Much Ado about the Quinns

This was what you saw from outside our house until Tuesday. The wind came and took most of the leaves off, and scattered them everywhere. Our house has a little tree, and doesn't produce many leaves, so the leaves on the front lawn are from these trees that are across the street. Currently Stephen and I are looking for another place to live. We have quite a few reasons on our list as to why, but the one I'll talk about for now is we are losing sleep. Our landlady has new roommates, and they are completely nocturnal. I believe one of them has a graveyard shift job. The floor announces every movement they make, it's just a noisy floor, and it's not their fault, they are not trying to be loud. Franklin woke up twice last night, so that was the final straw for me. I'm already losing sleep without those added problems. We've made a few inquiries at a few homes and we'll know next week for sure if we are going to move into one of them, if any of them.

"sed - ah. . . dirty word! He said-a-dirty word" ~Igor, Young Frankenstien. Franklin has a new sound he likes to make. He doesn't say very many words, pretty much just the basic, dadda, mom mom, and anything else he feels like imitating whether its from us, or the cats. This new sound wasn't made by us, at least what word it sounds like. Franklin has a little potty mouth, using the S H sound together which sometimes sounds a lot like a certain swear word that I won't repeat. We were in line to register to vote (shame on us waiting till the last second but at least we did it). It was a long line, in a very crowded hallway. It went quickly, but he started to make his little sh sound, and was proud of it. I'll just have to work with him and see if I can convince him to say share instead.



Not last Sunday, but the Sunday before, when Stephen was on-call, I had to teach our Primary class alone, and with Franklin. It was nearly disastrous, and I sure was glad to go home afterward. Last Sunday, even with Stephen able to come to church I was detirmined not to let it get anywhere that insane again. I brought ziploc bags, and oreos. I put an equal ammount of cookies for each student, and warned them that if I had to call their name to be reverent then I would remove a cookie. I only had to remove one cookie from one bag, and after that they were great. I was hoping I was going to have more tell today, but I guess it'll have to wait till later. Stephen and I have decided what we'll all be for halloween, but we won't tell till we have the pictures to tell it. On Friday we'll be heading down to Saint George to see Grandma Quinn, and we are really looking forward to that.

That's Franklin's World, not Elmo's

While Franklin is sleeping, there are a great number of things I can accomplish. Now that he takes just one nap a day it isn't possible for me to complete them all. I was beginning my yoga when Stephen surprised me with a quick stop, and so I decided to have lunch with him (which means I have to wait a little while after I eat to do my workout). I began reading up on some blogs when I realized that I could clean instead, or write my blog for the week since I'm already late in doing so. I always feel guilty when I write my blog when Franklin is awake.

Franklin LOVES Sesame Street, and Play with me Sesame. I can accomplish a few things while he watches this show. I'm glad that its clean, educational, and full of short clips to keep his attention. He won't do anything else when his show is on. I'm trying to make him sit on his couch when he watches it so that he won't get so close to the TV.

So last week Stephen was on call. What a week!! It got colder very quickly, and on Saturday night, and Sunday morning we had a little snow. It didn't stick on the ground here in Springville. Stephen worked till 7 or 8:30 every night last week. On Saturday they had another technician working as well, and Stephen still worked a 13 hour day. On Sunday he worked a 10 hour day. Now that he's not the on-call tech for this week, it still isn't much different. He predicts he'll work this weekend again. But hey, it's good money, right?

Franklin is teething again. I feel like it'll never end (I know it won't for a long time, but he's just cutting a sixth tooth). He's also taken steps completely on his own a few times, his own choice, we didn't have to trick him. I'll be glad when he's actually walking across the room on his own. He continues to talk about everything, we just haven't learned his language yet.

He loves stairs, so every time we go out I open the door and let him crawl up. When we return I put him at the top of the steps and let him go down himself. He loves it! It helps me too, especially when there are things to bring inside. Last Saturday I let him crawl down the steps so I could get the groceries. I passed him twice on one of my trips down, and back up. On my second trip down he cried, only for a moment, and I saw a little bit of blood on his nose. He scratched his face on our door mat. Most of the scratches didn't show up for a few more minutes. He's a tough kid, he didn't cry much at all.

Last night I proclaimed Rizzo as the "Nocturnal Freak of Nature". We got a reminder why we don't allow the cats to sleep with us at night. Rizzo's 'on' switch malfunctions at night, and he becomes insane! Lately he's been over zealous with Osgood, so there's been a lot of hissing. Franklin thinks it's funny. I'm just relieved that they don't have their front claws. If I never had to be afraid of them getting outside sometime in the future (for some reason I picture Franklin, or other siblings letting them out) then I would remove their back claws too.

