What a nightmare!

Last Friday, as I was throwing out one of my niece's many dirty diapers, I slipped my wedding ring off and set it on the counter to wash my hands. I am a little weird about my ring. I don't like to sleep with it on and I have a problem keeping it on my finger because it's always slipping off, especially when I'm washing my hands many times a day. So, I proceeded to wash my hands and then took the kids outside because the weather was awesome and they played on the playground while Fezzik ate some clover. We played for quite awhile enjoying the beautiful day and then we came in and had lunch and naps. I went about my day and Robert came home from work with news that he had a date planned for us. Yay!
We found our babysitters and started discussing what movie and where to eat. As we were getting ready to go out the door I realized I didn't have my ring on. I went to all the usual places I take it off and nothing. "It's okay, " I tell myself, "It's just somewhere out of the norm." I tell Robert and we start looking everywhere. I keep our place pretty organized so I figured it would be pretty simple finding the ring. Then I hear my son's little voice as I'm tearing things apart starting to get frantic.
"Nate, did you touch Mommy's ring today?"
"Yes!"
"Where is it, honey?"
"In the bag?"
"The bag, I don't understand? Show me."

We run into my bedroom, which I try to keep off limits to him, but he comes and goes as he pleases anyway. He kneels down next to my church bag, which has all my gum pulled out and I'm thinking, "How many pieces did he swallow?", and proceeds to go through the pockets. I feel a wave of relief as I take over the search. Eventually, I tip it upside down and shake everything out. Nothing.

At this point we are running way late and Robert suggests dropping Nate off at the sitters and going out on the date and then, when we get home, continuing the search. I don't know if this has happened to any of you, but I was starting to freak out. I know we can't replace it and I don't want it replaced. It's got three rings to it and each is significant. One is the engagement ring, the other the wedding ring and the third is an anniversary ring. I know how hard Robert's worked to get me all these rings and I love him for it. I don't think I can concentrate on our date.

We head out and have a great time together. On the way home we start talking. I can't remember if I had the ring on outside with the kids or not. Something inside of me knows it was Nate that took off with the ring, but I'm starting to feel guilty blaming him if I can't remember if it slipped off outside. Robert isn't worried as we walk in the door. We put Nate down for bed and commence our search. We look in all of Nate's hiding places. Fezzik's dishes, the toy chest, under our bed. Nothing. At this point I'm next to hysterical but I'm trying to be brave because I can see Robert's starting to sweat. It's well after midnight and we're both exhausted. We decide to go to sleep and get up at first light and comb the park.

All night I have dreams or nightmares. We found it in the grass outside, it's gone forever after an all day search, we get a metal detector and find it, Nate hid it in his bookshelf, I'm crying because Robert tells me I have to go without a wedding ring until we are done with school. Needless to say, I didn't sleep well. It was a really long night and Robert was the first one up in the morning. It was freezing outside again and he was out on his hands and knees going through the grass. I started to cry as I went through our bedroom for the thousandth time. I hear Robert come in from the cold and don't have and heart to go to him and confess our defeat. I sit in the corner and wonder how I'm going to get through this (I've learned maybe I'm a little unnaturally attached to this piece of metal and diamonds). I hear Robert talking to Nate and getting him his cereal. After about five minutes Robert walks into the bedroom and I stand up to meet him. He's got my ring in his hand and he places it into my shaky palm. I have tears in my eyes again and I say, "Did you find it outside?"
"No, and if I tell you where it was you have to promise not to kill our son."
Enough said. I knew Nate really was the ring bandit. But I couldn't be mad, I was just too relieved.
"Where?" I ask.
"I pulled his bed apart and it was between the mattresses."

The little turkey! I still can't figure out why he would put it there. Maybe because I've threatened him more than once when I've caught him playing with it.

So my story has a happy ending, thank goodness! I have resolved to never take off my ring again. I have slept with it on every night and I put it right back on if I take it off to wash my hands. The only place I don't wear it is the shower because I'm afraid of it slipping off and going down the drain. It's taken some getting used to, but I think I won't even notice it in a while if I keep it on all the time.

My son has totally taken years off my life. Whether it's instances like this with my ring, the constant neediness or the fact that he's taken to running off (which is even more scary than the ring!) I don't think I'm going to make it past forty!

