Mappy Demorial Hay

Somerville put on a pretty impressive parade with lots of costumed reenactments and over 20 high school bands. It made me proud to have family members in the armed forces. Thanks for all you do and have done to make America great!

When Denim Goes on Sale

All these lonely nights have done wonders for my Spring wardrobe.

My Little Shoplifter

On three different instances in the last three days, Link has gotten out of the store with something we didn't pay for. He will sit still in his stroller as long as he has something to hold, so I give him a grocery item and totally forget to put it on the counter. To teach him the importance of honesty and how its not right to steal, I march him back to the cashier to return the item and apologize. Oh wait, I'm the one doing to apologizing :)

(Hey, thanks mom for his summer outfit!)

Sock Monkey

CFA: Camille Feels Abandoned

Jason has been studying for the second level of the CFA (which really stands for Chartered Financial Analyst). As wikipedia puts it, "Exams are challenging, with only 42% passing the Level I, 39% passing Level II, and 46% passing Level III exam in June 2010."

He's been so dedicated to studying for this test on June 4th, but I hardly see him anymore because he stays late at work to study until 11pm or later. We're asleep by the time he comes home, and by the time he wakes up to leave in the morning, Lincoln is usually down for his morning nap, so the two of them go days between seeing eachother!

Mark my words, in 3 weeks, we're going crazy. I already have so many plans made, babysitters lined up, Groupons bought. I take that back. In 3 weeks, we're gonna move, and then my brother +friends are coming to stay for a few days, and THEN we're going crazy. We're gonna spend the whole summer vacationing in our own city.

Go Fetch

Why wouldn't this be every baby's favorite game? Throw all the toys on the floor and watch everyone pick them up and put them on my tray over and over and over again!

Look at the Eddie Bauer high chair I found on craigslist! I've just never been a fan of the giant plastic ones. Sure, this might be harder to clean, but it matches our table and chairs and I won't mind looking at it in our kitchen for the next decade.

Tabula Rasa

We took a fieldtrip to scope out our new home a little better; you know, size up the possibility of getting some of our furniture up the staircase, count how many windows are gonna need curtains, see if we need to get a coat rack because there are no closets on the main floor, etc.Ok, we're the 2nd and 3rd floor on the left, behind the tree. This super great public park is there on the right, with slides, swings, and a basketball court! So you walk up a flight to get to our front door, which is across the hall from where Lincoln is sitting. I'm standing in the mini-study here (which will probably be a mudroom for coats, shoes, strollers, toys, etc.) You can see the bathroom at the end of the hall. As Jason put it, "its nothin to scream about", and with the bedrooms all upstairs, its gonna be blast going up and down 3x/night the next time I'm pregnant, but it could be worse! It has cute mini tub, just perfect for two little kids to fit in.

I love the blue walls and wainscotting!! Yay for a ceiling fan because there is no air conditioning. Welcome to Boston housing. We're excited about having room for a full couch in here, but again, the dilemma of getting up the stairwell. Ok, turn around and you'll see the kitchen: True, sometimes I take Lincoln around on errands in Christmas pajamas, and then set him on countertops while I take pictures. I'm sure that gives me negative mommy points somewhere. Cute accent wall, huh! Ok, if you go back to the first picture, you can see the banister that goes up. These are the stairs that Lincoln will fall down a few times I'm sure, so I'm glad they're carpeted. I'm going to try the gate-less approach my mom used, and try to teach him early how to slide down the steps backwards. Still, they're pretty narrow and steep, so I might be trying that technique myself. There are two bedrooms this size, the other identical, but opposite layout And two mini-rooms, which will be the baby room and a sewing room, holla! So now you've had the tour! Move date: t minus 25 days!

I Love Prom

Always will. Even if I'm not allowed to go anymore. It was nice to only make one Prom dress this season. Bridesmaids dresses seem to be my thing this year. Well, for Carson's dress, she sent me the link of a dress she liked, and I tried to copy it without a pattern, and here's what we got:

Pretty Carson and my pretty sister Janae (also wearing a dress I made last year!)

