December

tyrell sang, 'grandma got run over by a reindeer' for our christmas party and it turned out to be really cute. the kids all loved it and they really added to the performance when they shouted out answers/comments along the way (one kid yelled "no way, for reals?" when ty told them that his grandma got run over by a reindeer ). tyrell also forgot the words a few times but he recovered nicely, it really fit in perfectly, and added to every one's entertainment. just keep smiling is his motto. the adults loved it too and keep telling me how much they enjoyed it.

we got a christmas tree and it is all set up in the front room. we are really enjoying it and i am glad we have a tree and lights up outside to help us enjoy the holiday season (even though i have to work on christmas AGAIN this year). it is still in need of a tree topper, but it's still pretty. it was our one year anniversary on monday, and tyrell got me the best present. he got me a gift card to this nice spa in town that does prenatal massages! no doubt this idea was sparked by my constant request for him to rub my aching back. i am really excited. i got him a less perfect, but wanted, weight set. it was not the one he wanted so we took it back... hopefully we can find what he wants.

tyrell thinks it is my job to spread holiday cheer through baked goods, and he asked me if i was going to make something for our neighbors. i hadn't really thought about it, but decided that i should. so i made sugar cookies, fudge and carmel popcorn. it turned out pretty good and i realized that my kitchen is way to small for such a project. but we delivered our chinese take out packages and hopefully everyone enjoyed the extra calories.

it snowed all night last night and now we have a few inches of snow on the ground. i have already been a victim of the slippery roads and it's only the first big snow storm, not a good sign. i went to enrichment to sew curtains, but really i just ended up making myself a wreath and watching others make curtains (there were limited sewing machines). but on my way home i slid on the snow as i was rounding a corner and hit a curb. it wasn't all that bad but tyrell told me i am not allowed to do that any more. i am just glad it was only a curb. our neighbor said the free way was like bumper cars. tyrell has given me a few pointers on driving in the snow and hopefully i will remember them when these skills are needed.

i am 36 weeks today (the start of month 9) and our little guy is officially considered full term from here on out. i am still working and plan on working until the 10th of January or so. i told my mom this plan and she was hoping that it wouldn't make me go into labor early. i told her that it should be safe for him to come out any time now, but she was not concerned about that, she just didn't want him to come before she got here :). tyrell also agrees that he ought to 'cook' a little longer. and i suppose we are not quite ready for him anyway. he doesn't have a name, the crib is not set up, i don't have a hospital bag ready, the adorable blanket my mother made has not yet arrived and i have not even picked out fabric for the curtains and crib skirt i was planning on making (and have really no idea how to make, but it can't be all that hard right?).

perhaps baby boy smith got a look at his room and is waiting until we get our stuff moved out and his stuff moved in before he will make an appearance.

my birthday

here are some more pictures of the pretty leaves i took while i was roller blading around the henry ford estate. and i submit that the site of a pregnant woman on roller blades is a bit ridiculous. but don't worry, i only fell once. thankfully, i have over come my childhood tendency to fall on my head, thanks to the lessons my mother gave me on how God gave me arms/hands so i could protect my face, and was able to put my hands down and saved us both:) the leaves are all about gone now, but they really were pretty. the red ones are at the church, and the trees there really have brilliant color (our camera does not do it justice). they look like they are on fire. and yes, that is SNOW! it snowed on monday, the start of our long winter... heaven help me.

last week was my birthday. i worked... boo, but it was a pretty good day. tyrell made me breakfast, dropped me off at work and picked me up in his new fancy car (he finally got to trial a car from work and we sat and played with all the new features of the lincoln). but the whole way home he kept saying, "i tried to be a good husband." and when i asked why he was saying that, he would just repeat, "i tried to be a good husband." so when we got home the house smelled a little funny (well funnier than it usually does). i asked what it was. he then told me that he was trying to have dinner ready when i got home and a cake made (a kind gesture seeing that tyrell hates to cook), but there was a mishap. we listen to the radio in the kitchen and while it usually lives on top of the fridge, it had been sitting on the stove for a week or so on the back burner (i would not recommend this). so when he was trying to heat up the front burner, he accidentally turned the wrong dial and turned on the back burner. i only wish that i could have been there when he realized he was cooking the radio (due to the large amount of smoke produced by burning plastic), picked it up in a state of panic, ran around the house with it in his hands, yelling, trying to decide what he should do with it :) hilarious. so here is the damage, but hey, it still works.

