The Everyday

I can't really remember what we did Friday. Marty and I watched Shrinking together and it was a very windy day. Emi and I went out to take the garbage and it was scary windy. So we mostly stayed inside and I remember Emi had 1 or 2 good naps!  We thought about seeing houses but decided we needed a break this weekend.

Marty took a sick day today. It's weird how covid has changed things though...because even though he took a sick day he was still able to attend a work meeting and do some other work from home. At first, it was weird having him home because I feel like our apartment is my workspace during the day. But it ended up working out just fine!  Emi and I went to Pickle ball. It's fun because I'm getting to know the ladies better and am having more fun playing the game. Today I left Emi in the care of 3 year old Ezra and 5 (maybe 4?) year old Finley. Normally there's a person or 2 sitting out, but today we had just enough people to fill 2 pickle ball courts. I watched as Ezra ran away from Emi toting his mom's bag and items with him (because Emi was trying to eat them) and Finley made a fort with chairs around her and was watching YouTube. I felt bad for Emi because she was the kid no one wanted to be with.haha. After a few games she had a meltdown and just wanted me to hold

I'm really tired tonight so we're keeping it short and sweet. A few favorite moments of today. At My Gym I overheard the teachers talking about Emi. "Her smile is just what gets me..." Aww yes she has the cutest smile. Ran 2.5 miles today! That is a feat for postpartum me. Yay! Two unrelated things but...Got to watch Marty play softball and one of the managers at his work gave him positive feedback after a call. It makes me happy when people recognize the hard work of people I love!

Well we didn't get the house. The person who offered $40,000 above asking and all cash also waived the inspection. They are a house flipper. Oh well! Hard to compete with that. I had Japanese tutoring this morning. My tutor is the nicest! I told her I might have a call from our realtor that I would need to answer during our lesson, but that she could still plan on starting our lesson at 10 and ending at 11. She said it wouldn't be a problem at all and that she would go over for however much time I spent on the phone with the realtor. That just shows you what kind of person she is!  Emi and I also took a long walk today. It was nice being able to clear my head after a hectic past few days. I listened to my music and then started a new audible "The Rosie Project."  While I prepared dinner this evening, Emi was happy to stand in her activity center with her binky. Lately she hasn't been loving it and starts fussing but activity center + binky worked great. We think s

Found out today the home we put an offer in got 8 offers...one of them $40,000 above asking price and all cash. I'm so bummed! I think we're done with house hunting for awhile...

Church and the waiting game. 5 pm rolls around today...no phone call. It's almost 6 and finally we get a call from Heather. She says they've extended the deadline to 9 pm because of interest in the house.  Thoughts going through my head: What?! How is this even allowed? Ugh. You're kidding me! Welp. 9 pm rolls around and we didn't get the house. But Heather tells us that if we want to beat the other people's offer we can. No way jose! Marty and I think they extended the deadline until 9 so we would up our offer to beat the other people. It was already an expensive price per square foot, so we felt like we couldn't justify going any higher on this house. Plus, we also loved the other house so we decided to jump ship and go for that one! The only bad news is we have to wait until Tuesday to find out if we get that one or not. Ugghhhh. I am the most impatient person ever so this is really testing me to the limits haha. Side note: My perspective on realtors has vast

Turns out that the deadline for the house is actually 5 tomorrow...darn it! I hate the waiting game.haha.  My Gym in the morning, signing documents for house offers throughout the day (Heather recommended we get our offer ready for the other house we didn't put an offer in so we can have it ready to go if this one doesn't work out), and preparing gifts for our neighbor dinner in the afternoon.  Turned out that Kyle and Bianca couldn't make it because Bianca was feeling sick, but Steve and Abby were still able to come! Kyle and Bianca were in charge of dessert, and when we heard they weren't coming I asked if Marty would go to the store to pick up some dessert (what's dinner without dessert?). When Steve and Abby showed up they had a dessert with them and said "We heard Kyle and Bianca couldn't make it so we figured we'd bring a dessert." hahah Great minds think alike. More dessert is never a bad thing! The dinner was a good time. We enjoyed chattin

Today was filled with lots of FaceTimes and calls. McKall, Mom and Dad, Kenna, and Bubs (it was her birthday today!). I love getting to catch up with friends but I'm bummed that we live far away from everyone! McKall is actually from Highlands Ranch so we're lucky we get to see her and Jonas occasionally when they come to visit her family. She's also due next week which is so exciting! This was the first time Kenna and I talked since her wedding and it's always fun talking with her. Our lives are so similar--both did dance co, BYU Jeru, missions, and majored in El Ed. She's in the interview process for jobs right now. And I always enjoy getting to talk to my parents and Bubs. On a limb, we decided to schedule a bunch of house tours today! Some houses Marty and I liked came on the market in the past 24 hours so we decided this afternoon we'd go see them. Also there were some others we've seen before that we were interested in--but not interested enough to go

