A couple videos, just for the heck of it

I know these aren't the most exciting, but there are some heartbroken folks used to seeing Jamie every day, and/or him at least being closer, so this is mostly for them. We miss you, family!

Picture Post

I know I'm a proud momma, but who could disagree that this is DARLING?! I was trying to get a good one to send to Uncle Rob's phone and got way lucky!

Before: my grandma's couch. We also were able to take the matching loveseat, and though they're old and dingy, we're so excited to actually have SEATING! Thank you to all my cousins who could have objected and wanted them for themselves for being gracious and letting us. (All the grandkids got to choose stuff to keep from my grandma's house; that's what she wanted.) For as long as we've been married, a couch has been at the top of my wishlist, but we've only ever had to crappy old loveseat that I got for free right after I graduated, before we got married.

After: this is actually the loveseat, but both slipcovers are chocolate brown. Eventually the plan is to buy some fabric and make colorful matching throw pillows and curtains. Don't you think it came out nice, though? (It should. Those suckers are NOT cheap.) Did you notice the area rug, too? We're pleased with our living room so far.

I wonder if she knows about these, and the other items we got from her house; I've kind of felt closer to her having them around, and I think maybe she knows and is happy to be of help to us. That's how she was about us storing our stuff in her garage. She loved to help.

On a little outing to a play area in between buildings at our new complex.

If only this were more in focus, it might look like I'm a good photographer or something!

Waving at something or someone. So sweet.

Sleepy, hard-workin' Daddy, Jamie with his beloved technology.

I get out the camera, he wants the case.

He put his truck right in front of this chair so he could use it to climb up--I turned around and there he sat in the armchair, like a little grown-up, grinning at me. I grabbed the camera and took the binky from his mouth for a good picture, and got this--him getting mad and demanding his binky back!

"I got mah binky back, binky back, binky back..."

Well, I guess that's it for now. I'm still working on the videos. I'm not posting pictures of the place until it's actually exciting, and that might be awhile, but we are LOVING having our own space, privacy, and freedom again!

15 Months Today

All day I see Jamie do cute things and think that I need to record them, and then I get here and...thhhbbt. My brain seems to poop out. I'm trying to get it started again though.

Pausing the audio book of New Moon might help.

Well, first of all, he's walking. That started last Tuesday, the 13th of April, and became gasp-worthy during Sunday School this past Sunday.

Jamie likes to sing (by making high-pitched squeals; this also doubles as his imitation of whistling);

clap, especially when he hears clapping on TV--watching a MoTab concert with him in the room was fun :);

dance, by bouncing up and down while "singing";

he can "mark it with a 'B'" from the "Pat-A-Cake" song;

he says "mama" and "dadada" pretty clearly, and might be saying "uh-huh." It's difficult to tell, because the emphasis is on the "huh." :)

He does NOT like:

having his diaper or clothes changed, 85% of the time-ish

being out of Mama and/or Daddy's sight

Mama or Daddy leaving him, like walking out the front door

being kept from pushing buttons

pureed baby foods; he's just like Daddy in that he's all about texture.

He catches on to things quickly if he's interested. He never did get into sign language; I've more or less given up on it.

He's getting better at his stackable cups, likes to hold telephones to his ear, and is still obsessed with electronics. He carries the TV remote *with batteries removed* around all day, and I try not to press buttons around him that I don't want him to press, because he will. :)

Today was so cute. He was very well-behaved all day and got very cuddly with me around his second naptime. He climbed onto the couch (wow, it's nice to say that--we've never had a couch before!) and sat next to me, leaned against me, and just sat there. He got up every few minutes, but just shifted himself into different cuddling positions. I was talking to my mom on the phone, told her about it, and she asked if he'd falled asleep on me. "Oh, no, he never does that." But a few minutes later...

It was so precious, and so convenient that I at least had my phone right there to take a picture with! There is something heavenly about a sleeping baby, breathing deeply, warm and soft, sucking on a pacifier. I took him up to his bed, and he didn't even fuss when I changed his saggy diaper before putting him down. But apparently it was a power nap, because in his bed, he only chattered and then squawked and wouldn't go to sleep until he'd had a snack and some play time. It was worth it, though. :)

Blogger is such a pain when it comes to arranging pictures, I think I'll do a separate post for that.

We're heeeeere!

Is it sad that most people would think of a blogging holiday as at least a month, and I'm back on after a week? Probably.

