the Pecauts in Bend

2010-02-26T15:36:00.001-08:00

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Out and About

2010-01-19T20:09:00.000-08:00

With it being pretty darn cold here and with Bobby working quite a bit....and with us only having one car, you can imagine that Caeden and I spend a majority of our days in the house. So it goes without saying that we take any chance we can get to go outside and run around. I was starting to get a little frustrated that there isn't any indoor play area for kids in Bend, at least not one that's free. It's made me really miss that little cushy play area outside of Sears in the good ol' Mt. Shasta Mall! Thankfully, the other day the three of us decided to take an outing to the Bend Public Library. And lo and behold, the children's area had a great little play and read area! So that has become our free indoor play area to get us out of the house. That brings us to today! Since I'm trying to avoid going stir crazy lately, I asked Bobby if I could take him to work so that I could use the car to take the little man to the library! Of course it was a blast as we were able to read lots of great books while sitting on the worlds largest teddy bear. And Caeden played with all the super fun toys. When we were done with our "yi-bwawy" fun time I made an executive decision that it wasn't too cold to go play at the park! So we let Baxter out of the car and the three of us, Caeden, Baxter and myself, took a walk through one of my favorite places in Bend, Drake Park. Caeden chose to spend most of his time throwing things in the water and watching/chasing the ducks. Baxter opted to be horrible at heeling so I let him off leash for a bit and we played fetch. After some fun running with the boys, we packed it up and headed over to pick up Daddy. It was a VERY much needed outing for the 3 of us and was almost perfect. I say almost cuz it would have been perfected had Bobby been there! But we'll take what we can get! Here's some pics to show you how much fun we had! You should be able to click on them to enlarge.

Facebook is to Blame

2010-01-09T19:42:00.000-08:00

I swear it's not my fault. I want to blame facebook for my prolonged blog silence because I'd rather not take responsibility for being plain ol' lazy! It's so much easier to send a two sentence update and a photo straight from my cell than it is to take the time to actually think through writing something interesting or uploading pictures from my camera. But fault and blame aside, I promised my Dad-in-law that I'd start blogging again once we moved away. So I thought following through on that promise might be a good thing! Especially since not everyone I know and love is on Facebook and don't get to see an hour by hour status update on my life! So here I am! Back on Blogger and ready to try and be interesting again! Although to a majority of people who read this, interesting is as easy as posting pictures and little stories of their grandson/nephew!

So since my last post, a lot has changed. We decided not to open the climbing gym (just yet) but to, instead, let Bobby go back to school to get his degree in Outdoor Leadership. So to do that we sold all his climbing holds (around 5,000 of them), sold other items, packed all our belongings in a huge U-Haul and U-hauled our butts all the way up to Bend, Oregon. So here we are, in the cold, high desert with a fire place in our living room and snow on the ground outside. It's quite the change from our long time home of Redding. But it's a welcome change. We love it already. We've made some great friends, found a fantastic church and are adjusting well. The first month was a bit rough since we weren't making much money at all, but that has improved as Bobby is working a lot before he starts up school in March. We miss our family and friends greatly, but thankfully, quite a few of them have been able to drive up and visit! That has been awesome! And we are excited for the rest of you to come when you can. Our house is very much open to whoever wants to come visit.

On a more sober note, we found out we were pregnant right before we moved but sadly lost the pregnancy at 10 weeks. It was not an easy day but God was extremely gracious with us, making it a much better experience than it could have been. His hand was evident through all of it and we are eternally grateful. At some point I might write a blog about that experience as it was a huge faith builder in our lives.

Well, to leave you, here are some pictures of some of the adventures and happenings we've had here thus far!We have discovered that Bend has endless amounts of outdoor activity possibilities! This bouldering area is just a hop, skip away from our house. It's right on the Deschutes River Trail which is also a gorgeous trail to hike, run, bike whatever! We spent the first two weeks here exploring a lot of trails and scouting out the local climbing! Yes, Bobby is like a kid in a candy store!Here's little Mr. Caeden all bundled up by the river! He LOVES being outside, so he loves it here!Here is Sarah and Meghan in the kitchen when they came to visit for Christmas. They kept us well fed with delicious recipes!Here's our house after the last big snow. And here's Caeden playing in it! He sure loves the snow! Good thing too!And here we are at the top of Pilot Butte. We hiked up there with my parents, Sarah and Jordan, Meg and Andy, Bella, Caeden, Odie and Baxter. It provides a gorgeous 360 degree view of Bend and the surrounding area and mountains. If you come to visit we'll take you up there!

Cross Fit Entry #10 Still Goin' Strong

2009-06-14T18:10:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't written about cross fit in a couple weeks but I've still been going faithfully. Two weeks ago I went 5 days and last week I went 3 days. I want to go every single day but balance is an important thing! I've only improved each day I go. I can now do several knees to elbows and can also do several box jumps. (I couldn't do either when I first started in May) I can do more push-ups in a row than I've ever been able to do in my life and I'm getting closer to being able to do that darn pull-up! I've also seen my running improve immensely, which is awesome. I have better form and more strength in my runs and the other day I was able to do two laps of the Clover Creek trail easily whereas before it was difficult for me to do one. Plus, pushing my junky baby jogger is a breeze now! It used to be such a struggle to get that darn thing to go straight, especially while trying to hold on to Baxter's leash as well. But I didn't even notice it on my last run. Also, my Mom started Cross fit this month!!! Way to go Mom! Here she is learning the dead lift.I'm so proud of her for doing it because it's not easy for a 27 year old, let alone a woman of her...maturity;)! She is kicking butt and getting stronger each week. I can already see her confidence growing.

Here's a few pics from the last couple weeks of WODS.

Working out some Thrusters below. I'm in the front left, purple shirt gray pants. Squats, pull ups, push ups...lots of em. Pretty obvious which one is me in this pic.This was a really tough one, dumb bell split cleans and pull ups. I'm on the left getting ready to pull up.

We do special WODs on members birthdays. This week it was KT's day. So we did the following. My butt hurt for days!

This was a new one. Called Turkish Get Ups. You can kind of see the progression if you look at all the people in the different positions. Basically just holding up a kettle bell from lying down to standing up. Plank
Overhead KettleBell Walking lunges. This is why my booty hurt!! :)

Soooo....good stuff! I love it! Can't get enough. I'm heading to bed early tonight so I can hit up the 6am WOD tomorrow morn.

Cross Fit Entry #9 Killer Arms

2009-06-01T21:49:00.001-07:00

I title this entry "Killer Arms" because my arms are going to kill me tomorrow! I hit up the 5:30 class tonight and we did 5 rounds of 15 Dumb Bell Split cleans and 21 pull-ups. (you can see the guys in the pic at the top of the split clean movement. You start with your feet hip width apart and the weights down by your shins then you end up in a sort of lunge with the weights by your shoulders). I did jumping pull ups since I'm still unable to do a real one. But if I keep doing stuff like this I should be pull up ready in no time! You can see me in the pic below on the far left. I'm resting between pull ups because it freakin HURT! Yay cross fit!!!!

Tomorrow my Mom starts cross fit!! I am so pumped. I'm going to do Tuesday nights with her in her Fundamentals class. I can't wait to see how she likes it! Cuz I know she's gonna like it!

And for those of you who are interested as well and have questions, feel free to check out their website for all the answers! http://www.crossfitredding.com/. Or come to Saturday's WOD at 9am to try it out for FREE!!!

Cross Fit Entry #8 Sluggish

2009-05-31T22:22:00.000-07:00

Friday was a busy day seeing as it was Bobby's birthday (Happy Birthday, Love!) and I threw him a little BBQ. Plus I had to put some finishing touches on a cake that I made and then deliver it to a family out in Cottonwood. I didn't think I'd be able to get a WOD in. But at 10:55am, Bobby walked through the front door early from work. I handed Caeden over to him and quickly got dressed and bolted my butt down to CFR for the 11am WOD! Of course I was late but I got there while they were still warming up. After a little 400m jog warm up myself, we started the WOD. The night before we went to a BBQ where I ate lots and lots of refined carbs. And MAN! Did I feel the effects of that! I was so sluggish it was rediculous. I knew right away that it was a result of what I ate. I had no extra "umph" whatsoever and I finished last after everybody else. Not that it's a race or anything but I was just not on it. I was thankful that I got to go at least and the workout kicked my butt. So now I know not to eat like that in the future...oh wait, I went to two BBQs in the two days that followed and ate almost exactly the same way. Oops! Well, we'll see how long it will take me to learn my lesson! Here's some pics from the workout. I'm in the middle of the long line of "sit-up-ers". And that's me in the back left corner of the other pic, jumping rope. Question of the Day: Who's gonna come start working out with me???

Cross Fit Entry #7 Yay!

2009-05-27T17:23:00.000-07:00

(this picture is NOT of me! I just wanted a good picture of someone doing Knees to Elbows)

I woke up this morning with just a little back pain remaining. But now it feels 100% better! I was even able to do today's WOD! I was pretty pumped about that since yesterday I was unsure how long it would be until I was able to fully jump back in. Today we did a 500 Meter row and then

21-15-9

Sumo Dead Lift High Pulls (with kettle bell)

Knees to elbows

Burpees

So basically each of those things 21 times, 15 times and then 9 times. By the end I was red faced and felt like I might pass out! It was awesome! I love this hard core, high intensity stuff. It makes me feel so tough and accomplished. So different from jumping on a machine and forcing myself to exercise for 30-45 minutes. I love having the trainers right there with me and I love having other people to do the exercises with. Today it was an older dude named Alex. He is a firefighter with a moustache and bomb-A work ethic! Couldn't ask for a better person to work out with! ;) Except for maybe my husband or my Mom. And by the way, my Mom has officially decided to join Cross Fit! She starts June 2nd in the next fundamentals class. And with her starting up, that means we can do a family membership, giving Bobby the ability to start too! I'm very excited to share this new part of my life with my family. It will be fun to work our tails off side by side!!

Cross Fit Entry #6 OUCHIE!

2009-05-26T11:04:00.000-07:00

Last week at La Cabana the Cross Fit guys told me that it would be totally okay if I brought Caeden with me to a WOD. I was a little reluctant seeing as he is a rambunctious little almost 2 year old, but today I gave it a shot. I brought Caeden along with a whole slew of food and things to keep him busy. He sat in his stroller the whole time and wanted to get out the whole time. He stayed relatively quiet save for signing "all done" with his hands and saying the words over and over to let me know he'd rather be running around. But he did good! We warmed up with a 400 Meter jog and the Cross Fit Redding warm up which, in itself isn't too shabby. The CF joke is that "our warm-up is your work-out". It consists of

A few different types of shoulder passes

10 push ups

10 pull-ups (I have to do jumping pull ups since I can't do a pull up YET)

10 ring dips (which I cannot do. I couldn't even support myself on the rings)

15 situps

15 back extensions

20 walking lunges

25 squats

15 burpees (I think it's 15. May be more)

I think I'm missing some stuff but you get the idea.

After the warm ups I was ready for the WOD. Today it was however many rounds of the following that you could do in 10 minutes;

2 Deadlifts

4 Chest to Bar Pull ups

8 Kettle Bell swings

We ran through some dead lifts to make sure our mechanics were on and to find out what weight would be best. I decided on 95 lbs and did a couple run throughs. On one of those run throughs I was on the return and a felt a sharp tweak in my lower back. Dang it!! I tried to ignore it and shake it off but I got to my second round of kettle bells swings in the WOD when it totally went out on me. Argghh!!! Now please know that this occurance was not a result of any lack of attention on the part of the trainers or even because the workouts are too intense to handle. It's simply because I have a history of lower back problems. Honestly, since starting CF, my lower back problems have decreased significantly. Actually, a lot of my daily ailments (few as they may be at my young age) have decreased significantly and I even seen a lot of positive new developments such as increased energy, better posture, improved metabolism, and even more stable emotions and sharper senses (which I'm guessing is coming from hormone changes). Cross Fit has only done me good so far. This back pain is just my body working out the kinks!! My hope is that in two to three months I will have such a strong midline that my lower back will no longer give me problems. Until then I just need to keep moving and keep at it!

Cross Fit Entry #5

2009-05-22T13:39:00.000-07:00

First "real" WOD today! Apparently I couldn't wait more than 12 hours to go back after finishing fundamentals! It was one of the member's 40th birthday so in her honor we did;

40 Yard Sprint
40 Yard walking lunges
40 Dumb Bell Push presses (20 each arm)
40 Yard Dumb Bell Carry (Right arm)
40 Yard Dumb Bell Carry (Left arm)
40 Dumb Bell Swings
40 Knee to Elbow (while hanging from gymnastic rings)
40 Plyo Push-ups (clapping your hands on the up)
40 Double Unders (jump rope) I can't do double unders so I had to do 200 singles
40 Yard Sprint

INTENSE!! And very very very fun. While sweaty and panting for breath, Kevin high fived me and welcomed me to the real classes!

Afterwards the trainers invited us to La Cabana for a post WOD meal. I had the BEST carne asada tacos I've ever had in my life!

Cross Fit Pics

2009-05-22T08:35:00.000-07:00

Here's some pics the Cross Fit guys posted on their website of our last class. They kept all our scores on the board from the entire course and took a pic of that too. Pretty cool. You'll see on one of the workouts that there's a smiley face next to my name. That's the night I felt some pain in my abs and had to stop. That sucked and was a little embarassing but the smiley face made me feel a little better.

From left to right: Jordan (Trainer), Paul, his son Brian, and wife Michelle (the mighty pregnant one!), Me, Sunny, Jerry, Mic, Bryan (Trainer), Cubby (Trainer).

Cross Fit Entry #3

2009-05-21T21:07:00.000-07:00

Tonight was my last Fundamentals Intro course at CF. We ran over all the moves; squat, front squat, overhead squat, dead lift, sumo dead lift high pull, press, push press and push jerk, and then at the end the trainers randomly assigned us two moves and we had to do them. It was like our little test to make sure we actually learned something. Our right of passage into the "real" WODS. I'm pretty darn pumped right now that I get to join the actual classes starting tomorrow if I wanted to! It seriously is incredible how much stronger and leaner I feel and I haven't even been thrown to the wolves yet!

Tonight's WOD was the same one we did on our first night. It was cool to see the progression we have all made. 10 push-ups, 20 sit-ups, 30 squats and 40 jump ropes. In the first class I did it in 2 minutes. Tonight we did two rounds of the above and I did the first round in 1 min 34 sec. Pretty awesome! Last time I was struggling to finish, this time it felt like I could bust out a bunch more rounds!

My mom came tonight as well so she could observe and see if it's something she might want to do! I was excited to have her there and about the possibility of sharing it with her. We may also be able to have my Dad and Bobby come too so it will be a family affair! We shall see! And if you are reading this and are somewhat interested, let me know and you can tag along any time to see what it is I'm doing. They also have 9am WODS every Saturday that anyone can come participate in for free.

So with that, I am now OFFICIALLY a Cross Fitter since I know how to almost everything they do (without injuring myself!). I'm really looking forward to starting the classes!

PS the pictures above are from Tuesdays class when we went heavy with a bunch of dead lifts. Then we did a massive amount of lunges from which my hiney is still extremely sore! I'm in the green shirt. And yes, the girl doing the dead lifts is pregnant. 7 1/2 months! Every time we work out together I tell her she is amazing! You can kind of see me behind her in the picture doing my dead lifts with one of the trainers making sure I'm doing it right.

