What I'm doing

Thought I'd hop on the ol' computer for a minute... that turned into about 76 minutes. Oh well. I had to catch up on e-mail, blogs, and FB. Ok, I didn't HAVE to, but I did. :) Here's what we've been doing lately... work, work, work, Snowflake, studying, studying, cleaning, running, running, RUNNING, not sleeping, blah, blah, blah. Can you tell I'm in a slump? I have so much to do lately and I'm tired and kind of frustrated. Wow, so glad I decided to finally post after a month or two hiatus and this is what I'm offering! On a lighter note, here are some pictures of the most ridiculously cute kid I've ever met. :)

With cousin Parker in matching outfits... slightly different sizes.

Drooling much? Even when he feels rotten I think he's adorable.
Cutest lion there ever was!

With cousin Liam (a sack of flour!)

Make it or break it

I've found that I let little things get under my skin way too often lately. Any idiot in traffic can ruin my day... ok, not my entire day, but surely about 15 minutes of my day. This morning, when I was about to leave, an alarm for a calendar item went off on Brett's phone. (This is an old phone of his that he had stopped using, but started using again this weekend.) The calendar item read, "don't forget to pray tardo." It made smile! That's when I started thinking it's ok if I still am noticing the little things... just so long as they are the RIGHT little things! I want to focus on the little things that make my day... not break it! This is not to say that I'm a master of this yet. (Come on, it was only this morning that I had my mini-epiphany!) For example, I was patting myself on the back on my drive in to work for sticking to my new-found philosophy. I wasn't getting mega-cranky over being stuck in some of the worst traffic I've seen in a while and I had even had my day brightened by somebody's stickers on their car. (Jimmy Eat World, Coldplay, and Mae. Even though I'm not a big bumper sticker fan, it's a very nice combo in my opinion!) Then, genius of the world in a Honda, somehow missed the 17 signs letting him know that the right two lanes were exiting onto the 101 and that he needed to move if he didn't want to head that way. So, he stopped. Not slowed, stopped at the last possible moment, causing about five cars behind him (me included) to have to stop for about two minutes. And just like that... Road-Rage Carly came out to play. When he finally moved enough for us to get around him I honked and yelled in my car. Ooops. Like I said, it's a work in progress. But already I can feel the difference it made on my day. :)

Real quick

I am a bad blogger, that is just a fact. I'm also a bad journal-er. Anyway... here are a few pictures of things we've been up to. 4th of July, Wicked (still love it), Pioneer Day, Brett & Jon's birthdays, etc. Kellen is 5 months today... I can hardly believe it! He is a fatty and I wouldn't want him any other way!

Waiting for the fireworks to start. We found a hill in Snowflake where we could watch Taylor, Showlow, and Heber's shows!
After Wicked, with the sisters. :)
And my "other sister."

Up in Snowflake for the 24th celebrations. Kellen (left) and Liam (right) chillin' outside. I'm kind of missing being able to hang out on the front lawn in the middle of July without sweating to death!

Hanging out (in Snowflake, again). This time we were up for Brett & Jon's birthdays. We went shooting (I'm getting over my aversions to it) and we kept the boys back by the cars. They were trying to eat each others fingers. :)
A very unattractive picture of me and Brett... but it shows off our awesome farmer's tans we got while shooting!
Love these boys!!!!!!

PS - Note to self: If you run (on the treadmill) at 11:00 pm you are not going to be able to go to sleep before 1:00 am.

Gravity

A few weeks ago, this dance was on SYTYCD. It hit me like a ton of bricks. Basically, the male in the dance is addiction, and the female is the addict. Even when she tears away from him at the end, he just smirks because he knows she'll be back. I've always loved this song, and to see it interpreted like this is just incredible to me. This really affected me, because it is a powerful, visual representation of what it's like to fight the shame and strength of addiction. Most don't know enough about me or my family to realize the magnitude of this, but I'll just say that I'm sobbing, once again, re-watching the dance and writing this. I'll be surprised if Mia Michaels doesn't win an Emmy for this one.

Same Side Imaginary

To celebrate the fact that Sunny Day Real Estate is getting back together for a short tour (and stopping in Tempe - woot!), I thought I'd post a little something. This is actually from Jeremy Enigk's most recent solo album, but it is incredible. If you're looking for a great new CD, I highly suggest Ok Bear.

Puppy Love

This morning when I got up (I get up a bit before Brett and Kellen for work), Baxter started stretching on the bed (they sleep with us) and headed into the living room. I figured he was just going outside. A few minutes later I found him here:
This is the blanket we spread on the ground for Kellen to be able to lay on sometimes. It made me laugh, so I took a picture, but then I picked him up and took him back into the bed with Brett. Not more than two minutes later, Baxter headed back into the living room and on to the blanket. Personally, I think he was missing his Kellen-friend and that's why he was curling up in his scent. :)

Ok, that was going to be the end of the post, but then I found a couple things that also made me laugh and I had to share. First is the fact that my sister Katie has the tiniest (oh, and cutest) little girl ever! She is 2 1/2 years old... Kellen is 3 months (in this picture). We had Jade lay down next to Kellen just to see how close in size they are. She definitely comes from our side of the family!
And finally... Kellen's new trick. He does this all day! He's not mad or anything, I guess he just likes it!

Thinking, that's all

I've had a lot of thing rattling around in my brain lately. I've never been a consistent blogger, mostly because I have this idea that posts need to be an update about what we're doing or that it has to contain pictures. Or I'm worried that it will be boring to others. The funny thing is, some of my favorite bloggers don't worry about that! (That'd be you, Keiko and Renee.)

Well, like I said I've been thinking a lot lately, and I think that getting those things out in writing will help clear space for more important things. Thus the reason why I've had more posts in the last week than I did for all of last month. I had been thinking about my favorite time of day with Kellen and how grateful I am for Brett and my dad for the last couple of weeks. Nothing big, but it felt nice to write it down and send it out to the universe! So, sorry for those who keep up on this blog, because it's going to be inundated with posts... at least for a while.

Here's what I was thinking about yesterday. It makes me crazy that people like this and this can get pregnant and don't appreciate the special gift they've been given, while there are amazing people out there with their hearts breaking because they aren't able to conceive. I know several couples who have been trying for so long and are still left without. I don't understand it, and it just doesn't seem fair to me. One of my friends who has been trying for a while recently posted an article that explains how to be courteous of the feelings of those who aren't able to have children. In the article it mentions not to say that there are worse things that could happen, because '...to a woman whose sole goal in life has been to love and nurture a child, infertility may indeed be the "worst" thing that could happen.' They have to see their friends and family experiencing the joy they desire for themselves. Plus, they have to hear about morons who throw away the very thing they are longing for. I am so grateful for my Kellen and the fact that I've never had to experience that pain, but I can completely understand where that could be the "worst" thing that could happen to somebody.