Franklin gets into everything. He is very smart, and figures things out more quickly. Notice my shoe. Imagine him walking with it just the way he's wearing it. When he was done playing with it he put it in his booster chair for him to come back and play with again a few minutes later.

I've also noticed that Franklin looks blonde in his pictures. His hair is deceiving because it still doesn't have a color. Its not blond, not brown, and most definitely isn't red. He's just too bald to tell. I feel sorry for any of his sisters if they remain as bald as he. I was bald, but at least my fuzz was orange.


(by the way, that's me. Franklin definitely looks like me, doesn't he!)

"This is the way we (fill in the blank)"

This is when Franklin decided to help me wash his bottles. He drinks just milk now, but we don't have enough cups for him to use instead of the bottles, other wise they would already be retired for now. I'm so sick of cleaning his bottles. If you scroll down to the bottom with the videos, you'll see a video of him "helping", feel free to sing "This is the way we wash the bottles. . ."


During Sunday morning conference Franklin was really getting cranky and crabby, but it wasn't time for his nap even though Stephen believed that he needed to go to bed. So I came up with a great idea! I turned on the radio to conference, and had the tv playing his show, on low volume, and we were all happy. This picture happened because Stephen was trying to get Franklin to cheer up, and once I turned on his show, he froze right there to watch. You may now add the verse "This is the way we watch Conference . . ."

The first video loaded below is Stephen making Franklin laugh like crazy. It's a little long so when you've watched enough move to the next video which is the one of Franklin helping me with the dishes.

Franklin now has a really good idea that Stephen is Daddy/dadda. He'll ask at random times of the day for him. He is also really a chatter box. I was at the checkout in Sam's on Monday and the woman said "He's a chatter box and when he starts saying words he'll be unstoppable." We're still working on the words, but it's ok, he's only 14 months old. I weighed him yesterday on our scale: 26.4 lbs. He is too stinkin' heavy sometimes. On our walk yesterday it had to cut short because he decided to throw a fit, and when I tried to hold him it only slowed us down, and he complained anyway, so back in the stroller he went.

I'm so happy for myself in some new talents I'm discovering, as well as some old ones brought back to life. For the murder party the other week I sewed my own dress, and I have to point out that it was done without a pattern, and it was made in the likeness of a 1920's style dress. Mom I'll get a pic of it later. My new talent I cannot write about now because it's actually a gift for someone, and there are some of you who do know about it. I will say that it's awesome, and a few months from now I'll post a picture of it so that you all may see.

Rizzo is hilarious!! If you haven't had the experience of meeting him yet, you are really missing out. Even if they did create ritalin for cats I don't think I'd give it to him because I love his crazy/unusual behavior. He does get into to trouble still, but a lot less. I wonder if Fatty has taught him how to listen. Rizzo and Osgood both LOVE to play in the tub. Rizzo actually fell in on one of my showers last week. His tail got a little wet, but that's it. They love to lick up any water that's sitting in there. I almost wished they could go outside because they would be so much fun to watch.

Franklin's turn

Franklin has his own language and little interactions that are comical and cute. His version of "Uh-oh" is more like a child immitating a monkey, very short and abrupt. I'll have to record him some time. His laugh is hystarical that you can't help but laugh as well. I love tickle fests and so does he.

He is even more interested in his tongue than he has ever been; licking all sorts of things. Of course I keep it in moderation, but I also know the day will come when he'll lick, or eat something that no human should, and I won't know about it as it happens. I figure I might as well get a laugh out of it before it turns gross. He licks our desk a lot, I'm not sure why. When he gives me a kiss it usually turns into a licking, so I make double sure that my lips are tight, afterall I'm not sure what's been in his mouth sometimes.

He's also addicted to things that he probably shouldn't have yet, but he's safe, and it doesn't hurt him; popcorn (as I have mentioned before) and soda. I love the burps he gets. There is always one down side to the soda; he loves it way too much, and will throw a fit if you take it away from him before he's done. Obviously I know that it's not exactly good for him so I don't let him have much. His protests don't last very long anyway.