Fun at the Park

2009-05-17T13:39:00.000-07:00

Last week we had a free evening at home and decided to go the Park. Enterprise Park is so fun. Especially when it starts to get hot and they've turned on the water park. Caeden loved it! He especially liked the little geysers. He called them "funny water" and laughed and laughed! Our kid is freakin' fun! Here's some pictures of our time.

CF Entry #2

2009-05-15T17:01:00.000-07:00

Went for a run just now, at the hottest time of the day. It was definitely an energy zapping kind of heat and it sucks to push my craiglist jogging stroller that constantly veers to the left. It felt like crap but at least I got past all those excuses and went out and ran! The good news is I can already see how Cross Fit will improve my running. My entire running career the biggest thing that I had trouble with was my posture. I seemed to slouch a lot, especially when I was hot or tired. Thanks to the couple weeks of Cross Fit I already feel stronger and more open in my upper body, making it easier to stay upright. Which is really good for the lungs! After years of struggling with this I'm pretty stoked to have found a working solution other than just trying to stay upright! Pretty darn cool. Another cool thing was that I felt less jiggle in my Mommy Tummy! I think my new mantra should be "jiggle no more"! Ha! After my run I did the midline exercises that they showed us last night and it hurt so good! Until next time...

Cross Fit Entry #1

2009-05-14T21:19:00.000-07:00

I've been going to Cross Fit for two weeks now. Two days a week in the fundamentals course. I think they are starting out a little easy on us and not making us do the really hard workouts. But that's okay with me because I'm usually sore for three to four days following anyway! Since I went tonight I will start with tonight. Even the warm-ups are tough. We did some regular stretching and then what seems to be their favorite torture device, squats. And then some midline, or what others would call core or ab stuff. Just some basic plank work but I was shaking by the end trying to stay up! After putting on the newlywed 20 around the middle and then having a baby, my midline isn't what you'd call "in-shape". But that's one reason why I'm stoked to be doing this stuff. No more complaining about my "Mommy Tummy". NO MORE EXCUSES! It's time just get rid of it! So after warm-ups we each hopped on the rowing machine and did 500 meter rows. Not very long but still intense. I've rowed before plenty of times but I wasn't quite sure how this specific workout was supposed to work. I rowed hard but after I was done I knew I could have gotten a faster time. Oh well, no one to impress I guess. Then we got into the Workout of the Day (or the WOD). Tonight it was Sumo Dead Lift High Pulls and Overhead Squats. Two things I never thought I'd even know about let alone be able to do them! We had to do 21 Sumo DL High Pulls then 21 Overhead squats, followed by 15 of each then 9 of each. It felt great! I've never felt so strong in my life! And it's only been two weeks. I'm very much looking forward to the progress I will see in the months to come. I go again next Tuesday. Till then, I anxiously await my next dose of Cross Fit!

Cross Fit and the Potty Project

2009-05-14T12:44:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I admit, the blogs have been a little lacking as of late. I'm not really sure anyone is really going to be interested anymore. But I've decided to get back on the wagon because the Pecauts are embarking on a couple new journeys. One being what Huggies Pull-Ups would call the Potty Project. Yes, we are going to attempt potty training! It's time to say bye-bye to buying diapers! Then maybe we can finally start that savings account for Caeden's college that we've been talking about. We made our first attempt last night after Caeden's bath. Usually he goes potty right after bath time so I let him run around in the buff. I chased him around the house with his little green potty awaiting the tinkle! It was quite the sight! He would run from the bathroom to the living room where Daddy was sitting, run into the couch and then run back to the bathroom where he'd sit on the potty and clap his hands in excitement. Then he'd get back up and do it again. Over and over like 20 times I followed him until finally he squatted down right next to the his potty and peed! Darn it all!! But I still used the opportunity to show him that the pee pee that had gone on the floor needs to go in the potty next time. So it was a learning experience. At least he is no longer afraid to sit on his potty. One step at a time! So to help in the Potty Journey I have started tuning into the Potty Project from Pull-Ups at http://www.pottyproject.com/ as well as ordered the free video from pull-ups.com. I'm hoping it will come in handy because this is our first time and we are clueless and, I must admit, a little intimidated by the whole endeavor! But we have many friends who have been there, done that and they assure us we will get through. I'm sure we will. Caeden has been such a good kid through every other milestone. So we'll just hope he isn't like his Mommy who, I'm told, during her potty training had very defiantly squatted right in front of her Mommy and Daddy and peed, very intentionally, directly in the middle of the living room floor. Here's to hoping.

That's me going into a very painful squat, preceded by many others and followed by many others!

The second journey on which we have embarked is one that is called Cross Fit. Even though it is only me who has joined the Cross Fit Nation, as they say, it is an entire Pecaut endeavor. Caeden and Bobby help make the journey possible as they are giving up their Mommy and Wifey a couple nights a week so that I can go work my rear off trying to get in killer shape. So what is cross fit? To find out you can check out Cross Fit Redding's website at http://www.crossfitredding.com/. It is basically high intensity workouts that push you to your limit. It gets people in the best shape of their lives. And that's what I intend to do. It's been extremely fun for me as well as a great release. It is very challenging and is never the same from day to day! I love that! It's only been a couple weeks and I'm already seeing results. I've lost 7 pounds and a few inches and I'm eating healthier and have much more energy. Most importantly I am beginning to feel strong! Already I am able to accomplish every day things I couldn't do before due to lack of strength. That's really exciting to me since I would rather not be that old person later in life who needs help getting off the toilet. Plus I want my kids to think I'm cool because I'm one of the only moms who can still do a pull-up at age 50. (Remember, when I say pull-up I am no longer referring the potty project!)

So there's a brief update on a few things in the Pecaut Household. I hope you enjoy reading about our journeys!

Basketball Update

2009-04-29T16:32:00.000-07:00

I know there were a few of you ladies out there who thought a womens open gym night would be a fun idea. So I wanted to let you know that I'm still working on getting a gym. I've come across a couple no's but have a few other places in the works so I'll let you know what I can come up with. I'll post on here and facebook once I find a place. In the meantime, if you are interested, let me know what night would work best for you and we'll try to schedule it so most people can come!

Toddler Beds and more...

2009-04-06T12:18:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a big day for our little Caeden. We took him into his room and showed him that we were taking out his baby crib and putting in his new "Big Boy Bed" for "Nigh, Nigh." We talked him through the whole process and we could tell he was excited. He even had fun fake sleeping/snoring on the new bed with Bobby. We didn't have the opportunity to put him down on it for his nap because we had to drop him off at Marty and Becky's house so we could run out and do an Adventure Race with my parents. That is cause for an entire blog in itself, but let me just say it was freaking awesome! We had tons of fun and got a killer workout in the process. If you ever get a chance to do an Urban Adventure Race, my advice is jump on it! It's like an elaborate scavanger hunt on foot, bike, rollerblade, etc and you even get to learn a bit about the city you are doing it in. It was a blast. So after 5 hours of hard work and fun, we picked Caeden up and prepared ourselves for a big night. We were sure to make his night time routine no different than normal. We gave him his bath after dinner and brushed his little teeth. Daddy read him his favorite book and then we laid him down and sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to him. Or "Binkle, Binkle" as he calls it. And then that was it. He fell asleep! We were so proud of our little boy and super stoked since we were highly exhausted from our earlier adventures. So since I didn't hear much all night in the monitor, I assumed he slept soundly. I heard one little noise but I just guessed that he was shuffling around in bed. But this morning I went quietly in his room to check on him...he was no longer in his bed but instead was laying on the FLOOR next to the bed! He was parallel to it and up towards the top where the rails are, so I'm pretty sure he didn't just fall out. I have no idea how he got there! I so wish I could have been a fly on the wall in his room last night. He seemed perfectly content to be there so I just left him there until he woke up later! Crazy kid! Right now he is taking his first nap on his new bed. Also pretty painless. He went straight down after a Mommy-Daddy Binkle Binkle Duet. Let's hope I find him still on the mattress at the end of this nap!!

Baking a Cake for Pop Pop!

2009-04-02T14:30:00.000-07:00

Today is my Dad's birthday. Happy Birthday, Dad! So I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to let Caeden start helping Mommy out in the kitchen! I prepared myself for a mess and we dove into making Pop Pop a birthday cake. Caeden helped me count the eggs, 1...2...3... And then I let him stand on the chair (something we never let him do!) and stir the cake ingredients together! He loved it! Plus he fully enjoyed licking the spoon when we were through, my favorite part of helping mom when I was little! He wasn't really sure what to think when I showed him what came out of the oven. I think the change in state of the cake batter confused him. But he is still very excited to take Pop Pop his "PanCake" tonight for his birthday! Hope you enjoy the pictures from the event! I'm pretty sure I had just as much fun as Caeden did. Maybe even more. Gotta test out the goods!The finished product! French Vanilla cake with coconut shavings, banana glaze filling and whipped cream frosting! MMMMMM! I think I'll go for a run before dinner tonight so I can eat guilt-free!

Ryan Started the Fire

2009-03-18T09:53:00.001-07:00

Amazing!

Basketball...My Long Lost Love

2009-03-10T21:40:00.000-07:00

For the last two Tuesdays I've hitched a ride with some friends who hauled my little behind all the way out to Cottonwood to play my absolute favorite sport ever...basketball. My love for this sport runs deep! I had forgotten how much fun it is. Last week was perfect. There were 10 women who were all there just to have fun but still played their little hearts out. It was competitive but not serious and I got a major workout! I had an absolute blast. So I told Bobby that I would love to continue to play every Tuesday if he wouldn't mind letting me take off for a couple hours. He agreed!! So I went again tonight. While there wasn't 10 girls this time and we were forced to play 4 on 3 (which was very strange for me) I still had an awesome time. I LOVE BASKETBALL! But here's the sad part. I found out tonight that they are only going to be playing for 3 more weeks. A lot of the women have older kids who start baseball/softball seasons soon so their schedules are going to be too busy to continue playing every Tuesday. Argghhh. There goes my hopes for Tuesday nights to myself to play the best game ever invented.

However, it doesn't have to be the end. I've devised a plan to search out an available gym to which I will adhere a set of keys and permission to gather with at least 9 other b-ball loving women every Tuesday night to shoot the hoops, as they say! So if you have any interest in playing. Any at all. It doesn't matter if you haven't played in years. (I hadn't played in 5 years and some of the other women hadn't played in over a decade) It doesn't matter if you've never played before or even if you think you suck! I would still love for you to come play. Please, please, please come play with me!!

I am on a mission. A basketball mission. And I will have my basketball Tuesday nights from now until eternity!

Bella Renee

2009-02-26T16:50:00.001-08:00

I just had the most incredible experience of my life. I got to watch my sister, the girl I grew up with and know better than anybody (except maybe my husband. and her husband. well you get the point) anyway, I watched her bring a child into this world. Everyone always says it is a life changing experience to be able to witness. And even though I have delivered a baby of my own, I didn't watch it happen. There's something totally different about actually watching it happen. While I almost passed out once, I still found it to be beautiful and miraculous. And I also think my sister is super brave and one tough chick! She did the whole thing without any medication. The only help she had was her mom and her sister rubbing her back and her incredible husband coaching her through it all. Jordan never left her side and helped her to stay focused and breathe through the pain. It all culminated in the arrival of the cutest darn little baby girl I've ever seen. Bella Renee Mallory! She weighed 6lbs 8oz and was 19 3/4 inches long. She is healthy and strong despite the fact that she came two weeks early. What do you think? Doesn't she live up to her name? :) She totally looks like her mama! Good job, Sis! And welcome to Motherhood!!!

I will be an auntie today!!

2009-02-24T08:02:00.000-08:00

We are in Chico! Sarah is being induced today. Her amniotic fluid was too low for comfort so they're gettin' that little baby out!! I can't wait. Jordan and Sarah are going to have thei first born! Woohoo!
5

Laundry, Laundry, Go Away!

2009-02-11T12:44:00.000-08:00

I was going to title this blog "Rain, Rain, Go Away!" but as we all know, we are in desparate need of some precipitation after this last June-uary. Oops, I mean January! So instead, I'll go straight to the source of my frustrations; LAUNDRY! Let me just start by saying that I LOVE our house. I am super grateful for almost everything about it. It is a huge blessing. But the one thing that the Cunninghams forewarned us about was how annoying it is that the laundry is in the garage...and that there is no direct connection from the house to the garage...and that there are no rain gutters out the back door...and thus, you can see my dilemma. In weather the likes of what we are experiencing today, I am even further thrust into the depths of my hatred for the never-ending chore that is washing, drying, folding, and putting away. Arrgghhh! I had such good intentions of getting it all done last Friday and here it is, Tuesday afternoon and I still have about 6 loads to go. Poop!

Well, the rain just let up so I'd better dash out there and switch loads before it starts up again. Thanks for listening to my rant!

Pleasing God

2009-02-02T09:27:00.000-08:00

I don't even really know where to begin with this blog except to say, wow! Yesterday Nate really brought a mind altering message to us at the Stirring. I felt very convicted and very encouraged to begin walking in a life that pleases God and no longers fears people. I want to have the heart of David, not the heart of Saul. But unfortunately I see more of Saul in me than I would like to admit. How many times have I disobeyed the Holy Spirit because I was afraid of what people might think? How many times have I missed the Holy Spirit's voice completely because I was more concerned with my outfit or the way my words sounded? I know everyone deals with caring what others think to some extent, but I also know there are others, like David, and even people in my own life who are able to stand firm in who they are in Christ and to put aside their insecurity in order to be a vessel for God. I want to be used by God. But before I can do that, I need to get out of the way! I was reading a little in the word this morning and found this verse in the Message;

The fear of human opinion disables;
trusting in God protects you from that.
Proverbs 29:25

The goal here is to be used by God and trusting in him allows us to move in his will. Caring what people think will paralyze us.

Paul put it this way;

If my goal was popularity, I wouldn't bother being Christ's slave.
Galations 1:11

It's clear that we can't obey God if we are seeking the approval of people. There are two stories that I have to share in testiment to this.

Story one
About 5 or 6 years ago I was really pressing into God and trying to be in tune with the Holy Spirit every day. I went for a walk on the River trail one day and was praying as I walked. I passed by a man that was walking in the other direction and I noticed that he looked sad. Immediately the Holy Spirit placed him heavily on my heart. In that moment I asked what I was supposed to do. I looked down on the ground and in front of my feet was a tiny little metal spring, like from a bike or something. I heard the Spirit tell me to pick up the spring, turn around and walk up to the man and give it to him. Okay. Weird. But in that moment I chose to obey instead of wonder what this guy might think. I picked up the spring and walked up to him. I tapped him on the shoulder and said, "Excuse me, I feel like I'm supposed to give you this." He looked down at the spring in my hand and said, "Okay." I asked him if it had any significance to it and he said no. I was like, "Okay, sweet." And I turned to walk away thinking, "What the heck was that about, God?" But before I could walk away, the man stopped me to ask why I had done what I had done. So I turned to walk with him in his direction and proceeded to explain my faith in God and how I believe he talks to us through his Spirit and wants to have a personal relationship with all of us. After I explained myself, the man started to tell me that he'd never heard anyone talk about God that way. He said he really hoped that was true because he needed a God like that. He then told me that as he was walking that day, he was seriously considering leaving his wife of several years, his business, his teenage kids, his entire life, and starting all over again. He almost teared up as he talked about the conflict between his love for his family and his desire to actually do something for himself for once in his life. I told him I didn't have any answers but that God does and that he has hope for him in the life he had in that moment. We reached the end of the trail and said goodbye and I've never seen the guy since. I don't know if he decided to stay with his family but I know that God gave him hope that day. I also have no idea what the significance of the spring was. Maybe it meant something to him later or maybe it was me just misinterpreting the Holy Spirit's promptings. Either way, that day I was willing to put aside my thoughts about myself and how I might look like a weirdo and God was able to use me because of it.

