Dear little ones,

I can't wait for you to be part of our family, but I still need some time. When your dad and I were first talking about getting married and starting a new life, I was worried about lots of things. I was worried because I'm not a very good cook. I hope by the time you're here I'll have had enough practice that I won't be so bad. I was worried about chores, and bills, and taxes, and life... and I wasn't sure if I could do it. It's been almost a year now and lots of things worry me, but I don't get as stressed because Daddy balances me out and keeps me sane.

I think often of what our life will be like and I'm excited. I'm excited to tickle your toes and give you butterfly kisses. I'm excited to practice your reading and listen to the stories you come up with in your head. Let's make stories up together. I'm excited to take you to the park and to the fair and to the pool.

I'm excited to bake cookies and eat watermelon from the rind. I hope we live in Texas, and you love the heat and the sun and the southern manners as much as I do. And if we don't live there, I hope there's a place for it in your heart. I hope you guys get a long enough to endure car rides and road trips and we can have (mostly) pleasant travel memories.

I'm excited to teach you about the Savior and to hear your little prayers. I'm excited to watch you grow in your understanding and love for the Gospel. I'm excited to see the sacrifices you are willing to make to hold true to your standards. Don't be mad when I want you to choose a modest prom dress and I won't let you buy a string bikini. I hope your teenage friends like to hang out at our house. I hope we throw parties and you like having neighbors and friends over as much as Dad and I do.

I hope you push hard at whatever you do. I hope you are strong and you work hard. I hope you pursue things that make you happy. I hope you don't give up when you want to stop. I hope you don't get embarrassed by your obnoxious mother on the sidelines. I hope you like football. I hope you are healthy and you care about what goes into your body.

Dearest kiddos, there is so much joy I see in the future. But right now I'm not the best mom I can be, and I'm not quite ready. I need to work on improving my habits and my life right now. I need to make time for meaningful scripture study every day. I need to exercise because I want to be around for a long, long time. I want to learn how to sew and make things with my own two hands. I also want a little time to work as a recreation therapist. I know the things I'm learning in school will help me in the relationships I have with you. I want to help people... I hope that rubs off on you a little. I feel like I need to run my life a little better than I am right now before you get here. But just so you know, I think about you all the time. Sometimes when I see other peoples' babies, I get really anxious about having you all to myself. But for now, you'll have to keep waiting patiently. Don't jump too hard on the floors of heaven.

I'm working hard to be ready for when you're here.

I love you,

Mom

K.

I want a K wall like this someday.

Found a new blog to follow.

(Because follow sounds better than stalk.)

elizabethkartchner.blogspot.com.

What I do at Work.

Receive shipments of inventory. Perform technician audits. Perform office audits. Organize inventory room. Re-arrange boxes. Vacuum. Tidy up the office. Receive calls from sales reps. Schedule technicians for jobs. but mostly... 

daydream, read, browse, and doodle.

(Things that remind me of Lindsey).

Interesting thought.

I like reading other people's blogs. I'm always sad when someone's blog is blocked, and I'm not really close enough to the person to ask for permission into their lives. I often find myself looking at the blogs of people I don't even know. JD will come into the room and ask "who's that?" and I sheepishly admit I really don't know. He thinks I'm weird. I'm just into people. I like knowing the creative things they've done to spruce up their homes for little dinero. I like reading funny stories about the things kids say and do. I like looking at pictures and scanning for ideas of outfits to try or ways to do my hair. I like to look at things people make. I am fascinated by culture and how different, or alike, people are to me. Today, I had an interesting thought: if I am reading the blogs of strangers, strangers are probably reading this blog of mine. It's a little freaky to think that and it makes a part of me want to go private. . .but mostly, it just makes me smile. Maybe my life in some small way influences another person's somewhere and I don't even know it.

Natural Waterfalls in Virginia.

Being here reminded me of this scripture: "All things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator." Alma 30:44

This is funny.