He's very curious, smart and helpful. His curiousity has brought him to crawl and climb on all sorts of things. We have learned that his little couch cannot be next to the coffee table anymore. He LOVES being on that table, and has fallen off of it twice, hence the end of allowing any sort of climbing aide near it. You can watch him figure things out carefully. I have a basket that he loves to play with, putting things in it, taking them out, and even putting the lid on right. He likes to help put things "away" more like put them in places. Of course his helping turns into another sort of mess.

He pushed the step stool over to me while I was at the sink (he uses it like a walker) and climbed up. So I pulled him up closer, and he helped me "clean" the bottles. He kept throwing them from sink to sink, and sometimes on the floor. I'm glad that he's watching me enough to know that what I do sometimes has a purpose. I did record him helping me, but our camera battery is currently dead, so hopefully I'll have that video next week, remember to scroll to the bottom to see our videos.

He's been standing all alone more and more often lately. He's even taken a few steps unassisted, and without his invincable boots. I just hope that he keeps trying so that he'll be eager to walk on Halloween. Sometimes on walks I stop and let him take some steps, but only on my lesurely walks, because he'll get frustrated sometimes and I have to put him back in his stroller. I love going on walks up here. It's still a little too warm for my liking, but the mountains are red, orage and yellow. The trees across the street from us have turned, and have fallen leaves. I'll have to share the pictures that we take this weekend: we are planning on going into Hobble Creek Canyon and getting some family pictures.

Just us adults

This last Friday Stephen and I had some friends over for a "How to Host a Murder" party. Whitney helped me prepare a lot for it, which was a huge help since I usually have no one helping, and I typically have 2 weeks to prepare. I had less than a week, and at the last second I was one couple short. I'm so grateful for Kyle Lauritzen coming to my rescue and was the guy. I ended up becoming two characters which ended up being harder than it already sounds because the two women characters had beef about the other, so obviously I knew stuff that I shouldn't but also ended up not sharing with the rest of the group because how does one accuse one-self; I was already looking crazy. That's why I announced at the beginning that I was going to schizophrenic.

It ended up being a blast, and lasting very late! I started it late because I wanted Franklin to be asleep before we began but he must have caught on that something was up because he refused to go to sleep till after 9:00. It was crazy trying to get someone to fill in last minute, but Kyle was great, and it was great to see him again. I don't think we've seen each other since EAC graduation 2005.

So explain my title I came to a realization that all I ever post about is Franklin. Just the other day my VT was over and as we got into deep discussion (I completely admire her, BTW) I remembered something I promised myself before Franklin was born. Stephen and I went through so much heartache and hurt before Franklin came that I was determined to always remember that no matter who you are, what you do, say, or look like, there will be something about you (say, do, etc) that may hurt someones feelings. 98% of the things we end up hurting someone about we will never know, and therefore you must realize, especially if you've been hurt, that it is ENTIRELY unintentional.

In that time we couldn't conceive the littlest things would hurt me deeply, and when a person hurts, that person starts seeing it EVERYWHERE which makes it worse. Franklin has been a miracle more than any of you will ever know, or understand. Most of the pain went away, only because I promised that I would always remember what it was like, and do my best to be there for others through their pain. Just as an individual has a trial in their life to learn a lesson, they should do well to never forget that trial so that their lesson will always be remembered, and they may be able to help another for that very reason.

I've learned something important this past year that we have lived here (that's right, on October 6th it will be exactly a year since we moved here). People talk about what it most important in life, and the answers vary greatly. But there is one important thing that every being must have, and it does not matter what nationality, religion, political standing, age, gender, or any other differences you may have, and that one thing is a friend. The friendships that we make in life, and most importantly the friendships that we keep throughout all trials, will always make us feel loved, important and needed.

I know, some of you may say family, but think about it: true, you can't choose your family, but you can choose your friends. Yes, you'll always have family a letter, email, or phone call away no matter where you go, but friends aren't always as easy to keep or stay in close contact with. But the greatest thing to remember that if you're friends with your family then that's a treasure in itself. Stephen and I were first best friends, and as long as we always have that then nothing can take us apart.

I have a best friend, Janiel, and though we are both extremely sad to be so far apart, we continue to remain best friends. Some of my best friends I consider family, and thank goodness my sisters are also my best friends. I am also grateful that we have been able to make friends here in our very own neighborhood. Yes, I love Franklin, and he means so much to me, and yes, he is my life, but I have not forgotten the pain and heartache we went through before he came. I am grateful that I was able to keep such great friends during that time, though I will always regret that wasn't as a great a friend in return. Now I know that Franklin does steal the show, so I will write a separate blog to talk about what he's been up to.