Cottage Cheese

Apparently, I wasn't doing it fast enough with the spoon. She got so frustrated that she started grabbing it off the spoon and putting it in her mouth herself. So, we cut out the middle man.

The black hole

It's convenient to blame the recent black-hole quality our apartment has assumed on a certain little one with little hands that move things from one place to another. However, when said little one moves things, it's usually from the middle of one room, to the middle of another. At most, she'll take a shoe out of my closet and try to put it in a drawer in the kitchen. The following two items have disappeared into thin air: Tyler's watch and one of Lillian's church shoes. Just gone. The fingernail clippers were lost as well, which is what prompted me to write this entry, but I found them as I sat down at the computer.

So, keep your eyes open for the watch. Tyler's really starting to miss it.

It's almost over!

For a year now, Tyler has been working on his senior design project, "Odin's Fury." It's a cargo plane that had to be able to take off and land in a short distance on a muddy field and carry something so wide, so tall, and so heavy. Tyler's touching a model of the plane. Last night, they had their poster reception and today is the final symposium. Hooray! This project has meant lots of late nights, group meetings at all hours, weekend trips to Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Edward's AFB, and other places I can't recall.

I overheard him talking to Lillian last night saying, "After tomorrow, I can be your dad again. We'll play together and go on walks."


If you look at the pictures on the left, you can see that Odin's Fury can carry a tank, cargo, and storm troopers.

Mohawk

While getting ready for church this morning, Tyler re-styled Lillian's hair.

It didn't lay right all day.

Boo allergies

Year one: I never had allergies until I moved to San Luis Obispo. My first spring here, I thought I had a cold that was lasting for months. Tyler suggested it could be allergies, so I got a prescription for Allegra, and life was wonderful again.

Year two: My second spring here, I was married and had no insurance. I got through the first part of allergy season with a lot of Kleenexes and Claritin, but was still mostly miserable. Then, I experienced something called Eustachian tube malfunction (Caitlin, I know you feel me on this), and I couldn't hear or breathe, or see. Thus, going from mostly miserable, to all miserable.

Year three: I was pregnant and developed asthma to go along with my allergies. My doctor said that Claritin was no longer an option, so I got along with Benedryl and lived in a fog for 3 months. Then my asthma got worse, so I had to use a steroid inhaler, which gave me a permanent sore throat.

Year four: Which brings us up to date. I took a Claritin the other day, and it did about as much good a mint. I tried a Benedryl against medical advice, and Lillian slept for 17 hours. What to do? I bought some allergy relief eye drops, but the soothing relief promised remained illusive. Then, I saw it on Oprah:
The one they had on TV looked like a little tea pot but they didn't sell those at the neighborhood Rite Aid. This is the one I bought, and it's essentially a squirt bottle. It comes with little salt packets, so you mix up your own saline, and rinse out your nose. It's very far from what I'd call 'pleasant.' I do it twice a day and while it doesn't keep me 100% allergy free, it keeps me at a tolerable level.

Garden!

I decided I wanted a garden, which was tricky because of our living situation: upstairs apartment, all parking lot, no grass. So, I had Tyler build a planter that would stick in between the cars and the gate at the end of the parking lot.


Our bishop lives on a couple acres, so we went up to his property and asked if we could dig a hole. Not only did he give us that dirt, he also donated their compost pile, which is contained in the black trash bag.




Because we got started late, we just bought starter plants. Italian giant and Sugar sweet tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, basil, red bell pepper, cucumber, watermelon, and in seed form: romaine lettuce, giant radishes, and one pumpkin.