Joy in Motion

Rob loves this pizza place near Lompoc.  Turns out they deliver – Score!  Check out their homepage and notice that we could have used their ‘cupons’, but decided to click on the menu option instead and possibly order a ’sandwitch’.  Hey – spelling is not required to make a good pizza!

Speaking of spelling, how do you spell the word that describes your husbands’ PT shorts after being worn one day and draped over the computer chair waiting to be worn the next day?  According to Rob, it’s spelled: Clirty…half clean/half dirty.  To him this is a perfectly acceptable state of being for gym shorts.  eeeewwwww….

John is up to his usual antics: Rob just came in our bedroom laughing.   JD took the time to reach out of his pack n play, fish out a photo from a little album we keep on the table just out of his reach (or not) and crumple it up and hand it up to daddy, who is trying to pick him up.  Smiling like a cheshire cat all the while.

JD is smiling more and getting into more trouble these days.  The other day, I put him in his pack n play and heard him with his music happily entertaining himself while I fixed lunch.  Gradually, it got very quiet and when I peeked around the corner he had almost completely emptied the entire kleenex box.  I think he ate a fair bit too.

Rob just finished giving him a bath; much needed since the other day Rob told me he accidentally put Butt Paste in JD’s hair.  hmmm…

Rob had John on the changing table putting him into a little shorts and tee outfit for the HOT night that is ahead.  The outfit happens to have dumptrucks on it, so Rob called him a little “dump-trucker”…then he clarified that he wasn’t calling John a “dumb trucker”.  We must be clear about that:)

John is picking up a couple new expressions: Cheese please!  and Get em!  The first is related to food and the second is for the doggies.  Actually, he hasn’t quite got the entire phonetics down, but is trying…he likes to mimic us and tries his hardest to say what we’re saying.  I started to realize this when I was playing fetch with the dogs and John started trying to say ‘get it’! or ‘get em’…it’s very cute.

Rob is at a friends place right now is playing poker and I am headed to bed soon…it’s finally cool enough to sleep.  The great thing about CA is the cool evenings.  Many of my friends were complaing today about the heat – obviously they’ve never lived in Florida.  It was about 95 degrees today, but only for a few hours.  It was like a Cocoa, FL winter.  Orlando in the summer is about as close to purgatory as you can get.  You think I’m kidding…far from it.  Oppressive, suffocating, spirit-breaking heat and humidity.

We don’t have a/c here on base but there’s plenty of shade with all the eucalyptis trees.  The sight of the cool ocean always helps too.  We have a view from the base and can see the hills when the fog rolls out.  It’s just beautiful.

All the officer housing on base is still under construction and we are planning on moving out of our current house in 2011. Which means I can paint and put as many holes in the wall as I want.  Normally, we’d have to repaint and repair for the next tenants, but in this case our house is getting razed.  So, there are no rules.  There are no limits.  It feels good.

I’m also planning our trip to Disney in a couple weeks.  If anyone has any suggestions for lodging down near the park let me know!

A couple more photos:

John can’t wait to get going and is using anything he can to pull himself up or walk.  I think it will be a few short weeks before he’s walking all on his own!

It was time.  John had a little tail on the back of his head…he needed a haircut badly.  I didn’t keep a lock, but I did get a photo…thanks to Krysta at the BX beauty shop!

John has a new thing: snuffing.  That’s what I’m calling it.  Mary, Rob’s mom, told me months ago that he would start doing this but it’s just recently that he’s started.  I think it’s just to get my attention.  He’s also biting my neck to get my attention: “mommy…I’m teething”!

I am now volunteering on Tuesdays at the thrift store here on base and Amanda is watching JD…and he stood on his own for several seconds!  All these milestones are so cool.

Rob is sitting in front of the TV watching Wipeout.  He’s totally enamoured.  Somehow the kneepads, chinguards, and star-trek clothing on someone trying to get through a slippery, wet obstacle course makes him laugh uncontrollably.  It’s fun watching Rob watching wipeout.  He needs the entertainment, he’s been working crazy hours.  Starting sometimes at 4:30am and returning home at 7:30pm.  Sat night he didn’t come home at all because he was manning a Minuteman rocket launch from LF-09 here at Vandenberg.  He slept all the hours he was home.

This means JD and I had some real quality time together all weekend.  We even went to our first movie as a couple – Harry Potter.  It was the Sunday showing here at the base theatre and was only 1.00.  So when everyone gave me dirty looks when John started to fuss, I wanted to say “hey, it’s only a dollar…and it’s Harry Potter”.

Here’s our first photo at the theatre together

Movie time!

The other day on my way to run some errands, the mail carrier dropped my mail by and asked “are you headed to the gym”?  Nope.  Not headed to the gym, just not wearing make up and in yoga pants with Nike shirt.  She did try a compliment afterward saying “all I mean is that you look like you spend a lot of time at the gym, and dressed as you are…”  It almost helped.