Story Two
Just a couple days ago, I decided to walk down to Dutch Bros. to visit Bobby. I loaded Caeden up in the stroller and put a leash on Baxter. As we walked down Hartnell I was all wrapped up in my thoughts about life. I walked passed a bus stop where there was a teenage girl waiting for the bus. She looked like a normal girl with her backpack and a musical instrument in a case on her lap. I was just going to walk on by and give a generic "hi" but Baxter stopped to give her a little more of a proper hello. She looked up with a smile and said, "Oh. What a cute dog." Then she noticed Caeden and said, "Aww. What a cute baby!" A gave her a smile and thank you that probably sounded like I was in a hurry and I yanked on Baxter's leash so that we could keep moving on. I didn't have any place to be at any certain time, no agenda or plans but I continued on like I had no time to talk. As I walked away I heard the Holy Spirit say, "Go back. She needs someone to talk to." I didn't go back. The Spirit said, "Please go back. She needs someone to talk to." I didn't turn. The further I walked away from her, the more the Spirit pleaded with me on her behalf. But I didn't obey. I was afraid of what she might think if I was wrong. I didn't want to feel silly. God could not use me. My heart aches now for what might have been possible in that girls life. Maybe God did with me what he did with Saul and David. I hope that he saw he could not use Candace in that moment but that the next person who came into her life that day he could use. I really really hope that. But I won't ever know. I would so rather have stopped to honor that girl with my time, my attention, my caring. I so wish I would have put myself aside and witnessed something amazing. I wish I had been like David.

Oh God, please forgive me for all of the times I disobeyed and grieved the Holy Spirit when he asked me to listen and obey. I pray that there is grace for me and others where I have fallen short. I ask that you prompt me every day to die to myself, and to not care what people think of me. I want to care only what you think of me. That I have YOU living inside of me and that I carry with me a hope that so many people need. I have in me the living water that never runs dry. Help me to walk in that certainty so that I will live a life that honors you and honors everyone around me. Help me to trust in you and not be disabled by the fear of man, so that you can use me. In Jesus powerful name, Amen.

I just thought about something...

2009-01-28T08:55:00.000-08:00

...I wake up every morning to the cutest, sweetest little boy you can imagine who, right now is going in and out of our adorable little dog's crate and playing nicely with his toys. I get to sleep in until about 8am and then have great coffee each morning. I have an incredible, thoughtful, dedicated, handsome husband who comes home everyday around noon from a job that pays all of our bills and allows me to stay home with our adorable son. We get tons of family time. My husband is walking out his dream and starting his own climbing gym with our best friends. We live in the same town as all of Caeden's grandparents who all love him very much . I have the most awesome sister and sister-in-law, whose significant others we also get along with super well. We have the best friends any couple could ask for. We live in a great little house with a huge backyard for Caeden and Baxter to play in. We have been reunited with one of the most awesome church bodies that also has the coolest mom's group ever. The three of us have our health, a roof over our heads and a warm bed to sleep in at night. I have a pretty incredible life. I know it might not be like this forever so I want to be thankful for it right now.

Jericho Update

2009-01-22T09:46:00.000-08:00

So I've decided to start a whole new blog dedicated to the progress and updates of Jericho. It will be mostly from the perspective of the Jericho wifeys, myself and Becky! We'll keep links to it on our blogs but for all of you who have been great in supporting and reading about Jericho, go ahead and follow the new blog so you can be in the know! Thanks again for all your prayers and support!

http://jerichogym.blogspot.com/

Thank you for your prayers

2009-01-17T14:08:00.001-08:00

And praise God for NyQuil and Penicillin. We are feeling so much better today. I had no idea how hard core NyQuil is. One dose for me and I was gone. I barely made it half way on the couch and I fell asleep, half my body on the couch and the other just sort of hanging off the edge. Bobby says it was pretty funny. I needed it badly since two nights ago I woke up every 30 minutes just from the pain of swallowing. Last night I didn't even notice the pain because I was knocked out and having some really CooCoo dreams!! Caeden's strep face is slowly becoming just strep upper lip and Bobby is starting to get back to normal as well. I'm so glad it isn't lasting any longer than a couple days. Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers. I know they helped because I've never recovered from strep this fast. We are still going to stay holed up in our place a little longer just so we can be sure we don't pass it along. We already had to reject some hugs today from the Gagnons because we didn't want to get them sick. I felt bad but I'm sure they appreciated it.

In other Pecaut news, training and raising Baxter has been awesome. He was house trained within 5 days and only "went" in the house 2 times. He also already knows sit, stay and lay down. He is a great dog and really smart. He does have his disobedient times, like all dogs. He's ran Caeden down in the back yard a couple times now and we weren't too happy about it. Plus he's chewed up 3 of Caeden's binkys (that we know about) and destroyed my favorite pair of shoes. But we knew that was the territory we were getting ourselves into. It's well worth it to have his little snuggly self around!

Also, things are still moving along with Jericho nicely. We have some big news but I'm still not allowed to share it. I know that will probably drive some of you crazy but I'm really excited and I had to at least say something. In time, though, friends, in time! Bobby and Marty went to the building last week and got all the exact dimensions and then plugged them in to Google Sketch up. They've come up with some great design ideas for the walls and Bobby is working on it right now as I write this. Probably Marty too, since last week both the Moes and the Pecauts purchased business lap tops for the guys. So they've both been working hard, researching, designing, networking. It's all so official and exciting. I am more and more proud of Bobby every day.

I'm also more and more proud of Caeden as he continues to grow and develop. Today he did one of his little stacking puzzles all by himself. And his vocabulary continues to grow every day. The latest word he just learned today is "cookie"! He likes to say it but I'm pretty sure he likes to eat it more! Plus he's learned how to run! It's pretty much really cute. So that's about it with us right now. Or at least what I feel like writing about. Caeden is asking me to play "Go Go Go" with him, so it's time for me to jet.

Late!

It's Official...

2009-01-16T15:47:00.000-08:00

...We all have strep throat. Poor Caeden also has a rash on his face from all the snot pouring out of his nose that is infected as well. So we say that he has strep face. Anyway, you probably won't be seeing the Pecauts for the next few days. Unless you want to risk getting this nasty little bug yourself. Pray for quick healing, cuz this sucks.

Poopy poop pooper pants

2009-01-15T17:24:00.000-08:00

The only thing I hate worse than being so sick I can hardly move or swallow is having our whole family be so sick we can all hardly move or swallow. YUCKY! I so wish that our health matched the beautiful weather. We tried getting out and going for a walk but we were like the walking dead. Not pretty. I've been feeling worse as the day has progressed and all these huge piles of laundry are looming behind me. Plus the house is a wreck and the guy from Clark Pest Control came out today to check for termites. Yeah, he had to come in our house and go in every room. And then he went into the garage. Poor guy. We could hear him rustling around in there trying to find the walls. Good luck with that. And poor little Caeden hasn't been able to nap all day until about 20 minutes ago. And when he finally fell asleep, a really sweet, but loud lady came to pick up an item I sold to her on Craigslist and woke him up with her loud voice. She was very sweet and normally I would have loved to chat with her, but I was just cringing waiting for her next sentence to be followed by a babies cry. Thankfully Bobby was able to get him back to sleep and now both the boys are sleeping. Ugghh. What a poopy day. I guess I'll go gargle some salt water now. Yay!

Hi Ho, Hi Ho...

2009-01-08T12:55:00.000-08:00

Hey all! So I'm going back to work. My Aunt Helen owns a salon and clothing store in town, Helen's Closet and Salon, and she's asked me to come work out of her massage room. It's been a while since I donned the title of Candace Pecaut, CMT. Actually, back then it was Candace Joseph, CMT. I've given massages here and there to friends and family but I'm excited to start up my practice again. If you are interested in a massage for yourself or anyone else, give me a call for pricing and services. Also, if you are ever downtown, check out my aunt's shop. It has cute clothes and jewelry and a full salon. It's at 1054 Market Street.

Peace!

Jericho in the News!!

2009-01-05T08:57:00.001-08:00

Big Jericho update! Today, Bobby and Marty are on the front page of the Record Searchlight!! They are featured in a story about local, young entrepreneurs and how they are gleaning help from the Small Business Development Center and its Young Entrepreneurs Program. It is a very well written and accurate article so if you have time and an extra 50 cents, you should pick one up today! If you aren't able to do that, check out the article at http://www.redding.com/. You'll know it by Marty's beautiful mug and Bobby's classic figure on the front! We couldn't be more excited!

Also, as to the last potential investor, we got another no. But, again, just another step closer to a yes from the right person. He gave us a new lead, however, and some great advice as to how to adjust some things in the consice plan to better inform a potential investor with what he/she would want to know right off the bat. So we press on! And we are hot off the press! He he! Love to all!

Meet Baxter

2008-12-31T13:35:00.001-08:00

This is Baxter, a labrador/golden retriever mix. He is the newest addition to the Pecaut Household. We just brought him home like an hour ago. So far he is really sweet and well behaved. And he gets along with Caeden super well! We love the dynamic a dog brings to a home so we felt it was 'bout time to add one to our family.

Welcome home Bax!

the Latest

2008-12-30T14:57:00.000-08:00

Bobby is, as I write this, dropping off a concise business plan with a very promising potential investor for Jericho. We are all holding our breath right now and praying. Bobby and Marty have also started working on the wall design. Bobby has been tearing out climbing pictures from his magazines and making a collage on our office wall as inspiration for the design. He's been using Google Sketch up, which is a really neat design software. It's exciting to see a visual representation of what the gym will be!!

In the meantime, Caeden is still really freakin' cute and cracking us up every day. Lately he has taken to finding household items and wearing them like clothing, as you can see below.He has also taken to slides and the crayons he got from the Moes on Christmas! He will also have the warmest feet of any baby in history since he got approximately 29 pairs of socks!

New York Part 4

2008-12-25T12:31:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone. Thanks to all of you who have read about our New York adventures. It's been fun writing about it. It all happened so fast that I've enjoyed kind of lingering on it for awhile. So here's what happened the last day of our trip.

Day Four

Wednesday, 12/17/08We only had half a day to squeeze in a few things before we had to check out of our hotel at noon. So we decided to hop on the subway again and go check out Macy's. We had been told that the window displays there are very cool and that the windows along 34th street had displays that were dedicated to the movie, Miracle on 34th Street. Since this is one of my family's favorite christmas movies, my sister's especially, I decided that we had to see it. Of course, like every other day, once we started to walk around we ended up seeing even more than we planned. The picture above is of the biggest bottle of wine we'd ever seen. It's hard to get the right perspective, but the bottle on the far right is larger than your typical bottle of wine. So you can imagine how big the ones on the left really are.

While we were walking from the subway to Macy's we ended walking right past the Empire State building even though we hadn't planned on it. After Macy's we came back to it later. Here's Macy's from the outside.

Here's some shots of the cool window displays. And here's us inside Macy's. The decorations were incredible!!

After Macy's we finally found a tourist gift shop. It was the first time we had found one the entire time we were there. So we stopped in and bought gifts for family and friends. We even found an adorable little onesie for Sarah and Jordan's baby that had the classic "I heart NY" on it! Moving on from the gift shop we decided to stop in the lobby of the Empire State building just to see it. I'm glad we did because they had these really cool displays inside that were supposed to look like huge snow globes with different representations of the building. They were beautiful. Bobby with Lady Liberty!So after wandering around a little longer trying to find Gimbles and failing, we decided just to hop back on the subway and go check out of our hotel. We got a car service to take us to JFK and said goodbye to that incredible city as we drove over the bridge. Our driver was a really nice guy from Mexico named Javier. We talked with him for the entire 45 minute drive. He was really cool. He dropped us off and we went inside to check our bags. As we were waiting in line, I looked up and saw a familiar face. It was Jemaine from Flight of the Conchords!! I was so excited that I couldn't formulate words. I just elbowed Bobby and pointed at Jemaine and just sort of grunted as he walked by! We checked our bags and I got the camera out just in case we ran into him again. As luck would have it, we spotted him again in the book store as he was trying to pick out a magazine. Like any crazy Conchords fan would, I approached him and asked if I could take a picture with him. He wasn't too excited about it, but he agreed. We told him we were big fans and thanked him for the photo and then left him alone. But wow! What a great way to end a great trip, right?!?!

The flight home wasn't nearly as good as the flight there. I think this time we had a head wind and there were some crazy kids who kept screaming right when I would start to fall asleep. Plus we weren't spoiled with the personal TVs. It took like 7 hours to get back to California. But once we got back it felt really good to be back in our home state. We spent a little time with Andy and Meghan. They spoiled us with Christmas gifts and then we hopped in the car and drove home, very anxious to see our little boy! We arrived at the Moseley's around midnight. It was so great to see our friends' faces again! And it felt so wonderful to hold our little sleeping baby! We got home and crashed hard.

So, there it all is! Our trip to NYC! It was insanely awesome and I think I cried every day with excitement. I've already watched a bunch of movies set in New York and it's so fun to be able to say, "Look! We were right there!" I hope to go back again someday, maybe in the spring when the trees are green and the fountains are running. I hope if you haven't been there before, that you'll be able to go soon too! And I would love to hear all about it!!

Part 3

2008-12-22T18:13:00.000-08:00

I forgot to mention in my last blog that at the end of Monday, after going to the Top of the Rock, we hit up the NBC store to check out the latest in Office paraphernalia. We ended up purchasing a couple sweet coffee mugs. Bobby got the "World's Best Boss" mug while I got the Angela "face on a star" mug from the episode where everyone went to Kelly's party and got a mug except Dwight and Jim! Classic. Monday night was also the night that we stopped at Staples to get a poster board for Becky's Happy Birthday sign. We spent the rest of the evening watching TV and making her poster. Here's me with my mug this morning. Ignore my just-woke-up-and-still-in-my-pjs look.
Day Three
Tuesday 12/16/08
This was the morning we planned on getting up early so we could go to the Today Show. We woke up around 7:00 and got ready and got to the Plaza around 8:00. We had just missed a round of outside filming and they weren't going to come back out for a while so we got settled in a good spot to wait. While waiting we met a really nice couple. I think they were a couple. Maybe they were just friends. We never asked. Bray and Bonnie were their names. We formed a tight little group and began scheming to find holes in the crowd so we could swoop in and get a prime position to get on camera. Bray and Bonnie were really good at it!

We finally got ourselves into a position we thought would be best and continued to wait. We figured it would be awhile before they came back out so Bobby decided to go in to Dean and Deluca to grab us some coffee and breakfast. Poor guy was stuck in there and missed the filming. He didn't mind though. He's not a Today show fan like me. About 10 minutes after Bobby went to get us coffee, out came the camera crew and then Matt, Meredith, Al and Ann! They all walked right up to us and shook our hands and said hello. Ann Curry looked at my sign for Becky and said she thought it was sweet. I about freaked. I watch the Today Show almost every day and almost every day I've wished I could be one of those crazy people in the crowd. Well, that dream finally came true! There I was, standing directly behind the four of them as they bantered and talked about the upcoming segments. I was right behind Ann so I had to lean around her to get on camera. If you saw it you know I looked pretty funny. Here's a shot of my view. It didn't come out very well, but it's still pretty cool.