Before Emi was born, my friend Brindy W. invited me to come play pickle ball at the Stake Center in HR. I've gone sporadically mostly because when Emi is sleeping during pickle ball time I don't want to wake her up. Well the stars aligned today and we got to go! I always have a good time even though I'm terrible at pickle ball. I am the worst player there by far.haha. Literally you could ask anyone who was the worst and if they were being honest they would all say my name.haha...but everyone is so patient with me which I appreciate. Today I lost every game, even though I had good teammates, but it was still fun:) Some of the moms there bring their little ones so they hung out with Emi while I played. I am grateful for any opportunity Emi has to be around other kids or babies!  The best part of today may have been that Emi took an almost 2 hour nap. It was so nice having time to clean up around the apartment! We also talked with grandma and grandpa during the day, and Emi fa

Emi and I started off the morning at My Gym. This week, the babies get to ride a plastic horse for one of the activities. It was so cute! She just was chomping on the rope tied around the horse's neck as they pulled her around.haha.  I also took 2(!) naps with Emi throughout the day. We had her pediatrician appointment last week, and what I took from what the doctor said was that the cry it out method is the most effective method to help babies learn to sleep through the night (even though she didn't explicitly say it). I feel like up to this point, Marty has been on board with letting her cry it out, but when I hear Emi screaming I feel like a horrible parent and like my heart is breaking. But after talking with the doctor, I decided to hop on board. Early this morning (4 am) we let Emi cry it out for 30 minutes and even though I did nothing but listen to her cry haha I was exhausted today! After my 2 naps I felt pretty out of it. We also got to talk with Alex, Isaac, and Rach

Today I just felt a little bit overwhelmed and inadequate. Sometimes I look at my life and think "Why should I have reason to feel --- because my life is so good?" But I'm trying to accept that it's okay to have harder days, and it's normal.  This morning I went to Fit 4 Mom. I felt like I was like one of the dads at the park in "What to Expect When You're Expecting" but instead I was one of the 10 moms with kids at the park. It was fun, crazy, and chaotic as we went throughout the park working out with children all over the place.haha. I'm sure it was a sight to see for everyone else at the park. I'm trying to decide if I'll go back or not because I don't want to be spread too thin with the other activities I'm doing and am interested in. The middle of the day I was trying to entertain Emi while listening to my book "Where the Crawdads Sing." The ending was not at all what I was expecting...but I loved the book. I love

I've spent a lot of today writing about the weekend so I'm going to keep this short! Emi and I mostly prepared for the week by grocery shopping and starting laundry. We went to My Gym this morning which was nice. Emi was very happy to see Dad when he got home from work and couldn't stop smiling. She's lucky to have Marty as a dad!

Church today! I always love getting Emi all dressed up for church. It makes Sundays feel special. Church was great, and it was fun to have Bubsy with us. Several comments were made about how we must be sisters. After church, a little girl came over to say "hi" to Emi, and I asked her if she would like to hold her. She said "Just one second, let me ask my mom." She ran to find her mom, and came right back. She happily reported that her mom said yes. She took a turn holding Emi, and then her 5 year old brother also said "I want to hold her!" So he got a turn too. I love seeing people love on my baby! The rest of the afternoon was filled with dinner preparations and a short walk. For dinner, we made Indo Curry, naan, and snickerdoodles. It was delicious! After Emi went to bed, we played a few rounds of authors and then it was time to run Bubs to the airport. I enjoyed getting to talk on our way to the airport. We'll miss having Auntie Bubs here, but lucki

Marty watched Emi in the morning so Bubs and I could go to Zumba. I have been looking forward to Bubs coming here, so that I could bring her to Zumba or Strong (taught by my favorite teacher). Angela F. is the most inspirational teacher ever. Her classes are fun and you get such a good workout. However, she was filming in LA this week for American Ninja Warrior! I guess she had a valid reason for not being there this week;) Anyway, we went to another Zumba class and it was still a good time. Then, in the afternoon Bubs watched Emi so Marty and I could go to Fiddler on the Roof. When Bubs was deciding what weekend to come, I specifically requested this one because I knew we had Fiddler, and we'd way rather pay Bubs to watch Emi than another babysitter. Of course, she did an amazing job and Emi loved getting Aunt Bubs bonding time. I also was able to enjoy the show because I knew Emi was in good hands.  The show was great, and after living in Jerusalem for a short period of time, I f

