I was going to wait for pictures...

but it's taking too long for Laurel to send them. We spent several days in Texas last week. The original purpose of the visit was to attend my grandma's surprise birthday party. (And can my family party!) But the timing was almost miraculous because about two days before we flew out there we decided to attend Texas A&M in the Fall. It was down to that or Notre Dame. And I'll tell you, we really couldn't decide for a while. Texas offered us this wonderful scholarship package. But, we kept saying to ourselves, "but... it's Notre Dame!!" (ND also offered us a scholarship, but because tuition is $40,000 a year, it takes a lot more scholarship to make it affordable.) Because we got our acceptance letter from ND before we even applied at A&M we were pretty much set on going. So it took us a while to mourn the loss of becoming Fighting Irish, and living amongst Catholics. (Bring on the Baptists, baby.) We kept going back and forth, until finally we did a spreadsheet. (It was my idea, not Paul's, ironically enough. But he did insist on color-coding it. Oh, Paul.) And I know that many of you will be surprised to hear this, but it was me who was concerned about the budget, not my legendarily thrifty husband. (It's hard not to be enamored with Notre Dame.)

So, A&M's MBA program begins earlier than I ever would have imagined, and we are now moving in four weeks. AHH! And I will be at Girl's Camp for one of those weeks. And Paul will be in New Hampshire one of those weeks. (He decided he needed a turn to traipse around the country while being a stay-at-home dad. I did go to Texas, like, four times in the ten months I was home with Ella. It's only fair.) So, off we go.

In other news, Ella is now a full year old. (Pictures of the happy event when Laurel emails them to me.) We have green raspberries on our bushes, so we will definitely have raspberries before we move. And we have a buyer who is seriously interested in the house, and two back-ups. So, even though many people thought we were crazy, it turns out Heavenly Father had this worked out all along.

It is just mind-boggling to reflect on the last three months of our life. It has just been a whirlwind of highs (the Spirit, quietly guiding our lives) and lows (anxiety, stress, insecurity, depression, uncertainty). It's easy to say now that it's all working out, but I truly feel blessed to have experienced this. Heavenly Father's hand has rarely been more apparent in my life. I have watched Him take care of my family and maneuver us so so far from where we expected to be. This whole experience has been a miracle.

Slow and steady wins the race.

Well, we've taken down the safety gates. This was originally Paul's doing, because I still cannot help but follow Ella up and down the stairs just in case. I have to admit however, that she just maneuvers those stairs without any trouble. So Paul takes the gate down during the day and lets her have free reign of the house. I'm trying to go with it, because he gets to do things his way since he is now the primary parent. Baby steps.

In any case, I walked upstairs to find my sweet darling like this the other evening. Oh how I long for the days when she would just play with a measuring cup. I was okay with the progression to needing the whole plastic cooking stuff drawer. But climbing all the way in? Oh well, she is now tall enough to reach the third drawer up, where we keep the plastic bags. This is way better than collecting zip-locks strewn about the house.

When I plugged in my camera to upload the drawer photo and looked at all of the other pictures on there, this was my exact thought: "Oh! We went to California!" It was only a week and a half ago. Life really is moving that fast.

I took off Ella's shoes and socks at the cold, northern coast because of my firm belief that everyone needs to know the feeling of sand in your toes. She loved it.

And who can visit Northern California without hitting up the Jelly Belly Factory!!

The redwood forest was incredibly peaceful... until we arrived and my daughter's screeches resonated throughout the wood. One cannot doubt her enthusiasm.

Feeling a little sluggish?

We had the missionaries over for dinner the other night. It was Paul who really summed up the evening: "Well. That was not our finest moment."

It all began with homemade pizza. Naturally when they arrived we had not yet put it in the oven. "Don't worry, Elders, we'll get you out on time!" Well, I used a new dough recipe that was just not holding together very well. So it took a while to get the first pizza in the oven, but finally we did and then we all sat down to start on the salad. "Elders, this lettuce was grown just a couple of miles out of town." I love buying local foods, and I am just so proud to buy local, so I was bragging for quite a while about the salad, and the Co-op, and the Farmer's Market. Well, I'm starting to feel pretty good about myself. I served up a great salad, the pizza should be done any minute now, and I'm calming down from the "pre-dinner panic". (Does anyone else get that feeling when they have guests?)

