While mom's away...

...the boys will play! Or at least dad will play and pacify the baby while putting him in the high chair and letting him feed himself yogurt!

I had my first choir practice for the Christmas Cantata with which I'm involved, and I get home to this sight: Brent sitting on the couch, not studying but playing a game on his laptop. And there's Drew in his chair, completely intent on using his little spoon to get yogurt out, smear it somewhere, then put it in his mouth to see if there's anything left. He did smile for me, but most of the time he had a pretty serious look of concentration on his face. I made Brent throw him straight in the bathtub, but then I got left with the messy high chair. Let's just say the next night when I had to go our for mutual didn't go that much better -- Drew had goldfish for dinner. I guess Brent forgot all about the other food groups. :)

Tag!

Thanks Christy! I've never been tagged before and I was starting to feel a little left out. :) I love to read these on other people's blogs, so now you get to read one on mine!

8 TV shows I love to watch-
(Disclaimer: Like many of my fellow moms, our tv is usually on Qubo or playing a DVD, so I don't get to watch a lot of "grown up" TV.)
1. Veggie Tales
2. The Biggest Loser
3. Jacob Two-Two (another Qubo cartoon)
4. The Today Show
5. CSI
6. Friends, even though they're just reruns and I know every line of every episode.
7. America's Got Talent
8. Brent's favorite: The Simpsons

8 Favorite restaurants-
1. La Petite Baguette: Ok, I haven't actually been here yet, but it's an actual French restaurant and bakery and I heard it's great. You know I'll love it!
2. Little Caeser's: Hot-and-ready has been very popular at our house lately. It's mostly all about the bread sticks, but the pizza's not bad either. Fast and easy makes it a favorite.
3. The Elephant Bar: Yummy French dip and sweet potato fries. Yum!
4. Winger's: Our favorite Cedar City eatery that we can't seem to find in Oklahoma.
5. Braum's: This restaurant has fast food, but the cool thing about it is it's a local dairy and they have great ice cream and a fresh-food market at some locations.
6. The Olive Garden
7. On The Border (pretty good Mexican)
8. Wendy's, I guess.

8 things that happened yesterday-
1. Brent had the day off from school. In Utah we have Fall Break -- aka shoot a deer day. In Oklahoma, we have Fall Break -- aka drive to Texas to watch the big OU vs. Texas football game on Saturday. No complaints; I just think it's funny. :)
2. Although he had the day off, Brent still went to the school and studied for hours! He could use some extra prayers next week -- midterms! We're talking like two tests every day all week!
3. My friend Keri, who is actually due tomorrow, finally got to go to the hospital to have her baby. She was thinking she was going to go early for about three weeks now. We're so glad Brinkley (sp?) Larson arrived yesterday about 10:30 p.m. She's absolutely beautiful!
4. The most wonderful baby sitter in the world (thanks Sarra!) agreed short-notice to watch Drew while Brent and I went to the temple for a session. It was really good. Drew was even in bed asleep before we got home!
5. I put together a bunch of writing exercises, trying to make it easier to get some inspiration for a writing project.
6. Instead of folding the giant mound of clean laundry in my room, I relaxed a bit and read my book ("Ella Minnow Pea" by Mark Dunn -- awesome book!) and fooled around on the computer.
7. Drew tried to say "gorilla." He signed it and then tried to say it -- reminded me of when my nephew Lennix would say it. We're getting closer to verbal communication!
8. I blog hopped to see what everyone was up to. I really enjoy reading all your blogs!

8 things I'm looking forward to-
1. First and foremost: For this semester to be over! Poor Brent is studying his brains out; this is a tough semester for him so Drew and I don't get to see him much. Plus I'm in a choir for a Christmas Cantata (which I'm writing the program for, too) and our ward's Young Women's presidency, PLUS a writer's group I try to go to every Saturday for some non-child-watching time. It's tough to find time together. I would love just to hang out with Brent for a few hours.
2. For Drew to talk. He's doing awesome with the signs and he picks up new ones all the time, but so far all he says is "yeah," "no" and "green."
3. Halloween! We love Halloween at our house, and it will be all Jedi around here with Yodrew and Obi Brent Kenobi.
4. "Twilight" movie to come out in November; I'm planning to have a girls night out with my Okies.
5. Christmas: Not only is this one of my favorite holidays, but we are flying back to Utah to see everyone we love and miss!
6. Oct. 23: Drew will be 18 months old!
7. Performing the Christmas Cantata I'm involved in; the music will be great and something I wrote will be presented to the community.
8. Christmas again -- I can't tell you how much I miss you all!