When Marty asked what Bubs, Emi, and I did today, we didn't have much to say. haha. Basically we just went to My Gym and toured Marty's office building.  Still a fun day, though! I loved getting to bring Bubs to My Gym to show her how adorable it was. One of the teachers just kept holding Emi after one of the skills stations and said "I could do this all day." So cute!  How could I forget? We also had Lucky Charms in the morning because it's St. Patrick's day! This is going to be a new tradition in our family--Lucky Charms the morning of St. Patty's Day. It's also Emi's Uncle Chris' birthday, so naturally we had to send him a cute picture of her with a Happy Birthday message written on a piece of paper laid down next to her. Who doesn't love a picture of an adorable baby on their birthday?! The tour of Chatham was short (I think Marty might be getting tired of giving people tours? haha), but long enough for me to eat a green Krispy Kreme do

Today I got to show Bubs some of my favorite places. Torchy's and Redstone. We had a slow morning, and then headed to Torchy's for lunch. It was so yummy as always and we had fun talking about all sorts of things. Then after lunch, we headed to Redstone for a walk. On the way, I showed Bubs the house we put an offer in and didn't get.haha. I'm still sad about the house but hopefully something else we really like will come up! At Redstone, we went on a solid walk and then headed back for a work meeting Bubsy had.  After her meeting, we went to REI for some shoe shopping. Bubsy's birthday's coming up, and she wants trail running shoes for her present this year.  A note about birthdays: As siblings (and oftentimes mom and dad too if the present is more expensive), we like to go in on a bigger gift for birthdays together. I honestly love our system, because then you get a really nice gift on your birthday instead of a couple smaller gifts. I have taken it upon mysel

Kate D. from the ward offered to watch Emi if I wanted to go to the temple, so I took her up on her offer this morning. It was so sweet of her to offer and I haven't been to the temple since before Emi was born (she's exactly 6 months today)...so it'd been awhile. I liked that the endowment is more Christ-centered now and I enjoyed the subtitles. Sometimes I think I understand what I'm hearing, but it helps me to both read and listen to something. When I picked Emi up, I asked Kate how Emi did, and she said she did great! She even took an hour nap. Yay!  The rest of the day was filled with lots of FaceTime. I got to catch up with Miriam P. and Emily C. and see their cute little girls over Facetime. Both of their little girls just turned one and they're adorable. I met Miriam and Emily in Jerusalem, and we catch up with each other from time to time. They were both so kind when Emi was born and made sure to check in and see that I was doing okay. Miriam lives in Bosto

Today at church we had a linger longer. Can I just say that those are my favorite things ever?  In one of my areas on my mission, Yanai, we had linger longers practically every week. It was so fun to eat yummy food and socialize. I'm just remembering now how at one linger longer we ran out of rice to go with the curry, and the members wouldn't eat the curry without the rice. I thought it was so funny. haha. Rice is very important in Japan. Today I was reflecting on the many angels who have helped us in our ward. In our lesson in Relief Society, we were talking about adversity and the teacher said how it must've been hard for me to move to a new city, be in a new ward, and have a baby. When you put it like that, it sounds hard! haha. But there have been so many people who have helped me. -Kate and Mark D. who invited Marty over to dinner when he was living alone here. -The J family who had us over for ice cream. -The N family who had us over for dinner. -Jenny J. who threw m

Started off the day together at My Gym, came home for a half hour or so, and then headed out to look at a house. It was right by Redstone Park (which is my favorite), but from the pictures it looked like it had a little work to do. I spent a lot of last night figuring out how we could change things to make it really nice. I seriously can't help myself! I always go 100% in on things. Well we got there this morning and it turned out to be quite the fixer upper. And it smelled funny. So all my planning was not necessary. haha. Still glad we went and saw it though! Then we spent the rest of the day preparing for my friend Katye, and her husband, Matt, and their little one, Easton, to come over. I love hosting! However, I am learning how much work it really is. I have a whole knew respect for my mom who always whipped up the yummiest dinners and didn't mind if a friend or two joined us at the dinner table.  We made Gram's enchiladas (Marty's grandma, EC) and used the pretty

Today Emi and I went to do some family history with Brother L, Deanna, and Kate. I've come to enjoy working with Brother L and appreciate the time he puts into our lessons. At first, I did not enjoy having lessons and had a bad attitude. However, Brother L is so genuine and puts a lot of thought and preparation into his lessons. He is a family history whiz. Seriously. I've never met anyone better at family history than he is. He comes to our lessons prepared to help me find people missing from my family tree, and he's taught me how to add them to the tree and to find credible sources to support that a specific person was missing from the tree. It's pretty amazing, actually. My tree is already very full and I never thought there could be work for me to do...but he's proved me wrong. His wife is also very good at family history, and specializes in Swedish names. She said there's some Swedish ancestors missing from my tree, and she's going to help me to find th

