Eco-Nerd

Since before I can remember I have been a big recycler, my parents were the first to teach me about the this way of life. They never actually sat the family down and dedicated Family nights to educating us about the three R's (reduce, reuse, recycle), they mainly taught by example. I have always felt very pleased with myself in regards to how good I was at recycling. Then a few years ago I came to realize that my efforts, no matter how noble I thought they were, was just scratching the surface. I remember that when Ryan and I were just newly married I was cutting up a tomato and I got to the little stumpy part that nobody wants to eat, and I kid you not, I started to cry historically because I didn't want to throw it away. I was devastated that we didn't have a compost pile! Going on walks was and still remains to be a nightmare too. I can hardly take a few steps outside before finding trash on the ground, and I feel an incredible guilt build up inside of me when I just leave it, so I collect it and discard it at the end of my walk. I have also tried to take the same discretion with my body, if there is a natural way to take care of my illness, that's the route to recovery I prefer.

Ryan has been so supportive with my new efforts to save the planet, by helping me replace our light bulbs for florescent ones, unplugging appliances when we aren't using them, walking to our destinations when it is reasonable to do so, and using reusable totes for our shopping trips. For Mothers Day this year I received a book called Gorgeously Green by Sophie Ulliano. I cannot begin to express how excited I was to receive this book. It is all about living an Earth friendly life and it offers advice for Beauty, home, fitness, style, etc, etc. I have to admit though sometime I get a little too carried away, I went so far I purchased flushable diapers for Micah(http://gdiapers.com/).

Graduation...more to come.

It has been a whole month since Ryan's graduation, he received his Bachelors in Communications with an emphasis in Print Journalism. He is currently working for "Utah Business Magazine" as a graphic designer, explain that one to me. In any case We are very proud of him! We didn't take too much time to celebrate this grand occasion because we had a lot of work to do. Just a few hours after his convocation we were packed up and on moving to West Jordan. This round of moving was a breeze because of all the help we received.

I would like to sincerely thank the following people for all of there help we couldn't have done it with out you.

Liz and Randy for helping clean and load trucks and buying brunch, Katie for watching Micah, Heather and Jeff for getting the job done and letting me use your phone, BYU 34h ward, Marci and Evan, Justin, Mom and Dad of course, my handsome brother Alex, Bobby who is a helpful stranger, Neerings pluming heating and air, and to anyone else I may be missing.

The Eighth World Wonder

Can we officially claim the Internet to be the eighth world wonder? It's true when they say (whoever 'they' are), that you don't know what you've got 'till it's gone. After almost a month of the stone ages, Ryan and I finally have our Internet set up. So much has happened since our last post, however updates will have to wait a little longer. Micah had his 4 month immunizations today and has been a fussy little guy ever since; he refuses to sleep.

Taylor Look-alike Meter

This is a fun website we found tonight, and I think it confirms that Micah is a good mixture of both me and Ryan. We'll try again when he is a little older. Go ahead and vote for who you think Micah most resembles.

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

Cooking Chaos

For weeks I have been wanting to make chocolate chip cookies, but who has the time with an infant attached to your arm? Finally last weekend Micah fell asleep at a reasonable hour (7:00) so I quickly got all my ingredients together for the cookies. the recipe I was using called for 1/2 or 1/4 a cup of shortening, I don't remember ever using shortening in a cookie recipe but I went ahead and added the shortening. It is important to mention that I have had this shortening in my pantry since I've been married (Nov 2005). It had funky smell but I thought to myself that is just what shortening smells like. I finished adding the ingredients and as they were baking I ran out to run an errand. I was excited to come home thinking I would enter my apartment with the sweet aroma of chocolate chip cookies. Oh no, when I walked in all I could smell was the stench of funky shortening filling my apartment; it was awful! So in light of this devastating experience I want to know, can shortening go bad? I thought it had an endless shelf life.

Fiasco #2 Who likes really, really ripe bananas? I know the Taylor's don't at all. When bananas get too ripe in our home we make Banana Pancakes. Ryan took over this project as he has done several times before. He is a very good cook when he applies himself. On this occasion however he got a little out of hand. Ryan was using the blender to mix all of the ingredients and as it was running he went to add the eggs, he not only included the egg whites and the yoke he let the shell slip right out of his fingers. OOPS! Needless to say we started all over and finally enjoyed a decent treat over the weekend.

7 things you didn't know about Lindsay

I have been tagged by one of my best friends in all of the world, Marisa Jean Larsen, to make a list of 7 things that you didn't know about me. I feel as though I am an open book and there is nothing mysterious about myself. However, I have thought of a few things to share; I hope it will help you get to know me a little better.

1. I have never eaten Beef Jerky. between 4th grade and my freshman year in college I was a vegetarian. I had no moral or dietary reason for my decision, I simply wanted to see if I could discipline myself not to eat any meat. Ryan thinks that I haven't had beef jerky so that I can tell people I have never had beef jerky, he's kind of right.

2. I love National Public Radio (NPR). There are so many wonderful programs on NPR such as "Fresh Air", "Talk of the Nation", "Car Talk" and my all time favorite "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell me-the npr news quiz". This gives me a way to stay up to date on current events and I really like that it simply makes me think.

3. I got my hair cut. I have been trying to get my hair cut for weeks now, I have been collecting referrals from friends and family that I trust. They all must go to really great hair dressers because it was impossible to get into see any of them. So on Friday afternoon I was feeling brave and bold so I went over to Kellie and Company and let the stylist have her way with my hair. I have no regrets, thanks Amy!

4. I have a rock in my head. I have this funny bump on my head that I can trace back to about 2nd grade. I remember doing a superman trick on the Mary-go-round, flying off and landing in rubble. I gashed my head open when I was and I have had an odd bump ever since.

