Milestones

Baby rolled over for the first time today. Great job, Lochlan! We're so proud of you! I can bet the first rollover was the result of his hatred of tummy time. Well, at least we think it's the first time. When we check up on him at night, mysterious things have happened. For instance, there have been a few times when he has turned a good 90 degrees. that was the beginning. Soon, we saw that he had done a full 360. He will scoot to the other end of the crib until his head is mashed up against the head of the crib, but he's been doing that for a while--it's old news. Now he'll be rolling around in there. Our little boy is growing up!

Dinner

I am posting this last week's dinner menu for our family. Not all the items were made, but for the ones that were, I will include brief descriptions of the recipe (if you want it, you can make a comment or email me and I will get it to you), and a report on how good it tasted and ease of creation. Here it goes:

Monday: not planned :(

Tuesday: not planned :(

Wednesday: chicken fricassee (didn't actually make--discovered about a half hour before eating time that it takes a couple hours)

Thursday: usually Fend-For-Yourself night because Jaren has class until 9, but this week, he called and asked if I would make him something, so we had breakfast for dinner (eggs, turkey bacon, oatmeal, and toast).

Friday: it was Jaren's birthday, so we had a couple of friends over. We had Salmon (broiled with lemon juice and dill weed), roasted red potatoes (olive oil, rosemary, marjoram, and thyme), and a light cucumber salad (peeled and sliced cucumbers, olive oil, and dried or fresh tarragon). It was served with aloe vera drink and milkis (carbonated milk) from Korea. Very easy to make and quite delicious.

Saturday: Dinner at the Gala fundraiser in a mansion that cost $23 million to build. 28,000 square feet and 18 bathrooms. Nice.

Sunday: Meatloaf (1lb ground beef, one box of StoveTop stuffing chicken flavor, and two eggs; ketchup, honey and Worcestershire sauce for top. Bake @ 350 for an hour), instant mashed potatoes (Honest Earth brand--delicious!!!), and canned green beans (removed from can of course). Very easy and very good. Best meatloaf I've ever had!

I thought this might give you ideas for planning your meals. I know that the hardest part of making dinner is deciding what to eat. After that, it's a piece of cake, speaking of, I made some Crazy Cake this week too. Wonderful!

MOM IS HERE!!!

Here we are. One week and two days away from Kristin and baby's big day. At least, she's due in a week and two days. It would surprise me greatly if baby were to come on the day he's due. Being on time just isn't our family style. It's not up to us, though. If he doesn't come on July 27th like he's supposed to, the doctor says he wants to induce a week later. August 3rd is our last possible day for not being parents. All in all, we hope that Kristin will start labor without having to be induced since it can be hard on the body and possibly bring along some complications. So if he's not here by next week, we'll be pulling out all the stops: jumping jacks, eating spaghetti while standing on your head, jogging, scuba diving, etc. I honestly don't know very many, but we'll discover some if we have to.

Mom came! Woot! Woot! She came all the way from Missouri to be with us and help us adjust to this crazy new thing known as having a baby. I think it will be so great for Kristin to have the support of her mother. This is a big deal. It will be a great lift to have with us the wisdom of someone who has done this many times before. I know I'm useless here, but Kristin really wants me there for some reason; so I'm glad since I'd kind of like to see him come, too.

We're grateful to Dad for letting us steal Mom from him for a while. You know it can't be fun to have to cook for yourself when options are pathetically limited. For me the options are: 1) sandwich, 2) macaroni and cheese, or 3) some sort of canned soup. I can heat stuff up, or throw some simple ingredients together, it's the combining of several ingredients over several steps that is just asking for trouble. I'm not sure what the options are for Colin, but I imagine they are similarly small. So thank you Dad, for your great sacrifice. My advice: hit up the Lion's Club dinners :)

Sadly, we aren't taking very good care of mom. She's only been here three days and she's already got an injury. We had a ward softball game this morning, but we didn't have quite enough people show so we had to forfeit. There was another team that forfeited so we went and played with them for fun. We asked Mom if she wanted to take some swings, so she did. She was swinging okay until she took a swing at a really bad pitch and sort of tripped/ stumbled forward. Sprained right ankle, darn it. What a bummer. So she's keeping off of it and hopefully she'll be better in no time.

