Finals, quick trip, and summer school begins...

Ok, so the bad 2 semesters of graduate school have passed and I'm still standing! Finals this semester were horrible and there were a couple of weekends where I stayed over in Fort Worth so I didn't have to commute and I could keep 100% focused on study. Thank goodness that part of this program is over!

Friday morning (after my last final on Thursday) I took off to Utah for Nate's farewell and to visit family. That evening we went to the Provo Temple as Nate took out his endowments. Very nice way to end a horrible nine months!

Saturday I got to visit with in-laws and go to a concert with Doni on Temple Square. Sunday was Nate's farewell talk in sacrament meeting and he did a great job, the perfect amount of humor interspersed among important thoughts and concepts. Rowdy and his family came up from Hurricane and it was great to see them.

Sunday after church there were friends that came over to Doni's to visit and wish Nate well. This is a picture of Caitlin and her beau. Cute kids.

Then Sunday evening (Mother's Day) I flew over to California to visit with Kelli, Steve, and Rebecca Joy. I had a wonderful time and great visit. Rebecca is darling (of course!) and she is a very good baby. I tried to turn her into a Texan while I was there...

We went to San Francisco one day but it was so windy we drove over to Sausilito. Never been there, so it was nice to visit. I got Kelli her birthday gift and bought Grammie & Julie's Christmas gifts. I'd like to go back again ...when I have more money!

So the party is over. Summer school is in full swing and I have to relearn how to buckle down and study. One nice thing, Matt is in this area now doing his intership for the summer with TI. We have gotten to see him twice already! Although I have attended only 5 days of summer school, we have already had one test and are 1/3 of the way done with this first semester. So...it will go fast and I have to peddle quickly to keep up. I look forward to the 3 weeks break in August...

I'm going to go blind!

I watch the news in the morning for Rebecca's first feeding and this morning the news had a recall that actually was something I use (as opposed to pet food). Complete Moisture Plus contact solution is being recalled! This is the only contact soluction I have ever used. I have 3 12oz. bottles (one in use and two under my sink). So I'm trying to search like a crazy woman online to find out more about this. Here are some more links to news information. Apparently there was a recall back in November that I completely missed. Luckily in was only certain lot #'s and I check my current bottles and they aren't that lot and I don't use that much contact solution that I'm pretty sure I'm okay as far as November. But that's still freaky that I completely missed this recall because I was on bedrest and who knows why, because I'm pretty sure I was watching the news then too. (Though that might have been when I got bored of watching the news every morning...I was on bedrest a LONG time.) So now I am calling around to different eye doctors because I don't like the last one I went to, to try to get an appointment to have them check out my eyes to make sure I don't have this parasite so I don't go blind.

WOMENTOOT!

First day of the year for a swimming suit. Happy Memorial Day! Here is RJ in her cute Memorial day get-up with the cute pink ladybug on the front and the ruffles around to the back and mismatching purple hat. The suit is a little bit big and the straps fall down over her shoulders. Saturday we spent out on the boat tied to the dock with cousin Dayne and Crewe. Dad put Rebecca in the water to test it and she looked straight into Dad's eyes and started howling because it was so cold.

Monday the whole family was at the cabin but RJ didn't make it out much due to an early morning. Dad, Rebecca and I slept at the cabin Sunday night and early, early in the morning I got woken by the sounds of little cries. RJ had scooted herself all the way under the bed frame in the room she was sleeping in. There was no matress on it and it was just her head. She was scared because she didn't know where she was. I had no glasses on because they had gotten left in our car that was left in Livermore and when I pulled her out from under, her head getting slightly caught on the bed frame, she was screaming bloody murder. After a bottle and a little play, with still no sun peeking on the horizon, I set her in her carrier so I could go grab something and she started crying. Dad woke up and came to the rescue. She would not let us set her down or be out of her sight. So into the bed came Rebecca so that Mom and Dad could sleep a little bit longer. She fell asleep for awhile longer too.

In the mail last Thursday I received a package from Bebe with a dirty clothes bag for Rebecca. Here is a picture. How cute is it! Thanks Bebe, wonderful job!

This past week RJ and I have spent two days at parks and she loves to be outside. She could sit under a tree and watch the wind blow the leaves for hours. She also watches when people eat very intently. I'm hoping to start her on some baby food this week (I was going to last week but we got busy). If all goes well, I'll have some cute pictures with food all over her.

