A Message From Courtney

Thank you Grandparents Mitchell and Tartini for all my cute dress up clothes! All of which I am simultaneously wearing :)

Chinese Fakeout

What you are about to see is a plate of food for which I'd like to extend a special thanks to my favorite, older, red-headed brother, Jordan. Without him, I wouldn't be eating these...

...POTSTICKERS!!! They are an Asian (Jordan learned to make them in Japan, I've seen them in Chinese restaurants, so I'm iffy on the origin) delicacy that are so delicious! There was another plate, but I burned them. That's when I called Jordan and he saved the day. So anyways, thanks for being awesome Jordan.

My mom makes the BEST peanut butter bonbons. I decided to give them a try yesterday, and they turned out great! I wanted to add a little flair by drizzling white chocolate over top, but it wouldn't melt; as it got hotter it just got crumbly. Oh well, my taste buds can't tell the difference :)


Also, this morning, I turned my back for just a second, but it happened to be a second when Courtney decided she was dirty and needed a "bubble bath". So she climbed into the ottoman and lounged in the "bubbles" made by my pom poms :) What a dorkus.

Christmas

In the previous post, I forgot to mention how helpful my mom was to my Thanksgiving success. I must have asked her about a thousand and one questions, and she still answered the phone when she saw my name in the caller ID. If being a homemaker was a toddler pageant, she'd take home Ultimate Grand Supreme :)

Also, we did some Black Friday shopping, lazy style. We went out at about 11 am and didn't buy a single thing. Bass Pro Shops had Santa photos for free (random right? They didn't even dress Santa in camo or fishing gear), so for your enjoyment, our little stinkpot. I swear she was excited and happy the whole time we were waiting in line.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was a success this year. Below you can see my homemade pies. The pecan pie isn't burned; I put chocolate chips in the bottom and some made its way to the top. Also, people always moan about how hard it is to transfer the pie crust into the pie pan; I agree. If you try to move a formed crust into the pan it's rough. I just put the crumbles in the pan, and then smooshed it with my hands to fill the pan. And you know what? It turned out AWESOME!

I found this old video of Courtney as a baby playing around on my keyboard; she's always following in her mother's footsteps :)

In case you're wondering how Devin is doing, he's surviving with much stress. I try to get take care of all the other problems and routines of running a house. He really needs a break from having to deal with any problems or drama. I feel so bad for him; he hasn't even started his actual job yet. He has more on the job training, but before he even starts that he has the equivalent of a college level course to complete. Poor guy. He's made a lot of friends though, and that really helps a lot. Plus he thinks it's pretty cool to work in a job that's top secret and he's not allowed to tell me the details. I consider him my secret agent man :)

Halloween

Our ward Halloween party was fun. They served us a soup dinner, followed by games, and then the trick or treat! Some people really went all out decorating their classroom with life size crows, headstones,spooky looking apothecary bottles full of who knows what. It was pretty awesome. Courtney also had a very successful trick or treat at home. We went to only 8 houses, but we still had to go home in between to drop off her candy because everyone kept giving her so much! Yesterday was my birthday and it was pretty awesome. I felt the baby move for the first time :D Devin got me flowers, rubbed my feet, and made dinner. And by "made dinner" I mean I made him go get me a pizza! Anyway, I hope to have pics of the house up soon.

Virginia is treating us well. We love our ward and our neighborhood, and Devin is enjoying being with his work buddies. I went to the doctor on Wednesday, and she said I'm carrying a mini Tartini man inside me :D We are so excited to know! Now we just have to choose a name (To our male family members, yes, we are accepting bribes). I am on day one of week 19, so we are almost halfway to a new little baby! I wish I had pictures for you, but one of the many things we lost in the move was the USB cord for our cameras :( I will work on getting pictures up though. Love you all!

Graduation

It finally happened! Devin graduated yesterday! This picture shows him receiving his certificate, and you can see his rank, name, hometown, and assignment behind him. Courtney wasn't very cooperative; she insisted on laying in the aisle where the graduates were marching, and she even ran up front, almost on stage!! She was really happy to have Devin home for the evening. We went out with Devin's class to Shogun's Teppanyaki. It is expensive, but sooo tasty! Courtney loved the show the chef put on using the hibachi grill. Every time he lit a big fire, she would push her hair back and yell, "Fire!". Everyone thought she was pretty cute. Then one of Devin's classmates paid for EVERYBODY! It was a blessing for us especially, because our fun money is low. Devin started DGS training, which is training done here, but it's specific for Langley AFB. Less then three weeks now! The video below has/needs no explanation; enjoy!

