remembering

I'm remembering today my first week of college at BYU. It was a Tuesday, and crazy freshman that I was, I had an 8 am class. When my alarm went off around 7 I heard on the radio that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York. At this point they didn't really know what was going on. I ran over to my neighbors in the dorm who had a TV and we turned it on to watch the news. We watched the second plane crash into the second tower. It was surreal. We watched the buildings come crashing down and the people running through the streets. It seemed like a movie. The world changed forever before our eyes. No one had answers. We would come to find out that thousands died that day.

Later, at what was supposed to be the school year's first campus devotional, we sang the hymn by William Clayton "Come, Come, Ye Saints". It brought me, and I'm sure many others, comfort at a time when so much in our world seemed uncertain. It gave me perspective and reminded me that even if we "should die before our journey's through", all will be well.

Come, come, ye Saints, no toil nor labor fear;
But with joy wend your way.
Though hard to you this journey may appear,
Grace shall be as your day.
’Tis better far for us to strive
Our useless cares from us to drive;
Do this, and joy your hearts will swell—
All is well! All is well!

Why should we mourn or think our lot is hard?
’Tis not so; all is right.
Why should we think to earn a great reward
If we now shun the fight?
Gird up your loins; fresh courage take.
Our God will never us forsake;
And soon we’ll have this tale to tell—
All is well! All is well!

We’ll find the place which God for us prepared,
Far away in the West,
Where none shall come to hurt or make afraid;
There the Saints will be blessed.
We’ll make the air with music ring,
Shout praises to our God and King;
Above the rest these words we’ll tell—
All is well! All is well!

And should we die before our journey’s through,
Happy day! All is well!
We then are free from toil and sorrow, too;
With the just we shall dwell!
But if our lives are spared again
To see the Saints their rest obtain,
Oh, how we’ll make this chorus swell—
All is well! All is well!

tax plans

I was watching my news crush Anderson Cooper last night (he's so hot right now) and they did a little piece on the candidates' tax plans. I just wanted to pass this along because I found it to be highly informative. Here is the graph of how the taxes could change if their complete proposals are adopted for 2009 based on information from Tax Policy Center. You can find more information here. Sorry, the graph is being weird and I don't have time to mess with it. The first column is McCain and the second column is Obama.

Income	Avg. tax bill	Avg. tax bill
Over $2.9M	-$269,364	+$701,885
$603K and up	-$45,361	+$115,974
$227K-$603K	-$7,871	+$12
$161K-$227K	-$4,380	-$2,789
$112K-$161K	-$2,614	-$2,204
$66K-$112K	-$1,009	-$1,290
$38K-$66K	-$319	-$1,042
$19K-$38K	-$113	-$892
Under $19K	-$19	-$567

craigslist love

Who doesn't love Craigslist? Craig, you are a genius. What a fantastic way to use the internet. The past couple weeks I had some great success.

Exhibit A.

Baby swing for Asher. 20 bucks. Picked it up 5 minutes from my house. Lovely.
He won't stay in it for long periods of time, but it has allowed us some nice time to ourselves when he's in his tired fussy mood. In fact, he is sleeping in it right now.

Exhibit B.
Remember how I mentioned that our TV died?
This TV was given to me 4 years ago by my parents after they moved and didn't have room for it in the new house. It went with me to several places I lived in Utah and then came out here to NC. Well, 2 weeks ago the picture went out. Sound still works, but the picture is gone. Although in some ways it's been nice not having a TV, I really have missed CNN. I even resorted to listening to CNN during the conventions some. With the fall television season soon upon us, a post partum body to get back in shape via several exercise dvds, and plenty of time spent on my arse nursing my boy, we decided it was nice to find a replacement. Of course I turned to Craigslist. My first several checks proved very fruitless, but then Saturday morning I got lucky. A six year old 32 inch Sony tv had just been posted. I called and told the guy we wanted it. And this is what we got for our 50 bucks. Not too shabby, I say.
It's pretty much just the newer version of the tv we had. We are moving up in the world. And dvds look great on it!

What good deals have you scored on craigslist?

notes

Note 1. On Sarah Palin. I like her. She's likable. She did a good job with her speech the other night. Do I agree with all her politics? No. Will she make me vote for McCain? Probably not. But I do like her. And how cute is her baby? It was fun to see her family on the stage with her after her speech.

Note 2. On babywearing. I'm a fan. My baby is very happy when held. I think he gets bored when he's hanging out by himself. Heck, he even gets bored when he's just with me sometimes and I'm not paying enough attention to him or not moving around. And then he thinks he must scream to get my attention. I recently ordered a Hotslings. I'm excited to try it out. I'll let you know what I think.

