Doing Well

We are still alive and well. James finished the semester pretty well...still waiting on final grades, but he is pretty sure that he got one B and the rest A's. I am very proud of him. He sure has been doing better since we got married; he often says that he now has the motivation to do well and to finish school. I don't mind being the motivation.

We are in Lewiston visiting his family for the weekend and then will be coming back next week for Christmas. We just got back from the restaurant Christmas party and it was pretty fun. We rushed Maiby into bath and bed (only 2 hours later than usual) and James is headed to the video store with his dad to pick out a show to watch. Tomorrow we are hosting a party for our friends who are still in Moscow - if that's you, please come and enjoy cookies between 630 and 830. It will be great!

Merry Christmas!

Bananas....and more

Friday afternoon we went to lunch at the Institute. It's homemade soup and rolls for $1.75 and a speaker. We try to go every week because the soup is delicious. Maiby doesn't always like the soup, so I try to bring something that she will eat. But this last week was really good so she ate it up; the banana I had put in the diaper bag stayed there. That is, until I was cooking dinner. James was talking on the phone in the other room and I was in the kitchen, so Maiby was entertaining herself in the living room. I peeked my head in to check on her and she was holding the banana from the diaper bag. I didn't worry about it because a banana is pretty harmless; I checked on her again when the house was really quiet a few minutes later and what did I find?? A happy baby eating a banana - luckily she took the peel off first!! I laughed and let her finish the rest of it.

On another note... Thanks, SunDee for your observations about the government paying moms. You brought up some points that I had not considered; I was curious about the rules of subsidizing child care, so I looked at a couple sites and (at least in the state of PA) that there are very specific rules that parents must follow in order to receive subsidized child care. And I think that if they made those same rules for parents that were at home, it would take a lot of money to ensure that those regulations were being met. I appreciate all your observations and the new ideas you brought up that I had not thought of, but I still maintain my position as 'no'.

Well I remembered the camera today when I came to the computer lab and set aside a few minutes for a little blogging....lucky readers! I made pirate costumes for Halloween - I was pretty pleased with how they turned out, although I think that Maiby's was GREAT, if I do say so myself. She wasn't the biggest fan of the hat or bandana, so they were basically picture props. We trick-or-treated at the ward party and then went to Papa Smurf's for free mini pizzas on Halloween. It was pretty fun. I also made a stroller cover that was Maiby's 'ship', but forgot to take a picture of her in it, so I haven't put all the Halloween things away yet until I do. I think the cover was my favorite thing, although being able to strap Maiby in for the trick-or-treating was really really nice. She wasn't so sure about it at first and just gave people funny looks when they tried to give her the treats, but after a while she would hold one in each hand.

On Sunday we had dinner in Lewiston at James' parents house; when Grandma was cooking, Maiby knew it was almost time for her to eat, so she got in the chair even though it wasn't anywhere near the food. She is pretty silly.

One final thing I wanted to say - please tell me if you agree or disagree with my opinion. I was looking at a magazine website the other day for something and they had a quick poll. It was asking whether or not stay-at-home parents should receive a monthly check from the government to cover the costs associated with child care. I voted NO, because that is CRAZY!!!! People should not be paid to spend time with their own children!!! It is not babysitting when the kid is yours, and being a stay-at-home parent is not something that is forced upon you; I realize that it is a financial hardship and especially difficult because there is generally only one income, but that does not mean that other people's tax money should be given to you for spending time with your kids!

Nothing But a Thing

I don't know what has started this phenomena, but in the past two weeks I have been missing my rings when I get out of bed. Luckily both rings were in the covers and easily found (the second time really made me nervous because we were out of town at James' grandpa's house). I don't know WHAT it is the I've been dreaming about, but apparently it's something interesting; I wish I knew. As for the title, it's a tribute to Gary Allen (one of my favorite's) and his song about his ex's ring.

Birthday and Other Stuff

Well I am FINALLY provided with the time to come to the computer lab and post something on here. Apparently the weekly posting that I had been anticipating does not work, at least when there are pictures that I want to add...

We all had our birthday's in September. It was a pretty fun month. And I entered a cake in the Latah Co fair and won the Silver Award (2nd place) and a blue ribbon. I always love the fair, and my favorite thing about the Latah fair (even though it is tiny) is that it is free and still has all the things that you want at a fair - food, music, animals, and all the entries. I think that one of the biggest entry categories was the lego section - they had two big display racks full of kids' creations.

Here is my cake that I entered for the fair theme "Fun for the Whole Herd". And then Maiby checking out a goose.

