Something you'd never expect in the midwest
---So I was awoken early in the morning by a loud cracking noise and the bed shaking back and forth. Then a sound of crashing pans from upstairs. I woke dan up and told him but he murmured that it was fine and went back to sleep. At which point I of course thought I was crazy. BUT I come to find out this morning that i have experienced my first earthquake. A 5.2. Awesome.

This post is entitled... "What Happened here really?"

The video is painful -- truly truly painful -- but worth the watch. Although you may regret the 5 minutes of your life that you will never get back.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPnGPIMUnus

I think maybe I'm going to learn this dance in the privacy of my own home and video tape myself - hoping someone will find it and post it all over the internet. Hey I could join the wonderful and unique breed of YouTube celebrities. Only think...



"Delusions of Grandeur" ---
Also did I mention that Jane's Nursery leader said that she throws better than everyone in the nursery. Awesome. No no i'm not beaming with competitive pride at all. Not at all. no visions of future glory either ;)

Happy Easter! We had a great day. Jane hunted for easter eggs. She loved it. Held them up as trophies in the air whenever she found one. She even had a little pastel pink and white striped Easter dress (jen you would love it) Her basket was a nylon collapsable soccer ball basket (SHE chose it). So pink dress and soccer ball -- apparently well rounded :)

Anyway she was adorable and had a great time. Kids make the holidays so much more fun.

So here are the long awaited pictures (unfortunately we did not get a picture of the easter dress. We'll get one another day though)

So we're back. Sort of. I do have some pictures.. really I do. They aren't on the blog but we have them. Aren't you so happy? They'll be up eventually.

We are doing really well. Jane is growing so fast and talking all the time. We just got her a little scooter. the razor scuttle bug (like a trike with no pedals). She loves it. It's so cute seeing her scooting all over.

She loves saying hi and bye to all of her toys (and her tiger sleeping bag) "Hi tita hi tita" Adorable.


In other news -- Mccain? oh yeah GREAT option there (hopefully the dripping sarcasm is coming across here) Heaven help us. Has anyone ever lived in Canada?

So i've decided that as a former political science major it would be a good idea for me to, say, pay attention to the election. I know.... astounding.

So in my endeavor to do this (and i insert here that I do not lean towards any candidate just yet) I watched part of a Fox debate on Youtube and came across the following statement made by John McCain (I'm not sure this was aired on tv as it was during the Ron Paul segment which was cut by fox news. Nice) anyway Ron Paul was talking about allowing Arab nations to broker peace by themselves. John McCain interrupts only to state the following

"I'm not interested in trading with Al-Qaeda. All they want to trade is Burkhas. I don't want to travel with them they like one-way tickets"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqxXzkaEAGo&feature=related
around 8 minutes

Really? Out loud --not to mention on the air? That statement alone lost the possibility of my vote. Not the person I would want representing my country thank you.

Jane 'reading' Paradise Lost.
Our would be "Frank Ellis" style Christmas card picture (sorry only the Ryan and Mary Englunds will get that)


Our very own Naked Cowgirl



"Tiny Turtle" (though we did have someone say that "he is a very cute frog")
and special mention to the continued usefulness of the Tacos Felix. The only bad experience this bag has brought on was the guy at La Hacienda who asked me where I got it and I said "Yeah it's from Mexico. My friend went on a trip to, well, somewhere in Mexico"

The depth of my geographical knowledge is astounding.
Nevertheless without further ado...






Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny. Won't it be sad when Jane is older and she turns to me and says "who's elmer fudd?". I would like to point out the homemade bugs costume - decided on less than 3 hours before the event. thank you... thank you.
Dan is The Office's Dwight K. Shrute. He was magnificent.










One of those inspirational posters "determination"

oh the socks :)




Jane carries the bag around all day pointing inside and saying 'what's this? ohhhhhhh'

"demulletization" She's losing her "fangs" (i.e. the longer sections of hair on the sides of the back of her head. She was tring to set a trend but it wasn't catching on like we'd thought

Jane's first trip to the beach (before her birthday actually. I struggle with timelines :)
She scattered (and ate) a lot of sand and was - in the words of her uncle john - a bundle of trouble.

and also her hair is suffering from post pigtail syndrome :)

Jane's Birthday. We had cupcakes at the pool -- and yes they were real cupcakes (no tofuti or anything :)

We share a room with a cricket. We awake to it's chirping in the mornings. This has not improved my opinion of crickets.

