The Wilhelmsen Botanical Blog

For any of you who are still curious about who you are going to vote for please check out the following web sites for these presidential candidates opinions on the “hot issues” and any other information you may be curious about.  It is important to be well informed before going to vote.  (You will notice the I purposefully left the party names off my lists because I believe it is unimportant what party a candidate is affiliated with.)  Enjoy! (If all else fails write in the person you think would make the best president.)

Barr/Root: http://www.bobbarr2008.com/issues/

Obama/Biden: http://www.barackobama.com/issues/

McCain/Palin: http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/

Nadar/Gonzalez: http://www.votenader.org/issues/

Baldwin/Castle: http://www.baldwin08.com/IssuesList.cfm

McKinney/Clemente: Website is not working.

Well, Happy Halloween to everyone this upcoming Friday.  I hope that you all have something fun planned.  As for Brandon, Aiden, and I we will probably just hang out here at my dad’s and then drop in at my grandma’s so that she can see Aiden in his costume.  Despite the fact that Halloween is one of my more favorite holidays it always seems to go by the wayside because I am too busy working on Christmas gifts.  We also neglect to plan ahead (which is essential when you want to sew your costume) and end up throwing things together last minute.  This year Brandon and Aiden are going to be ninjas and I will be wearing Brandon’s Tae Kwon-Do dobok and white belt…So we are going to be a family of highly trained and skilled martial artists…That is, if we have anywhere to wear our costume.  I am not getting all dressed up just to sit around here at my dad’s.  Every year after another halloween has passed uneventfully I vow to do better the next year and then when the next year rolls around Halloween sneaks up on me again.  Maybe next year I will do better…

On the topic of holidays, I am a little unsure on when to start our Wilhelmsen family traditions.  I figured we would this year because we have a child but we haven’t really done anything different or tradition worthy (other then participating in the existing Ferguson family traditions) so when do I start the traditions of our little family?  Maybe in January when another new year starts and we can look at all our options as each holiday comes along.  Family traditions are so important to me because it gives kids something to look forward to and count on year after year.  It was the family traditions that I participated in growing up that helped me to get through the hardships that I had growing up.  I attribute most of the good that is a part of who I am to the closeness that came from those traditions and without which I would have had no roots to ground me.  Anyway, any ideas on how to start my own family traditions? 

So, enough about that.  This week seems to have zoomed by.  I scrapbooked a few pages this week and worked on Christmas gifts for my in-laws.  My dad and I got some groceries, I burnt corn trying to prepare it to become baby food, and of course I attended to Aiden’s many needs. 

Wednesday I went and spent time at my grandma’s.  She had a few things that she wanted help with but we ended up just mostly visiting with one another and then while she napped I looked through some of her scrapbooks.  I especially enjoyed the ones with pictures from her childhood and another with pictures of her children’s youth.  It was nice not to be stuck at home all day and grandma is always such wonderful company.  Brandon also got off early that day so that was even better!  She got a kick out of Aiden climbing on things and jabbering away.

Friday morning we all ran some errands.   Brandon, Aiden, and I all went up to the U of U so that Brandon could meet with his advisor and get his graduation application turned in.  The trip was a success and Brandon is now on track to graduate.  Hooray!  The end is in sight!  After the U we went to the DI and Michaels.  I took Brandon to work and came back to my dad’s.  I watched Miss Pettigrew lives for a day.  It was a cute movie and then took Aiden and went to the dollar store to pick up some movie treats before heading to get Brandon.  We dropped Aiden off at my mom’s and went on a date!  😀  We went to see Wall-e at the dollar theatre.  I liked the movie alot (it was a very well written story line) and absolutely LOVED the short before it.  It was nice to have some one on one time with my hubby (something that is very scarce when you have a child to take care of). 

Yesterday (Saturday) was a pretty busy day.  We ended running some errands in the morning and also went to Ace because they were having a birthday party complete with prize drawings, free food, and birthday cake.  After that we had to pick up some last minute ingredients for Brandon’s chili and also drop some things off at our storage unit.  The rest of the afternoon Brandon spent cooking chili, I scrapbooked and watched Dan in Real Life while the bread maker kneaded and mixed my bread dough, then it was a mad rush to get Aiden fed, and get everything in the car for the ward chili cook off.  The cook off was fun.  I tasted four different kinds of chili and my body was a little upset about that but it wasn’t anything that a Tums didn’t fix.  Of the 3 winners I had only tasted one of the types of chilli.  Oi.  Anyway, we chatted with some people that I remember from when I attended the ward in my youth as well as a newer couple.  Aide loved crawling around on the huge gym floor and got to taste his first bites of pumpkin pie!  🙂  I don’t eat pumkin pie because I don’t like it but I can appreciate it for the millions and millions of people who LOVE it.  (Some other things Aiden tried for the first time this week are pureed raspberry and vienna sausage!!!)  Well, this morning we haven’t done much, just kind of relaxed and we will be heading off to church in about an hour.  Until next week…

I am feeling a complete mental drain this evening and hopefully the things that I write this evening will make sense.  Church was pretty good.  They had already received our records from our old ward and I am amazed at how fast it took because it usually takes 2 weeks.  Anyway, I will get back to today later. 

