Monthly Archives: August 2006

A bit of Olivia’s personality is really starting to show through, and she is developing more & more of an opinion. She shows her likes and dislikes with regard to some of the most funny things. Last week I watched my neighbors daughter, who is a few months younger than Olivia, for about a half hour. We sat on Baby O’s mat & played with toys. The stacking rings that Olivia hasn’t showed the slightest interest in since about ten minutes after I brought them home for her, were suddenly the most important thing in the whole world, and had to be held by OIivia not the other baby. And when I tried to hold the baby, Olivia would burst into tears and try to climb up on me. Jealousy & Possessiveness! Oh dear.

Olivia likes to pinch my elbow

She also has this thing now where she likes to pinch my elbow. My left elbow to be exact. When ever I’m holding her, she will immediately reach around my arm, and latch on with her pointer and thumb. My elbow is raw from the effect. It seems almost like a comfort token to her, and nothing I have tried has stopped it.

Today we went in to Home Depot, where I spotted a dog sitting in a lady’s purse in a cart. After okaying it with the owner, I showed Olivia the doggie, and Olivia instantly reached down to touch it, upon which she looked up at the owner and giggled uproariously. It is so funny to me how much this girl loves doggies.

This week I have been making Grandma’s Salsa with the veggies I got from the farmers market last weekend. Usually my friend Morgen and I get together to make it, but this summer Morgen has a lot of stuff going on, so I had to go it alone! I love grandma’s salsa though. YUMMY!

One of my favorite things in the whole world is in the morning after Olivia has had her bath, and I wrap her up in her soft yellow towel, and hold her little body. We rock in the big pink chair and she just lays there, so soft and cuddly, and doesn’t move. And we just look at each other, spell bound. Baby Olivia is so perfect & beautiful, I am overwhelmed that she’s mine.

You might remember the comic strip from Calvin & Hobbes, “The days are just packed” (This later became the name for a book of collected strips from the series). It shows Calvin getting up early, and going through a crazy day full of all the childhood stress–teachers & homework & chores, etc.) Well, that’s how our life has been lately–JUST PACKED!

Wyatt and I are in the process of buying a new house – one that we will actually move into. This means that, in addition to getting everything in order to purchase the home, we have to get our house into shape to rent or sell (it depends on the day as to what we think we’ll do with it). All the projects that have been “on the list” for the past 18 months, are suddenly at the fore-front of our to-do. We’ve been working on finishing the painting (of trim) and getting the bathrooms finished. We decided not to take on any more projects, just finish the ones that are already started. We’re also tearing out the backyard, finishing up the sprinkler system (that we put in last summer) and throwing down seed.

Of course, once we finish these projects, then the real work will begin. The house that we’re buying is a fixer-upper, and I don’t mean a little paint & rouge. I mean tear-out walls, redo flooring, put in yard–EVERYTHING! We’re just gluttons for punishment.

Saturday was Carrie’s Birthday — HAPPY BIRTHDAY CARE BEAR! Unfortunately I wasn’t able to talk to her during the day–she was out playing way to hard. I was sad that she wasn’t able to come to Salt Lake, but I think she had a great day.

Also on Saturday I made my first POLAROID LIFT ever!! This is really exciting to me. I remember the first time I heard of a Polaroid lift, I was a senior in High School. I’ve always wanted to try one, but lacked two things:

1) The equipment. Because the film used in a lift is large format, I needed either a large format camera (read several hundred, if not thousands of dollars), or a slide printer (several hundred dollars, plus the added expense & pain of shooting slide film which only gives you a +/- 1/3 stop range for good exposure).

2) I didn’t have someone to teach me how to do it. Although I had read through the process in several books, I felt it must be somewhat difficult and didn’t feel confident in the attempt.

But alas, this summer the stars have aligned. First, Wyatt brought home a 250 Land Camera he found among his Great Aunt Duella’s things. I had never heard of this model of Land Camera (I’ve had a Land Camera SX-70 Sonar for several years, used to make SX-70 Manipulations). I’d never even read about this camera as a possible source for exposure for Polaroid manipulations, something I find odd, because I looked on E-Bay, and there are plenty for sale. Anyhow, I spent the summer figuring out the camera how it worked, and then getting it to work. Finally last week I got my first exposure (fairly underexposed, but exposed none the less).

On Saturday afternoon I set out to make my first lift. I got some old scrap vellum paper to lift to. (Why vellum? Why not? It was what I had on hand, and like I said, I wasn’t confident it would even work, so I wasn’t about to make a big-do on what I lifted to). I put it in the boiling water, and watched, wondering what I was supposed to look for. But it became pretty evident when the film began separating itself! I lifted it to the cool water and set about separating film. The exposure, when separated from the paper backing, takes on a consistency of cooled soup skin. Easy enough to handle, but you have to be gentle.

Anyhow, this is what I got. I’m now so excited to begin testing exposures & filters (I think this film needs some level of yellow filtration). I’m also going to experiment on surfaces to hold my lifts. I’m swarmed with all sorts of ideas of where to go to from here!

Last night I finished reading To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. It’s Wyatt’s very favorite book, and definately high on my list. Scout (our dog) is even named after the girl in the book, a compromise to naming our daughter that. I love getting lost in great literature though. I actually takes me back to when I was 12 or 13 and read much much more than I do now. I think it was easier to find great books back then. Everything was new, and I didn’t venture into the pop culture novels of either adult or child fiction. I think maybe that’s why I like to read the classics so much today. Even though I’ve read it before, there’s a reason why it’s a classic. And as Andersen Cooper said, “A great book is one that changes every time you read it.”

