Oh what do you do when school is cancelled?

Due to snow (ya, MORE snow) school was cancelled. So after Bree went down for her nap Emma and I decided to get girly. She let me curl her hair and we pulled out a few outfits and went to town! She got a little bored after a while, but it was fun! There was some great sunlight that day so I just pulled up the blinds and used all natural light. They turned out pretty good for a point and shoot camera!
And yes, I DO have another child. She just won't sit still for the camera. And she's had a pretty boogery nose, which doesn't bode well for cute pictures. I STILL have yet to have a professional picture taken of her. Poor baby-years down the road she's gonna feel left out. I'll schedule something at Target tomorrow...if I remember :)

Nothing much...

We haven't blogged in a while, but it's hard to come up with something catchy to write when ABSOLUTELY NOTHING is going on. Snow, cold, snow, cold. I found a new trick. When I'm driving and it's sunny outside (I know, RARE thing) I look up at the sky while I'm driving. Yes, I make sure I'm going in a straight line and that no cars are around before doing this. But if I stare at the sky, it's easier to envision that it's summer and warm and I'm living in a somewhat safe place. Oh, how the peace fills my soul!!!! :) It IS encouraging, though, to see the Easter/Spring clothes at all the stores. I just have to block out the fact that we didn't make it to church on Easter last year because of the million feet of snow we got. And I have to block out the childhood memories of beautiful, SHORT SLEEVED Easter dresses and warm weather for Easter egg hunts and I'll be good. Oh ya, and another thing to look forward to...two nights at the indoor waterpark during spring break! It was a blast last year, and now that Bree is walking it'll be even more fun. She is a maniac in the tub, so I can only imagine how awesome it'll be to watch her in a pool.

Dave decided to leave me. For the weekend, not permanently...but then again, he's not home yet, so I really don't know that he'll come back. Bree HAS been a little bit of a monster lately, so I would completely understand. Just kidding. He's in Chicago at a dental thing and I'm here stuck in the snow. But thanks to MANY wonderful friends, I'm doing okay. One fabulous friend came over to my house last night after the girls were in bed so I could go to Tia's Twilight party, which I will blog about later. Then my other 2 fabulous friends watched Bree and picked up Emma from school while I was a 1/2 hour away getting my car fixed, which took about 4 hours. And another fabulous friend was originally going to watch the girls, but it ended up working out better the other way, but I need to at least acknowledge her willingness to serve. And one of the previously mentioned fabulous friends is having us over for dinner tonight. WE ARE SO LUCKY! I will never be able to talk about how hard it is being away from family because we really have some great friends who have become our family. THANK YOU ALL!!!!!!!! And I'm in a good mood b/c the car repairs were supposed to cost about $500, and he ended up doing a BUNCH of other stuff "on the house," and then only charged less than $400. It's a wonderful day when you find an honest car repairman. I also had some invigorating adult conversation with all my new friends at the car shop, inlcuding the owner.

Stay tuned for another post on the party. I'll probably get around to it when I have a husband back home. You'll know he didn't return if you don't see it soon :)

Spitty Face

In an attempt to get the girls to stop whining and crying (you know, THAT time of day) I told them to spit. It ended with giggles and whisperings in each other's ears! And yes, Bree's nose is STILL orange. I think I'm going to make a call to the dr since she hasn't had anything orange to eat in about 2 months. All I want for Valentine's Day is a little hair growth on a bald baby's head and a normal looking nose...oh ya, and some TEETH...is it too much to ask??!!

The Humbling of Dave

Since everyone bowed down to my threat before, although I don't feel quite right about it with Debbie's cheating, I've decided to share some more highlights of my life that I hope you enjoy.

I've noticed that when things are going well for me the world seems to take issue with my general contentment. I don't know if it just wants to punish me specifically or if it feels that everyone needs a punch in the gut every now and then. But I've had a few experiences lately that have made me look to the heavens and wonder what the crap's going on.

As you may have observed in our various family photos, personal fitness hasn't been too high on my priority list these past few years. I like to blame this on various factors such as school, family commitments, the general deliciousness of lard filled goodies. In any case my figure has taken on a more rotund shape of late.

I've made it a goal this year to get into reasonably good shape prior to turning 30 and I've lost some weight as a result. A few days ago I was feeling particularly sexy because I was wearing one of my special shirts that make me look more muscular (every guy has some just like every girl has their skinny looking clothes). Anyway, while helping Emma with something she looks up at me, pats me on my somewhat round belly, and asks, "When's the baby going to come out of your tummy daddy?" Needless to say I went upstairs and took off my sexy shirt.

Today was another example of the world trying to keep my spirits down. I'm working at the free dental clinic all week and I have to walk a 1/2 mile or so from school to get there. The weather today was a balmy 10 degrees and closer to 0 once you included the wind chill. I was walking along on my way to McDonalds (there's no need to point out that McDonalds won't help with my pregnancy problem)

I was feeling good about my service to humanity when I see one of the fine Cleveland city buses driving towards me. I also looked at the road just ahead of me and noticed a very large puddle filled with slush and ice right in the path of the bus. I looked at the bus driver to see if he saw the same thing, which it was obvious he did by the sudden look of glee that spread across his face. I tried to get out of the way but since I was walking under a tunnel at the time there wasn't much space to escape to. Well, you can picture for yourself what happened next.

