Today was the first Sunday I kept Isaac home from church because of sickness. He had a fever on Friday and has had a runny nose and cough for several days. He seems to be on the mend, but the coughing doesn't sound good, and I didn't want other parents to be concerned about their children getting sick. All in all it could have been worse, and I'm grateful that the first 8 months of his life were in good health.

My sister Heather got her mission call to Toronto, Canada, a couple weeks ago, so Friday she went to the temple for the first time. We met here there, and it was so neat to be in the temple with most of my family. That doesn't happen very often since there are so many of us with busy schedules to coordinate.

Dad and Julia started moving into their new home yesterday, so all of us Graden kids came to help. Two of my siblings and their families spent the night at our place Friday, which was a PARTY! Saturday we got up, ate breakfast, and got to work! By the evening we were ready with a moving truck to go from their condo to their new home to unload. When we got there, a group of men came over from next door to help. They were having a party and could see that help was needed, so the entire family came over - grandpa, sons, granddaughters. So nice! Then just minutes after they left, another group of men came over that the church had organized to help, complete with sweet bread someone brought from his wife. It looks like they'll have great neighbors.

Does anyone else have mixed feelings about the Olympics being over? I loved watching the events, but we are practically zombies from lack of sleep.

Sunday

Yesterday was a really good day, but also a challenging day (those two often go hand in hand, don't you think?). We took Isaac to three different sacrament meetings. Walt spoke in another ward on assignment, so we went to our meetings for the first two hours and then to the ward where he was speaking. We got all the way through the sacrament before realizing we were in the wrong ward. Luckily the right ward started 30 minutes after this one, so we had enough time to run to the car, drive up the street to the right building, and walk in during the announcements. Isaac was so tired and hungry by that time that I had to take him out to feed him, but the two chairs in the mothers room were taken, and the mothers were chatting so loudly that I couldn't hear Walt's talk, even though it was turned way up. I couldn't hear his talk in the foyer, either, because so many people were talking and so many kids running around screaming from the ward that had just gotten out. Sigh. I'm sure I don't realize how loud I'm being at church sometimes, but that gave me a new desire to be reverent in every part of the building, even the mother's room. On the other hand, the ward was so friendly that 4 people came up to me after church to ask who I was and introduce themselves. Wow.

In the afternoon we got an email from an upset tenant. Some tenants are much easier and pleasant to work with than others. Can I just say?

In the evening we got to attend an Eagle Court of Honor, which Walt had the privilege of conducting. I had to leave part way through to go to a Young Womanhood Recognition night for a really good neighborhood friend, Hannah Fordham. Isaac was really struggling to be content in that meeting, too, and I had to pull every trick out of the bag to keep from having to take him out. The other people were very patient with us. They kept looking back at us and smiling that smile of sympathy that I'm coming to know so well. :) I probably should have taken him out, but I was determined to be able to stay all the way through some meeting that day and be able to see Hannah get her award!!

When we got home it was an hour past Isaac's bedtime, so the poor kid was fussy, and the kitchen was a mess from a couple different cooking projects, and when Walt got home right after I'd bathed Isaac and put him down, his shoulder was the one I cried on. He's got great shoulders for crying on. Although mostly I like his shoulders for hugging because we're just the same height, so my chin rests perfectly on his shoulders! Ahhhh. :) I felt so much better after a little cry, and Walt was so sweet and took over the dishes so I could get my pajamas on and type in my journal, and lo and behold, as I wrote I realized I'd learned soooo much that day and over the weekend that had strengthened my faith, even though at first glance it seemed like my weekend had just been stress. It was so neat! I just needed those few minutes to reflect and remember and see past the stress. Life is good.

Oh Happy Day!

Isaac has had clogged tear ducts for all 7 1/2 months of his life, causing him to have really goopy eyes every day. He often wakes up with one eye glued shut, resulting in his nickname "One Eyed Johnson". But it seems they have spontaneously cleared, and today marks the fifth day in a row that he is eye boogie free!

