Last Week

Here's a few things I forgot to tell you/show you:

- We are spending the Holidays as a separated military family...I know, feel bad for us. Long story made short, it was looking like Cameron would not be home for Christmas. He didn't want Malone and I to sit by ourselves at home on Christmas and due to recent events in my family, we decided it would be best if I go to Alabama (to my parents') for Christmas. When all is said and done we will not have seen one another for about a month. Boo!

- We went to have a sushi lunch for Cameron's birthday. He was in sushi heaven. Then he saw it. Tempura fried Oreos. Many of you might not know, but Cameron has an unnatural love for Oreos. And this just threw him over the edge. I could only eat about one before I felt sick, but he loved them.

- Malone's hair is getting way long. And she is no longer a fan of the bows. My heart is a little sad.- Malone has gotten so smart!!!! We were Skyping (video chatting) with my sister, Lydia and Malone went crazy. Not only did she take 8 steps trying to get to Lydia on the computer, but she was really trying to find Lydia. She couldn't understand how she could see Lyddie on the computer, but when she looked behind the computer screen she was gone. How funny?!


- Cameron and I went to his squad's Christmas party on Saturday. It was so fun to get dressed up, and get out of the house. Our good friends Marc and Beth were very kind and watched Malolo. Here we are all dressed up. Sorry for the bad photo. Our camera was having issues. We look pretty smokin' though, right?- Malone looks so cute in her little winter, puffy vest. Plus, here she's standing.- I love Malone.
Tomorrow, I'll update you on our first meeting with Santa. Apparently, he comes early to military bases.

Drowned Rat

Yesterday did not start off as the best day. I had a doctor's appointment to go to in the morning. I managed to take a shower, straighten my hair (I mention this because it takes time and it may seem trivial, but important to the story later on), got dressed, fed Malone breakfast, got her cleaned up and dressed, and out the door we went. One little thing I should mention. Surprise, surprise! It was raining and pretty cold.

We arrived at the clinic and I was starting to execute my detailed plan to get myself, Malone, the stroller, and all our stuff out of the car and into the building with as little rain damage as possible. All was going well until.... I accidentally locked Malone in the car......and the award for Mother of The Year goes to......Me!!!! I kinda freaked out a little, tapping on random people's windows in the parking lot (in the pouring rain) asking to use their cell phones. Luckily, I had popped the trunk to get the stroller out and some nice Air Force gentleman crawled into my trunk, somehow got part of my backseat open and reached to unlock my door. Malone was relatively unscathed, all nice and warm in the car. I, on the other hand, was not so lucky. By the time I made it into the clinic, I had been standing in the FREEZING RAIN for 15-20 minutes. I was soaked from top to bottom (and my nicely straightened hair was no longer so straight), including my new wool/polyester coat that apparently smells like poop when it gets wet. Note to self!

I looked and smelled like a drowned rat walking in the clinic. I received a wide range of stares, stares of pity, stares of confusion, stares of judgment...I got them all! Anyways, after a quick doctor visit, we waited 45 minutes to get my medicine. Lets just say, by the time we got back in the car Malone was ready for a nap. So much action really took it out of her. Here she is when we got home.
Here was my hair a couple hours after we got home. By then, I looked significantly better and was significantly warmer.

Thank you very much for my Mother of The Year award. I will dust it occasionally and try not to lock it in the car.

She's the best

And she stands

We have a "Look, mom, no hands" standing baby!! Yay!

And she can even walk with her little walker. Our friends, Stephanie and Andrew lent us this great little walker for her to try out. She loves it!

Thanksgiving weekend

Wow, what a couple of weeks. Thanksgiving was great! So much to be grateful for, but I will write about that later. Here's the wrap-up:

- I woke up early on Thursday morning, got Malone ready, tried to eat a healthy breakfast (what do you eat for a death race?) and put on my running shoes. As we drove through Tacoma, going up hills...high hills, my stomach sank. I kept on telling people beforehand that I will be lucky if I finished, but really didn't believe I was that bad of a runner. UNTIL, we started going up the hills. I got nervous. I met my amazing friend, Melanie and we picked up our numbers. Number 771. That was my number. Here's Melanie and I getting ready.

We stood in line in the freezing cold (yeah, 38 degrees is awesome for my asthma and arthritis building up in my decrepit knee, should I keep the excuses coming?). We were still chatting away when I thought we were getting shot at...No, it was just the start gun. I'm not going to lie, I had flashes of Compton and drive-by shootings going through my mind and my racing heart. We started running. Look how excited I am? Its nervous energy. Oh and this was right before someone bumped into me, knocked my iPod off of my arm, someone else stepped on it and I ran to its safety, only to just about cause the largest human running accident in history. No worries, the iPod is fine.