Maybe in our new ward, we'll have Young Women who need modest dresses and I'll get to make more pretty things! I need my Prom fix :)

Breakfast of Champions

I made treats for Jason to take to school, I mean work, today :) It was his turn to bring in breakfast for his team, so I'm sent him with the legendary Millar baked french toast for all the bachelors who don't have mommies or wives to cook for them!

King Henry French Toast

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup butter

2 T. corn syrup

6 eggs

2 cups milk

1 T. vanilla

1 loaf French bread

Combine butter, sugar, and corn syrup in a saucepan. Heat until boiling and boil 1 minute, stirring constantly. Pour into a greased 9 x 13 pan. Slice bread into 8 slices (I did 16 slices) and arrange over syrup. Combine eggs, milk, vanilla (and I added some cinnamon) in blender for 15 seconds. Pour over bread. Cover and refridgerate overnight. Bake at 350, uncovered, for 45 min. Sprinkle with pecans and powdered sugar.

Like Father, Like Son

Lately, Lincoln's hair always stands up in the middle. Jason's hair looks just like this in the mornings, but he won't let me take a picture of it.

Mothers Day Make-over

Happy Mothers Day to my beautiful mom! I love you!

Speaking of amazing mothers, my dear friend Natalie just had her 2nd baby a few weeks ago!

When we were moving all our stuff across the country together, she handed off some of her old formals to me to use for fabric.

And so for baby Kelsey, I made a little summer dress! It was SO much fun!! I kept squealing over it and showing Jason how cute and tiny the little ruffles were. Awww!

Returned with Honor

My little brother Braden came home from his mission yesterday! He was serving for 2 years in Samara, Russia.

(Hmm, I honestly don't know why Levi is painted like a mime)

I freakin love this guy! It'll be another month and half before he gets to meet Lincoln, but they got a little Skype in last night. What a stud. Good job, little brother!

I'm so proud of you!

A Home, For Reals

• Finding a deleaded apartment in Boston: difficult
• Finding a deleaded apartment with more than 1 bedroom: more difficult
• Finding such an apartment for less than $2000/month with a washer/dryer and doesn't look and smell like a meth house: near impossible
• Finding a deleaded, renovated FOUR bedroom + office, a dishwasher, a view, washer/dryer/storage in the basement, kitty corner to three parks, less than a mile to Constitution Beach, a 15 minute commute for Jason (instead of 45 min to an hour) in East Boston for $1700: not a chance in the world

But we found one! (Honestly, I think its because we paid the biggest tithing check of our lives last Sunday.) This is going to be a crazy next few weeks, especially with Jason taking CFA Level II on the 4th, but we're so excited! And so blessed! I'm freeeeakin excited to stay in one place for more than 4 months, unlike our last 3 moves!

Pinewood Derby - 1 out of ?

We had our ward Pinewood Derby last night! It was fun having a project we could do together! Obviously, Jason took the designing, cutting, and sanding much more seriously.

Then we pulled out the trusty woodburner, my weapon of choice on the table project.

Can you name all these Boston landmarks?

Is that my car coming in 1st or last?!

And in the "Open" category, seeing as half of our ward consists of MIT students, we had some pretty incredible cars!

We unded up in 19th and 30th place, losing to all the cub scout cars that Jason helped them make.

But not a total loss--I won "Best Paintjob" :)

East Coast Easter

Happy Easter to Me

Last minute, I felt like sewing up Easter outfits for us, but making a baby bow tie wasn't very time-intensive. Without a little girl to sew for, I had to make an Easter dress for myself :)

After working on so many sewing jobs lately for weddings, ward members, our babysitter, Esty, and Prom, it feels so vain to sew for myself again, but its oh so fun to be creative from scratch, and nice when I know my own measurements and can try it on every step of the way. Plus, I don't care how it looks on the inside.

Choose Your Own Housing Adventure

This apartment hunting is really stressing me out. Yes, there are plenty of options available, but its finding a long-term place big enough for a growing family, staying within the ward boundaries because I've made so many dear friends already, and staying within our budget. And sorry to make demands, but a washer/dryer is a huge priority! OH and finding something deleaded, but everything here is more than 150 years old.

