Playing Copycat for a Post

My sister-in-law Megan will on occasion put up posts on her blog titled, Conversations at the Taylor Home. They usually consist of really funny off the wall things that her daughters have said. Well, a couple of weeks ago we had one of those here at the Taylor house. The other Taylor house, my in-laws house, I'm still living here. Except it was from the adults not James. I was in the kitchen with my mother-in-law Linda, my sister-in-law Sarah, and her husband Michael. James comes into the kitchen, and as some of you know, James loves to give raspberries. He comes up behind me and tries to give me a raspberry on my butt, no worries I have excercise pants on. I exclaim, "Stop that James, I don't exactly like the feeling of hot air blowing on my bum!" Michael then says, "I love the feeling of hot air blowing on my bum." Linda and I quickly look over at Sarah wondering how she's going to explain that. She then says rather matter of factly, "You do? Well that's why we keep dogs around the house." Just thought that was funny.

The Post You've Been Waiting For...

I know that many of you have givin up on my actually posting anything, ever. Since I posted a couple of weeks ago I haven't had a chance to post again things have been a little crazy for us. As I mentioned last time, the long awaited career oppurtunity for Stephen finally arrived and he has been very busy with that, and I have been able to see him on the weekends, thank goodness, not to mention last wednesday and tomorrow evening which are rareties, and not to be expected to happen often in the future. Wednesday visits that is, not the weekends. I've been busy too, although my busy has been more passive, and not anything really active. If you are wondering what the heck I'm talking about I'll tell you, I'M PREGNANT. After 6 months it's finally happened, although when I think about it, it was really meant to happen when it did. I can't imagine being further along in the pregnancy when we moved, it would have been very difficult. The last 2.5 weeks have been a little hellish, but I haven't thrown-up for 2 days and I'm feeling well enough to at least post about it so...there ya go. Other than my trying to take it easy I've also been dealing with taking care of James. Some of you know and some of you don't, James has had some delays in different developemental areas and for several months was getting help from Kids on the Move which is a center in Utah that helps kids with delays catch up to where they are suppose to be developementally. We, or I should say I, had some minor concerns with James having some possible signs of Autism, but they, KOTM, told me they didn't think he had it, and that he had other things that they could help him with. They work with children until the age of 3 and then they transfer them over to the local school district, which at that time was the Alpine School District. I went to the tests not sure if he would qualify. Not only did he qualify, but with the four different series of tests offered by different people in different rooms each group said they saw some sure signs of Autism. They recomended that I get an official diagnosis from a professional, which I haven't had the oppurtunity to do so yet. Hopefully my morning sickness in this pregnancy will be shorter so I can get the mountain of things done that I need to. With the move to California we are currently in the process of trying to see if we qualify out here for the special preschool, which I really hope we do, especially since he completely qualified for it out in Utah. But, we had to move, and I'm glad we did for the job oppurtunity, but I've heard that CA is a lot more bureaucratic so we'll see how it goes. That's kind of a quick description of our life the past couple of months. I had a friend tell me that she's missed my sewing posts, and wonders if I do it anymore. Before getting pregnant I was very busy sewing, as usual. Here is something I made two months ago, fabulous blue pants and the top was a long tank that I cut and used the bottom for sleeves, and there are lots more from months ago that I need to show pics of, so hopefully I will get around to posting them soon.

The Latest

I know I haven't posted anything on my blog in months, so I don't even know if anyone will see this, but here is what's going on with us now. I mentioned a few months ago that Stephen was contacted again by the CHP, but that I wasn't holding my breath since it had been years that we have been in the process. Well, about a month ago Stephen got his letter that he has been accepted into the next CHP academy class starting Aug. 6th. So, we have since moved out to California in the last week or so, and are in the Sacramento area. That's a very brief summary of what we are up to. I will go into further details later as far as what we've been up to in the last 5 months, and what the next 6 months will be like for us. I now have internet again so I will resume my regular blogging schedule...stay tuned.

part two

okay, sorry but that last post erased about 90% of what i wrote after i downloaded the pix. blogging on phones really doesnt work that great. the pix in the last post showed james eating a qeusadilla that i sneaked spinach into. my weak attempts to get him to eat veggies. he ate about 30% before he realized it tasted differently and that he didn't like it. i recently started drinking smoothies again for breakfast, james likes those alot, and i always put spinach in them, so he is getting some veggies. what i really want or need is this cookbook called the sneaky chef. but the problem is not just veggies but most ffod in general. i have to bribe him with mnms half the time just to eat dinner. sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. any tips.

learning to be a sneaky chef

i think most moms have difficulty getting thier kids to eat what they want them to, like veggies.

