NEWS

We are going to be the proud owners of a brand new 2007 baby BOY!!! No girl this time. Oh well, Collin needs a buddy to push around and be pushed around!!

Baby Max

Here are some of the first pictures of Max Andrew Taylor, the newest arrival in the Taylor family. Look at how much Lavan is glowing!! He is going to be such a good daddy!!! (sorry, my dad didn't send my any with Dorothy in them, I will try to get some soon)

Young Link to Save the Day

For those of you who do not know, Young Link is the hero off of Legend of Zelda video game. Collin has the blue eyes and blonde hair just like him!!

Up "dates"

I finally have a due date, April 15th. Yay tax baby!!

Also Lavan and Dorothy are going to have a C-section on Friday to bring little Max into this world. The baby is breech and they tried to turn it around last Friday but the little guy refused to move. So, they set the date for Oct 27th (the day before G-rats wedding) Hopefully everything goes well so that visiting and wedding doesn't collide.

Collin is in Holbrook right now visiting grandparents, giving me and Joe a break. For the first time in his life he has been acting a little homesick and calls us everyday. With him out of the house, I have been able to get most of his Halloween costume sewn. Hooray for Link!! (hero off of Zelda)

The Generic White Car is Back!

The day we got the ultrasound of the baby continued to be a "special" day. The police called earlier and found my piece of junk car that was stolen in July. Nothing was broken on it, and it was covered in cobwebs and dirt. Silly thing was just abandoned within 3 blocks of us. I don't know how it got stolen, it barely runs. If you were to drive it, the moment you turn the AC on, it dies or if you stay stopped too long it dies. Anyways we were hoping it would stay stolen so that we could have a tax write off since we didn't have full coverage on the thing. To have the car towed back to our house was going to cost us over $100. We decided that we would just sign the title over to the tow place and get rid of it.

I have never been to a tow yard before. This place was horrible. You had to talk to the tow guy who was behind tinted glass and bars. I couldn't tell when he was there so I could talk to him. This tow place only takes EXACT change, they will not make change for you. Who carries various values of cash with them anymore? If you decide to use a credit card, you get charged $10 extra dollars for services. At the bottom of the sign that listed all of their rules, was one last rule. "If you are being rude in any way, we will ask you to leave and not serve you". I am glad a read that before I started talking to him or else we probably would not have gotten the car that day. By the way their hours were wretched too. On Saturday they are only open from 9:00 am to 12:00 Pm. Saturday is the only way most people can pick up a car!!! Why would they close early unless to charge more fees of the vehicle staying over night.

Another tow guy appears and starts to jump the car. I am smiling knowing the silly thing is not gonna start. But it immediatly starts up with the bluest white smoke you have ever seen coming from the tailpipe. Instead of handing my car over, I look up at Joe and we decide we would make the lame attempt of getting it home. With the engine putting and screaming all the way home, we make it. Poor car. One of the cylinders isn't firing and it was shaking all the way home from the vibration. It only cost $25 to get our car back since we had to get the gate open "after hours". With that buisness run the way it is, I didn't want them to scrap off my car. It just felt too sad. I love my generic white ugly car but it is acting like it wants a whole new engine. We will probably sell it to Nissan parts store or donate it to Junk for Jesus for a tax write off.

PS Baby's first picture is below this blog!!!

Ultrasound

Here is baby's first picture. There is only one (thank goodness). We will have a specific due date by Thursday. Baby is alive and healthy and it seems it already likes to suck its thumb. Picture isn't very great, the head is on the left and you can see the hand hovering over the mouth.

Big Boy Bed

Last night was Collin's first night in his Big Boy Bed. After putting him to bed, he played in his room for about 20 minutes and then I peeked in at him and was able to take this picture. He had a large assortment of toys around him and seemed to be in a happy dream land. He only woke up once around 11:00 for a drink and no other problems after that. He woke me up this morning in a very happy mood and cuddled for a few minutes (something he never does).

Brought to You by Sheer Boredom

This is a picture of the odometer in my Durango. If you read it upside down it says my name. Yep, I am a loser.

