Horsham, Pennsylvania

This last Saturday we planned a winner. Walmart, playground, Chick-fil-A. In a desperate effort to avoid an accident (Megan, not Natalie), we decided to find a Chick-fil-A outside of the mall food court in hopes of finding a play place. And that's how we found ourselves in Horsham.

Let me just say that the city we live in is not the biggest in the world, but it is the biggest and most highly concentrated place I've ever lived in. There are a lot of buses and sidewalks and gas stations, and you can find grass only if you look for it. The drive out to Horsham got better and better. Slowly there weren't any sidewalks and the buildings were replaced by green fields. The roads widened out and there were fewer and fewer traffic lights. And then like a shining beacon of realized dreams, we found the Chick-Fil-A, complete with play place, bathroom, and as a bonus, a Red Robin across the street.

We beat the lunch rush and found a great seat by the window where we could see at least 50 yards of grass (!) and watch the very occasional car pass on the distant road. Our food was hot and ready in record time, and was complete with a large peach milkshake. How could it get better?

By an employee bringing us a second milkshake for free of course!

It turned out that the play place was too big for Nat - she couldn't climb up the stairs to go down the slide. But apart from that, I think Sam said it best when he likened our experience to the cleansing, freeing feeling you get after going to church. But seriously! It was just wonderful to be out in the country again and feel the space that's there and drink not one, but two delicious milkshakes.

Oh, and as a side note, I feel pretty confident that I've heard of Horsham before, but I can't remember what for. A google search revealed that Horsham was voted 15th best place in the USA to live in 2007. That must have been it.

BEST.DAY.EVER.

These are all so wonderful that I'm not sure if I can rank them in order of awesomeness.

NATALIE CUT HER FIRST LITTLE TOOTHY!!! I discovered it as I was babysitting. Both children were screaming, Natalie because it was 30 minutes past naptime and I forgot the sucker, and the other kid because Natalie was causing such a ruckus. I put the other kid back in his bed and attempted to use my pinkie finger as a sucker for Natalie, and she bit me!! It hurt so good! You can't see it very well, so you'll all just have to come visit to take a look-see.

I SAW A WOOD CHUCK! ON MY RUN! Or a groundhog or a gopher or something. I can't prove it, you'll just have to believe me. But I did! It ran right up next to the road and sniffed around and then disappeared into a hole. I'll have to go back and get photographic evidence of his escape route.

And in conclusion, I get to pass these when I run. Doesn't get better than that.

*This just in. After extensive research involving Google images, it can be confirmed that what I spotted was indeed a wood chuck.

Carpe diem, dog.

A couple of great things have happened today. Number one. I was boiling macaroni and only had to taste one noodle because I boiled it for the exact perfect amount without even trying. I think I'll be an Iron Chef one day. Number two. Natalie is wearing magenta rompers. Wear them while you can. Number three. I had a carpe diem success. Here's the story.

First of all, I don't really think that carpe diem is a good motto for life, or for raising children. But I do think that every once in a while, it's smart to not worry about everything that you could be worrying about and just love what's happening (aka carpe diem...), but just once in a while.

I was boiling previously mentioned macaroni when little Natalie decided it was nap time, in a big way. I scooped her up with the intention of keeping her happy for the next eight minutes while I finished the noodles, then it's nap time. She would have none of it. So, I turned the burner down to what I hoped was low enough to not have my noodles boil over, and we went to go rock.

I was rushing the rocking to get back to my pot, and so when I put Natalie down she cried and cried and cried. And I thought, what the heck. I'm going to rock my baby to sleep.

And so we rocked and swayed and hummed and rocked, and she was out within four minutes.

Did I have to change the foil under the burners? Yes. Did my pot run out of water? Almost. But I soaked in a moment that I would have squandered otherwise. She'll only be seven months and one day once, and she is already almost too big for her romper.

I don't know how to wrap up the story, so here's some pictures.

Little things

Here are some things that are awesome.

 Nope, you're not looking at Pinterest or some other website that has pictures of awesome hair, that's the back of my very own personal head! I picked a sock that had no brother and made a sock bun. And I put it on my head.

 Obviously, these are my lovely toes. I went with Heather (my roommate who came to our wedding) to get our toes done at the local beauty school for TWELVE SMACKERS. And the girl who did my toes was Brazilian. She used her own Brazilian fingernail polish on my toes, and gave me a flower on the Biggies. ("Be young!!!")

 Samuel went to Island Park with one of his friends to pal around for a few days before said friend moves to Texas. And he picked me flowers before he left. Because he likes me.

THIS is a wall decal. I automatically think of Fat Head commercials when I say that. The idea is that they stick on your wall and make everything wonderful. But these don't really stick on our wall. We might glue them there.

We got rear ended like, 8 months ago, and they shattered our passengers side tail light assembly. We didn't really care til we got pulled over last week and the nice policeman let us off with a friendly warning. (Probably a first in the Rexburg police force.) It lit a fire under Sam and we ordered a replacement online. It came today. The brownies were brought over by a neighbor. They are made out of beans. BEANS. Bean brownies.