After the cameras were off, Ann Curry turned around and looked right at Bonnie and told her she was adorable. It was really sweet. She also talked to Bray a little bit about his wanting a career in journalism. Since we've been back, everyone keeps asking the same question. Yes, Ann Curry is as beautiful in person as she is on TV. Actually, she is prettier. Very pretty and very personable. She talked to just about everyone who was standing next to us. We also saw Sigourney Weaver who came outside to collect toys for tots. Better Midler was in the studio so we didn't get to see her without glass between us. But still pretty cool. Here's me very happy and very much loving my husband!

Here's us with Bray and Bonnie. Bonnie is holding Becky's sign.

After the Today Show madness, we decided to look at the tree up close and try to figure out how in the heck they get so many darn lights on it. We asked the security guard how long it takes them to get all the lights on and she said like two weeks. There were seriously soooo many! That's why it's so gorgeous! Then we walked down to check out the skating and that's when we realized it wasn't only $15.50 just to skate, you also had to pay $9 to rent the actual skates. YIKES! We just took a picture in front of the rink instead. ha ha!

This picture gives you a little perspective as to how big this statue really is!

I also took some pictures of these famous angels. I think they are beautiful. You can also see that the building in the background has some huge snowflake lights on them that, at night, lit up a pretty blue color. All the decorations on the buildings all over town were amazing.

I also had to snag a picture in front of the famous NBC studios sign. We didn't do the tour, but now I wish we had. Maybe next time.

Next we walked Times Square to find the big Subway hub. We wanted to hop on and go to lower Manhattan so we could see Ground Zero, the Statue of Liberty, etc. This was the first time I saw Times Square in the day time.

Here's us on the subway. It was my first time. Bobby looks like he's really tired or something, but really he was singing a silly song about riding on the subway. He he!

Here's my in Battery City Park with a mounted police officer who was really funny. He made fun of our tourist ways and then asked if he could come back to California with us. We told him it was snowing where we are from and he could hardly believe it. That was the response we got from almost everyone that we told about the snow back home. Of course it could NEVER snow in California!! Too funny.

Bobby, playing a very large mandolin.

There she is! We decided not to go all the way out there, at the advice of Becky since it would take too long and we only had so much time.

Just north of Battery City Park is the financial district, so of course we had to take pictures of the Merill Lynch Bull.

We hopped on the subway again and got off at Little Italy. We didn't spend much time there on anything except to take a little video for my sister who's always wanted to go there for the food. But our plan was to find Gray's Papaya in Greenwich Village and have lunch there. So back on the subway we went. By the way, if you go to New York and you are planning on using the subway a bunch for one day, you should buy the day pass. It's $7.50 a person, whereas the normal one ride pass is $2 a ride. So the day pass winds up being cheaper if you plan on getting on and off mulitple times. Anyway, we walked through the Village until we found Gray's Papaya. Since I've always wanted to try their hot dog since the first time I saw it on Fool's Rush In, we ignored the Yes Obama sign and bought the Recession Special; two hot dogs and a drink for $4.95. By far the cheapest meal we had while in New York!

We took the dogs and drinks to Washington Square Park and ate them by the big arch. By this time it was freakin' freezing outside! But we were plenty bundled and all the walking was keeping us warm. So we scarfed the DELICIOUS dogs and got on our way again.

We stopped in a Gap to buy Bobby a beanie since he forgot his and then jumped on the subway again to get back to the hotel. This picture below is of the Apple Fritter that never ended. Bobby had bought it for breakfast that morning and we snacked on it all day. By 3pm this was how much was left. It was like Jesus had prayed over it and told it to never end. Here we are watching Ellen and taking a break before our big show.

After a much needed break, we showered and changed for Broadway! We bought tickets for Wicked and were very excited.
Here's us in the lobby before our dinner and a show!

We went to the French Restaurant next door to our hotel. Le Bateau Ivre. Let me just say that this was the best food I've ever had. I figured that since we were in New York and there was no better time to be adventurous, I did something I never do, I ordered fish. Considering that I never even like fish, and I'm one of those people who always orders the same thing everywhere I go, this was a big step for me! But my goodness, I am so glad I did it! It was pan-seared salmon in a butter-citrus sauce with ratatouille and spinach. SOOOOOO GOOD! And it even filled me up. It was so worth the $24. Yumm. Bobby got a burger that he said was probably the best he'd ever had.

So after dinner, we tried to hail a cab so we didn't have to walk to the theatre with me in my heels. But there were no available cabs and the traffic was moving just as fast as we could walk. So I sucked it up and we hoofed the 12 or so blocks to our show. Surprisingly enough, my feet actually hurt less the longer we walked. Plus it started to snow, so that was fun to walk while the snow came down. It was actually very pleasant. We made it the Gershwin theatre with time to spare and settled into some great seats. The show was incredible! I guess it was an all new cast this year and it used to be Christen Chiniwith who played Glinda. But honestly, I liked this Glinda even more. I watched some videos of Christen on you tube, and she's great, don't get me wrong, but we thought Alli Mauzey was hilarious. Especially when performing "Popular." She played a ditzy blonde like only a true brunette could! And Marcie Dodd, who played Elphaba had such an incredible, powerful singing voice, she knocked us off our feet! The set was gorgeous and the story was so much fun! I highly recommend this to anyone. If you get a chance to see it on Broadway or even in San Fran, you should jump on it! So after the show ended, we walked back to our hotel and hit the hay. Yay for New York!!!!

Our Trip Part 2

2008-12-21T09:16:00.000-08:00

Okay, deep breath...and here we go with day three of our trip.

Monday 12/15/08
We didn't have any pressing appointments on Monday morning so we let ourselves sleep in until 8am. Which was nice since we went to bed a 10:30. So we got a good amount of sleep. We were very glad about that since this was the day we probably walked the most. Our plan was to check out the window displays in the department stores, then walk through Central Park and find the Metropolitan Museum of Art and check that out. Then we were going to take a break at the hotel and then do the Top of the Rock and try ice skating at Rockefeller Center. So we headed out onto the streets with that plan in mind. We started the day with some cofee and breakfast sandwiches at Starbucks. We sat at the window seat and watched all the New Yorkers as they walked to work. It was fun to see all the fashionable women with their nice shoes and fancy handbags. After breakfast we checked out Bloomingdales and a couple other stores and then made our way to Central Park. I'm still trying to figure out my favorite part of the trip and Central Park is definitely up there at the top of the list. It was all I'd hoped it would be. The weather started out chilly and over cast but as the morning went on, the sun broke through and we were peeling off layers to try and cool off. It was sunny and 65 degrees by the time we were well into the park. Gorgeous! Of course, Bobby spotted all the rock and scoped it out to make sure he wasn't missing out on any climbing. He even found a couple good routes. Here's some pics of the park adventures.

This is for all you Beatles fans. This is in Strawberry Fields. It is a tribute to John Lennon. We ended walking through about half of the park. Which is really a long way! We found ourselves right next to the Met but as we approached it we saw big red signs that said, "CLOSED TODAY". Big bummer. I had really wanted to see it. But instead we just took some pictures and then went in search of a place to eat. We wound up at this really great pizza place called Ray Bonos Famous Pizza. I'm sure the famous part was just to attract ignorant tourists like us, but hey, it worked! And the pizza was delicious. Plus the sit down tables were a real treat after the miles of walking we had just done. After lunch we walked along 5th avenue with some pretty shmancy apartments to our left and central park to the right. We ran into this war memorial statue that we thought was pretty cool. We got to the end of the park and the streets became suddenly very busy with people. The Plaza Hotel was to our right and off to the left was FAO Schwartz, one place that Bobby had for sure wanted to see. As you can imagine, a week before Christmas it was INSANELY busy in that joint. But we braved the crowds in order to see the "BIG Piano" and some of the coolest Lego displays we've ever seen. After cruising two floors of toys, toys and more toys, we headed out the door. Next came the toy store that I had always wanted to see. Tiffanys! We stopped in for just a few short minutes so I could dream and then we moved on. Here's some cool buildings we saw on our walk that day. After all that walking, we were ready for a break. So we grabbed some snacky foods from the grocery store on our block and vegged out in front of the TV for about an hour. Then it was off to Rockefeller Center to ride the 36 floors up to the top. There was a little history along the way so we stopped to read up. It was pretty cool to learn how the building of Rockefeller Center created many jobs for people during the Depression. And then how NBC came into the picture. The view from the top was breathtaking. It was impossible to try and capture it with the camera. After trying to for awhile I finally just gave up and decided to enjoy the scene with my own eyes.

After we came back down we just hung out around the plaza and took advantage of the fact that there were way less people than the night before. We took the opportunity to take more pictures of the tree and the decorations. There were still a ton of people in line for ice skating so we passed on that again and headed back to our hotel for the night to get some sleep after another full day!

The Trip of Lifetime!

2008-12-20T09:15:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting here trying to decide how to write a blog about the coolest gift/trip I've ever received/been on and I'm kind of at a loss. I don't want to just sweep over the four days because so much cool stuff happened. But I don't want to write about all the details because this would be the longest blog in history. I was thinking while we were there that it would have been nice to have a laptop so I could have blogged it about it day by day, Patrick Hardy style. But, no laptop. So I guess what I'll do is just write one blog about each day we were there. Partly for everyone to read but also so I can document our trip and be able to remember all the details down the road. So here we go!

Days One and Two: (the first day was just travel to San Francisco)

Saturday 12/13/08

This day was a little crazy trying to get packing finalized and ready to go. The plan was to drop Caeden off with Becky at 1:30 and get on the road. Surprisingly enough, we actually came close to this goal. It was super hard for us to leave him and I cried probably 3 times just thinking about it. Even though I knew he was in the best of hands between the Moseley's and my parents I just couldn't help but be scared that he would feel like we abandoned him. Silly, I know but I still felt that way.

So after leaving him and driving a short distance away I started to feel a little better realizing where we were headed! But we still missed his little guts. We drove the distance to San Francisco and got to Bobby's sister's around 6:00. We got some dinner at Trader Joe's and spent the evening watching Mythbusters on DVD.

Sunday 12/14/08
The next morning we awoke at 4:30am! Meghan and Andy drove us to the airport and our adventures began. I don't ever remember any airline playing music as we boarded the plane but this time they were playing christmas music! I thought this was a very fitting start to a great trip. Then we were seated next to this really nice, half drunk, italian guy about our age named Milos. He informed us that he had just come from his friend's 30th birthday celebration and that he intended on sleeping for the entire flight. He was on his way home to Italy for Christmas and New York was his connecting flight. He was a lot of fun. The plane was probably less than half full so the flight attendants told us we could basically have any empty seat we wanted. Milos took her up on that and stretched out on the three empy seats to our left and then made good on his promise to sleep. He crashed out from take off to touch down. Bobby and I used the time to sleep, catch up on our reading and watch some TV on our personal touch screen TVs! Those were awesome.

We had a strong tail wind that made our flight very short. Before we knew it we were looking out the window over Manhattan! I pretty much freaked out. As we circled over JFK waiting for the tower to tell us we had a terminal, Bobby and I were searching out the window to see if we could spot any sea animals. We both always try to do this when we fly over water. As I was looking I totally spotted a whale coming up out of the water!! I was so stoked! I ended up seeing a whole bunch more all swimming out to sea! Amazing. Sadly Bobby couldn't see them because his angle wasn't right from his seat. We landed, de-boarded and got our bags easily enough. We had a few hiccups with our transportation from JFK to Manhattan but soon we were in NEW YORK CITY! Our hotel was way cool! It's called the Pod hotel. Very urban and modern and affordable. The rooms are very small but new and clean. That's why they are called pods. It's a cool way to stay in the city because really we spent most of our time outside of the hotel. And the time we spent in our room was just to lounge on the bed and watch TV and use the bathroom. It was awesome. We had a great view of the buildings from our room and the hotel has a beautiful rooftop lounge where you can hang and check out the view.

The View from one of our room windows

So after we checked in and washed the grime of travel off, we headed into the city. It turned out to be easiest to just walk everywhere. We were only a few blocks away from Rockefeller Plaza so we headed there first. The cool thing about walking around the city is that we accidently ended up seeing things we didn't plan to see yet, or at all. For example, on our way to Rockefeller, we stopped in to see St. Patrick's Cathedral. It was breathtakingly beautiful and cavernous. There's no way to capture it with our little camera, but we tried. Right outside the back door of the cathedral was Rockefeller plaza! We saw the big statue of the dude holding the globe first, then we rounded the buildings to see the plaza and the tree! It was a big moment for me. I've been wanting to see that tree my whole life. That was the first of many times on this trip when I cried due to overflowing excitment!

After we took a few pictures in front of the tree we tried to forge our way through the insane amounts of people that were in the plaza. There was some famous guy performing there and all the weekend travelers were there to see the sights. It was CRAZY how many people there were. We still aren't sure who the guy was that was performing but we heard his song like 10 times on the radio while we were there. I'm sure if I knew who he was and was able to tell you, you'd all be like, "What the heck? You've never heard of (insert famous R&B artist's name here)?" But oh, well. I'm sure I'll survive. Again, walking is the way to go. We hadn't planned on seeing Times Square until a couple days later, but as we continued to walk to try and find a place to eat, we ran straight into it. It's kind of hard to miss! We ended up having dinner at TGI Fridays since we were so famished but it was okay, because our delicious local food came later. At $50 for burgers and fries, it was definitley the most expensive burger and fries we've ever had! Since we hadn't really planned on walking that far that night, I was definitely not wearing the right shoes and my feet were killing me. So we decided to take a bicycle taxi back to the hotel. That was a great choice. The guy we flagged down had a stereo system on his bike and we bumped some tunes all the way back while checking out the scenes. (and yes, the famous dude from the plaza's song came on too!) He took us through the rest of Times Sqare, passed the Waldorf Astoria, down Park Avenue and then back to the Pod. After a full day of travel and already seeing more than we intended that first night, we were beat. So we just went to the rooftop to check out the view and then hit the hay to rest up for the next day. Here's some shots we got from the roof.

So that's only the first day. It crazy how much we saw and did on this trip. Maybe later today or sometime tomorrow I'll write about the next day. Hope you enjoyed my little trip re-cap so far.

Jericho Update and other things

2008-12-09T00:28:00.000-08:00

I'm never up this late. I tried to go to sleep once I got home from Alyssa's card making party. But I just kept thinking of all the things I want to do to get ready for our trip to NY and I couldn't sleep. So I came in here to start planning the trip. I've got a good start on it. I just want to make sure we can fit in all the stuff that I really want to do. It's going to be a busy and fabulous four days! We leave Sunday and get back Wednesday of this coming week! That is the way to plan a vacation. One week ahead of time! Then you don't have to wait too long to go. AHHH! I am thrilled and so antsy.

On another subject. Jericho is still going well. I've had a few people ask me lateley if there are any updates. The answer is yes. The business plan was completed last week! It looks wonderful and very professional. I am extremely proud of Bobby and Marty for putting it together. Bobby had another meeting with a prospective investor but was turned down again. The man he met with did say, however, that the only way Bobby is going to get this funding is by being a "squeaky wheel." So Bobby plans on asking him again later if the next few possibilities fall through. (Think Jim Halpert on the golf course in the "Job Fair" episode, season 4) Another update is that we now have a large pile of free padded flooring and carpeting that we got from a gymnastics center that recently remodeled and was getting rid of old stuff. The pile is so large that it looks like a huge van is parked under a tarp in our back yard!! I think it adds something nice to our landscaping! We are still praying and hoping for big things. I think after the holiday season, things will start really rolling again. I can't wait to be living our dream! Thanks to all who have been praying along side us. More updates will follow soon!!

