, his daily duty:
12) Doing a little research with Dad:
13) Resting with Mr. Dog:
14) Well, just overall being cute, I guess:
That Luke, it's a tough life being that cute.

The Time I Met A Sister Wife

Jon and I went to the SUU President's Gala tonight, where they gave us free tickets to the David Archuleta concert. We debated whether we would go, and finally decided to just go for a couple of songs.

Little did I know that fate was on our side tonight.

Our major change of plans came when I spotted a long sleeve shirt and layered shirt--I'd recognize it anywhere:

That's right, a polygamist was in our midst. A famous polygamist! Christine from TLC's SisterWives was there with all the teenage girls! I told Jon that before we left I needed a picture with Christine. Jon said he wouldn't take the picture for me, so for a while I thought this creepy picture is all I would walk away with.

But then, intermission came, and while Jon's back was turned I got the courage up to go and talk to the sister wife.

She was very nice, and her mom took the picture for us:

(Before you judge how I look in this picture, I want you to ask yourself--how would YOU look after spending half an hour in a David Archuleta concert with a bunch of screaming tweens?):

My conversation with Christine went something like this:

Me: My sisters will be so jealous. We just watched the season finale.

Christine: Oh my gosh! Did you cry!?

Me: Yes! And after watching I told my husband I really want a home birth.

Christine: You should totally do it! If your husband is supportive it is totally do-able. What's your husband like? Is he really supportive?

Me: Ummm, he wouldn't even come and take this picture for me--so...no.

And then we laughed and laughed, and talked and talked, and I started a revolution because people started lining up behind me to talk to her having been inspired by my courage to approach her.

A few people even came up and were like, "Liz! I see you've met someone I've always wanted to meet. Will you introduce me to your friend?" And I was like, "Totally--Jory, meet my long time friend Christine"

Long story short, she asked if I would consider becoming the fifth wife in their marriage.*** I said thanks but no thanks--but asked if we could still be sister wives, only I'll keep my husband while she continues sharing hers. I think our plan is a go. ***

Because after all: Love should be multiplied, not divided.

And this is my tale.

***Marks statements that are probably (most definitely) not true.

Halloween with Luke

Halloween? Not my favorite holiday. But I'll admit, it makes for the cutest childhood pictures. The youngest child in my family always got to be the clown, so I got the clown costume for two years:

With a childhood like that, I think it no small irony that I won the "Class Clown" award at the end of every school year clear until I graduated high school. The only exception was second grade. Instead I won the "Best at math" award because my teacher didn't want to encourage my shenanigans.

Please note, I finally got promoted to princess, but that there is still a representative clown:

A clown who looks thrilled to be alive, I might add.

Is it an unwritten family rule of the 80's that every youngest child was the clown? Because this was a truth for Jon's childhood as well:

So there ya go, 5 clown in 5 pictures (which actually ties with the number of Hawaiian punches...)

Moving on, for our Halloween Jon carved us a Jack-o-lantern:

We dressed Luke up as a little Tigger (thank you to the Landeens for the adorable costume!):Fun fact: Tiggers in the wild have a natural inclination towards dental hygiene:

Sharpening his paws on the upholstery---typical:

We only took Luke to 5 houses, but he made off pretty well:
There in front you'll notice that Luke received two unpackaged hostess doughnuts. And that, my friends, is why we love the elderly. Other honorable mentions are the package of top ramen and the "Holly Porter for city council" flier.

Showing off his box of milk-duds:

It was a fun Halloween with the little Luke. Hopefully the Tigger costume won't foreshadow his entire childhood like the clown costume did mine.

Because let's face it, if Luke had to choose his costume based on who he wants to grow up to be, we all know who he would have chosen: