Playing with my daddy

Wrestling with dad is a fun pasttime. Dad also makes a great jungle gym as you can see in the video below.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!!!!


Swinging at the park never gets old you just have to have a fun Dad who will take you!




So since I haven't put any pictures up of our home (I will I promise!!!) I'll give you this video. Ryanna starts out in the living room, walks through the kitchen and into the entry way. The carpet she is crawling toward at the end is the other side of the living room. You'll notice the cupboard doors aren't on yet which is why I haven't put pictures up yet but I worked on them all weekend and hope to finish them today!!! Enjoy and tell me if you think Ryanna is as funny as I do hauling that big bag around. How does she know how to put it on??

Do I even dare...

...to write a post after about a month or two of hiding in Kristin's shadows? Not much on my mind except for work and my other work. Usually I have used this spot on the web to glorify my church basketball victories or sulk in html about the games we lost. I don't play anything right now, so the competative flare hasn't been in me since swearing up and down at the JAZZ/LAKERS series. So, shall we get my blood boiling by talking about Tim Donahee... or whatever his name is. The NBA ref that claims series' in the NBA were fixed. Nah... I always knew what he was saying anyway....

Work #1 - The CAN DO CREW. Here is the Can Do Crew site
A pretty non-stress job except for one factor which I will mention below somewhere.

I work with students who have one disability or another. We call them disabilities, but I am quickly learning that their strengths are just different than ours. The students, 12 in all, are awesome. About half have jobs and the other half doesn't. About 3 quarters of them are good workers, the other fourth are learning. The whole point.

I am now a certified Job Coach, which was one of the 3 requirements to me getting the job. The other two include a Special Ed degree/endorsement which I have 3 years to complete, and a CDL so that I can drive my "half buses," or otherwise called "mini-buses" usually associated with Special Ed. I should get the CDL and bus endorsement this summer.

So, basically I am not HQ (highly qualified) but I should be someday. The thought of going back to school really doesn't bother me, that isn't the stressful part of my job. The stressful part is the RECYCLING program that the city and county have given me to run. I was blinded by ignorance when I agreed to get it back up and running. (The CAN DO CREW has traditionally run a small recycling operation) The city wants it to now be bigger and better than ever, but what I want to convince them of is the fact that I am a teacher in the Uintah School District and I would love to help the recycling program, not run it. I literally have nightmares about recycling and other nights I can't even sleep at all!

Work #2 - X94 Website It is no secret to anyone who really knows me that I am a Radio DJ. As much as I hate being called a DJ I can't think of anything better, maybe a radio host. But to be a radio host I feel like I have to have a real show, not just music with artist and titles mixed in, but a show like Sean Hannity, Glen Beck or Dr. Laura. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't want to do talk radio (Except for maybe sports), but I really need to incorporate my show into a radio program that is dependable and entertaining with music too. I don't need to be the star, I just need to entertain.

I don't want to be the star. One of the rules that Kristin has for our new ward is that she is not allowed to tell anyone what my parttime job is. I find that I feel uncomfortable when people expect me to be the same in person as I am on the air, outgoing and goofy. At church I am so much more reserved... in fact I really don't talk much at church. The beauty about radio is that people know my voice and not my face. In my last ward, I had many of my young men sit in on the morning show I used to be a part of for job shadowing, and that was fine. BUT in the last church basketball game I played in, one of those same young men just kept yelling, "GO BRIAN FROM X94!!" At that moment I was hot-headed Brian from the 9th ward, not Brian from X94. I must differentiate.

Anyway, X94 is not a source of stress directly, just indirectly. I could do my shift in my sleep, but I am constantly being challenged by my boss. WHICH IS GOOD, the downside is that I tend to be a worry wort and over-think things, thinking that my efforts are disappointing my boss. It's just me wanting to be perfect and the boss only wants me to keep improving because he knows how stale radio work can be. He doesn't want me to be bored.

Even though I only really put in 17-22 hours a week, I lose sleep with this job as well. There are the times When I really screw up.. it seems that when I do, I mess up with something very big and it can destroy me emotionally/mentally for a couple days ....

Regardless....

I do think that I am learning a balance. With summer here, I only work half days at the school job and that leaves a lot of good time at home. Ryanna is sure growing up and I am trying to make an effort to do more than just watch her from a distance.