Yay!!!!!!

2008-12-07T20:16:00.000-08:00

Today is my birthday. Bobby is taking me to New York City. What the heck?!! I don't think I need to say more...

...except....AAAAHHHHHHH!!! I AM SOOOO EXCITED!!!

Starting the Holidays Off Right!

2008-12-01T16:55:00.000-08:00

So Thanksgiving has come and gone already and it's now December! Crazy. I feel like 2008 just started. But here we are, hanging Christmas lights and hunting for Christmas trees! I absolutely LOVE this time of year. Family comes around, people sing songs, lights go up all over. This year, Bobby's sister Meghan and her boyfriend Andy came to stay with us and we did Thanksgiving dinner at our place. Meghan brought the recipes and we cooked our little hearts out to come up with a fantastical feast! We still aren't sure how, but we cooked everything just right and even had it all done at the same time and on the table, ready to eat by 3:00! None of us had ever made a Thanksgiving dinner before. Teamwork really pays off! We really enjoyed the food and the company and then on Saturday, we went with Bobby's family up to Mount Shasta to hunt for trees. We've done this for the last 3 years so it's kind of becoming a tradition. Except last year, Bobby and I were the last to find a tree and this year we were the first. That's because I picked it this time! Ha ha! We start out by going to the Fish Hatchery in Mount Shasta. We feed the fish and do silly things like run by them to make them splash around in the water. (It's more fun than it sounds). Then we go hunt for our trees and drink hot cocoa. Then we end the day by eating a big meal at Black Bear Diner in Mt. Shasta. This year it was beautiful weather and we found maybe our best tree ever! It's a gorgeous tree. It's now all decorated and in our living room window! I love the soft glow of the Christmas tree lights this time of year. Plus the yummy smell that it gives off. Can you tell that I love Christmas! Well, here's some pictures of our tree hunting day.

Okay, I think I finally caught the bug....

2008-11-21T18:49:00.001-08:00

Or I guess you could say I finally got the bite. Or something. Just about every woman I know has read the Twilight series and has raved about it and then promptly told everyone they know that they have to read. It's been passed around from friend to friend but for some reason I just haven't had the urge to request a copy myself. Not that I've been resisting or boycotting or anything like that. I just straight up haven't had the desire. But just now I was reading someone's blog about it (or should I say like 18 people's blogs about it) and WHAMMO! There was the desire. All of a sudden I just really want a good series to read. So here's my shout out to all you crazy Twilight fans. And yes, I do mean CRAZY! You guys are all nuts. But I'm about to jump on that crazy wagon. Can I please borrow someone's book?

(Sorry, Sarah Bram)

Caeden's New Moves

2008-11-19T10:24:00.000-08:00

Now that Caeden can walk he has added some new dance moves to his repertoire. And it's pretty darn adorably hilarious. Enjoy the cuteness!!

Opening Doors

2008-11-15T12:09:00.000-08:00

A few exciting things have happened with Jericho in the last couple days. First of all, a friend of Bobby offered to do all the concrete work for free! That will save us thousands. Secondly, Bobby and Marty talked more in depth with the City about permitting and found out the amount that they have to pay in permits on the building. The amount is zero dollars. That's right $0. The guys in the permit department at city hall said that is a very rare occurance. Yet another door opens! Of course, that doesn't apply to the actual building of the walls but that will come later once they are designed and engineered. I can't imagine that it would be too much. We are continuing to walk forward and seeing the waters part. Thanks for your prayers! Bobby has approached a couple of potential investors and was turned down. But he and Marty remain very positive. It's just one more step towards the person who is going to say yes. We'll keep you posted. Speaking of posting. I've been trying to post a way video of Caeden dancing and walking but it hasn't been working for some reason. Stay tuned for cuteness!

Update on Jericho

2008-11-08T12:15:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Bobby, Caeden and I got to tour the building that we are praying will soon become our climbing gym. The owner was a great guy who seemed to be very interested in the idea. He owns the business that is in the same building and believes that our businesses would greatly compliment each other. And we completely agree! He also told us how great it is to be a business ownder downtown since everyone there is one big family. They all help each other out by giving each other their business and trying to encourage a real sense of community. He also told us about the great exposure we would get just from the location. Marketfest will be moving to the old mall next summer. The Christmas lights display drew thousands of people last year. Plus Kool April Nights will be hosting some events right there next spring. Not to mention the new college being there and of course all the improvements being done to the old mall. So many people are excited about the downtown renovation and are willing to support anyone in that effort. Along with all this great news comes the fact that the space itself is magnificent for a bouldering gym. The owners are more than happy to let us tear down walls and raise the ceilings to do what we need to do. And again, it's already zoned commercial and use permitted as a gynamsium. So that helps us avoid a lot in permitting fees and red tape. I feel like it's our promised land. I even took a piece of chalk that was sitting on a half wall in the building and used it to write "Jericho" on the wall. I'm claiming it!!

So here's where we are: Bobby has spent years now doing research, compiling information, and running numbers. So now Marty and Bobby are working to get all that info into an official business plan format. Once that is done...well, we are praying hard for an investor. The great thing is, as far as businesses go, the start up cost is really not that much at all. Right around $100,000. So if you will all stick with us in prayer that God will bring the money that would be fantastic! Today is the big day that God promised something big will happen for the gym. We decided we need to have faith even if we don't see that thing happen. We believe it could be going on without us even knowing it. We are just moving forward in faith that God will provide the finances. As Marty said, "God owns the sheep on the many hills. Or wait...He owns the thousand hills with the sheep. Or, the cattle. He owns the hills and the cattle!" Amen, brother!

Jericho

2008-11-05T18:30:00.000-08:00

What a huge day. I am in awe of God right now. He is so good.

First a little background.

Yesterday, Bobby was doin' his thang at the Dutch Bros. when a girl drives through and prophesies over him. She says, "You are on the edge of your dreams and you just need to keep moving forward."

This morning I hung out with Bethany and Josiah. We talked about Bobby's dream of opening a climbing gym in Redding. We talked about how that dream has also become Marty's. How in the past month their passion for it has grown intensely.

Now to tonight. Marty had the day off and he came over at about 3 oclock and we, Bobby, Marty, Caeden and I (sadly, Becky is out of town with little Mo) left to run some errands. Part of the errands plan was to stop by the permits division of City Hall so the guys could get some help on the gym. This was a big step of faith for them. We got to city hall and the guys started talking to a guy from permit planning as I held Caeden's hand to help him walk around the room. He's been able to walk for awhile now but has chosen not to because he hasn't really believed in himself enough. Just like someone else I know who has been wanting to open a gym. Well, as the guys were talking to Zach, the planning guy, Caeden suddenly let go of my hand and started to walk!!! I was like, "I hate to intterupt but please look at your son now!" We all celebrated as Caeden began to walk around the permit division. Oh how my heart was full of joy and pride for my little boy. After our celebration the guys kept talking to Zach and got some super helpful information. We left City Hall excited to go check out some buildings that Zach suggested. There were some legalities he told us about. One was that if we could find a building that had previously been permitted as a gymnasium (for gymnastics or some other kind of sport) then we would avoid a lot of red tape. It would pretty much be ready to go as far permitting was concerned. So we headed to the first building. It's in the up and coming downtown in the old mall and it has some sweet store front. We're not totally sure if it's perfect for the gym. We'd have to look into it some more but it seems great! We talked to a lady named Julie who represented the owner. She told us that the space used to be used as a GYMNASTICS CENTER!!! Oh my gosh!! We were like giddy school kids when we heard this news. It was like for the first time the idea of the gym was becoming more than just an idea.

As we drove home I got a word from the Lord. He told me that just as Caeden took his step of faith and finally believed that he was able to walk, as he was created to do, Bobby and Marty took a step of faith by going to learn about permits and were walking towards the dream that God gave them, just as they were created to do. God planned for Caeden to start walking in the permit building so that we could physically see a wall fall down. A wall that stood between Caeden and walking and a wall that stood between the guys and their gym. It just took faith to knock that wall down.

Later, the guys were brainstorming ideas and they came up with a name for the gym. Jericho~ It couldn't be more perfect. Jericho. That is the name of our gym. Right now, as I write this Caeden is walking around being the cutest little guy ever, as if he'd always been walking. And Bobby and Marty are in the living room reading about Joshua and the battle of Jericho. They are believing every word and speaking with so much faith and assurance that God will give them the land that they desire.

So God is speaking to us right now that if we believe and prepare, he is going to do something big for the gym in three days. What it is we don't know. But please be praying for us and for Jericho. And give a shout out to God for his goodness. Because the men in my life are walking in what they were created to do!

The Boy Must Grow to be a Warrior

2008-11-05T12:40:00.000-08:00

Caeden's name is of Gaelic origin and it means fighter or warrior. Caeden is our little warrior and we want to teach him to fight for good, to fight for God's purpose here on earth. We also want to teach him to fight like Indiana Jones! The other night we rented the newest Indie movie and Bobby was inspired to teach our little man the ways of men! Jabs and kicks and tackles and punches! By the end Caeden had Dad pinned and was telling him to cry uncle. Then he promptly drooled on Dad's face. Way to go little buddy!

"Submit or I'll drool on you!"

"You should have listened"

My New Favorite Website

2008-11-05T09:39:00.000-08:00

Check it out! This is Livestrong.com.

http://www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate/

I haven't even scratched the surface yet but my favorite part of it is the Daily Plate. It's amazing. You can look up any food and it will tell you the nutritional content. You can add it to your plate so the site can count your calories for the day. You can set a weight loss goal and the site will tell you how many calories to consume each day in order to reach that goal. You can record how much water you are drinking, how much and what type of exercise you did that day, track your weight loss progress with charts and even see the percentage breakdown of the fats, carbs and proteins you are consuming. Incredible! Keeping track of my calories used to be so time consuming but now it's fun! If you are trying to lose weight or just want a way to make sure you are staying healthy, you should totally register with livestrong.com The Daily Plate. It's free. Okay, there's my shameless plug. :)

Olive Abigail and some Punkin' Patch Fun

2008-10-20T12:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we spent the day with my parents and went to the Nash Ranch to pick a pumpkin and have some fun! We brought our little, old, red wagon for Caeden to ride in and to hold our pumpkin. That was a great idea. Thanks Mom. Plus Caeden got to see some real farm animals up close. Wow, did he love them! He would touch their fur and then start to crack up. Hilarious. He loved the turkey, goats and llama the best. It was awesome. It was the first time I've been to a pumpkin patch since I was a little girl. Speaking of little girls!! My sister and Jordan found out what they are having. A girl!! They are going to name her Olive Abigail. I am going to have a niece! Yay! Here is Sarah finally showing! She looks Be-u-tiful!

I want to know what you think...

2008-10-15T21:21:00.000-07:00

I'm not so much afraid of gay marriage as I am of the loss of parental rights in this situation. I hope it never has to come to this for anyone else. It's always the parents' right to choose what's best for the child as well as when and how to discuss these issues with our children. Just because there are parents out there who neglect these issues and don't talk with their children about them doesn't suddenly give public schools the right to shut out parents completely. And it especially doesn't give them the right to do this to a man who is determined only to know what is being taught to his child and to have a say in it. I'm in shock and feel very bad for this family. Watch the whole video and tell me what you think.

To Clean or Not to Clean...

2008-10-15T09:57:00.001-07:00

I've noticed something lately. I've suddenly become a lot cleaner than I used to be. Bobby and I both have been trying to figure out why. Maybe we shouldn't though. Why question a good thing. But since I've thought a lot about it, I thought I'd blog about it. I think it's a combination of factors really. First of all, right after I had Caeden I was a wreck. I really let things go around the house. I think, though, that having a newborn is the one time you can really do this and feel okay about it. Everyone tells you, "Remember, don't feel bad if your house is a wreck. Just focus on taking care of your little one, yourself, and getting SLEEP!" So this is what I did. So I think once I finally got my head on straight after the whole newborn stage, the pendulum had nothing to do but swing the other way. I suddenly felt the urge to keep everything tidy. Also right around this time was when Anna started posting her blogs series, Confessions of a Clean Freak. That woman can clean! I think reading her blogs helped raised my standards some. If not that, then it just made me start thinking more about my abilities as a cleaner. Which was good! Then at that same time, Becky was involved in a cleaning competition (or "competish" as she would call it :)) with a women's group she was in. She was challenged to clean certain things every day for points. She kicked A$$ and won! And I was inspired. Then shortly following all of this, we moved into our house. And I suddenly took on a certain amount of pride in our living space. It's such a cute place and I loved getting it all set up. So keeping it cute has been fun for me. And then there was also a certain sense of responsibility that set in since we don't own the place and the people who do are so awesome. I felt like I needed to keep it clean for them as well. So all these factors have converged like a super hero fighting team to combat my innate tendancy to be messy (thus the creepy picture above). I still wouldn't say my house is always clean. Right now I'm looking at a cluttered computer desk with dirty dishes on it and a pile of Bobby's shirts that need to be put away. There's also toys all over the living room floor and some dirty dishes in the sink. Plus, as I write this, Caeden is behind me pulling papers out of the file cabinet and reorganizing them on the floor. But the new development is that I seem to have this constant fire under my rear to do something about it sooner and more often. So that's pretty cool.

I Can't Stop Watching this Video!!

2008-10-13T11:18:00.001-07:00

Evidently I like stripes...

2008-10-11T21:48:00.000-07:00

This morning I arose bright and early, excited to do two things. Number one was to drink amazing coffee from our new coffee maker that I am exceedingly joyful about. (FYI Dutch Bros. Espresso roast beans are perfection even when used in a drip coffee maker)And number two was to go garage sale-ing with Becky and Jamie. I don't often get to shop for fun any more so getting loads of stuff for cheap at garage sales sounded super fun to me! We hit the annual Gold Hills neighborhood sale. It's amazing the things that rich people will get rid of to bring in the new. I scored on some great stuff. One of the highlights was this set of cute autumn jars. I love them! I also got two great shirts from two separate homes, one with gray and black horizontal stripes, the other with gray and pink horizontal stripes. They're basically the same shirt, but whatever. You can't go wrong with $1 shirts. If the jars were the highlight, then the low point would probably be the water jug I bought. You know the skinny ones that you fill up and put in the fridge? I've been wanting one for awhile so you can imagine how excited I was when I brought it home to clean it out and use it. Well, as soon as I filled it with soapy water I was appalled when the water came gushing out a huge hole in the the back end, soaking my jeans. Don't ask me how I didn't notice the hole when I bought the thing. But how dare I be so trusting as to assume that no one would ever sell a water jug WITH A HOLE IN IT!! Oh well, I guess it was only 25 cents. I also got a couple of cool christmas gifts for people that I won't mention here since some of those people read this blog. So after gathering all of our finds we headed home. And the rest of the day was just as great. It was a gorgeous fall day and I got all kinds of cleaning and laundry done, as well as baked some yummy cookies. Bobby even lit the pilot light and got the heater going!! Yay for fall!!! I welcome you, cold weather. Well, I better get off to bed so I can wake up to freshly brewed, yummy, yummy coffee! Sleep tight!