All of a sudden, Paul shows me his plate. I'm staring at his half eaten salad, wondering what I am supposed to be looking at. It takes about seven seconds for me to see it. A slug. Slugging across the dinner plate. Clearly glad to be free of our locally grown lettuce. And that's when I started screaming like a small child. I do not usually freak out. I'm okay with bugs of many varieties. But it's because I expect them to crawl into my house when it's cold, or fly in when it's dark, or whatever. But who expects a slug to crawl out of your salad?! Not me. So I flipped.

Well, the Elders were amazingly relaxed about the whole slug experience. After I had calmed down, one even said, "You know, it's pretty funny when you think about it." I wasn't in that place quite yet. I'm getting closer.

Well, we were done with our salads. (Obviously.) The pizza should have been done several minutes ago, but it was just taking forever! We wait and wait and wait, until Paul realizes that we turned the oven off after heating the pizza stone. Oh. That would be why it's taking twice as long as usual. Luckily, the rest of the evening goes pretty smoothly.

Paul assures the Elders that all pizza toppings (tomatoes, peppers, olives, onions, etc.) were grown at corporately owned farms, and are therefore slug-free. Thanks, Paul.

Finally, at about ten after the hour (we didn't get the Elders out on time) we sit down for the spiritual message. It was very nice. Until they asked for a ride to their next appointment because they are already fifteen minutes late! AH! Sorry, Elders! We rush them out the door into our car, which is littered with toys and books and purses and blankets from the last road trip. Ah well. Chalk another one up for experience.

I was going to post a picture of Ella playing with her new baby doll, but when I caught her racing around the house with a truck, I decided this won. What a well balanced child I have.

Updates... not too much. This week we're planning on going to California, Davis and San Fransisco, if all goes well. Paul has an MBA interview at UC Davis. I found an organic pick your own strawberry farm near there, so hopefully we'll come home with delicious strawberries. It has been kind of nice to roam the country with Paul so he can attend grad school interviews. Good Times.

Bed head and other news.

I am pleased to announce that Ella's hair is long enough for her to have bed head when she wakes up. I have included a picture for your viewing pleasure. Don't get me wrong, there is still plenty of spareness on the scalp, but where it has come in, it is quite nice. With any luck we may even get a little curl in her hair... one day.

Paul had an interview with a Notre Dame alum today. It was fantastic. They really hit it off. For me the high point was when he said, "I'm going to call Notre Dame and tell them to get you on board." It always makes you feel good when people are clamoring over your husband. We are still waiting to hear back from several schools. Next weekend is the UC Davis interview, which I am thrilled about. I can't wait to pay a visit to Davis, even if most of the people I knew well have moved on (I was in the student ward there). I am hoping that when we get there Paul will feel this burning desire to move to California, because right now UC Davis is his bottom choice. It is my top choice, I think, based solely on climate. Notre Dame... well, let's put it this way: it's colder than Idaho. I didn't even know that was possible. The average high during the hottest month of the year is 83F. That is positively sinful. Sigh.

As for me, I am fine. It's been a rough couple of weeks. This breadwinner stuff isn't all its cracked up to be. I was called as ward camp director, which is really fun. But there is an element of bittersweet because I am really worried about being away from Ella for so long. Paul says he'll come up to camp every day if I want him to, which makes me feel a little better, but with work and camp I feel like I am being forced to let go of the infant stage before I am really ready. I know Ella is old enough to be without me for a few days... but it's just hard. So that's my life. I mean there's other good stuff happening, too. I am really enjoying playgroup, and so does Ella, which is nice. I have great clients at work. We have a couple who seems genuinely interested in buying the house. My husband is cleaning the kitchen really well, when I thought he was going to stop after he finished the dishes. So, there are lots of positives right now, but, like I said, it's just been a rough couple of weeks.

