The One with Foxes as Man's Best Friend

The current cover of National Geographic has a fox on it and it's all about turning foxes into pets and how they can be man's best friend.



I whole-heartedly agree - Fox can most definitely be man's (or woman's) best friend :)

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The One with the Taylor's House

My Taylor grandparents have impeccable taste. They designed and built their home on a hill overlooking the Provo valley. Every time I visit I enjoy look at all their stuff. This past visit I took some pics of my favorite findings.

Best chair to nurse in ever. Why? Cuz it's got a massaging thing on it! Yes please.


Pretty watercolor.


Grandpa's immaculate library.


The wallpaper in the library.


A cross-stitched pillow made for my Grandpa.


More stunning cross-stitched pillows.


Another view of the library. So colorful!


The wallpaper in one of the bathrooms.


And another cross-stitched pillow. I guess I'm really into those or something.


The view from their large living room window which overlooks the Provo temple and Utah Lake.


On a related note to the Taylor's - I was in my grandparent's bedroom talking with my Grandma Cathie when I noticed a small black & white photo of her dad when he was just a boy. The boy was standing with his mother. It hit me really hard right then and there that this little boy in this picture lived a life. He was a person with dreams and goals and ambitions and he had a mom and grandparents and children of his own. I never knew this boy/man, but I am his descendant and life goes on. Will someone further down in my line of relatives come across my scrapbooks and blog and wonder at my life? I received an interesting email from my grandpa that went like this:

"I, John Arthur Taylor, am Rhoda Young McNicol's great grandson. She was born in 1842 and died two years after I was born. Notwithstanding my young age, I can remember her as a dark, somber figure sitting on the front porch of our little home in Provo where she was visiting. I am now 82 years of age. Hence our briefly overlapping lives cover one hundred sixty-nine years (2011 minus 1842 equals 169). Moreover, with the birth of my first great grandchild, I am at the midpoint of three generations preceding and following my life during that 169 years as follows:

The email with this chart was sent out to the Taylor family and several responses are worth noting:
"A lifetime can seem short in certain ways but it is pretty amazing to think about the changes in the world and technology within that 169 years."

"Benji met his great-grandparents when he was a baby. They were born in the early 20th century and Anissa tells me that when they were little they had ancestors still alive who came across the plains as pioneers."

"If you allow 20 years to a generation, then we only have 100 generations back to the days of Jesus. Doesn't that seem like a relatively very small number? My 169 years alone encompasses 8+ generations! If you assume that there is always someone around who is an hundred, then one could count only 20 generations back to Jesus."

I wonder if I will be around to see my great grandchildren? That seems so far away! Fox has to grow up and get married and have children, then HIS children have to grow up and get married and have children, and THEN I'll be able to send out my own chart of three generations preceding and following.

Interesting stuff man!

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The One with Ferberizing Fox

To all the mothers of 5 1/2 month old babies who are sleeping through the night - I envy you, am so jealous of you, want to be you, am mad at you :) Pre-Fox I used to sleep 10 hours a night. I'm a sleep snob. But I have literally not slept in longer than a 5 hour stretch since Fox was born, and that was months ago because his sleeping habits have been getting worse and worse as time goes on. I knew I wouldn't have a good night's sleep after having a baby, it's just one of the things you sacrifice to start a family, but now that I'm hearing about all the babies Fox's age (or younger) sleeping 8, 10, even 13 hours a night... oy vey. I'm thinkin' it's about time we figure this thing called "sleeping through the night" out.

Fox used to go to bed around 9pm, wake up at 2am, and then at 6am, so I just had to wake up from my deep sleep to feed him once at 2am. But for the past two months or so he's been going to sleep between 6 and 8pm, waking up at 10pm, 12am, 2am, 4am, 5am, 6am 7am.... OMG. Every hour or two hours. Let's just say both Chris and I have been a tad on the grumpy side as of late.

I don't know what we've been doing wrong to make Fox have such horrible sleeps, but two nights ago we decided to let him cry it out when he woke up at 11pm. It was soooo hard hearing him cry so loud and so long. I was literally nauseous and felt like I was going to throw up because the pit in my stomach was so big and hurt so bad hearing him suffer. But eventually he stopped crying and fell asleep on his stomach. That made me nervous cuz babies aren't supposed to sleep on their stomach so even though he was sleeping peacefully I still got up every hour to make sure he was alive.