BLAH

Well, it has begun. I am now a worshipper of the porcelein king and bow before it everyday and at no specific time. It seems weird but about the only thing I can keep down is bean burros from Taco Bell. I am not even craving them but I eat them to keep something in my stomach.

Collin is mad at me. He wants to play. He wants mommy to play with him and dance and bounce and sing. I can't without tossing my cookies so I have been trying to set up playdates for him to keep him occupied (thanks Leaner).

Besides dealing with that mess, the ebay store I work for was a victim of identity theft last Friday. Some pirate broke into the ebay store and changed all of the passwords. Within 12 hours they listed 1000's of items to sell for their own profit. They used $800.00 of our account money and tried to use our credit on ebay to get people to purchase from them. We were able to take back control in time and were able to claim back all of our money. Unfortunetely there was a huge mess to clean up and tons of apologies to be made to people if they purchased the nonexisting items. BLAH, and I still can't get access to my Yahoo Customer Service accounts and who knows how many people are emailing me there in anger.
Anyways, sorry Briana, I need more time and we will work out a date to play.

Goodnight people.

Part 2

Collin got to have two birthday parties this year. One at the Whiting Homestead and one in Coolidge for those who could not make it to the Homestead. We met at Walker park and had tons of pizza. The kids played all over the playground and beat up a pinata. (the pinata beat up a few kids too!!) The mosquitos were horrible and everyone left there looking like they had chicken pox. It was fun though and thanks to those who were able to make it. I know Collin was cranky but he still was happy.

Guess Who Turned 2! Part 1

We took Collin camping at the Whiting homestead for his 2nd birthday. He had lots of family there and we played and ate (abenanna even got in a few geocaches)
To be continued...

SURPRISE!!!!!!

Elfwood

Well, it is a little more official. I have gotten some of my artwork "published" on a sci-fi art website. The address is:
http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/art/h/a/hairball/hairball.html

Small warning: If you venture off of my page into other galleries at Elfwood there can be some very graphic drawings of violence and nudity. I don't want to discourage looking though, there are some great artists at this place!!!!

Maybe Leaner will join up someday when there is less stress?

His Voice

I almost feel brave about talking it about it now. Dad was diagnosed with thyroid cancer last month. I was devistated and didn't know what to do, how to think, or what to say. Although if you are going to get cancer, he got one of the better ones. It is 95% curable and only requires a surgery to remove the thyroid and take pills forever. The surgeons main concern was that if the cancer had wrapped itself around the nerves that go to the vocal cords. If these nerves were tampered with then he would have a very hoarse quiet voice or may not be able to speak. I know my dad is a handful with his bluntness, but his voice has always been one of my favorite features. Its deepness guides and always protected me. Besides, his voice matches so well with his pretty teeth and mustache.

He had his surgery today. Everything has gone well so far. They had to remove some of the surrounding muscle in the neck, since the cancer did a major wrap around in the tissues. There was a long wait for him to wake up afterwords to see if the surgery had left him voiceless. The surgeon warned us an hour before he woke up that it was a high possibility his voice was damaged for how much tissue they removed.

When he woke up, he talked a little, but highly complained of a sore throat, feeling like strep. His voice was week and scratchy, which is pretty common after having a tube down your throat for two hours. After about three hours in the recovery, he took a voice test and everything came out fine. He should be back to his smily self soon.

The surgeon believes he removed all of the cancerous tissues and was able to leave enough of the thyroid gland that it will be able to produce the calcitonin, which helps allows the body to absorb calcium, which means less pills for dad.

I am so relieved that he is going to be OK. I could never imagine growing up without him, and I still have a lot of growing up to do. Collin needs him here to show him about Harley's and homemade vehicles that run forever off of duct tape. He is still here. His voice is still here. I am so full of emotion....happiness, gratitude and...... a little bit of fear.

Giggles

Wish I had something more interesting to write...but I don't. So here is yet another picture of the kid. Poor Kitty. We really need to have another kid so I can post pictures other than Collin.

Happy Belated 4th!!