Sorry about the long periods in between posts. I can't promise it's going to get any better this summer. But in the fall, life should calm down a bit. Right?

Drumroll please...

Paul is finished applying for graduate schools!! (Unless we have to resort to the backup schools, whose applications are due later in the summer.) It's the essays that were all the work. The last school we applied to (Notre Dame) was the easiest by far, because we just cut and paste from all of the other essays that Paul wrote for the other schools. They only had one original essay question, out of four. It was: "What, outside of work, inspires you?" My question is, is anyone inspired by work? I am not. At least not the kind that people pay me for. I wish I could get paid to be inspired.
I have considered starting my own church for this very reason. I think I would make an excellent preacher. I liked doing the full-time religion thing, too. The mission was great. Unfortunately, starting a not-true church just might not have the same appeal. Yeah, I guess I'll stick with Truth.
In any case, we are done for now, which really opens Paul's schedule up for: HOUSEWORK!! Yea! He is the stay-at-home parent! No more bathroom cleaning for me, friends. No more vacuuming, or sweeping. And luckily, I never did dishes before, so I am anticipating a pretty sweet lifestyle. Just in time for Mother's Day.

Bring on the heat.

We are in Sunny Arizona this week for Paul's interview at ASU. Carolyn, Paul's sister lives here, so this trip has turned into a fun weekend with her. His interview went great, and we've spent our time basically enjoying the beautiful heat.

Today we visited a hotel resort, and enjoyed the luxury therein. And by visit I mean, snuck in. In our defense, it should have not been so easy if they really didn't want the public to take advantage of their marvelous amenities. They had a lazy river, complete with complimentary tubes, and a waterslide. Ella was too short to ride, but we all took turns holding her so everybody got a chance to go. Seriously fun day. I have a feeling it was made even more fun by the fact that we really weren't "supposed" to be there....

Sweet Ella fell asleep half-way through, so we wrapped her in towels and let her nap on a lounge chair while her Aunt Carolyn sunbathed.

We live a good life.

For the Love of Kate.

One of my old roommates, Katie Jackson, tagged me in her post "10 Things I Love About My Life". Due to the craziness of Paul taking the GMAT (he did great by the way), and me starting a new job (which is fine), and both of us working on the house to get it ready to sell, I didn't read her blog until Sunday morning, and I didn't have time to blog until tonight. I've never done one of these 'tag' things before. But here goes.

Ten Things I Love About My Life (Not Top Ten, just ten):
1 - I love that I have a house filled with plants; they have been making me happy all winter. I love living things.
2 - I love that Ella is a crazy crawling baby who loves to be on her own, but that she is still not too independent to climb onto my lap and cuddle with me for a while.
3 - I love that my husband is done studying for the GMAT! We actually get to interact on a regular basis!
4 - I love the Sun.
5 - I love watching Dancing with the Stars with Paul, because we spend the whole episode critiquing the performances and theorizing about what will happen next. It's the best show to talk through.
6 - I love that we showed the house to a perspective buyer tonight. Life is exciting.
7 - I love the smell of chlorine... it reminds me of summer and swimming.
8 - I love having such a spotless house. I told Paul we should put our house on the market at least once a year, that way we have to throw out all the stuff we think we need but we don't. :)
9 - I love Reed's Dairy ice cream, and the Farmer's Market, and walking to the Library on Saturdays, and all of the other summer activities that we can start doing again.
10 - I love my bed. I have the most comfortable bed ever. In fact, I think I will go there.

Thank you and good night.

Our Sunshine Celebration.

We had a picnic. We cleaned out the garage. We laid on the hammock. We put the indoor plants out for a "spa day".

We live a sweet life.

Our Budding Musician.

Ella has always enjoyed sitting on our laps and "playing" the piano. She now has figured out that she can experience the pure joy of music all by herself. What a precocious child!