Monday Brandon started his first day of work for Loomis.  He was a driver/guard for them when the two of us met and began dating and now he is a receiving clerk for them.  The current hiring manager is someone who Brandon used to work with and when he saw Brandon’s application he first thought oh, this applicants hours are what we are looking for and then he saw the name on the application and thought that it was even more perfect to have the return of Brandon.  The hours Brandon has been working are exactly what we have been looking for, the pay is the same as always (adequate but not more then that) and we are again without the option of health insurance through his job.  This is ok for now because we are on the primary care network (a really basic, BASIC insurance through medicaid) and Aiden is covered through traditional medicaid for at least 4 more months and hopefully more.  Such is the life.  So far though Brandon is enjoying his work.  After he got off work we went over to the apartment to start cleaning, my friend Richelle helped us to clean a little bit.  That was a massive and insane process which I did not enjoy.  But we decided to stop cleaning and return to my dad’s around 7ish.

Tuesday morning Brandon, Aiden, and I made our way back to the apartment to continue the cleaning process.  We had help from my visiting teacher and another good friend from the ward.  They were both quick workers and we got a lot done really fast.  Thank you , thank you, thank you! 

Wednesday Brandon did the last minute finish up items before the final inspection at 11:30.  Thankfully we will receive our full refund and that is wonderful news to a very poor us.  In the evening when Brandon got home from work (this had been a very LONG and dull day for me) I drug him to the library and we got our new library cards!  Hooray!  I already have holds to pick up at the new library!  🙂

Thursday was another long day but I did some unpacking so it went a little more quickly and Friday, I took Brandon to work, went to visit my mom and then spent the afternoon with my aunt Vicky.  She was tending Devin and he was napping when I first got there so we played in the play room and when he woke up he joined us.  I finally decided that Aiden ought to go down for a nap around 3:15 and when I went to give him his binky I found that I didn’t have it…After about 30 mins. of trying to get Aiden down with a bottle nipple as a binky subsitute and him being in hysterics I finally decided to drive him around and he was out in 5 mins.  While he slept Vicky, Devin, and I went outside for a bit.  Aiden woke up after a very short nap. Friday was a stressful day because Aiden didn’t sleep very well.  We had taken him to get his 8 month photos taken in the morning and so all of his naps for the day ended up being in his car seat in the car.  Jake and LaRee arrived with little Angela around 5:00 and we frosted cookies for some missionaries in LaRee’s family.  Vicky and Neal also fed us a delicious dinner.  Thank you!

Saturday, we worked a bit on the kitchen as part of the process of making it more Aiden friendly.  The morgue of ancient computers has been disbursed and now there are just two computers in the kitchen that need data saved from them and then put onto my dad’s other computer.  Line upon line…

In the evening I drove Brandon to the Real Salt Lake game and then Aiden and I went to Gardner Village to walk around.  It was all decked out in Halloween stuff and I made sure to stop off at the little Christmas shop to pick up a baby’s first Christmas ornament for Aiden.  It is a cute little chubby penguin with a blue jacket.  We then shared a plate of halibut fish and chips at Archibald’s restaurant.  Delicious!!! 

Then of course Sunday.  We made the last of our Bisquick into waffles and those combined with the frozen two we had in the freezer fed my dad, Brandon, and I.  We also had bacon.  Then I napped and Aiden napped while Brandon did work on the computer.  After that we hustled off to church.  While there some of the people who knew me when I first attended that church from infancy to primary age said hello, and made a little bit of small talk.  In the evening after dinner Brandon and I watched a movie about Emma Smith that was good and very well related to the lesson we had in church that revolved around Joseph’s letters to Emma (a lesson that had me emotional (in a good way) all day).   It was a pretty good day and somewhat relaxing.  My dad also picked up Aiden’s new bedroom door.  Sometime this week we will have to get that put in…Oi, so much to do, so little time.  Well, until next week, thanks for reading…

