Just a Life at Home

Being home means that I get to actually prepare homemade meals and not wait until 8:00pm for dinner. It's been fun because I can try new things, or at least some things that I haven't made in a while because they take too long. Here, we're making chicken cordon bleu.

It seems like our family isn't terribly interesting this semester, but we try to spice up our lives with a little spontaneity. This past Saturday Mark and I wanted to get out of the apartment, but we weren't really sure where to go...just someplace new... so we drove out to Natick, MA to visit the new mall that just opened up a couple years ago. That was such a pretty mall, with a lot of natural lighting that came in large sun lights in the high ceilings. It was kinda fun to just walk around. It turned out that Canon was not napping very well, so we didn't really want to stay out for long, but it was still fun to just get up and go. Is it lame that I think walking around a mall was fun? Wow! That's sad! :)

As for updates on the Dahl family, Mark is still waiting to hear back from the position in Washington, D.C. In April I'll be traveling to Maryland for a friend's wedding, and I'm working on making shawls for the bridesmaids. I'm getting excited to show her my baby, Canon. Canon is getting so big now. Today he rolled over for the first time. I was so excited that I woke up Mark this morning to tell him. He rolled over the other way while playing this afternoon. *sighs* Pretty soon I won't be able to just leave him and find him right where I left him. He's going to be moving around in no time!! If you haven't had a chance to check it recently, take a look at my baby blog for updates on Canon.

LOST and the Ducky Blanket

So Mark and I are staying up way too late every night (ok, not that late, but late enough that I wish I hadn't done it...and then I go ahead and do it again the next night) watching episodes of LOST that we have on our Netflix instant streaming queue. Each episode ends with us wanting to watch the next one, and I feel like it's taking over my life. We're in the middle of the 5th season now, and the 6th (and final) season just started airing on tv. I've basically gotten to the point where I want to watch as many episodes as we can so that I won't have to watch them anymore. Ha ha! It sucks me in, and I've even been having dreams about it. Yeah, I can say that I'm totally addicted to the show, but I liked the first 3 seasons better than the 4th and 5th so far. I think that's mainly because the flash-forward thing doesn't work for me as well as the flash-back thing... and you probably don't have any idea what I'm talking about unless you watch the show...but the flash-forwards do keep me intrigued and I want to find out how they get to those points. AAAahhhhh! I don't remember if I've been so involved in a show before. It's kinda fun, and kinda NOT at the same time!




Mark says that Canon' favorite show is LOST, but I don't think that he's seen it enough to really have an opinion about it. :) However, Canon does get the cutest expression on his face when he watches it.

Actually, he gets this look on his face when he sees figure skating, basketball, or really anything on the television... anything except for maybe Baby Einstein. I don't have him watching a lot of tv, but I don't completely avoid it at all costs either. Every time I see this, I can't help but laugh. I really love being a mother and seeing the cute things that babies do. Just yesterday Mark told me that he's enjoying being a daddy. Aw, music to a wife's/mother's ears. It's so great to Canon as a part of our family.

One thing that a baby brings to a home is lots and lots of stuff...play gym thing, bouncers, swings, blankets, etc...which brings me to the topic of the ducky blanket. Someone very kind gave Canon this adorable ducky lovey blankie for Christmas:

Oh sure, it looks cute and innocent, but it's possessed. (Ok, so I forgot that it plays music when I ran it through the wash, and now it has some sort of short in the wiring...but for all intensive blogging purposes, it's possessed!!) This ducky's music goes off at random whenever it wants, without us pushing the button to make it go off. Frankly, most of the time that we push the button, we can't even make it go off on purpose. I heard it playing while it was in the crib while Canon was asleep so I grabbed it out so that it wouldn't wake him up. (Yeah, who am I kidding...like it would actually wake him up!) I brought it into the living room with me while I folded the laundry. It was just laying there on the ground, and it played its music at least 7 times while I was folding the laundry...I think I lost count before I was finished. It went off at least 4 times randomly in the middle of the night, and that was 4 times while I was awake due to the baby. I've already heard it go off more than once this morning, and it's not even lunch time yet. It even went off sitting on the couch, just as shown in the picture above...while I was blogging. Yeah, I think Mark and I are probably going to be getting rid of this blankie. It's cute and soft and everything.... but I think that high-pitched "Rock-A-Bye, Baby" tune is going to get old very soon...and there's nothing we can do about it. *sighs*

Happy Birthday, MOM!!

Just a little shout out to the wonderful woman who raised not only me, but my seven older siblings too!!

Happy Birthday, Mom! I love you!!

Just for Fun

Before Canon was born, Mark told me that we were not allowed to become boring parents who never go out just because we have a baby. So, for the sake of not suppressing my husband's spontaneity, if it's something that sounds like it won't hurt, I'll go along with it. And so it was the case the last Friday in January. Mark got the urge to go for a drive. We played "Rock, Paper, Scissors" to determine whether we would go north or south. Turns out that I won, so we drove to Maine. After all, we can't expect to live in Boston for 3 years and never having made it to Maine. It was only a couple hours away. So, we got in the car and drove. What was our destination? Well, we didn't really know where to go since most of the fun things we could've seen were closed by the time we arrived. We didn't really want to spend a whole lot of money, but we started to get hungry... so we went to McDonald's. By the time dinner was done, we just decided to go home. So...it was a long trip just to go to McDonald's, but it was fun just to get in the car and drive.

The spontaneous bundling of the baby

Canon and Mark at the McDonald's

Another update from our family is that Mark had an interview at DHS (Dept. of Homeland Security) in Washington, D.C. this past Thursday. We were so lucky that he ended up scheduling the interview for Thursday instead of Friday because of that horrible snowstorm in the area. He was able to fly in that morning, have the interview, and return to Boston by 2pm and go to his second class. (phew!) Mark felt like the interview went well, and we should hear from them within about 2-3 weeks or so. This interview was for a 2-year position in their Honors Fellowship Program. He'd be working for their general council, and if he performs well, they'd offer him a long-term position that could send him to live anywhere in the Pacific Rim. It's very likely that he'd be asked to live somewhere in Asia, but after Boston, I think we can handle anything! :) We would really like this opportunity, but now it's all up to the Lord's will at this moment. I finished applying to the University of Utah's Masters Program in Speech Pathology. So, even if Mark doesn't get this job, we'll have a goal in mind to pursue. Now, if we are both accepted into these programs, we will most likely go to D.C. instead of Utah... but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

As of right now, Mark and I are really loving the time we get to spend together. I'm so grateful for every day that I get to stay home with my baby. Mark has liked having dinner at a reasonable time... and I'm getting pretty good at making French bread too. :) I honestly feel like we're the closest we've ever been to living the life we've dreamed of since we got married. Howbeit, we were hoping that the reason I was at home was because Mark had a job and we could afford life on one income...not because we couldn't find affordable childcare. Oh well! So far, life feels grand, and we're happy. We're anxious for a job, but we know that that is mostly out of our hands now. We are just waiting to see that the Lord deals us.