Sharing

Behold Jacob's "chewy". It clips onto his shirt so that he has something to chew on all the time, which has decreased the overall destruction in our home significantly. Ty's been eyeing it for a few days now, wondering why it was so great that Jacob never goes anywhere without it. Today he decided to find out. And Jacob being the loving big brother that he is, decided to share the joy. I found them sitting together chewing away contentedly.

New Tricks

Well, dear blog readers, now that we are employed, I'm afraid that our news just isn't going to have the same level of excitement for you. No more interviews or speculation about where we'll end up...


To try to make you feel better, I'll start by sharing one of the precious moments of my day. I heard Benjamin yelling from the bathroom, "Mom! I'm going potty and Ty's in here splashing in the water!" I ran in to find Benjamin holding up the toilet seat watching Ty splash happily in the pretty yellow water. Ty's other trick that he started today made me a lot happier: He started waving! Brigham walked into the room, and Ty waved at him! I thought it might be a fluke, but Brigham walked out of the room and then walked back in, and it happened again! Sometimes it's hard for me not to think that he is the most amazing kid in the whole world since he follows Jacob who meets milestones a lot later-- Jacob only mastered waving about a month ago! (I have to confess that even though Ty's milestone achievements amaze me, Jacob's THRILL me.)

Jacob's also learned some new tricks. He learned how to turn the light on a couple of weeks ago, and today he learned how to turn on the CD player. So tonight a few minutes after I put him to bed I was surprised to see the light shining under the door and hear "Old MacDonald" pumping as well. I went in and found Jacob bouncing on Benjamin's bed and partying it up. I had to turn the CD player all the way off and tape the light switch to keep him from pulling an all-nighter. What a kid! He's decided that he REALLY doesn't like to wear diapers, and I am forced to put overalls that are criss-crossed in the front on top of his school clothes to keep him from taking off his pants and diaper every two minutes. Potty training will probably begin next week, and while I am sure that it will be a very LONG and PAINFUL process, I'm ready to just do it!

Benjamin's new favorite past time is playing football with the neighbor boys, and he's taken a new interest in BYU football, which couldn't make his dad happier. He's counting down the days until Halloween and prays in every prayer that the days until then will be filled with fun things so that it will feel like they go faster.

I love a quote that my dear friend passed along to me, "The days are long, but the years are short." It's so true! What a time-intensive, wonderful, fun family I have!

Employed!!!

Yes, it is true: After six and a half years of post-graduate training, we finally have a "real" job! And where are we going?? Salt Lake City, Utah! It's true! The prodigals are finally returning home, so get those fatted calves ready because we are going to party!

We knew that the St. Marks group was meeting last Wednesday to make their decision, but we didn't expect to hear from them the same day. Just as Brigham was walking into his interview with the second group in Las Vegas, he saw an 801 number calling his phone, but he didn't get it since he was just about to go in. He listened to the message though, and was surprised to hear that it was from the director of the St. Marks Hospital in Salt Lake. So all during his interview, he had to sit and wonder if they were calling to offer him a job. After the interview was over, he saw that the director had called again. He called him back, and the director told him that the group had unanimously picked Brigham as their first choice for the job! Brigham asked for 24 hours to talk it over with me, and you can imagine my surprise when Brigham came back to the condo and told me that he was offered the job at St. Marks when I was expecting a report on his Vegas interview. That night the Vegas group took us out for a very nice dinner, and they seemed like great people making a LOT of money (they talked casually about their fancy cars, cabins, and exotic vacations). It was a little painful to say good-bye to the possibilty of making so much money, honestly, but taking the job at St. Marks just felt right. We didn't post something sooner because we wanted to wait until Brigham actually signed the contract just in case, but the deed is now done! So at long last, the Dastrups are homeward bound!

Vegas Part II

What a great vacation this is! It's been the perfect combination between fun and relaxing. Yesterday we spent the morning driving around Vegas with a realtor to get a feel for the city and where we might like to live if we end up here. The truth is that I've been very pleasantly surprised by the city. It's actually quite pretty. It's got a lot of the xeriscaping of Albuquerque, but it also has a lot of palm trees-- making it look greener overall. All of the mountains around it make the landscape more interesting, too. I think that if we end up here, we could be quite happy.

We spent yesterday afternoon on the strip watching the Bellagio's dancing fountain, checking out their indoor fall-themed garden, and just taking in the sights. Then we had dinner at a wonderful Chinese restaurant (which had a bathroom attendant-- talk about awkward! In Vanna-style she showed me the soap dispenser and then hovered over my shoulder with a paper towel for me. The counter was strewn with candy dishes, lotions, perfumes, etc. but I didn't dare check any of them out with Vanna standing there. Then I noticed a tip jar for Ms. Paper Towel, so I got out of there as fast as I could!) and went to see the Blue Man Group perform. What a fun show! I didn't realize that it would be more than percussion-- it had some fun tricks and a lot of comedy involved, too. Brett wanted to know if it was worth the price, and even though it was great, I'd have to say no. It would be worth $20-$40 a ticket I think, but if you have to choose between that and a Broadway show, I'd say go with the show for sure.

This morning we headed into Vegas's red rock mountain area and went for a run there. It was beautiful. We stopped in the middle and did some climbing on the rocks (as opposed to "rock climbing" which actually takes some degree of skill and expertise). Benjamin would have loved it!

Right now Brigham is gone to his fourth and final interview that we have lined up so far. It will be good to get this last piece of the puzzle put into place so that we can see the whole picture!

Viva Las Vegas!

