fine. i won't write about birds again!

i guess pete and mckelle are the only ones who get me.

bird watch 2009

i've never really bird-watched before, but i enjoy the occasional glance at our fine feathered friends. it's so calming to watch them prance about, swoop, flit, and peck around. once, i saw a crow walking in the snow and he fell beak forward. might not sound funny to you, but it was hilarious to me.

since we live on a third floor apartment that has two giant trees in front of it, we get a lot of little guys flying about. i decided to put out some suet for them to munch on during the winter, and i have had a number of visitors. here are just some of the guys i have seen:

this guy is from the cardinal family. the one that i saw was actually more bright orange. when i saw it land on the balcony railing, i thought it was a parrot at first.


mr. jay. he's really flighty (ha!), cuz he takes off at the slightest movement within my apartment.


another cardinal dude. these guys only like to stop every once in a while, so i assume they have a busy lifestyle.


this one's name is chickadee. cute name, huh? i think this one has a family in the trees in front of our apartment. he visits often. bird economy must be down too.


haha! no, bald eagles do not like suet. i wish. i have seen one of these flying around here in minnesota. it was awesome! i think i am going to take izzy to the raptor center soon though. i hear it's pretty cool.


i've also seen a woodpecker, some finches, and then some cute little purpley-blue fat-body birds. i don't know what they are and could not find a pic on the dnr website, so you will just have to imagine in your head what they could look like.

snot-nosed kid

i always thought i would be the mom who did not let their kid walk around with snot streaming down their face. i am most of the time, but when your kid has a terrible cold for more than a week and screams bloody murder as you struggle to suction and wipe and pick at their mini nostrils it gets kind of old kind of fast.

this is an example of izzy at lunchtime having some yogurt and then sneezing yogurt and a snot bubble. it was really gross but so funny.



this is my lil' bea laughing and getting excited about something. she is usually very serious, especially around strangers. however, her personality is starting to come out more and more each day.

my first amigurumi

so i'm kind of a terrible knitter, but i decided after seeing a few books on handmade yarn toys, that i wanted to make izzy some of her own plush toys. i'm not a huge fan of baby dolls, but izzy loves babies. i figured i would try to get her to love animals by making her some amigurumi animals, but i needed to learn how to crochet. i borrowed a book from the library (kyuuto: amigurumi) and asked my awesome friend, jenni, to help me handle the hook.

here is the little guy that i made for izzy:


he's a little imperfect. i think his eyes are a little crooked and a bit small for his giant head, but that's okay. izzy likes him, and he will probably get lots of slobber for a long time. i'll have to make her more animals, especially since i have a giant bin of yarn that i have been collecting for a few years.

also, i turned 30 yesterday. i used to think that 30 was so old, but the older i get the less i think the age i am is "old." i'll probably be 70 and think how young i still am. or at least, that's how i hope to feel.

here is me at age 30 with izzy bea.

How about an update?

Hmmm....

It has been a while since I posted anything, so here is a little update on me and our family, since most of what I do involves my family.

Well, currently I am flying around the country interviewing for MBA programs. I applied to seven of them. The shotgun approach. In no particular order here are the schools I applied to. Maybe you don't care, but if you do, here you go.

U of Minnesota
BYU
U of Illinois
Indiana University
Arizona State
U of Texas
Texas A & M

So far I have interviewed at ASU and Indiana University. I think the interviews went OK. I hope they did. Feb 23 and 24 I will be in Austin and Collegetown. If any of you will be there, we should go get a water or something.

The future is exciting and scary. Its a big investment and an important decision, but I'm confident that it will help my career and help our family.

Our baby girl Izzy is the most amazing thing that I have ever seen in my life. Everyday with her is a blessing. Being away a couple times in the last week has been a lot tougher than I thought. I was homesick every night and missed being at home with my wife and daughter.

* Quick confession*

I don't know if you have seen the Verizon Wireless commercial where the little girl gives her dad her stuffed animal monkey to take on his business trip? I get teary eyed every time that commercial comes on. It reminds me of coming home from work and the huge smile on Izzy's face when she notices me walk through the door. I think she gets disinterested a few seconds later, but I love those few seconds and that commercial makes me think of that. Glad I got that off my chest.

In 60 days, I will most likely be out of work. Our company is being sold, and we all have a sneaking suspicion that severance packages will be fairly pathetic. I'm kind of in a weird spot since we are going back to school in the fall. I only have 3-4 months to work and therefore I can't really apply for full-time jobs. If anyone has any suggestions, or knows of any summer internships that might be available, let me know.

Well,

Thanks for stopping bye and you stay classy, World!

locks of love?

do pets have a network where they can donate and receive hair? because...check this out.



our cat had some nasty dreadlocks in her fur, and her fur came off in giant clumps all over the house. it was a pain trying to keep the floors and furniture clean all the time, especially since the baby crawls everywhere now. we sucked it up and spent the dough to get her clipped and shampooed. i think she looks hilarious and gross at the same time.

funny thing about our cat is that i think she is embarassed.

photo tag

okay, so this is not the 4th picture in my album. it's the 4th picture in one of many albums. our photo lookup-thingie is really messed up. all the pics are out of order, and somehow there are lots of pictures of when my brother-in-law went to cooking school in italy (but mostly party pics of him and his friends), a billion kitty cat pics (pete took 99% of those), lots of home renovation pics, and a ton of photos of flower arrangements. i don't know why those are there, because i didn't take them. i'm pretty sure pete didn't either.

anyway, this picture is of mike kelly, mary williamson and elaine allred. these were some of our friends that came to our engagement dinner and sort of going-away dinner. we got married in minnesota and not in utah, so practically none of our friends made it to the wedding. boo...



nonetheless, these were/are some of my favorite people from when i lived in utah. i wish we could still go out to dinner with them. le sigh.

*thanks kendra for the photo tag. i guess i tag laura, sarah b, mo and eva. ladies...?