Where, Oh Where Did My Summer Go?

Okay okay, I know that summer isn't gone YET, but August is always the beginning of the end, and a month from today the Fall semester will start. That always seems to be the case; the three and a half months of summer tend to go by in a flash, when they really don't go by any faster than the rest of the year. I am looking forward to the changes ahead, especially at work. I will be getting my own office to conference with students who are interested in our program. I have been waiting for my own space for a long time, and the plan is to have me in a new office by the end of August. Depending on where they move me to, though, I may not get to see my work buddies as much as I do now, which makes me kinda sad! Work will also pick up over the next month as I work on coordinating student orientation and the faculty retreat to Sun Valley. Fall semester is definitely not the busiest time of the year, but it is a change from the quietness of the summer.

Uriah has become quite the photographer, sneaking off with my camera and taking pictures. He will take a picture of anything and everything: walls, floors, appliances, whatever suits him at the time. The following pictures are from his view:

 Jordyn is one of his favorite subjects, as she likes to have her picture taken.

 He also loves to take pictures of himself. I love his blue eyes.

 The camera makes him happy

Here is Jordyn again. Looks like Uriah chased her behind a chair. 

Uriah lined up all of his cars and trains and took a picture of them. 

 I love this picture. I'm sure he did it on accident, but his one blue eye just stands out to me, and the picture isn't at all blurry. I think it's fantastic.

Jordyn and Uriah playing on the top bunk. 

 Jordyn showing Uriah something so he can take a picture of it.

 Uriah took this picture of Bonnie while she was sucking on her thumb.

A few weekends ago I went with my mom, daughters and nieces to my brother and sister-in-law's new house. We just spent two days hanging out and enjoying each other's company. It was hot, so we got into their pool in the back yard.

 Bonnie looks happy in this picture, but it really took her a long time to warm up to the cold water. Every time we dipped her toes in the water she would squeeze her feet up as close to her butt as she could. She does not like cold water!

Jordyn was shivering, but having a good time.

Last weekend, I took Friday off for our anniversary and we went with some friends to the local pool. Bonnie had never been to a real big pool, and it had been a really long time since any of us had gone swimming.

Here's Bonnie in her little-bit-too-big swimming suit.

Jordyn got a tinker bell suit from our neighbors and she loved it.

The sky was so beautiful that day, I just had to use it as a backdrop for a picture of my baby.



Uriah was getting a little bit of sun, but having a great time!

After we left the pool, Bonnie crashed. She was asleep before we even got out to the car. She hadn't eaten for 5 hours, and every minute at the pool I kept waiting for her to start screaming because she was hungry or cold, but she never made a peep the whole time, and she slept in the car seat until we got home. Swimming can really wear you out!

This week I started doing P90X. I had seen members of my family do it and seen how their bodies changed while doing it, so since I am trying to become healthier, I decided to give it a try. It is one of the few workout videos I have tried that doesn't make me feel silly and ridiculous doing it. I've almost finished the first week and I am sore, but happy!

Jordyn decided to do P90X with me one day. She is so much better at it than I am. Look at those legs!

 Starting P90X caused me to gain 2 pounds and I kinda freaked out. I thought that if I exercised, I would lose even more weight than I was losing just changing my diet! I questioned a lot of my friends and family, and they told me that I was gaining muscle mass and that I would probably gain a little more of that and soon I would start dropping the pounds like I want. I know muscle weight is a good thing, but I want to lose overall weight! I guess I need to really learn some patience.

My beautiful boy. This is exactly how he makes me feel, and all of my children! I look forward to their hugs and smiles every day when I get home from work. How grateful I am for my wonderful family. I wouldn't trade them for anything in the world!

For our anniversary, we took the kids to my mom and dad and we went out to lunch at Ruby Tuesday. The plan was to get a healthy meal, so I picked something off their mini menu that I was sure wouldn't be too high in calories. Well, I ordered the Baja Chicken Quesadilla. It was delicious, but when I got home to look up the calories, it was a whopping 1,600 calories. What the heck? That thing was about as big as my fist. So much for healthy food on a mini menu. Maybe next time I will stick to the salad bar! I had intended to make it a long lunch, just to sit and talk with each other and not worry about rushing, but we had eaten our meal and were done in 45 minutes, so we decided to get up and go window shopping. We still had 2.5 hours until the movie we were going to go see started, so Jared made a suggestion as to where to go window shopping and we went. He completely surprised me with an awesome anniversary gift, something I have been waiting for for a long time! I can't tell yet what it is though, because we are the only ones who know about it and I don't want to mention it until I can take a picture of it to put on here! Hopefully, by the next blog, you will get to see what I'm talking about :)



Stitches

Not too much has been going on lately, but it sure has been a nice, enjoyable summer so far. Uriah turned 4 last month. We didn't have a big party, but I got him a cake from Wal-Mart that he was thoroughly pleased with (Thomas the Train) and he got a LeapPad as a present from mom and dad (my feeble attempt to break him away from my iPad).