So, I just had to rant a little bit today.  I feel it is important for everyone to know that I am proud to be an American and for all of the liberties and freedoms that it offers me.  There are just a couple of things that I would like to change because I believe them to be flawed.  One is to get rid of the electoral college and allow the governmental leaders to be decided by the citizens of the country.  If there is not a 2/3’s majority we hold a re-vote and give other candidates an opportunity to rejoin the race.  It scares me to have someone in presidential office who won the candidacy by a 2% margin (leading 51% to 49% which has happened in the last TWO elections).  It also scares me to hear friends, family, talk show hosts, radio show hosts, and others say well, I am going to vote for so and so because he is the lesser of two evils.  Whatever happened to voting for a president because they most closely match our opinions, morals and standards.  It just seems like a bad state of affairs to be voting for someone because they aren’t as bad as the other.  For this reason I plan to vote for a write in candidate of whom I have yet to decide, my top choices are Gladys Knight (first LDS, black, woman president) or Harold Groboznik.  Does anyone have any suggestions on who would be a good write in candidate?  My opinion on voting is that if you don’t vote, you can’t complain.  Not only that but it is our civic duty as citizen of the United State of America to vote so that our government is, “For the people, by the people” as our founding fathers intended it to be.  Why should we let the choices for EVERY MAN, WOMAN, AND CHILD in this country be made by the 55% (on a good year) who vote.  I encourage everyone who is registered (because it is now too late to register for this election) to voice your opinions by voting on Election Day!

The second thing that I would like to change is the party system.  I want to get rid of the labels of democrat, republican, green party, libertarian, etc. and simply have everyone vote American.  This would encourage people to take the time to get to know the candidates and decide who truly is the best option as well as eliminate people who opt to pull the proverbial republican or democrat lever.  This has become an even deeper desire of mine during this election year because it seems to me that McCain leans a little more to the liberal (a.k.a. democratic) side of the line.  I feel that he knew he didn’t have a chance in the world to win if he opted to be a democrat and run against Hillary Clinton so he decided to claim that he is a republican and attempt to pull the blanket over the eyes of the more conservative people in the United States.  This is not to say that I like Obama because I certainly do not.  He just doesn’t have as blaringly obvious of a shadiness to him as McCain.  Anyway, no more party system!  Just a bunch of candidates who are American sharing with us their opinions, morals, and values about the way this country should be run and us common Americans picking the one who we like the best.  Well, I guess that is enough ranting and raving for today.  I truly am writing in a candidate for office in order to take a stand against the two poor choices that we have today.  If you are feeling like I am then perhaps you ought to consider doing the same.  Vote American! 

Well, we are pretty much officially moved in (by pretty much I mean that we still have a few odds and ends to box up at the apartment (like food) and the move out inspection at the University Village (for which I still have to clean the ENTIRE apartment) and we have to unpack and continue to organize and clean here at my dad’s so that we can get the living room and south end of the kitchen crawlable for Aiden.)  Anyway, this week was a week of madness.  Packing, organizing, preparing the bedrooms for moving in here at my dad’s.  Oi.  Worrying the earlier part of the week about when we would know Brandon’s start date and just overall stress.  We did manage to do a few fun things though. 

Tuesday, I kind of took the day off from all the madness and Brandon, Aiden and I walked the 6 or so blocks to the Foothill Library.  That was fun but I was worn out by the time we reached the apartment and I had wished that we had brought some water along.  Doh!  I feel like I am getting more and more scatterbrained with each passing day.  I try super hard to remember all of the important things but sometimes my brain is lacking. 🙂 This day we had also completely run out of veggies for Aiden.  There were no more jars of it and no more frozen cubes in the freezer so, we fed him pork and beans and he LOVED it.  He hasn’t eaten them since but since I am picking up our food today from the fridge at the apartment and the blender, maybe he can eat them tomorrow. 

Wednesday we officially finished up in both rooms with our preparations.  Once they are unpacked and decorated I will take pictures and post them on the blog.  Until then you will just have to be patient.  🙂  Aiden’s room is looking pretty good with the green walls.  His leaf isn’t up yet (hopefully today) and we need some fishing line to hang the “bugs” from the ceiling.  The curtains look cute though.  We also moved the second shelf in our closet down so that we could have a shoe shelf.  My shoes fill nearly 2/3’s of the shelf but Brandon told me that he was ok with that.  Why do girls have so much more stuff then boys?  I also believe that it was Wednesday that I let Aiden taste strawberries for the first time.  I bought some fresh ones at the store, chopped them up, blended them with a little water and then mixed some with the baby oatmeal with Aiden.  Strawberry oatmeal, what a lucky baby!  😉  He liked it too.  There is not much he doesn’t like to eat. 

