Tuesday, October 30, 2007

For the Ladies

Check out these awesome articles written by my smart and insightful sister in law:

http://women.ldsblogs.com/

Really, truly, you won't be disappointed. Read them!

Monday, October 22, 2007

Wow!

Check out this cool blog (more particularly the cool things to make):

http://heatherbailey.typepad.com/

I really want to make some of those cute little booties!

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Monday, October 15, 2007

The Answers

Well, I was trying to give people some time to answer, BUT, enough is enough. It's been a whole week people!

1) maintain a house that is always clean and comfortable

YES! It is so satisfying (and comfortable) to look around and see a lack of mess--order, cleanliness, a shining kitchen floor, etc. I'm doing pretty well, but when most things are great, there is almost always at least one messy spot in the house.

2) travel to New Guinea

No. That's Peter's dream, but I'm going with him. I'm always too concerned about safety (or should I say unreasonably paranoid?) for wild places to be my dreams. I feel safer dreaming of places like New Zealand, all of Europe, etc.

3) do the Ironman triathlon

No, but I do think it would be fun to do a shorter one sometime. My first goal in this area is to do a relay triathlon and do the swimming portion. Who knows when that will even happen though.

4) learn to play the piano well enough to play in church

YES! Not that I necessarily aspire to play in church, but I want to at least be good enough that I could (without freaking out about it).

5) go back to school and get a graduate degree in linguistics

No. I love linguistics, and I will if the chance comes up, probably, but it's not a goal anymore. I don't like the pressure of assignments, papers, and all of those scary things that graduate students have to do.

6) own a small hobby farm

YES! I want horses, goats, chickens, etc so much! And land for them to roam on. And lots of garden space with lots of fruits and veggies.

7) learn how to cook a perfect souffle

No. I LOVE to cook, but there is no particular dream or goal associated with it. We had a souffle enrichment activity, and it didn't look too hard though. I think I'll try it soon.

8) be the Relief Society President

Um...NO! This was your free NOT. Who does, anyway?

9) be in a community orchestra

YES! I've only ever played in bands, and I really want not only to play again someday, but to experience playing in an orchestra and play some great music, like Beethoven, Dvorak, etc. Bands don't have that, unless someone rewrote it for them.

10) swim on a Masters swim team

YES! I've always wanted to do this. Swimming is my sport. I love it. I love water. I love being in shape, and competing in swimming is tons of fun!

So, there you are. Of my 2 participants, Little Mama beat Real by 1.

I know I have more than two readers!

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Clearplay

We used to be subscribers to CleanFlicks, and when they closed because they lost their lawsuit, we were pretty durn bummed. But recently, a friend of mine told us about Clearplay, which is pretty much exactly the same thing, except instead of renting an already edited DVD, you rent or buy a normal one, and download the edits from their website with a little USB thingy and plug it into a special DVD player you buy from them, and voila! You have a nice edited movie. You also have to pay a low monthly membership fee for access to the movies. We're trying to decide right now if we want to spend that much money just to be able to watch lots and lots of really good movies that will no longer be inappropriate.

Apparently, Clearplay faced a lawsuit similar to the one CleanFlicks had to deal with, since certain filmmakers consider the editing of their movies to be akin to removing measures from a symphony, or covering up the naughty parts of the Venus de Milo. Fortunately, Congress decided that we have a right to filter the content of movies in our own homes, so as long as we're not purchasing something that has already been altered, it's okay. That's why CleanFlicks went down the tubes...

Monday, October 08, 2007

A Quiz for YOU!

Per my husband's request, here is a little quiz for you. I don't necessarily expect you to get the answers right, since I'm not sure myself what I'm going to put yet, but here goes.

Out of this list of ten things, which FIVE are some of my personal (somewhat passionate) life goals? (I even gave you a free "NOT")

1) maintain a house that is always clean and comfortable
2) travel to New Guinea
3) do the Ironman triathlon
4) learn to play the piano well enough to play in church
5) go back to school and get a graduate degree in linguistics
6) own a small hobby farm
7) learn how to cook a perfect souffle
8) be the Relief Society President
9) be in a community orchestra
10) swim on a Masters swim team

Now that I've finished, I think if anyone guesses all five, they were just lucky. And if anyone guesses the "NOT", then we need to spend some one on one time together...

Feel free to do one of your own, or have a go on Peter's blog.
Good luck!

Saturday, October 06, 2007

Fall Fever!

I have a very bad case of Fall Fever. And watch out--it's contagious! All I can think about is making goodies (pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread and muffins, ginger snaps, decorating sugar cookies), Halloween costumes, parties, crafts, getting together with family and friends, and other generally fun and exciting things. And of course, that leads me to Christmas and winter, and I'm pretty much ready to listen to Christmas carols now.

I'm ready to break out the apple cider and hot chocolate, my sweaters and slippers, and oh boy do I wish I had a fireplace right now!

Mmmmmmmmmm! I love this time of year!

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

It's All About Me!

Well, I never got around to posting my last pregnancy photo. I had Peter take this picture the day before The Shrimp was born, when I thought there was a good chance it was the last day I would be pregnant. So, this is 38w3d:


These next two photos show my really awesome new mommy toy, The Ultimate Baby Wrap. This is the best baby carrier ever! Basically, it combines things like the Snugli and Baby Bjorn and other slings into one, and it is super comfortable and easy to use! I LOVE it. Unfortunately, I'm wearing a shirt the same color as the carrier, so it's hard to see all of the details, but you can see the basic idea. (Especially if you click on that link...)




More Pics of The Shrimp

These pics were taken at 3 weeks 2 days old:




Super Chub!


Little Chub is such an awesome toddler! She seems to be pretty well adjusted to having The Shrimp around now, and she especially loves playing with all of Shrimpy's things, as you can see in the picture above. You can also see another of her favorite things to do, which is to spread everything all around the floor...


Little Chub also now lets me put her hair up, which is VERY exciting to both Peter and me, because now no one can tell she has an extreme mullet! In the pictures above and below, she actually has what I call a "triceratops" hairdo (there's a ponytail in the back too...), which was just a joke, but I kept the top two in all day, even though they look silly sticking straight up. We usually keep her hair in cute back of the head pigtails, which you can kind of see in the top picture.


Some of Chub's other accomplishments are speaking in little sentences (our favorite is 'That's a whale!'), learning to count, and popping out with vocabulary we had no idea she knew, such as 'woodpecker'. The first time we realized that she knew how to count to ten, we counted up to five slowly, and then she said six, we said seven, she said eight, we said nine, and she said ten. We were amazed! We're also starting to work on her letters, and she loves to get out crayons and paper and have us write letters and words. She also sits with her Daddy to read and makes him drag her finger along the words as he's reading. So far I have no idea what she knows because she usually keeps it hidden until she can completely surprise us with something.

One other very cute thing Little Chub does happens at bedtime. Her Daddy almost always puts her to bed, and she always goes to bed with dolly, pillow, and her special quilt her Aunt Margaret made for her. Daddy puts her blanket on her, then goes and turns off the light. As he's walking to turn it off, Chub is holding the blanket at her chin with a little twinkle in her eye. He turns off the light, and then goes over to kiss her goodnight, and EVERY time, she pulls the blanket over her head and makes Daddy find her. She's done this with me a few times at naptime, but she stopped doing it because it's just not the same with Mommy! Little Chub and her Daddy have built a very special relationship since The Shrimp was born and it is very cute!

Old Pics of The Shrimp

These are from the first two weeks...
9.8.07
9.8.07

9.9.07

9.14.07

9.19.07