Today Emi's passport came! The new passports are so different than the old ones, that I had to google just to make sure it was legit. haha. In that process I learned that they do black and white pictures now. So yes, Emi has a legit passport. So excited for our trip coming up! I messaged my friend, Moeko, the other day to confirm that we don't need a carseat to ride in taxis in Japan, and she said that was correct. So send prayers that we don't get in an accident while we're riding taxis around Kyoto! This morning I discovered that I categorized Emi's clothes into the wrong months and had sizes mixed up in my head. Luckily, I did not mess up on the sizes for clothes I bought yesterday...just a bunch of others ones. Darn it! In my head I was thinking 12 month size clothing meant 12-18 months and not 9-12 months. Which means those cute winter clothes I got a great deal on the other months? They'll be fitting her loosely from July-September haha. Oh well. Mom brain

At My Gym today they had a little circus tent and it was absolutely adorable. They also did the zipline with the kiddos...that's probably MY favorite activity there haha. Emi did well with all the activities, but I'm noticing she's a little bit more hesitant around other people now. I think she may have a little bit of stranger anxiety.  Emi and I went to Target after My Gym to get her some 6-9 month clothes because she has 0 pjs (which is a must!) and very few clothes in that size. We got her some new things and it was so fun shopping for her:) I put so many clothes in my cart, put things back, grabbed different clothes, and ended up with clothes that I think will be super cute on her. I love getting to shop for my baby! I keep telling myself, I hope we have at least one more girl so that we can use all these cute clothes again. After Marty came home from work, Marty, Emi, and I were walking to the clubhouse. Marty was holding Emi and I was walking next to him. I looked at

Today I was rocking Emi to sleep for nap time when I heard the door begin to open. In walked Marty and he asked if I wanted to go to lunch with him. It was burrito day at the office, and he always feels sick after that so instead he decided he'd go to Torchy's--but he needed someone to help him finish the queso. Emi and I gladly went with him (and ate my fair share of queso and tacos). It was so fun to go out to lunch together. We'll have to do it again some time!  Emi and I were doing our grocery run and this gentleman (I'm guessing in his late 60's or maybe early 70's) stopped me in the store make some small talk. As it turns out he has another infusion tomorrow. He has been dealing with cancer and has had a lot of health issues. I think he just needed someone to talk to, and I was happy to listen. It's moments like those that remind me how we all need each other. On a completely different note, I went to a Zumba class tonight with a new teacher. I miss my

Since having a baby, I've had issues with my tissue healing incorrectly. At first, I thought it was just normal and then I waited a couple months postpartum and decided to schedule an appointment because I was still hurting...and I'm so glad I did! I have had 2 appointments before today. The first one they just numbed me and used silver nitrate to treat the granulation tissue. The second one, they did not numb me and gave me kenalog injections (in a very painful place to have them) and silver nitrate again. I was scarred after that experience and came home from my appointment traumatized.       Today I went in. I'm mostly healed but not quite there. It turned out the granulation tissue was gone (yay!), but there was some more scar tissue that the doctor said would heal best if she gave me the injections again. I was still scared, but they numbed me so I couldn't feel the injections as they initially entered my tissue. I also asked for the medical assistant to come in so

These past couple days have been insane.  Friday: Went in the evening to look at houses. One of the houses was beautiful but expensive, the other was grandma-y and over priced, and the third turned out to be a smoke house. Can I just say I learned from this experience how important it is to go look at houses in person before buying them? I can't imagine buying a house only to find out it smelled like smoke!  Saturday: Talked with Marty's parents and decided we'd put an offer in the first house we saw. Put in our offer around 7:30 pm and found out that we'd know by today at 7:30 pm whether we got the house or not.  Today: Our real estate agent called us about 2:30 and said the house had another offer on it. We decided we'd increase our offer and do all cash with an escalation clause. We get a call around 5 that there's another offer on the house and they also have an escalation clause. Because of that, we have to make a final offer by 6:30 with no escalation clau

I am very proud of myself because today I finally put away Emi's things we weren't using and tidied up the apartment.   It's crazy how quickly things change with a baby. It's important to have a bassinet for the baby, but then you only use it for a few months. Then there's carriers that only work for a little while. There's a short window where you can use a tummy time mat, and then the baby is no longer interested in that. The list goes on and on...so I finally took the time to organize and put away those sorts of things.  I worked so hard that I told myself that if Marty didn't notice and comment on the apartment I'd be very disappointed. I know, that was not the best idea to think that but I did anyway. haha. And...he noticed! There's just something to be said when all your hard work and effort is recognized.  Other than tidying up the apartment Emi and I went to My Gym. So fun as always! Emi did cry at one point because one of the activities scar