Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Fuzzy Head

I was asked in a comment about if Austin got a hair cut so I thought I would share a post about Austin's hair.  He was actually born with some hair, not a ton, but a little light brown hair.  I know some people say the baby hair falls out, but Austin's never did.  It got really thick around the back of his head, for a while he kind of looked like that Benjamin Button character.  So we cut it and made it look evened out, and that was pretty early on at like two months.  I cut my husband Dustin's hair, so I am Austin's barber too.

Then when it grew in it was super light blond, he is a total tow head.  For a long time people kept thinking he had no hair, but it was always there just very light.  I gave him his second haircut just after his first birthday.  I saved some hair from both of those cuts and it is amazing to compare the color difference. 

Now his hair grows pretty quickly like ours.  The thing about his hair is he has a double cow lick in the back so the hair swirls around and sticks straight up.  No amount of hair gell in the world will hold it down.  I thought that if I let it grow out we could smooth it down, but nope it just sticks up even further so I finally got fed up with it and whacked it shorter again.  I think it looks the best short and am wanting to cut it again, but we are going to Iowa this weekend so I think I will leave it for now and trim it when we get back.  Dad says the hair sticking up comes from his family and Austin will probably just wear a cap when he gets older.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Aloha Friday

I haven't played along in a while, so here I go:

What do you do to relax?

So what is Aloha Friday, click here to find out and participate, it's a great way to make new bloggy friends!

For me it's sleeping, a nice bath, gardening, playing with my son when he is mellow, and playing on Facebook.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Youth Camp

This past weekend I worked at a youth camp for the Indian Tribe that I work for.  The camp is funded by the BLM and Park Service to bring the kids (ages 10-12) to their ancestral lands to learn about their Southern Paiute culture.  We held the first camp in 2008.  We had another scheduled for September 2009, but a bunch of our kids came down with H1N1 flu the week of the camp so we postponed it until this weekend.  We will hold the official 2010 camp this coming September.

When it was going to be last September I wasn't expected to go because I was still breast feeding, but since I no longer have that attachment, my supervisor required me to help chaperon the camp.  It's the first time I have been away from Austin over night, and it was both Friday and Saturday night, but I actually handled it really well.  And of course the boys did fine at home.  Austin was super cute and gave me a bunch of hugs and kisses when I got home on Sunday afternoon.

I taught a water quality lesson at the reservation before we left for the camp which was held at Mt. Trumbull.  The lesson went really well and the kids did great with the titration tests.  The rest of the camp was all cultural and the kids learned Paiute games, words, songs and learned about making things their ancestors did like yucca soap and rope, arrowheads and spears.    I even learned to count to five in Paiute and learned the names for mule deer, jack rabbit, cottontail, and squirrel.

What a Monday!

Well it was all good until I picked up Austin at daycare.  I actually took the day off from work since I worked all weekend at a camp for work, that post will come when I get a minute.  I got my laundry caught up and talked to my Mom.  I stopped at the plant nursery and bought some tomato plants.

But then when I was strapping Austin into his car seat I had my door open while I was side sitting in the back seat to reach him and my friend Molly was parked next to me and was in getting her son.  In the mean time her daughter (2 year old) opens their passenger door and flings it open and it collides with my door.  I jumped out in a panick and luckily it did not dent her car, but left three nice blue marks on it.  The corner of my door hit it, so it did no damage to my car.  She told me not to worry about it, but I still felt bad.  Hopefully they can just buff off the marks.

Then we get home and I take Austin out to the garden to plant the tomatoes I bought.  I was exciting thinking this would be a great bonding moment, you know the teaching your kids to garden concept.  At first he was having fun picking up dirt, and of course he had to taste it.  Then he walked over by the east side of the garden, which I didn't think much about.  Then he shreiked and I looked to where he was standing and saw that he was on top of a newly formed fire ant hill.  I ran over and snatched him out of the ants and brushed them off as fast as I could.  I took him in the house and stipped him down.  He was crying, but I could not find a bite mark so I thought maybe the ants and I just scared him.  In the mean time I realized that I had a couple of the little buggers crawling on me from the brief time I stepped in to get him.  I killed the ones I saw, but I had already been bitten on the stomach because one crawled under my shirt. 

His crying got more intense and he became unconsolable.  I started to worry that maybe he swallowed one or somethng because I still couldn't find a mark on him, while the bite on me was totally swollen and red.  When Dustin got home he found that his left hand was swollen around his thumb and first finger, so that is where he got a little bite.  After some Motrin and snuggling he finally calmed down, but I was so scared and so emotionally drained after seeing him suffer like that.  He is now sleeping so hopefully he is over the worst of it. 

Those ants had better run because they are going to die!

Thursday, May 13, 2010

New Blog

One of my good WebMD "friends" has started a new blog about Motherhood and living a wholesome life.  She is a great writer so you should check out her blog at:

daisyheadmamas.blogspot.com

Sunday, May 9, 2010

We went for the hike

We went hiking on Squaw Trail which is just north of Kanab, UT.  It's about 15 minutes from our house, yes we live in beautiful country.  We hiked about a mile up and back, and Austin loved being in the backpack as usual.  Other than being windy it was perfect!
















































Now I'm sitting back enjoying a Mother's Day strawberry margarita!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mommies out there!

My guys surprised me with red roses and balloons this morning.  Dustin made a great breakfast for us and we went to Church.  Little man is taking an awesome nap and when he wakes up we are either going to the sand dunes to play, or taking a hike.  I'm thinking it will probably be the hike since the wind is picking up, but either way we are going to get out for some fresh air. 

It is so great to be a Mommy!

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Colorado Trip

We had a great time in Colorado for the most part.  I ended up with pink eye in my right eye, which appears to have been either viral or allergies because the antibiotic eye drops were no help.  My eye is all back to normal now, but I have to go in Monday for an eye exam to get new contacts. 

The Water Monitoring Conference was really great.  My talk went well and I got a lot of good feedback about it.  EPA has asked me to give another talk during a webcast on the 20th.  One of my college professors won the major award that is given during the conference, so it was nice to be there to see him being recognized.  I also saw the women who tested me to certify me in the Colorado River Watch Program when I was back in high school.  Who knew back then that I would end up making water monitoring my career, at least for now.

I really enjoyed spending the time with my Mom and I think she really enjoyed spending so much time with Austin.  It's really hard to live so far away, but I really value the time we do spend together.  We also got to spend a lot of time with my sister Cathy during the drive to Colorado and she took Austin to Chuckie Cheese for the first time.  He was a little overwhelmed because he did not take an afternoon nap that day, but he had fun anyway. 















Austin's first visit to a McDonald's Play Place
















Hangin' out with the cousins on the trampoline

















Aunt Cathy, Justin and Austin

 












































Austin loves Grandma Doris!

Wordless Wednesday

My pretty tulips before I went to Colorado