Off and Away

I dropped Mike off at the airport today. He is flying to Uganda and Tanzania for 3 weeks for work. It was a little more of an emotional departure for both of us than expected. Every morning before Mike leaves we work with Brinley on waving goodbye. Well, she finally waved goodbye to him at the airport. I could tell Mike got a little choked up and just grabbed his bags and left to avoid it. Brinley watched him enter the doors and continued to look at them for a few minutes after he had gone in. Poor little bug is going to miss her daddy! Of course I had a little bit of break down on the drive back. Listening to Keith Urban's "Baby, your my better half" didn't really help either.. I am happy for him and know it will be a life-changing experience for him.

Anyways, somethings I will be doing/looking forward to while he is gone:

• Running a 5k
  
• Visiting my friends the Nickels in Seattle
• road trips to Pahrump, NV, St. George or Logan to visit family.. hopefully
  
• reading
• working out
• doing scrap booking
• maybe even painting

I think I will survive these next few weeks well. :)

I love giggles

I should have posted this earlier. This is a little clip of Ashlee playing with Brinley, and Brinley cracking up! She loves her Auntie Ashlee.

Biiig Bad Richard!!

Yesterday we headed up to Odgen to watch my brother Richard throw the javelin. He throws for the University of Montana and this was the first time that we have been able to watch him throw at the collegiate level.

We sat out in a thunderstorm for about a half an hour before his event got going. The track meet was postponed due to the lightning. That was kind of a bummer, but at least the weather turned nice and sunny toward the end of his event. As his flight came up I got all excited because I actually remembered my camera and I was going to get some nice video clips and pictures of him... then I found out that I had forgotten my memory card!! Ugh! I was so frustrated with myself! (This picture is courtesy from Richard's FB. haha)

Anyways, Richard did great! He was first heading into the finals and ended up taking 3rd with a throw of 209 ft!! Unfortunately he didn't beat his personal best, but still did pretty amazing! I mean really.. I don't think I can get anything to go that far on my own. Maybe a kickball.. if rolling is taken into consideration... or bouncy ball with the bounces.

Here is an interview of him on youtube: High Expectations; Richard Brumbaugh.

Way to go Richy! We love you!

Oooh Goodness!

I was on facebook today and read this comment:

"Obama = the anti-christ. He's doing the same thing Hitler did."

I don't even know the person who wrote it, but really, how do they even compare?!

Completely ridiculous.

New Things to Love

As Mike was heading out the door for work the other day, he bent down to give Brinley a hug goodbye. When he set her down and stepped to open the door, Brinley opened her little arms up to him and started to whimper. Mike looked into her pleading face and crumbled. He quickly picked her back up and stayed for a few minutes longer.

Brinley sits on my lap when we read books. I bounce her as we "chug-a-chug-a-chug" along with the train. Today she recognized the chu-chu train when I turned the page. She started kicking her legs to "bounce." I laughed.

I received my first "raspberry" from Brinley yesterday. I giggled and told her to do it again. She gave me a big smile, moved her head to my leg, opened her mouth wide and stuck it to my leg. It was more or less like an opened-mouth kiss on my knee. As soon as she took her mouth off my leg she looked up at me with her big brown eyes and smiled. She didn't know to blow, but she will get it soon.

I was feeding Brinley dinner in her highchair when I heard Mike pull in the driveway.
"Brinley, Daddy's home!" I said.
Brinley cocks her head to the side and looks around me to see where he comes in the door.
"Listen carefully and you can hear him come down the steps and through the door."
Brinley stretches her neck even further and starts kicking her legs with anticipation.
Mike enters.
"Hello Brinley!" Mike says.
Brinley squeals and a smile spreads across her face as she kicks harder and bangs herself against the back of the highchair.
She isn't completely satisfied until he picks her up either.
Brinley LOVES her daddy and I love to see the love expressed between them.

I got a text today from our real estate agent stating something along the lines that moving into our house will make life even better. I stopped to think about it for a second. I am happy now. I don't think a new house will improve our lives. It may even cause more challenges for us. I am grateful for what I have now, and so grateful for the choice to focus on my blessings. (By the way we haven't heard back about our offer on the house yet so we won't be moving anytime soon.)

I did it!

Last night Mike and I had our appointment with a travel agency and met with a salesman more or less similar to the guy pictured above. Our main reason for going was to score a free, all-inclusive 4 night 3 day trip to Cancun.

When I read the first requirement, "You and your family must go on vacations and/or love to go on vacations," (something along those lines) I laughed. What do you consider a vacation? In almost 4 years of marriage, about 90% of our "vacations" have been within the continental US visiting family and maybe staying in a hotel twice. Or in Mike's case there have been a lot of fishing or climbing trips where he camped. And we have driven to all of our destinations. In all honesty, the poor company really didn't have much of a chance with us.

Anyways, after about a 2 and a half hour sales pitch, we finally walked away with our gift. Mike was dead set on saying no before we even got there. Our visit would have ended about an hour earlier, but Mike turned over the voice/decision to me at the end. Of course I really didn't want the membership (though if you travel to resorts throughout the world it would have been a deceit money-saver), but it was harder for me to say no to the guy. I didn't want to upset him, and I felt bad about the company losing money on our gift. However, I am proud to say that I did it! I said no. :)

Cancun, we will meet each other soon!