I'm from Idaho

I went to a music store today and asked for a piano book of scales, chords, and arpeggios so I could feel more comfortable teaching piano lessons. Before the clerk left to find my request, he asked me where my accent is from.

I told him, "I'm from Idaho, and I didn't know I had an accent."
"You do. Compared to us New York and Philadelphia musicians, you do have an accent. It's actually pleasant so I wanted to know where you were from."
After I told him why we were here, he gave me a hearty, "Welcome to Pennsylvania."

Now that I think about it, I was asked where my accent was from when I first moved to Illinois and talked to a native Chicagoan. However, that person had to ask me where Idaho was, and made me feel like a foreigner.

In France, (when I participated in a study abroad program) my "accent" passed me off as British. Needless to say, I was treated much more cordially than my American counterparts.

So... I have an accent. An Idahoan accent! Way to go Idaho.

My daughter is bulimic

See those fingers!! They are the guilty party. Baby Cakes has developed a new habit. After she is finished eating, I will sit her up to burp her. The moment she is upright, those fingers are shoved in her mouth and stay there until she gags herself enough to spit up. I can't even get the first of it cleaned up before she is at it again.



After three times of gag and spit, she decides she's had enough for at least 5 minutes. The Cakester rarely spit up before this. Now she self-induces spit up after every meal. When I pull one hand out of her mouth, she quickly puts the other one in. How can I hold both hands down and clean up the mess?? If I keep pulling her hands out, she thinks it is a game. She'll start laughing and smiling. It's super cute, but still annoying with the gagging.



The fists, I don't mind. They do make her choke a little on her own spit, but she usually pulls them out of her mouth. The fingers however, remain there no matter how many times she gags herself. I usually hear her gagging herself when she wakes up from naps before I hear her cry. I don't know what is so pleasurable about gagging yourself, but she continues to do it time and time again. When she is tired, she tries to fit both her binky and her fists in her mouth. When it doesn't work, she gets frutrated. She'll go back and forth between them before deciding on her fingers.



I don't mind that she sucks on her hands or her fingers. They are always available for her. I just wish she would stop shoving them so deep in her throat. I don't want this habit to continue into her later years.


Stop gagging yourself cute Baby Cakes. Stop!

When your dad is a dairy farmer...

In which the maintenance man knows me by name

My neighbors probably think I have a crush on the maintenance man considering how many times he has visited our town house. It's not so. However, the maintenance man has fixed every small problem we've had this month.
1) Our front door wouldn't shut properly - he moved the latch down.
2) Our front door wouldn't unlock with a key from the outside - he lubricated the lock
3) Our heater wouldn't turn on - he lit the pilot light
4) I heard squirrels running through the vents. (I am not kidding! They were loud and sounded like they were going to jump out and start chasing me.) He dismantled the furnace vent and assured me it was impossible for squirrels to get in. He went outside to fix the screen that covers the vents. Turns out it was the neighbors vent whose screen had come off.
5) I got out of the shower to find water leaking from the living room ceiling and water running down the wall.

For this we had to remove all the contents from the messiest and most disorganized closet in the house so he could get to the bath tub pipes. He did something involving a piece of the pipe and a gasket. After about an hour, we are free to shower without flooding the downstairs. :)

These five visits don't include the additional two they made to change something in the utility closet to comply with new township rules. I realize that some of these I could have done myself, but one of the perks of renting is to just call maintenance when you have a problem. Hopefully we won't need to make any more maintenance calls for the rest of this month. Now, when I am walking around the property, the maintenance man recognizes me and waves.

Famous Dr. Bruce

Check out Dr. Bruce, the new face of Delaware Valley College. I'm so proud!

3 months old

What to say about my baby cakes besides the fact that she is absolutely adorable and so much fun to have around. I really wonder what I did to entertain myself before Eliza came around. She giggles, plays, smiles, and holds herself up really well. She can sit up on the ground with only my hand under her arm. She also likes to sit on the couch, and on the backseat of the car.