Easter Weekend 2009

It's a bit late, but in case anyone was wondering, this is how we spent out Easter weekend. On Saturday we went to the park to feed ducks. It was really fun to watch Nate. He was really stingy and would rip off these tiny crumbs and throw them at the ducks. The pieces were so small that the ducks didn't even try to eat them sometimes. Robert and I had to step in and help the poor animals. Otherwise they wouldn't eat and we'd have been there all day trying to get through all the bread we brought with us.
Of course, after all the bread was consumed Nate had to chase the ducks around for a few minutes. He'd find a duck he really liked and chase that one specifically. At one point he was running around them in a circle and had kind of corralled them. Robert thought he'd be a good duck herder.
For the last six weeks Nate has been signed up at the local Rec Center for a program called Short Sports. It's on Saturdays for a half and hour and each week they do a different activity. They've done parachute games, tag, soccer, floor hockey, etc. On the last week, which happened to be Easter weekend, it was the water week. They had all these cute water games and toys for the kids to play with. There were about seven kids about age three in the water with only one instructor to watch them all. Like any paranoid mother I brought my own suit just in case I needed to get in the water. When I got there I realized I would just be a pain to the instructor if I got in so I sat on the bleachers with the rest of the parents.
Do any of you have children that are fearless when they are near the water? Nate is. I can't tell you how many times I jumped up and almost went in after him. He would keep going deeper and deeper and the instructor would have his back turned working with the other kids. Nate would be up to his chin just bouncing to stay above water. Yikes! There was another mom next to Robert and I that was going through the same thing with her son. We made quite a pair. I like to think that I'm so jumpy because of all the lifeguarding, swimming teacher, and water aerobics instructor training I did during high school and college but I'm pretty sure the truth is I'm just an over protective mother.

My mom also got Nate his swimming trunks and shirt at Costco just a few days before and Nate was so excited to wear them. It's Nemo trunks and his shirt has a giant Bruce in the middle with all the other characters of the movie around him. Pretty cute.

We spent Saturday night out at my parents' house because we were going to church with them on Sunday. Mom and Dad surprised Robert and I with an offer to watch Nate so we could have a date that night. We were so happy and excited. We decided to go to the batting cages and then out to dinner. By the time we packed up for the weekend and got to my parents' we were too tired and just did dinner. How lame are we? We got home before 11 pm and just went to bed.

In the morning I set out Nate's Easter basket. I'm not a huge fan of candy but I did get him a little. He had a handful of eggs, sidewalk chalk, jelly beans and a toy microphone in his basket. He loved it all. The microphone is the favorite though because it actually amplifies his voice. He walks around singing into it all the time.

Of course after church was the big Easter Egg Hunt. Liz and Jason were out at Mom and Dad's too so Sydney and Maggie got in on the fun. This was Nate's first Easter Egg Hunt and he caught right on. My parent's have a great backyard for hiding eggs and I had a great time hiding.
Nate filled up his basket in no time and basically tripled his Easter haul.
We all threw eggs out into the middle of the grass for Maggie. She wasn't really interested. She's just hold on to one egg and bite at it. She's teething again. It was so fun for Nate to share his first hunt with his cousins.
I had to give Nate little hints as we ran around the yard. Now I know why my mom got so into holidays when I was growing up. It's so fun to watch your kid's eyes light up and the smiles, oh the smiles!
Jason eventually gave up with Maggie and collected all the eggs for her.
My mom and dad just sat on the patio and watched their kids and grandkids having a great time. I love that we've been closer to them this year. They've been so generous and willing to help us with anything from babysitting to giving us a plot in their garden so we can grow some of our own vegetables. Robert's thrilled about the veggies! :P
Once Nate learned that the eggs weren't just eggs but there were treats inside he wanted to crack them all at once and go on a candy binge. He gets that from his dad because I would keep my Easter eggs in my sock drawer and totally forget about them and find them months down the road still filled with candy. Anyway, I limited his intake (he'd had a lot from his basket in the morning and church was a nightmare because he was so hyper). Nate will have memories of me depriving him for many years to come, but something tells me he'll survive.

I hope Easter was as fun and eventful for everyone else as it was for us. I love the fun side of the holiday for my son, but I am forever grateful for what it means to me religiously. I am so thankful for my Savior, for His sacrifice for us and for His example. We have been so blessed and we continue to be blessed everyday because of Him. I know He lives, that He loves us all and He is the way to eternal happiness.