Parenting

Live and learn. That is often my motto of late. Since Isaac can pick up Cheerios and feed himself we've learned that having some Cheerios for the last 15-20 minutes of sacrament meeting usually means we can stay for the whole service without having to take him out. The way it typically works is that Walt holds Isaac, and I hold the container of Cheerios in my lap and put a few at a time in Walt's hand so Isaac can pick them up.

Well, yesterday Isaac realized that the magically appearing Cheerios actually come from a container on my lap, and before I could react he'd lunged and knocked the entire container of Cheerios out of my hand. Cheerios EVERYWHERE in the chapel. On the pew, in my lap, all over the floor in front of, behind, and to the sides of us. A sea of Cheerios. Right in the middle of a very touching testimony. I felt so ashamed to have disrupted a really spiritual moment with something so mortal and unimportant as Cheerios, even though I know I couldn't have anticipated it. The part that is funny now but wasn't funny at the time was that I was sitting next to a 16 year old boy, and as I picked up Cheerios from around his feet and leaned over his legs to get the ones on the other side, he never once acknowledged me or the Cheerios. I think it embarrassed him, which today is really funny to me. Ah well, I'm sure it won't be the last time I embarrass a teenage boy (give me a few years, Isaac). :)

100th Post

I just looked at my blog dashboard and realized that this is my 100th post. Technology is a beautiful thing. Fifteen years ago I would not have imagined that sharing in the lives of friends and family this way would have been possible, and not just possible but EASY! I feel so much better connected with people because of the internet. What a blessing!

So I am in need of either a Warm and Toasty Drink or Hearty Breakfast That Sticks to Your Bones recipe for my next recipe swapper meeting. I'm totally drawing a blank on both these categories. Most mornings I whip up a bowl of cold cereal for breakfast, with an occasional mug of instant oatmeal thrown in just to mix things up. And I've never really been into drinks that much. It's water or milk at our house. Sometimes juice from concentrate. Any ideas? Please? What are your favorite breakfast foods?

Blowouts and Bed Diving

We've set a record: 5 blowouts in 30 hours. I'm really not sure how he's managed that, but apparently I need to keep more extra changes of clothes in the diaper bag. :)

So yesterday Isaac experienced a Rite of Passage (as a kind friend on Facebook called it). He fell off the bed. He'd been up there for about fifteen minutes with me while I folded and packed clothes for a weekend trip to my grandparents, and I just hadn't noticed that he'd slowly inched his way to the edge of the bed. All of a sudden he pushed off hard with his legs, and THUD! Down he went. It took me a second to realize what had happened - I looked around thinking "what was that noise?" before suddenly noticing that Isaac was missing! He hadn't started crying yet because he was still working up momentum for the big whail. Poor kid.

New Job......Again

What?! Deja vu? Am I reading an old post? No it isn't just you, and yes we really did accept a new job.....again. Well, I guess you could say it's a new, old, new job. (I know, this IS getting a little ridiculous.) Walt's original employer, Procerus, made him a really good offer to come back to them after he accepted a new job at imSAR. So Walt went back to Procerus. Turns out that there was misunderstanding (to put it diplomatically) about what that offer included (lesson learned: put all offers in writing and SIGNED), and they couldn't come to a consensus on it. The other job was still happy to have Walt come back to them, and Walt starts full time with imSAR (again) on February 1st. (Final Answer.) I know that didn't need parentheses, but I'd used so many already, why stop?

Isaac and I have started swimming lessons (okay, more like learn to be comfortable in water lessons). Walt met us there to document the event. I thought it was awesome that two other dads were there taking pictures, too. Last week we worked on submersion, and Isaac did great. This week I can't go to one of the lessons, so Walt is taking Isaac instead. Walt is so excited about it, which I think is adorable. He's such a good dad.


Our little turtle:


Warming up with Daddy: