Pregnant Belly 12-28-07

It's been a little while since I posted a "bump" picture, so here you go. Sorry to give you a shot with so much of the ceiling, but that's how it goes when you are doing a self portrait. And when you aren't a good photographer. And when you just don't care enough to photoshop anything out. She's most definitely growing, eh?

Happy Christmas

I'd say our Christmas Vacation was a complete success. Here are a few of my favorite things:

• Being able to see everyone. This included both of our immediate families, all grandparents, both of our extended families (aunts, uncles, and cousins), my old roommates, Clark's old roommates, my friends from high school (and the Murray girls), and Clark's friend from high school. Unfortunately we missed the Porters, but hopefully we'll catch them soon!
• Eating lots of good food.
• Opening presents!
• Getting lots of presents for Wombsly.
• Enjoying excellent music.
• Watching it snow.
  
• Eating some more food.
• Playing Dance Dance Revolution for the first time ever (and I rocked!).
• Seeing the progress on my parents' new house.
  
• Drinking hot cocoa from 7-11.
• Coming home with a few days left to relax.

All in all, it was excellent. We stayed the perfect amount of time, if you ask me. Big thank yous to Jessica for letting us sleep on her bed, and Kim and Patrick for letting us sleep on their floor. I wish I had taken more pictures, but I at least took more than 1, so that's something. Here are a few for your enjoyment.

Lauren, our niece, methodically spreading the newspaper out all over the floor.


Clark being a weirdo.


The new house! I can't believe they'll be all moved in 3 months from now.


And today I'm thankful for: Warm St George weather!

Weekly Quote 12/24/07

"Ah, that singing! Hear it ringing, Earthward winging, Christmas bringing! Hearken! We can hear it still!" Good old Primary songs. New quote up!

"It's festive time in the city."

To me, it feels like this year I have heard more people complaining about the disappearance of the word "Christmas" from the commercial world (Holiday catalogs, wishing everyone a Happy Holiday, etc). Here's an example. I have a hard time understanding why everyone gets so worked up about it. Sure, a business is going to try to include everyone in their ad campaign, and yes, it's so they can get more money. They are a business. That's what a business does. It just seems a little over the top to me, to complain so much about something that's been going on for years now, and really isn't offensive.

Last night, I heard on the radio about some Canadian elementary school who decided to change the lyrics of Silver Bells (by substituting the word "Christmas" with "festive") for their Christmas concert. Now, I think that is somewhat over the top (yes, I believe I would even call it ridiculous), and I might even complain about it. But I wouldn't be irate. I wouldn't leave a nasty message on the school's answering machine. Come on, folks, it's the Christmas season! If you care that much that the word "Christmas" stays in our vocabulary, then I'm assuming that you're Christian, and that's no way to act!

As a side note, they also aired a comment sent in by a Muslim woman who thinks that they should just leave the word Christmas where it is. She's not offended by it. To her, Christmas is a time when her husband has the day off work, and they can spend time together as a family. And there is nothing wrong with that. I thought that was interesting. So there is a point for the protesters. But a calmly made one.

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl

For the past 8 years (wow, I just did the math, it's really been 8 years), I've been somewhat of a Holocaust enthusiast. OK, that sounds bad. I enjoy reading memoirs and learning about the Holocaust, as well as the events of WWII surrounding it. That sounds better. And yet I haven't read the diary of Anne Frank, the most popular piece of literature to come out of the Holocaust, since I was in the 7th grade. I even own the book, for crying out loud. So I decided it was high time that I re-read it.

In the 7th grade, I was 12 years old. Anne Frank's diary chronicles her life from ages 13 to 15. I think my English teacher (and probably many other Jr. High English teachers) decided that the book was written by someone who was so close in age to her students, so we would probably relate very well to her. But this was not the case. It turns out that a 12 year old girl living her cozy life in Utah doesn't have a lot in common with a 14 year old girl living in hiding in Nazi occupied Holland. Because of the war, Anne had to grow up pretty fast, and a lot of her entires were just over my head. I did not enjoy reading this book back then, in fact I don't think I ever finished it.

But this time around, I loved this book. Having an adult perspective makes all the difference in the world. It probably helps that I can look back on the rest of my teenage years now, and I can remember what it was like to be so upset with your parents one day and so happy to have them around the next. I can remember how it feels to like a boy and wonder if he likes you back. I can remember the "infatuation" stage of a relationship, and what it feels like when that wears off. And I can remember how it is possible to be around people all the time, and yet feel so alone because you have no one to confide in. But I hadn't had these experiences yet at the age of 12. It all is so much more familiar to me now.

