Best Friend Visit

Mr. Mitchell came home on Sunday after being gone all month, and one of my best friends came to visit us. I felt so spoiled to have them both here. Heather and I were assigned as roommates our freshman year, became fast friends, and despite distance have remained good friends. It's one of those friendships where you can not talk to each other for half a year, and when you talk again you pick up exactly where you left off. We did some calculating while she was here and realized that we hadn't seen each other in 18 months! Didn't matter. We gabbed up a storm and did some fun things.

We played card games, watched movies, went out to eat, and explored Pocatello.

We spent a day in Old Town exploring the stores on Main Street and admiring the old advertisements and murals.

Possibly our favorite stop was the used bookstore there. You walk in and it's dusty and disorganized and dim. There are books piled everywhere, and the owner sits at a table and just hollers around the store at his customers in order to assist them. "Turn on the light while you're back there!" "Yeah, we have that one. It's to your right. Further to your right. Further. More to your right." It was super entertaining, and there were actually some good options there. The store could use a good vacuum session, but that might take away some of its character.

We hiked the easy City Creek Trail to test out Sprout's new carrier.

We like the awkward pictures.

Heather and I were looking up things to do in Pocatello and came across the Museum of Clean. It sounded like a hoot so we went. Turns out the guy that owns the museum is famous for his cleaning skills, and we had no idea until we were halfway through a tour given by him (Don Aslett). He gave me one of his books for free. Sweet. I was too enthralled with Don, who was funny and quick, to take many pictures, but it was actually a very fun museum. And because Don gave us the tour we got a bunch of 'behind-the-scenes' stuff, including inside of the clock tower.

Like I said, don't let my lack of cool pictures fool you. The museum is still a work in progress, but once it's complete it will be a total blast for kids. Oh, and by the way, Don Aslett pushed me around the museum in a wheel chair he made from a garbage can. Granted, he didn't push me all over the museum, but how many people have been wheeled around by 80-year-old Don Aslett? I finally have a claim to fame! Don loved Heather and acted as though she were the smartest person he had ever met. It was awesome.

Thanks for coming, Heather! It was great to have you here, and I'm sorry I was so tired all of the time. Now that we're only three hours apart we really shouldn't wait 18 months before seeing each other again.

July 2013

Is your 101st blog post as big a deal as your 100th? I feel like it should be otherwise it would've been 100 Dalmations instead of 101 Dalmations. Get what I'm saying? 100 just isn't as exciting as 101, plus, it has a nice ring. Enough about that.

July was a crazy month for us. Mr. Mitchell was gone the entire month except for two days in the middle. Sprout and I did just fine, but we missed him a lot, and we spent plenty of money on sitters on nights that I worked. He was back for another two days and is off on a fire again, but hopefully will be home tonight. Mr. Mitchell is very tired, but he's happy to be busy and productive doing something that matters. Sprout and I spent a lot of time at the pool playing in the water and trying to maintain his floating skills. Since I was busy living the pseudo-single mother life I didn't get many pictures or videos of my kid, but I'll share what I did get in the month of July.

Sprout learned from my parents' dog how fun the dishwasher can be.

Now it's one of his favorite things to play with whenever it's open, and sometimes even when it's closed.

I love his precious face in this picture. His eyebrows are always giving away how he feels.

The flash blinded him, but I liked his hair.

Sprout still loves anything crinkly, including ads that come in the mail.

I don't have any videos this month showing anything in particular: they're all just Sprout being Sprout, and for me that's enough. He is such a special boy, and just watching him be himself fills me with extreme happiness. These videos are pretty much just for the grandmas and others who feel the same way about my boy.