When we all made it back from the funeral on Thursday night, we decided to invite Wynn and Heidi to stay a couple extra days and hang out with us for the weekend. So on Friday we decided to head up to Solitude, a ski resort up the canyon from our house. We had a picnic, and rode the lift up the mountain and hiked around. Then we came back down and Alea & Weston fished in the stocked pond at the resort. It was just a lazy summer afternoon. It was a lot of fun.

Friday night my mom’s side of the family had a birthday party for my late Grandma up at the cabin. It was everyone who was in town (in reality, not alot of people). It was fun to see everyone though. And of course my aunties are a riot–they’re so funny as they tell the stories of their lives.

They told the stories of my Grandma H. & how she was such a neat mom who always bent over backwards for her kids, and was really laid back & easy going, but would always cart her kids around to give them opportunities. I guess I now know where my mom gets it from!

Yesterday we drove to Idaho to attend the viewing and funeral of Wyatt’s grandmother. She was sick for several months, and her passing was not unexpected. It was nice to spend some time with Wyatt’s family, both extended and immediate. Wynn & Heidi & kids flew into town, as did Jena and Jacob & Melinda (who finished their summer internship). Only Lance & kids didn’t make it, but it was the first time all the siblings were together since probably before Jacob’s mission.

I didn’t know Grandma Farmer very well, but Wyatt told me some great stories of her and growing up. I think it was great for the family to spend some time remembering her and how she touched their lives.

I have updated the website. I wasn’t pleased with the original design of the “Andrea” section of the website, but didn’t really have time to fix or change it until recently. I have changed the design and added a couple new sections – “Random Lists,” & “How To . . ..” There isn’t anything in either of these new sections, but there will be soon!

1. Wrestle
2. eat stew
3. listen to Rock & Roll music
4. floss
5. watch “Crocodile Dundee”
6. go sun bathing
7. ride it
8. show it off to my friends
9. put it in the bath tub
10. eat fried chicken
11. let it go in the sewers of New York
12. watch “An Affair to Remember”
13. make a handbag
14. make boots
15. go on plane rides
16. go parachuting
17. eat panny-cakes together
18. take piccolo lessons
19. go to the planetarium
20. rub lotion on it
21. take it to the orthodontist
22. go to the cosmetic counter at Maceys
23. get a pedicure
24. do mud masks
25. build a tree house
26. ride gondolas in Venice
27. take it golfing
28. eat granola bars
29. dance in the gazebo in the park
30. go shopping at the Gap
31. sleep out on the trampoline
32. make rope swing
33. go fishing
34. eat ice cream
35. go rollerblading
36. get a perm
37. read poetry
38. blow bubbles
39. take out an insurance policy
40. listen to records using the teeth as the needle.
41. go slip’n'sliding on the Crocodile Mile
42. clip your fingernails
43. play soccer
44. go intimidate all the Elementary School bullies
45. catch bugs for a bug collection
46. eat Italian
47. make salsa (from Leslee)
48. have a hot-dog eating contest (from Hairy Carrie)

This is all I can think of so far. If you can think of anything, email me! Maybe I’ll add it to my list!

When I was twelve or so, my friend Andi & I set up a hide-out under the stairs. It was there that I colored my first “letters & postcards box.” I remember I colored flowers in orange & blue or green & red, creating a wrapping paper out of several sheets of letter paper. I wrapped a shoebox, and then wrote in orange “Letters & Postcards.” I used this box for the rest of my teenage years to collect mail from friends and family.

Finally, after Wyatt and I got married, I found a larger lap-top computer box to use (by now my original, tattered box was overflowing with the correspondence of the years). I have been using that box ever since.

I asked Wyatt the other day if he thought I was pack-rat-ish, and he said yes, pointing to my letters and postcards box. “But that’s different!” I objected. He shook his head.

But I know he gets a little jealous when ever a letter shows up in the mailbox for me. I laugh and giggle as I read the latest misadventures of a friend, or cry and sigh as I read about the heartache of another. He wishes he got hand-written letters with home-made envelopes, instead of just credit card offers and value-pac ads. He wishes he had his own letters & postcards box.

Tonight I was organizing my box, and I giggled through a letter from my freshman room-mate. She was writing about the excited anticipation of an upcoming road trip the two of us were planning, and bemoaning the heart-ache of Christmas break seperation from her then-crush, now-husband Peter. I commented to Wyatt afterwards: “I love my letters & postcards box. It reminds me that I’m loved in the world.”

“You need a box to do that? I tell you that everyday.”

“Yeah, but it reminds me of all the love I’ve had over my whole life. And all the things I’d forgotten.”

It tells the story of my life, and the lives of those that I love, and am loved by. It tells of how our lives connect creating a deep well of love and laughter and strength; all delivered by the US Postal System.

Olivia is growing up sooooo fast. Every day it’s something new. This week she’s learned to tense her shoulders (so it looks like a shrug) and get red in the face when she’s mad. Last week she learned that Daddy has hair that can be pulled just like Mommy’s (something that caused her five minutes of giggles). She’s been pulling herself up on furniture and walking around it for well over a month now, and last week she took her technical first step (she didn’t mean to do it, but what she was reaching for (mommy) moved when she went to go from couch to legs). Even though I don’t think she’ll be trying any more steps for a while, I have seen her let go of the furniture with both hands and balance a time or two.

Tonight Olivia & I had some Mommy-Daughter pictures taken. Some of them are really cute. I haven’t edited all of them, so there will probably be more posted in the days to come. But in the mean time, visit the scrapbook & click on “Summer 2006″ to see more pictures of Baby O & me.