The Decision

As many of you know, we have been waiting to hear back regarding graduate school admissions. After four months of waiting and waiting....and waiting, we have finally heard back from all the schools and we have made our final decision. We feel very blessed as we know that our frequent prayers and fasts have been answered, along with the multitude of thoughts and prayers that have been offered from friends and family. We greatly appreciate everyone's concern and consideration. One of the primary factors in our decision was funding and we were blessed to receive a very, very generous funding package and fellowship. We are excited to embark on this next adventure that will start in August; Erin is excited that it will be our most stationary location (3-5 years) in the 6 years we have been married. This will also be Nate's 5th state to call home in his first 3.5 years. Thank you Erin for having the patience with me as I dragged our family across the country. So, without further hesitation, we thought it would be fun to play "Where are the Ross's going?" based on pictures. We have posted various pictures of the city and school that we will be attending to see how well you know your U.S. cities through photos! *Hint--the University is named after the city in which it is located and it is exactly 1862.19 miles from Nampa, Idaho*

One of the most popular tourist attractions
Downtown (the University is pretty much located downtown)
Picture of Campus
The University's Library
Of course there has to be Baseball!
So give us your best guess. We'll post the answer in a couple of days.

P.S. We are going to get a bigger apartment this time around with more bedrooms so Erin can have lots of visitors. Hint, hint, wink, wink. :)

What is in a Name?

For the past week we have been trying to come up with a name for the tortoise that we all liked and we all felt fit. We experimented with Lighting McQueen but it just did not seem to work. We considered such attempts as Socrates (pronounced So-Crates), Magnus, Calvin, Leonidas, Tortoisaurus Rex (Nate's contribution), and Don Corleone. However, we could not agree on one name. After much staring at the tortoise and trying to think of a name that meant something to the family and fit the little creature, we finally decided on the name Fezzik. So, tortoise is longer called "tortoise", and we have officially welcomed him to our home and to our family.

We thought there was somewhat of a resemblance.

We Can't Keep Fish Alive

Erin has put me in charge of this post because this was my bright idea.

So, we have attempted to acquire and sustain various pets in our almost 6 years of marriage--Nate has thus far been our most successful regarding longevity. We have been a bit dismayed at our unsuccessful attempts at maintaining a functioning, by that I mean breathing, fish who does not end up as swirly material. Thus, in order to overcome our inept fish skills, we have turned to a pet who has the potential of outliving us, yes, we have welcomed a brand new, hard-shelled, will pee on you if you scare him too much, Sulcata tortoise (yes, we are well aware that they can grow up to be over two feet long and 150 pounds, but then again, so can Nate).

We have yet to give him a name, but for labeling purposes we have given him the temporary call-sign of Lightning McQueen. So far he has been a very low key addition to the fray that is the Ross family. The only issue we have is when he gets stuck in the small space between the couch and the wall. Please take a moment to welcome the newest member of the Ross family. Likewise, we are currently taking suggestions for awesome tortoise names, so if you have any ideas feel free to share them.

Here are some pictures of the little shelly bundle of joy.


Don't be fooled by the typical tortoise stereotypes. He is pretty quick; he fast enough to move out of the frame before we could take the picture

Broken Things to Mend

Recently my mom passed the book, Broken Things to Mend by Jeffrey R. Holland, on to me. I'm only about half way through it, but I just wanted to share it with every one. I am thoroughly enjoying it and I'm learning a ton. So, if you're looking for a good LDS read, give it a shot.

I think it's very easy to identify with the topics that Elder Holland discusses, plus he's relatively easy to read. Sometimes some of the General Authorities books can be quite an undertaking. Example: Jesus the Christ. Anyway, there seems to be a ton of references to parenting, which I love. The entire first section of the book is about keeping families whole. Elder Holland talks about the importance of teaching our children our religion. How faith and example are best for teaching. One of my favorite things I read in this section is, "In matters of religion a skeptical mind is not a higher manifestation of virtue than is a believing heart." I love that because sometimes I don't feel like I have all the scriptural knowledge or book knowledge to have open debates about the Gospel. What I do know, though, is that I believe it's true. I know it's true. Elder Holland also says, "God will send aid to no one more readily than He will send it to a child-and to the parent of a child." With that I know if I do my part the best I can, Heavenly Father will fill in the rest. I have seen the truth in that multiple times already and it may be one of the things I am most grateful for at this time in my life. He talks to my son and helps him understand when I'm having a hard time or I'm confused as to what to do as a mother, and He also talks to me and helps me teach things I didn't know I could in ways I didn't know where possible for me.

That's why I'm loving this book. There are so many more beautiful things written in it and I don't want to give it all away. Elder Holland goes on to speak to mothers, fathers and youth and also about many virtues that we need to cultivate and keep alive in a day that they seem to be disappearing. This book is hopeful and it makes me feel hopeful as Elder Holland addresses so many worries that I've felt and that others have felt.

If you read it, you'll have to tell me what you think. I love it so much so far that I just couldn't wait to finish it to talk about it!