Thanks Dad

This reunion helped me appreciate my dad a lot more. He puts up with so much from his kids borrowing his camping gear to "hey dad, if you are not doing anything, would you mind watching Collin?" He is so good to me and the rest of the family. My Grandma Mary is having a hard time with life. She has little next to no memory (well anything that has to do with the present) My dad visits her a few times a week. He plays games with her, he never fibs or makes life fluffy. He always tells her the truth even though we all know she won't remember it. He treats her the way she would want to be treated if she were back to her old self. Not as a child, but as a respected adult. I wonder if he knows and believes he is such a great son? I have told him a few times how wonderful he is with Grandma, but I wonder if he believes it? Hey Dad, thanks for being mine and I hope one day my Collin can be as good of a son to me as you are to Grandma.

Sculptures

We went to Holbrook this weekend to see Joe's sister graduate High school. I looked at all the graduates and couldn't help wonder "did I look that young when I graduated?" They all looked like kids to me. On Sunday we went to Flagstaff to visit old friends. That was great and let Collin play with a bunch of boys in his age group. It seems he is always playing with girls.

Anyways, on the way home we decided to go through Sedona. It was beautiful and green. We stopped by one of our favorite sites there. It is an Sculpture store, but it really looks like a museum. The sculptures there run from $500 all the way up to several hundred thousand. They are really amazing. Looking at them they made me want to do sculpture. I just don't know what material I should try working with. PS my drawings are going to be published on the site I mentioned earlier. I will give the address on next blog.

Sketches

Recently I have been trying to get my mystical creature artwork on a site called Elfwood. http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/elfwood.pike . I haven't been completely accepted yet, they are still going over some of my drawings It's nothing really exciting, just a bunch artists who critique eachother's work without being too harsh.

It is also a very hard site to get involved with. There are tons of rules and guidelines your art has to follow in order to be "published" onto their website. Maybe I should just open a blog and put all of my drawings there. It would at least be a lot easier.

Oh well, I am too interested in this site to give up just yet. It is a place where the sci-fi/fantasy geek in me can escape and express.

ATTENTION CARTER FAMILY!!!

Hello Carter family members. Leaner and I are putting together a scrapbook for Grandma C and would like to put in any blogs that relate to her and Grandpa. Blogs that you have written already are ones you would like special for this book. If you have a picture to go along with it, please put it in. If there are any blogs that you would like us to NOT print out about Grandma please email me or Leaner. If you just want to write an email about your favorite memory about Grandma please send it to me or Leaner. We would like everyone to participate in this and hopefully get at least one little slurp from each child and grandchild (i feel ambitious at the moment, we will see what happens.) Great-grandchildren are of course allowed to participate. We would like to have this book finished by the time of the reunion so please don't set this aside for very long. Thanx and hope to hear from you soon. -hairball

Donald and Daisy

There is a family of wild ducks at the complex. They have been around for a couple of weeks. Collin loves to feed them wet bread and especially loves to chase them. Poor ducks.

HERE IT IS!!!

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After painstaking hours of searching, researching, reading, calling, and sitting at a dealership for hours....here it is!!! The newest member of the Simper family. Don't have a name for it yet but it couldn't be anything less of what we wanted. It is a 2002 Dodge Durango. It is only a 2-wheel drive but in this city and a family full of 4X4s we figured another day. Happy Happy Happy!!! For the first time Joe and I are part of the magical world of debt. Oh well, this one is worth it.

Horrible Freedom

Wow, i feel so alone. No Collin to have clinging to me. Collin went to visit his Papa and will be gone til Wednesday. Mentally I am going insane trying everything to keep myself from picking up the phone to see how he is doing. "Is everything okay? Do you need to bring back early? That's just fine. Oooo what is he doing now? Did he grow today? Make sure you take pictures for me." Uhggg I miss my Clingon.

But with this free time Joe and I have been able to get silly little things done...make that big urgent things. Our car died. A piston is not firing and it not for any simple reason. We are in the market for a new something finally. Hopefully we can avoid another generic white car and get something else. We go to the bank today so we shall see what happens from there.

We also got the carpet shampooed and most of the front house spring cleaned. Hopefully I will finish today and with my last "free" day I can get the flags for scouts sewn up. Yep, I miss my little man.