8 things on my wish list-
1. A nice, new bestseller book with my name as the author.
2. New clothes (I don't get to do much shopping but I live next to all the best stores!)
3. For Drew to hurry up and talk so he can go on to be the smartest, handsomest baseball player ever!
4. A long, fun vacation with Brent - preferably to Europe.
5. A Canon Rebel
6. My body to be back in prebaby shape
7. A house
8. A craft room

8 persons I hereby tag-
BranDee
Erin
Leanne
Katrina
Keri
Tawny
Steve and Cass
Julie (now you have something to blog about!!)

My new endeavors...

So I've been dabbling in finding a creative way to use my writing skills. I'm a little embarrassed, but some of these dabblings will be online for your enjoyment. If you think I'm silly, don't bash me too hard. :) I've started another blog so I can share what I'm doing and, I'm hoping, get some feedback as to what people think. My goal is to put something up at least twice a month. So far, I don't have anything in particular I'm working on. I have written a children's book that I'm fine tuning (thanks for the help, Mom!), but I don't have any ideas for a larger project. Just keep in mind most of these will probably reflect my favorite genres -- young adult and fantasy. Here's the link if you're interested: megtalbot.blogspot.com. Happy reading!

October kick-off...

I feel like we had so much fun this weekend -- it was like a month's worth in one weekend. Guess what we did! I'm sure you guessed right -- we went to the zoo. But it was family night for zoo members and all the rides and the Fin and Flippers Show was free!



We had lots of fun in the short hour we went. We went to the show first; Drew loved the sea lions jumping out of the water and making loud noises. Then Drew and I took a ride on the carousel and we finished with a ride on the tram.

We've been on the carousel before, but last time Drew and I rode a stationary elephant, so I thought it would be fun to put him on one that moved. However, he got too scared to do it with me just holding on to him, so I practically broke the poor wooden zebra and climbed on.

Then we went to our friends's house (Katrina and Jordan) to watch the USU/BYU game, although I have to admit I didn't see a minute of it. We had a barbecue and then I had way too much fun with the girls to venture into the guy zone in the living room. We tried to laugh hard enough to get Keri into labor, but no such luck!

I really miss Utah, especially as we watched General Conference this weekend and saw the beautiful mountains behind Salt Lake City. But I have to admit, I don't miss it nearly as much as I thought, and I know it's because I have some really awesome friends. Thanks for hanging out with me. I'm so glad we're all dental wives together!! From left, Leanne, JQ, Katrina, Keri and me (we're missing our friend Lindsay, but she just had a little baby a few weeks ago, so she probably had better things to do than hang out till the middle of the night with us).

PS - I got my stitches removed on Monday and my finger feels SO much better. It looks like I've been practicing for a gruesome Halloween, but I can finally type again! I also got a sewing project done today. :) So happy to be off the disabled list...

Mitch update

As most of you know, my brother-in-law finally got called up to the big leagues (Tampa Bay Rays). He had one game as a reliever the Monday after he got called up, but he got to start the game Tuesday (Sept. 23). We bought the game so we could watch it online; it was so fun to see him at work. We think he did awesome! My brother found this cool picture of him during that game. We're so excited for him to have this chance -- he's been working so hard, and he's just full of talent. Also, he pitched his third game, this time relieving again, today. Go Mitch, and go Rays! Cross your fingers for a World Series run...

Looooong week...

I'll keep this short, mostly because I'm typing with one hand. Suffice it to say there was an accident, my fault of course; it resulted in stitches and a tetanus shot and, consequently, medication that made me nauseated all week. I'm going back to the urgent care facility to get the stitches out tomorrow, and I cut back on the meds (not completely) and the nausea is under control as long as I eat. Drew has been very good for me, but it's really been a long week. I think it's over and I can get back to real life, I truly hope.
I did take pictures to document my trauma, mostly because this was a first for me, having to get emergency stitches (3 of them). However, I've found most of the sweet women who ask me how I'm doing want to know what happened and then tell me the thought alone makes them sick, so you'll have to request pictures or an email if you want all the gory details -- I won't post it here. :)
Thank goodness I finally gave in and bought "Twilight" by Stephanie Meyer to distract myself this week. As I knew I would, I absolutely loved the book, but it only lasted me one day; I devoured it so quickly. I just finished "New Moon" today and I'm borrowing "Eclipse" from my friend Leanne. That will probably last me another day or two... Yeah for good books!

Doggie?

No, Drew still isn't talking, but he's really good at signs (thank you, Steve and Cass! What would we do without Signing Times, which is currently his favorite thing to watch?). Last week he picked up yet another sign -- doggie. But he didn't do it quite like he was supposed to. You just have to see for yourself...