On the bright side, being sprayed with near frozen water while walking in below freezing temperature is a good way to clear the mind. And my clear mind told me that I could feel good because life had done it's best to get me down today and I was still in a good mood.

Feeling like I had shown a strong amount of moral fortitude I trudged on to McD's to eat some well earned french fries. Upon walking into the relatively empty restaurant the teller took notice of my soaked scrubs pants, pointed at me, and began to laugh. Loudly. At which point she called over her manager so he could join in on the laughing and pointing. I explained what had happened and to my surprise neither of them seemed to think a bus driver intentionally soaking a pedestrian in hypothermic weather conditions was very unusual. The manager even gave me a look like, "what did you expect to happen?"

After eating my food with only 2 interruptions from homeless people asking me for money I headed back to the free clinic. And to top off my trials a very large black man bit me while I was trying to pull out his tooth. So now I will go to bed tonight a little fatter, somewhat frost bitten, and with a sore and possibly virally infected hand. But I will be humble and tomorrow I'll try to remember to keep my head down because the world might just come up and sucker punch me again if I'm not careful.

She Walks!!

Nobody but us will really care about this, but we like to assume that everyone out there gets as much excitement from our lives as we do. As a side note, if we don't elicite at least 10 comments from this post in the next week we will pull down the site. You only have yourselves to blame.

the latest

These are the layouts I've been doing in my digiscrap class. We've been learning to recolor photos, and I love doing that b/c it means that if a paper pack really goes with part of the picture but not the rest, I can make the rest of the pic black and white, and it looks WAY better when the page is complete. There are a ton of things I've learned and it's a little hard to remember them all, but good thing we have access to the tutorials for forever so I can relearn.
I'm mostly posting these b/c I haven't posted pics of the girls lately. Although...can you tell the purple page is emma as a baby and not bree? :) I was going through the old pics last night, and holy cow, they look so much alike. Emma's face is a little rounder, but MAN. I was having a hard time switching gears while looking at the pics b/c I kept thinking they were Bree. Well, at least we make 'em cute!

Just an Emma funny

Emma loves to play Candyland. But she calls it the gingerbread man game. Now, when she says gingerbread, I've always noticed that her "b" sound isn't very pronounced, and tonight we learned why. We just finished a rousing game of candyland and I had the 4 gingerbread men pieces lined up. I asked her what their names were. She said Gingerbread man. I said, let's give them names. She complained that they already had names, and very emphatically pointed to the red one, "ginger red man," then blue "gingerblue man," green "gingergreen man" etc. Isn't it funny how kids interpret things? We were laughing pretty hard. But maybe that's just funny to us :)

Me or Him...finally

Ashlee tagged us a while ago, but I'm just now getting to it!
What is his name? David Burt Lathan
How long have you been married? 7 years
How long did you date? Total amount of time dating and being engaged, about 6 months
How old is he? 29...going on THIRTY!!!
Who eats more? When we're together and I can compare it, Dave. But I don't think he eats much during the day, and I'm snacking all day.
Who said I love you first? umm...is it bad that I don't remember? It might be written in a journal somewhere...
Who is smarter? Book smarts, sports smarts, Dave. Other stuff, me. That would be stuff that Dave doesn't think matters, like anything besides sports :) j/k
Whose temper is worse? I'm more vocal with my temper. That's my way of admitting it's me without feeling too embarrassed about it.
Who does the laundry? me, but Dave helps out a lot.
Who does the dishes? he empties, I load.
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? looking at the bed, me. and it's like that wherever we sleep, or else it feels awkward. although when I'm pregnant I have to sleep on the other side. I don't remember why.
Who pays the bills? me
Who cooks dinner? me
Who drives when you are together? Dave
Who is more stubborn? we're both pretty stubborn, but Dave would say I am more, but at the same time, he is a very logical person and can convince you of anything if he wants to, and so I usually give in, and to me, that means he's more stubborn.
Whose parents do you see the most? I see mine more than I see my inlaws, but Dave's about even with both.
Who proposed? He did.
Who has more friends? We share a lot of the same friends, but I'm definitely the more social one.
Who has more siblings? me-4 sisters, 1 brother. he has 2 brothers and 1 sister.
Who wears the pants in the family? I say we both do. We are pretty good at being equal with that. One day i wear the pants and the next day he does. Some issues he wears the pants with and some i do. It just depends on situations. Ultimately, i do. :) (sorry Ashlee, just copied your answer b/c you said it so well!)
Now, I expect to see this on the following blogs...adrienne, julianne, steph


DAVES INPUT

I need to clarify some things. She said I love you first. There's no way I'm taking that jump first. Her temper is waaay worse than mine, she's a demon. Those pants are securly attached to her body. I never get my way. If anything I'm more of an endentured servant than a husband. If you're reading this call the authorities. I need to be rescued.

