New happenings.

Here's what's happening in Larsenland:

Meg is drowning in millions of papers to grade but got FABULOUSLY RAVING reviews from her faculty supervisor at her teaching evaluation on Monday. Not bad for last hour on a half day, if I do say so myself!

Eric just found out that not only did he PASS his first CPA test (financial), he ROCKED it with a 90. He only needed 75 to pass. He has two more days of training in LA before rejoining his much missed family here in AZ.

Scotty is adorable like always but asserting himself as an independent toddler. I find myself wondering where my great helper and listener went! Now I have a stomper, screamer, and food thrower. My mom is a saint for playing with him all day while I'm teaching! At least he still gives sweet hugs and kisses to make up for the chaos.

Yep, he looks like a big kid sleeping in his toddler bed. Though he clearly fell asleep in the middle of doing something else...he's very meticulous about tucking his Ruffles in for naps and bed :o)


Scotty is also asserting himself by giving everyone nicknames and making up sounds for all of his toys. Here is our current favorite:

(I call this video: "TRUUCCKKTTT")

I would see this.

The first time I watched this, I got excited--this movie looks amazing!



Than I started thinking--is that really Mel Gibson as Nephi? And Russell Crowe as Gidgidoni? And whoever plays Captain Moroni rocks. It didn't take me long to realize that someone with amazing video editing skills put together the ultimate cast for a non-existant movie. Think we could get someone with enough money to actually make something like this? I would totally take my friends.

Sent

Scotty has gotten really into primary songs and hymns over the past few weeks. He now requests a "mama song" every night as I tuck him in. His current favorite is "I am a child of God."

This week has been a little stressful: Eric is in LA for training, I am doing double duty between student teaching and writing papers for my class, and Scotty is displaying his own stress by not taking naps and waking up before 6am. Last night I was feeling a little frazzled and in a rush to get him in bed, so when he requested a song I wasn't thrilled about it. I sang the first verse of "I am a child of God" as I backed out of the room, with Scotty quietly humming along.

"I am a child of God, and He has sent me here,
Has given me an earthly home with parents kind and dear.
Lead me, guide me, walk beside me, help me find the way.
Teach me all that I must do to live with Him someday."

When I had my hand on the door he looked up at me with sweet baby eyes and said: "Mama, I'm sent! I was sent!"

Yes you were, my sweet boy. You were sent straight from heaven right to me. I think I needed that reminder.


I hope that someday you are as blessed to have me for a mother as I am to have you for my son.

Missing

Do you every have one of those days where even though everything goes right, when you sit down at the end of the day it just feels like something is missing?




Now that I've figured out what I'm missing, the only thing left is filling the holes! Anyone up for a roadtrip...?

Moviegoing

We rarely go out to movies, as we could use that money to feed our family for a week and a half. We made an exception to see the new Harry Potter but are restraining ourselves from seeing it a second time until it hits a cheaper theater.

With that in mind, we were so excited to see that this

finally hit the dollar theater! And by dollar I mean $3.00 a ticket, cash only. We wanted to take Scotty and felt we couldn't risk it with people paying so much to hear our child freak out. Turns out our worries were in vain because he was RIVETED the entire time, cuddling on my lap, bouncing to the music, and excitedly pointing out every dog, balloon, bird, and airplane on the screen (and for those of you who have seen it, there are LOTS of dogs, balloons, airplanes and a very large bird).

If you haven't seen it it's definitely worth the money as we all loved it. It will make you laugh and it might even make you cry...at least a little bit. Even Scotty felt inclined to give me some sweet hugs and pats at appropriate times.

The other reason we like this theater (besides cheaper tickets) is that it is full of cool statues and life-size movie figurines....

I've been caught!

Need any more reason to come visit us besides checking out a life-size storm trooper pointing a gun at you? Didn't think so. Come on down, the water's fine.

(P.S. I'm wearing a DV shirt that says "Thunder" on the back, which is our school's mascot. And the pink haze is from neon track lighting; the shirt and the storm trooper are realistically white.)

A new post

I start to feel like a blog slacker if I haven't posted in a week (take that, all you *actual* blog slackers!) so here is a new post.

Student teaching is going well--it keeps me hopping but I LOVE it. Yesterday we reviewed for their test by making slime and quicksand. Every day I come home feeling grateful that I found the right fit for me--and wondering how it took me so long to realize that I loved teaching. Starting next week it is all me for the next 4.5 weeks, meaning I run the entire show from planning the curriculum to grading all the papers: all my lessons, all my labs, all my hw and quizzes. I've been cramming work in the odd hours after scotty is down for the night and before I wake up at 6:30.

Eric is celebrating his last few days of unemployment by painting my parent's living room around 2 pianos (like I would put mine in storage!). He is excited to start work next Wednesday, though he tells me that he's had a good time staying home with Scotty and his anticipation of work is completely unrelated to the ups and downs of stay-at-home-parenting. He will be shuttling out to LA for the first few weeks for firmwide training.

In other news, we miss our Provo friends a lot but are also starting to feel a little settled around here. I gave up on any boxes that were still unpacked and have found a place to temporarily smash everything. We are looking for a house and seeing many promising areas (and many scary-beyond-all-reason as well.) House hunting runs the entire gamut of anticipation, excitement, and intimidation. We are also starting to make some friends in the ward and are happy to have some nice competitive (aka full of trash talking and dessert) game nights again.

(Scotty and his friend, Jack)

To reward those of you who read this far, here are the last pictures from Scotty's birthday party and the awesome firetruck cake I made. After using practically an entire bottle of red food coloring, giving up, and frosting his firetruck hot pink, I found a spray on cupcake dye that worked like a charm.

Still tasted good, too.