what happened to the cartoons?- long rant

So it is early on a Saturday morning, and instead of sleeping in like a normal person who goes to bed at midnight and is on vacation (this normal person is Em), I have pretty much been awake all morning... and I can not make myself go back to sleep.
so here is how it happened. I have been pretty congested in my chest ever since we landed in Arizona. In fact, as we stepped out of the airport into the parking garage, I started to feel like my throat was dry and it was a little hard to get my lungs all the way filled. I didn't take much notice of it at the time, probably because I was so excited to be home in this brown land that we live in, but in retrospect I see that that is the first place that my breathing was troubled. Gracie had a hard time falling asleep that night(Wednesday) and so I stayed up with her for a while. but it was really hard for me to fall asleep because I could not get comfortable and my breathing was weird. Thursday night was much the same thing, except that I did not try to fall asleep until after one o'clock, because that is when Emi came home. Gracie woke up in the middle of the night again for about two hours and after I figured out she is still teething, I got her to go back to sleep and I figured out that I could no longer speak in a normal voice (because of the congestion, I feel like I have lost my voice, but my throat doesn't hurt or anything, and I don't have a cough, but I can hack up some nasty goo if I want to clear my throat. Last night we had a dinner with some old friends from Mesa High, and although I didn't talk a whole lot, I really enjoyed myself and wish I could have talked more, we were home at around 8:00. We went to bed around11:00, and I couldn't get comfortable for almost an hour and then Grace woke up and Then I fell asleep until three, at which point I tried everything that I could think of to try and clear my lungs so I could feel like I could breath ( my chief complaint) and go back to sleep. I finally put Vick's Vaporub on my neck, and I was comfortable breathing almost immediately and I dozed for a while after that until 5 when my mind woke up the rest of my body and I discovered that there is nothing good on TV for early morning cartoons anymore. Kids these days don't know what they are missing. Remember GI Joe and He-man and Thundercats? I would wake up early every Saturday to watch those cartoons and there wasn't even anything entertaining on today at all.
Well, Gracie woke up about 45 minutes ago, and wants my complete attention so I will finish up with a sleep tally for the last seven days
Saturday night- 7 hours
Sunday night - 4 hours
Monday night- 5 hours
Tuesday night- 6 hours
Wednesday night-5 hours
Thursday night- 5 hours
Friday night- maybe 4 hours
total 38 hours- and I am on vacation!
my normal total=between 49 and 63, so if I seem agitated or irrational, it is not you, it is me. So please be understanding.
-Lance

An end to the beginning

Lance with other 1st quarter buddies sporting "handlebars" for finals week. I don't have the slightest idea where they came up with it (LANCE). Sorry to the other wives who had to put up with it. And I really wish Lance had kept his hat on! :)

Time for the HAPPY DANCE!!! Congrats to Lance who finished his 1st quarter of chiro school, only 12 more to go!! It's been a tough quarter, and these last few weeks were even worse. Lance was doing very little other than eating, and studying (and helping with Gracie in all of the craziness), and maybe fitting in a little sleep. I'm so proud of you!

tons o fog

First of all whoever told it it never snows where we live in Portland LIED! I know it's supposed to rain a lot but JEEZ!! It's been raining since last Friday! With the exception of it SNOWING all day Saturday! Today was weird, a great dense fog. We get a lot of fog from the gorge, but every once in a while it's a doozy! I took these on my way to the gym, probably not the safest thing to do but I was being careful. :)

This is the view (from our bedroom) of the field behind us and a street light and many cars we can't see!

Holiday Gala

Saturday night we got to go on a date!! WAAA HOO!! It seems like the dating days are becoming a thing of the past with our recent school schedule. The school hosted a Holiday Gala (by the way no one could decide of you say it GAH-LUH, or GAY-LUH, but dictionary.com says it's either) and we were lucky enough to find a babysitter (Thanks Tiff!). It was a formal affair, held in a ballroom in downtown Portland, including dinner and dancing. We had a great time with our good buddies here!

Linds and Adam (so sorry I must have deleted the better pic!)

Parker and Carly

Tiana and Ammon

The Youngs and the Johnstons (sniff, sniff, they're both leaving us this month!)

Thank goodness for black (it masked the prego belly that decided to pop the week before!)

**Edit: Thanks to Chad and Tiff for taking care of Gracie and then writing about it on your blog! you can see the posting here. You are too nice!

'Cause it's Ladies Night

Thanks to all the Ladies who attended Girls Night (it was my turn to host)! And for all of our fam who has been begging for pics of our apartment, you can thank Chrystal for appeasing you. I hope everyone enjoyed the scum, ornament exchange, and homemade cinnamon rolls!

Most of the girls (some had to leave early or couldn't make it) Can you believe I had this many people in our tiny apartment??

Back to Business

I have to say, it's good to be back "home". I wasn't sure if Portland felt like home, but when I was greeted by my fabulous hubby AT THE AIRPORT (he was supposed to be in class), AND WITH FLOWERS, I was quickly reminded this is our home. I was very surprised to feel happy at getting back to routine life. I was laughing while I was running at the gym! Thanks to Lance I came home to a sparkling clean home with freshly cleaned toilets (growing up with 3 brothers, I made Lance agree this was his "job" BEFORE I agreed to marry him). I love you, love you, love you! With all of the busyness at home I just ignored how much I missed my Lance! I just wanted you to know how much I love and appreciate you!

Fun Times in AZ

Lance,

Sorry for the delay in all of these pics, but we have been busy!! Love you and see you in 2 days!


Gracie and Emily's fav game: Ring Around the Rosie

Swimming in the HEATED pool. Yes, I cut myself out...HELLO, it's WINTER!

Napping with Papa

Playing with the boys

Welcome Home Uncle Logan!

Anxiously awaiting the arrival...

He's here!

We've had such a fun, family filled week(end)! Logan came home from a mission on Wednesday, which calls for a family gathering (and his friends too). Thursday Gracie and I traveled between 3 different sides of our family to celebrate "Thanks". Then on Sunday, Logan reported to the ward, and again another family gathering. My poor mother! Lots of company and fun, but it was nice when everyone left and it was just our family again. It's so fun to have Logan around again, and just nice to be with ALL of my brothers. I think it's been over 3 years since we were all together and even though I had to endure a bit of teasing, I enjoyed every minute of it.

Annual Girls Day

(most of this is intended for Lance...sorry everyone else)

Each year the Bowler girls get together before Thanksgiving for a lunch and a shopping trip. We shopped at Kierland and had luch at the Cheesecake Factory--YUM! I was so excited to be able to be down for our girls day, I really look forward to it every year. This year was fun because a few of the younger girls joined us (Gracie too!).


Bowler girls in attendance: Libby, Erin, Audi, Me, Gracie, Deb (Mom), Eliza, Aunt Ellen, and Aunt Ann..


Gracie enjoying the extra whipped cream. She used her straw as a spoon.


Libby and Eliza...I love these girls!


Gracie at the end of the shopping day! It was a lot of work!

More to come soon! Love you babe!

Adventures in AZ

Random post of Gracie! We'll be journaling a little bit while Gracie and I are visiting here in AZ and Lance is stuck in the OR. Lance, I wanted this to brighten up your day a little bit. I love our daughter. Remember when she did this, we were laughing and laughing... (she's sitting in the recycle bin)

Love you and miss you!