Rob and I spent a night in Solvang for our 10th wedding anniversary, sans JD.  He stayed at his godparents house in Santa Maria (thanks Sterns!) and had a great time.  While there, a lady asked me if I was pregnant again?  Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t this on the international “do not ask” list?  hmmm….maybe I’ll spend more time at the gym?

Anyway, here are phots of our anniversary night in Solvang.  We went wine-tasting, window-shopping, and salon-hopping (ok, I went to the salons, Rob just waited).  We had Quizno’s for our anniversary dinner.  Very romantic.  However, we did see Julie and Julia at the local theatre…it was pretty good.  Although I don’t think Rob was impressed…

People, if you want to go on a diet do NOT visit Solvang.  Below are a couple examples of the pastry shops.  Yes, there is more than one.  It is a little town of excess.  Wine, chocolate, ice cream, and pastries are the main revenue-generating cash cows in Solvang.  The theatre that puts on very impressive productions of the Music Man and such comes in a distant second.

We got a chance to go home to Montana to see Rob’s folks over the Fourth of July.  On the way, we stopped in Bozeman for a quick few hours to see a couple friends.  We went to MSU and visited with my former boss and then to Mackenzie River to meet with Mariah and Ryan and their beautiful baby girl.

A few days after arriveing in Park City at Rob’s folks, my mom and dad came to stay a couple nights at Shraders.  It was so great having both sets of grandparents there…and we had a party to celebrate on the 3rd of July.  The entire Western family came over for a BBQ along with Amestoy’s, all the Shrader Aunts and Uncles and their families, McCoy’s, and Dantic’s.  We had half the party inside, and half outside.  Good thing Ray and Mary live on 10 acres…we needed it!

Earl and Flo were staying with Rob’s folks so we got some good family time with them while there.

I even got to go riding on Copper at Jake’s place.  We moved cows and I felt like I was right at home.  As I said to Jake: in another life, this is what I’d be happy to do all day.  Jake: I still think you’re pulling my leg about the shoe jack.  I hadn’t been to Jake’s place since he built the new house after the fire – and it was great.  The view is amazing.  You can see almost to the river and all the trees, cows, horses.

On the Fourth of July, Rob and I ran in the Chief Joseph Run.  We both did pretty well, although Peg’s dad pointed out to me that I may as well miss the medal ceremonies, as they don’t give out hardware for 7th place…too true.  Rob came in second or third.  We had so much fun, which was the main thing.  And we got tee-shirts, always a bonus.  Afterward, we went to a pancake breakfast at the park in Laurel.  We all ate too much and then had to go take showers back home.  We went back into town for the parade later in the afternoon, which was great.  I think John will really enjoy it when he’s a little older.  That night we left JD with the two sets of grandparents while we went to watch fireworks.  The show was fantastic, and the music kept me awake…I was ready for bed after a long day.

We went to a great BBQ and Joe and Linea Monteon’s house and got to see their new little pup.  He’s growing by leaps and bounds I hear, but was just a little ball of fur when we were there.  We even got to see turkey’s in their backyard.  We ate some really good grilled ribs, corn on the cob, and all the other fixin’s…They live on the East side of Billings and have 25 or 30 acres.  It’s beautiful out there.  Lots of rolling hills and ravines where deer hide.

A couple days later, Rob had to fly back to VAFB while I continued on to Butte to visit Michelotti’s and to meet my mom and dad before heading on to Eugene.

Some photos of the visit to Grammie and Granpa’s place:

We had a Spear/Boyle family reunion at South Lake Tahoe recently – wanted to share the photos with you…

Our little man is growing bigger day by day and now he is going to walk soon.  He’s standing and pulling himself up already.  He did it the first time at Nana and Papa’s house in Eugene around the 15th of July.

He actually pulled himself up before he started to get up his hands and knees to crawl.  He got up on his hands and knees only after he was put on grass and no longer wanted to drag along on his tummy (didn’t want to get grass stains, I guess!)  Nana, Papa, Mama and JD were driving to Lake Tahoe for a family reunion around the 23rd of July when he started to crawl.  We stopped at a rest area near Mt. Shasta and JD started to crawl on the grassy area during lunch.  Nana and Papa get to see all the cool things!

He is now bear-crawling, and will be walking in no time.

Here’s some photos of the milestone:

This week John and I went to music class 3 times.  Normally, we only go on Fridays but we had a couple sessions to make up.  We had been sick and missed a couple weeks.  Our instructor is wonderful and we have so much fun.

It’s amazing how much John has grown up over this 2-month class.  He went from immoble to sitting up and pulling himself up. He’s now looking around, curious at everyone and everything around him.  And loving looking at himself in the big wall mirrors…just like his daddy – can’t pass up a mirror.

Here are some photos of our classes this week.  If anyone has young kids and a few dollars, check out this website to see if there’s a class nearby.  It’s worth every penny!