Let it all hang out

This is Conner in his favorite sleeping position. He only does this after the baby is put to bed. Normally Collin with body slam him if he is out in the open. Big fat cat to much of a temptation to not attack for the kid. See that belly hair? That is the softest thing you will ever touch and what is even better is that he actually lets you pet his tummy. It is so large I should charge people to rub it for good luck.

Another story that is SOOO exciting.....It finally happened. My onion grew a flower!!! This is an onion that I found growing in my pantry hidden underneath a shelf. I said hey, if this plant can grow without me taking care of it, then that is the plant for me. I planted the bulb last January and it grew HUGE. And finally it burst forth the most beautiful pod of tiny flowers. If you all have never seen an onion flower like me......
here it is!!!!!

Spring-Cleaning

Well spring is upon us and it is already hot. Well it is not bad yet, but I sure so miss the snow in Flagstaff. With spring here I decided before I was going to "spring-clean" my house. Take everything out of every cupboard and reorganize and wipe things down. I have one room done and it only took a few hours. I am dreading the kitchen. Who knows what I will find lurking in some of the cubbies. Conner (our huge 20 pound cat) was leaping at the walls the other night. I had all the lights out so I had no idea what he was doing. Finally he swatted at something and caught the largest cockroach I have ever seen. It was like the biggest cat in the world wrestling the biggest cockroach in the world. Holy crap, I thought I kept my house clean enough to avoid things like that. It gives my shivers thinking that there might be another one somewhere watching us while we are sleeping. (shudder)

Collin may be going to see his Papa and Nana for a couple of days which may give me the opportunity to shampoo our carpet. It is NASTY!! It may also give me an opportunity to go on a date with Joe. That would be nice, especially knowing we don't need to be home at a certain time.

Some of Joe's girl cousins and I are going to have a mommy club every Wednesday. Tomorrow I think we are going to swimming. Next week i think the group is meeting at my house and we are finishing the small sewing projects that we all have in our closets.

Leaner you are welcome to join us. I don't know these girls that well, but they are all first time mommies and love to share ideas about kids. Though poor Rhayn will be the oldest there. Give me a call if you want to join us. Tomorrow we are meeting at 10:30, uhhhgg that means I have to get up early tomorrow.

goodnight all.

Slump

Nothing to do.....no lots to do, no ambition. I clean the house to what is seeming two times a day and yet it is still in pieces. It seems that Collin has a place for every toy that I dissagree with. If I mess with his system he runs in what ever room I just cleaned and "replaces" his toys where they are "supposed" to go. Maybe it is time to do a yard sale just for toys.

Anyways, I want to get back to sewing. I don't think Collin is going to let me do this. He wants to play and to show me things and to tell me about things. Mommy can't focus on something else. Or better yet he will want to help. i just see him pulling the sewing machine on top of his head. There must be a way, I will find it. Probably after scouts tomorrow I will attempt something.

Concentrate

My little man was putting megablocks together with me and had to do the "tongue-stick-out" to concentrate. It was pretty funny.

Pictures for the "Road Trip" Blog (previous blog)

Collin's Snow Experience


Aunt Lynda at the Driver's Seat


Lavan and Collin Construction Workers

Grandma and Lynda Posing

Big Horned Sheep at the Mines

Road Trip

It is done. Well, for Collin and me anyway. Lynda is still on the move on her way to Uncle Danny's. Lynda, Grandma Carter, Suzy, Collin and I all squished into Grandma's car and started our long journey on Monday morning at 11 am.

We headed north to Payson seeing little dabs of snow here and there. The weather was cloudy and nippy where we actually had to wear coats. We ate lunch at a little mexican restaurant in Payson where a waitress accidently tipped an entire glass of icewater on the table and most of it splashed into Collin's face! Poor little guy.

After that we went towards Springerville and played a little in the snow. By the way Collin does not care for snow at all. He wouldn't move and wouldn't touch it. We stopped by my Aunt Merle's cabin for a few minutes and then headed to our hotel. For dinner we ate chinese food and Collin got to play with some cute chinese kids that belong to family who own the place. Since no one was in the restaurant Collin got to run everywhere.