I think it also helped that I know a lot more about WWII now, and so I have a little better idea of what was going on in the world surrounding the Secret Annex. A lot of her comments about the pending invasion made a lot more sense to me, and by looking at the date, I knew how the war was going, when D-Day was coming, etc.

It was a much more enjoyable reading experience this time around. I feel a lot more connected to Anne than I did before, and I have a lot more sympathy/empathy for what she went through. It made me think a lot about how it would be to live in fear of discovery every day, to have to eat rotten vegetables (and to be grateful that you have them!), and to be so confined for such a long time. And it made me remember how it feels to be a teenager, and what it's like to transition from a child to an adult. All in all, an excellent book.

Beautiful Zion!

This weekend we went to Zion and did a little bit of hiking. It had been a while since we'd been out there, and I'm not in as great of shape as I once was (3 months of basically bed rest will do that to you), but I've been feeling so good lately, and we decided that we could always just hike for as long as we wanted to and then turn back. And so we did. We went on the Angel's Landing trail, but we turned around after about an hour, maybe a little less. But it was still quite fun. Here are some photos to document the event:

Shannon and a bush with red bark


The snowy red rock cliff

Clark on the next switchback


Clark sitting on a wall

Weekly Quote 12/17/07

"Now ye hear of endless bliss. Joy! Joy! Jesus Christ was born for this. He hath opened heaven's door and man is blessed forevermore. Christ was born for this. Christ was born for this." Yes, this is from "Good Christian Men, Rejoice." I'm loving the weekly quotes this month - Christmas is just such a wonderful season! New quote up.

3 Tales

I have a few short stories for you from today.

An Icy Beginning

Today I got to go to Megan's house for a little crocheting and conversation. We used to get together a couple times a week over the summer and go swimming, but then pregnancy hit me hard, and I was out of commission for a few months. Now I'm back in the game, and I go over there once a week. I really look forward to seeing her, and just having someone to talk to during the day. And her girls are a lot of fun, too.

So this morning, I was all set to head on over there at 10:00. I often walk over there, because she doesn't live very far away, but today I had a doctor's appointment at noon, so I opted to drive. I don't drive my car very often, these days. And we live in St George. So I didn't even think about the fact that it was cold last night, and there might be ice on my car. Particularly at 10am on a sunny day. So I headed on out, to find that my car was most definitely covered in ice. Don't worry, it was the only car in the parking lot that had ice still, compliments of my shady spot. So I turned on the car, got the defrost going, and went to scrape some ice off. But dagummit, we seem to have taken all ice scrapers out of my car and put them in Clark's. So what did I do? I sat in my car for a while until the back window was defrosted. Then I kicked it into reverse and backed up into the sunshine. Then I sat in the sun for a few minutes until the ice melted on the windshield and most of the other windows. But there was one lousy window that just wouldn't give it up. In the end, I rolled it down, and drove on my merry way. Problem solved. It only took 5-10 minutes. About the time it would have taken me to walk over there. But oh well, I needed the car for the way home anyway.

The Beating of My Heart

The doctor of the day was my cardiologist. I see him once a trimester, just to get his input on how things are going. So here's how the appointment went: Show up at noon (right on schedule), and pay a co-pay of $25. Sit in the waiting room for 20 minutes. Head on back with the Medical Assistant, who weighs me, takes my blood pressure and pulse, and updates the list of all my medications. Then I waited for maybe one minute before the doctor came in (they get kudos for that one). He asks how I'm feeling (fine), takes a little listen to my heart, and says that I seem to be doing really well. He asks if I have any questions (I had one, which he answered), and then says he'd like to see me in about 10 weeks. And there you go. That was it. I'm glad to have the news that I'm doing well, it's good peace of mind. And I like my cardiologist, he's a good guy. It's just funny to me that it probably took longer for me to set up my next appointment than it did for him to tell me I was doing well. But the end result is still the same: I'm not in heart failure. And that is a good thing.

The Box Saga

I had to mail a package today (I am really sorry to the Lowes if it doesn't get there before Christmas; it should, it really should!), but I didn't have a box. So I decided to bip on over to the UPS store and purchase one. They are very close to home, and I figured that they would most definitely have a box. However, I decided to go there right after my visit to the cardiologist, so I didn't know what size of box I needed. I went in and picked out a box, and the guy said that I could always come back and exchange it for a different size if I needed to. Turns out I needed to. I grossly overestimated how large this box needed to be. I needed a 12x12x12 box. I got a 18x16x12 box. Whoops! But I figured, hey, no big deal, I'll just take it back and exchange it. And I did. Now here is the weird part of this story: the smaller box cost $0.10 more than the larger box. Does this make sense to anyone else? The guy was actually really cool, and said not to worry about the difference. I just thought it was odd. Smaller box = more money. Go figure.