The CHP Possibility

Many of you know that about 3 years ago Stephen applied to the CHP, and that last year the academy closed, so we started looking at other options. Example, the Army, Stephen was told about when he was done with everything to become an officer that it was too late for him to become an officer because of the age limit. So, now we're trying for aviation in the Army, i.e. he wants to be a helicotper pilot. BUT, it's the most sought after career in the Army, even though the pay is less than an officer because I guess it's every guys dream to fly. About 2 weeks ago we get a call from the CHP (California Highway Patrol) and the academy has reopened and they desperately want Stephen to get all his stuff redone (because it's expired?) to possibly make the August class, if he passes everything...again. It took 2 years the first time to get everything done, and now they want it all done in the next month or so. My question is, why was it so hard to do this the first time? At this point Stephen has said he'll take whichever happens to work out first. And if they both want him at the same time? Stay tuned...

BTW, we still don't have internet, I'm at Mcdonalds, but we did just get new phones with unlimited minutes, text, and web. I can check blogs on my phone, sort of, but I can't figure out how to leave comments on my phone, or post on my phone. Any tips?

Playing Catch-up

I hate not having Internet because I get behind in blogging things, pictures and what we've been up to. And then it takes me forever to catch up, and I have to leave out uninteresting things that I'm sure ya'll don't really care about, like what I've been sewing lately. hahaha. aWe spent Thanksgiving at my sister Megan's house in Eastern Washington, which was fun, especially since it was a surprise, no one really knew we were coming until the last minute. And almost everyone was there, minus two siblings and their families. My sister just bought this enormous beautiful house, here are some really great pictures of it.










James really loved their dog, and followed it around everywhere. The dog wasn't thrilled though about having his tail pulled and would try to escape.



It's a black lab mix with I think collie, it was the most chill dog which was good since hyper dogs make me nervous, and usually labs are very hyper, at least the ones I've met. We went and saw the city lights,





and then the next day drove up to my parents house less than 2 hours north in Idaho. It was a beautiful drive through the Pelouse Hills where one of Stephens survivalist idols lives, so now we have to live there.




Stephen and I went on a Santa Cruise to the North Pole in Couer D'Alene together which was fun, especially since it was free, thanks to Rod my bro-in-law. Our Christmas was low-key, meaning just the three of us.





We made cookies for our neighbors, and some gingerbread houses for us. See how well they turned out.



James was so sick over the holidays, but we survived. Another year passed in which we didn't send out Christmas cards, but, we will be sending out Valentine's Cards to family, with pictures we had taken of James about 7 months ago (finally!). Here is what our Christmas card picture would have looked like. (BTW, I made that 1950's-ish dress.)

January not much went on, some family came out, and that was nice. Stephen took his aviation test to become a helicopter pilot and did very well. Now he just wants to retake his Physical Test to get a better score, and we'll be pretty much done with the Army thing. Finally. We just got onto Stephen's work health insurance and so technically we can start trying to have more kids. The goal before Christmas was to lose 5 more pounds before trying for baby #2, instead I gained like 3 pounds, (from mid-Novenber to early January, ha!) so I'm debating whether to try and lose 8 pounds which seems pretty much impossible for me. I'm exercising and staying within my calorie recommendation, according to this calorie counting weight loss thing I joined on the internet, which is free. So, I don't quite get what I'm not doing. I want to join weight watchers which is probably more affective, but we're on a really tight budget now. I also wish I could run but my knees aren't that great, and since bad knees runs in my family (example, my sister had both knees and both hips replaced and my mom has had one knee replaced) and so I'm trying to take it easy. Instead I make up for it by going at a pretty high incline on my treadmill, which burns a pretty good amount of calories. Should I just get over myself and have another baby, or should I try and lose 8 pounds first? Decisions, decisions...