A fun little good taste to get you in the mood for fall!

If you read only one thing today, it should be this. Especially the end; it is perfect and just what I think I needed to know, and I wouldn’t have paid attention if it weren’t written in that way that just pulls you in and makes you wish on the whole world that you could say it like that…

I’ve been focusing too much on wishing that I had all day every day to just create. But now it seems so obvious that the inspiration for creation comes from my every day, when I am about my regular life. Now I wake up anticipating what good ideas I will find from my day, and I appreciate the feeling of waiting to create. It’s like Christmas!

He’s so wiggly now. More fun, but more wiggly!

This was our best baby purchase. Of all!

Almost every time I go out with Max in this, I get asked by at least one expecting momma or a grandma or even once a 14-year-old boy in the grocery store who said his family was looking for a baby shower gift - “What brand is that? Oh I’ve heard it’s so good but I can’t find it anywhere! Is it really as good as they say?” So I am here to answer that question for you. Yes!

I tried two different slings before this and they were okay while Max was a newborn but not after the first month or so. I did a LOT of research and after declining to buy any carrier I had found in any store, I came across this recommendation in an online review for another brand. When it came in the mail I put it on, slid Max in and when we looked in the mirror we looked just like the people in all the advertisement pictures - they don’t lie; we really were both smiling and comfortable and ready to go conquer the wherever we were going!

If you are or plan to ever be in the market for a carrier, even if your baby is older already, here’s the answer! You can go to the site and read all the positives they say about it for yourself; they’re true. When we go on vacation I don’t even bother lugging a stroller along because I have this. It has allowed me to navigate things like crowded stores and airports and hiking so easily and in an emergency it would be the second thing I would grab on my way out the door (second only to the food backpack!). I’ve carried him in it for 3 hours at a time just fine even though he is getting so big. It is worth every penny.

It’s nice to feel a little bit good when you get a whopping electric bill:

Dear Micah,

I did not mail you a birthday card

in time

because we don’t have any stamps.

We’ve been out for, oh, three months

and there are some people to whom I owe snail mails that probably think I moved to Mars BUT

on this no-stamps day

I wanted to tell you anyway

how glad I am that you were born!

I am so glad, that I made you that blanket before you were even born.

I am so glad you were born, that I fought with Brian over who got to be your best big sibling. (We really did. It was the same night he ripped up my homework.)

I am so glad, that I hereby apologize to you on the internet for that one time we dressed you up in a tutu.

I am so glad, that when I mail you your card it will have money in it.

I am so glad, that one of my favorite memories is that one Christmas break when you were 4 and we spent every day wrestling.

And now, WHY I am so glad you were born:

I am so glad, because you have a hamster named Squiggles who has an alternate name of Skittles and I’ve always been so proud of you for getting Mom and Dad to let you have a pet.

I am so glad, because our family didn’t feel complete without you.

I am so glad, because you call me just to say hi and that’s fun.

I am so glad, because I worry about Mom running by herself and you rode your bike 18 miles with her so she wouldn’t run alone. What a gentleman.

I am so glad, because it’s fun having a little brother who is smart and hilarious and adventurous and kind and curious and already so suave!

You’ve got a lot going for you in your ripe old age. I hope you’ve enjoyed your first decade of life. Happy 10th!

Love,

Kaylene

PS It’s time for comments! Everyone who knows Micah, now is your chance to tell him why you are glad about him!

I have seen this tag in passing, and now Serena has brought it officially here. It reminded me to post today, so that’s good!

10 years ago: I was 13 and probably counting down the hours until my first day of high school and drooling over fresh new notebooks and having bad dreams about not being able to open my locker and rejoicing because my mom bought me SEVEN whole new school shirts!

5 years ago: I was 18, finishing up my internship at Pratt & Whitney and ready to go back to BYU for my sophomore year. Which is not a year I look back upon fondly, so, glad it’s over.

5 months ago: Watching our house be built, planning a vacation to Connecticut and walking Max around the house all day because he refused to stay put!

5 things on my to-do list tomorrow:

1. Vacuum our house
2. Catch up on all the Ace of Cakes’ on our DVR
3. Keep teaching Max that “no” is not something to be laughed at or ignored
4. Go to Enrichment and learn how to make cheese and yogurt from powdered milk.
5. Add more items to my shop so it can be ready for promo

5 things people don’t know about me:

1. I watch Malcolm in the Middle.
2. I fully intend to home school our children. We’ll see how that goes, though.
3. I have been teaching Max sign language. It’s coming along quite well.
4. I used to be a drama geek.
5. I never used a face wash until like two months ago.

5 bad habits:

1. Cracking my right big toe and my right middle finger.
2. Thinking it’s possible to sit down at my laptop for only 10 minutes.
3. Eating ice cream 2-3 times a day.
4. Bringing money with me to Hobby Lobby (the new fall paper line is here…)
5. Postponing reading my scriptures until right before bed.

5 places I have lived:

1. Windsor, CT
2. Columbia, CT
3. Bolton, CT
4. Provo, UT
5. Houston, TX

Um, I tag… I don’t know who hasn’t done it yet… Amy (Stafford - because I wish we kept in touch better), Tristan (I don’t know if you’re down with these tagging things, but I think you’d have the most interesting answers by far), and my mother (I guess you’ll just have to start a blog to do it!).

Thank you Blue Bell, from the bottom of my heart, for putting pie crust pieces in a creamy vanilla ice cream with blackberry swirls. Southern Blackberry Cobbler. If the Texans do have one thing going for them, this is it.

PS Has anybody else wished they were a silent graceful Chinese woman just so they could walk around in those gorgeous dresses?

It is not that the guy’s got so many gold medals he probably finds them lost between his couch cushions or accidentally run through the washing machine. It is not that he’s got so much muscle he could probably sit down on a couch today, not get up for the next 80 years, and still have more muscle left on that day than I have at this moment. It is not that he has little teenage girls all over the country plastering his photo on their desktop and his name in their facebook status.

No. The number one reason to want to be Michael Phelps happens at breakfast, lunch and dinner and every time in between.

The other evening during his race I told Trevor I bet he gets to eat like at least 8,000 calories a day. And then today we find out it’s not eight, but TEN. Or twelve. Seriously?? The guy could eat like a whole box of donuts for breakfast and not even blink an eye.

That is definitely and certainly by far the best motivation I have ever had for becoming that thing people call “active”…