Note 3. On post-partum check up. I went to the doctor today. Things are good. I'm glad I don't have to go the doctor again for like another year! (barring illnesses or something) Also, glad that my body lost the baby weight without any effort on my part. Good job, body! Before I got pregnant I was convinced I'd probably get huge during pregnancy and have a hard time losing the weight after. How nice that my body has recovered well. Unfortunately, weight loss doesn't equal toned. I have one squishy belly! Nor does it equal the same pants size. My favorite jeans definitely don't fit me yet. Time to start working out again.... sigh.

Note 4. On sleeping baby. Asher is actually asleep in his bassinet! That's a rare occurance around here. How nice it is to be able to type with both hands!

Note 5. On Costco. I love that place. I really love their cheese pizza. Have you tried it? So delish and cheesy and huge! And it has the perfect crust--crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. Also I love their chocolate/vanilla swirl frozen yogurt. It was especially good when I had it on Tuesday.

Note 6. On smiling babies. Is there anything in life better than a smiling baby? I think not. Mine has been smiling up a storm this week and it melts my heart every time. He even smiled at Dr. S today which was super darling. He's already a charmer.

what do you think about palin?

*I really do want to know what you think. Our TV died and I'm having CNN withdrawal. Since I don't get to watch all the pundits debate the issue, I need you! Spill your political guts!


Ah, politics. Exciting stuff sometimes. Most of the time pretty lame. But I'm curious what all you ladies out there think about McCain's VP pick Sarah Palin. She's a woman which is cool, but is he just trying to get the Hilary folks? She's young and attractive and rather inexperienced, but so is Obama. She's a working mother of five kids, including an infant with Down Syndrome and a 17-year-old unmarried pregnant daughter. She certainly has a lot on her plate!

I think there is a whole lot to like about Palin, but I do think it is a risky choice. I see why he did it and it could be brilliant, but it's also risky. I think she'll be great on the campaign trail but what does she bring to the job if McCain is elected?

So what do you think? Is this a good choice? Does it make you like McCain more or less? Do you care about VP picks? Do you think Palin as a mother of young children is taking on too much as this article suggests? How do you feel about the fact that she went back to work 3 days after giving birth to a special-needs baby? Do you think she's ready to be President should something happen to McCain if he is president?

we're so glad when daddy comes home

Jared came home last night after five days in Utah to take the kids back. Boy, are we happy to have him home! I hate being apart from Jared, and although I was less lonely having Asher with me, it was also harder having to take care of a baby all by myself. I would never want to be a single mom to an infant. And boy am I glad that my husband is home most of the time. I gotta hand it to all you moms out there with husbands that are gone a lot for work. I am spoiled by having mine work at home right now. It's really nice having another set of hands to hold a fussy baby. One night I didn't eat dinner until after 9 pm because Asher wouldn't stay asleep if I wasn't holding him. But most of the time he was really good. Yesterday he hung out in the carrier lots while I cleaned and didn't complain at all.

Last night, Asher was sound asleep when I left to go pick up Jared at the airport. He was asleep when I carried him in and then about 3 minutes before Jared got there, Asher woke right up and was really alert. I was glad he woke up to see his Daddy. He smiled lots for Jared too. Asher has been smiling more and more every day. It's so fun. I still haven't gotten good photos of it yet because I'm usually having too much fun smiling back at him, or as soon as the camera comes out he stops. I'm pretty sure seeing my baby smile at me or his daddy is about the best thing there is in life.

Life is a lot quieter now with the kiddos gone. It's just the three of us. And honestly, although it's hard to have Jared's kids so far away, we are grateful for this time with just Asher. I'm grateful that just as we got to enjoy time as newlyweds, we will get to enjoy this time with our sweet baby.

The plan is that this will be our last year in NC. Next summer we hope to move out to Utah while Jared writes his dissertation. He met with people at a couple of the Universities out there about teaching part-time next year. We don't want to settle in Utah long term, but it will be nice for a couple years. I'm starting to look forward to it even. It will be so much better for everyone to be near the kids. We both have lots of family there. Two of my siblings will even be at BYU. Plus, I have tons of friends there. I love it here in North Carolina, but it will be really good to be back near so many of the people we love. Plus, we'll save a bundle not having to fly out there so much!

15.5!!!! (and baby carrier)

I have never been so happy about a number in my life! With all of Asher's jaundice drama, these bilirubin level numbers have had very significant meaning. We've been waiting a month for it to get down to the 15 range and it finally has! After we went off the light last week, his levels actually went up from 16 to 17, and I feel like he's even looked more yellow. So I was preparing myself for his levels to have risen again. Instead, he had the biggest drop yet! Oh and he also now weighs a whopping 10 pounds 8 ounces--that is a 10 ounce weight gain since last Thursday! His thighs are starting to get chunkier-- I love it! So no more twice weekly trips to the doctor to get poked. We don't have to go back for two whole weeks. What are we going to do with ourselves?