I made Maiby's birthday cake. She had a fairy party, and I made a fairy house - if you can see the border is a bunch of leaves, since fairy houses are in trees...I did most of it the night before the party and had to give up because I was so upset with how it turned out. But after getting a good night's sleep and going back to it, I was pleased with the results.

Maiby's cousin, Julia, was there and we put the extra fairy wings on her back (she's in purple and Maiby's in blue). They really enjoyed playing on the bike trailer box.

And since Maiby is new at opening presents, we asked Julia and our neighbor Carson to come help her figure out how it's done. They of course were great helpers and we appreciated all they did. After a while, Maiby kinda got the hang of it.

We love the bike trailer - this is Maiby's first experience in it. It has been so nice to use, even though so far it's only been used a stroller, since James' bike that we are going to attach it to is out of commission until we fix the tire.

Other than that, things have been pretty normal. James is doing very well in school and Maiby is growing and happy and healthy. We are all doing well and are looking forward to Halloween. I have been working on our costumes...I am not sure if I can say that James is really looking forward to Halloween, but he agreed to the costumes before I bought the fabric, so now it's too late to complain about it!

(Another) Tag

I was tagged by Dorese, and I apparently get to talk all about one of my favorite things - James.

1. What is his name? James
2. Who eats more? James. He is always trying to get me to eat the same amount as him, but that is only a good idea when I am pregnant.
3. Who said I love you first? Me.
4. Who is taller? Me.
5. Who is smarter? James would say it was me, since I 'have 2 degrees', but I say we're pretty even.
6. Who is more sensitive? Me.
7. Who does the laundry? Me.
8. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Me.
9. Who pays the bills? Me.
10. Who cooks more? Me.
11. What meals do you cook together? That doesn't really happen.
12. Who is more stubborn? Maiby.
13. Who is the first to admit they're wrong? James tells me all the time that I'm always right, so I guess that would mean he is the first to admit to be wrong (since I obviously never am).
14. Who has more siblings? James.
15. Who wears the pants in the relationship? James.
16. What do you like to do together? Make Maiby laugh.
17. Who eats more sweets? Me.
18. Guilty pleasures? Guitar Hero and sleeping in (which is pretty much impossible with a Maiby around).
19. How did you meet? He showed up on my doorstep one day.
20. When did you fall in love with him? Writing letters to/from basic training.
21. Who has changed the most since you married? I think that's been pretty equal.
22. Who proposed? James.
23. His best features? James is very good-looking. But he's a Grossman, so that basically goes without saying.
24. What is his greatest quality? He is very forgiving and takes good care of his family.

Tag and Other Things

I have been tagged by Debi -thanks so much - and I had better get it done, even though of course I wouldn't mind procrastinating a little while longer, at least until I forget all about it. But that is probably not the right thing to do.

The rules: Link the person who tagged you. Mention the rules on your blog. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours. Tag 6 fellow bloggers by linking them. Leave a comment on each of the blogger's blogs letting them know they've been tagged.

1. My hair on the right side of my head grows faster than the rest.

2. I have been having vivid dreams for the past three weeks, ever since we moved to our new apartment in Moscow. I can't remember them longer than about 10 minutes after waking up, if that long, but I know they have been happening every night, sometimes more than one each night.

3. Baby Signing Time is one of my favorite kids' shows. Not that I necessarily love watching it every day or look forward to it. BUT I like the fact that Maiby learns something while watching and that it keeps her entertained enough that I can take a shower and leave her in the bouncer while I do and she doesn't spend the whole time crying.

4. It drives me crazy when people misspell things or use incorrect grammar on signs. If you are going to post something inside your business, it needs to be professional.

5. I love reading children's books; I used to go to Hastings and spend about an hour reading their books. James and I would love to have a library in our house full of all kinds of books.

6. Right now I am working on a list my brother gave me - the Basic Western Canon. I have really enjoyed reading classic books this summer and am currently working on the 1st quarter of Les Miserables. So far I like it, but I am currently learning about the Battle of Waterloo and I'm not quite sure how it fits with the story.

As I complete this tag, I think I will Tag: Rissa, Ruth, Melissa, Jenny, Tennille, and Jay


For our family news, we had a nice and quiet Labor Day weekend. We spent Saturday in Lewiston with James' parents and Sunday and Monday we spent at home. We went for a nice walk both of those days. I was a little disappointed yesterday when I went to run errands with Maiby and the grocery store was PACKED with people restocking after a long weekend. The person with the least was a guy who passed our car before we left the parking lot - he had just the 'essentials' - beer and milk.