Also, Jill came down with some of the kids to visit us and it was loads of fun. I posted a picture of me and Lacie with one of her favorite dinners, the banana. Jill brought McKinley and her friend Saydie down for BYU Cheer Camp and they stayed with us a little bit. We had a lot of fun together and it's just too bad we're all so far apart.

Life's good. Full time working for me and full time getting ready for baby for all of us. He's a welcome little miracle that will fill our lives with so much joy (and other stuff not so joyous, but that's not as fun to talk about).

Yay for mommies!

The Last Voyage

When the end of finals finally arrived we wanted outta here! Tuesday afternoon I darted home and we hustled to get our things together and finish those chores that must be done before a trip. You know the sort: dishes, garbage, etc. And by 2:30pm we were on our way. It was a feeling of relief to leave behind the cares of school and final examinations. *Sigh. The beginning of a long needed break.

The weather was agreeable all the way to Helena and we stayed with Pook and John. It was on our way to Great Falls from Helena midday Thursday that it precipitated a bit and the H20, in whatever form it was in or changing to, stuck to our truck in a very curious manner. So we took some pictures of it. Also somewhat curious and sad is that we didn’t take pictures of anything else. Dang it!

In Helena on Wednesday we watched the kids. It was fun, though very much a “growing experience” to go from zero to four kids in just one day! We played Tracball, Frisbee, and ran around on the playground at the park. We visited Pook at Costco since she was working at the pumps for a while. Back home we proceeded to accomplish the impossible: wash the van with the kids’ help. It was cute to see them going at it at first. I rushed to get a camera for the cuteness occasion, but by the time Kristin got there the attention span had expired and there wasn’t much going on. Maybe Maddy got a quick snapshot, but we were unsuccessful. So pretty much I finished washing the van myself. It’s nice to get that feeling of accomplishment by doing something effective, constructive, or manly even while vacationing. I don’t always get that chance in school since I try so hard and my chemistry test always concludes that I’m just not good enough.

Thursday and Friday we spent some time with Jeremy, Jill, and family. More manly things ensued with lifting heavy things, moving furniture and miscellaneous objects, and burning some unwanted junk. All with a great feeling of triumph and achievement.

We sure do love visiting family. John & Erin and Jeremy &Jill have been so kind and so welcoming. Our trip this time just wasn’t long enough, but we tried to make the most of it. Unfortunately our “wild child” days of picking up and going, may soon be over. The foreseeable future seems to hold no trips for us. The baby boy we’re expecting in July (who I’m thinking will come in August if he’s truly to be a member of this family since we’re always late J) may well act as a tie down. Perhaps we’ll never be able to leave Provo again. No!!! Okay so maybe I’m going over the top. It will be exciting and new in its own way while being a great challenge in our life. Yet we can’t help but think of the joy that will come of it! The first grand baby for my parents. Numero nineteen para los abuelos Sorhus. A cute little chunker of our own to smile and giggle and snuggle with. I mean . . . to be manly and chop wood and pour cement with. AND he’ll be half me and half Kristin! Yay for baby!!!

So we’ve got some growing up to do as we approach the end of the days we knew as “free.” We lived it up. Now that party is over, and a new and more responsible party begins.

Margaret

In this family, we have a lot of Margarets. My grandmother's name was Margaret, my sister's middle name is Margaret, I have a couple nieces with the middle name Margaret, and my brother married a wonderful girl named Margaret. 