Just Some Thoughts on my New Workout

2008-10-09T16:33:00.000-07:00

Okay, here's the thing. My whole life I've been an "out-door-worker-outer." Meaning a good percentage of my exercise has been done in the outdoors. Mountain biking, running, rollerblading, kayaking, hiking, rock climbing. I've never been a fan of the treadmill. In fact, I've been known to use the words "hate" and "treadmill" in the same sentence on more than one occasion. So you can imagine the judgement I have passed on this new fad of TVs being built on treadmills so folks can exercise while watching the teli. It's like, come on now people. Get outside already. Enjoy nature. Walk on some dirt. But here's the thing, I now have a baby. And I'm beginning to understand the benefit of using the treadmill. Sometimes dropping Caeden off in the childwatch and jumping on a cardio machine at the Y is the best I can do to get some exerscise and some time for myself. I resisted the treadmill and TV for awhile but the other day I gave it a shot. And to my utter surprise, I really enjoyed it. Being able to watch the TV made my workout go by so much faster. I still think it plays second fiddle to a trail run in nice, crisp weather. But I'm realizing that not everyone has the time for that sort of thing. Plus, I started thinking about the population of people that will probably never enjoy the outdoors and the only way they want to get some exercise is if they are able to watch TV while doing it. At least now they have an opportunity to do that, which is awesome. So I guess I can give in a little to say that I don't exactly hate treadmills any more. Maybe if you put a TV on it I'll be able to get in a tolerable run. (Wink wink)

YAKS

2008-10-02T11:56:00.000-07:00

I've always liked YAKS. But I've decided in the last couple of weeks that I really like YAKS. It's such a cool place. I love the atmosphere. It seems to foster creativity and relationship...and koffee drinking. They also make really good food. i.e. the Hummus Amongus. I went there last night on a date with myself. I was kind of forgetting who I was so Bobby gave me the night off. I went to work out at the YMCA and then to read and drink coffee. I wanted to go Aqua Golfing but I didn't make it there before they closed. I guess I'll save that for a date night with Bobbo or something. Or maybe I'll drag Becky along since she's never done it before. Plus some of the rest of you. What do you think, girls? Maybe a ladies Aqua Golf night? I think it would be fun. But back to the subject at hand. If you haven't been to YAKS you should try it out. There's 3 of them now. One on Bechelli, one downtown on South street next to the train tracks, and one at Simpson. That's right, Simpson. They took over the coffee shop. And redecorated quite nicely if you ask me. What's funny is that the Simpson one is rather baby friendly. Lot's of floor space for little ones to roam, cushy couches, big fluffy rugs and big tables with long benches. Perfect for little ones learning to walk. I guess baby proof rooms work for college kids too. I often think about taking Caeden there some days so I can get a coffee and let him crawl around. But I just can't seem to get past the fact that I'd be the awkward old lady with the baby hanging out in the college lounge. (I've been told recently that having a baby makes you old.) I guess the point of my blog is this;

Let's meet at YAKS!

the Office

2008-09-27T10:20:00.000-07:00

Becky Moseley sure can throw a party! A few weeks ago we were talking about how excited we were for the premiere of the Office season 5 and she thought it would be so fun to have a premiere party. Was she ever right! Then she thought it would be fun to have everyone dress up like a character from the show and bring food that they've mentioned or eaten on the show. So here's the result. AMAZING! We ate Angela's Famous Double Fudge Brownies, "Welcome Back Oscar" Taquitos, Lemonade (imagine that the 'n' has a squiggly line over it and the 'e' has an accent, making it mexican!), sugar plum fairy wands, and Becky even put a stapler in jello! That's right, we had a stapler in jello. Before the show started we played Office trivia (which Heather rocked) and the winners received office pens and post-its as well as yogurt lid medals on paper clip necklaces. Good times!

This is me doing my best Jim face. You can't see it but I flipped my hair out on the sides. And yes, Bobby did shave his head to be Todd Packer! Big Mo was Andy. Little Mo was Dwight. Caeden was also Jim. Becky was head of the party planning committee, Angela! Billy came in a suit not knowing who he was but we all said he was Ryan the temp. And Heather made a perfect Pam!

Sugar Plum Fairy Wands and Lemonade

2008-09-25T12:53:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I have to say it...

HAPPY OFFICE THURSDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't freakin' wait. I just finished making Sugar Plum Fairy Wands for our little premiere party tonight. What is going to happen with Jim and Pam? And Dwight and Angela? And Andy and Angela? And Michael and Jan? Michael needs to be with the new HR lady! Aaaahhhh! 9:00 couldn't come soon enough!!!

"Who Knows How Words are Formed"

2008-09-25T09:57:00.000-07:00

I think it's interesting how language morphs and changes over the years. New words enter our vocabulary all the time thanks to things like culture shifts, technology, slang, pop culture, etc. One word that had a certain meaning a generation ago can mean something completely different today. Well, this morning I had quite a humorous reminder of this. Caeden and I were in Manhattan Bagel buying a breakfast sandwich for Bobby. I noticed three older gentlemen sitting in a corner of the shop and I couldn't help but hear their conversation about politics. I didn't hear all of it but I could pick up words here and there about the 2008 election. Each man was weighing in his thoughts. Not so out of the ordinary. But as I picked up my sandwich and was heading for the door I heard, "I think they just need to stop banging each other and get to the real issues!"

Huh?!

And again, "Why do they continue to bang each other when what they really need to be doing is taking care of the people."

What?!

It took me a second but I finally realized that this man wasn't raving about the candidates...well, you know...he was talking about how the candidates try to make each other look bad. Oh!!!! Whew!! Thank God. I mean, I know sometimes the race to the White House can get a little out of hand, but that seemed a little too crazy to me.

I Just Love my Baby Boy

2008-09-23T16:56:00.000-07:00

A Verse That Follows Me...(in a good way)

2008-09-21T21:12:00.000-07:00

This verse is speaking to me right now. It has spoken to me many, many times in the past... and here it is again...it always helps...both the reading of it and the application...

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with
thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God,
which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in
Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6-7 (NIV)

Here's another version

Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what
you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God's
peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your
hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. (New Living Translation)

And another:

Do not worry about anything, but pray and ask God for everything you need,
always giving thanks. And God's peace, which is so great we cannot understand
it, will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (New Century Version)

My Little Organizer

2008-09-10T12:13:00.000-07:00

If you've ever spent any time with my son you probably know that the kid likes to put stuff... into stuff. He will find anything that will contain objects and will proceed to place objects into said container. It started with a glass jar that we keep in our office. When he was about 9 months old he found it and would put anything into it. His binky, a pen, his toys, you name it. Once he discovered the joy and rapture of this task he transfered it to whatever container and object he could find. It's pretty cute to watch because he's so precise about it. And I just love walking around the house and coming across random things filled with random things.

Well today I noticed that Caeden was playing with one of his new toys. It's this cute little gear toy where all the gears connect and turn eachother when you push a button. All of the gears can be removed pretty easily and so Caeden will pull them off and put them back on and then press the button and watch them turn. I walked into the living room after putting him down for his nap and looked down to see a gear toy completely void of its gears. I didn't see them scattered about on the ground. Thinking this odd, I looked directly up at the bookshelf nearby and noticed that all the gears were in a pile on one of the shelves. So cute! I called Bobby in the room to see our son's accomplishment and we just laughed.

We know that raising a child up in the way he should go means finding his gifts and encouraging him in them. But what kind of gift is the ability to put stuff away? Whatever it is, it will be fun to watch it develop and figure out how to encourage him in that. In the mean time, I guess we'll just have a really tidy house!

I know it's cheesy but...

2008-09-09T17:01:00.000-07:00

That's my little joke with Becky when we feel like we need to put a disclaimer on something. I've always really liked taking photos of nature. Especially flowers. So I did that today. They weren't really in nature. They were fresh cut. But I got a fire under my rear and took them outside into the evening light to photograph them. So I thought I'd share. Not exactly edgy and "in" but it's something I enjoy. Maybe Patrick or Jeremy could photoshop them into something cool. :) Hee hee. Peace.

Had to throw in one with the little Caeden man.
This one really is in nature. I took this one on our 1st anniversary in Ashland.

Fighting For It

2008-09-06T11:31:00.000-07:00

I've always heard that once you get married you really have to fight to keep the spark alive. Boy, is that true. Besides just the mundane and the busyness of life, you also have to fight the enemy who would want nothing more than to destroy your marriage. Bobby and I try, but aren't always successful, to have a date night once a week so that we can just be us and reconnect. Even those nights can be attacked. Last night was like that.

After my Mom came to pick up Caeden we decided to go see Stepbrothers. We got to Movies 10 and paid for our tickets and drinks. We settled in for what we hoped could be the next great Ferrell Flick. 15 minutes later we were walking out of the theatre and asking for our money back. Huge dissapointment.

After some discussion of what we should do before our dinner reservation we decided to hit up the Barnes and Noble. Always a fun choice for us. We looked at books for awhile and then Bobby scooped up some rock climbing magazines and I some InStyle. Soon our dinner reservation was upon us and we drove downtown to use our $25 Vintage Wine Bar and Restaurant gift certificate. Something we've been looking forward to for a couple weeks now. We arrived and then quickly realized that we didn't bring our credit card. We scrounged up a bunch of cash but it wouldn't be enough to cover the meal and a tip. Bummed, we got back in the car and tried to decide what to do. At this point we could have easily just given up on our date since 1. our movie was such a bust, 2.we were pretty tired and 3. we had to go all the way back to the east side of town to get the card and come all the way back and be late for our reservation. We almost just called it a night when Bobby was like, "You know what, let's just do it." We drove all the way home, got the card and made it back to the restaurant. We had an incredible dinner, some fantastic wine and really great, uplifting conversation. It was just what we needed. It meant so much to me that our date night was more important to him than the gas money and the fact that we were tired.

Today I am all excited and fluttery about Bobby. I feel like I have a crush on him. I'm just really happy that I'm married to him. The conversation we had at dinner reminded us how well we connect as people and his leadership in fighting for that date night makes me respect him so much. I feel like we kicked Satan in the face last night. And I like it.

My Top 5 Uplifting Movies

2008-08-31T14:10:00.000-07:00

These days it seems like it's getting harder and harder to find a real quality uplifting movie. It's either horribly acted and cheesy or just cliche and highly predictable. Sometimes I'm okay with predictable, as long as the rest of the film has good acting, writing and some kind of character development. Well, in the last couple of weeks Bobby and I have come across a couple of really great uplifting movies, and it made me start thinking about what some of my favorites are. So, in true Klein fashion, here they are...my top 5 faves.

#5 Martian Child - We just watched this one last night. John Cusack. Joan Cusack. Usually that's more than enough. Gotta love those two. Especially together. Then there's the sweet Amanda Peet and this little kid actor who does a fantastic job. No overacting. Just cute and believable. John Cusack adopts the little boy who thinks he's from another planet. You get to watch the journey of two guys who have never really fit in and how they both help each other to feel like they belong. Amazing.

#4 August Rush - This one we watched a few nights ago. Incredible. Freddie Highmore is amazing as always. Again, another story about a kid who is different but incredibly smart and a musical genius. Follow the music. I cried like a baby at the end.

#3 the Family Man - Though not a huge Nick Cage fan, I think he does a great job in this movie. As does Tea Leoni. They have the neatest chemistry and the kids are adorable. I love the message behind this movie about what's really important in life. It's a great reminder whenever I feel like I may have missed out on something.

#2 Stranger than Fiction - We rented this movie a couple years ago thinking it was another one of your typical Will Ferrell comedies. While it is a comedy, it's intelligent and extremely well written and acted. The special effects that show what the main character is thinking are alone enough to make the movie cool. But the journey (and the destination) on which Harold Crick embarks is so out of the ordinary that you are drawn to it instantly. Every character is quirky and interesting and you will root for the hero and want so badly to see him find the life he wants. Plus, every time I watch it I want to open my own bakery.

#1 Dan in Real Life - Again, not your typical Steve Carell funny. I adore this movie. So real and raw. Some guy who is trying his hardest but just keeps getting the short end. And all the people around him who love him but can't seem to quite understand him. He loves his daughters to pieces but is struggling with how to handle their growing up. Great love story. Funny, funny lines. Again, beautifully written and acted. And the music is incredible, written and performed specifically for the movie by one artist.

So there they are. If you haven't seen one or more of them yet, obviously I highly recommend them. I own the top three if you ever want to borrow!

Caeden's Words

2008-08-30T19:13:00.000-07:00

This is for you, Auntie Sarah!

Pictures with Emily

2008-08-27T12:54:00.000-07:00

So the reason I felt overwhelmed about writing three blogs is because they all fell so darn close together and they were three big things. The biggest of course being Caeden turning one and his birthday party on the 20th. Then the very next day was when we left for Lost Rocks. Well, we also got a call from Emily Faulknor on Caeden's birthday saying that our pictures with her were ready to be picked up. So of course I ran over there right away in the midst of party planning so I could grab the CD. Taking pictures with Emily was awesome. She was very creative and had a lot of cool ideas and was helpful and directional. But at the same time she was very open to doing what we thought might be cool. She was also a lot of fun. I love all the pictures. But here are just some of my favorites.

Lost Rocks Camping and Climbing

2008-08-26T21:22:00.001-07:00

Lost Rocks (with a brief intermission)

2008-08-26T20:47:00.000-07:00

Okay, next on the list. Camping last weekend with the Moseley's, the Browns and the Meghan!

It was a fantastic trip. After an initial scare from a local who claimed he owned the entire beach of boulders and said we couldn't climb on any of them (falsehood) we were able to find some kick-A climbing. I only did a little bit, which I regret but the camping and watching the climbing and hanging out was also very fun. Billy posted a rad video on his blog that you have to watch. I love it. For now, check out my little slide show (which I believe should post above this one. Peace.

the Birthday Party

2008-08-26T19:41:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I haven't really felt the creative blog juices flowing lateley so thinking about sitting down and writing the three updates I need to write has been daunting. But here I am. I wrote briefly about Caeden's party last week. It was seriously the bomb. And I still can't believe that my son is a year old. "I know that sounds cliche. And I know saying it sounds cliche sounds clicher. Maybe I'm being cliche but I don't care. I am what I am...That's Popeye." (Name that show) Anywho, since I already wrote about how cool it was, here are some more pictures to show you. Somehow I didn't get any good photos with my sister in them. Which sucks. But I love you, Sarah!

This is a picture of Caeden that Emily Faulknor took. I know, right. Amazing. That's the cake I made. I'm still learning so it was fun but a little stressful. Rachel came dressed for the ho-down in her cute cowgirl hat!Becky and Rachel looking beautiful with their two sweet munchkins!Caeden LOVES watermelonAsher sure had a great time with Odie!These are some of my awesome aunts and uncles as well as my cousin and sister.Ava and Rhianna on the tire swing!Morgan and Alyssum hanging out!Erica and Sarah watching the present openingGrammy watching the present openingMy cousin Christen. Christen got Caeden this glow worm because she remembered that I had one as a little girl. So sweet! Caeden already loves it!Opening lots of great presents from great peopleKiss goodbye for Papa Jon and Grammy!Nana getting some fresh air with the birthday boyAuntie Meg with her new camera!Cake time! Mmmmm.Here, Pop Pop. You look like you could use some cake!

