Blake's awesome parenting techniques and a new sleeping preference

Egan is almost 8 weeks old and I think we've all learned quite a bit. Egan likes to make it a habit to scream at about 8:30 each night and Blake has come up with a few techniques to soothe him, and I think they are worth sharing here. Blake puts Egan in his car seat and swings him. Usually within a few seconds Egan is happy. I don't get it! When all else fails, this works!
Most parents sing nursery rhymes to their children. Not in our house... Blake sings Vanilla Ice, and it totally intrigues Egan. Who knew? And, also who would have ever figured out that Egan like to be held up above your head?

Blake figured out that one too. Egan is actually looking at the Black and White pictures on the wall. He's loved looking at them since he was just a few weeks old. This really calms him down.

Now, what hasn't worked yet is Blake using logic to parent Egan. It doesn't calm him down at all when Blake asks him to "use his words". Try that again in a few years, honey.
Here's another new development:

Well, maybe it isn't so much a new development for him as it is something we realized. Egan likes to sleep on his tummy. Maybe that is why he hasn't been sleeping well yet. With the scare of SIDS these days, we got one of these on Craig's list. Now, both Egan and I can sleep well. Awesome.

It's a small world after all

Here's a funny story.
The other night Blake and I went to barnes and noble to pick up some reading material for our upcoming trip. From behind, we hear "hey guys!". We turn around and see a guy that we sort of met in NYC. I say sort of because it turns out that I knew him in my former life (elementary and jr high) in the big town of Snyder. Crazy. Anyway, if you guys happen to read this. Hi, and it was random running into you.
On a side note, our good friends Will and Christian who we also met in NYC are moving to Dallas. And when I say moving to Dallas, I mean they are moving into our apartment complex. We can't wait to be close to them again. Fun times all around.
On a side side note, we are going on a cruise, and are leaving this weekend. It should be a great time of relaxing before the baby comes. That said, don't expect many updates in the next week. We'll be in Mexico on a big boat.

Only in Texas...

... Do you have a man meet you at the door of the grocery store, tell
you he will pick the best/fastest cart there is, wipe the selected
cart off with antibacterial wipes, and then dry it off for us.
Wow. You'd never find that in any other city we've lived in. I was
floored.
If that weren't good enough, once we got in the store, we saw the
scene in the photograph... A tortilla factory right in the middle of
the store. You can't see him in the picture, but there was a guy there
making tortillas. Fresh! We didn't get any today, but don't worry, we
plan on doing so at some point soon.
Only in Texas...

here and there

Just a few tidbits of info today.

• We finally have internet in our new apartment. Yay! Still no furniture or the rest of our belongings.... but hopefully they will get here soon.
• Bo likes all the space he has in his new apartment to run around.
• When you roll/cram as many shirts into a suitcase as possible when you are moving... Everything is extremely wrinkled when you arrive. (I'm sorry Blake... I'll fix them for you so you don't have to iron everything before wearing it.)
• Our new apartment has an ice maker, the first one I've had since living with my parents.
• Our new mattress isn't as good as the one we got in June and then sold because we were moving. I called Overstock. They are supposed to fix it.
• I'm leaving next week to go to NYC for a little over 3 weeks for a project. Nothing like moving into a new place only to leave a week later.
• I'm looking forward to seeing my NYC friends! I've missed you guys!
• I like Chick-fil-a.

That's all I have for now!

Today's results

This is our mileage from our final fill up of the day. Pretty good right? Tomorrow, we pull into Dallas. Can't wait to be done driving.

what do you think?

What do you think about the new header and fonts? Green and gray, today, I like these colors together. Does everything show up ok?

I want a Golden Opulence Sundae . . .

. . . Well, Not really. I do like ice cream, and I love chocolate, but I could do a lot of good with $1000.
Leave it to Serendipity in NYC to make just such a thing... a $1000 sundae.
Here is how it is described: "5 scoops of the richest Tahitian vanilla bean ice cream infused with Madagascar vanilla and covered in 23K edible gold leaf, the sundae is drizzled with the world's most expensive chocolate, Amedei Porceleana, and covered with chunks of rare Chuao chocolate, which is from cocoa beans harvested by the Caribbean Sea on Venezuela's coast. The masterpiece is suffused with exotic candied fruits from Paris, gold dragets, truffles and Marzipan Cherries. It is topped with a tiny glass bowl of Grand Passion Caviar, an exclusive dessert caviar, made of salt-free American Golden caviar, known for its sparkling golden color. It's sweetened and infused with fresh passion fruit, orange and Armagnac. The sundae is served in a baccarat Harcourt crystal goblet with an 18K gold spoon to partake in the indulgence served with a petite mother of pearl spoon and topped with a gilded sugar flower by Ron Ben-Israel."
Wow, that sounds good, but I think I'll stick to a good, hot chocolate chip cookie covered with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce, thank you.

