Joys of Technology

This week I have spent a lot of time tutoring. Each Tuesday and Thursday, I usually tutor a woman who attends UVSC in her independent study math class. However, she has decided she wants to get this class over with. So she came every day this week. It was fun to do that much math, but I also missed getting to play with Clara.

Jeremy got to play with her a little this week. Jeremy thinks its great she loves technology so much. He's been "teaching" her how to play Nintendo and dreams of them playing Nintendo together all day long. He also loves how fascinated she is with his phone. She loves the glow and will follow it faster than she follows anything else. Here are pictures of Dad teaching Clara to play Nintendo, and having her look at his phone. You can see the glow on her face. I've also included a cute picture we took of her the same day we took the phone picture. Enjoy!

For Maga & Grandad

I just realized that I'm writing on my Grandad's birthday. So I wanted to take the time and wish him a happy birthday. We are so lucky to have you!

I also wanted to include a picture of Clara in her outfit that Maga & Grandad gave her for Christmas. It's Jeremy's favorite outfit of hers. This is what she looks like in it. Thanks!

Rexburg

This last week, Jeremy and I got to make the drive to Rexburg, Idaho. My nephew was being blessed. Even though Clara is 3 months older than her cousin, her feet and hands are pretty much the same size as his. Her feet are so tiny that she is still wearing newborn shoes, so it's her that is petite, and not that her nephew has unusually large extremities. However, she definitely beats him out in chubbiness. Look at those precious legs!We were able to eat at Craigos. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Craigo's, its the best pizza place I have ever been to. They not only have the best pizza I have ever tasted, but my favorite thing on the menu is their cheesy bread sticks.
Yum!

Clara loves covering her face when she sleeps. I don't know if it's because her blanket is so soft that she likes her whole face to feel it, or if she just likes something covering her face as she sleeps. I lay her down, and within seconds she has her blanket up over her head. It is really quite funny.

Valentine's Week

All week long, Jeremy and I have been looking forward to Valentine's Day. We didn't do anything too exciting because of all the homework he has. But we did take 1/2 an hour and order pizza. It was fun to know that we were going to spend quality time together on a regular week day, which is a very rare thing now a days. And even though Jeremy had already gotten me a Valentine's gift, he still came home with this yellow rose, which is my favorite flower. I thought it was so beautiful. Thanks Jeremy for loving me and thinking of me!Clara is growing up too fast! She had several firsts this week. She has started grabbing her feet and playing with them. She has started taking less naps, which means more play time, and slightly more cranky as she skips some of her old usual nap times. She has gotten angry for the first time this week. She is more aware of her surroundings, so if she doesn't get what she wants, she cries. It is a different cry that I have heard before, so I know she's frustrated that she can't have what she wants. I know it will only get worse before it gets better..... She has also decided that she likes sitting up a lot better than laying down. The only problem is that she can't sit up by herself yet. However, she tries all the time, so those back muscles are getting the workout to become strong enough to support her! I've gotten very creative in places I can put her so that she can sit up without me having to hold her. One of those places is the corner of the couch, which is slippery. So in all of her movements, it's not too long before she has slid back down into laying position. She usually cries at that point, but one day I looked to check up on her and found her like this. I thought she looked so cute with her ankles crossed, just relaxing on the couch like a true couch potato. Hopefully this isn't an omen for the future.Another first for this week is that she has learned how to make her cow moo. Clara has a plush cow on her car seat. If you pull the cow it starts vibrating and mooing. I was driving along to pick up Jeremy from class, and all of a sudden I heard the cow mooing! I was really excited at first, thinking my daughter was so smart. But then I realize that pretty soon I would be hating the moo sound with how often she would be pulling it. But for now, it's still pretty cute. And, as you can tell, she is pretty proud of herself for figuring it out too.You might ask yourself why I was picking up Jeremy from class. That leads me to explain another exciting event for the week. Our car was rear ended just after Christmas, and it was keyed about a week prior to the accident. So we finally got our car in to the auto body shop. With all the snow, apparently all the body shops are full. So we didn't get to drop our car off for 2 weeks. That was January 30th. We dropped the car off for a 6 day repair. We only got a free car rental for 2 of those days. But I thought, "Hey we have 1 car, we can do with that for 4 days, no problem." Well that 6 day car repair turned into a 13 day repair and that doesn't include weekends! So I got to drive Jeremy to class every day (our UVSC sticker is only on the Honda) in our Volvo that doesn't have any heat! The Volvo also has problems with opening the driver side door, slow windshield wipers, and many other ailments that are common to older cars. Needless to say, we were extremely grateful to get our Honda back on Wednesday of this week. Yeah for a car with a heater!

Tagged - Again

It seems like I was just tagged, but at least this is a different one. I guess you can always have something to disclose about yourself.

So...A: The rules of the game are posted at the beginning. B: Each player answers the questions about themselves. C: At the end of the post, the player then tags 3 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

10 years ago: February 1998. I was attending my 2nd semester at BYU. I had graduated from Ricks and was actually hating BYU. It was a hard year for me because I didn't know any of my roommates prior to moving in. They put me with all freshman, which wasn't so bad until they thought I was really old for being a Junior. We didn't get a long too well either, so I spent most of my time at my FHE brother's apartment that Semester. Boy do I have great memories of hanging out with Carl, Chris, Rance, David, Brent, and who could forget Mark! Mark kept things very entertaining as he would throw knives at the wall, bought pets just to see them kill other pets. (Like a snake just so he could watch it eat and beta fish so he could watch them fight.)

