In His Own Words

You hear about it all the time. All the new mom's talk about it. You can't quite understand it, but you know it must be true. They all seem to say the same thing.

"Leaving your child, even if just for a day, can be tough."

They say they worry about them and miss them. They hope they're safe, that they're being looked after.

You wonder, "What the he!! is going to happen to your kid while you're out for a few hours?"

Now I know.

I left Eric unattended for 24 hours this week while I flew to BYU for some EY recruiting. Was I worried about him? Not really.

I will be next time...

In his own words, the morning after I had left:

"It ended up being a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day... it's almost too soon to relive it.

I went out the front door, unlocked by bike from the banister, and started on my way to school. It was like any other day.

Cold. Rainy.

I'm going through the only intersection between home and class. A fairly busy intersection, always cars waiting for a green light. The construction has made it worse.

So what happened was, I'm in the bike lane, coming up on the construction zone. I suddenly realize the the bike lane has been blocked by a road-roller.
(Eric now calls this "The Enemy" whenever we drive by)

I had to get out of the bike lane. I noticed just before the road-roller, there was a break to enter the sidewalk.

I'm about a foot from the sidewalk... and then I see it.

The construction workers had dug a divot for the road repaving right before the ramp. Now there's a 3 inch high lip to the sidewalk, but I figured my tough mountain bike could handle it.

It couldn't.

(Eric swears the construction workers must have filled in the divot since then... I'm skeptical)

It stops me dead... and I fall all the way off my bike. I land on the ground, my bike wrecked, jeans ripped and hands bleeding.

I know people saw the whole thing because when they're light turned green, it took them a moment to get going.

The worst part: I picked up my bike and the brakes were bent, making it impossible for the wheel to turn. So I had to turn around and walk back across the busy intersection... dragging my bike home.

Later, after I got my hand all bandaged up, people kept asking me what happened. When I told them I crashed on my bike, they'd ask, 'Motorcycle?'

'Nope... my bicycle.'

Then we'd usually just part ways."


I am going back to BYU for recruiting next weekend. I'm not sure what I'll do to keep him safe in my absence. Today I think we'll stop by the bike store and get him some necessary gear (helmet, elbow pads, knee pads, reflective vest, gloves, maybe a protective leather jumpsuit that erupts into sirens and lights upon impact).

Maybe I'll ask around church on Sunday for a good babysitter to check in on him... because this is apparently a recurring problem:

As of late...

Lately, Eric and I have been having lots of fun. While we both have to work, we've made time for the important things in life. I have been meaning to blog about our Honduras and Lake Powell trips in detail, but cannot find my camera with all the pictures... to be continued...

Anyway, mostly we spend our time on normal weekends with Jason and Gin and their little rugrats Ollie (almost 3) and Max (10 months). As such, I thought I should post some of my favorite pics of Eric with our nephews. Now, let me explain this family dynamic to you by way of a conversation I had with Ollie the other day after an afternoon of swimming in our pool:

Me: "Ollie, did you have fun swimming with Eric?"
Ollie: "Yeah."
Me: "Good. I love you Ollie."
Ollie: "Ok... and I love Eric."

Ollie and Eric
Max and Eric - and those are raisins in Eric's hand... not poop...

I think another illustrative conversation I could share occurs every time I walk into Ollie's house without Eric behind me:

Me: "Hi Ollie! What are you up to?"
Ollie: (With his "naughty" face on) "Are Eric?" (Translation: "Where's Eric?")

As you could gather, Ollie LOVES Eric. I think Eric may have even usurped Grandma's thrown. He doesn't want me to get in the middle of their play time, he doesn't like Eric to hold Max, and a common phrase I'll hear him tell ANYONE else trying to help and/or play with him is "Eric do it."

Regardless, I still love the heck out of those babies. Here are Ollie and Eric one morning of the 4th of July weekend "cleaning their ears:"



Anyway, I thought I should also quickly recap this past weekend for posterity's sake and to warn the general public:

Eric and I decided we'd take a weekend trip to Yosemite.