The third picture, where Courtney is holding the vacuum tube, has been posted before, but that tube plays an important role in today's story. On Wednesday, I got a really bad headache, and the poor fetus had to entertain herself while I was laying (lying?) on the couch with a wet washcloth on my forehead. She did pretty well for a while, but I guess she can only take so much. She comes up to me, says, "Mommy", so I opened my eyes and took off the washcloth. WHACK! She slammed that tube down on the pillow right next to my head! Luckily, I was too weak to punish her, plus she didn't hurt me; she just scared the poo out of me. Here's a cute video from a couple of weeks ago. I was watching Wipeout, and I turned around and noticed Courtney was diapering her Baby Bear.

And here's Courtney putting on a show at Best Buy!

My Sleeping BeautyShe likes to stick her foot in a glass and call it her pirate boot, it's really more of a peg leg
Dora and Diego wear headlamps on their adventures, so Courtney does too:)
And this is how she dances sometimes

This pregnancy is definitely kicking me around. I feel nauseous all day, but never to the point of throwing up. It really kind of sucks, so if you want to see three or more Maran/Devin babies, you will pray like you've never prayed before for this pregnancy to lighten up :) Life is going well otherwise. We are anxious to leave and get to Virginia. We have a house for rent that we've set our hearts on, and we can only hope and pray it remains unrented like it has been for the past month or so. This week our ward had a relief society meeting about healthy eating, One lady talked specifically about healthy snacks for kids, and one was so cute; I just had to share it! Dye cream cheese blue, dip in a small stalk of celery, and use it to "reel in" a goldfish cracker! I can hardly wait to have Courtney try it out!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my Dad's birthday! I'm sure I'm missing out on a crazy rave back in Spokane ;) To celebrate, I want to share a story about Dad that he would never tell about himself. When I was in 7th grade, ward boundaries were realigned, and in this new ward was a guy named Jason Sevy who was a Sunday School teacher. Years before we were in the same ward, he worked with Dad at Telect. Well, they both worked at Telect, but they didn't work in the same department or know each other. But Bro. Sevy told me that he could tell, just from seeing Dad, that he was Mormon because of the Spirit that he felt. I think that's the coolest thing about Dad, his testimony. In fact, a friend ofours, Sis. Tucker, keeps telling us he's going to be prophet some day! I wouldn't be surprised Sis Tucker. Happy Birthday to the best Dad I could ever ask for!

Last Thursday, I started getting the most awful chest pains throughout the day. They would come while I was laying down and either linger for 15 or 20 minutes, or if I stood up they would leave immediately. Although I thought I was dying, I suffered through them until deciding to go to the ER this past Tuesday. The doctor didn't find anything wrong with my heart or lungs, so she thought something must be going on with my liver or gall bladder. I miss the part where either of those causes chest pains, but it led Devin and me to think her a quack. She did have some good news...we're having a BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Due 30 March 2012. Yay for a baby! Also, when Devin found out I was pregnant, he was able to diagnose me with heartburn. I've never had it before this, and I hope to never have it again. But at least I could figure out what the pain was, and now we know we're having a baby!

Those things on her arms are toe socks! So ingenious. Here, she fell asleep in this bridge position!

We now have less than two months left of tech school! We are so excited to be getting out of here and going to Virginia. Along the way we will stop in Utah to see Becky and meet up with mom and dad. We are really excited because we plan on attending an endowment session in the Salt Lake City temple!!!! It's really going to be a once in a lifetime experience for us. Who knows when we'll ever get back? So we are excited about that, and about going back to Saint Anthony to see our house and pack up our belongings. We fully intend to visit our absolute favorite restaurant, New Fong's! They have the best food and they're cheap! So Courtney loves wearing anything and everything as a hat, including underwear if I don't keep an eye on here. She used to call all hats cowboy hats, but now she calls them "yeehaw" hats, because that's what a cowboy says while wearing a cowboy hat. Also, she is pretty much potty trained, and she loves using her potty. She also loves to change underwear every time she goes. One day, I was crouching down next to her to keep her company, and when she was done she ran into her room to get her underwear. It took her a while, so I called to her to come back, and she ran in with every pair of underwear she could find and she threw them in my face yelling, "Here you go!" It was too funny to be upset for even a second. This is a hole in the wall at the library which Courtney loves, and she looks pretty cute in there.

Another great weekend with Devin has come and gone too quickly. We went swimming, we went to the gym, we went grocery shopping, we watched movies; we did all the fun stuff we wanted to do. We also reviewed our budget with a fine tooth comb once again, and confirmed that somehow we are going to be ok. Seriously, we know miracles are Heavenly Father's specialty, but it's still unbelievable. YAY :D

Like I mentioned earlier, we went to the gym on base, and Courtney and I found this...