Talk about luxury: I just woke up at 8:45 and crawled out of bed after a night of eating at a delicious buffet (of course I gorged myself mostly on crab and shrimp, but I also enjoyed many tasty things such as seaweed salad, sushi, squid salad, exotic olives, smoked salmon, smoked trout, and finished it off with some amazing desserts!) and seeing the Lion King, which was amazing! And after sleeping in, I just came over and turned on the computer-- no changing diapers, getting Jacob's meds, getting breakfast for hungry boys, getting ready for buses, etc, etc, etc! My dear in-laws are doing all of that while I lounge on the couch here waiting for Brigham to wake up. And while I really do miss my chiquitos, I must say that I am thoroughly enjoying myself! Thank you, thank you, thank you, Mom and Dad Dastrup!

Brigham also had his first Vegas interview yesterday. It went well and we are finding it hard to make decisions between so many good options! Obviously, we may not have the choice of choosing between all of them since we may not be offered a job everywhere, so maybe that will make it easier for us. Both Utah jobs said that we should probably know by the end of the month, and this job said by the first week of November, so maybe we won't have to be in suspense that much longer. What did we used to talk about before the job search began??

Angel Hair

From Angel Hair

I just have to share these pictures of my darling baby! He is such a sweet boy, and it pains me and excites me to see him growing so fast. He's babbling up a storm now (to my great relief) and has started standing independently for short periods of time. He LOVES going outside more than anything. This his love of the great outdoors almost gave me a heart attack this morning, actually. I took the boys for a run, and when we got home, we were in a rush to get Benjamin off to school. After that I changed Jacob's diaper and made Ty's bottle. Towards the latter end of the change, I started getting nervous because I couldn't hear Ty. (All moms know that is usually a bad sign.) I thought he was probably unrolling the toilet paper roll in the bathroom (another favorite), and when I took his bottle to find him, I was horrified to see the front door standing open. Apparently, Benjamin hadn't closed it all the way. I threw the bottle and went sprinting out with my heart in my throat, but fortunately, my little escaped Tiger is a curious fellow and had probably stopped to taste every rock and bug he encountered. I recaptured him at the turn in our sidewalk, but it took a good while for my heart rate to return to normal.

Other of Ty's passions include getting into the dishwasher and the refridgerator.

From Angel Hair

One Down...

Brigham had his first job interview today! Obviously, I wasn't there, but it sounds like it went well. It also sounds like there were many applicants for the position. We won't know whether they will offer him the job until the end of the month most likely. Exciting times!

A First!

How many parents cry when their kid brings home a birthday party invitation from school? I realize that I may be in the minority, but I just couldn't help it! Jacob got invited to his first birthday party ever by one of the kids in his class. I've always been worried that Jacob would go through his entire childhood without ever being invited to a birthday party, so it was such a sweet thing for me to find that invitation in his backpack! The sad thing is that the party will be at this place that has a ton of blow-up bouncy-castle things in it, and Jacob is mortally afraid of them at this stage of his life. He falls apart if we even start going near one! So he won't be attending the party, but I will sleep easier just knowing that he was invited!

Meaningful Moment for Mom

Benjamin shared his testimony in church for the first time today. Frankly, I was quite surprised! He's always been a little shy, so to see him step up in front of the whole congregation and say that he knows that Jesus suffered for all of our sins so we can go back to Him someday was a really neat moment for us. What a great kid!

Balloon Fiesta 2009

This is one of the things that we will miss the most about Albuquerque. It is just so awesome to be able to be right there among hundreds of huge balloons! Mom Groneman joined us this year, and we were glad to be able to share one of our favorite Albuquerque events with her. Cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate helped to make it an even more choice experience. Long live the Balloon Fiesta!

Benjamin's Metamorphosis

Since he was a baby, Benjamin has always been our "safety kid." I blame myself, really. As my first baby, I was always hovering behind him, waiting to catch him whenever he fell down. I can't complain too much, however, since his cautiousness has always made my job easier. I never had to worry about him trying out dangerous playground equipment or climbing on things. Learning to ride a bike without training wheels was a long ordeal, due to a couple of minor tumbles. After a couple of weeks of white-knuckled, half-hearted trys, Benjamin announced to me, "I've decided that I don't want to ride a bike anymore. You just need to buy me a scooter." Being out of ideas, I resorted to bribery and told him that once he could ride his bike without training wheels we'd get him a scooter. After a few more weeks, it finally clicked. Since then he's been showing me all of his bike "tricks", such as standing up on the pedals, holding on with only one hand, etc. So you can imagine my surprise when he called me out to see his new trick and I saw him doing this:


Fortunately I was able to restrain the "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?? GET DOWN FROM THERE BEFORE YOU BREAK YOUR SKULL!" that immediately surged to my lips.

You just don't expect Barney to turn into Evil Knievel.

Better and Better

I just have to take a minute to share our happiness in seeing Jacob's progress. He is doing so well! While there are things that he still can't do or doesn't tolerate, the list is a good bit shorter than it was. Only last year he couldn't handle big crowds or new places. Now they don't seem to phase him a bit. Last year when we took him to Disneyland, I prayed for weeks beforehand and experienced a good bit of anxiety about how he would take it. (My prayers were answered, actually-- the morning of Disneyland he got sick and was sick enough to just sit in his stroller the whole day-- poor little guy.) Now I think that he would LOVE Disneyland. He used to cry all durning sacrament meeting because he wanted to go to nursery, but now as long as he has things to do, he'll be happy. He used to refuse to go down the slide at the playground, but now he'll tackle the big slides all by himself. He sleeps in a toddler bed (or Benjamin's bed if it isn't occupied), feeds himself with a spoon, rides the bus without crying, waves "hi" and "good-bye", and even raises his hand at school when the teacher asks who wants to do the calendar (he likes to hold the pointer stick they use for it)!

We are so proud of our litte Jacob and have great hope that his list of "can't dos" will get shorter and shorter as time goes on!