For every 25 calls and emails I make inquiring about such apartments, I only get 1 or 2 responses because things are going so quickly. Even working with realtors, I find myself making appointments at 11pm, to have the listing sold before I get there in the morning. Its feels like a full-time job.

Its hard to decide whether we should move out asap so we're not in a bind when our place does sell, or if we should not look into anything and stay as long as possible, then freak out when we're given the 60 days. Wow, there are SO many aspects to picking out a home, and I worry about the consequences of each decision and don't want to regret moving my family into a bad place.

I keep thinking of a post I wrote more than 2 1/2 years ago that my brother pointed out to me. I pulled it up and realized how much I liked it and think its relavent to a lot of us.

Choose Your Own Adventure

http://thoroughlymoderncamille.blogspot.com/2008/08/choose-your-own-adventure.html

I'm a big fan of "Choose Your Own Adventure" books. I could direct you to the wall of them at the local library. Lately, I can't help but make another analogy of how life is our own "Choose Your Own...", where we are the protagonist, making the choices that determine one of so many options in the end. In these books, at the end of every page, you have to make a choice, each option telling you what page to turn to next. You keep making choices, keep jumping to other pages, and eventually end up at one of typically 40 different endings--some rewarding, satisfactory, some death.

So God hands us the book and says, "Here, see what you make of it". Its our book, we're turning the pages, calling the shots. We'll always have our agency, the choice is always ours. We can read it how we like, but realize that its all about the sequence of events. If you skip a page, some critical element of your story dissapears and suddenly you've lost the direction of where to go next! If we read it the way WE think it should go, it doesn't make any sense! If you want to make God laugh, tell him YOUR plans!

I think we're meant to enjoy the book along the way. We've all read and hated classic novels from high school English class, or college physics textbooks, but I think that this is one not meant to be skimmed. There's a lot to learn on every page, to take time and enjoy the story! Its your life. Stop thinking "I'll be happy when I get to page 88", "I'll be happy when I'm out of school". Learn to be happy on the page you're on, Camille! Choices are stressful, yes? When we get to that part:

If you decide to start back home, turn to page 34. If you decide to wait, turn to page 95.

...you start to get nervous! Don't we all feel that way at one point or another, that this ONE decision will set us on a plot line we never wanted? "If I don't study, I'll fail this test, I've lost my scholarship, and I'll have to drop out of school", "If I walk away from this relationship now, I'll never know if it couldn't worked in the end". And they usually aren't easy decisions, are they? If it was an obvious choice, there'd be no question, and everyone would end up with the same exact story. It's not always choosing between good and bad. Lots of times its between good and good, and we base our decisions on what we think would make us the happiest. And when a decision doesn't bring us happiness, we think it was the wrong one, but maybe those decisions are the ones that will lead us to a greater joy. One course will bring us the greatest happiness.

We may never know the many options that lie on the number of pages that unfortunately and fortunately will never be read. We think about that all the time, don't we? "I wonder where I would be if I wasn't a member of this Church", "What would I be doing tonight if we had never met?" I bet while you're on page 25, its hard to imagine what the end looks like. Even if we could read the endings first, and see what page we'd like to end on, we still would have no idea how to get there. Its supposed to be that way.

God wrote it, he knows what's on every page. And He wants us to choose the best-case-scenario, don't you? Maybe that one designed plotline was meant to be longer than others, include certain pages that no one else reads, send you in some direction you never thought it would.

In some way, we can't write our own story. It's already written. But we can choose our own adventure!

Page Boy

Link's new thing is riping up magazines. He'll go to town tearing out pages of Dad's Economist.

Anything crinkly and crunchy!

My UPS Man

In a big city of thousands of people (the most densely populated in New England, remember?), I find so much small-town happiness in my friendship with my UPS man :) Every time we have a package, on his way around the house and in a cute but borderline-creepy way, he taps on the window and waves that he's coming. Since Lincoln and I have a favorite pastime of strollering all over this city, we see our friend everywhere! He honks and we wave, and he'll shout out to me if there's something on his truck for us.

And I think its cute that Jason's jealous of my don't-even-know-his-name-friendship with another man, even the UPS guy.