We arrived in Arizona almost a week ago after a long and stressful week of packing, transporting, and traveling. Our place is coming together; the living room area is nearly finished, at least for what we currently have to work with. The main problem is lack of storage/time, so there's still a lot of crap sitting around in our empty dining area. There are a few problems with the new place that bug me, but I'm not going to bother complaining because (1) it won't change the architecture of the townhouse or the habits of the surrounding bug population, and (2) WE HAVE OUR OWN PLACE AGAIN! It's amazing! I've made two dinners from our very own groceries, without having to work around anyone else!

Big news: Jamie is WALKING! Our wonderful friends, Joseph and Kaylea, took him two days in a row (Fri and Sat) so we could unpack in peace, and they made a project of getting him to walk. I'm sure watching their nearly-4-year-old run around helped, too. So now Jamie is somehow even more precious, walking with his arms up and knees lifted high, back and forth, looking so pleased with himself. Videos later. Right now, I need to try to get a shower before his naptime runs out. I've been stupid and just hopped on the blessed internet, which got set up last night, as soon as he was down. It's just been a bit difficult being in a new place, alone, without a car every day, and the internet definitely makes me feel less cut off. (I can't even drop Jason off at work, because he drives around all day.) We're hoping that if the job is still steady by November that we might be able to get another car. My day of reckoning with mini-vans might be coming. (No offense, Ade. ;))

Real fast: new job is going well; it's just tiring trying to get all the paperwork and fingerprints and job shadowing and unpacking and installing baby gates (at our place) and reading training manuals and all that done. But Jason is holding up well, and I know he's happy to finally have the chance to make a living for us!

More a little later.

Blogging holiday

Well, we've got the internet service for the new place scheduled, but the signal won't...turn on? or whatever until Tuesday. So... *sniff* I'll have to take a break from one of my favorite pastimes. I'll probably be too busy for the first few days, anyway. But we just got the disk from Netflix to stream directly through the Wii via internet, and it's AWESOME! Not to mention free. We totally recommend it.

Anyway. See you all in a week. Hopefully it won't be too long before I can put up pictures of the new place, all pulled together and cozy! We leave tomorrow morning!

Welcome Home, Elder Noall the Younger

A week ago tonight, we welcomed Jason's brother, Justin, home from the Argentina Cordoba mission, where he served very honorably. We've all really enjoyed the strong spirit he brought with him; I know it's influenced me for good. We're happy to have him back--especially so he could meet Jamie!

Jamie usually cries when strange men come into the house (home teachers, friends), but he took to his Uncle Justin really quickly and even let him get him out of his bed and give him a bottle the next morning! He knows his own kin. :)

Jamie "helping" Uncle Justin unpack.

Being his charming self.

A nice family photo while waiting outside Las Casuelas restaurant (OH my gosh, so good) the next day, after Justin was officially released. Of course, I think everyone looks good but me.

Grandpa Noall and Jamie talking with one of the musicians there

I'm not so great at candids.

We brought his own baby food. That didn't last long.

This boy is SO the star of two families. He's our little king. He commands, we make it our wish. Who wouldn't for that face? :)

More details--really long post, in other words.

****Okay, I just finished this post, went back to read it, realized how long it is, and thought you might appreciate having the main info highlighted in case that's all you care about. Doing it kinda took me back to my studying days from college...and I feel old saying that...*******

We are so excited. Today we started applying for a townhouse in Arizona--a townhouse! We found a place that's only five years old and yet has income-based rent, because they want the tax breaks. Boo-yah! It's two bedrooms, two bathrooms, two stories, on a corner, and apparently there will be no one above us or below us. (Some of them have an apartment below and you enter on the first floor, apparently. Odd.) The bottom floor is tiled, which I'm not into (and it's so ironic, after wanting to get away from the tile we've been living in for so long), BUT that gives me a perfect excuse to buy a cool area rug, which I was just wishing I could do last week!

It's apparently not as nice as the apartment we had previously decided on, but that place was pretty stylish. We're used to being plainer to save some money. And it has all the amenities we want--pool, workout room, playground, covered parking, pets allowed, for way less than an apartment! There's really something to be said for not having strangers clomping around (or other stuff...) over your head.

Lots of people have asked what exactly Jason will be doing. Well, he's going to be a Bilingual Family Support Specialist--which, as he always adds, is not as cool as it might sound. :) He's excited, though. It's just very entry-level, but should be invaluable by way of gaining him some work experience. People come to the agency with their family problems, and he figures out ways and programs with which to help them, to put it very simply. Home visits, driving, etc. But the company he's going to work for has really impressed him--they're supposed to be the best in the area, and they seem to be really well-organized and structured. We learned how important that is when I did PSR before we got married, and they basically threw me out the door and said "go help people."