pointless

Tonight, I saw something that has always puzzled me. Blake and I went out to eat with some of his work friends and as we were leaving, we saw 2 guys out in the parking lot blowing the leaves around.
What we saw wasn't really like what the photo above. The guy in the above photo is blowing the leaves off of the sidewalk and on to the grass. Maybe I can understand that... well, except for the part where the leaves are just going to blow back on to the sidewalk. What we saw tonight was in the middle of a large parking lot. The guys were blowing the leaves from one spot to another... still in the parking lot. So silly. Can anyone shed some light on this for me?

arrrrrrrrr matey and carnivorous plants

Yesterday we went to San Francisco to see my cousin, Travis. He took us to some fun/interesting stores near his apartment, and I thought they warranted a piece of our blog. The first store specialized in random stuffed animals... no not cuddly teddy bears.... remember we are in San Francisco... These were animals of the taxidermy sort. They also had random teeth and other animal oddities. (see what I mean, fun/interesting?) In the back of the store there was a huge selection of exotic plants. My favorite was a venus fly trap. I've always wanted one. I didn't buy one though, because I don't think my thumb is that "green". (PS- if you just clicked on the words "venus fly trap" and spent 2 minutes of your life watching a plant eat a fly, you are a strange as I am.) So, that was the first store. Next on our venture down the street was called "The Pirate Store". I didn't take any pictures, but here's a funny one from their site...
They have these signs EVERYWHERE in the store. All very funny... in a pirate sort of way. On one wall were lots of drawers with random things in them. Things like plastic eyeballs, buttons, never ending scarfs... all sorts of good stuff.
Anyway, fun was had, we got to see some family and an interesting part of a crazy city that we hadn't seen before. We'll have to do it again sometime.

it's going to be a party tonight

ohhhh... look what I got! It's hair color time!

Before:

During:

To Steve and Becky

To Steve and Becky, I saw this tonight and it made me think of you guys... and mmmmmmmm it was good too! Miss you guys!

late night excitement in the neighborhood

Check it out... the pope will be coming to the church that is a block
away from our apartment tomorrow. I just took Bo outside, and down at
the end of our block, it is swarming with police and EVERYTHING is
barricaded in preparation for tomorrow. What the heck??? I would go
down there tomorrow just to say that I'd seen him, but Blake and I are
going out of town before he is due in the neighborhood. Darn. Here's
a picture of the street that I took with my iphone. I tried to be
nonchalant about it so that I wouldn't get yelled at by the police.
That resulted in a lame photo. Sorry! I guess you can see the police
standing on the corner and the cement blocks in the middle of the
road. What you can't see are the tv satellite vans that are lining
the streets. Just take my word for it.

Pinkberry... yum!

I'm sure we're one of the last people to discover this, but wow!  There is a Pinkberry semi close to our apartment.  Every time we walk by, the line is WAY out the door, and down the street.  Now, I like ice-cream (Pinkberry is frozen yogurt really), but I'm not willing to wait 1/2 hr or more to get it.  Finally, this time when we walked by, the line wasn't out the door, so we decided to stop in and give it a try.   Wow... can I say YUMMY!  We ordered the green-tea frozen yogurt with kiwi, raspberries, and blackberries.  Even better... it is low cal and fat free!  Crazy!  Anyway, you might give it a shot if you can find one near you.  Here's their website... www.pinkberry.com 

good hair & bad hair

I had a little adventure on Saturday.  I haven't had my hair cut in a while... try like 6 months.  I've been trying to grow it out some, and I knew if I got it cut, it would just get it cut short (like I always do).  Anyway, back to the story... I emailed a few friends to see if they had any suggestions on where I should go.  Two of them suggested this place close to our apartment.  The walk-in "wash and cut" is only $20.  Heck yes, I'm in!  Saturday morning, I walked down and got it cut.  I'll bet you think the next part of my story is that I have a bad haircut (like the lady in the photo above).  NOT TRUE!  I like it.  That isn't the fun part of the story.  The fun part is the conversation Blake and I had on our way home from church on Sunday.  The conversation went something like this.  

... breaking in on the interesting part...

Blake:  "You got your hair cut by who?"

Whitney: "Legend"

Blake: "Legend?  That is strange."

Whitney:  "Well, it isn't her real name.  It is just her haircutting name."

Blake: "Are you sure that is her haircutting name and not her stripper name?"