Last night he hard a hard time even falling asleep which is unusual, he usually falls asleep on his own quite well, I think he knew what was coming. He went to sleep at 8pm and then woke up at 10:30pm. We let him cry for 3 minutes then went into his nursery to pacify him. He kept crying so we let him cry for 6 minutes then went in to pacify him. He still kept crying and we let him cry for a half hour before I finally gave in and nursed him back to sleep. I believe he woke up at 2:30am and cried for a little bit, but he must have fallen asleep on his own because next thing I know it was 5am! So he slept from 11-5! Woo hoo!

I know it may have been a fluke to get that 6 hour stretch on only our 2nd night of "Ferberizing", but everyone I've talked to says crying it out works so hopefully sooner rather than later I'll be back to my 10-hours-of-sleep-a-night-sleep-snob self :)

Good thing I find him super duper uber cute and love him to pieces!

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The One with Amy's Books

(The wonderful and awesome and pretty and stylish and talented :) Amy asked me to make her a pair of books with her doggie's on them and I gladly obliged. I present: Buster and Bamboo books!

Here's a close-up of each doggie's profile that I painted with gauche:


Both Rachel and Joey came down into the stairwell to keep me company while I took pictures of the books. Actually I think they just wanted to be IN the pictures...


Both books are coptic bindings with wooden covers.



I used Sassafras patterned papers for the inside pages.

Close-ups of the stitching:


Fun fun fun.

Here's Amy with her books:

TTFN!

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The One with a Dash of Fox

Apparently Fox really likes the combination of his red panda toy (which Chris has named Nigel for some reason unbeknownst to me) and his daddy saying "top drawer" in a funky British accent. He's never laughed so hard and I'm SOOO glad I got it on video!


When Joey wants to play he brings a toy and drops it at your feet. Apparently he thinks Fox can play with him because while I was working I turned around and saw Joey had dropped his toy pretty much on top of Fox.


Gotta wait a couple more years Joey! Then Fox will be good and ready to play with and entertain you.

Fox made THE biggest mess today eating his squash.

It got all over him, me, and the floor. We're still working on the whole swallowing instead of spitting bit.

If I had all the money in the world I'd buy Fox these fun toys that were in my daily Zulily email this morning:




Fancy shchmancy!

Ok - gotta get back to work now :)

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The One with Embarrassing Stories

There's a reason I have a hard time recalling embarrassing stories at the drop of a hat. I block them from my memory! Why would anyone WANT to remember embarrassing things that have happened to them? I dunno, but I guess for the sake of funny stories to tell I will dig deep into the crevices of my buried emotionally scarring moments and enlighten you with my tales.

This first story happened just this past Monday so it's still fresh in my mind. I was at lunch at Thai Drift with my friends from American Crafts. I was sitting in my chair trying to juggle Fox in one arm on my lap and put the bottle cap back on the bottle on the table with my other hand. All of a sudden the bottle slipped out from under the cap and the cap went flying across the room and HIT SOME GUY IN THE FACE! AHHHH! Stuff like that only happens in movies! Jen can back me up on this story, she was the one who so graciously retrieved my AWOL bottle cap. I didn't look at that guy for the rest of the meal.

This next story also happened just this past Monday. I guess my stars were aligned (or unaligned?). I was talking to a friend at Northridge when Fox started farting/pooping in my arms. It was loud so that was embarrassing in and of itself. But then I felt something warm drip on my foot and was mortified when I looked down and saw bright orange Fox poop all over my foot and the floor. I was so embarrassed. Luckily the guy I was talking to has three kids so he knows what blow outs are all about. Later that day when I was back at my grandparent's house talking to Tanya I noticed that, sure, I got Fox all cleaned up, but I forgot to clean up my own foot...


Next: When we were living in Provo Chris's parents came to visit. They were all standing in our crowded hallway and Chris was showing off his golf clubs. I have incredibly impeccable timing because right as I walked past Chris he pulled out a 5 Iron and smacked me in the eye. Spouse abuse! It was a total accident but dang it hurt and all I wanted to do was cry but I didn't want to look like a wimp in front of my in-laws so I held it in.

Once upon a time when I was about 10 years old I went to camp with my 5th grade class. It was the first night and I must have forgotten to pee before I went to bed because I wet my sleeping bag. I woke up my counselor and told her what happened and basically she told me stick myself where the sun don't shine and she'd figure it out in the morning. Yeah, I went back to bed in my pee. In the morning she said she'd get my sleeping bag washed but I swear when they brought it back to me later that day all they did was hang it out to dry because it still smelled like pee. TMI? Forgive me.

That's all I can think of for now. If I think of any more I'll add them to this post.