Thanks so much for all your sweet congratulations. It means a lot. I know I have whined and complained about this plenty, and I really thank all you guys for being patient with me. We are so very grateful that things are finally looking up, but despite how hard it's been at times, we know we've been immensely blessed this whole ten-plus months we've been living with parents. Not once have we gone hungry, been cold at night, or not had a roof over our heads. We've always had just enough to scrape by. I know without a doubt the Lord has been blessing us, and is answering our fervent and repeated prayers now. I am also amazed at the timing and the wonderful details:

1. Jason's brother, Justin, just got home from his mission last week. (Pics to follow.) Now he'll get his room back (we comandeered it for Jamie), and it won't be so crowded there.
2. Jason's friend, Joseph, is the one who sent him the link for the job, and he and his wife Kaylea live there with their two kids. We get to live very near them again! We all get along really well, and they're good people. We're excited to be near them.
3. Another old friend is living there with her new husband, and another old friend, Jina, will be moving there in a few months! AWESOME! It's a bit hard knowing we're moving even farther away from family, but I feel better, even excited, every time I remember that we have good friends there.
4. The area is heavily LDS without being Utah-ish, and the temple is right nearby.
5. This happened right before the summer--at which time Jason wouldn't have had subbing jobs, so we would have had to pick up and come back to Sacramento for a little while. Pain in the neck. And though it will still be uber hot in AZ, we'll have a pool!
6. We had already gotten tickets to come to Sacramento during spring break for a visit--we didn't have to lose money not being able to come, and while we're here, we can pack up and ship everything to AZ.
7. I was really feeling like I was reaching the end of my rope, which double sucks, because what could I realistically do about it unless the Lord helped us out?

I'm just so, so grateful. I'm sad, though, that I won't get to finally have family and friends over to my place, because it will once again be far, far away. I dreamed about that for awhile--actually inviting Nor Cal people over to my place for once, getting to be the hostess. I've never gotten to do that. Anyone who wants to come down and visit us in AZ, feel free! There's something that feels good about getting to show people that you really can fend for yourself, instead of them seeing you nowhere but your parents' house.

I'm babbling.

Anyway, now is not the time to focus on the negative, because this is a very positive thing. Did I mention we went to AZ for his interview? We stayed with Joseph and Kaylea and got to look around the area a bit, look at a few apartments. We like it; it's like SoCal, but not as fancy. We're excited to finally be moving forward. And I can't tell you how excited I am to just put things where I want to all over the house again, instead of being mostly confined to one room. Decide on my own grocieries...master bathroom actually connected to my bedroom... Oh, man. I could go on all night, but I won't. Thanks again for your support, everyone!

Did I mention we're excited??! :D

The 100-percent there post

This is it!

This is the "Jason officially got the job in Arizona, hopes to start by the end of next week, and we're calling the apartment office to reserve our OWN PLACE" post!!!!!!!

More later. I typed a ton in Microsoft Word's blog program and now it won't let me publish OR copy and paste on here. RRRRGH.

More Jamie Pics & Our Anniversary

Our anniversary was nearly a month ago, but I took so many pictures of the flowers—trying to get a good one despite my humble camera and nonexistent skills—that now that I've finally done an upload, I can't leave them out.

And I did get to arrange these myself. (Thank you, thank you...lol.)

This is what I do for special occasions. Decorate the bathroom. It's what works when you're in somebody else's house.

The paper hung on the mirror is a list of reasons I love Jason. Awwwwww. ;)

We didn't do much on our actual anniversary because it was a Tuesday. Jason did suprise me by driving all the way to Outback to pick up a Sydney's Sinful Sundae, which we enjoyed while watching The Biggest Loser. (Oh, the irony.) On Friday, I think it was, we went to this AWESOME Mexican restaurant in town. We love it, but it's more pricey, so we had saved it for the occasion.

I can't quite believe the amount of time I've spent just trying to get pictures on here in an attractive way, and how little progress I've made. Have you ever done that? But I've been listening to Bill Cosby the whole time, so it's all good.

More to come, hopefully tomorrow.

Gotcha

Check out my little moment of April Fool's pride here. It's been awhile since I've pulled a good prank on some folks. I don't know if this qualifies as "good," but it was way fun. :)

Added 4/5: just talked to another friend that I sent it to, and she said she thought for a second that she was getting in trouble for going inactive (since she'd been to other wards the last few weeks)! Lol.

Happy Easter

No news yet. We're still anxiously waiting for the phone call.