5 things on my to-do list today: Celebrate Valentine's Day with Jeremy for the few minutes we have together today. (Since he's got a ton of homework to do all we have planned is an exchanging of gifts.) Tutor Lilian. Write a practice test for Lilian to take to prepare her for her up and coming Math 1030 test. Bathe Clara. Keep Clara entertained.

Snacks I enjoy: I'm a huge sucker for nacho cheese and chips. I especially like letting the cheese sit so long on the chips that the chips are soggy. Pretty much anything to do with chocolate, my favorite is dark chocolate with almonds. Potstickers, Fruit snacks and wheat thins with a cheese ball.

What I would do if I were suddenly made a billionaire: Buy a house, invest enough money that we could live off the interest each month so Jeremy can quit school and only work when he wants to, invest so that we can have a great retirement and be covered in case one of us passes away unexpectedly. Take care of retirement for my mom so she can go back to being a stay at home mom, which is one of her biggest dreams and then pay for her to go to school later on because she is really enjoying learning. Buy houses for all our family members (or pay off their mortgages if they already have houses.) Pay off all family members debts. Buy all the electronics and movies that Jeremy dreams of getting. Buy my mother plane tickets any time she wants to go visit any of her kids.

5 places I have lived: San Mateo, California; Libby, Montana; Rexburg, Idaho; Provo, Utah; and Orem, Utah. (Those are the only places whose names I know. My parents moved around a lot until I was 3, so Libby is the fist place I remember, so I have no idea where I lived between San Mateo and Libby.)

5 Things people don't know about me: I won't go into too much detail like I did the last time I was tagged. 1) I love strange foods. I will eat any type of sea food you put in front of me, even if it looks or smells weird. I've really grossed some roommates out in the past... 2) I love graphing calculators. I think they are the coolest invention ever. 3) I love strategy games. 4) I love organizing things. 5) I dislike getting tagged and getting those emails where you are supposed to fill in all your own answers to a million questions and forward it on. I stress out, which I know is silly. I think, if I don't forward the message on, are they going to think I don't like their game. It's not that I dislike it (I really do think all the answers are interesting) I just don't like passing it on and making others feel forced to keep it going. But I feel like if I don't pass it on, the person who sent it to me will be disappointed, and thus I feel forced to continue the email or tagging.

I tag: Angie, Mandy, and Alicia

Clara is 4 Months

Clara turned 4 months old on Monday of this week. It is so fun to see her change and grow so fast. On Sunday of this week, she rolled over from her front to her back. I was so excited that both Jeremy and I got to see it. However, she hasn't done it since, so we'll see how long it takes her to figure out how to get around. In honor of her turning 4 months, I thought I would post a few new pictures of her.

This is my "homey-G" girl
Just relaxing in her swing
Even after she fell asleep, she would not let go of her toy fish!
Clara has gotten good at taking the binki out of her mouth, and she's improving on how to put it back in.....
Clara looking at the camera during tummy time. She is getting so good at getting that head up!

If you want to see how much she's changed, look at my entry of her at 3 months as I put pictures of all ages on that blog. (The web address for that blog is: http://jandsbeck.blogspot.com/2008/01/clara-is-3-months-old.html )

Full Week

This has been a full week. Jeremy and I celebrated our Anniversary on Saturday.
We went to a U2 movie that was basically a concert of theirs in 3D. The movie premiered at the Sundance film Festival, and then was put into normal theaters. Jeremy is a HUGE U2 fan, so we just had to go. Jeremy loves U2 so much that he told me I needed to put a picture he found on the internet. This is a picture of U2 watching their own movie in 3D.On Sunday, we heard the news of the passing of our beloved prophet, President Gordon B. Hinckley. I was surprisingly not sad at the news. I found myself looking forward to our next prophet, and happy that President Hinckley can be with his wife and good friends who have also recently passed on.Monday was our actual anniversary. I can't believe it's been 2 years since Jeremy and I were married. People tell us that the first few years of marriage are the hardest. If that is true, Jeremy and I have a wonderful rest of our lives together. I never imagined that married life was so easy. Sure we have our ups and downs, but the ups far outweigh the downs. We get a long so well and enjoy serving each other everyday! I've included a picture of us back then. What a wonderful day for Jeremy and I!Yesterday I had the wonderful opportuinity to attend President Hinckley's viewing. It took about 20 minutes to wander through the conference center before I reached the hall of the prophets. (I wasn't wandering aimlessly, they had set up the "line" for extremely large amounts of people, so they just took us through the whole conference center so that no one had to wait outside.) As soon as I was about to enter the room, the spirit overwhelmed me. I knew then that Gordon B. Hinckley was a prophet of God. Even though it was just a body, it still carried the Mantle of God. I couldn't help but shed a few tears because the spirit was so strong. He looked like such a small frail man, but the spirit bore witness to me that he was an incredibly strong prophet that was equal to the task of leading millions of saints. I will never forget this experience.