Redneck Livin'

    Jamie and I found a new form of entertainment. It involves danger, thrill, loud noise and thick smoke. Yep, we've turned into demolition derby junkies. Since we're living in rural country, we figured we might as well try to fit in. When in Rome........

For those who have never been to a wreck em' derby it basically involves cars
running into each other until they can run no more

    Last weekend we went to our first derby and didn't even think twice about bringing Marlee with. We definitely earned the worst parents of the year award. Immediately when the cars starting revving their ROARING engines, Marlee began to scream. Imagine a rock concert, make your ears bleed type of loud. I sat with my hands sealed tightly over Marlee's ears, which seamed to help, until it started to rain. Not just your average rain either. It was the fat, heavy, burr-cold, they hurt-when-they-hit-you type of drops. And then came the mud. All of the spinning tires sent mud clods soaring through the air into the stands. It was more than our little one could bear.
    Therefore, this weekend when we went to another derby with some friends, (yay, new friends!) we used a little more judgement and left Marlee with grandma. Derbies really are surprisingly entertaining. Even if one does not enjoy watching vehicles crash into each other, much pleasure can be found from people watching. Derbies attract quite an array of people. Think of 40+ year-old barefooted men with no shirts on, strutting around in khaki shorts scantily rolled up to mid-thigh, or young women in mini-skirts and corsets wearing knee-high 4 in. platform boots. There's truly something for everyone.

Jewel Eye

The month of July was like a big breath of fresh air for us. It was jam-packed with family, festivities, and general laziness. If there's one thing I'm good at, it's being lazy. We started the month by moving to Norfolk, Nebraska (my hometown) Friday, July 1st. Saturday the 2nd we unpacked and headed to the lake in the evening to watch the "Big Bang Boom," the local fireworks show. The fireworks this year were AMAZING, it was visual overload. I'm proud that my small hometown can put on a show that rivals MUCH larger cities (Jamie had his doubts, but is now a believer). In fact, during the overstimulating grand finale, the people around me were so overcome with awe that they spontaneously started chanting, "U-S-A! U-S-A!"....although maybe I should clarify that the people around me=Jamie. Sunday we headed up to Jamie's parents house in Estherville to spend the week with them and have a second 4th celebration. The fourth of July is definitely one of my favorite holidays. What's not to like about a holiday where food, sun, games, and pyromania are mixed together? Anyways, Monday the 4th we went to the local flight breakfast, watched a parade, had a barbeque, and headed over to lake Okoboji to watch fireworks.


Family photo in front of lake Okoboji. It was fun to watch the hundreds of boats on the water.




 The rest of our week in Estherville we ate too much food, went bowling, watched Transformers 3 (big boo to that movie), played horseshoes, visited, and did a lot of relaxing. Also, my mother-in-law Angie and I attempted to take a few pictures of Marlee. Here's some for your viewing pleasure:

After our Estherville adventures, we returned to our mostly un-packed apartment for a day and a half before heading to Omaha to catch a plane to California for a family reunion. Note to self: never schedule a 6 a.m. flight again. We didn't get to bed until midnight the night before our trip and then awoke at 2 a.m. to drive to Omaha. Not fun.Our California trip was jam-packed with activities.We arrived in California about 10.am. and then headed straight to Newport Beach. It was co-old (temp in the 60s) so Marlee and I opted to stay out of the water that morning. The next night Jamie helped clean up the streets of Moreno Valley when he went on a "ride-along" with his cousin Scott, a cop. 

We did plenty of lounging in the pool. Don't let this picture fool you, Marlee was a natural pool rat. She was perfectly content floating in her tube while sucking her fist.

Here's a picture of us hanging on the beach in our sweet tie-dye threads.

Unfortunately, our dear Marlee got a little too much sun. We tried hard to keep her out of the sun at the beach by keeping her under a shade tent, but I think the sun's rays must have reflected off the water giving her a "binky burn". I felt like a HORRIBLE mother, but looking back on the picture now, her binky tan lines make me smile a little.

We left Marlee with Grandma Angie one morning and went on a deep-sea fishing trip. It was a fun, but hot and exhausting adventure.

Some of the other activities we did included going to an Anaheim Angels game, having a luau (I took 2nd in the hula-hooping contest-lost to a 9 year-old), and lots of visiting. The most special part of the trip however, was when Jamie blessed Marlee. Here's a picture the morning of her blessing, unfortunately I won't have any of her in her blessing dress until later.