Our plan: Spend most of Saturday hiking the Yosemite Valley, stay overnight in a hotel, and then return the next day for more scenic hiking and breathtaking views.

Reality: We arrive to Yosemite Saturday around 4 PM. The park is PACKED! We are literally STOPPED in traffic in the park and cannot find a parking space for over an hour. We finally get out of the car and make our way down Mist Trail. There are so many people with crying children I momentarily wonder if I died and some how ended up in Hell. Amazingly, the park's beauty still outweighed the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth and we managed to get one picture without 50 strangers in the background.
We leave the park around 6:30 to try to beat some traffic out. We are trapped in traffic anyway and eventually make it to our hotel in Jamestown, CA around 8. Now, I found this hotel weeks ago using Hotels.com and chose the only one with more than 2 stars in the area that wasn't over $150. It was an "America's Best Value Inn." OH MY GOSH... IT WAS THE WORST PLACE I'VE BEEN IN MY LIFE! Eric and I decided to write this review for Hotels.com and we're planning on calling the manager again (he seems to never be around):

"Insomniac Plumber's Haven"

"We got in around 8 PM ready to crash after a full day of hiking. Our "cottage" was more than rustic - it was a DUMP! The wall A/C unit was so loud and erratic my husband and I were still awake at 5 AM when we decided to just leave and make the two hour drive home so maybe we could get just a little sleep that day in our own bed. The unit continually switched on and off all night - and not a sweet background air noise - a huge blast of sound (and no accompanying blast of cool air... it was so hot in there and the windows DON'T open)! The toilet ran continually unless you re-flushed it a few times until you got lucky and it finally sealed. When our neighbors on the other side of the cottage came in around 10PM, we could hear every sound they made. We knew it was a male, female, and little girl speaking Spanish. We heard when they went out to get things from their car, used the toilet, shower, sink. We even heard them get into bed. We decided we should probably turn our TV off as their daughter probably needed to get to sleep earlier and if we could hear them this well, they were probably following the storyline of the movie we were watching on our side of the wall. Anyway, if you haven't gathered, I don't know how this "hotel" managed at 2.5 star or why their overall rating is a 3!? Maybe those pleased with the accommodations are insomniac, plumbers that enjoyed having others around to listen-in on at the wee-hours of the morning and broken toilets to tinker with all night long."

So we came home, missed our second day of hiking, and flushed a cool hundred down a leaky toilet.

(Disclaimer: Yosemite is still BEAUTIFUL - you should go, but reserve a campground and bring a bike)

Employment

So I had to fill out a government form for California when I started my job asking about my previous employment. This was in attempt to better understand the job market in the state and assess how well our wonderful government's unemployment department is handling this economy. The form asked,

"How long did you look for work after your previous employment before finding this position? What was your previous employment?"

I seriously looked at this form for approximately 10 minutes while all the other new hires were hurriedly scribbling all their past experiences to prove they were no bozos. Finally, I wrote,

"What previous employment?"

I think Jerry Brown will appreciate that for his statistical sampling. Although in hindsight, this probably wasn't the best response b/c you know all the entitlement programs are going to use that as the poster child for stimulus dollars suddenly employing some life-long welfare case as an accountant. Anyway, let's leave politics out of this....

I guess people in this working-career world have a notion that most people have jobs. In fact, apparently they believe BOTH parties in a marriage would have a job (we're still working on 50%). Hence, I get this question a lot:

"So what does your husband do?"

At this point I pause for an uncomfortable moment to watch their face suddenly become concerned I have some unemployed liability and therefore assume my next logical step will be a lawsuit suing them for harassment. See, it takes me a moment to pick my response First, I rank the inquisitor on a scale from witty to unimaginative. Now, given my line or work and the stereotypes thus attached, I usually just have to safely respond that he is "self-employed," "in sales," or "taking classes."