The Bump: 12/13

Turns out I can figure out how to use the self timer on our camera. Here is the latest bump photo (not the greatest picture, but a lot better than the 5 other ones I just took):

Jackpot

I hit the jackpot last night! One of my St George friends, Celeste, has so kindly allowed me to borrow her maternity clothes. Melissa has let me borrow hers as well, which has been great; the only problem is a lot of the clothes are for when you are really quite pregnant, and I'm still pretty small in the belly area. So I've pulled out a few things from those boxes, but a lot of the stuff has been put in reserve until we hit February or March. But Celeste's box of clothes - they fit me now! This is likely due to the fact that Celeste is a smaller person than I, but I'll take it! It gives me a lot of clothes to wear. In fact, I'm probably going to have to go purchase some hangers so I can hang all this stuff up. Now I have clothes that actually make me look pregnant, rather than the T-shirts I have been wearing! I'll have to take a picture later today and post it for you. A big shout-out thank you goes to Celeste and Melissa, for lending me a wardrobe.

Underwhelmed

Ah, Christmastime. A season for singing fun songs, eating excellent food, and of course, shopping! (As a side note, I'm really not a big shopper. I only like to shop when I have a specific idea of what I want - window shopping is right out. But that is not what this post is about. So let's get back to it.) When the time comes that you've finally decided what you want to purchase for those lucky souls on your list, where is the first place you think to go in search of said items? That's right - the mall! And so Clark and I went to the mall last night to get some Christmas shopping done. I can't go into too many details of what we were looking for, but we had 3 things on our list, and we felt that the chances were fairly good that we'd find at least 1 of those things. But no. We found zero.

I will say that one of the things we were looking for was a book. Let me tell you a little thing about St George. There are 3 bookstores. The first is Deseret Book, which is a fine store, if you are looking for a church book. And don't go thinking that our Deseret Book is like the ones in SLC, it's rather small. At least the section of non-LDS books is rather small. Next we have B Dalton Booksellers, which is in the mall, and thus is VERY small. We took a quick peek around the store, and soon discovered that there was simply no way that we would find the book we were looking for. The final bookstore is Little Professor Books. I actually really like this bookstore, but again, it's pretty small. They are very helpful, though, and very willing to order in books for you. I just called them - they don't have the book either. They are building a new Barnes and Noble at the mall, but it won't be done for quite a while.

And so, we are stuck. Needless to say, we were rather underwhelmed with the options in the mall. And strangely enough, we had similar results with the mall last Christmas. And we were just talking with some folks in the ward about how St George has every store you need. I guess we'll have to do a bit of last minute shopping once we get up to Salt Lake.

Weekly Quote 12/10/07

"Then pealed the bells more loud and deep: 'God is not dead, nor doth he sleep; The wrong shall fail, the right prevail, With peace on earth, good will to men.'"

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day is one of my favorite Christmas carols. The lyrics have such hope in them. New quote up!

Maternity Clothes

We finally went maternity clothes shopping last night. We headed on over to our local Target, partially because I had a gift card, and partially because we had to pick up some other things as well. Now, I've never been shopping in the maternity section before, but I've seen the sign. Maybe it's because I so desperately wanted to be pregnant for quite a while, but it always seemed. . . well, bigger than it is. Whereas before it was a giant reminder that I wasn't expecting, now it's just a teeny tiny section of the store. Interesting how perspective changes. In any event, I purchased a pair of jeans that I really like, and a new shirt. Clark pointed out that I don't need a whole new wardrobe because I'll only be pregnant for another 18 weeks. Why is it that when you say "18 weeks" it seems a lot shorter than "126 days?" So I guess I'll be wearing my new jeans for about 42 of the next 126 days. But I should have more than 3 shirts I can wear, so at least I'll have a little more variety up top, right?

Old Slippers = Bad

As I wrote how grateful I was for new slippers, I realized that I never blogged about my near-death experience. OK, let's not be dramatic, it was more like a near-injury experience. I woke up one morning (this was probably a little over a week ago), and put on my cozy old slippers to go downstairs. One step, two step, slip! THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD! CRASH! BOOM! I'm not even kidding, these were the noises. Turns out my old slippers are, in fact, slippery, and so rather than my feet gripping the stairs as I was going down them, I slid down on my butt. I was actually just fine, lots of padding on my butt I suppose. But somewhere in the course of my fall, I must have hit the wall, which caused the clock to fall off, which hit a picture frame on the way down, which fell on the floor. That was the crash and boom. