Normally I'm more on top of things

Confession: I didn't vote yesterday.  I'll wait while you pick your jaw up off the floor.  Done?  Okay.

It's not that I don't care, although, it seems that voting these days is mostly a matter of picking which person or policy I hate the least.  The truth is, I'm not registered to vote in Colorado.  That's right, we've been back in Colorado for almost 16 months but I'm still registered to vote in Texas.  WHOOPS.  And maybe I would have been more motivated to GET registered as election time approached if that weren't just the BEST excuse to not deal with people wanting me to take pamphlets or sign petitions and such.

Anyway, I'm sure I'll be registered by the next election.  Maybe before then I'll also get around to ordering Will's official birth certificate.  Oh yeah, still haven't done that either.  Apparently I'm a bad citizen AND a bad mother.  What a day.

Back in the technology dark ages

Remember when I told you I got an iPhone?  (Back in this post.)  Well, I did get one, or rather my brother in law Jonathan was nice enough to give me his old one when he got a new one.  ANYWAY.  While I would love to actually use it as a phone, moving into a house meant cutting back expenses which meant no new iPhone calling plan.  So, it's essentially the same thing as having an iPod touch, which is also pretty awesome.  As a side note, if you're interested in winning at Words With Friends, my user name is Elsha3 and I'm on a losing streak right now.

Back to the point.  Cutting back on bills also meant cutting Brian's iPhone from our plan.  We planned on cutting back to one line and getting me a new phone since mine was getting pretty glitchy.  But when I went to do that I found out Brian's 2 year contract on his iPhone wasn't up yet.  There was only a month left on it, so we figured we'd just wait the month instead of paying the early termination fee.  Well, the month is up tomorrow and not a minute too soon, because this morning the screen on my phone died.  Interestingly enough, the *phone* part of my phone works fine.  I can make and receive calls, but that's all.  I can't see who's calling, or get voicemail or text messages (kinda hard to read a text with no screen), I can't see missed calls, I can't look up numbers.  It's a little weird.

But you know what the crazy part is?  This is how all phones USED to be.  Remember that?  Back in the day when your phone was attached to your wall and had a cord and when it rang you answered it with NO IDEA who was on the other end?  And if someone called and you weren't home you couldn't tell they called?  (For those of you who are wondering, yes, I am old enough to remember a time when our home had no answering machine.)  And when you dialed a number it didn't pop up on a screen anywhere for you to double check that you'd dialed correctly?  Well, I know it felt normal then, but let me tell you, it sure feels weird now!  Anyway, if you call me in the next couple days and I don't answer, be sure to call me again later because otherwise I'll NEVER KNOW.

Third year in a row

It's November (already, not sure how that happened) which means-- NaBloPoMo again!

This is where I pretend like I have readers who actually want me to post every day.  (Besides my sister Kari, who actually DOES want me to post every day.)  I know you're all thrilled.

I feel a little unprepared this time around, the last two years I've done it I've had a list of topics I knew I wanted to post about.  This year I have like one.  Well, I'm sure I'll find something from this thrilling life that I lead.  BE READY!

Halloween

We did Trick or Treat Street yesterday, and even though Will is too young to do any kind of trick-or-treating, or candy eating, I couldn't resist this adorable costume.  

I also couldn't resist taking million pictures of him.

In Kalena's pictures you could either see her face or her Tigger costume.  Not both.

The cousins.

I love Will's expression in that last one. 

Want more pictures of cute kids in costume?  Check out my nieces and nephews here and here.

We're going to have a chat about locking doors

When I started to put Kalena down for her nap this afternoon I discovered that her door was locked.  From the inside.  And the room was empty.  Apparently she locked the door, came out of the room and pulled the door shut.  This doorknob?  Has a KEY lock.  To which I have no key.  I tried the old bobby pin trick, even though that's mostly good for push locks.  After I broke the bobby pin in the lock I considered taking the doorknob off, which is when I discovered there are no screws on the outside.  Luckily I remembered a trick I used a time or two in college and finally managed to get the door open using an outdated plastic insurance card.  If she keeps this up I'm going to get really good at breaking and entering.

Definitely not twice as fun

We had pictures of the kids taken for Christmas cards today.  It's the first time I've had professional pictures done of the two kids together, and I think it's safe to say it wasn't fun for anyone involved.  In fact, I don't think we've had this much trouble getting a good shot since Kalena's 3 month pictures, a session where she finally fell asleep and THEN we got pictures.

It certainly didn't help that the photographer kept waiting for The Shot.  I'm guessing she hasn't had much experience with toddlers and babies, because with kids that age you take what you can get.  Anyway, even though my kids spend most of the day like this:

The best we could get out of them looked something like this:

Oh well.

It's the same reason I'm never in pictures

I've had a hard time getting pictures of Kalena lately, because she'd much rather be taking the picture than be in the picture.

Luckily, she has her own camera so she can take all the "pictures" she wants.  

The 9 month update. A little behind.

So, I know Will is almost 10 months old now, but here's the 9 month news anyway.  He is crawling on all fours instead of army crawling, and he cruises on everything.  He LOVES bath time, and regularly tries to climb in the tub if I don't keep the bathroom door shut.  He is quite a cuddly guy and would happily be held all day.  In fact, often when I set him down he'll crawl after me crying pathetically until I pick him up again.  He doesn't do this to Brian, of course.  He is also sleeping MUCH better (through the night most nights) and I'll definitely be posting more about what we did to encourage that.  Also, he is FINALLY getting a tooth!  (Or teeth maybe, can't be sure.)  You can't feel it yet, but you can see the spot on his gums where they're about to come through.

I've been a huge slacker with the picture taking, mostly because I didn't want to take pictures where the background was a mess of stuff that still needed to be unpacked and put away.  But I did take this picture because I think it's crazy how much these kids look alike in these photos.

That's Kalena at nine months (that's the way it got packed up and I haven't updated it yet) and Will at nine months.  I don't think they look too much alike right now, but I definitely see it here.  What do you think?

Some lessons you learn the hard way

I went looking for a box this morning while Kalena was watching a movie.  It wasn't in the first couple places I looked, so I decided to check out back in the shed.  After some maneuvering (our shed is currently completely disorganized) I found the one I was looking for and turned around to bring it in the house.  Just in time to watch Kalena shut and lock the sliding door I'd left open.

After making sure our side door was also locked (it was) I called Brian.  While we waited for him I tried to get Kalena to unlock the sliding door.  Unfortunately, it is considerably harder to unlock than to lock, and Kalena doesn't have the required level of coordination yet.  Fortunately, Brian's office is less than 10 minutes away so the wait wasn't long.  Also, VERY fortunately, Will was napping at the time which saved me a considerable amount of worry.

Kalena was unfazed by the whole thing, although she did seem a little confused about why I wouldn't just open the door.  She kept asking, "Play outside?  Open door?" and then she'd try the door and say, "Door locked." like it was my fault.  In the future I'll be checking the other doors before I rummage around in the shed.  Glad I got to learn that lesson on a nice day like today.

Did you miss me?

Or did you even notice I was gone?  I've been without internet since last Thursday.  It's finally hooked up now, and I might have complained more about going without, except that I'm pretty sure that's the only reason anything is unpacked around here.

But now!  Now we are moved in, and unpacked (mostly), and back in touch with the internet world.  You'll have to let me know if I missed anything big, because I'm pretty sure I'm not going to make it through all the gazillion unread posts in my google reader.

Pictures, updates, info, blah, blah, blah.  All forthcoming.