*Which I must make a disclaimer that most of my colleagues are hilarious. I guess stereotyping isn't always appropriate, who knew? ;)

While all of the above responses have emblems of truth... but I feel like the most accurate responses would be:

Aquaponics Enthusiast

honestly, 9 out of 10 times when I get home I find this.

And let this be a warning to our neighbors... apparently Eric is always scantily clad while doing his aquaponics and also strategically positioning the plant life to provide the illusion he is indeed nude, so be careful if you have a wandering eye.

I have enjoyed the fruits of his labor though... or should I say "vegetables" of his labor? Mwahahaha.

Another great description of my amazing husband's largest pastime would be:

Church Baller

Remember growing up on Tuesday or Wednesday nights, all the men aged 12-85 would gather and bring their friends for a couple hours of wholesome church basketball? Often there wasn't much real talent and everyone would still pass the ball to the 4 foot 12 year old because they probably got picked on at school and wouldn't get a chance to play otherwise?

Yeah, Eric's not into that.

Eric will often wake up at 530 AM to play in the mornings and will sometimes play til midnight in the evenings. Now, I heard the crew that played at our building in Saratoga were a little rough, but from the looks of things I'm pretty sure they were actually referring to the white boy that most enjoys spending his days gardening (i.e. my husband).

Here's just a few pics of Eric after another family-friendly game:
Note: the cut near his eye still noticeable two days later...... and the black eye on another occasion.

I just want to say "I'm sorry" to all those that may have sustained similar injuries at the hands of my husband. Apparently, he's not there to make friends.

All Good Things Must Come to an End

So... I am the WORST blogger, EVER.

I know.

Anyway, the last 6 months...

The past six months have been THE BEST months of our lives!!

After the RV trip we went to CALIFORNIA to watch Jason complete his IRONMAN TRIATHLON. He finished his 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride and then finished off with a full marathon like it was no big deal. To put this into words everyone can understand: if the end of the world comes, Jason will be the last man standing (it also doesn't hurt that he can fix anything and happens to basically RUN Apple).

Ollie turned two. He didn't really know what was happening but someone (i.e. Eric) kept putting frosting on his toes which Ollie was most pleased to find.



We met up with Eric's family in Oregon for a little vacay... IT WAS BEAUTIFUL. Eric and I really took the time to just ENJOY NATURE with all of it's many scents and sounds...

Ok, but seriously, it was so pretty up there...

We met grandpa up in Island Park for a little Golf

and then eventually made our way to North Dakota! We worked in the bees with Pops for a couple weeks. Then we drove some honey back to Utah.

We stopped at Mount Rushmore and I reminisced all the happy memories I have from North Dakota. I got to see so many great people while we were there and spend some time with Jessica. I wish we could live there... and that is wasn't below ZERO there for 4 months of the year...

We came back to Utah... but only to say "good-bye" to some of our favorite people...

before we left we had to measure Ez to see just how much he'd grown
Poor kid.

Now, the BIGGEST news stories:

Jason & Gin had their baby boy:
Maxwell Miller

(I babysat him the other night and he cried the whole time)
I still love him. I'm a sucker for nephew's + 1 niece.

Eric and I went to a Boise State game when they played San Jose and I got a picture with Buster the Bronco. It was SOOOO cool.
Anyway, then I started doing this thing called work that I'm still trying to grasp the concept of... so far it's pretty tough.