I remember my grandmother remarking one time that she didn't particularly like her name, but her friends called her Peggy and she thought that was ok (she really hated her middle name which was Viola). I have wondered since that time how people got "Peggy" from "Margaret." They don't sound at all alike, and there isn't even a "P" in "Margaret." I recently found a little poem by an anonymous author that explains:

In search from A to Z they passed, 
And "Marguerita" chose at last; 
But thought it sounded far more sweet 
To call the baby "Marguerite." 
When grandma saw the little pet, 
She called her "darling Margaret." 
Next uncle Jack and cousin Aggie 
Sent cup and spoon to "little Maggie." 
And grandpapa the right must beg 
To call the lassie "bonnie Meg." 
From "Marguerita" down to "Meg," 
And now she's simply "little Peg."

Some more of the interesting nicknames for "Margaret" are Margot, Marguerite, Marguerita, Rita, Greta, Gretel, Gretchen, Marjorie, Margie, Maggie, May, Madge, Maisy, Daisy, Maidie, Meg, Mog, Poggy, and of course Peg and Peggy (how did they come up with all these nicknames from just one name?).

Kristin's Got A Brand New Hair Do (it rhymes if you say it right)

On Feb. 18th, I decided to get my hair chopped off. So, I went to the Paul Mitchell hair school, found a picture in one of their books that I liked, and had them cut my hair. I had previously decided that I wanted an A-line bob short enough that I could give my hair to Locks of Love. You know when they put your hair in the ponytail and then cut it off for Locks of Love? Well, I was actually pretty disappointed when this part came because  it was very unceremonious. I always expected to have this big hoopla like they do on TV shows when someone gives their hair to charity, but in reality, they just cut off the hair and put it in a box. I didn't even get to hold it. Oh well, I still feel good about giving it to charity.

Back to the hair style. I wanted it to look like a mixture of these two:

So here are the before and afters.

Before:

After:

On a side note, one of the symptoms of Graves Disease is protruding of the eyes and a "prominent stare" of the eyes. The picture above this one really shows it. Here's an old picture of me before I was pregnant to compare:

Forsaken Blog

Why has our blog been forsaken?

To answer this question we must first answer another question: Why is Kristin so sick?

This is indeed a mystery. Some might try to place blame upon the innocent, bystanding husband. This may be true in part, but the truth's true truth would point to the dubious thyroid. Once lurking in the shadows waiting for its moment to arrive until now, when it can be a hyperthyroid and cause all kinds of discomfort.

Kristin has been, as of late, the victim of this terrible nausea. She can't even stand the thought of making her own food most of the time. So how can she stand the thought of blogging? Perhaps this post will invite a retort of a sort, and we shall see what saith the poor wayfairing woman.

Now let's make it clear that I'm just having fun with this. It's mostly to update y'all on our situation and give an excuse for our non-blogging. Kristin has been trying to manage her sickness. I've been working and going to school. And that just about takes up all the time we've got. We are fortunate enough to have support from all angles. Colin and Marianne stayed with us for a week or two and REALLY helped out a lot. Seriously. Our house is quite the spectacle anymore; organization is its new middle name. So that was great and we know we have family to turn to and our ward is very supportive (though there are at least a dozen other sisters in the ward that are preggers).

One more question before we close. How come Pook gets to be so healthy and strong when she's pregnant, but Kristin and the other sisters AND mom got the short end of the stick (each end varying in shortness)? Is it just the luck of the draw? Who knows. My hope is that this will at least calm itself with the subsequent pregnancies. Otherwise we're going to have to make friends with the adoption agency.

So that's our life. Chemistry and Physics for me, Zofran and PTU for Kristin. One stage of life I hope we can look back on without nausea.

Bear Creek Dehydrated Potato Soup

Just before our first date, Jaren had some Bear Creek dehydrated potato soup for dinner. Later on in the night, we were sitting next to each other on the couch watching a movie (Nacho Libre). He had nasty burps the whole night, and apparently had the toots too, but kept them in so I wouldn't be grossed out. Ever since, we have been wary of Bear Creek.