Welcome Home Welcome Mat!!!

Well now, I just don't think you are gonna believe this.

A story for you:

This story begins three days after moving into our new condo when we lovingly placing our welcome mat at our new home entrance. Now this welcome mat, though it may look simple, actually has special value to Tim and I. You see, we couldn't find a welcome mat that we liked for the longest time after we got married. We searched at every store we passed through. One day, there it was. Classy, sophisticated, bushy for good shoe-scraping, and of course the inviting word thereon: Welcome. We loved our welcome mat. Or should we say, we didn't know how much we loved it until it was gone.

One day, three days after moving in, we walked up to our new door and what? Our welcome mat was gone! Where in the world could it be? I felt so violated! I searched the condo wondering if we had been robbed. Alas, nothing was gone but our dear welcome mat.

This needs its own paragraph:

Who takes a welcome mat? Especially one that says "Welcome"?!?

Violated. Unwelcomed.

That did not mean "You are welcome to take me, oh ye who covets this welcome mat."

This violated, and former welcomer, started to do some investigation. The clues unfold.

#1. Tim had noticed that the kiddie corner condo had had the same welcome mat. The kiddie corner people had moved out earlier that day. Had they seen our welcome mat and thought they dropped it at our door and put it in their moving truck? Perhaps so. We try to give people the benefit of the doubt.

We go with that until clue #2 unfolds.

#2. I knock on our "across the breezeway" neighbors door and ask her if she has any ideas. Did she see our welcome mat?

"Oh yeah. That apartment (the kiddie corner apartment) had both mats at their doorstep stacked one on top of the other. The same doormats, two of them. My husband and I were wondering what they needed two doormats for...Yeah. They took your doormat."

...

ROBBED! Full on robbed. By a former university football player that I know you all know, no less. And his beautiful wife that is actually my little brother's best friend's ex-girlfriend. Ha! I guess they wanted to welcome people into their new home from every point of access, with matching welcome mats, at whatever the cost.

I take action. I asked the new women moving in to the kiddie corner apartment if she could ask the people that just moved out if they ended up with an extra doormat. This she did. EIGHT WEEKS AGO.

Eight weeks pass, and let me tell you, I told Tim, at least on a weekly basis, how much I missed our welcome mat. How my front door aura just wasn't the same without the word "Welcome" anywhere in sight. How I had seen some at Pier 1 that were cute...but they weren't our dear welcome mat we searched out for so long as newlyweds. We had put up our industrial doormat there, and Tim kept telling me we didn't "need" another mat. That maybe I "wanted" one, but we didn't "need" one. (yeah, yeah, yeah, I know already! But I need!)

I had given up hope. Yes I had. And this "non-needer" was trying to get used to the commercial doormat we had substituted that makes our condo look like it is a real estate office.

THEN TODAY!!! Oh today. What a beautiful day. Here she comes. The beautiful ex-BYU football player's wife. The ex-girlfriend of my little brother's former best friend, who married my little's brother's ex-girlfriend of three years, which two people were the only non-immediate family at my brother's setting apart of his mission who ended up marrying each other. Oh the triangle/pentagon/quadrangle of love.

I see her carrying up my blessed welcome mat to her old condo's door! "That's mine!," I silently scream.

Had guilt driven her here to return our proverbial and overmissed material possession?

At just the right moment our pathways intertwined.

I watch her place the mat down and walk away.

I go to my mat. It had been battered and abused, but yes, still there it was. And contemplate on whether I steal it back! Or explain the situation so that I too do not become an alleged thief.

I called to her hesitantly. "Ma'am. Did you just place that mat there?"

I'll spare you the details. But I decided to explain. It was awkward. We laughed it off.

...

I can't believe it. I truly cannot believe it.

Welcome home welcome mat! We have a place for you, right here.