tyrell was still able to make me dinner and a beautiful german chocolate cake with homemade frosting and everything. thanks ty!

due to the requests of amber, i will update the blog. i went home to az without tyrell to get together with some old room mates of mine. it was really fun and i was so glad to spend time with close friends. it was also great because i came in a little early and left a little late, and was able to see lots of family. i was able to see my brothers, sisters-in-law, nieces, grandparents, cousins, old friends, eat at some of my favorite restaurants, and go shopping. i had a great weekend. i didn't do that great at taking pictures though. sorry.

this was the first time that tyrell and i have been apart for more than a 12 hour shift, and over all i think tyrell got a much better nights sleep with out me tossing and turning all night long. but i know that he missed me. so much in fact that the night i flew in he didn't come to pick me up from the airport. i had a layover in denver and with the time change and everything, i would be getting home around midnight. he told me that he was going to go to sleep and would come and get me when i called. i told him to be sure and wake up when i called. he agreed that he would. so when i landed in the detroit airport, i called him, but there was no answer. so i called again and again hoping the constant sound of his phone would arouse him from his slumber. but after 30 minutes and 34 calls, there was still nothing. so i pulled out some cash from the atm and hailed a cab home. i got home and knocked on the door in the middle of the night. tyrell said he hopped out of bed, checked his phone, saw the 34 missed calls from his poor little wife, and knew he was in trouble. so i keep reminding him of the time he forgot his poor pregnant wife at the airport, in the middle of the night, in one of the most dangerous cities in america. he keeps claiming i was not forgotten, he just didn't wake up. i guess he was just enjoying his last good nights sleep with out me :)

fall here has been really pretty. there are a lot of trees over the roads and it is so pretty to see all the many yellows and reds. i also like all the leaves on the ground, and of course the resident squirrels gathering for the long winter. it is getting colder though and we had to turn on the heater; only to realize that it does not work all that great. it takes a while to heat up the house and then has to work very hard to keep it warm. so let's just say that the space heater follows us around to every room. we are going to have to figure something out for when it gets really cold

and i am home all day with the little one.

halloween was a big deal around our neighborhood. people really went all out decorating their houses. i really enjoyed all the decorations and can't wait to see what they come up with for christmas. we were a little less festive than many, but we did managed to carve two pumpkins for the occasion. as you can tell from the picture tyrell worked really hard on cutting out his bat (we used stencils), only to look a bit confused when he was finished because it didn't look quite right. turns out he carved it upside down. so his pumpkin turned out great it just needed to be flipped over to make it recognizable. it was funny. we went to a halloween party a family in our ward had. tyrell was going to make home made root beer for it but was unable to find root beer flavoring. so he just ended up buying root beer and dry ice. it smoked anyway and the kids loved it. it made for great slushy root beer too.

i am now 30 weeks (7 months) pregnant and my belly is catching all the crumbs that don't quite make it in my mouth. now i have to wonder if i am more messy than usual, or if i had always dropped this many crumbs, just that before, they were able to make it to the ground with little notice? i got my rhogam shot today and everything appears to be right on track. we are grateful to have had no complications this far. hopefully i won't go into labor when we come to visit for thanksgiving. even though my family has been trying to get me to come to az to deliver, i don't think this would be a wise choice. sorry girls :)

baby bump 6 months

so here is the latest development in my belly and he sure is moving around in there. it was really funny because the first time tyrell felt him move, he jerked his hand back and was trying to get away from me. freaked him out a little bit. i laughed really hard and now when he feels him moving, he just looks perplexed about what on earth he is doing in there. here are some sonogram pictures. one where he is getting ready to sock me one, and appears to have a very muscular right arm. and the other is his best impression of an alien. hopefully he is cuter than that when he comes out :)