I have grappled with myself over what to call this post. I have decided on

"It's the same shirt as last time and the last time she wore (or will wear) that shirt"

I recognize somewhere deep down inside of me that it couldn't possibly be the shirt. What shirt would make a person do that. None... it's ridiculous. But there is a part somewhere even deeper inside of me (the same part that forces me to wait inside of public restrooms for someone outside to open the door) -- a much stronger part of me I might add -- that doesn't care if it couldn't possibly be the shirt. It was, as the title said, the same shirt as last time and that's enough for me. It's pink (devil of a color) and terry cloth.

She wasn't wearing shorts to sleep (yes there is another part of me that recognizes that could be a big part of the problem) it's hot in our house so sometimes she's just in a t-shirt. I, once again, was napping nicely when I heard Jane make a noise in the other room. I, once again, went back to sleep for who knows how long until I heard her again. Eventually I woke up and went into her room and endured a real life flashback of the last time she took her diaper off and spread it on herself, the crib, the air... I'm breathing it in... Fecal Matter in my lungs... fecal matter everywhere... once again.

So below are some of the pics from our trip and an update below that.

	a very 'jane' expression'
	i like corn on the cob
	huh? also a jane expression :) (jane and 1 of cousins, wes.)

So short update....

Jane has taken her first steps. The first one was Last week (august 13) and then multiple steps just as we were about to leave her Papa Gary and Grandma Aurilla's house. 4 at a time!

We had a great time in washington with Dan's family. Jane got to play with all of her cousins and grandparents once she relaxed a little and got used to the surroundings -- she was loving having all the space to move around. Then we went to oregon for a week for intereviews and to see my Amber's brother and his wife. We took jane to the beach for the first time. She was incredibly skilled at spraying as much sand as possible while crawling, seriously violating Uncle John's "no sand on the blanket" rule. She also injested a few handfuls of sand as well. Pictures to come.

We took her to the zoo in oregon. She especially liked the sea lions, monkeys and elephants. She even said "kitty" when we were looking at ocelots (i'm not sure I would describe that as quite a 'kitty' but we're not being picky) It was really fun to see her get so excited around the animals.

And aside from pooing in the pool, peeing all over me in the airport, eating too much oregon sand and washington mud and taking a few dives through chairs and over cousins it was a relatively 'event' free vacation.

Well things are going great. Some quick updates on Jane...

She said her first word (not counding mama and dada and plthpbs)

It was "doggy" and for those of you who doubt we waited until she clearly anunciated (sp?) the syllables while looking at a pic of a dog. It was so cute. She loves dogs. I know i'm going to end up giving in and getting her one. It's adorable

We went to the fair last week to go to the demolition derby but it was way too loud to have jane in there so I left with her and went to see the animals. She was petting the goats and letting them lick her fingers and toes. Adorable.

She's standing on her own now and thinking about walking. She's stepped a couple times into something but does not support herself afterwards.

She also likes too dance (bounce up and down) when we turn the music on or sing songs (especailly the race horse one... the name slips my mind)

And she learned to high five today. I'm not sure that's on the same 'milestone' level of walking and talking but it was awesome.

Anyway we are doing well. Looking forward to going to washingto and oregon next week!

I realize now that I probably didn't feel a foreboding something when I awoke to a surprising amount of sunshine last week, I didn't but I wish I had -- if I had I may have sent Dan to get Jane. I did feel it was rather odd the Jane was not up. It was already 9:00. I heard her a few minutes later so I went in to pick her up. As I opened the door I was acosted by a fairly severe stench. When the door was no longer blocking my view (it had long ceased to block my sense of smell) I saw what I'm sure will someday be a funny memory: Jane laying despondently face down in a pile of her own feces which also happened to be spread (and dried mind you) all over her crib ALL OVER. Becca will I'm sure know the first thoughts that came to my mind... and remained in my mind later as I attempted to stave off a panic attack "FECAL MATTER. FECAL MATTER EVERYWHERE"

Sadly this is not the end. The next day jane was eating her meal in her high chair. I left the room and returned to find she had thrown up blueberries all over the floor. No problem. Just puke and hey she didn't even get any on her shirt. Wait... she didn't get any on her shirt- or her face but she did get some on her pants. She's sitting in it.. that's... odd. Sniff Sniff...

Not puke.

Not puke at all.

.
	Playing peekaboo (she's trying to remove the shirt)
Jane's first time fishing. well with us while fishing (mid june)	At the park in may (nice hair dan)