But while I'm story-telling I might as well share this gem even though it's not embarrassing. The guy who lived in this apartment before us is in some serious trouble. For about a year now we've been getting phone calls and random people knocking on our door looking for him because he owes them money. No matter how many times we've told these people we are not this in-debt person, they keep harassing us. At 4AM (!!!!) this morning, the doorbell rang. I'm dead serious. I told Chris to be careful as he got up and out of bed and looked out the window to see who was there. It was some towing truck so Chris answered the door. It was two men and they were here to repossess this previous tenant's BMW that he hasn't made payments on in like a year. HE DOESN'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE PEOPLE! Ring our doorbell again at 4am and see what happens!

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The One with Utah Adventures Part Two

I'm back in good ol' South Pasadena now. Back to reality! Here's what I did on the second half of my Utah vacay:

On Sunday I went to church with the Taylors. We got Fox two little baby boy ties at the outlets in Park City, one of which he sported:


As I was leaving church I saw this bag and almost stole it (not really, but shoot it's cute!):


The weekly Sunday tradition is to have lunch over at the Warners, which we did. It was so fun to see Sara Jayne and Tyler, Maren and Logan, Eric and Tanya (pleeeeeease start a blog!), Grandma Doris and Grandpa Ted. I didn't get a pic of the whole group, but I got some of Eric and Tanya with Fox.

Eric's second time (pretty much) holding a baby!


Tanya on the other hand is born to be a mom :)


Monday morning Eric ditched Tanya to go to school and work (school schmool work scmurk) so I invited her to hang out with me and our first stop was the BYU Stock Room so I could find out the hours they're open. They have really thick chipboard sheets called binder's board that I use to make books and I've been out for awhile and you can only get it if you have a BYU ID card so I needed to use my brother's and find a time he could be there to meet me and use it :)

Then we drove out to Pleasant Grove High School to see Sari Christensen - the (mighty talented and awesome!) art teacher I did my student teaching with back in the winter of 2007. Has it really been 3 1/2 years since then??

So glad we keep in touch.

Typical high school boy being a goof in the background.

Fun fun fun. Love catching up with Sari and all her many adventures. Some day I really do want to be an art teacher!

Then we went to Costco to pick up the pictures of Fox with his great-grandparents so they can have a copy.

I love the Orem Costco.

Eric picked up Tanya from Costco then I went to American Crafts to visit my old work pals. I sure miss it there! Thank goodness my foot is still in the door via the blog :)

Andi the receptionist showing off some glitter paper.

A few of the In-House Designers and Scrapbookers meeting together to start a brand new line. First step: pick the colors.


Then I went upstairs to my old office and said hi to everyone else.

Here's Ann-Marie and her cutely decked out desk.

Cute paper banners.


Mmmm yummy cardstock!

An entire wall of Thickers - what more could a girl ask for?

All the current product set up and just begging to be used!


We went to lunch at my favorite Thai place in Utah - Thai Drift. No pictures, but I do have a supremely embarrassing story to share in a post later this week. I'm going to do a big "embarrassing stories" post because I've racked up a lot of them lately....

After lunch I went to Northridge Media/Scrapbook Trends to say hi to everyone there. Though I don't know half the people anymore!

The front foyer.

My rock and foundation: Kate Herrick. I'd be lost without her.

Bins and bins and bins of projects!

SEVEN magazines are going to press all at once next month. So many magazines. So many. It's a good thing though!

The head honchos, Brian and Chad.

An ENTIRE warehouse full of Cricut cartridges and machines. Gimme gimme gimme!

Palettes and palettes and palettes of magazines ready to be shipped.


After visiting with the fine folks of ST I went back to the Taylor's to change and feed Fox and pick up Tanya. We went to White Elegance to get me a new temple dress (my rib cage expanded when I was pregnant, I swear!, so now my dress doesn't fit anymore), and then we met my bro at the BYU Stock Room so I could get that binder's board.


After that, I drove out to Alisha's new house in Lindon and ate dinner with Nichole and Justin and their baby girl Evie (she's only 10 days older than Fox!) and Richard and Bre and their two little girls Adelaide and Gwen.

We ate nummy food then let Fox and Evie play together.

Or rather, try and grab the pacies out of their mouths and poke each others eyes out...


Babies are so cute together.

Tuesday morning I packed all my bags and Grandpa Taylor took us to the airport. Fox was so good on the plane, not even one little cry.

Nice advertisement for Southwest eh?

It's good to be back LA!

Our next big adventure? We're going to Seattle during one of Chris's few and far between school breaks in a few weeks! It'll be nice to have an extra set of hands when flying with Mr. Fox, that's for sure :)

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