I was pretty sure I was in a horror movie

We've been looking at houses, did I tell you that?  Well, we have.  I'm in charge of finding listings, mostly because I'm the one with time to spend online looking at listings.  Also, since I grew up here, I know all the places we DON'T want to live.  Anytime I look at a listing, the first thing I do is look at a map of the address, to make sure it's somewhere we'd even consider.  SO.  It should have been a tip off when this particular listing didn't include the address.

I scheduled a showing anyway, because we were already seeing another house that night so I thought we might as well.  It was definitely in the ghetto.  We knew it wasn't not going to work as soon as we got there, but we went in and looked around, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Then I noticed a door in the kitchen that was bolt locked.  I unlocked it, wondering if it went outside.  Nope, it's a stairwell.  Okay, weird, why look the basement door?  I flipped the light switch and nothing happened.  Because there was no bulb in the socket.  So it was really dark, but I wanted to see what was down there, so I started down the stairs trying to use my phone as a light.  I still couldn't see anything, and the whole time I kept thinking, "this is where the girl in the movie DIES."  The audience is always wondering why anyone walks down into the pitch black basement by themselves.  CURIOSITY.  I got to the bottom of the stairs and I could barely see a lightbulb with a pull string in the middle of the room so I turned that on.  Let me tell you, reaching through the dark in an unknown basement to pull a string on a bare lightbulb?  Is creepy.  And turning the light on?  Did NOT make things less creepy.  The ceiling was maybe 5'6" high, one of the concrete walls was wallpapered and the whole thing had obviously been flooded at some point.  There was a whole separate room that the light didn't shine into but I was decidedly NOT curious enough to try to see what was in there.  Because I was pretty sure it would be BODIES.  Or, you know, psycho killer's secret hideout.  Or both.  And that's when I went upstairs.

Thankfully my life is not a horror movie, because we all know the "girl walks alone into the dark unfinished basement of an old house" scenario never ends well.

No more listings without addresses.

Remember when I said that Will likes to crawl OVER everything, instead of going around?  Well, I wasn't joking when I said he crawls over EVERYTHING.  Including his sister.

She's really weird about it.  She hates it, so she cries the whole time, but she refuses to move so he can't do it.  I don't know.

Brian rescued her eventually because Will couldn't actually get over her.  Will enjoyed the whole thing (see happy face in photo.)  Kalena, on the other hand, continued crying even when Will wasn't crawling on her anymore.  I think she's working on making herself cry.  I'm sure that will come in handy in her teen years.

You never know what kids are going to say

Kalena likes to play a game where I chase her around the house asking, "Who's gonna get her bum spanked?"  She laughs hysterically as I chase her, and while she runs she'll say stuff like, "Gehher!" (get her) or "panka bum!" (spank bum) while patting her bottom.  We don't spank as punishment.  (Pretty sure she wouldn't think this was such a fun game if we did.)

BUT.  I'm just waiting for her to start saying, "panka bum!" and patting her bottom in the grocery store or somewhere.  I'm sure that'll be fun.

Debating

Brian's cousin is getting married next month, and the dress I'm wearing to the wedding is blue.  Which gives me a reason to seriously consider getting some of these.

What do you think?

Friendships and hardships

Of all the things I wish I were better at (and there are many) making friends tops my list.  Not just acquaintance friends, but close friends.  Call-just-to-chat-and-talk-for-hours-with friends.  Love-you-at-your-worst friends. There are countless reasons I struggle with making friends, not the least of which is that I'm quite introverted.  I find being with people I don't know well draining.  And it is rare that I find someone with whom a friendship is effortless.

But, thanks to joining a sorority, I did have a few great friends in college.  And now one of those friends is getting ready to run the Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Half Marathon with TeamChallenge.  She's running for another college friend, one I lost touch with after graduation.  So go read about her inspiration here.  And I'll keep hoping to find friendships like that again.

Will's new favorite hang out

Why spend time with toys when there's a coffee table to crawl under?  

He has also taken to crawling OVER everything instead of around it.  This often ends with me having to rescue him when he tries to crawl over all the Mr. Potato Head pieces and keeps getting poked.

Swaddle free

Not sure how I missed posting about this, but Will is no longer being swaddled.  Somewhere between six and seven months we quit.  Just quit.  No half swaddle, no trying it at naps first.  He slept through the night for like 4 nights in a row when we first did it.  (The sleeping all night has been on and off since then.)  He'll even sleep on the floor if you lay him there.  See?

A few things

I know you all want to see a picture of Will trying to eat a plastic drumstick.

It looks like a pretty delicious drumstick.

I've been TRYING to upload a video of Will doing his army crawl, but it does not want to be uploaded, apparently.  You'll just have to imagine the cuteness.  

New topic.  We're leaving for Denver tomorrow, to celebrate my niece's 1st birthday.  Her birthday is actually today, so happy birthday miss Amelia!  ALSO, I'll be getting another niece for Christmas!  Kirsta is having a girl!  Yay for babies!  Especially for babies that aren't mine, so I can love them and hold them and coo at them and then give them back and sleep at night.  Good times.

I'm not sure I'll every get around to posting pictures of our family reunion at Bear Lake, so if you want to see some, Kari posted a few over here.

Kalena never did this

The other day Will fell asleep on the floor.  While Brian and I watched a movie.  A LOUD movie.  Just rolled around for awhile and then fell asleep.  Kalena never slept anywhere but a bed or the car after about 3 months old.  It's more of the "drowsy but awake" business.  Amazes me every time.

Now if only he would start going to bed sometime before 10 pm...