After a few weeks of that Ezra came to visit!!!
Oh yeah... Jen came too...
She's the best sister ever!
and no one could hide their excitement... not even Eric, or Ezra!
Grandma came down to see her grandsons and they did some Christmas photos. The whole production was hilarious:

Other than that we have just enjoyed our family SO much. Mike came down for a week for Thanksgiving but I didn't manage to take a single picture. Don't worry Mike, we still love you too.
Lastly, here is a video of Ezra teaching us some SWEET dance moves:

RV TRIP

A few weeks ago Jen & Jeff + Ez and Eric & Me went on a massive RV trip. We traveled from our home in Orem, UT to Moab and then ventured to Colorado where we stopped in Durango, Ooray, and Telluride. Besides me being a little motion sick on occasion, it was REALLY FUN! Most of the trip is detailed on Jen's blog:

http://jeffandjenlee.blogspot.com/2010/08/rv-trip.html

The only thing I have to add is when the guy was telling us how to switch on the water heater after days of cold showers (by honestly just flipping a huge switch that really said "WATER HEATER" on it) he tried to empathize with us and said, "I remember how it was my first time. The renters are telling you all these things but you're just too excited to listen to them and you can't wait to get behind the wheel." Jen and I were just like "Uhhhh, right..."

Eric and I got the MASTER SUITE on the RV and we slept better in there than we do in our own bed... it was weird. Maybe it was due to the fact we were always parked on somewhat of a slant so maybe all our blood was pooling in our feet so there was limited brain activity available.

Eric looked SO GOOD in my skinny jeans... :/ I haven't eaten since the the trip... it isn't a good feeling when your husband just slides into your tightest jeans. ;)


Here's a few photos from our trip:
Arches
Delicate Arch
Needle Something Canyon... it was like a little Grand Canyon
Some Indian Ruins

Train ride from Durango to Silverton
Telluride

So we lacked a little on capturing some of our finest moments, like when people come up to tell me how cute Ez is when I happen to be holding him without Jen around and I just start GUSHING over how adorable he is so they probably think I'm the most self-absorbed mother EVER... or when Jen and I got massages from a 70 year-old man and the most disheveled 60 year-old woman ever. Don't worry, the man even commented on how cute Jen's "panties" were.

Lake Powell 2010

A couple weeks ago we got the chance to go to Lake Powell with my uncle Scott and his family on their house boat. Here's what you need to know about Lake Powell:

THIS IS MY FAVORITE VACATION, EVER!

We used to go every year, but we haven't been so lucky the past like 4 years!! :( So this year was especially exciting.

Here is the list of this year's crew:
Eric & me
Grandma & Grandpa Horrocks
Mom
Jen & Jeff + EZRA :)
Uncle Scott & Aunt Michelle + Their Kids

• Charlie - 3 years old (but looks like he's about 5)
• Grace - actually is 5 years old (& looks age appropriate)
• Abbigail - 7 years old (but is about as tall as a 5 year old)
• Emily - 11 (looks age appropriate)

Emily & Grandpa

Here is a list of what we did:
wakeboarding
skiing
surfing (Even got Grandpa to try it! He was a natural.)
tubing
fishing
ATE LOTS OF GOOD FOOD (thanks aunt Michelle!)
read books
slept under the stars
jet skied
harassed children
jumped off rocks
and of course we did some swimming

So my little cousins ended up being the most fun things ever! Eric spent most of the days setting fishing lines for the kids. Lake Powell has mostly Carp :/ so I wasn't too thrilled BUT they ended up catching a lot of Catfish, Bluegill, and even a Bass!

This is a picture of Eric with "his" bass:
He made me take the picture at this angle so the fish would look bigger...
Truth be told though, it was actually these two gremlins that caught the fish, and this is a better representation of it's size:
Grace & Abby (plus fish, which still looks quite sizable)
They were always so excited when there was a fish on... I was mostly grossed out.

One day there was a wicked wind storm so we hung out mostly inside. This is Gracie and I watching Chicken Little - it was really a good movie (as far as kid movies go)... can I admit that here?

This is Eric and Charlie getting ready for a little nap together

This is Abby after a REALLY fun dunking session (for her anyway. "dunking session" = me getting dunked by both Abby & Grace, simultaneously. I soon put on a life-jacket cuz I'm not sure they fully grasp the concept of what happens when you drown). Look at this face:
She is so stinkin' cute!