Bonnie started rolling over a few weeks ago and now it's like second nature. She doesn't stay on her back very long, but then when she is rolled over, she doesn't like to stay on her stomach very long either. She hit the 4 month mark and is going strong. She is a very healthy baby, very alert and aware, and the first of my children that hasn't had a cold or other illness in her first months of life. How grateful I am for her and her presence in our home!

This is my absolute favorite outfit of Bonnie's, and I will be sad to see her outgrow it. I would make her wear it all the time if I could. These pictures were taken about a month or so ago.

Something made her smile!

One of Bonnie's favorite things (and mommy's and daddy's) is her bouncer chair. She doesn't particularly care about it now, but when she was smaller it might as well have been her crib. Now she can roll out of it!

Getting ready for church, one child at a time. Uriah loves his baby sister so much!

Talking mommy's ear off.

I knew that this day would come some time. Uriah got his first stitches last week. I was at work and Jared called to tell me that I had to come home right away because he needed to take Uriah to the doctor. He said there was blood all over the house and Uriah was cut up really bad. I knew that my hubby has a tendency to overreact, so I left work and met him and Uriah at the Children's Clinic. It really wasn't that bad, although it did bleed quite a bit. He got two stitches (which he didn't like at all, and I'll never understand why they didn't numb him for them), but after it was done he was happy and perky again.

After following the blood trail from the living room into Uriah's room, we have come to the conclusion that this household gadget is the culprit for Uriah's cut. We finally got out of him that he "stepped on the fan" to get his owie, and as we looked closer we could see blood spots on the spirals of the fan. We don't think it was a fan blade, because the fan wasn't plugged in, but my theory is that he was standing on it and cut it on the edge of the spiral in the center of the fan. Anyway, he pulled one of the stitches out himself a few days ago and got the other one removed by the doctor yesterday. After they removed the stitch, they gave him 3 immunizations. Poor guy. He is a trooper though.

I forgot to add pictures of Uriah's birthday fun!

This is a giant checker board at Toy Town in Twin Falls.

Jordyn going down a bounce house slide at Hop 2 It.

Me and Bonnie going down the slide



Uriah's Bday cake from the WalMart bakery

One of Uriah's presents. Mom and dad got him the yellow and red angry bird, one of my friend's got him the black bird and another friend painted the cans for me. Uriah was exstatic!

Uriah having fun on a bounce house at Hop 2 It.

In other recent news, I am trying to lose some weight and I have started a blog to keep track of my calories and exercising. I have lost 8.5 pounds in 5 weeks, which is a little more than a pound a week. I am not currently trying to lose more than that because I know that losing weight is a long term goal and not a short term one. I am keeping myself at 1700 calories a day and doing exercise whenever I feel like it. I know I will probably peak at some point and have to start exercising regularly, but I am happy with how I am already changing my life. My ultimate goal is to get to 200 lbs, and I have 11 more to lose. I know I can do it!

With A Little Bit of Luck...And Blessings from Heaven

Actually, I don't think luck has anything to do with what happened recently...

A few months ago rumors were swirling that the governor was going to give 2% raises to all state employees. The word "raise" hasn't been used (in a good way) for quite a few years around the office. I decided to figure out what a 2% raise would mean for me...$17 more a pay check. Well, $17 is $17, so I decided I would be happy for it. Then the story hit the papers and it seemed to be true.
More rumors started to swirl that the president of ISU would match the state raise for people who "merited" the raise, which I thought meant that they had to have an "exceeds expectations" performance review or higher . Because I've only worked here for three years, I only get "meets expectations" reviews, so I pushed that extra 2% out of my mind (this really has nothing to do with how long I've been working for ISU, but rather that whoever does my employee eval feels that because I have only been here for so long, I don't deserve an "exceeds expectations" rating).