Whitney: (laughing) "I wouldn't know a stripper name if I heard one."

Blake:  "Neither would I... but did you tip her in SINGLES?"

Yeah, so that Blake is a funny kid and I'm glad that I get to be married to him and hear his silly jokes everyday... even the stripper ones.

Staying Alive

So we were walking home from church the other day, and saw this couple who looked to be in their 70's holding hands and walking together.  Normally this wouldn't be anything out of the ordinary, but these two had appeared as though their better days were in the 50's.  They were both wearing their high school letter jackets, collars popped, and sunglasses.  He was even wearing Aviators.  But the best part, was that in the opposite hands, they each had cigarettes.  It was a little jarring at first, but then once the initial shock wore off, I hurried up behind them to take a picture on my phone.

the office = real life

This post is thanks to my mom... who invented this theory that I call everyday life.

Apparently Dwight and Jim are my roommates.  I know, I know, all this time, you thought I was living with my husband, Blake, and dog, Bo.  Well, really I do, but most days I feel like I live with Dwight and Jim.  Let's discuss the similarities...

Dwight and Bo...

1. both take life EXTREMELY seriously.  When bo puts his mind to something, he's going to get it. It might be a toy, treat, whatever Blake is eating, to fight, to go outside, to go to bed, to get out of bed... you name it.
2. both are gullible and will fall for anything.  One of Bo's favorite games is fetch.  This is the game where we throw his donkey or another random toy down the hall and he goes to get it.  We can fake throw it as many times as we want and he falls for it every time. 
3. both are honorary security guards. (thank you wikipedia for that tid-bit.)  Bo exercises his guarding ability in several ways.  He is sure to let us know if anyone rings the buzzer to our apartment, walks by the door, is too loud in the hall, if Blake is walking up the stairs (before I can hear him), and if a pigeon lands on the air conditioner outside our window.  He also likes to "police" other dogs in the dog park and tell them when they are out of line.  He has chilled a little bit on this lately, but he still tries.
   
4. both have strange bathroom habits.  Dwight's lives in a 9 bedroom house with 1 bathroom which is located UNDER the porch.  While we don't have nine bedrooms (we barely have 1)... we do live on the 4th floor of a walk-up apartment and bo's bathroom is located at the base of the steps. HA!

Jim and Blake...

1. both have somewhat of a "dry" sense of humor.  Most of the time their jokes take a few minutes to hit you... and when they do... BAM, they are funny.  
2. both make random comments and ask random questions of their boss (me) just to make fun of them (me).  Jim does this while making funny faces into the camera.  If we had a camera crew in our apartment, I'm sure Blake would take every opportunity to do this as well.
3. both like to play jokes on others.  Jim lives to play jokes on Dwight any chance he gets.  Blake... you guessed it... lives to play jokes on poor Bo.  Don't get me wrong... Bo thrives on it as does Dwight.  It is what makes their relationships work.  Blake loves spending time hiding Bo's favorite toys so that Bo will all but kill himself trying to get them back.  He laughs when he has pretended to throw a toy and Bo runs around the apartment sniffing the air to try to find it.  
4. both like to imitate their target.  This is a photo of Jim imitating Dwight...I don't have a photo of Blake imitating Bo... but if you may have noticed by past pictures of Bo... He has a little problem with his tongue hanging out because he is missing some teeth.  Blake likes to make his tongue hang out and make facial expressions like Bo does.  He also thinks it is funny to grab Bo's tongue when it is hanging out... I'll give it to him... it is fun.  I do it too.
5. both are genuinely nice people.  Even though they are both funny and like to play jokes.  Both Blake and Jim really care about the people around them... Let's all say it together... awwwww....

There you go!  Those are the things I have come up with.  Anyone else have more?

PS... I just sent an email to Blake at work to warn him of this post.  He said while he was reading the post, he "internally laughed sarcastically" while looking at the isight (camera) on the computer he was sitting at.  Wow... one point proven.

U2...

Blake and I went to a movie this morning... Not just any movie... We went to see U2 3D on the IMAX! I had more fun than you can imagine. Now, we got to see U2 live when we lived in phoenix, and that was one of my dreams come true. I know... Silly... But true. The movie was almost as cool as the actual concert, and with the 3D glasses, it rocked that much more. Bonus... Not only was it 3D, but, being imax, the screen was crazy big. Wow!
PS- if you live in NYC, go to the movies on fri, sat, or sun before 12. The regular movies are only $6 (instead of $12), and the IMAX is only $10 (instead of $16.)
Happy movie watching!

The Daily Show fun

Today we had a little adventure. We went to see The Daily Show with
Jon Stewart.