I finished. No tears. No drama. I just finished. As I was running up the last hill (did I mention the hills were a little more than I bargained for?), I saw the three mile marker. Oh sweet relief!! The last little bit was downhill and I was able to run the fastest across the finish line...except for the lady dragging herself across the finish line right in front of me, walking. How did she finish ahead of me? Here's the crowd on the hill coming toward the finish line.
Here I am running the last few feet. I don't look very victorious. I look like I'm saying, "hey, babe" or "hi mom".

Malone fell asleep while Cameron was waiting for me to finish. Oh yes, and my finishing time was 34.40 minutes. Nothing spectacular. I guess I can only get better from here, right?

We spent the rest of Thursday just relaxing. We celebrated Thanksgiving on Friday when our friends

James and Sara Martin arrived from Colorado. We had such a wonderful weekend with them. Malone, of course, fell in love with Sara and when she had to say goodbye to Sara, I just about cried.

Here's a few highlights of the weekend.

Best day of her life

Malone had the best day of her life yesterday. I think even she believed it. First, she slept in until 7:30am...in her crib. I know this doesn't seem like much to a lot of people, but it was a little piece of heaven for Cameron and I. Cameron woke me up at 7:30am and said, "Malone is still asleep. Should I go check on her? Is she still alive?" Right then she woke up. Then we went to church (she looked soooo cute!) and took her to the nursery for the first time. She stayed the whole time. They didn't even have to come and call us. Awesome! Then, she took an hour long nap IN HER CRIB. Unbelievable! Next, we hung out with our friends Marc and Beth and Malone was getting so cozy with them I thought she was a bit confused as to who her parents were. And throughout the whole day she was nothing but smiles and giggles. How appropriate that Thanksgiving is this week, because my heart was overflowing with it.

On with the update:

- It was my birthday last week! Happy Birthday to me. Thank you to everyone for the emails, phone calls, cards, presents and love sent my way.

- Cameron had to leave on a last minute mission for my birthday. I know...feel pity for me.

- Because my best friend, Sarabeth is the best in the world, she flew out here from Colorado to spend my birthday with me. It was such a good time. I would have been a sad little girl had she not been here on my birthday, but instead I was so grateful to have a friend like her. We went shopping, stayed in our pajamas until noon and ate the best roast chicken for my birthday dinner...that I made myself. Here's a picture of my roasted chicken and the finished product. Sooooo good.
Here's us girls in Seattle. Malone thinks we're crazy.

- I bought the most amazing coat from Anthropologie (ON SALE!!!) with my birthday money from Cameron. Then I combined a few other gifts and bought a new bread machine. I love it. I've made bread, pizza dough and tomorrow will be cinnamon rolls.
- We finally got blinds in our house today. Now, I feel like our house really does belong to adults. It looks amazing.

- Malone is a cheese eating fool.

- I'm running my first race on Thursday morning. Yes, I know its Thanksgiving but I am preparing so that I am able to enjoy my Thanksgiving feast without guilt. My friend Melanie invited me to run in the Tacoma Thanksgiving Trot. Its a 5K...aka 3 miles...not very impressive but exciting (and a feat) for me nonetheless. My dad was so cute when he said how proud he was of me and when I said, "Its only 3 miles, dad, nothing to be impressed over", he replied, "well, it is impressive. You will be the first on either sides of our family to ever run in a 5K race." Awww, thanks dad. You are great!

- Our dear friends, James and Sara Martin are coming on Thursday night to spend the weekend with us. It has now become a Martin/Schaefer tradition (they came last year to Enid). However, we will celebrate Thanksgiving on Friday because they will arrive late on Thurs. night.

Hope you enjoy your holiday. Eat turkey, take a nap and be thankful!

Likes and Dislikes

I dislike BBQ sauce

I dislike pride in being stupid

I dislike how the Internet can trap my time

I dislike the color blue

I dislike colds for me or Malone

I dislike bitter vegetables (anyone ever have Belgian Endive?)

I dislike feeling insecure

I dislike Butterfingers

I dislike not having enough time


I like oranges

I like the tenderness of God

I like when Malone laughs so hard that she looks at me like "Why are you making me laugh so hard"

I like the way I look in black

I like when Cameron walks in the door and says, "HEEEYYYY"

I like baking, it relieves stress

I like the discipline of the Lord, it makes me feel secure

I like reading a good book that makes me feel smart

I like when Cameron is home

I like when Malone tries to entertain me and make me laugh

I like family

I like photo shoots with Malone (look at those teeth)