Hmmm, that’s a good question. We’ve been home for a week and two days now. We’re leaving again, probably Friday. Really it’s all starting to blur…

• The weather has been basically extraordinary. Probably a reason for my lack of blogging. There have been a couple grey and rainy days mixed in, which is okay because it allows appreciation for the days that aren’t.
• Ah yes, I remember. Early last week we were all sick. Well, had a cold.Ali seriously JUST got rid of her runny nose. It was her first really bad one and, geez! I can’t wait until she’s old enough to just blow the thing already.
• We’ve been going to the beach a lot. Once a day whenever it’s nice. Usually wading in the ocean and once even swimming. And boogie boarding. Which was so, so, so fun! I hadn’t really swam in the ocean in like eight or so years and it used to be all I wanted to do when we stayed out here. I love it.
• But, I tweaked my knee boogie boarding. I tore my ACL when I was 14 playing basketball and had reconstructive surgery placing a chunk of my hamstring in place of the shredded knee ligament. It’s really never been the same and gave me a lot of problems when I played sports in high school. It hasn’t bothered me since, but I’ve never been extremely active. So, that was Saturday and it seems to be getting more swollen by the day (weird). I can walk and function and everything, just have a limited range of motion and limp a little. Definitely something I’m a bit worried about.
• Trista is leaving for college tomorrow! She is just going about thirty minutes south to Newberg, OR to attend George Fox University. Last Saturday she came out to have a last hurrah with us until Monday morning. I know it’s the end of an era, and we will miss being able to see her so much.
• Friday night we attended a MOPS carnival in Tillamook. I registered for the upcoming year and am looking forward to meeting other moms and for Ali to be able to socialize with other kids. Also, while the moms meet childcare is provided so I hope it will be a good place to work on non-parental caretakers. Maybe the outcome of this will be….oh, I don’t know, a night or even a meal where it’s just the two of us?!?!
• Okay, I’m drawing a blank, so onto some pictures:

On one of the colder days…she looks so BIG!

I love crying pictures.

So sweet with baby buns.

On Saturday we found this extension to her Elmo house for $3. Complete with ballpit! Shall be great to whip out on the weeks when the rain doesn’t stop.

So cute in the sand.

Fun new game with daddy.

Pure, pure, pure joy!

Ali loves Trista.

• If you are so inclined, there are more pictures here and here.
• I can’t believe the kids are already heading back to school! The end of summer is so sad. Which is why I’m glad our summer will last as long as the weather does. And the light. Boo to it getting dark at 8pm.
• Oh yeah, Ali has been sleeping WONDERFULLY lately. Like, the last four or so days. She’s been crying when we put her in her crib (usually asleep from nursing but then she wakes) but falling asleep ON HER OWN. And, surprise surprise, she sleeps nearly twice as long this way. The night before last she slept from 8pm to 12:30am. Perhaps her longest ever. I am still sleeping in the bed in her room for part of the night though. We’ll get there I guess. Also, the last few days have been one-nap days. And it’s been a LONG nap (like 1-1.5 hrs) which she has never been into. For months she’s been doing two thirtyish minute naps. This is so, so much better. Especially when I can just set her down and if she cries, she cries. Today she went down just before noon (cried on and off for 30 minutes at least) and then slept until like 1:45pm. I had time to actually DO something. Ah, it’s amazing. I so hope this lasts, this is a routine I can deal with.

Reshma just posted her own pics of the Lewis picnic, including these two great shots. Which I have now stolen. Thanks Resh!

The site Tony has been working on for nearly a year and a half has been mentioned on the New York Times website. Check it out, it’s number three!

Also, here, YouJustGetMe is number one!

Hmmm. Status update much? If you don’t understand that then you really should enter the social networking arenta where the rest of the world (or at least my generation) plays 24/7.

We are all sick here. With some nasty cold that is hardest on Ali since she can’t take any meds for her stuffy nose and therefore can barely sleep. It’s exhausting.

We came home from my parents’ Monday night and I don’t think it’s stopped raining since. Which is okay. Because I’d rather be under the weather and housebound when it’s nasty out. And it’s cold too. Cold, cold, wear sweatshirts and slippers and turn on the heater cold. Or maybe that’s just us being sick?

Anyway, I have a ton to blog about but it’s expansiveness is overwhelming me.

We’re going back to the valley in just over a week.

Ok, here’s some catch-up pics.

Last week it was actually warm enough to get in the water a bit.

Ali reading about the new season of Sesame Street on the pot.

She has now discovered simulated phone usage. Which involves the phoneheld in the vicinity of her ear, and screamed baby-babble. Here she was specifically "talking" to Shayla.

Riding her bike…today! (Which means we’re up to date)

And more phone chats.

