Sometimes School is Awesome.

On Tuesday, our very first class started out pretty much the best ever. Our teacher came in, pulled up a website, and said "first things first. This is NOT me."

First, enlarge the picture to read the caption on the screen. Then notice how cute my hair was that day.

The Fan Gene

We often joke with Todd's family about how all the brothers sleep with a little fan blowing right in their faces. I have been lucky and broke Todd to the point the ceiling fan is enough for him. Unfortunately, there are nights in the winter I have a hard time sleeping because it is so cold and the fan is blowing on me. Compromise. Anyway, we decided it must run in the family since they all do it, right? Well I'm afraid I may have awoken the gene in Lila last night.

She has been complaining for several nights that she is "too hot" and will only let me tuck her in with one blanket. Now this is strange, because normally she absolutely insists on just about every blanket in her room to be piled on top of her. But for a while now she has had a hard time sleeping and wants one, thin blanket.

So last night when I had tried for an hour to get her to go to sleep and she was complaining again that she was hot, I remembered that we have all of Todd's brother Kyle's stuff in our basement. Kyle is spending the semester home in Philadelphia, so we are acting as his storage unit. And of course, he has a fan among the pile. So I brought it up, set it on a chair, and turned it on. At first I think the sound scared her, and she told me it was too fast. I thought she wasn't going to like it. But after complaining for about a minute, she sat and let it blow on her. Then she said "I like it" and let me tuck her in. I was able to use two blankets, and added two more before I went to bed. Then she slept through the whole night. In the morning I could hear her whimpering a bit because she was cold. So I turned off the fan, and she woke up within 5 minutes.

Tonight I put her in her warm footsie jammies and piled the blankets on again. I also moved the fan back a little so she won't get too cold. But I am afraid she just may be sleeping with that thing in her face the rest of her life!

p.s. Kyle, you may have to give us your fan as payment for keeping all your stuff safe. :D Love you!

S-late!

Lila has gotten into the habit of adding S's to the front of words instead of saying "it's." For instance, "sdark" at night and when she wakes up "slight!" Then when she looks at the clock (remember she's not allowed to wake up until 8:00) she says "sate!"(or I guess it would be seight... but that looks weirder.) There have also been mentions srain and srainin', and when something belongs to someone else, it could be smommy's, sdaddy's, sDanica's, sGrandma's, sLauren's, even sShelly's. You would think that wouldn't work but it does. I got the idea for this post when she said slate this morning, thus the title of the post. By the way, it was me who was late getting up and out of bed because it was already seight o' clock. "Comon mommy, slate!"

Another thing about Lila is her favorite cereal. She has been eating it for... I might even say close to a year now. I wouldn't even say she loves it. Most mornings I have to feed her the last few bites just to get her to eat it. But every morning when I ask what cereal she wants she says "pink cereal!" It doesn't look like it in the picture but the color of the bag is like a really dark pinkish purple. When she gets more sugary cereal at Grandmas or occasionally at home, she devours it. But she always wakes up the next morning asking for her pink cereal.

She has also started preferring her pink bowl. And a pink spoon. I have tried to get her to use a different spoon the last several days, and she won't have it. And I won't let her have her pink bowl every time, but she always asks for it and sometimes throws a small fit when she doesn't get it. You might think she must be a girly-girl, but if you read about her rainboots, you know she picked the robot ones. She had a choice of pink Dora boots, but wanted the robot boy boots. (sorry if I offended anyone by calling them "boy boots." But I don't take it back). I think she has just the right balance of feminine and tom-boy.

Love my girl!

Just Stuff

Lila loves the rain. Whenever it rains and she can get me to do it, we go out and sit on a folding chair in our carport to watch it. Recently she has gotten more brave and runs to edge of the wet parts and squeal. I bought her new boots over a month ago. She hasn't forgotten about them, but I keep telling her she can't wear them until it snows. But when we went out this time and she tried to jump in puddles with her normal shoes, I changed my mind. By the way, she picked her boots out all by herself, she wanted the robot ones. You can't see the robots in these pics but they are pretty dang cute.

Lila has not officially graduated to a big girl swing, but she made it clear that she can hold her own! Unfortunately, she didn't appreciate the neat-ness of the swing she was in. A real tree swing that is super long! She just kept getting mad that she wasn't going high enough. But I was proud of her anyway.

Nicholas Craig Itri

When we went to Philadelphia a few weeks ago (including the brief trip to the shore in North Carolina), the main reason we went was to spend some time with Todd's dad. He has been battling colon cancer since February 2009. It has allowed us to have a good perspective these last few years, focusing on family and spending time with Nick whenever we could. A big reason we decided to spend the summer out there last year was to be able to spend time with Nick.

Back in January the family started planning a trip to the outer banks. We weren't going to go because we went on a trip in May and didn't want to spend the money to get out there. But then we found out that Nick wasn't doing very well and the chemo wasn't very effective anymore. So early in July we booked our flights and decided to come out.

Nick wasn't able to make it to the shore, so we only spent three days there so the rest of the time we could be with him. During our time there he consented to hospice care and spent most of his time in his room. We were lucky enough to find out about a wonderful foundation that connects cancer survivors/patients and their families with photographers who are willing to donate their time for family pictures. Todd and his brothers carried Nick downstairs and we did some nice portraits in the backyard. (Thanks to http://www.magichourfoundation.org and http://www.photographybychristinaridge.com).

The next day Todd and I flew back to Utah. Todd said it was one of the hardest days of his entire life. Less than two weeks later, on August 31, we got the news that Nick had passed. Monday we were on a plane bound again for Philadelphia. We were able to spend some time with Todd's family to grieve together and put together a very nice tribute to Nick's life.

I have spent 19 of the last 33 days in Philadelphia. It has been difficult being away from home, trying to keep up with school, having no normal routine, being unable to fulfill church responsibilities in Utah, all while struggling with this family loss. It has been physically and emotionally challenging. I have always told people that I have great in-laws. And it is true. While Nick is the culprit of many of the frustrating things about the Itri boys, he truly is a good man. He cared the most about the most important things- family and faith in Jesus Christ. Even though most knew him for his phanatical (misspelling intentional) sports obsession, I have been able to see first-hand how he prioritized his life. And I appreciate that his example rubbed off on all his boys. Of course, I am especially grateful that it rubbed off on Todd.

And through this experience I have been able to strengthen my testimony of those things. I know that I was strengthened and comforted by the power of the Holy Ghost and the grace of Christ through the atonement. I have felt peace and assurance that the plan of salvation is real and that our family can live together forever. Thank you Nick for always being an example of these truths, and helping us all solidify them in our testimonies. You are greatly missed, but we look forward to seeing you again.