We weren't allowed to have a camera inside, so I don't have any actual photos. I do, however have a few photos of my tv... (yes, I took photos of my tv in my living room, just so I can prove we were there.) Here are some of the photos.
See if you can spot us!

If you didn't succeed with finding us... Here's a little help.

Tom Brokaw was there to talk about his new book...

We had a lot of fun!
We got tickets to go see Good Morning America monday morning. Blake isn't such a fan of getting up early, but I think it is something we should do while we are here in NYC. I'm sure he would be more than happy if someone wanted to take his ticket, so if you do... email or call me and you can go with me! (Really, he will love you forever.) If you don't want to go, watch for us in the audience monday morning (we will be inside the studio... not outside.)

The legend of Stephenville, TX

So we took a little road trip today and went to San angelo to see our grandparents. On our trip we went through stephenville which aparently has had several UFO sightings here lately. Well, guess what? We had a sighting of our own. Here's our photo. Yes, it was taken by my iPhone
about 5 minutes ago, I promise... And it has not been retouched at all. You might say it just looks like the moon, but it really is a white disk floating in the sky. Wink, wink.

A Christmas Picture, or, What really happens in a city that never sleeps

As you may or may not know. We live in New York, NY, and have for a few years. Last year we decided it would be fun to go to see the Christmas tree lighting at Rockefeller Center. Needless to say, it was not. This year we thought, wouldn't it be great to get a good picture of the tree and send it as our Christmas card? A simple premise to a not so simple task.

On a normal day, there are approximately 1,000 people in Rockefeller Center at midday. At Christmas, after the tree is lit, there are approximately 10,000 people in the same space at the same time during the prime tree viewing hours. There are many people every minute trying to take a good picture of the same tree from the same point, many of them using their camera/phone. It quickly becomes evident that getting a good shot is not going to happen, no matter how much the picture is edited in Photoshop, photoshopped if you will. So, I says to Whitney, I says, "Why don't we go at 11:30 or midnight and take some pictures when there are less people around and the ice rink is closing."

"Great idea, Blake," Whitney said enthusiastically. "You are the greatest and smartest man in the world and I am honored to call you my husband."

So, on a Friday night much like any other Friday, we set out around 12:30 to go out and picture the elusive crowdless tree. We approach the OPP, optimal photo-taking position, and then notice, the lights are off. While Whitney begins to settle into a picture taking frenzy of a darkened tree, I locate a general security officer. I inquire of this said security officer, who we will call Phil as kind of a filler for the story, as to when the lights, which I might point out are solar powered, will return to their light shining natural state. Phil replies that they will be turning back on around 4AM. At this point we have approximately 2.5 hours to light-resuming, picture-taking, Christmas-card-making, Christmas tree OPP time.


It should also be mentioned at this point that Saks 5th Ave is across the street from the OPP. The windows this year are snowmen. It looks cute, but don't let the brightly colored snowmen fool you. There is a 30 second loop that plays OVER and OVER... Just as cheery each time. I have tried to erase this part of the journey from my memory.

As I work a few blocks away, and since if we were to go home we would just be coming back in less than an hour later, we decided to go to the Apple Store, and see some of my co-workers and buy some Christmas gifts. We finish this in record timing, because it's apparently not so busy at the Apple store from 2 to 3AM when they are cleaning the floor. Since there is still some time, we grab some coffee to warm up and head back out. Did I mention that in addition to it being ridiculously late, it is also 25 with a wind-chill in the near single digits?


Just a photo taken along the way.

The Apple store...

Arriving back at the OPP at 4:06AM, we find the tree to still be turned off. Looking around, we evenually locate Ferdinand, who has replaced Phil, and again inquire as to when the tree light resumption is. He says that Phil is new, and that the tree doesn't turn on until 5 or 5:30. As we have already waited 2 hours, we could wait another 1 hour to achieve what few in their life time will see in person. Many people wait for years to experience something that no one else has. Some decide that skiing a rare slope, or mountain climbing to the top of a tall mountain or riding in a barrel over Niagara Falls, or attempting to swim to the bottom of the ocean to escape a group of angry pirates intent on stealing a priceless pearl is what they will do that few have done before. For this picture, waiting for an hour did not seem like that much of a sacrifice in comparison.

We noticed a group of people rounding the corner with lawn chairs and decided we would follow them, you never know when you might find an impromptu barbecue party, and since it was late and we had not planned on being out this long, we were both getting hungry. Instead of food though, these people were waiting in line at the Nintendo store in hopes of buying a wii. We saw someone Whitney knew, and we talked to them for a while. Finally, the tree became illuminated, and optimal results were achieved. We had it! The Great White Whale, or Titanic, or Tickle Me Elmo of the 21st Century. A unobscured picture of a giant Christmas tree.

