Cereal Prizes

I fondly reflect on the good-old-days when boxes of cereal contained exciting prizes such as miniature action figures or glow-in-the-dark whistles. Nothing quite compares to the thrill of finding a prize as you fill your cereal bowl. The free prizes of long ago have now been replaced with "free" mail-in offers, but only if you collect 25 proofs of purchase and send $5.95 for "shipping and handling".

Today I discovered that some boxes of cereal still contain a hidden surprise. I was preparing my usual breakfast of Raisin Bran and milk. There was barely a serving of cereal left in the box, so I had to dump the box into my bowl. The vigorous shaking yielded quite the surprise: a large, harry SPIDER. Needless to say, I did not have Raisin Bran for breakfast this morning.

Photography Requires Patience . . .

. . . which is something I don't have. Grant has taken to towing his toys as he crawls. He reminds me of a mama cat, holding his stuffed bunny or rubber ducky in his mouth as he crawls around the apartment. I really wanted to share a video or a picture of these adorable moments with you. I set up the camera, gave Grant a toy, and waited for Grant to stuff the toy in his mouth so that I could capture the moment. Unfortunately, three days and many hours later, I have been unable to snap a picture at the right moment. These were the best I could do. You will have to use your imagination if you want to see Grant's impersonation of a mama kitty.

New Adventures

Nathaniel and I received our first visitor, Candace, this weekend (you may visit her blog for more pictures and a detail description of my Wii boxing skills). As hosts, we planned an educational excursion to Hershey's Chocolate World where we learned about the importance of milk in chocolate making from three singing cow puppets as well as how to see, listen to, smell, and taste (but not eat) different chocolates in the delectable Chocolate Tasting 101 course.











We also explored downtown Harrisburg where we strolled along the banks of the Susquehanna River, visited City Island, ate fried veggies at the fair, and cheered the adult rowing team to victory against the youth team.

Moving Supplies

I'm sure that most of you have given up on this blog, but it has not been abandoned. I was simply swamped with moving chores. I have now unpacked most of the boxes and can breath easy in middle-of-no-where Pennsylvania. Just in case any of you are preparing for a cross-country move, I've compiled a list of a few must-have moving supplies.

1. Lots of boxes2. Mr. Clean Magic Erasers
3. Super glue for the moving casualties4. Wood glue for the other moving casualties
5. Expert packing friends (you know who you are)
On a somewhat related note, I am running out of bookshelf space. Our three small shelves are basically full of books, but I still have to find a place for all these remaining books. Nat wants to save our money to buy some nice Amish bookshelves (and do who-knows-what with all these books in the meantime). I think I'll go insane if I don't find a place for all these books soon. ;)

Uinta Camping Highlights

Nathaniel, Grant, and I went camping with my family in the Uinta Mountains this weekend. It was one of the best camping trips ever!

1. Eaten by mosquitoes
Tenille's mosquito bites: 27
Days of itching: 3
Camping memories: eternal

2. Trying out our new baby backpackHours searching for backpack: 12

Number of stores visited: 15
Exploring nature with our son: priceless

3. Hiking Bald Mountain
Elevation: 11,943 (highest peak in the western Uintas)
Round-trip miles: 4
View at the top: breathtaking

4. Spotting Ute Ladies' Tresses (Spiranthes diluvialis)
Number of Ute Ladies' Tresses in the world: ??? but they're a threatened orchid
Number of Ute Ladies' Tresses we spotted: approximately 50
Nat's excitement: unparalleled
(F.Y.I. Nat would love to study the evolution of different orchid species at Penn State.)

5. Finding a nesting Bald Eagle on our hike to Hoover Lake
Number of Bald Eagles: ??? also threatened
Miles to the lake: 2
Times I said I would miss the Utah Mountains: infinitely many

9 months and growing

Grant turned nine-months-old yesterday. He is getting so big, I can hardly believe it!

Birth weight: 7 1/2 lbs
Current weight: 19 lbs
% change: 150%

Grant is in the 25th-percentile for his weight. I know, that's not very believable considering his thunder thighs and knee-rolls. Perhaps being in the 10th-percentile for height holds some explanatory power for the thighs and knees.

Birth length: 18 in
Current length: 27 in
% change: 50%

Hmm, interesting comparison.Favorite activities: crawling, standing, babbling, and playing with his bathtub. I know it's weird, but he could sit in his bathtub for hours.

Missing Our Old Apartment

Many of you are aware that we had to move out of our old one-bedroom apartment and into another crummy one-bedroom apartment. Our contract ended May 31, but we were knee-deep in thesis writing and didn't want to leave the area until mid-August. Due to a change in management, it would have cost us an additional $800 to stay in our apartment for two more months. So we put boxed up our stuff, put it in storage, and moved into a friends' apartment while they were gone selling pest control for the summer. We've been living here for a month and a half, and we terribly miss three things about our old apartment.

1. Our Red Couch. I tried to get all of our current living room furniture in this picture. The only piece of furniture that belongs to us is the dark brown piano; every other piece of light tan furniture belongs to our friends. So, I miss the color of my beautiful red couch (it has been featured in other pictures on this blog). Sometimes it's difficult to determine where the floor ends and furniture begins in this place. I also miss having a couch that doesn't require a slip cover.

2. Our Dishwasher. I didn't think that I would mind washing dishes by hand, but I hate it! It's a never-ending task; it seems that there are always dirty dishes in the sink. Oh how I long to have a dishwasher again.

3. Closet space. Number of closets in our old apartment: 7. Number of closets in our new apartment: 1/2. Seriously, there are 1 1/2. There are a stack of boxes in our bedroom because there is no closet space.

Luckily, we will have a three-bedroom apartment in PA. What will we do with all the extra space?