It's a picture from the sports section of the Newseum. JD and I laughed out loud.

Newseum.

The Newseum is the sweetest place we've been to yet. It's a news museum (get it? Newseum. so clever!) I went on Saturday with Matt and one of his friends. It costs 20 bucks to get in, but the ticket is good for two days. I went in and couldn't get enough. Matt kept walking ahead of me. It was the coolest. I was captivated. On Saturday, I spent the most time looking at a gallery of Pulitzer prize winning photos. They were incredible. They were images from around the world of both heartbreaking and heartwarming things... things like September 11, the Columbine shooting, wars between tribal people, lynchings, starving children, Olympians in all their glory, soldiers returning after war, presidents, MLK's funeral, veterans, children playing on city streets, others falling from burning buildings, firefighters. It was moving. I was in there for about an hour by myself. I was so sad the museum was closing. I had only seen one of the seven floors. I wanted to come back with JD. We came back on Sunday; unfortunately, we got there around three, which didn't leave us a lot of time either. Here we are in front of the largest piece of the Berlin wall in the United States.

We spent a big chunk of time on Sunday in the sports section. There were all these impressive images from Sports Illustrated over the years- basketball players, boxers, figure skaters, divers, baseball stars, kids in the streets, and aspiring youngsters. We watched a movie on the history of sports, which documented big moments in sports over the last 100 years or so. JD and I both ate it up. We also went to an FBI exhibit. There were a bunch of artifacts and objects from the biggest FBI crime investigations in US history. So many scary stories!

Basically, this place is amazing. JD and I both already agreed it's so worth it to pay to go again later this summer to see all the things we missed. If you are ever in this part of the country, go here. You won't regret it.

For the record.

I beat JD's bowling score on Saturday night. :)

You know how in Provo all the lanes are taken and you have to wait whenever you want to bowl on a weekend? Yeah. . .it's not like that here. The bars and clubs are crrrowded. But the bowling alley? Very empty. Very cool.

Team bonding.

We have a weekly pool party in the office and the boys play watermelon rugby. It's this ridiculous game where you split into teams, cover a watermelon with Vaseline, and try to get the watermelon to the opposite side of the pool. It slips and slides everywhere. . .it's hard to pass to your teammates. . .it is very dangerous. . and incredibly entertaining to watch.

These grown men in their twenties are all over each other and they're half naked. So funny! Nothing stops them.

Please note JD's face in the following picture.

He loves playing, even when his toes are scraped and bleeding. How about this technique for team bonding, eh?

Good Morning Baltimore!

We took a trip to Baltimore last weekend. All I wanted to do was break out in the Hairspray song. JD had no idea what I was singing... sad! After driving around the city for nearly half an hour looking for parking under $20, we finally found a place and set out on our adventure.

There are tons of things to do in downtown Baltimore! We finally decided we would spend the day at the National Aquarium. Good choice :) We saw a 4-D movie about aquatic life. . .

We saw an alligator!

And lots of really pretty fishies :)

We went to a dolphin show. . .

and learned about how living green will help save the animals.

We saw some tropical birds and other forest life, too.

There are so many cool things that live in the water! What an amazing world we live in :)

IHOP... fail.

We live in College Park, Maryland. It's not the District exactly... it's about a 20 min drive to DC. It's the college town for the Univeristy of Maryland. The ironic thing is that most restaurants close at 10 or 11. What the heck? JD got back late last Friday night and we wanted to go out to eat. We drove around for a while until we finally decided we would go to IHOP because it was basically our only option. The service was terrible. We waited for like 15 minutes before we even got a menu. In my opinion, IHOP is also incredibly overpriced. Boo. While we were waiting, I took out the camera and called JD's name. This is the face he made at me. Bahahaha!

I laughed really hard. And then I tried to copy him. This is the face I made.

He is funny. I love him lots. A lot more than I loved IHOP!