Grace kept calling Eric her "buddy:"
"Have you seen my buddy?"
and later started referring to herself as "Ariel" from The Little Mermaid so her and Eric would go together. She really liked Eric:
but maybe not quite as much as Charlie did. Charlie refused to get in the water the whole week. He said the water "reeked." hahaha!
He wouldn't even get in with his mom,
BUT ON THE LAST DAY HE DECIDED IT WOULD BE OK TO GET IN WITH ERIC!
Charlie's thoughts:
"No Mom, I do not trust you with my life... but this guy I just met a few days ago with all that scruff... he looks like the embodiment of safety; never mind he was just the only one to jump off that cliff into the water."


This is a fair representation of about how much he enjoyed Jen & my company:

The whole trip was seriously SO MUCH FUN! I want to go back again this summer. I can't even explain how much I love Lake Powell (or how much Eric LOVES to endure looking at me for a whole week without any make-up).

The only sad part occurred when Eric, Jeff & I were "exploring" (Jeff's word) on jet skis and Eric and I may have had a collision WITH EACH OTHER! He T-boned me (Ok, some fault MAY have resided with me, but only like 90%)! Old White didn't fair so well, but Trusty Red pulled through the accident without a scratch. It's ok though, Scott didn't murder us & I think I may have just enabled the final retirement of an ailing machine. However, we are more than willing to provide adequate restitution (be it disposal fees or repair work).

DISCLAIMER: Most remaining pictures in this post taken by little Gracie

(surprisingly, however, most turned out pretty well).

EZRA TIME :)
Ez had LOTS of fun at Lake Powell. He got a nice rocking motion 24/7 & someone was ALWAYS willing to hold him...
even Eric!
my two faves in 1 picture!

Ez with his Great-Grandpa & Grandma. :)
Ez with his Grandma... she's pretty nice, but since she's skinnier than me I can't help but hold some animosity towards her... even if she did birth, cloth, feed, etc, me for the past 23 years.

Lastly, I just want to mention I have the BEST GRANDPA in the whole world. Honestly. I'd be willing to bet large sums that there has never been another one quite as great at this one right here.

NEGLECT

My poor blog has been feeling awfully neglected lately. Eric and I have just been using her as a means to see if anyone else has updated their blogs. Isn't that selfish? It's ok Buela (that's the blog's name now), I'll start paying a little more attention to you now... maybe... although if the past is any indication of the future, don't hold your breath Buela.

At first I thought about capturing all the events from the past 4 months in detail in an attempt to justify my long absence from the blogging world, but then I was realized A) no one really cares what I did 4 months ago (or even my current activities if we're being honest) & B) it wouldn't be the whole truth...

... so here is a consolidation of all events transpiring February til June:

1. We went to Las Vegas with my family + grandparents. I'd never been to Vegas but I knew that everyone at BYU LOVES taking trips there and justifies frequent excursions due to it's "close" proximity (close being 5 hours... yeah, I don't get it either). Well, it was still a pretty good time, but I think Vegas loses a little of it's appeal when you can't drink, smoke, gamble, or even look at all those little handouts they give you on every corner of those wholesome young ladies. ;)

my cute/fave grandparents

a disgusting pic of me being a total bad a** and playing the slots... I'm pretty sure I lost a dollar there...

2. Breanna Steven/Baker (http://bsquaredlove.blogspot.com/) got married and I got to be a bridesmaid and go home for the wedding! It was so fun/beautiful and I can't wait to get outta Utah & back to CA!

I guess none of us are too familiar with how cameras work... or maybe we just all thought we had a "good side" we wanted to work for this picture.

3. We celebrated our FIRST anniversary! We went to the Grand America in SLC for a couple nights and just hung out together. It was so nice to get a little break from school. I'm still really happy I married Eric and I am so lucky to have him. It is so great to live with my best friend and have someone that continues to make me laugh every day with his ridiculous antics.

