The Case of the Missing Milk Carton

Today at lunch, I opened the refrigerator. Suddenly, I noticed that there was no milk. Now, I knew we had been low - only one gallon left with only about an inch in the bottom. But I was fairly certain that I had poured some milk on my cereal that morning at breakfast, so where was the milk carton now?


I looked in the trash can, wondering if Mike had finished the milk this morning. No empty jug. I looked around to see if I had left it on the counter. No milk carton. I looked in the trash can AGAIN to see if I had finished it with my cereal this morning at breakfast and had just forgotten that I threw the carton away. No milk carton! I looked in the surrounding rooms in case I had somehow brought the milk carton with me when Aidan needed something. No jug.

You probably already figured out the ending to this story. I finally found the milk carton - where else? - in the cupboard where the cereal goes! I must have stuck it in there when I threw away the empty cereal bag!

And some people say Momnesia isn't real!

Tribute

This post is a few weeks later than I meant for it to be, but... well, life happens. I wanted to take a minute to pay tribute to my sister, Rebecca, who entered the MTC on July 8, headed to serve in the Trujillo Peru Mission.

(Thanks for the picture, Heidi - I stole it off your blog since I don't have a recent shot of Bex.)

Rebecca is truly one of my heroes because she has an amazing passion for life. Everything she does, she does 110%. She is constantly grabbing life and hanging on to get the most out of the ride. For example, she served a summer mission in Nauvoo as one of the musicians in the brass band. She has been in the BYU Wind Symphony and gone on tour with them twice, once to the Eastern United States and once to Korea. She was involved in a student music association in college. She brings dedication, creativity, and diligence to her church callings. She is always brimming with enthusiasm about everything she is involved in.

Rebecca loves to serve others. She seriously lives for it. Last fall, Rebecca came to visit me in Iowa. It was right at the start of my school year, and since I hadn't been allowed in my classroom until a week before the students came, I was rather behind. Not only did she show up and bake me special muffins for the first day of school, but she also came to school with me and willingly did all sorts of "gopher" jobs in the background all day to help me get caught up. I still don't think I could have made it without her help that week!

Rebecca is my hero because she reminds me of the kind of person I want to become. I hope to someday emulate her natural ability to think of others' needs. I hope to look back on my life and have no regrets, knowing that - like Rebecca - I've gone out for as many wonderful experiences as I could. But I also hope that like Rebecca I can be completely humble. I don't think she has any idea how much I look up to her. Well, that's what this post is for! Bex, I love you so much!!! Thanks for your example, and I pray for you on your mission every night. I know you will be an amazing missionary. I love you!

OUCH!!!

Last night I had just put Aidan to bed, so I didn't want to turn on the light but my eyes hadn't quite adjusted to the dark yet. I went into my bedroom to grab something and left the door open behind me. Unfortunately, our windows were open and the wind must have blown the door partially shut. Since I couldn't see very well, you guessed it - on my way out I ran SMACK into the edge of the door!

In the picture you can see the damage. I have a big goose egg and cut on the outside edge of my left eyebrow (which is the right side of the picture). Can you see how it makes the shape of my eye all funny? Ouch!!!

UPDATE: Now it's turning into a partial black eye! Isn't that fun? Especially since we have family pictures tomorrow!!!

What a chunk!

My kiddo has been eating like CRAZY lately. Look at the difference in just 3 weeks! (Sorry, I don't know how to get them side by side.) I might be getting him weighed tomorrow - if so I'll edit this post to tell you how much he has gained.

In that 2nd picture, can you see how much he's filling out his onesie? That's a size 3-6 month onesie!!!

And this picture is just for fun. Cuz Aidan's a cutie. It was taken right before his bath. That's why he's mostly naked.

The Birth Story (Playing Catch-Up)

Sorry that this took me SO long to publish, and most of my readers have already heard this. But I have a few friends in Utah that I haven't talked to in person, and this is my main way of keeping in touch with them, so bear with me if I'm repeating myself. This is the story of how Aidan was born.

On Friday May 29, I taught my last day of school for the foreseeable future. I have sure enjoyed being with my 3rd graders over the last 7 years! The kids left at noon that day, and I spent the rest of the afternoon (with some helpers – not such a good idea for a 9-month pregnant lady to be running and climbing everywhere!) taking my classroom apart. I had to sort stuff into 3 piles – keep, leave for the new teacher replacing me, and try to get rid of in my garage sale. Here's some pictures of all the stuff I had to get rid of! Plus, I had an entire bookshelf full of books that I couldn't keep...

