Sprinklers, Jam and Pioneers

Luke has only been walking for a week and a half but he's already become a pro at it. He was walking up and down the hallways at church today and loving it. He seems to have finally caught on to the idea that being able to travel while holding things with your hand is pretty cool. Yay Luku!

We took Luke to a sprinkler party this week. He was amazed by the strange contraption that created rain in the sunshine (also, Luke doesn't usually go out when its raining). He smiled a few times when Amit carried him through the sprinkler superman style, and had a good time trying to get down the slide. But in the end, he just wasn't running fast enough to keep warm and started shivering. Poor Luku!

Woah! That bathtub is seriously broken people!

Luke being cold but happy

Luke is still learning about standing in lines. And apparently Amit is too judging by the distance he's standing behind the next kid in line.

Climbing up the ladder

Slide time!

What a cute father-son picture!

We also are proud to announce the arrival of our kitchen miracle - a portable dishwasher! We found it on craigslist and Marinda literally cried when she saw it. "Luke's tray fits in it so I don't have to wash it by hand all the time!" she exclaimed. It may be portable, but its as big as a regular dishwasher and offers additional important counter space in our kitchen.

For those of you who don't know, Wednesday was one of the most important days in Utah pioneer culture - Pioneer Day. It commemorates the arrival of the LDS pioneers to the Utah valley and is a big holiday in places like Utah and Idaho. We celebrated on Saturday with a potluck. The theme was salads, so Amit signed up to do a pasta salad and Marinda did a jello salad. This could mean only one thing - salad battle! So whose dish won? "All my jello salad was gone," Marinda said. "I think that speaks volumes for my skill." "But my bowl had a larger volume than your tray," Amit replied. "And also, Marinda sabotaged my dish by adding unauthorized amounts of spices to it the day of the potluck." Well, either way, it was a good time for all involved, especially Luke, who got to sleep in this awesome makeshift hammock.

When life gives you a stroller, a chair, and a diaper bag, make a bed, right?

COMMERCIAL BREAK:  Are you looking for a new take-out Chinese restaurant?  Well, the Misra family has a recommendation for you!  We tried Mee Sum Pastry last Saturday and their sweet and sour pork and Mongolian beef passed the test.  With dishes around $7 and free delivery for over $15, you should give it a try next time cooking dinner just seems like too much work.

As you all know, Luke is now a toddler, and though his walking has certainly gotten us up on our toes, he wanted to make sure Amit and Marinda really got the point that their life will never be the same.  Luke has been doing stairs just fine for about a month now, maneuvering up and down with ease.  On Tuesday morning Marinda had left the door open to get the stroller out, and Luke had crawled outside.  Not a big deal usually - but you see, Luke just discovered walking and thought it would be a good idea to try it out on the stairs.  Eight stairs later he thankfully stopped rolling down them right before crash landing on the cement.  Marinda threw the stroller down the stairs and scooped him up only to discover that he was completely unscathed.  Scared, but not damaged.  This is just further proof that little kids are made out of rubber.

Continuing with his new attraction for trouble, yesterday morning began with a call to poison control from Luke's discover of petroleum jelly.  (For those of you interested, the advice I got was that he might vomit and might have diarrhea and just to keep him hydrated with no juice.)  Then one hour later he wandered in the kitchen with the can opener - you know, the type with a sharp blade!  No idea how he got a hold of that one!  To top it off, he had some how reached up onto the kitchen table and was sampling Marinda's Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.  *sigh*

This is a really long entry for this week, but Marinda wants to remember all the good things that happened.  One of her favorite things is to go back and re-read entries.  It makes her smile to remember all the good times our family has had together.  So just bare with us as we finish off this post.  :)

As you might remember, Marinda has a hard time doing physical activities due to her nerve disease.  During our move the stress flared it up and she was basically bedridden, so on Thursday you can imagine how happy she was when she found she was feeling strong enough to go to Zumba.  For those of you who didn't know Marinda growing up, she was dancing before she learned how to speak, and not being able to move to music has been one of the hardest parts of her illness.  "Usually I'm always thinking ahead - how will this activity affect my energy levels tomorrow.  It is always a fine line between doing too much and too little.  But for some reason tonight during Zumba all I wanted to do was dance.  So I made a new motto for life:  Dance While You Can.  I might be bedridden tomorrow, and I might not.  A meteor might smash into the Earth tonight and it really wouldn't matter.  From now on, I'm going to live for the joy of today and try and absorb as much happiness as God is sending my way."

On that perky note, Amit has been sick all week with a cold.  It finally got to the point on Wednesday night that he woke up Marinda at 1am to go to QFC to get him some cold medicine.  Being the faithful wife she is, Marinda got dressed, and clutching her purse and a pray for safe passage, walked the 200 yards past the dumpsters behind the bar, the shifty looking bushes by the parking lot, and the very questionable dressed patrons of the grocery store so late at night.  Everything went smoothly with only one incident where three drunk guys were walking down the middle of the street talking loudly to each other, but our brave heroin made it back safely with her prize.  "It is probably just residue from living in Cleveland.  I managed to live there five years without getting mugged, and that was mostly due to being hyper aware of your surroundings and all the places someone might be waiting.  U-Village really needs to reassess their lighting plan!"

On Friday morning Marinda and Luke piled into a car with two friends and headed out of town to go raspberry picking!  Luke was a good boy and played in his stroller while Marinda walked the lanes picking (and taste testing) the raspberries at Remlinger Farms.  She ended up coming home with five pounds worth!  To top it off, she tried her hand at making jam for the first time.  It was apparently so good, Amit was licking the pot!

Marinda and her creations

Custom-designed lids

It passes the waffle test!

Congratulations!  You made it to the end!