When we first saw it, it was just sitting in the middle of the floor, not moving at all, while people were walking by!

I also found out lds.org has a sweet new feature. When you sign in to your lds.org account, you can read conference articles and magazines and highlight it and take notes! Then you can add tags and file it into different folders, and it will be saved in your account!

And of course, how could I forget your dose of Courtney? This is chunky peanut butter, but it looks pretty gross.

Courtney

In the first picture, I caught her brushing her teeth in the boat, kind of weird. In the second picture, she's holding a shoe while she sleeps. 'Nuff said. In this last one, she keeps putting this tub on her head and calling it her cowboy hat!

I realize how negative yesterday's entry is; that's just the way the cookie crumbles I guess. I thought today I would do a fun, entertaining post to balance it out. Courtney has learned a new song in nursery, POPCORN POPPING! She won't perform it when I am taping her though; she's kind of a goober that way. Devin thinks I've lost my marbles because I tell him about all the cute things she does, but she won't do them when he's home. At least she chose me to be her lucky spectator :) She is potty training, but she still isn't quite at the point she was in Spokane. Yesterday though, she went to the bathroom all by herself without telling me! That made me proud. She only peed herself once yesterday too; I can definitely see the end is in sight. Today we went to Walmart and the post office without any accidents either. Although, she went to the bathroom today, and I left to text my mom, and she decided to try and empty her little potty into the toilet, but instead spilled on the floor and her shirt. I hope you enjoy the videos! Also, I do not condone immodesty, just laziness when pee is involved.

Life Kinda Sucks

Our renters have run out on us. They didn't pay; they didn't even leave the keys! Who does that? I am just grateful that somehow, someway, we were always able to save a little bit of money every month. We are grateful for a great family, the Hinckleys, in the ward that is anxious to move in next month, and they've been monitoring the house from the outside and through the windows, and they said that looking through the uncovered, back windows, it doesn't look like the tenants did any damage, thank goodness! I have a house key, so we will mail it, and hopefully the Hinckleys will find everything in the rest of the house and the garage in order. I still feel in the angry, reactive stage, but we feel blessed to have a savings account to cover us until the Hinckleys move in. Also, the bank decreased our mortgage payment $30 starting this month, so that is going to help out. We were so shocked; we've made it so easy for those guys to live there this past year! But everything happens for a reason, and we have seen blessings in this trial. We won't really feel this financially, the house is in the same condition we left it to them, and now we have a trusty family in there. Is this beginning to ramble? This whole situation has just jumbled my mind, so I guess I better stop writing about this and move on to cute Courtney stories.

She has a cute, but pathetic dance she loves. She hangs her head, leaves her arms at her side, stands with her feet a little wider than hip width apart, and just sways side to side. Last night, Devin and I were watching 30 Rock while Courtney was playing in her room. Every time we'd watch the next episode and the theme song would come on, she would run out, stop short, and do that pathetic dance!

We went swimming Saturday, and as always, Devin was splashing and torturing my poor Fetus. He wanted to swim with her, so he picked her up. She wagged her finger at him and said, "Be nice Daddy!"

On an episode of Diego that she watched a couple weeks ago, his sister comforts an animal by petting it and singin "Calma" (that may or not be spelled right; I didn't care enough to check). I saw Courtney today carrying a puzzle piece with Dora's face on it, petting it, singing, "Calma."

So as you can see, our like kinda sucks, but it's really a bright, happy life, with ugly, teeny tiny pock marks. Yay for blessings like the Fetus!

Right at the beginning of this video, you can see her dance.

Andrea Forsyth Bodine has a blog with pictures or baby! To see little Callie, go to www.garrettandandrea.blogspot.com. She posted some pics and a cute video of her! Courtney is in the midst of potty training again. It's been hit and miss; mostly miss, but it's only been three days, and she is definitely improving. Thank goodness. That's all for this post!

San Angelo Wildlife

Texas is full of interesting wildlife, so I thought I would share it with you, in all its disgusting glory. Trust me, your skin will be crawling. First, the cutest of wildlife, armadillos :)

This nasty bug has an equally nasty name, Tarantula Hawk! I haven't seen one, but a girl in my ward saw several of these in her parents yard! And of course, what do you think a Tarantula Hawk eats......
...Tarantulas of course! Here they are duking it out!
And lastly, scorpions. Devin has found more than one IN his classroom. Yuck. If you live somewhere that is not here, count your blessings!