 Thursday evening I scrapbooked at Joan’s.  That was fun as I like getting together with the gals and talking about girl things like being a mom, our weddings, and other things that go on in our daily lives. 

Friday was our moving day and I nearly had a breakdown.  I hate moving.  I am not sure why exactly but I have no doubt that it stems from all of the moves of my childhood.  Not to mention they are simply high stress days and a complete disorganized nightmare.  With every move I always try to be so organized in my packing but when moving day comes around whatever is left ends up just being thrown willy nilly into boxes and put in a truck.  ARGH!!!  We did survive it though and thank you to EVERYONE who has helped with our various moving needs.  We literally could NOT have done it without you. 

Saturday Brandon had a test and then he watched Aiden while I went to see Nights of Rodanthe with my mom.  It was a cute movie.  But I didn’t like how it ended, it was kind of a shock.  But that is all I am going to tell you, you will have to watch it to find out what happens. 

Sunday we went to church.  It was a bit strange attending the ward that I went to as a child but it was alright.  There was a lot the same and some thing different.  For instance, there were several families that still lived in the ward that I recognized from when I was younger.  Of course all of their kids are grown and gone now but the parents are still there.  There were also just as many new faces.  Then the building structure is all the same but much of the interior has been redone and updated.  I remember dark wood and brick walls and now the building seems much lighter with whitish grayish walls.  Church went well though and it is nice to be in a family ward.  Although I must admit how strange it was that it was SO quiet in sacrament and the only baby I could hear was my own.  Sacrament in the student ward was always a hustle and bustle of kids and babies with various needs.  We went to visit grandma Carolyn after church for a bit to see if grandpa could help us with a few things and to eat grandma’s leftovers.  😉  We also attempted to get Aiden to play in the snow.  You will have to watch the video on our other blog because my camera batteries died out and I couldn’t get any pics. 

Lastly, Brandon started work today.  Hooray!  We will let you know how it goes in our next blog post.  He also has fall break this week, but unfortunately will be spending a chunk of it cleaning and unpacking.  Until next week, thanks for reading….

Well, I just wanted to share the wonderful and brilliant thing that dawned on me yesterday.  As some of you know I have been making some of Aiden’s baby food from raw veggies and fruits to cut the cost of expensive jar baby food.  This has mostly gone well but takes a little bit of time and knowledge of what to buy at the store.  I got two books from the library that were full of wonderful recipes for how to cook and puree various fruits and vegetables for use as baby food.  The name of those books, just in case you were wondering are Blender Baby Food by Nicole Young & 100 Top Baby Purees by Annabel Karmel. I had only typed up for my use single fruit and veggie recipes and none of the mixed ones.  Silly me because now Aiden is on to bigger, better, and more flavorful things.  😉  Anyway, so yesterday I had to run to the store because I needed baby veggies but before leaving was asking Brandon about whether or not various veggies come in a can (like broccoli or cauliflower).  Wait let me back up a little.  I had no veggies to feed Aiden for lunch because we had run out of jar veggies and all the frozen ones were gone.  Well, I asked Brandon what we ought to do and he said that we should feed Aiden pork and beans.  (I think that beans are a legume and not a veggie but hey it works.)  So Brandon threw part of a can of pork and beans in the blender and voila, BABY FOOD!  I just heated it up for about 15 seconds and Aiden LOVED it!  This got me to thinking well, gee we got that can for about a dollar and Aiden only used about 1/4 of it so in the end each of his meals will cost 25 cents.  THAT IS 25-75 CENTS LESS THEN THOSE DANG BABY FOOD JARS!!!  That brings us to me asking Brandon about canned veggies.  So, I went to the store and was headed for the canned veggie eye when I spotted 1 lb. bags of frozen veggies (4 different kinds) on sale for 79 cents!  Well, that was certainly a better deal then the canned food (both being a better deal then jar food) and so I bought 3 bags.  I then speculated about the baby food “dinners” and looked at the possibilities of buying canned food in lieu of that.  I looked at the soups (too runny, and not sure how to thicken them) and the spaghettios.  Well 4 feedings in one jar of spaghettios for $1.00 versus 2 in a baby food jar for $1.00.  That saves me 50 cents!  Woo hoo!  Anyway, I was also thinking, “Well how do we save money on baby food fruit because raw fruit can be expensive?”  I didn’t come up with an answer to that until I talked with Brandon today.  I told him frozen fruit is like $4.00 a bag and he said that if we only get 8 feedings out of it that is still only 50 cents per feeding (still slightly cheaper then jar baby food).  Then if we look for sales on raw fruit and other things we could save money on those too.  Another bonus is that you can let your imagination go wild and mix and match flavors all you want. 