Realizations

Aren't you thankful for those moments, those moments of realizations in your life when you can't keep the tears from coming, and you wonder if you are the only one that tears up at 1:21 pm just because you are looking at your offspring and realizing. Today I spent some valuable hours trying to perfect my cookie baking skills. Thanks to my cousin Emily I am a lot closer than I was yesterday. My iPod was on random. Emily ran to tennis practice and I was on my own with my little one. I did way too many dishes, by hand, and the songs on random kept coming. I danced my heart out for my son to Step Up, sang my soul through to a Kenny Loggins lullaby, cried my way through a song I used to listen to on my mission, and pondered throughout a conference talk. My son, my one man audience, thought I was the best dancer, singer, and mother ever. And then the realization. I have a kitchen. Period. Then a kitchen full of so many gadgets it takes three songs to clean them all. A home. Flour and sugar. MUSIC. And my family. I can dance at will, and it is wonderful. I am truly blessed. And that is something to tear up about.

Just Photos

Our dear friends, Brock and Lindsay, welcoming baby Dane.

Trent with Aunt Miranda.

Sitting up.

My motherly instincts are coming out. I have started to bake!

ONE TALL BOY.
We are constantly receiving comments that Trent is one tall boy. For this week's example:
The boy behind Trent is 14 months. Trent is six.

Life As We Know It

Well apparently, life as we know it has changed. This is what "they" say.

Trent has started scooting.

Why is it that my boy has managed to grow up so much faster than a baby should? He came into this world at the speed of light and wants to grow up that way too? The boy's had four haircuts. He was holding his head up from day one, standing on his feet after a month, is now sitting up, and apparently crawling is just a blink away. Babyproof time! Or childproof time I should say, since maybe he's not a baby anymore? The sand in my baby's hourglass has started to fall, too quickly.

I am thankful for photos to treasure the "small" times I can already barely remember.

Portland with the Russells!

How sad is this since this was in April, but I couldn't go on without making a post about our trip to Portland with Jamie, Mike and Brinnly.

You see, I have a list of things I want to do in my life, and on there you will see, #53, go to Portland Oregon and see the coast. As good friends do, Jamie helped me make that happen and gave us an open invitation to come stay with them in Portland and have some fun.
We went to the coast, ate seafood there, saw Cannon Beach, went to my favorite cheese's cheese-making factory! - Tillamook (who would have thought I would be so excited about my favorite cheese!), ate some amazing Thai food, saw downtown and drove through their crazy streets, went to the OMSI museum, took a tour of the Hunt for Red October's submarine, saw an amazing exhibit on pregnancy (and we had just had Trent so it was extra amazing), went to the Beaverton Bakery for delicious baked goods, went to the Japanese Gardens, and just had fun being with one of my dear friends and her family.

Thank you Russells for making one of my wishes come true! We love you!

Yummy Thai Food!
Hunt for Red October Submarine (behind the trees)
Bosom Buddies (cold day on the coast)
Cannon Beach (yes Trent's a boy, but you use the pink flower blanky when it is the closest thing around)
Mike showing Brinnly a kite. How cute is that.
Yes I do, I have a favorite cheese. It's something I think everyone should have.
Japanese Gardens
Trent and Tim

The Oldest Tree (in the world? Can't remember.)
Awesome daddies and baby bubbles.

Beautiful world.

Daddy Time

I know that for being a new bloggger, you are all thinking I am not doing my part. Let me explain. Tim and I bought a condo and just two weeks ago moved to Pleaseant Grove, Utah! Tim is five minutes away from work and has just starting his new 4/10 schedules with Fridays off. Sweet huh! (Though it makes for some LONG days for both of us.) We are living amongst towers of boxes at present and grateful when we find essentials like toothbrushes and forks. We hope to be back to "normal" life sooner rather than later.

So much growing has gone on each and every week with our little boy Trent. Here are some photos of daddy time and then some Trent and Mommy pictures. Even though our lives are not in order quite yet, we still make time to 'just be' with our giggling boy. There is nothing better. Nothing better.

The Mommy Pictures