We have passed this on to you in hope that you enjoy this Christmas season by knowing that you can now see this same tree without having actually having been in front of it in the cold at 5AM. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a much better night.

As an aside, on the way home, if you will recall, we had been out much later than expected and had grown quite hungry. We decided we would eat breakfast at a diner before going home and getting some sleep. We decided we would eat at the one nearest our home, since it was the one that was cosmetically cleanest and had a public restroom. Passing by the 3 that were on our way home, we arrived at the diner of our choice, only to find it closed. Like Jonah, having waited inside the whale, or David Blaine doing something random in plexiglass, we decided we would rather go home, rather than wait the additional 15 minutes for the diner to open. Kind of ironic if you think about it.

a fun day of thanks

So, we stayed in NYC this year for Thanksgiving. Blake is working,
and the plane tickets were crazy expensive. It has been a nice day
though. I decided that there was no way I was even going to think of
cooking just for the 2 of us, and Blake worked all last night, so he
slept during the day today. So, I decided it would be best for us to
go out and eat after he got some sleep. We decided to go to ESPN zone
so Blake could watch the Cowboys beat the Jets. The food there is
pretty good and the atmosphere is relaxed. Blake had the Turkey
dinner and I had... Buffalo Chicken. If you know me... you aren't at
all surprised by that. It was fun! We stayed for the whole game and
surprisingly there were more Cowboy fans there than Jets... Well who
would like the Jets anyway, so I guess it isn't really all that
surprising. We sat in the screening room and watched the game on a
gigantic screen (see photo below).
I also thought this Bestbuy was interesting. We were just about to go
into the subway (see the 4,5,6?) and saw these nutty people. Who the
heck sits out side of a bestbuy all day and night for a cheap computer
or whatever? It isn't like they are free. You still have to pay for
them... By the way, this photo was taken at 3:15pm on Thanksgiving
day. The store doesn't open till tomorrow morning. Speaking of
craziness... if you look closely at the best buy photo, you will
notice that no one is wearing heavy coats. Remember... we are in
NYC. It is supposed to be cold and snowy. Today it was like 65
degrees. Now, earlier in the week, it was super cold, but today... it
was beautiful! Blake just wore a tshirt tonight and I just wore a
sweatshirt with my tshirt. Back in texas friends and family were
getting snow. Who knows....
The Charmin photo was taken in Times Square after leaving the ESPN
zone. They had it last year also. I'm determined to go in there this
year and photo document the whole experience... well, not all of it,
but just the interesting parts. I've heard that they have a bunch of
fancy toilet paper that you can choose from to use... gotta try
that... And just so you know, there was a line outside of it tonight
as well.
So, that's our day! A fun day in the city!

time to blog

So, I haven't written here in a while, so I decided that I should... Not just a whole lot going on here. We are getting ready for the holiday season. Thanksgiving has just creeped up on me. I can't believe it is next week! We will be staying in NY this year, so I don't know that we will do just a whole lot. Blake will be working like crazy. I may go to Macy's parade... that might be fun. I'm really looking forward to putting up the Christmas tree. If you know me, you know how much I love Christmas. Even though our apartment is the size of a dorm room (350 sq. feet including the long hallway), I have a large, tall Christmas Tree. I'm not so sure that Blake loves that tree as it occupies his closet 11 months of the year, but he's a good sport about it. What a great guy.
We went to see the Grinch on Broadway last week. It was a blast... fun crazy costumes all over the stage. Gotta love me some Broadway. I recommend it to children or adults of all ages.
Ok, so there's the update for the 2 people who read my blog. Have fun times!

Follow up on carrots

So Blake decided to write up a whole post about carrots having, or not
having, juice. Guess what kind "lazy" juice he got yesterday... That
crazy kid. He really makes me laugh sometimes.

How does a root have a juice?

I saw a talking carrot today promoting a fruit juice, and thought,
aren't carrots usually pretty dry? I mean they aren't really a
fruit, they are just roots, and the job of a root is to send liquid
to the rest of the plant. It isn't like you sit around thinking,
"Man, what I wouldn't give for a nice juicy potato right now." If
the carrot is being used as a juice, to me, I would think that was
one of the lazier carrots. The ones who just sit around, show up for
work late, only do the minimum to keep the rest of the plant alive.
To me, couch potato carrots should not be role models. That's why I
only drink Coke Zero and Dr. Pepper.

Blake found a wendy's!

Need I say more?

Bo went hunting for a duck.

.... And got one. Man, does he love his toys.