Nighttime is just as painful. She continues to wake uo every hour to hour-and-a-half with usually one three hour stretch. Isn’t that worse thanmost newborns?!?! I might call the doctor soon just to….I don’t know. Just to do something??? But that’s a whole other issue considering we’ve seen a different doctor every time (three of them) we’ve gone since moving here and we hear [hope!] there’s a permenant one coming soon but it’s hard having no established relationship.

I am working on drastically cutting down my caffeine intake because that could definitely be having an effect. Went from having two cups in the morning to mid-morning and one about 3pm to having one and half before noon and today having one about 10am. So we’ll see. No real improvements yet, but UGH. What a hard time to cut down on the stimulants. I kind of feel like a walking zombie.

Tomorrow we’re going to the Tillamook County Fair which is exciting. Next weekend we’ll be in the Portland area for the Lewis family picnic and for a wedding. Next week we are spending a few days in Off Our Rocker again. And by we I now mean Tony, as we discovered it works best if he just goes over there with his laptop and does his own work. I am working on enrolling for some classes in the fall through PCC. it has been especially difficult since I’m going to begetting financial aid (which involves tons of hoop jumping) and I’m finally transferring credits from three different colleges. I have to go next week to take a math placement test at TBCC (Tillamook Bay Community College), which I’m trying to study a bit for but it’s kind of depressing to look at stuff you know you know (or knew) how to do and realize you no longer have more than a faint inkling.

So we’re busy. And tired. And we’re had nary a sunbreak here since last Sunday! Which is so frustrating for me.

• Bedtime is going great. It’s the middle of the night that’s a struggle. I can only do about one wake up where I put her back down because it takes me forever to fall asleep again. The second time I’m right back in bed with her. Only thing is, we put the trundle Ali and I usually sleep on away and bought the rocking chair up (now it feels like an actual nursery!) so it basically seems like I’m bedless.
• Last night Ali went down at 8:30, woke up at 9:30, 11:00, 1:00 (and cried with Tony for about 25 minutes before I went up. At this point he had yet to go to sleep and I had just fallen asleep about 12:45), and then whenever I went up there and stayed. Probably two-something. She woke up this morning before 8am. UGH. Luckily her and I napped this afternoon. Well, evening. Until nearly six!
• I feel like a new parent again except one-year-olds (thirteen months tomorrow!) need much less day-sleep than newborns. Should have tackled this endeavor then…
• Ali has now discovered the toilet. And the joy found in dropping this in it.
• Yesterday we met Oregon Senate candidate Jeff Merkley in Tillamook. He was a very nice guy.

• Monday and Tuesday next week I am subbing at Off Our Rocker across the street.
• Tomorrow we are hoping to have a picnic somewhere for lunch. Hopefully sans wind.
• I know I have more stuff to update from our trip up north last week. But here are pictures.
• We are getting very, very close to having a toddler. There have been a number of shuffle lunges and even a few step, step, lunge. Any day now.
• Tony and I are about to do an exercise video. Good, because I love exercise and am looking forward to getting back to it. Bad, because I don’t think either of us has done much (besides some walking here and there) since we broguht Jordan back his week. Over two weeks ago.

As already mentioned Wednesday we ventured out to the Swalla farm in Stuart, Iowa. It was like thirty or forty minutes west of where we were staying in Johnston. I think we were able to get up, showered, and ready by just after ten. Tony’s Grandma Swalla lives on the farm, along with one of her (fourteen!) children, Rosie, and her three kids (Jonathon, whom just graduated high school but we didn’t get to see; Kaitlin, and Megan).

The first thing I noticedwhen we pulled up was KITTENS! I love, love, love kittens but am less enamored with cats. Speaking of cats, Trista told me last night my cat, Peaches, died. I got Peaches when she was just a kitten from a friend the summer before I went into 4th grade. She was 14 years old. Today when I asked what happend Trista said they think she might have been eaten(!) because they haven’t found her and that she had a seizure a few days earlier. I asked aboutthe seizure and she said ti was a "funny story" and she’d tell me later. Bad enough that my cat dies (though, to be honest, I haven’t lived with her for anmost five years so I don’t really feel as if she’s mine anymore) but…THIS?!? I don’t want to think about it.

Anyway, it was really nice to see more of Iowa on the drive out. I’ve never been to the midwest so I spent a ton of time just staring out the window being amazed at how far you could see. And, in Johnston, at the amazing, amazing houses. They all looked like mini plantation mansions.

After playing around for awhile (well, Ali at least) and searching outsome animals (I think we came across three kittens, one momma cat, and two dogs) we satdown for lunch. Grandma Swalla made a rice casserole that was not only good, but that Ali loved at well. She ate so much I was surprised there was anymore left to put the birthday cake she was later presented with.