We woke up in the morning and headed through lots of snow towards Alpine and down the mountain to Morenci to see the Clifton Morenci Mine. This place is huge!! We were able to see a big horned sheep playing on the leftover mining piles.

After this we headed further south to Solomon and had lunch at La Paloma (another mexican joint). We went to Lavan and Dorothy's house to rest a bit. Within minutes of our arrival Lavan drove up to fix a pothole in the street in front of his house. His partner was making fun of him because all of his family were taking pictures of him.

That night we all went to see Penny's play Oliver Twist. It was a fun little musical and all the Whetton family was there.

On Wednesday we packed up and ate at the Casa Manana (more mexican) and finished our trip off by changing the flowers on Grandpa Carter's and Grandpa Taylor's grave. We got into Coolidge around 4:00 PM and Mom and I met up with Merle, Tom, and Malcolm's family for dinner(thank goodness it wasn't mexican again). Joe picked me up and now we are home!!! Poor little Collin has no desire to be in his carseat anymore!!

More adventures to come when Lynda comes back from California this weekend.
(ok, this silly blog is not letting me download pics right now, so i will have to do it later!!!)

18 month wait

A friend of mine left for her mission last Monday. We went to highschool, church activities, dances, camping, and hiking together. We weren't "bestfriends" but we always ended up together where ever we happened to be. I even tried hooking her up with my brothers at one point hoping to have her for a sister-in-law. During the college years we lost touch for about 3 years and she even moved to Virginia for a while. But sometime in 2005 she moved back and I found her at Dacheese's babyshower and we were able to have a few more adventures before she left. We had zoo adventures, karaoke adventures, and even a casino adventure. It was her first time to a casino and sadly I wanted to be the one take her. It was smoky, lame and all we did was play Keno, but it was about 2:00AM so it was fun. She was one of the few friends from highschool who did not change. She is so uplifting and fun, I hope she never does. In that short time I realized she is probably my bestfriend and I feel a little sad I didn't tell her that. Well, there's no time like the present to write her a letter before she leaves the MTC.

So she is off to Portugal to teach the beliefs of her heart. I am so proud of her and slightly envious. Wow, what a wonderful place to be sent. I always wondered what it would be like to become a missionary and be sent to Utah. What a terrible anti-climax that would be as you are opening your Calling papers. Hopefully Jason will be sent somewhere wonderful....liked Boise, Idaho. Ok, I don't wish that upon him.

Sigh...18 months with no Suzanne. By then we will probably have another kid. Such a long and yet short time. Well beautiful, if you read this I can't wait for you to come back. Have fun and maybe you will find that husband you are dreaming about while you are there. (just wait til you are released before you doing anything other than meeting him. tee hee.)

Back to the Zoo Again

Spring break for the youngins and thought well let's do this!! I promised to take Malcolm's girls, Samantha 11, Brittany 8, and Allison 6, to the zoo and we finally did it. Here's some pics of the girls and Collin for those of you who havn't seen these girls in a while.

Growing up!!

Collin is the mighty 18 months. On Sunday we took him to Nursery for the first time but didn't leave him there (he has a small cold). Also our church starts at 1:30pm!! BLAH! That is an unnatural time to be at church. That is Collin's only definite need a nap time or he is a bear. Uhhgg, I tried to reschedule his naptime but with late nights of teething pain, (his vampire teeth are coming in) I am going to have to wait til it passes and then try the new schedule. Poor little guy, so stubborn. He HAS to be in his crib in order to take a nap. No naps in strollers, arms, beds, chairs, couches, and even occasionally cars don't even work.....my little guy loves his crib.

Oh dear, are we going to have to get another crib when our next little one decides to arrive? How does a parent switch a baby from crib to bed. Doesn't the little critter walk around if he wakes up in the night? Do you shut the door to his room to keep him "contained". Luckily for me he has not even really tried to climb out.....crud, now that's been said, he is going to do it tonite.






Tonight as Joe was getting Collin ready for bed, Collin looked up and as clear as day said, "Baby". And repeated it over and over.....maybe he is trying to send a message to us from his future sibling? Maybe I am just tired and need to stop looking into things. Yeah, that's probably it.

anyways, my cat is snoring again......