Birthdays, Pictures and Other Things like Camping

2008-08-20T23:12:00.000-07:00

All the cake's been eaten and all the party people have gone home. The Birthday Boy is sleeping as is his Da Da and Auntie Meg who is visiting from San Fran. I, alone, am up at 11pm just really not wanting this day to be over yet. It has been a fabulous day! I love those days when a bunch of the people you love are together at one gathering. Like our wedding. That was my favorite thing about it. Having all the people who meant so much to us all in one place to celebrate with us. Well today was like that. Not on nearly as big a scale and there were quite a few people missing. But still. It was awesome. Caeden was a wonderfully sweet birthday boy and his party was so much fun. Thanks to everyone who came and blessed our socks off with your presence and tons of gifts. Wow-ee, did that kid make out like a bandit! For now I am only going to post a couple pictures because I am tired. I'll post more later. Along with the SUPER FANTASTIC EXTRAORDINARY pictures we just got back from our photo shoot with Emily Faulknor. Seriously, we are so stoked that we snuck in with her before she moved. Thanks so much, Emily! You are the best and you are going to be missed. We are going camping tomorrow so all the good pics won't be up until we get back Sunday. Much Love and more stories to come, I'm sure, about camping!

It was a barnyard/ho-down theme so we had fried chicken, corn on the cob, watermelon and my sister's AMAZING baked beans. Thanks sis!

Daddy built a cool tree house for the kids to play in. Here's Caeden in it with his Nanna.

Here's a shot of everyone hanging out in the backyard. We love our backyard.

Happy Birthday Caeden!

2008-08-20T08:56:00.001-07:00

That's my Dawgs

2008-08-15T18:15:00.000-07:00

I stole this from Dan's blog cuz it was just too cute of a picture and I love these girls. That's all. Peace out.

Gymnastics

2008-08-14T07:50:00.000-07:00

I love Olympic gymnastics. When my sister and I were little girls we used to pretend we were Mary Lou Retton and Julie Ann McNamara. My Dad would sit on the couch and we would get a running start as he would yell, "Mary Lou Retton, Mary Lou Retton, Mary Lou Retton!" And we'd leap for what we thought was as high as those Olympians did and fly across the room into Daddy's arms.

When we were bigger girls my parents signed us for gymnastics at the YMCA. We did back bends and parallel bars and cartwheels till we could do them no more. We'd watch the older girls who could do ariels (cartwheels with no hands) and back hand springs and flips off the balance beam and just dream of the day we could do those things ourselves.

Alas, my gymnastics career came to an abrupt end when I fell playing with some friends and hurt my back. Nothing serious but enough to make those back bends sting a little. Thankfully I found comfort in another YMCA sport, the Youth Basketball League. One that I was truly meant for, because, as we all know, I didn't quite grow into a body that would be considered gymnastics material.

But to this day I still LOVE to watch gymnastics. It is such an incredible sport and the things those girls can do amaze me. I even got all emotional when USA had an off night and won the silver. Tonight is the Individual All-Around and I plan on watching every second of it. They say it's down between the cute little Shawn Johnson and her teammate, Anna Moseley. Oops I mean Nastia Liukin! ;) It will be fun to watch the two of them go at it. Shawn and Nastia, I mean. Let's just hope there's no more upsets and USA takes Gold and Silver like they should. Seriously, it freaks me out how much these two look alike.

Happy Anniversary to Us!

2008-08-06T09:31:00.000-07:00

So I must toot our Pecaut horn and say Happy Anniversary to us! Today is our 3rd Anniversary. Sometimes it feels like it was just yesterday, sometimes it feels like it's been longer than 3 years. But 3 years ago today we were gettin' hitched at my parents' house in a meadow that we created ourselves out of blood, sweat and lots of tears. It was a beautiful day. More than I could have wanted. I felt so loved and blessed by all our friends and family. My sister did my hair. My cousin did my make-up, our friends arranged our flowers and a bunch of family and friends made all the food for the dessert reception. Not to mention that my parents worked their tails off along side us to get the property ready. One thing is for sure, we will never forget how accomplished we felt once it was all pulled off and people were telling us how beautiful it was. Of course some things went wrong, but who really expects their wedding day to be perfect? I just figured if it wasn't taken care of by the day the wedding came, then it wasn't worth it to stress about it. We just enjoyed our day. Afterall, isn't it all about the marriage and not the wedding? And our marriage has been an awesome one so far. With all it's ups and downs, fun times and hard times, 3 moves, multiple job changes, and baby, Bobby and I are closer now and more in love than we've ever been. Which is saying a lot because we were pretty head over heels when we first started dating. I love that man's guts! My heart is in my throat with excitement right now thinking about what the future might hold for us. I mean it's only been 3 years, I can't even imagine what another 50 might bring!

Here's a little Photo Journey of some special events in our life together. Hope you enjoy it!

In the beginning. First date. Hike to top of Castle Crags.

Lassen Moonlight Hike. Picking him up from Canada. (He went to school up there for a year)Heart Lake Hike. (we liked to hike a lot)The Proposal. Top of Caslte Crags where we had our first date.Engagement Pics

Wedding Day
First Apartment (filled with People)Rock Climbing Trip to Red Rocks, Nevada. Red Rocks Climbing Festival.Trip to Florida for Bobby's birthday to visit Greg and Alisha.1st Anniversary. Ashland Oregon. (After a failed attempt to go backpacking)Disneyland Trip with Sarah and Jordan (Maybe TMI but Caeden was conceived on this trip!)Second Apartment (Simpson Married Student Housing)First Picture of Caeden!2nd Anniversary/Babymoon. Santa Cruz.
Preggers Pics
The Day we Became ThreeFirst Christmas with Caeden!Easter with our new best buddies, the Moseleys!House Us now. At Graumens Chinese Theatre in L.A. last weekend and all dressed up for the wedding.

Good News!!

2008-08-05T17:20:00.000-07:00

I've been waiting for a couple weeks to be able to give the news I am about to give. My sister is pregnant!! I am going to be an auntie!! They got their first ultrasound yesterday and there was a strong healthy heart beat! I am so excited for Caeden to have a little cousin and for Sarah and Jordan to be parents. They are going to be amazing! She is due on March 6, 2009. Caeden and the baby will be about 18 months apart. It will be awesome! Yay for the Mallorys!!

Planes, Buses and Automobiles

2008-08-05T11:48:00.001-07:00

Our trip was a success! Thank you to all who prayed. It worked! Caeden was an absolute trooper. He always is. We love his little guts. We arrived on Friday afternoon and after Caeden napped we ventured out of the hotel to tackle the bus system. We quickly learned, however, that the bus system isn't the greatest in the LA area. But after some debate, annoyance and laughter, we figured it out and made it to the beach where the wedding party and guests were hanging out. It was beautiful! The weather was gorgeous and the area was as well. It was the first time I really got to see how cool LA can be. Now I have a better idea of why on earth anyone would want to live there. My Mom watched Caeden while Bobby and I played in the ocean. We swam in the waves and body surfed. Amazing! I had an amazing time. Caeden had his first ocean experience and wasn't too sure about the water. But he had a blast in the sand. He crawled all over and loved to stick his arms and legs as far in as he could. We went about 3 hours without him trying to eat it but right around the time we were going to leave he took a huge handful and shoved it straight into his mouth. Then it all went downhill from there. I tried to splash some water in his mouth to get it out but when I did it shocked him and he took a deep breath in and started choking. When we got him back to breathing again, he was all upset and began to rub his eyes, with sand all over his little fists. Then he got pissed because little grains of sand were getting in his eyes. Needless to say it was time to go. We washed him off in the beach showers and got him dressed and he was fine. The next day was the wedding but it didn't start till 5. We decided to give up trying to figure out the buses and just rented a car. A sweet Dodge Nitro. We drove to HOllywood and went to the Chinese Theatre for awhile. At my request we drove to Beverly Hills to see Rodeo Drive. I was the only who actually wanted to get out of the car and walk it to see the shops and stuff. I thought they were all crazy. Who cares if we can't afford a $2,000 handbag. It'd be fun just to see one! No one shared that sentiment, however, so we just drove on through. I was bummed but I got over it. The wedding came next. It was absolutely breathtaking. It was at an Inn overlooking the entire LA area and the ocean. The food was delicious and the band was awesome. We ate and talked (well I didn't really talk. For some reason none of the girls would talk to me. Who knows why? Bobby made a friend though) and at the end of the night we got down to some great live music. Sunday's travel home went really well also. Caeden slept for almost the entire flight home. So all in all we had a good time. Here are some pics as promised!

Trips, Dresses, and Babies

2008-07-31T11:06:00.001-07:00

Since I got so much love for my blog about being a "TWEENER" (feeling stuck in between the junior and lady section) I decided some of you would probably be able to share in my new-found-dress joy! Thanks for all your comments and support, by the way. It's so nice to know that I'm not the only one who feels that way. Late twenties is such a fabulous, and yet interesting age to be for a woman, is it not? So here's a picture of the dress I ended up choosing. Ironically enough I found it at Macy's like half way between the junior section and the Lady section. Ha! I love it. It is adorable and comfortable. I didn't get a shot of the shoes and it was difficult taking a full body picture of myself without a full length mirror. But I think you can get the idea. That's also the new necklace I got to go with it.Plus I'll post more pictures of the weekend wedding trip once we get home. On that note, I'm really excited about the upcoming trip for lots of reasons. I'm glad to be getting out of the smoke and heat (although it's gorgeous outside right now) and to just go somewhere new, meet new people and eat great food. I also love staying in hotels. I don't know why, I just do. Maybe because it brings back such good memories of sports trips and family vacations growing up. I also am excited to see my friend who is getting married and her family. I haven't seen her since we were little girls. Plus the wedding is at a beautiful place overlooking the ocean. It should be great. But I am little nervous about all the travel with Caeden. We have the drive to the airport in Sac, then the hour flight and then once in the area, we didn't rent a car but are instead taking public transportation to and from the wedding events. It will be like an hour each way. That's a lot of sitting around for a baby to do. So if you think about the Pecauts/Josephs this weekend, it'd be great if you could say a little prayer for us that the travel would go smoothly and that we would all have a great time! Including our little Caeden!

Peace out!

It's About Time!

2008-07-31T10:52:00.000-07:00

I think we've been friends with Patrick and Bethany Hardy for like four or five years now. And for some reason, we have had the hardest time hanging out just the four of us. Not that we haven't tried. Multiple times we have made plans but something always comes up to keep us from following through. Either something comes up or Bobby and I just space and flake on them. But they haven't given up on us! We invited them over for dinner last night and made it a TOP PRIORITY! And guess what. We did it! Woohoo. We had a great time eating home-made personal pizzas and watching our babies crawl around and get into everything. Then we watched Balls of Fury. It was great. And the pizzas were fantastic! You have to try the recipe. It's from Real Simple magazine. You use pita bread for the crust. DELICIOUS and NUTRITIOUS. Ours was a little different from the recipe as we just set out all kinds of topping options and everyone just made their own. And it only takes like 10 minutes! Mmmmmmm it was good. It's going to become a Pecaut tradition, I believe. You've got to try it! (Click on the link above for the recipe)

??? HELP!!!

2008-07-22T11:55:00.000-07:00

Ironically, my last blog was all about how we aren't old farts yet. Well, this one is kind of the opposite.

We have a nice wedding in the L.A. area coming up in a couple weeks and I want to buy a new dress for it. So today I went to Kohls to start looking for one. That's point one; It takes me weeks to find the right clothes these days. Whereas I used to just go in one day, usually the day before the event, try on a few outfits (that all looked great) and then pick my favorite one. Now I go to the store, pick out 15-20 outfits that look cute on the hanger, try them on and, if I'm lucky, ONE of them looks semi-okay. So I go to another store and try on more, and another and another and so on. You get the picture.

So I arrive at Kohls today and go into the junior section first. That's point two; What the heck is going on with the clothes in the junior section?? I felt so old looking at these clothes and thinking, "How is this even supposed to be worn?" Like I seriously don't understand how it's supposed to look. I know some other girls out there know exactly how it's the latest fashion and just how to wear it. And they would probably rock it. I know because I used to be that girl. But now I'm looking at it thinking, "Huh?" Take the above article of clothing, for example. Is it a dress or a shirt? I know it's a dress only because it was labled as such on the Kohls website. I guess it could be long enough to be a dress with out being hookerish. But the tight band on the bottom squeezes in on your legs. So the rest of it is supposed to kind of balloon out or something? Cuz I know my newly widened hips could help with that. Should one wear leggings with it? What kind of shoes would look good with it? I just really don't know.

I guess my cluelessness could be explained by the fact that I don't try to keep up with fashion anymore. I don't read the magazines that I used to read and I definitley don't find myself in stores shopping for clothes nearly as much as I used to. So all this new stuff kind of throws me for a loop. But again, that's because I'm getting old. I know I'm still in my 20's which means I am actually very young. So I guess I should be saying old"er". The point is; I am definitly growing up. It's good to know that we prioritize now as to what we spend our money on. Instead of the latest fashions it's groceries and baby items. Or even just paying the bills. But it's been interesting to step outside of myself lately and compare the 26-year-old-mom version of me with the 21-year-old-single-shop-whenever-I-want-to version of me. Two totally different, and yet the same, Candace. I can say that I am enjoying the transformation. I like me. Whether or not I know what to do with junior section. And I'm cool with shopping in the grown up lady section. It makes more sense to me.

the Long Night for the Dark Knight

2008-07-18T11:35:00.000-07:00

Last night Bobby and I did something we haven't done in a really long time. We stayed up past our bed time. Not only that, but we stayed up until 3AM!!! This is a rather big deal in the Pecaut household. Our friend Tony really wanted us to go to the 12am premiere of the new Batman movie, the Dark Knight. So we decided to suspend reality for an evening and pretend that we didn't have the responsibilities of a married couple with a baby. (Of course we had a sitter for Caeden. Don't worry, we didn't just leave him alone in bed. Although we did see one couple at the theatre who brought their baby with them. I guess that could have been an option?Hmmm) So there we were, at 9:30 pm (the time we are usually brushing our teeth in front of our tiny mirror) standing out in front of Movies 10 in a long line of 17 year old goth kids, listening to them talk about their latest Hot Topic purchase as we drank sugary energy drinks praying that we would have the wherewithal to stay up for, not only the entire movie but also the 3 hour wait for the darn thing to start. I started yawning right around 11:00. Not a good sign. From beginning to end I could sense my demeanor and state of mind changing from excitement to "what the hell were we thinking?" I was wondering if by the end of the night my well applied eye make-up wouldn't start to closely resemble that of the Joker's. But we did it! We watched the entire 2 hour and 50 minute movie without nodding off once. Which, once you see it, you realize isn't too hard to do no matter how tired you are. It is one action-packed, nerve-racking flick! I am pretty sensitive to stuff so I was shaking almost the entire time. Which I guess could have been the Red Bull. Either way, it was quite the entertainment high from which we quickly, and obligingly, came crashing down once we got home. Honestly, I don't' know why I'm not sleeping now while Caeden is napping. I guess just because I was so proud of us for still being able to do something so young and impetuous that I had to share it with the world. Yay us! We're not old farts! At least not yet.

Missing Bees

2008-07-11T12:54:00.003-07:00

We heard about honeybees disappearing on the movie "The Happening" but just thought it was part of the movie and not real. Turns out that it's actually true. If you have a few minutes, watch the videos I posted that contain a couple different points of view. There's all kinds of information about it and Bobby and I have been watching a bunch of videos and reading about it. I'm just curious what you all think.

Are cellphones killing bees?

