Kent was in the Blade today!

This picture was in the local paper today! They did a story on the medical mission to Nicaragua that's happening this next week! Kent has been busy every night this week packing medications and working on fundraisers. Tonight he even had to go hang out at "Trotter's tavern and bar" to set up a cornhole (midwest game that people here LOVE. It looks an awful lot like the bean bag toss to me) tournament. Thank heavens it's just a block away from us and he didn't have to stay for the whole night!
I'm not excited for him to leave again but I'm really glad he's getting this opportunity. He's really excited to work with the people and get some great experiences. I really wish that I could tag along! Definitely someday.

Zeb must take after me. He has to make everything extreme and make sure everything is the MOST exciting or the MOST intense. This week has been no different. He decided to get the most sick he could without causing any major damage. After his immunizations he made his way steadily up to a temperature of 105. Nice going rugrat. We had a bad bad night last night to say the least. It's moments like those that I wonder why in heaven's name I am trusted to be a mother. What do I know about a baby with a temp of 105 in the middle of the night?!?! It was miserable and I was so worried I couldn't sleep a wink.
We made it through the entire Blue's Clues dvd twice (it's at least two hours in length). His temp peaked and finally dropped this morning at seven-thirty- just in time for us not to be able to go back to sleep. He's been cool and crabby all day today. I'll take the irritability over the fever anyday.
Here's the goofy kid in his new two dollar spiderman pajamas. I LOVE babies in new pajamas.

thanks for the good times, Toledo!

We just passed up our year mark here in good old Toledo! I think I've loved almost every moment here (if you remove the humidity). I cannot believe that time has flown by so fast. It feels like just yesterday we were driving across the country with a six week old and my family. SO much has happened in the past twelve months.

Toledo is all the rugrat has ever known! He's gone from boring newbie to crazy one year old! from all liquids to pizza and hot dogs! from slothlike to running maniac! and from wrinkly to darn cute.















Kent is one year wiser and 1/4 M.D.! he has become an even better husband than ever. He's also become quite the air force Lieutenant (83 pushups in one minute and bench pressing 275!).


And, me- I've been busy. Busy doing whatever I could possibly find to do! I've looked back at our year in Toledo and realized that I have about the most charmed life one could imagine! Kent works his tail off at school and I get to have fun. I've gained great friends, read buckets of great books, tried to learn how to be a mom and better wife, run my guts out, and watched endless episodes of Project Runway :) What more could one ask for?!

I look forward to the next three years that this place has to offer! Let's hope it gets better and better.

We've done a whole lot of swimming in the last few days! We even had two swimming parties today- one for playgroup and another for our YW/YM activity. I can't believe I've turned into as much a water person as I have this summer. The humidity does it to me.

Today at the Pickford Pool they gave away free lunches to the kids. Zeb devoured his sandwich bun. It was the first time Zeb has eaten that much bread EVER. I couldn't figure out why he enjoyed it so much until Kent pointed out that it was his first experience with white bread. Grandpa Howell would be so disappointed in him. The stuff has no nutritional value but he LOVED it!!! We're going to continue to work on wheat bread with him- he'll have to eat it eventually.




Zeb enjoyed dipping his feet in the pool and having Kent chase him around the perimeter. He did NOT love when Kent forced him (at my request) under the mushroom thingy. Enlarge the close-up image to get a good look at his pure anger and disgust. As of late he has not been a fan of getting entirely in the water- let's hope the phase passes soon.




NEW BOOK recommendation:

The Rules of Survival by Nancy Welin. I read this book in its entirety this afternoon. I'd read other books by Welin and was only semi-intrigued. This book was by far the best of her books. It is a quick read and kept my interest. It reminded me slightly of "A Child Called It"- only not nearly as depressing or graphic . Three out of four stars.

I am so glad to be home and back to my library! Nothing better than a good book and a napping baby.

So, here's my next book recommendation. Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Don't get your hopes up too much because it doesn't actually hit the shelves until October 1 of this year. My mom gets all the great books "pre-publishing date " at the book fairs she attends (we even got to read the first Harry Potter long ago before it was discovered!). I know it isn't out for awhile but I wanted to give everybody the heads up so that they could get their names on the hold lists at their libraries.

The book was GREAT. A definite four out of four stars. Unfortunately it is the first in a series of three and since I read it last month- I have FOREVER to wait for book two. If you want to catch a glimpse of the book you can read the first chapter here.