Time passed, and our HR office sent out an email saying our insurance premiums were going to go up. "Oh great," I thought, "give us a 2% raise and then take it away with higher health insurance." The increase in premiums wasn't that bad, at least not for me ($10 more), but it still would have meant that I was only making $7 extra each paycheck. Well, as long as they aren't taking money OUT of my paycheck, I remain grateful.

Then, at the beginning of this week, all employees got a blue envelope in their mail boxes. I opened mine to read (something like this) "Congratulations! I am pleased to inform you that you will be receiving a salary increase. You will receive a 9.4% increase to your base salary." I thought...wait...9.4 is a lot more than the 2% we were told we would get. The letter continued, "Your new hourly rate will be $12.30." That's when it hit me. The number 9.4% meant pretty much nothing..my brain doesn't compute in percentages...but as soon as I saw that $12.30, I knew exactly what that meant. I just couldn't believe it. I quickly read the rest of the letter which said something about having a good performance appraisal and raising the minimum income to meet poverty guidelines, blah blah blah, and I quickly pulled out the calculator and figured out how much more a month that would be for us. My paychecks would go up about $100.

I instantly said a prayer in my heart and thanked Heavenly Father for watching over us and giving us this special blessing. In the last 3 months I have gotten more money than I thought I would make in a long time, 1-because my position was reclassified to a higher pay rate when I took over new responsibilities, and now 2-this raise. While we are still under the federal poverty guidelines, this increase that some might think as small will make a huge difference in our lives. We will be able to stop living paycheck-to-paycheck and hopefully be able to pay off debt a little quicker and to do more things we've always wanted to do. It's no fortune, for sure, but it may as well be to me.

I know I am not the only one who got a raise like this. It was campus and state wide, but I really feel that because I worked hard to get a bachelor's degree and that I do the best job I can at work, this increase in money is deserved. But most of all, I know that it is because I am doing my best to fulfill my church calling, to do my visit-teaching, and because I am a full tithe payer. I've already had a few posts like this within the last 6 months, and I will never stop saying it...being a full tithe payer has brought us more blessings than I can count. We've had a lot of financial ups and downs in the first half of this year, and this is definitely a big UP. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for continuing to bless my family and making my testimony stronger than it already is.

As a side note, we recently found out that both of our cars need brake replacements, transmission oil changes, and my car needs new tires. The raise couldn't have come at a better time!

Bountiful Blessings

Yesterday was a very special day for our family. My faithful priesthood holder husband gave our baby girl a name and a blessing. Family from both sides were there and we had a rather large circle of loving priesthood holders helping Jared give Bonnie her blessing. I always take a voice recorder to church with me when we bless our children so that I can type their blessing and put it in a memory book, but Miss Bonnie cried all the way through her blessing, so I don't know if I will be able to hear any of it when I play it back. Here's hoping! I could see some people in the congregation smiling while Bonnie cried through her blessing, because for some reason, we all find it rather humorous when the baby cries during a blessing. I know I do! I won't find it so humorous when I am trying to listen to the recording though...

Bonnie's beautiful dress was made by my good friend Tashina Hunsaker. We have known each other for a long time, since high school, but were never close friends until recently, and I really treasure her friendship. She asked me if she could make Bonnie's dress because she wanted something to do to keep her busy, and I said, "Sure!" She did such a good job, the dress is gorgeous, and she only charged me what she paid for the fabric. I was SO happy to put it on Bonnie and see how beautiful she looked.

 Doesn't she look so pretty? I think so, but my opinion may be a little biased.

 I was so happy with how well the dress fit. When we blessed Jordyn, I bought her dress at a store and it was too big and looked really awkward on her. Bonnie's fit just right because it was specifically tailored just for her!

 She wouldn't stop wiggling and her headband was starting to fall off.

 By now she really wanted me to pick her up, but I wasn't done just yet...

 I hadn't had a chance to get a picture of all three of my babies together, and I knew this would be the perfect chance. After all, they were all dressed up in their Sunday best!

 Of course, I never got a picture of all three of them looking at the camera, the little stinkers cuties! My Uriah is such a handsome boy in this picture.

 It sure was fun to take these pictures though. I remembered that every time I say "smile" Jordyn squints because she is expecting a flash, so I had to start saying "Say cheese!" in order to get her to smile. I love this picture because you can see that Jordyn and Bonnie have the same eyes.

 I must have had the TV on or something...Jordyn just wouldn't look at me!

 I finally got her to say "cheese" in this picture, but she was still looking the other way and Bonnie was starting to get a little tired of it all. They are still cute, no matter which way they are looking!