Sleeping Beauty

This can't possibly be comfortable, but she's been in this position for a while now! Also, I found this flowerpot on my patio, and I thought it was too awesome of a find not to share with you all :)

Courtney-isms

-Courtney was watching Wordworld on the laptop today, and the desk chair spun her around backwards and she started whining, "Be nice chair!"

-When she doesn't want me in the same room as her (I thought that didn't happen for 14 more years) she'll point at the door and say, "Go free!"

-During Sacrament, Devin was blessing the water, and Courtney ran up the aisle loudly saying, "I'm coming Daddy!"

Thrifty Tartinis

I have found the best thing since sliced, thrift bakery bread. The Economides Family! (Great name right?) Reading this book has gotten me all fired up for saving money. They talk about how to get out of debt, and they have a bunch of money saving ideas. It's like Dave Ramsey and Amy Dacyczyn had a baby, and they baby was an entire frugal family! I just started reading it on Saturday, and it saved me $50 so far! One of the topics it covers is auto insurance, and they say to get rid of medical expense insurance if you have your own, good health insurance. Turns out our policy DID include that from our BYU-I insurance days, so we were able to take it off, for $50 a year; I love saving money :) Another idea for saving on food that I like; when bagged produce is cheaper than "bag it yourself" produce, weigh a bunch of bags. They sell them by a certain poundage, but not every bag is exactly 3, 5 or whatever lbs. Some weigh a little more, and some a little less. Anyway, there's my spiel for the day; it was just too good not to share!

And of course, your dose of Courtney

Happy Father's Day!

First off, sorry everyone that is not family, but it doesn't matter what you've heard about other dads; Douglas Mitchell is THE BEST dad. Ever. Thanks for taking us camping, and building us a fort and playhouse, and taking us sledding every winter, and providing for us, and being a strong priesthood holder, and especially thanks for letting Becky and me do up your hair, girly style :) I love you!

And thanks to Devin for providing for our little family, and bringing entertainment, fun, and happiness to the family. Courtney and I wouldn't know what to do without you; Courtney wouldn't even be here!

I think dads are under appreciated. In every ward I've ever been in, mother's day always means nice candy, one ward even hand makes chocolates for the moms! And then on father's day, the women pool together the gum and tic tacs out of their purses and give those to the men. Ok, that may be an exaggeration, but at the same time, kind of not. And mother's day is more commercial than father's day; commercialism is America's way of rating the importance of an event. So I hope if you're a dad, your family made this day special for you!

Happy 31st Anniversary Mom and Dad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wave your hands in the air like you just don't care!

Videos/Pictures

Here are some more pictures from our road trip back in March. Courtney's swimsuit isn't this pink anymore; spending every day in the pool has really faded it :(

I don't know what happened, I guess I lost the sound on these? But I think they're still pretty cute, and if you're in Spokane, I'm sure Jordan will entertain you with his own ad libbing of what's going on :)Sorry that I haven't blogged much, I have a lot to say, but I also have a pool outside that beckons to me every day. So I will try and catch you all up on us Tartinis

Prayers Please

As you know, Devin is going to school on the night shift, but I do not like it one bit. He is in the process of getting switched to the day shift so that I can see him more, but it's not as easy as we thought. We welcome all your prayers for this, and thank you in advance. Also,I know I haven't been posting much, so here's a picture of Courtney from Saturday. She is sooooooooo stylin'

Makes me wonder

why do I keep Courtney around?

The heat is getting to us!

Basic Military Training (BMT) Graduation

Devin did so great at BMT. In the newspaper, right above the word "Gateway" is Devin's name, although it is rather small. He was in the top 10% of all 738 BMT graduates! They are divided into flights, and each flight of about 50 or so occupies one dorm area. Then they have a brother flight that they don't share a dorm with, but they do trainings together. Devin was #1 in his flight AND in his brother flight :) But my poor baby caught a flu bug that had been making its way around the dorms, so he was really struggling with marching and standing at attention for the 40 minute ceremonies on Thursday and Friday. But he made it, and I am happy to report that he is feeling at 100% today! Even though he was sick, we trekked all over Lackland so he could get his picture with a modern plane. Thank goodness we found the F-16 above, because we's been walking for a looooooooong time! He had his first day of tech school today, and he said it still has a lotof rules, but it's more chill than BMT. Some guys were singing Ke$ha songs, and someone else got into Devin's room and hid his and his roommate's stuff. But at least tech school is relaxed enough to allow for that, and not result in 1 million or so push ups.

Road Trip Pictures!!!!!!!

This Is my visiting teacher who gave courtney and I road trip survival kits, thanks carly!