TIMBER!

tyrell is always willing to help. so when a member of our ward said they had a tree in their back yard that needed to be cut down, tyrell was the first volunteer. and the thought of dropping a tree in the middle of a suburban neighbor hood with fences, and houses, and garages, and power lines everywhere, did not phase him. so he rounded up the defenseless missionaries and a friend to help him. i came along to document. to make a long story short, they discussed what would happen for a while and this is the brilliant plan they came up with. tyrell would use his ascending gear to get up to a particular fork in the tree and cut the branches above the fork. he strapped on his gear, and oh, did i forget to mention that he would be doing this with a chain saw attached to him.
step 1: strap on gear
step 2: attach chain saw
step 3: climb rickety ladder to rickety roof top

step 4: ascend to top of tree with chain saw

it sounded fool proof. and don't worry tyrell watched a video on you tube about how NOT to cut down a tree, so he had all the knowledge he needed.

(he is about 30 feet off the ground)

this was the original plan, and thanks to the good lord in heaven, tyrell was able to do this without harm. but after he got up there it was determined that this was not the best idea for actually chopping the tree down. so once tyrell remembered how to work his gear and get down, they came up with plan 2.

step 1: leave rope tied to tree (the rope ty tied while he was up there in plan one)

step 2: put rickety ladder against rickety tree

step 3: climb ladder with chain saw in hand

step 3: cut tree at fork.

tyrell said this was the scariest part and it was the plan that eventually ended up working. they used a series of ropes, some tied to tyrell's truck and others held by the again defenseless missionaries, to pull the tree the rest of the way down. it was a miracle, but the first tree branch fell right where they wanted it to, in the 10 foot wide space between the power line and the garage. this process took a while so only part of the tree was cut down. so stay tuned for more paul bunyon adventures with tyrell.

slow

well life is slow around here. i partly blame my pregnancy seeing that i am not supposed to do all the things that i used to like to do (ie. play sports) and partly that i don't know anyone who i would just call up to do something with.

my days off consist of getting up to make tyrell breakfast and pack lunch. (he does the same for me when i work because i leave first). we are getting really great at waking up 20 minutes before it is time to leave and managing to get showered, dressed, eat breakfast, pack lunch and out the door. a true skill. then once tyrell is out the door i head to the computer to explore what my family and friends have been up to via (thought you would like this word choice flynt) different inter net modalities (ie. facebook, blogs, and myspace). after a few good hours of looking at all the blogs only to discover that there is nothing new since yesterday (seeing that other people have busy lives), i begin to look into more productive things like cleaning, running the errands that need to be run, laundry, going for a walk, shopping, reading, showering (yes, showering is now an activity worth listing) and perhaps a phone call or two. once the clock strikes nine i figure i am safe to call back to az, people should be up at six right? ok, so my dad is really the only person i know who is always up that early, but by eleven you are all game for a call.

i have been working hard on making this picture collage of family pictures on my wall and it is not going well. i repeat, not going well. i just don't have the vision for interior decorating like my mother. tyrell thinks i am trying too hard, and perhaps i will just wait for momma daryl to get here and help me. deciding what to make for dinner and making dinner takes up the late afternoon and then tyrell gets home. when he gets home i am glad to have someone around to talk to and enjoy the slow evening with.

it was funny because the other day tyrell and i went into our back yard set up some chairs and just sat there waiting for the squirrels to come and eat the crackers we had set out for them. the squirrels didn't fall for it but the weather was nice. sometimes he takes me out to see the new jump he has made on his rc track, we watch episodes of the office, read and go to bed. all in a days work. now you busy mothers of small children are perhaps thinking slow sounds good, and once the baby arrives, perhaps i will as well.

i am grateful for my job that keeps me running like a crazy person for at least 3 days of the week.

we went to the old car festival last saturday at greenfield village that was fun and it was cool to see all the really old cars. people dress up and sit with and show their cars, tyrell likes to know about the engines and i like the ones with the pretty colors.