Another free picture slideshow by Smilebox

Please ignore the fruitiness of this video and the opening scene of bugs... Blogger wouldn't let me upload the video normal...

4. I graduated! I officially have my Masters of Accountancy degree. My job doesn't start until October so I'm having a wonderful relaxing summer and studying for the CPA exam (which makes me want to die sometimes... it's pretty discouraging when you're taking an exam with a LESS THAN 50% pass rate).

5. John (Eric's counsin) & Gracie got married!! We went to their wedding in Visalia, CA. Eric was the best man. :) It was really cold that day so I'm wearing a jacket in all their photos (I'm sure they love that, I'd show you a pic of my atrocious outfit but I didn't have my camera that day) or maybe I wore the jacket cuz I'm just really white trash so I have no idea what's appropriate at a wedding. I think the next wedding I attend I'll wear my tapered Cherokee-brand jeans from K-Mart? You know, from the 80's? Black? That's cute, right? I just hope those butt pockets still sit really high so my bum looks extra long. :)

This is John & Gracie... aren't they just the cutest?

6. Finished off CA with a stop in Campbell to see my brother Jason, his wife Gin, and son Oliver. We also stopped to see Mom in Newcastle. We're obsessed with Oliver. As you can tell, the feeling is mutual (don't mind those disgruntled looks on his face):

7. Traveled to Boise to see Eric's family and did a little fishing. The only proof I have of this is on Aubrey's blog: http://thehappymills.blogspot.com/2010/05/fishing-trip-to-brownlee-reservoir.html I made HUGE strides on this outing. I even helped unhook the fish towards the end. Addi, Ruger, and Lincoln were there too and we LOVE seeing them so it was basically the best fishing trip EVER!

8. My family has been out here (in Utah) a ton... including Oliver. He actually liked me on this visit:

It's a lot easier to make him love you when you feed him s'mores first... when his mom isn't looking.

And then you chase him around on the trampoline even though it's like 100 degrees outside and you're sweating bullets.

And then your husband plays whatever game Ollie wants at exactly the moment he wants (although in this particular photograph they both look equally bored with each other).

Now, all of that stuff was all fine & good and could almost justify Buela's neglect... but the real reason I haven't been getting ANYTHING done (i.e. studying/blogging/housekeeping/shopping/etc) is this guy:

Ezra Jason Lee

Born March 19, 2010

My sister had her first little baby and I basically can't function without him. It's really pathetic. I'm constantly making up excuses to go see Jen basically EVERY DAY,

ME:

"No Eric, I HAVE to go up to Jen's today because I think I left my... umm... nail polish there."

ERIC:

"Didn't you just paint your nails yesterday?"

ME:

"What? I can't hear you... I have to leave immediately... I'll call you later!"

Me feeding Ez at the hospital after he was born.

I'm sure Jen loved that I was there before the delivery, immediately after, and then haven't left her side since. "Oh what? You need to shower/have 20 minutes alone/Ez could use some time to himself too? I don't get it. I'll just wait here for Ez to wake up... and here's your towel, but I think you might have missed a little section between your bum cheeks... here, I'll get it, hold still."

Eric LOVES Ez... mostly when he's asleep though...

Great-Grandpa & Ez... They're buddies.

Mom & Ez... he loves his mom so much... he always smiles the second she comes into view. He's too young for candy so I'm at a loss on how to win him over completely.

Ez and me on the boat at Utah Lake... He actually quite enjoyed himself. I was trying to find a water sport for him to enjoy... can you imagine how little his wakeboard would be?!

Anyway, that is why I am currently SO BUSY! I guess I haven't seen Ez since Sunday though so maybe I'm having a break through. My dependency is starting to dwindle; however, I have been experiencing a lot of hot/cold episodes, nausea, shaking, and can't stop thinking about my next fix... I mean, my next babysitting assignment...

Is this normal?