5. I ran into Edward James Olmos. Mr. Olmos is an actor, I only know him from "Stand and Deliver". When I was in Disneyland years ago I literally walked into him.

6. I can play the accordion. I actually don't play well at all, but I use to take lessons. I was really into it but I got the impression it was a nerdy instrument so I lost my desire to continue on with the lessons.

7. One of my goals in life is to be in a musical production. It doesn't have to be a big production, I would be very happy becoming involved in community theater or maybe joining a drama club.

I hope that you all feel as though you got to know me a little better. I am going to go ahead and follow Marisa's great idea and invite those of you who read my blog to create your own list of 7 things nobody knows about you. I hope to find this list on your blogs.

Confrence Weekend

General Conference was really great this weekend, my favorite part about it all was the Solemn Assembly, I don't remember it from when President Hinkley was sustained. There were also talks that I felt were directed towards me in a very positive and encouraging way. I'm really grateful we have living prophets and apostles.



Kevin


Eric

Every so often a family has to say goodbye to their Son, Brother, Sister, Parents, Grandparents and so on who leave their families to serve a full-time mission. In my case I have had a few cousins and my Brother-in-law go on missions. Living in Provo has given me and Ryan the advantage of being able to have one last goodbye with missionaries. On Sunday Ryan, Micah and myself went on a Sunday stroll. As we walked up towards the Provo Temple we saw a lot of missionaries, we began to wonder if my cousin Kevin would be among the multitude. We didn't have to look long before we found him. We only spoke for a few minutes, I would have loved to chat with him for a while but I felt guilty about having found him, so we took a quick picture with him (on Kevin's camera) and said goodbye. Kevin left for Connecticut on Monday.

Two Years ago Ryan and I were inside of the Provo Temple when we ran into my brother-in-law Eric. Ryan and I were getting ready to leave the Temple when Eric was just arriving. Considering the circumstances we were only able to whisper a hello, I think the excited expressions on our faces did all of the talking. This reunion was a complete accident, we tried to run into him again the next week, we didn't have any luck. Eric Will be returning from the Omaha, Nebraska Mission next month.



Micah really loves his Daddy, they played together all weekend long. The first photo is from Sunday morning, Micah was getting ready to take a nap on Ryan as we watched General Conference. I thought it was so cute how he lay so comfortably on his Dad, I had to get a picture of it. The second picture is the one I am the most excited to talk about. On Sunday evening we put Micah down on his stomach for tummy time. Micah hates Tummy time so much that on this particular evening at around 6:00 pm he decided he was finished with tummy time and rolled over! I was so shocked, I thought it had to be a fluke. We put him back on his belly a few more times and each time he rolled over onto his back. My baby boy is growing up so fast.

My little Micah is such a good baby, he is really, really good to me. Since about the second week that we brought him home he has slept through the night. Despite his sweetness he loves to keep me on my toes during the day. For some reason though, when I was sick this last week, my little angel decided that sleeping through the night was not his thing. Besides having to get up frequently for tissues, water and the bathroom for myself, I was having to stay up to feed Micah. The thing that I am so grateful for is that neither Micah nor Ryan caught my cold. I was really worried that Micah would because of all of our contact. Breast milk is amazing!

Doesn't this sandwich look appetizing? This was my lunch yesterday. Micah must have waken up to eat while I was eating because I found my sandwich about three hours later only half eaten. I thought it was pretty funny that I forgot all about it.

You won't believe this!

If you are a tax payer you have to hear this, go to the link bellow and take a few minutes to listen to this segment. Let us know what you thought about it.

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/04/01/april_1st/

When you gotta go you gotta go

Micah was blessed on Sunday, the blessing was really beatiful. As tradition goes we had a gathering afterwards. We had planned to to meet in the picinc area next to our apartment, unfortunately it snowed and we had no other option but to bring our 35+ guests into our 2 bedroom apartment. Some days it feels as though this aprtment isn't big enough for the three of us.

When the crowd started to die down I decided it was a good time to bring out the guest of honor. He made his rounds visiting Grandparents and Aunts; then his daddy wanted to take over for a little while. I thought this would be a great opportunity to get some pictures of our baby boy in his adorable white romper.

As Ryan sat down with Micah you could see an instant change in our little infant. Micah bit down on his tongue, turned bright red and grunted really loud, followed by a sigh of relief. Ryan looked over at me with the most disgusted look, our little boy all dressed in white had now stained his clothes yellow. Unfortunately it didn't end there, when Ryan lifted Micah up he had a little bit of Micah's mess on his pants. The only photos I got of Micah or on his Changing table. Darn it!

After we got him changed we were able to get pictures with family, one of my favorite is the photo with his cousins Cody and Hailey; those two are crazy about Micah.

2005-2008 nutshell

I'll feel as though a chunk of my life is missing if I don't post how this little family of mine got started. It all began in 3rd grade, Ryan and I were in the same class. Years later, after Ryan returned from his Mission in Washington D.C. we were set up by our Friend Zac Bell. We married in the Jordan River Temple on November 11, 2005. After a few months of marriage we moved to Provo. Ryan and I were both going to school until January 2007. At this point we moved to Washington DC for 3 1/2 months because Ryan got an internship with a Non-profit called "The Council for Court Excellence". I worked as a Nanny for a wonderful family, the little boy I nannied was named Ethan. This short time that we lived back east gave Ryan and me the perfect opportunity to do some traveling that might otherwise not happen on a students budget; We were able to visit several different states that surround Washington D.C. Shortly after we returned from D.C. we found out I was Pregnant, 40 weeks and two days later we had a beautiful baby boy.