i taught sharing time for the first time last sunday and it was pretty rough. it's hard to teach to a group of 3-11 year olds all at the same time. i guess i can only get better.

life is much slower than tyrell and i are used to, but we are happy. and i will try to enjoy this time remembering that there is plenty of crazy busy life ahead of us.

getting old

tyrell went on a motorcycle trip with some guys from work while i was working this last saturday. they had a lot of fun!

tyrell has completed his RC car ramp in our back yard and is very excited. isn't it pretty?

i could not be more happy because i am now the proud owner of a vacuum. now you are wondering what i have been using all this time... and i am glad to say, 'good bye shop vac.' the best part was that tyrell got it up and running and vacuumed the floors and used the attachment to clean the window ledges. i love him.

but i fear this excitement over a vacuum, and the fact that i feel it is worthy of a post, has just confirmed that i am old and married.

niagara and baby

i am so surprised to see all the people who found our blog. how fun. ok so there are two things to tell you about. 1. the trip to niagara falls and 2. the ultrasound. first of all we will talk about niagara falls

so i have really been wanting to visit niagara falls, i mean we are 4 hours away. and i am getting a little restless with staying at home and not doing much seeing that we have no family or close friends around. tyrell was not that excited about it and after a long discussion on what to do we decided we would go up and back on a saturday. i had a three day weekend and tyrell's family was having fun with out us at lake roosevelt, so we decided we would drown our sorrow with a trip to niagara falls.

so let me make this the readers digest version. we got a late start and a trip that should have taken 4 hours took 6 due to all the construction and traffic through canada (bumper to bumper 60km away from the falls, a weekly occurrence). tyrell was REALLY annoyed at all the people and once we made it to the falls we parked in the first structure we saw, 20 dollars. we got out and were able to walk to the falls. it was BEAUTIFUL, there were tons of people and we really loved going on the maid of the mist tours, where the boats take you close to the falls and you get soaked. we stayed there for about 2 hours and decided to head home.

once we got to the car tyrell pushed in the clutch and it hit the floor. not good. at this point you are thinking, "it's a good thing tyrell is a mechanic", and so was i. but as i have learned, a mechanic is only as good as his tools. we of course had none. we headed out looking for break fluid, found some and convinced some guy at the bicycle shop to lend us some tools that we would return in the ally after the shop had closed. we walked back to the car (of course the gas station was far away) and tyrell added some fluid, took the bleeder valve off and the break fluid ended up under the car on the pavement. also not good. tyrell knew it was the slave cylinder but of course getting to that part means you have to drop the entire transmission. not something you can do on the 5th floor of a parking garage with a wrench and some pliers. neither of us had charged our phones the night before so tyrells was dead and mine was on it's last leg. one more thing.

so we were stuck, it was after hours for any kind of shop on a saturday night. we went to the nearest hotel, (thank you crowne plaza and your VERY helpful bell boys nathan and ?) and used their internet, granted it was for hotel guests only, but apparently we were able to mingle amongst the other tourists. but it was just too late to call anyone or figure anything out. so we we had to stay the night. hotels were full and my dad was able to find us a hotel on priceline for an obsene amount of money. when we got to check in the hotel they of course had some disconnect with price line and after an hour we were in our very over priced mediocre room. we went to bed only to discover that the walls were paper thin and there was so much noise all night that we didn't get a good nights sleep. we got up, showered, put our old clothes on and headed back to the crowne plaza for the inter net. got some numbers made some calls. took a cab to the car rental place, they didn't have any available. nice tow truck driver drove us to another car rental place, they didn't have any. back to the hotel. phones dead. bell boy found us a charger from all the ones left at the hotel, thanks again ? ! got a tow, found a car place open on sunday, they were able to find a part and had a guy to fix it. towed the car into town.