Here is a short description of the book I found online. It's futuristic and has a little bit of an odd story to it, but I loved everything about the book. Great characters and well written!

Katniss is a 16-year-old girl living with her mother and younger sister in the poorest district of Panem, the remains of what used be the United States. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, "The Hunger Games." The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed.

One year check-up (at 14 months)

We were a little late with Z's well check this time. He didn't turn one until after Kent left for Officer training and I didn't want to deal with all the shots by myself. I'm a wimp, I know. Plus, last time we did immunizations just before traveling it was a nightmare.

He's all grown up- minus the almost two pounds he's lost in the past month or so. I think it's been a combination of being sick and running around like a banshee. Dr. Badik says he looks great and is "very advanced". I think that she was just impressed that he knows most of his body parts AND can flex his muscles on demand :) She also referred him to a pulmonologist. She just wants his lungs checked out since she didn't get to see the x-rays taken in Utah. It will be nice to see if we can come up with anything conclusive.

I got this great picture of him playing with some girls before his visit. He was quite happy and they made him giggle hysterically. I tried getting an "after" shot but the camera battery was dead. He was LIVID to say the least. He hates the otoscope and stethoscope as much as he hates the actual shots. Let's just say Kent will not be testing out ANY of his cool doctor toys on this kid in the future. He is a doctor's office weenie.

our own little beach!

We had a ward party at the Maumee Bay State Park this weekend and it was GREAT. I could not have asked for better weather. It was partly cloudy, 85 degrees, and low humidity! Zeb loved the water and all of the big kids. Kent and I just waded and hung out on the beach. I love that we have this place! We need to go when everybody comes in August!There were A LOT of seagulls and quite a few seagull feathers everywhere that kinda grossed me out. Luckily Zeb was only eating chunks of sand- no feathers.

So, I tried to get a bunch of his tricks on video. He thinks that rubbing any part of his body means "please", but at least he's using the sign regularly! He's so dang funny.

free stuff

Today we got free t-shirts at the mall! We were lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time. American Eagle was giving out free t-shirts to anybody that tried on jeans! they weren't too shabby either. I can always use another running or sleeping T!! I'm sure the deal is going on for a few days- I know that at least here in Toledo they had TONS of shirts left! Utah (as always for freebies) may be a different story. Now lets just hope Kent and I don't wear ours on the same day. It happened once when I went to pick him up from school. We were both wearing one of our race T-shirts. I was mortified.

same old zeb stuff

Having Kent home has been SPLENDID- but for some reason when the day comes to an end I can't figure out what we did with it! Today was super normal and super wonderful. We worked out in the morning, came home and cleaned while zeb napped for THREE HOURS :), went swimming, fed the elders, and then watched some tv. Nothing exciting but all fabulous. I'm dreading when Kent leaves for Nicaragua! and even more so when school starts up.
Really, our lives are pretty calm and Zeb is the only erratic variable. He has changed SO much in the past month.
He is such a handful and terror, but so much fun. He's more and more like a puppy than ever. He does all sorts of great tricks for people and loves his toys. His current favorite activity is walking up to us- grabbing our hands- and then grunting until we follow him somewhere. It's really cute.

He's also turned into the runaway. If we let go of his hand in a public place or get him out of his stroller he's gone in a flash. He is NOT afraid of losing us.

When we ask where his mouth is Zeb will click at us. This is what happened when we started clicking back. He was so excited about all the noise he immediately started bouncing to the rhythm! He's going to end up in Stomp some day.

the Lucas County Fair!

Today was free day at the Lucas County Fair and it's a darn good thing we didn't pay the six dollars to get in. We had a lot of fun looking at the animals and seeing "Buffo- The World's Strongest Clown" but there wasn't much more to do. No cool Indian feathers or fun booths like at the Eastern Idaho State Fair. We stayed for an hour or so and watched all of the crazy people waste money on the carnival rides. We did, of course, also quite enjoy watching all of the carnies. They really always are the highlight of every fair.









Zeb had a freak out in the animal barn. I rolled him up to one of the harmless sheep to get a good look when suddenly the sheep kinda wigged and started baaaing like crazy (very loudly too). Z's come apart was instantaneous. It took him quite some time to calm down and look at the rest of the animals. I think he liked the rooster and hens the best. Here are Zeb and Kent holding on to the giant cow's udder. They were both really thirsty due to the heat. No milk.