All buckled up and ready to go



Sometimes she will play herself to sleep, even if it is on the floor.



She loves to chew on her hands. She tries and tries to fit both of her fists in her mouth. At times, she shoves them so far in her mouth that I hear her gagging herself - I wish she would stop doing that. She likes to stick her pointer and middle finger down her throat, and after she gags pulls them out with some curdled milk that came up. She espcially enjoys doing that when she is on her dad's lap. Sometimes she chomps down on her fingers so hard that she pinches them and then starts to cry. I give her a hug, and seconds later she is back at it again - it must not bother her too much.

She likes to do everything we are doing. She refuses to let us eat dinner without her sitting on our laps. Then she tries to stick her hands in our food and grab our spoons. One time, she knocked my bowl of pasta salad completely off the table. It only took her a second. She's only 3 months old, but I might need to put her in a high chair.

The other morning, I put Eliza in her bouncy chair so I could take a shower. When I closed the curtain, she was playing. When I opened the curtain, I found...

I guess ~10 minutes is too long to shower.

Last Saturday, Bruce gave our ward members a tour of the DVC dairy and other farms. Eliza helped me hold up the sign.



We love her so much. She is so happy, and so are we! We are so blessed to have her in our lives.

Big City traveler and the Solar Decathalon

At 2 and a half months of age, Eliza has traveled more than some adults I know. She flew 4.5 hours on a plane to Utah at 3 weeks old. A couple of weeks ago, she went to Washington D.C. and stayed in her first hotel - the Doubletree. Since then, she has been to all over Maryland. (We got lost going to my cousin's baseball game)

Here she is on the king size bed.



Our friends, Jason and Kara Wheeler took a whirlwind tour of the east coast, and stopped by to see us on Tuesday, September 27th. Unfortunately, their stay was mighty short. We did get in the essentials, Cities and Knights, and a run for Jason and Bruce, a walk for Kara, Eliza, and I. On Wednesday afternoon, they left for DC to attend the Solar Decathlon Thursday afternoon.

The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon challenges collegiate teams to design, build, and operate solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient, and attractive. The winner of the competition is the team that best blends affordability, consumer appeal, and design excellence with optimal energy production and maximum efficiency. (Taken from their website)
Bruce, Eliza, and I drove down later that evening through a severe thunderstorm, and met them at the solar decathlon.

We took a shuttle bus from our hotel to the metro station. We rode the metro to the Washington Mall, then got on another shuttle bus to take us to the Solar Decathlon at West Potomac Park. It actually wasn't as complicated as it sounds once we figured out how to obtain a metro ticket.

Here is Eliza on the metro


I don't know a whole lot about solar energy or architecture, but I do know that anyone who can make an entire house run on solar energy is a genius. I liked the New Zealand house the best.


It seems practical and very comfortable. The New Zealand and U of I house are the only houses I saw that I felt comfortable enough to live in. I especially liked the hidden sleeping room for an extra 5 people. Talk about a space saver. I liked the cultural adaptation New Zealand added to their house as well. If their climate is really as temperate as they claimed, I should have moved to New Zealand years ago. :)


Coming out of the University of Illinois house.

Although each house had the same goals and restrictions, I was amazed at the variety of designs I saw. Eliza on the other hand, didn't find the houses that amazing.


All the traveling and the bright sun wore her out. This is all she had to say about it.


Although, by the looks of it, something must have made an impression on her.


Overall, I thought the Solar Decathlon was pretty impressive. I regret that we didn't have time to see all of the houses. For as many people as they had in attendance, it's too bad the houses aren't open longer. Sadly, we had to say goodbye to our friends from Illinois who now live in Utah.
Come again Kara and Jason. Eliza misses you already. (Also, thanks for the photo's I snagged from you. You're better at taking pictures than I am anyway.)


We made a quick stop over to the temple before we headed home.