**loralee's side note to dave: you're fired

Bandwagon Fan

I admit it. I'm a bandwagon fan. I love a winner and will gladly jump on board their glory train. Most die hard sports fans will find reason to hate me for this. These are the people who continually spend money on tickets to watch their team wallow in mediocrity season after season with the faint glimmer of hope that someday they'll have something worth cheering for. They seem to find a perverse sense of joy in being associated with something so horrible. Other fans treat them with an air of reverent pity, kind of like someone whose lifelong pet just died. You and everyone else knows that they were crazy for loving that flee ridden, blind, 3 legged mongrel. But you begrudgingly respect them for sticking with little Buster for so long.

But I watch professional sports to be entertained. And I find no entertainment in watching a team I'm rooting for get stomped into the ground week after week. I might as well go outside, get a hammer, and smack my big toe around for a few hours. If I'm going to suffer I could at least do it right.

This is why I was one of the 0.001% of American's who wanted to see the Patriots win the Superbowl today. To be able to witness a perfect season is something to root for in my opinion. Some people say they were too cocky, but people always say that about a team that dominates for that long. People always want to tear down the top dog and that's who the Patriots were, until today.

All credit to the Giants for winning the game. They outplayed the Patriots all day so they deserve the win. But I'm still sad to see a dynasty team in all likelihood come to an end. I think they'll make it to more Superbowls before it's all said and done but this core group won't be around much longer. If my genes are ever able to produce a son I'll be able to talk with him about all of these Hall of Fame players I got to watch. And if I have no male heir then I'll bore my girls with the same stories. I hope the Patriots stay a contender for a few more years. It's hard to find another team to mooch my joy off of.

On a final note I want to say that this doesn't apply to college sports. I'm a BYU fan all the way. My testimony of the Church if often tied up in the fate of the football program. Unhealthy I know but probably more common than most of us want to admit.

Warning: This is A Depressing Post. Proceed with Caution

I know that my posts usually are more on the light side of things, so for those of you who want to continue to think happy thoughts about me all the time I would recommend you don't read on. This is a depressing post, but with a sprinkling of hope and perspective too.

The vast majority of people who know me do not, in fact, know something rather big about me. I don't tell most people about it because I don't want them to feel awkward around me, but I've thought about it lately and I've decided that what I once viewed as a huge burden has become a blessing in disguise. This will take some explanation so this post may be a long one.

I suffer from a condition known as dysthymia. Basically this is a persistent low grade depression marked by occasional periods of severe depression. I've had this condition most of my life but didn't realize it until a little over a year ago when I had a very severe depressive episode. Why on earth would I tell you all this you may ask? Well, here comes the perspective part. I was able to recognize that something was wrong when someone spoke about their personal battle with depression in Church one Sunday. Until they described what they felt I didn't recognize my own feelings for what they were. So, I want to pass that onto someone who might be in need now.

Depression is the worst thing I've ever experienced. It's honestly impossible to describe it adequately to someone who hasn't gone through it themselves. For me personally I felt like my soul was cracked and at any moment I would come crumbling apart all together. Nothing brought me any happiness and after a while I couldn't remember ever feeling happy, or peace, or hope. Situations that before would be easy to handle suddenly become a huge effort to deal with. I felt constantly exhausted, both emotionally and physically. Life was a chore and every morning was met with a feeling of dread knowing I had to go through the pain all over again. There was no light at the end of the tunnel. I never considered ending it all, but for the first time in my life I understood why someone would. When life is constant agony it's hard to want to go on.

On top of all of this was a crushing guilt. I had no reason to feel this way. My life was great compared to so many other's. I have a great family, a wonderful wife, great kids, I'm achieving my goals. What was there to be so down about?

The smartest thing I did was make the decision to not fight the depression on my own. I knew that what I was going through would impact people close to me so I brought them on as a support system. The simple act of sharing and saying out loud what I was going through took a huge burden off of me. I saw a therapist for a while during the worst of it, and I spoke to my bishop about it. Loralee was a huge support. I know that some feel there is a stigma associated with depression, but I'm glad I wasn't so worried about what others might say about me that I tried to keep everything inside. That would have been a very big mistake.

How could this be a blessing? First let me say that I've made it through the depression with minimal scarring and now that I recognize the thoughts and feelings for what they are, even the minor depressive episodes are becoming more rare. More importantly I feel like I was allowed to go through this experience to give me some understanding of others who are suffering. Since I had my dark period there have been a number of people in my life who are also suffering. If I hadn't gone through it myself I would be looking in from the outside not knowing what to say. But since I have some idea what they're feeling I can let them know what helped me. Most importantly I can promise them that no matter how dark it is now, no matter how hopeless and alone they may feel, better times are ahead. It will pass, you will feel happy again.

I don't know why I've felt strongly that I needed to share this right now but I do. For good or for bad we are all connected to each other. So many people helped me when I was down and continue to bless my life now. I hope that those around me know that if they need help that I'll do what I can for them. For now this may just be sharing embarassing moments of my life for them to laugh at, but if that's what it takes then I'll take one for the team.

So in that spirit I present to you the new and improved Dave. AKA Mouth of Steel. Eat your hearts out ladies.