-Brian

Random Somethings

For the last few months I've been working out with some friends in the morning who are also young mothers. It has been great for Ryanna because she has learned to interact with other kids and experience what it's like to have a toy or two taken away. Every now and then we also get together with these friends during to day to have lunch or just hang out while the kids play and on several occasions we have gone to McDonald's since the kids enjoy that. Well today I wanted to use some of the free happy meal cards that Brian had from work so we invited Sha and Kenna to lunch(everyone else was out of town or busy). Kenna will turn two in July and Ryanna just LOVES playing with her. She calls her Enna and both girls get so excited when they see each other. Anyway, we had a good time and I got some pictures of the girls playing together.

Kenna loves to give hugs right around the neck. Ryanna didn't mind a bit!

This is the first time that Ryanna has been brave enough to climb up the tree. Usually she watches from a distance but today got in on the action.



Getting up close and personal with the giant flowers. Silly girl.

Spaghetti is probably Ryanna's favorite meal. She likes to feed herself and seems to enjoy the messiness of it all.

Get a good look at that floor because by Monday it will be a beautiful wood laminate. Hooray!


Brian showed up one night with a little kitty who was abandoned by its Mommy. She was really cute but was a newborn and needed special care. I brought it to the shelter the next day. It wasn't eating and seemed really weak.

Look at the curl in her hair! We love it.

This video reminds me of a caveman or cavewoman or cavebaby who is roaming and exploring the land. She is on a quest to find "OWIES" and will try to carry anything around her neck like this belt for example. She's really getting me worried about this whole fettish!

Walking is fun!

Ryanna took her first real step about 5 or 6 weeks ago but only liked to move very short distances on her own. Little by little she has gained more confidence and now walking is her favorite game! You heard me right, she thinks of it like a game more than a mode of transportation. She loves our new home and so do Brian and I. I'll get pictures up as soon as I'm done painting, etc.

So I wanted to note a few other funny things that Ryanna has been doing lately.

#1. Most babies and toddlers grow attached to an object like a blanket, stuffed animal, or a binkie. Well, Ryanna has a fettish for lanyards. You know the things you hang around your neck to attach keys or whatever else to. The blue thing around her neck in the video is a lanyard that our friend Mary let her play with one day. Ryanna has always loved when Mary would hold her and she could yank on, suck on, or try to break whatever large necklace Mary had on that day. Most the time she would tug pretty hard and of course Mary would say "OWIE, please stop that" or "OWIE, please be nice." Ryanna also likes to grab onto my necklace and gets about the same reaction. Well the day that Mary let her play with the lanyard was the day our lives changed. She named it "OWIE" and it has become the item in this world she is most attached to. We've had several near drownings at bath time because I take away her OWIE and she then proceeds to fight heart and soul, screaming OWIE OWIE OWIE. The neighbors are probably calling social services since this has happened more than once. I learned a few days ago to hide the OWIE sometime in the afternoon to avoid such near death experiences. So my child has finally found a comfort object(other than glow baby which she is only allowed to have in her bed) and as luck would have it the object of her choice is a serious choking hazard....is this a sign of things to come. ;)

#2. Ryanna has taken the next step in her language development and repeats many things that I say. She has done this off and on in the past but with little comprehension of what she is saying. Now, however, it is evident that she understands because once she says it she then uses it to communicate with me. This last week she has learned and uses new words like cracker, drink, bed, car, etc. It is easier to know what she wants that is for sure. We have to be careful what we say now more than before because she'll try to repeat us. When we were at the apartment cleaning I opened the fridge and exclaimed "Gross!" The next thing out of her mouth was gross...GROSS!

#3. For a few weeks when it is time to pray we'll tell Ryanna to fold her arms and most of the time she will by tucking both fist up to her chin and sometimes even closing her eyes. The last three or four days though when we say a prayer she'll even make a sound at the end: mmmenn. What a sweet girl.

Well I'm sorry we haven't had much on the blog lately and that we've been bad about returning phone calls and emails. The whole buying a house, renovating it, and moving has been pretty overwhelming but we are almost all settled in now and should be back to normal here soon. HOPEFULLY this is the last move for at least a few years. Did you know we have been married about 4 1/2 years and this is our sixth place! Yeah, we've been insanely transient. It's time to try and plant some roots for a while.