Blog?? What's that?

Hyatt's pouting because he didn't get his way. (This is at Gold Beach.)


My mother-in-law wanted me to start blogging, so here it goes. I have no idea how I'll fit this into my schedule, or what it is really, but just so you'll appreciate my time spent typing, I'll let you know what's on my mental "to do" list.

• Start our massive, enormous, overwhelmingly large remodel on our 1901 Georgian house.
• Finish the final projects on our apartment remodel while living in it so we can remodel the house.
• Keep the lawn mowed and etch away at the landscape issues. (I love yardwork!!!! No really, I do!)
• Help Talea with reading and writing and preschooly things. (As many of you know, I'm not a fan of sending my children to preschool, but it's fine for others.)
• Finish potty training Hyatt.
• Rid Hyatt of Giardia (that's a long story).
• Prep for a nonstop onslaught of birthdays and holidays for the next 3 months.
• Help Hyrum design his website for the cabinet design business he owns.
• Work on 2 secret Cluff family projects that are due soon.
• Take care of a newborn and 2 active, small children.
• De-skunk my 2 dogs after they decided to evict the nasty vermin from under the house.
• Send in updates to the family website http://www.tuffcluff.com/
• Remember to give my kids their fluoride pills, giardia medication, diaper rash powder prescription, AND take my prenatal pills (since I'm lactating). Yikes! I'm the worst about remembering pills!
• Make my weekly reminder calls for primary assignments.
• Maintain a blog.
• Take control of the health of my family by finally planning a menu of healthy foods, and actually shop for and cook them!

I can't wait until I can start crossing stuff off the list! Have I gotten myself in over my head? Probably, but it's just life.

So the reason why the pictures above are mostly just Hyatt is because he's been my major focus lately for a few reasons, the main one being the wonderful (yet horrible) news about his chronic, mysterious, illness. He has Giardia! Hurray! I say hurray because after a year of wondering what's been wrong inside his little body, we finally have been given a name to the problem, and I can breathe a sigh of relief that I was right about feeling something was wrong. I'm not a hypochondriac! I feel sad that he's had the little nasties for so long though. He's had a strange cough, mystery vomiting, occasional fevers, and loose stools for the longest time (a year or more). After extensive observation, an xray, a month-long ban on all dairy, blood tests and stool samples, we know it's Giardia. The poor guy has dropped down to the 5th % in weight over the last year (down from the 25th). He's turning 2 in a week and is only 23 pounds.

Hyatt stays cheerful through everything though. He's super cute (I'm stopped everywhere I go by people adoring him). He looks just like Hyrum, and like a little man instead of a little boy. And the funniest of all, he has taken to speaking with an echo on occassion (ex: stopp, don'tt, and eatt, etc.) I wish you could hear it!