This picture cracks me up!

Can we say sugar coma?

So excited about her card. Seriously, this kid LOVES cards.

Ali loved playing in this tiny rocking chair that was Grandma Swalla’s mother’s. It is nearly 100 years old!

So cute!

After more playing we went out to tour the farm. That is when Rosie came home so Ali and I got to meet her. By this time Ali was so, so exhausted (kind of a theme from here on out) so we really had to just go. But we had such a nice time and I really wish we could have stayed longer and can go back for a more extend timein the near future. Farm life is so very different from anything I’ve ever been around (even if it wasn’t exactly the crop-growing type of farm) and the space and isolation are so interesting.

In the morning there were some sprinkles too…the only moisture we saw for the week. To give some perspective, it rained a good portion of our drive home from PDX. Welcome back to the NW!

Also, I uploaded the first of three (so far!) photo albums. Check it out here.

I don’t know even where to begin anymore, so I’m trying to look back through pictures to guide my way. These first ones are from the day we left Portland, last Friday. It was pretty warm, whenthe sun was out but there were spotty clouds so…well, isn’t that the NW? Anyway, we almost always leave in the morning but this time were waiting around in the hopes that Trista would be able to join us. Trista has never driven down here before so my mom has always said that she has to drive first with someone to get the experience. Unfortunately matching schedules has never actually happened.

On this particaular occasion, Trista had graduated the night before. Followed by an all-night grad party (hosted by the school) until 5am. Then Trista had to work at 8am! She was supposed to work until 4pm but actually got off at three. And thought she could just follow us, no problem. Oh Trista, we love you, but you’re such an invincible teenager. We ended up hanging around (and letting Ali "swim" outside in an old baby tub) until my mom got home from her last final (she had one ever day that week I think). Then we all went out to Teryaki. "We" being Tony, Ali, and I; my mom and dad; and Trista. Alyssa had flown off to Nashville early, early, that morning to visit a friend and Jordan was….at the church? I don’t know, Jordan mvoed out so he is now hard to keep track of.

Then Trista drove and I rode with her and Ali rode with Tony. True to her word Trista had no problems, but I think my engaging conversation may have had something to do with that.

Saturday morning we had a big picnic to support Obama in Tillamook. We were there from 1-4 (though Tony went earlier to set up) and it was gorgeous. No rain, sunny, and so, so, sooooooo windy. So that was lame but I guess to be expected at the coast. *sigh* A quick sidenote: I am quickly learning that the typical summer weather I so covet and long for is generally not to be expected on the coast. I’m not sure I’ll be able to learn to live with that fact. We shall see. Right now I’m just holding out for a week in Iowa for a dose (however small) of summer.

Afterward Trista and I went grocery/Father’s Day shopping at Fred Meyer. There was an amzing sale on Young Men’s clothes so that’s what Tony got. And Weezer’s Red Album. Is that awful that I bought him clothes? I mean, it’s so wifey… And yet, it’s what I felt like he needed and wouldn’t by for himself. And it’s what I would want?

Father’s Day was good. Trista went home in the afternoon. Made it herself without a hitch (her words). Here’s a picture of Ali and Tony and a pair of his new shorts:

Ummmm, the rest of the week in kind of blurring together. Weare borrowing Jordan’s Wii and Wii Fit and have been both playing that every night. It’s a lot of fun and a really good work out. I mostly like the yoga and strength training. I’m trying to eat really good foods for the next two weeks (well, this week and the next - until Iowa) and do the Wii Fit and see what happens. So each night after Ali goes to bed we do that. Which means are DVR is filling up, but that’s okay. We also have kind of an ant problem in the kitchen so I’ve been making a point to clean it each night (as opposed to in the morning) which usually leads to further straightening and maybe even some laundry. That’s made waking up in the morning a lot more pleasant!

The weather has been pretty good, but cloudy in the mornings. So the burn off always feels like a gift and we don’t hesitate to get out while we can. Here are some pics from the past few days:

We keep trying to sneak out to see a sunset by there are always clouds.

Set up the baby pool yesterday, though it wasn’t real warm she didn’t much care. Climbing in and out was the funnest part!

Happy Father’s Day to the best dad a daughter (or mother) could ever have!

well for graduation trista got an iPod touch and it rocks! The ceremony was lots of pomp and circumstance and a little long but very nice. And we’re all very proud of trista of course. She’s here for a couple of days for celebrating and potato salad. also I must thank Ashley and Jordan for the fathers day coup they staged which somehow resulted in us borrowing his wii and wii fit for a little while. Who’s pumped? F-bear!