with the six hours it would take to fix it we stayed down town and walked around. well you know we had had nothing to eat and so we ate lunch around 3 and walked around a bit. well you now you are thinking, "it could be worse, could be raining?". and that is exactly what it did for a few hours. but once it stopped we walked back over the the USA side and saw what they had to offer. much more nature like, it was nice. went to the cave of the winds, loved it, got soaked. the car was fixed around 8 we took a cab there and were so grateful to pay the 700 dollars so we could get home that night and would not have to leave the car, rent a car to get home, and then come back and get the car. we headed off and when we were about 15 minutes away they called to say they forget to put the transmission cap back on. turned around, tyrell put it on and filled up the fluid again. so at 9:00 we were on the road. got home at 1:30am, got up at 6:00 for work. it was quite a weekend.

but niagara falls was beautiful. we were glad we got to see it and that we didn't have to live in canada for the rest of our lives. the canadians individually were helpful but dealing with their businesses were not.

our ultrasound was today and we are having a BOY! i kept thinking it was a boy and i always wanted a boy first (sorry courtney). but tiffany makes a good point, boys of tyrell are going to be monsters. so as i am getting the room ready for this little guy i will also start padding the walls.

michigan

as mentioned in the 'about me' section, tyrell and i are living in michigan. it is far away from home and depending on the day, i find myself a little home sick. but there are lots of things to like about michigan. it is so pretty and green and there is more water than i have ever seen in my life. it rained everyday for the entire month of june it seemed and there are lakes everywhere. but despite all this water we are yet to swim in it. (well unless you count the time tyrell had to chase the canoe down the river at our ward camp out, diving in for it was his only option). the streets are lined with trees and the branches make a pretty canape over the road. there are all sorts of woodland creatures in my back yard and fire flies at night. we have been able to travel from american suburbia, to the middle east, to the ghetto all in a 5 mile drive down one street. our neighbors are very friendly. one of the first nights we were here, our neighbors showed up on our door step, after we had gone to bed, with muffins and wine. we graciously accepted their gift and were unsure if this would have been the appropriate time to inform them that we do not drink. needless to say the wine is in on our shelf and hopefully the bishop does not find us out when he comes to visit.

we moved out here with out a place to live, not necessarily something i would recommend, but we were blessed to find the house we live in in such short notice. it's older but it is perfect for the two of us. my only quarrel is with the old house smell it has. if anyone has air freshening advise, i am all ears.

this place is called motor city and rightfully so. but we have discovered that not only is it the headquarters to the big 3, but people are crazy about cars here, as evidenced by the frequent car shows. there is a particular type of car show that is interesting. really it's like a moving car show/parade of old/classic/supped up cars, where there is also regular traffic. odd i know but they have designated streets on certain weekends and everyone brings out their fancy cars and drive them up and down the street (along side regular traffic), while the spectators line up on the side walk and in business parking lots to watch. they cat call and the drivers rev their engines and everyone cheers. it was pretty funny.

telegraph cruise (moving car show)

i have also discovered that in michigan, while you are outside in your yard or on your porch, shirts are not required. men of all ages, shapes and sizes enjoy sitting on the porch with out their shirts or working in the yard half naked (and there was that 80 year old man in his whity tighties out to get the mail, my personal favorite). tyrell is the only one who wears clothes around here. i figure they are enjoying the warm weather until they have to bundle up outside and leave all their half naked escapades for the comfort of their own homes. so what's not to love about michigan, greenery, lakes, trees, wild life, fire flies, culture, very comfortable weather (in the summer at least), car shows and half naked men.

we went home the first of the month for my family reunion at the whiting homestead. tyrell thought such a huge organized gathering was a little weird and i guess it kind of is. it was fun and tyrell was a favorite when he set up the zip line for the kids. they loved it and he really likes showing people a good time. we were also able to go to lyman lake with his brothers so he got a lake fix that may hold him over for a little while.

cousins

lyman lake, that is amber being ignored in the background

we do miss az and the wide open spaces. there are so many trees here that you are never able to look out very far. tyrell, being the country boy that he is, is starting to feel a little cooped up here in the city. he bought a dirt bike (part of his, my wife is pregnant and i live in the city mid-life crisis) and because the bike tracks are so far away, sometimes he just rides in circles in our back yard. it's pretty funny, he's like a caged animal back there. we need to get back to a small town one of these days of tyrell might go crazy.

i get an ultra sound next week!