 

When the end of our trip came, we were exhausted. However, our adventures were not quite over as our flight from Santa Ana got cancelled which led us on a wild fiasco of catching a cab during major rush hour to the Long Beach airport, boarding a plane 2 minutes before scheduled take-off, an overnight stay in Phoenix, and arriving in Omaha 1 day later then planned. After a little effort we did get some flight vouchers for our troubles however, so it wasn't all bad. When we got home we felt as though we needed a vacation from our vacation. So we did just that:) I shouldn't admit to our laziness, but we took advantage of the free cable our apartment offers and spent a few days recovering in front of the TV. Now if only our remaining boxes could unpack themselves.....

Man of the hour

Since birthing Marlee most of my (sparse) updates have been about her, so I figured it was time to write a little about what my baby daddy has been up to. School got out for Jamie in the middle of May, so that meant it was time to kick back, relax, and enjoy summer right!? Not so much for this boy! After medical students complete their first 2 years of school they get the pleasure of putting their classroom knowledge to the test by taking the first step of boards. Jamie signed up to take the COMLEX (DO boards) June 27th and the USMLE (MD boards) June 30th. Needless to say, he spent about a month and a half holed up in the library intensely studying, some days from sun-up to sun-down. I'm not gonna lie, those were some rough days for both of us. Good thing we had some great friends in Des Moines to keep me busy and Jamie sane! Thankfully, our prayers were answered and Jamie was blessed for his hard work and was able to meet his goals on both sets of boards. Right after taking the USMLE (a draining 8-hour test) Jamie had to race home to help load all of our belongings into the back of a UHAUL truck because we were moving to Nebraska the next day. June was certainly a BUSY month! The month of July provided a much needed break from studies, and now Jamie is on to the (....fun?) part of med school: clinical rotations. His first rotation is with a family practice physician, so he is looking forward to putting his knowledge to use and I'm looking forward to having him around a little more. The past two years have probably been some of the most challenging of our life. Whoever said medical school is not for the faint of heart was right! However, if there's anyone that can face a good challenge, it's Jamie. Because underneath that white jacket is my knight in shining armor-corny, yes....but the truth don't lie so deal with it:)

Looking like a 'stunna on his first day of rotations!
 (for those that don't know what a stunna is, Urban Dictionary defines it as:
Someone that is smooth, and that got game.)

Caught in the act

I can't believe our little Marlee is 4 months old already! Our little princess is learning to do so many new things each day. We happened to have the camera close by the other night and captured one of her first "chuckles" Sorry the video is sideways...anyone know how to flip it?

Call Me a Tiger Mom

Minus the whole Asian part..... Ok, so a few days ago I saw a video of one of my facebook "friend's" child who was born a little before Marlee. Their 3-month old baby rolled from their stomach to their back with ease. Now, I'll admit, I've not been the best at giving Marlee tummy time. It's usually the longest 2 minutes of my life as I listen to Marlee protest laying on her tum tum and I eventually give in and flip her over. But of course, the competitive, Tiger Mom side of me thought, "Well, if their baby can roll over, so can Marlee. Infact, she is going to kick butt at rolling over." So like the good little mother I am, I placed Marlee on her tummy and waited for her to shine. The result: Marlee put her face down on the floor and cried for 30 seconds. I tried to upload a video of it, but for some reason the video disapeered after I spent 5 mins waiting for it to upload, and blogger won't let me upload any pics either. Oh well, use your imagination. Who cares about rolling over anyway? I've decided I'm going to teach Marlee a much more useful skill, like how to change her own diaper. So look for us on "America's Got Talent" in the next 3 months. We'll be the headliner.

The best 4 years

Yesterday Jamie and I celebrated our 4-year anniversary. It's kinda crazy to think we've been married that long already. Boy, time flies when you're having fun! It seems like not long ago we were poor newlyweds in Provo eating Betos (now Rancheritos) on a weekly basis, going to midnight dollar movies, and living in a tiny basement apartment. It's amazing how far we've come since those days. We now have a little one, a big fancy house....err I mean an 880 sq. foot "garden level" apartment,  lots of money (owed, not earned),  and a late night to us is staying up past 10:30. I'm so lucky to be married to my BFF. We both feel as though the other person got the raw end of the deal:)

Lovers

We had a pretty low-key night since Jamie's busy studying for boards and we generally fail to plan things for "big" occasions. We went to dinner at an Italian restaurant, did a little browsing at Old Navy (I got a $0.77 sweater-score!), picked up some Edy's strawberry fruit bars for dessert (yummy), watched a little "Everybody Loves Raymond",  and called it a night. Pretty exciting, I know, but I just enjoyed spending a little time with my boyfriend.

Morning Shenanigans