Think about it, you can throw pretty much anything into a blender to feed your little one, even a hamburger!  Then when they are getting a little older, blend the food so that it is still slightly chunky, pull some out, puree the rest, stir the chunks back in and you’ve got something similar to Gerber 3rd Foods.  Amazing isn’t it? 

Brandon and I are exhausted.  We have been working all week to get things packed here at the apartment and then worked at my dad’s Friday and yesterday.  We have twelve more days of work here at the apartment before we turn in the keys.  Twelve more days and then we can truly relax before continuing to work at my dad’s.  I hope my little body holds out that long.  Yesterday we loaded up all the the stuff I had boxed and stored in my room at my dad’s and took it to our storage unit.  There is still some stuff in my room that we didn’t take because the boxes don’t have lids and some things weren’t even in a box, we will go down to my dad’s sometime this week to finish emptying out that room and to paint two of the walls in Aiden’s room.  I also made some cute curtains for Aiden’s room.  I will take pictures when we get them hung up and the room painted and decorated.  We have quite a bit of stuff that I can’t depart with like scrapbooks and related paraphernalia that will likely just be stacked in the kitchen under the table until we get that area cleaned.  We still have work to do on the main level before Aiden will be able to crawl around down there but for now we will close my dad’s door and the bathroom door upstairs, put a gate at the top of the stairs and Aiden will be free to roam between his room and our room.  He will also have a new door to his room in 2 weeks.  The old one was split and the guts were falling out.  It could be shut from the outside by pushing the front of the door in and pulling, but I couldn’t close it from the inside.  Thanks dad!

Earlier this week I took Aiden to the allergist because I had been speaking with the pediatrician about my many allergies and asked her when I should have Aiden tested.  The pediatrician suggested between 6 & 12 months and we got in much faster then I expected (I planned to go around 9 months old.)  Anyway, he was tested for indoor and outdoor environmental allergies, peanut allergy, and walnut allergy.  The tests all came back negative, but the allergist explained that allergies do not generally show up until you have had some exposure to them.  At this point Aiden has likely been exposed to most all environmental allergies but to be sure the allergist suggested re-testing those next fall after he has been through all of the seasons again and without a doubt been exposed to all of the allergens.  She also suggested waiting to test for nut allergies until he is 2 or 3 and been exposed to those to some degree.  So there you go. 

A couple of other thoughts.  It is said that babies are born with a certain personality and temperment.  I believe to some degree this is true but I also wonder how much their temperment is formed by their experience in the womb.  I have been told time and time again how happy little Aiden is and I am so grateful that he is and that partly this is just his personality.  But I am curious if he came out happy because of how silly and giggly I was while he was in my belly.  I figure any baby who hears 9 months of laughter inside the womb is bound to come out being happy.  Just a thought though. 

My other thing, is just that even though I haven’t caught a lot of conference on t.v. I did catch the part where Thomas S. Monson said that he loved us.  I don’t know why but for some reason, the way he said it, and just the state I was in at the time, it really hit me that he meant it.  He doesn’t even know me individually, I have never met him, but he does love me as a child of God and a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  Which I guess if I analyze it further, if the prophet can love me and truly mean it, then of course Heavenly Father does.  How couldn’t he?  Just because I am one of many does not mean that my one-ness is not important.  Anyway, I am also very excited that Rome will have a temple.  How exciting to be a part of this marvelous work rolling forth. 

Next week I will be writing from our new living space.  I have mixed feelings about moving but I think that as a whole it will be good for all parties involved (including you dad 😉 ) and that once things are all settled and in their place it will begin to feel like home.  It is going to be a little bit like the twilight zone when I attend church next Sunday in the building that I went to when I was in primary but I am also looking forward to attending a ward that has youth in young women’s and young men’s.  Those programs are inspired by God. 

Well, I think that I said everything that I need to say.  We are just waiting to hear from the hiring manager at Loomis about the success of Brandon’s drug test (he will likely call on Monday) and give Brandon his start date.  Hopefully he will start working next week.  Thanks for reading…Oh, and I am sorry that we only post pictures of Aiden.  It is because no one takes pictures of Brandon and I, and especially me (Erin) because I am often the one behind the camera.  We’ll see what we can do in the future.