Here is the little chunker last night after he fell asleep in the baby carrier.

And what is this carrier you might ask? Well after much online research I decided to get the Beco Butterfly carrier. I love it! It has that great newborn insert as you can see above so even little ones like Asher can fit in it. And we'll be able to use it for a long time to come. Once he's bigger we can wear it on our backs too. It comes in lots of different fabrics too. Stylish and functional--what more can you ask for?

I got mine at The Portable Baby where they are on sale until the end of the month.

touching dog story

CNN is reporting a 14 year old girl in Argentina abandoned her newborn baby in a field. A man heard the baby crying and found it being protected by a dog. The baby was cuddled up with the dog and her puppies. Isn't that amazing?! The baby is going to be fine.

to daddy with love

Dear Daddy,

Asher here. How's Utah? Home is the same. Mom hasn't even cleaned the house yet. I have been monopolizing her time. And she's been choosing sleep over cleaning during my naps. Can't say that I blame her since last night I decided I didn't want to go back to sleep at 4 in the morning. She had to use the swaddle, pacificer, sing a lot of songs trick to zonk me out again. She was really wishing you were here.

I wish you were here too. I miss sitting on your lap while you work on the computer. Mama is great and all but I always get distracted by the prospect of food when I'm with her. Although I did show her some of my best smiles today, but I didn't let her get a picture. I like to remain mysterious that way. I did pose pretty nicely for the photo up there with you the other day. I like showing off how strong I am and that I can hold my head up all by myself. I'm getting pretty good at that.

I went to church with Mommy today. I slept through all of Sacrament Meeting. Then I woke up so she could feed me during Sunday School, but I was a very good boy and didn't cry while she talked to some friends first. I don't think Mom minded missing Sunday School. Then I slept through Relief Society too. Mom is really cozy to sleep on. And no one else even tried holding me, so I was happy.

Tomorrow we are going to go pick up a swing for me. I'm not sure if I like that idea or not. We'll have to see.

Well, I better go now. I need to get my sleep. I can't wait to see you on Wednesday!

love,

Asher

letter to my love

By now most of you have probably heard about the plane crash involving Stephanie and Christian Nielson (this will take you to her sisters blog where updates are posted). Stephanie's blog is one of the very first I discovered when I jumped on board this whole blogging thing some 18 months ago. I have emailed her several times and she is always so gracious with her responses. I am just heartbroken imagining her wrapped in bandages in the hospital fighting for her life and knowing that if she makes it through, that life will never be the same. Many of Stephanie's faithful readers have posted about this tragedy and have honored her in various ways. Here is mine.

When Stephanie's husband goes away she often writes "Letters to Mr. Nielson" on her blog. Well my husband left me today to take the children back to Utah. It is just me and the Ash Man at home for the next five days. Today this letter to my darling husband is in honor of the Nielsons.


Dear Jared,

Asher and I have now survived some three hours on our own. Those three hours consisted of eating, playing, diaper changing, tummy time, snuggles, and now Asher is sleeping while I do this. I hope your flight is going well and that the next one will too.

As you know, the Nielson family has been on my mind a lot this week. Thinking of such a beautiful family has made me so grateful for our own beautiful family. Thank you for creating a family with me. Thank you for sharing your children. Thank you for giving me a son. He is already such a little person. It is so fun getting to know him. I love that he is so obviously part of both of us. The eyes from you. The dimples from me. Can you believe we created him? It still blows my mind.

I want you to know how much I love and appreciate you. This summer has been difficult. You have had so much on your shoulders-- first a pregnant wife on bed rest and then a new baby, three kids, a class to teach, RA work, your thesis to finish up, plus all the little necessities of life. You have cooked WAY WAY more than your share of meals. You have cleaned. You have been the go-to man for all of us. I know it hasn't been easy and I want you to know how much I appreciate all you have done and continue to do for me and for our family.

I hope your trip goes well. Know that Asher and I are here waiting for you. It will be wonderful to have you back home with us. We miss you and love you more than ever!

yours always,

Katrina

PS.... Here are a few of the photos we took yesterday. Too bad there were so many bugs outside. There were several almost good ones. Oh well.

This is the best of the two we took of all of us. If only Isaac had cooperated.

Here is the best one of the kids. Grace is doing her crazy face, but otherwise pretty good.

And this one of me and Asher would have been perfect if he had opened his eyes. But he's a baby, so we can't ask for much, can we?