Monday June 1st was my last contract day of work. They paid us for one last day to come in and clean everything up. That morning, I had a teacher garage sale. I invited everyone to come see what I had that they might want and just pay what they thought would be a fair price. I made $150 but didn’t get rid of nearly everything, so I started giving it away for free! People were wandering in and out the whole day while I cleaned out my files. Here's what the classroom looked like by the end of the day:

I stayed until about 6:00 that evening and had almost everything done and cleaned up. However, I had already made 4 trips out to my car, and I didn’t want to stay later than that. I decided to just come back the next day for another hour or so and then be completely done with my classroom. I thought it worked out perfectly and that I would then have 2 weeks or so to get everything organized and ready for the baby! What I didn't know was that this candid shot with a fellow teacher would be my last pregnant picture (at least with Aidan)!

I drove home and walked in around 6:30. I came and sat on the couch by Mike. We talked for about 10 minutes, and all of the sudden I felt some wet stuff that I didn't expect! I looked at Mike with huge eyes and told him that I thought my water broke! He didn't believe me at first, but after a minute or two was convinced. I was of course a little panicked – I wasn’t due for 2 ½ weeks! We went to the hospital so they could check everything out. The doctor seemed a little skeptical at first - he said it's very uncommon for first time mothers to have their water break so early with no contractions. However, when he checked, he told me that I needed to stay in the hospital until our little one arrived!

I hadn't even packed my hospital bag yet, so poor Mike had to run home and try to get everything for me. He came back around 11:00. The doctor told me to get as much sleep as I could, so I slept fitfully through the night. The monitor said I was having contractions, but I didn't feel any still. They never became consistent, so at 6 the next morning they started me on pitocin.

Labor isn't fun.

Beforehand, I wasn't sure if I would get an epidural. I figured yes, but have had some experiences with -caine drugs that didn't work well, so I was worried that an epidural wouldn't even be effective. Yeah, by 11:00 in the morning I was only at a 3 and was in a LOT of pain. I asked for the epidural! It did take the anesthesiologist 3 tries to find a level in my spine that would work. As a result, I had a huge bruise on my back that didn't go away for about a week. But thankfully, the epidural worked wonders! As soon as it was done, I slept for 2 hours! I didn't feel a thing! When I woke up, Mike was like, "That's a really big contraction!" And I was like, "Oh, I'm having one? I didn't know that!" It was also wonderful to wake up and be fully dilated! MUCH better than being awake and feeling the labor! :)

The doctor had hoped that I would have Aidan after 5:00 so they wouldn't have to cancel a bunch of regular office visits, but at 1:45 or so I told the nurse that she needed to call the doctor. He walked in, took one look, and got his gown on. Sure enough, at 2:17, Aidan Blake Steele was born!

Again, sorry if it's a repeat, and sorry it's such old news, but now you know how our kiddo got here!

Baybee's Skillz

Our baybee has some skillz! He can do things that... well, that many other babies can do. But they're new and exciting to us!

Here, Baybee demonstrates his remarkable ability to spit up. This is an average amount - some days we get more than that (especially if I've eaten anything good, like ice cream, the night before. Sigh.), but the video is fun because I caught him in the act so spontaneously.

The Babe is starting to make faces and noises. This video captures his glare and an "ah." I wish I could capture his grunting, which is by far his funniest noise, but I don't have a video of that, so you'll just have to trust me.

Also, our kid can roll over now! Twice I have left him on his back and come in to find him on his stomach! This video shows him going about halfway over - he would have made it if Mike hadn't made a quick catch!

And last of all, Aidan is starting to smile! Here he is giving Daddy a little smile,

and here he is giving Mommy a huge grin! This one is my favorite of all!

What We Do For Fun

These are some videos of things that Aidan likes to do for fun. This is a swing we borrowed from some friends. Aidan is just fascinated by something up at the top - we think it's the color contrast. In any case, every time we put him in the swing, he immediately just stares at the top!

Aidan also likes to play with his daddy. Here are some videos that show Mike blowing on Aidan,

and this one shows Aidan with a bobble head! (Really, he fell asleep on Mike, and Mike is making Aidan's head move like a bobble head doll by moving his pec. What a show-off!)

Yes, this is how we entertain our kiddo. :)