Smiling Baby For Sure!

The last night Bebe was here we put RJ in her new pj's and took some pictures. Rebecca's eyes look a little funny because she had red eye and when I took it out with the photo editor it just turned them white.

Then yesterday RJ was helping me make the bed in her cute Texas Longhorns onesie (it was a hot day!). She has been sitting up by herself as you can see from the first picture. What's funny is that if you don't hold on to her she will generally do a face plant. She doesn't smile after that.

Life in DC....and meet my co-workers

Last week my company was having a big conference at one of the Marriotts in DC. One of the mornings they had a run planned for the members and they asked me to lead it. So I got to stay the night in the hotel. It was a really nice room and the part of DC that it is in is fun and hip. So, Wednesday night, after my kickball game, yes, I'm on a kickball team at work, I went to the hotel for the evening. The next morning I got up bright and early and took the members on the run. The weather was nice, except it was really, really humid. The people were nice and fun to talk to. After the run I had a huge breakfast of bacon, eggs, bisquits, yogurt, etc. So yummy. And then I bought Duke University's Coach Krzyzewski's new book and had him sign it. I stayed at the hotel the rest of the day instead of heading back to the office, because then I wouldn't have to work as much and I would have a free lunch, too.

That night they had a big dinner with entertainment from Michael Cavanaugh, lead in the current Broadway musical "Moving' Out".

There were hundreds of people at the dinner and it was really delicous. We sat in the back since we are staff. Once the music started we started clapping, singing, dancing, etc. And everyone else just sat there looking all bored and uptight (like most people here on the east coast). Later we made our way to the front to dance, by the stage. Here are some pictures. The first one is of Kathleen and me (not a great picture, because I look like I'm about to fall asleep or something, but I curled my hair and I wanted you to see). This was before the dinner--we went to a restaurant to sit on the patio and get some drinks (or in my case, free water).

The second picture is of Stephanie and her husband Dominik. Stephanie's last day is tomorrow. They are moving to Lexington, KY because her husband just graduated from Georgetown Law school and he has a clerkship there for a year.

The third picture is of Kara and her husband, Mike.

For one of the songs the band invited all of us who were dancing, and atually enjoying ourselves,(only girls) to come up on the stage. This is Kara, Stephanie, Kathleen and Lin up on the stage with the band. Where am I? I was sitting in the audience watching. This picture makes me chuckle.

This next picture is of one of the lobbyists that I work for and his wife-Peter and Alice. They are the funniest people ever. And he is fun to work for. Alice also got on the stage to dance with the band.

Well, now that ya'll have seen the fun people I work with I feel ok with leaving this city. I have packed up all of my things and sent most of it with a guy who left for Utah today. My room is now empty and I love it. This makes it official. I have to leave. Too bad I still have two more months of living here. Liz is coming to visit for the 4th of July and then after she leaves it won't be long until I move away!! Yay!

I'll have more to post in the next couple weeks with pictures from kickball, Memorial day in New York City, and the BBQ this weekend. Stay tuned.

Bebe's Here!

Happy Mother's Day. I got a diamond bracelet for my first Mother's Day. (I'll need to take a picture of that and put it on here.) Dad and I went down to Livermore for dinner and let the cousins play together and took lots of pictures. This is one of Dayne and Rebecca. How cute are they?! Dayne kept sticking her little fist in Rebecca's mouth. Rebecca loved that because she could suck on it, but I didn't want them passing too many germs back and forth. After dinner and playing, we went to pick up Bebe (Becky) at the airport.

At the end of last week, I went to a pre-garage sale of one of Ashley's friends of a lot of baby and kid stuff. I ended up buying an exesaucer. Rebecca loves to sit and play in it and can even spin herself around to reach the different toys. Yesterday, Bebe, Dad, Rebecca and I went to San Francisco and Sausalito. She wore her cute little jean jacket with pink fur collar to keep her warm because of the chill on the coastal cities.

A Wedding and a Smiling Baby in Paradise (I am resisting the temptation to make the title "Matt's Ramblings")

So, last Friday I flew up to San Jose for Allison's brother's wedding in ugly Menlo Park/Palo Alto area. The weather got all the way to a scorching 71 degrees during the day--and it even cooled off at night! Geez, who can live in such horrible conditions?