2008-07-11T12:54:00.001-07:00

Einstein and the Bees

2008-07-11T12:53:00.001-07:00

Crazy Addiction

2008-07-10T19:43:00.000-07:00

I think that maybe Coca-Cola puts some kind of addictive stimulant in their vanilla coke. I'm not really a soda drinker. My family never had soda in the house growing up and Bobby and I rarely drink it. But every once in awhile Becky will have a 24 pack (or is it 32 pack?) at their house and I end up drinking like 7 in one night. Then about a month ago, it was about 10 o'clock at night and this overwhelming craving came upon me for a vanilla coke. You have to understand, we usually are in bed by like 9 or 9:30 so to get in the car to go somewhere at 10pm is extremely strange for me. But I HAD to have vanilla coke. I drove down the road to the gas station. No vanilla coke. I drove to safeway. No vanilla coke. What the heck? They had the huge packs in the aluminum cans but no 1 liters sold separatly. Argghhh. I was forced to settle for cherry coke. Also very good but not what I was looking for. Since then, everywhere we go I am looking for that beautiful red bottle with the word vanilla in cute little font on the bottom. And now every time I see it, I buy it. I feel that I must because it's so rare to find it in 1 liter bottles that I can't pass up the opportunity. I know that's rediculous but I just have to have my vanilla coke.

Caeden Dances

2008-07-10T18:36:00.000-07:00

Little Ava Lewis provides the beautiful song at the end.

Caeden

2008-06-30T14:41:00.000-07:00

Just some recent cute photos of our little man.

All I want for Summer is my Two Front Teeth

2008-06-30T14:39:00.001-07:00

Me and My Glasses

2008-06-29T13:56:00.000-07:00

I can't seem to hold on to a good pair of glasses. Sunglasses or prescription glasses. Doesn't matter. Since I was a little girl I either sit on them, step on them, lose them or they just mysteriously fall apart on their own. Or else not so mysteriously...I never pay more than $20 for a pair. But with good reason. Who wants to lose or break a hundred dollar pair of glasses? Some have suggested that actually spending more on them will make me more apt to protect them. Others have said my excuse is that I have a child. Honestly, I'd love to blame it on Caeden. But sadly, I must take responsibility for my own absent-mindedness as every glasses catastrophe took place before his sweet little existence.
Here I am with my new glasses on. Don't I look smart? Well it's all a sham, folks. I've only had them for a week now and three times already I forgot where I put them. (Don't tell Bobby) Well, here's to hoping they stick around for awhile. And if not, I can always blame Caeden. Poor little guy.

My Sister

2008-06-28T13:21:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: This blog is written at the risk of maybe embarrasing my sister a little!

My sister is beautiful. I was just looking through some old pictures and I came across the ones of her wedding. She is always gorgeous but on her wedding day, she was flawless. The best part is, she is just as beautiful on the inside. She is probably the most giving person I know. When we were growing up I definitely took advantage of that. We'd both be sitting on the couch and I'd say, "Sarah, could you go make me a sandwich?" She'd say, "Sure." Even though I was completely capable doing it myself. One time she was holding a pair of scissors and I went to grab them from her and it sliced the webbing between her fingers pretty bad. Another time I accidently hit her in the temple with my elbow. It's a miracle she's still alive.

Unity

2008-06-25T18:56:00.000-07:00

Lately I've noticed that there seems to be an issue floating around that nobody really wants to address. Since a lot of people that I know and spend time with regularly read this blog I thought I'd use this as an avenue to address the issue and how I feel about it without pointing fingers. I want to start off by saying that I'm writing this all on my own. No one else knows I'm doing it and all these thoughts are my own. I don't speak for anyone else except myself. These are the thoughts and feelings of Candace Pecaut. Take 'em or leave 'em. It's up to you.

Here's the issue. I've noticed that there are people in our little community who have somehow come to believe that there is some kind of purposeful separation between those of us who have children and those of us who do not. This idea is very sad to me. First of all, it belittles all of us as if we are only two groups of people. The ones with kids. And the ones without kids. I think that we are all so much more than just parents or not parents. There are things about all of us that make us unique and things that cause us to have commonalities with others. It's dangerous to categorize like this because then we start to see ourselves as the parents or non-parents, rich or poor, nice or mean, haves or have nots. We can find that there's so much more to people if we can allow them outside of the box that it's so easy to put them in. When we categorize we start to compare. And comparison is the seed that sprouts discontent.

Secondly, I can see how it might be easy to think this division exists because there is a pseudo-truth to it. If you haven't noticed already, people tend to gravitate towards those with whom they have a similar lifestyle. That's just people. We like to understand and to be understood and so we tend to spend more time with the people with whom we find this understanding. It helps to know that we aren't the "only ones." This isn't to say that we shouldn't try to spend time with people who are different than us. It's healthy to befriend and spend time with people who challenge us and who show us another way and perspective. We all need this. But my point is that the natural thing is to spend time with people we understand. Think about it. If you are single, it's highly possible that you spend a good majority of your time with your single friends. If you are married, with your married friends. And if you have kids you probably spend most of your time with people who have kids. Each of these stages in life are very different from the other. Not one of them is any better or worse than the other. It's a just a different type of life. I don't even like to call them "stages" because that implies that they are each a lifestyle that we all must go through. That's not true as some people choose to never marry and some choose to never have children. These are all valid choices that are just as good as choosing to marry or to have kids.

Speaking for the Pecauts: it's not as if we got pregnant and said, "Oh great! Now's our opportunity to only hang out with people who have kids." We'd be ridiculous to think that. Just as if a young couple who just got married would be ridiculous to say, "Okay, now we have to make sure we only hang out with other married people." However, you'll notice that if you did get married, it became more natural to spend time with other young married couples. You have so much to talk about and are probably going through a lot of similar types of experiences. That doesn't mean you don't have single friends any more. Know what I mean?

I just think about Anna's blog A Call to War where she talks about standing up to fight against this attack from the enemy that is urging us to believe lies that are tearing us apart. Lies that say we can't hang out with this person or that person because they (or we) think one person is better than the other. (I hope that made sense. Sorry, Anna. You wrote it way better.) My point is, if you are feeling like you can't spend time with people just because they have children and you don't, or they are married and you aren't, or they have a mohawk and you don't :), then know that what you are hearing is a LIE. Bold faced and flat out a lie from the enemy. Like I said, I don't speak for anyone but myself, but I do know a lot of moms and I KNOW that they would be so willing and happy to spend time with, get to know and love on just about anybody, no matter where they are in life. They rock. Just like you do.

So please know that any division you are feeling or seeing is only an apparition meant to keep our community from being unified. I pray that we can all feel free to pursue each other and to build relationships. And yes, if you do hang out with me I will talk about my child and my experiences as a mom. A) because that's where I'm at right now and B) because Caeden is freaking awesome. But I PROMISE I will talk to you about you. I want to know where you are as well.

Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.

Ephesians 4:3

Eat Much?

2008-06-23T19:59:00.000-07:00

Last night Caeden ate half a hot dog, a big chunk of cheese, a slice of bread and like 20 bites of applesauce. That's a lot for him. Think maybe he's growing?

I Like To Date My Husband

2008-06-18T15:23:00.000-07:00

Last night I dropped the precious little munchkin off at my parents'. It wasn't easy for me to leave him, but once I did, for an evening Bobby and I were just us again. We hopped on his scooter and rode over to Discovery Village for a little Casa Ramos and talk time. It was fantastic! I loved riding on the back of his bike, my arms wrapped around his waist, motoring through traffic and yelling back and forth to each other. The weather was perfect for it, too. On our way home I suggested we stop and visit Nate and Erica and the kids. We spent about 20 minutes with them chatting about all kinds of stuff while Ava, Adiah and Asher all took turns trying on our helmets! So cute! Then we scooted off home and quickly jumped into our car and raced to see the Happening. M. Nights new movie. I promised Nate I'd blog about it. So here we go...FREAKY!!! and sooooo good! Very M. Night. I don't know if I'll ever look at plant life the same way again! If you see the movie you will know what I'm talking about. After the movie we headed home for a full night to ourselves. It was glorious to wake up the next morning whenever I wanted. But once I was awake for at least 10 minutes I couldn't wait for my little Caeden to be home. It's always so difficult to part with him but so worth it when Bobby and I get to spend some time reconnecting. I love my family!

Pecaut Look-alike Meter

2008-06-15T11:25:00.001-07:00

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Family finder - Genealogy software

Don't Take Your Toenails for Granted

2008-06-09T16:58:00.000-07:00

When Bobby and I started running together again (something we haven't done in like over a month now) I developed one of the classic runner pains. Blood blisters under the big toenails. It happens mainly due to the constant jamming of the toe against the front of the shoe and is aggravated if the shoes are too big. This was my problem. Unfortunately, by the time I got my new shoes, the blisters had gotten too bad. Despite the fact that Bobby would beg me (boys are fascinated by these types of things), I was fortunate enough to not have to have him puncture the toenails in order to relieve the pressure and pain of the blister (something that is sometimes necessary if the pressure is just too much. I've had to endure this before. Actually, it sounds worse than it is. Once the initial pressure of the puncture is over, the relief is so wonderful because it gets rid of all the pain). Anyway, all this is to say that after the blisters went away, my toe nails completely fell off. And they have still yet to grow back. As you can imagine, my toes are super sexy just in time for sandal season! Because of my lack of toenail, I'm learning the hard way why, exactly, God intended us to have those precious portions of tough dead skin on our toes. Especially for us clumsy people. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've jammed, kicked, stomped, scraped, you name it, my two unprotected big toes. Incidences that before would have just been an "owie" experience are now more four-letter-word experiences in which my face twists into a grimace and a small tear trickles down my cheek. In fact, I just did it again a minute ago. I was walking in from the back yard and I jammed my toe hard against the door jam. Argggh!! God, I beg of you. Please let my toenails start to grow back. I promise I will thank you for them daily.

I thought I had an Ant Problem!

2008-06-08T11:09:00.000-07:00

We went and saw the new Indiana Jones movie yesterday. Talk about putting my ant problem into perspective! Yikes! If you saw the movie, you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't, well, GO SEE IT! It stinken' rocks! I loved it with all of my adventurous, Indy loving being. So much action and excitement. I can totally watch the old Indy movies over and over and I'm always left wanting more, so to have a brand new one with all new stuff just around the corner was like the epitome of excitement for me! It held really true to the Indy-ness of the originals but still managed to surprise me as well. After the movie I was so pumped up I wanted to do something adventurous. For some reason that meant wanting to run really fast around the parking lot. But I restrained myself. What a great flick! I highly recommend it.

Thanks, Mom for making it all possible!!! Caeden loved hanging with you!

Also, last night, Becky invited Sarah Bram and I for a night out and drinks. It was a blast. I know Becky is going to write a great blog about it, so go check it out.

The Ants go Marching Two by Two

2008-06-06T13:17:00.000-07:00

Absolutely no Hoorah.

I called Mike yesterday (for those of you who don't know, Mike is our awesome landlord) to ask him some advice. I said to him, I said, "Mike, what is the deal with the ants?" And he's like, "I know, right." He started off by saying not to worry because it only lasts like three weeks out of the year. This was a great comfort to me. Unfortunately we just happened to move in right at the beginning of this year's three week round. It's seriously insane. I swear these ants are like a new breed of stubborn. They fight, fight, fight to the death to get into our house and eat even the smallest speck of something sugary. I scour my kitchen every night before bed to make sure there is nothing out for them to dine on, but the morning rolls around and there they are, napkins around their necks, feasting upon even the smallest of crumbs that must have fallen from Caeden's bib or something, because I SWEAR I cleaned everything up!!! And I am again forced to become the merchant of death, smashing the little buggers with disinfectant wipes, with paper towels, under my thumb, whatever it takes! I've tried the little ant traps in the house, the ant stakes around the outside of the house. And yet, they march on. On the phone, Mike explained to me their method of control for these pests and it sounds like they had it down to a science. He led me to the garage where they had left quite the arsonal of sprays and such and gave me a new plan of attack. My eyes lit up when I saw my new weaponry. Today, I become warrior Candace. It's time for those little "F"ers to face their destiny. It's a really good thing I'm not a buddhist.

Let's Celebrate

2008-06-03T16:12:00.000-07:00

Well, folks. It's finally happened. The Pecauts have moved into a house! Woohoo! No more sharing walls. No more fighting for parking spaces. No more eating on the coffee table. And hello to big yards and lots of room for Caeden to roam. Hello to mowing lawns (which I love by the way!) Hello to inviting more than 3 people over at a time. Hello to a garage, to a third bedroom, to no longer having the computer in the living room...I could go on and on and on! If you couldn't tell, we LOVE our new place. Moving went smoothly thanks to a huge Budget truck and the help of friends and family. Once the boxes were all here, we really went to work. I cannot stand living in a house full of boxes. So it only took three days to get everything unpacked and set up and decorated. That's my favorite part. Next I'm going to clean up the leaves in the yard and plant some potted plants around our way cute little patio set that my parents bought for me as a house warming/Mother's Day gift.

So not only did we move in the last two weeks but we also celebrated my first Mother's Day, Bobby's 26th birthday, my brother in laws graduation from the Fire Academy and Marty Moseley's first birthday! Whew! What a crazy and fabulous couple of weeks! Here are a few pictures of the new place. Hope to have you over for dinner soon!

Living Room

Kitchen
Our Bedroom

Caeden's Room

Office

Back Yard

Too Much to Write

2008-06-02T21:21:00.000-07:00

It's been almost two weeks since I last logged on to dear old blogger and way too much has happened in that time period for me to even think about writing about all of it. Let's just say that visions of the above image are what have been dancing in my head at night lately. Plus it's getting late (at least for me) and writing a long blog right now seems a little overwhelming. So I'm just here to say I'm back. And I think I'll start by reading all your blogs that I've missed out on. I'm looking forward to it!!

Storeis and pictures of the new pad to come soon...

Giving Away Stuff

2008-05-21T14:41:00.000-07:00

So I'm taking a cue from Anna and trying to clear out some stuff as we get ready to move. I don't have nearly as much as she did to give away but if you are interested you can stop by tomorrow anytime between 10am and 1pm to rifle through and grab what looks good. We live at 2530 Hartnell Ave. #7. If you are on Hartnell traveling East coming from Victor you will pass through Shasta View and then get into the left turn lane immediatly. You will turn left where you see the sign for Steve's Trim shop. Drive all the way to the end and we are in the white apartments on the Right.

Some of the stuff

scrapbook scissors

scrapbook stickers

beanies

snowboard goggles

candle holders

picture frames

essential oils home fragrance thingy

cute rubber ducky photo album
books

I may find more as I continue to pack. Also, we are trying to decide if we want to get rid of our futon. It is that white metal kind. If you are interested in that let me know because if someone wants it we may be more likely to hand it off. Hope to see you!!

A Tribute

2008-05-19T20:38:00.000-07:00

To the best of friends

Good friends will;

Go lingerie shopping with you and not feel awkward
Let you borrow their awesome vaccuum every time you move

Tivo and/or DVR your favorite shows for you so you don't miss them

Watch those shows with you

Help you pack (like a pro) and then eat tacos over the sink with you

Carpool with you

Not care when their son crawls around on your dirty kitchen floor

Send you random notes of encouragement

Call you just to say they saw the creepy guy that you spotted the day before

Watch American Gladiators with you and laugh at all the same things!

Quote the Office with you

Encourage your parenting

Encourage the pants off of you when they invite you over for a BBQ

Have husbands that love your husband

Lift you up just by hanging with you!!

That's right, friends. You know who you are!

Here's to you. ;)

My Plans Were Foiled

2008-05-16T07:31:00.000-07:00

Caeden decided to beat me to it this morning. He woke up at 5:30 and hasn't gone back to sleep. Ugh. So much for getting up before him.