Another Month Gone By

Now that Labor Day is fast approaching, I realize I should probably post something fun for everyone to read.  Unfortunately, I don't think I have anything really fun for you...so you'll just have to suffer through a few boring ramblings that happen to come to the mind of Kat Dahl.

Rambling #1-  Mark is still searching for a job.  He's applied to basically every posssible legal position he'd be qualified for in the state of Utah that he finds online, and there's just not much luck.  He had an interview to be a Provo City prosecutor, but they decided to "continue interviewing."  He's getting a bit stressed about this whole ordeal- being well qualified but just not finding an opening to fill- and has considered starting his own firm right away, but he's still hoping to find a position at an "already established" firm because the start-up costs are just too high for someone without any form of income right now.

Rambling #2- Mark and I just got called as Primary workers to teach the CTR 4 class.  Today we sat in with our class while the old teachers taught one more time.  They're a lively little group, but it will be fun.  They seem like a good group of kids.  We haven't even met them all yet because they weren't all there.  We were hoping to meet the autistic child while there was still a familiar face there with us.  Oh well...I guess we will just have an adventure getting to know him by ourselves.

Rambling #3- Living with Mark's parents is a lot easier than I was expecting, and I almost feel like I'm not pulling enough of my own weight sometimes.  I used to be in charge of all the cooking, all the cleaning, all the baby tending, and now I feel so lazy.  Not that Colleen does it all...but enough of it for me to just feel like a mooch.  I don't know about you, but I don't really like that feeling!  I want to be useful!   But at the same time, there's also the feeling of "It's not my house; does she not want me to do this?" At least I still feel in charge of Canon overall...she still asks me if I want Canon to have this or that before just giving him things.  I'm happy to feel like they respect my wishes in regards to my child. (Thanks, Mom!)

Rambling #4- Canon has really adjusted well to being here in Utah.  He's meeting so many cousins and friends, and he just thrives on all the attention.  His language continues to grow, and he imitates more new words that he hears.  He's still not quite stringing 2 words together, but he's really learning a lot.  He's totally obsessed with cars and trucks.  About 50% of his words are either "car" or "RRrrruck" and he could play with them ALL DAY LONG.  He must be a little boy or something!!

Rambling #5- My mother-in-law and I engaged in a huge project not too long ago.  We remodeled the main bathroom in her house.  We (with help of relatives, of course) tore out the linoleum, tiled the floor with tiles left over from the kitchen (like 10 years ago), repainted all the walls and the ceiling, got a new custom-built cabinet (as well as one in each of the other bathrooms), new towel racks and TP holder, and re-caulked the tub.  I'm actually really excited about how it turned out.  It is far from looking professional, but it's good enough for a DIY job.  I think it looks pretty good, and now I'm practically itching to do another project.

Looking through the ladder to see me cutting the blue edge

I just love this blue color.  It really looks sharp with the blue in the tile of the tub.

We want the corners to look perfect now, don't we?

Uncle Paul helping us by laying and grouting the tile floor. Thanks, Paul!!

Rambling #6-  Because of the aforementioned itching, I've been working on updating Canon's scrapbook.  I've gotten through August of 2010, which means only a couple months left before his birthday.  Ugh!  Such a long process, but at least it's worthwhile, I find it FUN!  Only 12 months left to go...and then...I have to keep on going because Canon is still growing fast!

Rambling #7- Mark and I really like being back in Utah because we get to spend time with friends that we haven't seen in ages, like the Meservys.  We've already been able to hang out with them twice, and I hope we can make it a monthly event.  Here are some pictures from our little pool party that we had with them.  (Not all of these pictures are ones that I'd consider "blog-worthy", but I'm going to post them all so that Breanne can get all the ones she's interested in from that event.  Also, there are a couple that she posted on her blog from our first visit that I thought were really adorable of Canon.  Enjoy the pictures!)

Meeting Jane for the first time...they were fast buds! :)

Mom, this puzzle is super fun!

Jane braving the cold waters

Canon trying to flick us with water

Saying "please," but I don't remember what for

Mark just splashed him...but don't worry, he looks sadder than he really was.  He was laughing shortly after this picture was taken.

Mommy loves

aw, so sad?

That's better, huh?

What's wrong with Jane, Daddy?

Nothing!  See that adorable grin?

See, when Jane is happy, everyone is happy!

back to the flicking water again

Say "cheese!"

warming up a bit out of the water

See how much hair we DIDN'T cut when he got his last haircut?  

chil-laxin' in the grass

They're in their pajamas, and Canon was not happy to see Jane go.  Good night, Meservys!  Thanks for playing with us!

Rambling #...what number am I on now?...- Mark and I went to Education Week at BYU last week, and it was pretty fun.  My parents go every year, and I figured it was a chance to see them a little more before they went home.  Of course, as it would happen, my parents and I were not really interested in many of the same classes, so I went to most classes by myself, but a few I had someone with me. Mark attended several of the Continuing Legal Education (CLE) classes because that's a really cheap way to earn CLE credits (which he needs to get every year).  So, he spent most of the week with those, although a few classes he came with me. It was a long week with Canon having other people watch him all day, but he did great!  Thanks to Grandma Dahl, Tiffany and her kids, and Mary and her kids for watching Canon that week.  He really seemed to enjoy all the play time with everyone, and it allowed Mark and me to attend Ed Week with no worries.  It was a fabulous week...thanks to you!

     As some of you may ask what my favorite class was, I'll just give a little summary of what I got out of the week.  I was not terribly interested in many gospel classes because I feel like those are topics that we hear all the time.  However, I was interested in self-help classes this year.  A few parenting ones really stuck out to me, but mostly it was a course on how to change anything.   That's right, anything- referring to habits in your life.  Did you know that there are 6 influences to every behavior you have, and your own willpower/desire is only 1 of those influences.  It was so eye-opening to me to learn that in order to change a bad habit, you have to change all these other influences in order to succeed.  I won't bore you with all the details, but I am still strongly considering buying their book.  I just came out of Ed Week feeling a renewed hope that if there was something that I really want to change in my life, I have the ability to do it.  I just have to really think it through first to make sure I consider all the influences.

That's all the rambling for now, but hopefully I'll have something a little more interesting to post soon!