Friday night we had the rehearsal dinner. I got to meet a lot of Allison's relatives and family friends. The rehearsal dinner was at the bride's home, set all the way up on a hill just outside of town, where it had a terrible, ugly view of the hills (for some reason, we didn't get a picture of the view so I can't post it here).

Saturday, Kelli, Steve-o, and the Smiling Baby came and met us for breakfast. They got to meet Allison in person (to debunk the conspiracy theory that Allison was just a figment of my imagination and that for my previous post I simply Photo-shopped an attractive girl into the photo of me). Little RJ had just woken up during the car ride and was in a good mood. She was smiling lots. I think she likes me. At least, she smiles when she sees me. She was sooooo cute. Allison couldn't stay for long since she had to leave early for her hair appointment (she was a bridesmaid in the wedding). But, she wished she could have stayed and played with the little happy baby! (And for some reason we didn't get a picture of this occasion).

The wedding itself was absolutely incredible...I mean it was awful. The house where it all went down was on a couple of acres. There was a Redwood tree in the far corner. Who can live with such unsightly plants? There were not one but two pool houses. Man was this place fantastic.

The place had to be worth upwards of $8 million. It. Was. Gorgeous.

Dinner was fantastic. They served a nice salad, followed by steak as shown below.

Allison looked STUNNING all made up. Here is a picture of us (c'mon, we know this is what everyone's been waiting for--who cares about pictures of food?):

Now, I have this week to pack and get ready for my move this weekend. It feels so great to be done with school. And it feels so great to have left the ugly, terrible place known as Northern California with it's awful climate. Geez, who would want to pay the price to live there?...

Holly's Ramblings

Being a single and Mormon in DC sucks! I'm ready to leave. Every day it gets harder and harder. I'm about to go crazy. On the upside, though, I gave my job notice that I will be leaving and I started a second job (waitressing) to help save money until that day comes. I wish that day was tomorrow, though. If any of you would like to contribute to the "Get Holly out of DC" Fund, please send me a check. Or if you know a way of getting me out of here cheaply, let me know asap. I took two sick days last week (aka sick of work/mental health days). I wasn't planning on it, but the first day I started packing my stuff up. If I didn't love my stuff as much as I do then I would sell most of it and just hop on a $150 one way flight to Utah right this minute. Hmmmm.... maybe I should just do that. Oh, but I love my bed too much to let it go.

I think that is all that I really have going on. If I think of more, I guess I'll just write another blog later.

Happy Birthday Steven!

For Steven's birthday we went to Limantour Beach. It was a gorgeous day! I set up a little tent for RJ to keep her out of the sun while Steve walked around the beach and I laid out reading a book to Rebecca. There was this guy who was flying a kite in front of us that used two strings with a huge tail on it. Rebecca liked watching the kite. She did really well until right before we left she started crying. She did get just a tad bit of sun on her cheeks and head. The drive to the beach was beautiful too. We went across the Golden Gate Bridge and up Highway 1 along the coast. After hanging out at the beach we went to hang out with Steve's family and ate the creme brulee which turned out wonderfully.

Ramblings

Rebecca and I have to stay at home today. Rebecca has a bad diaper rash and needs to have no diaper on...fun times. We have been at home all week but of course because we HAVE to be here today, I want to get out. It does help that it is cloudy and cool outside to stay in. We have a nice hot fire inside that we are hanging out in front of. Rebecca loves looking at the fire. I'm reading the Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevailer to Rebecca as we hang out.

I started an herb garden that sits on our balcony. Parsley, Basil and Rosemary. Its going quite well for my first plants. The parsley and basil have gotten burned in the sun a couple of times which makes the parsley shrivel up and the basil turn yellow and brown, but they have both grown significantly. The rosemary hasn't grown at all and has turned brown. I read online that they don't like to be transferred from pot to pot.

I have a bug bite just above my right knee that I noticed last night. I keep trying not to scratch...I'm not doing too bad. I have no itch cream to put on it, and I can't go to the store to buy any (refer to paragraph one).

RJ keeps rolling on to her stomach and then getting mad she is on her stomach. She spits up and then will put her head in it if I don't get her moved in time. Then she has spit up in her hair and last night, over her eyelid. She has rolled from her stomach on to her back but when she is upset she doesn't.

Steve's birthday is Sunday; he will be 26. I'm going to make creme brulee to celebrate. Yummy!