After church, we all went and had a picnic at Alameda Park. It was such a nice day and there was a playground that the kids could run around.

 We got dinner and a show...there were some men in the park pretending to be knights/sword fighting/jousting/role playing/I'm not really sure what they were doing, but my sis-in-law thought it would be fun to get her picture taken with them. They look like nice guys, kind of!

We stayed at the park for about 3 hours just chatting and enjoying ourselves. The kids loved being able to see some of our extended family, and it felt so good to know we were loved and supported by so many.

All of Jared's siblings were able to make it to the blessing (with the exception of one bro-in-law), so we decided to have a family picture taken. It had probably been 5 years since the last McCurdy family picture had been taken, so we were in need of an update.

Saturday was a busy day also. My niece Kaiya won 3rd place in an Idaho Public Television story writing contest and they had an awards ceremony at Idaho State University. She wrote a story called "Aliens!" and it was about an Alien named Joseph who was different because he had two arms and two legs while all of the other aliens had four arms and four legs. It was fun hearing her read her story and show us the pictures she drew.

After that, I went to a wedding for one of my high school friends, Aaron. He was the last of our close group to get married, and we all thought it was about time, especially since we all have kids now and he still hadn't gotten married! I saw a lot of acquaintances from my childhood and some good friends and school teachers, and it was a very enjoyable time. It really has reminded me how people change over time, how we all grow up and live out our own lives, and how some people come and go but others will be with you forever. I am grateful to be reminded of that.

Forgetting Easter

I was reading through my friends' blogs and I realized that they all had a post about what they did for Easter. It has almost been a month since that sacred holiday had passed, and I thought to myself, "Surely I made my own Easter post...right?" Nope! Searching through my blog, I realized I had never made an Easter post, so I dug up the pictures from that day and slapped 'em on ye olde blog.

We had a dinner and egg hunt at my sister's house. She is moving to Colorado this summer and this was the last time she would get to hold a party for all of us.

Strategically placed eggs...kind of.

 Me and my nephew Jayson. He was born two days before Bonnie.

 Jordyn looked so cute in that bucket hat, her levi jacket and striped skirt. Thank goodness it was a warm day.

 Jordyn loves to dig. Even if she can't dig, she loves to hold a shovel.

 Bonnie was talking to grandma. I think she was sad that she couldn't eat any of the candy that was everywhere.

 We are waiting for someone to tell us we can go and grab the eggs.

 What a huge difference a year makes. Last Easter Jordyn needed help finding eggs. This year she was picking them up quickly and throwing them in her basket.

 We found an egg that had a $1 bill in it over here.

 Her basket couldn't hold all the eggs she was finding.

 It isn't Easter unless you get chocolate on your fingers!

 Jared was helping Uriah open his eggs to get all the candy. The kids also got a large bottle of bubbles, courtesy of aunt Lindsay.

 For some reason, kids are fascinated by hoses...

We had a great Easter. We were spiritually fed and the weather was so beautiful. It was the first real nice day we had had in a while.

For now, I am working on losing some weight. I realized that my bad habits of eating junk while I was pregnant didn't go away when I had Bonnie and that I wasn't losing the baby weight like I used to be able to. I have started counting my calories on everydayhealth.com and watching my portions during dinner and I am almost down to what I weighed before I got pregnant with Bonnie.

This is how I plan to lose more weight. Now that the kids are going to be home with daddy all summer, I am hoping to be able to get out and at least get about 30 minutes of some kind of exercise a day. I just need to remind myself to start small. Jared took a Health and Fitness class this semester and for his final he had to bring someone in to his class and have them do some fitness tests. Being a good wife, I volunteered. I learned that 40% of my body is fat and that I have pretty crappy upper body and abdominal strength. I was talking to Jared about my weight loss goals and his teacher said to me, "It took a lot of time to gain that weight, it's going to take a lot of time to lose it." I had never thought of it that way before. My biggest roadblock in losing weight was that I wouldn't see a difference in my weight in one week, so I'd quit. Now that I can look at it differently and see it as a long term commitment, hopefully I will be able to stick it out. Since I started counting my calories, I have limited myself to 2000 calories a day or less and I have lost 5 lbs already. My first goal is to get down to 200 lbs and I've got 20 lbs to go. If I can make it that far, I will make a bigger goal for myself to lose more weight. Baby steps...that's what I need to remember.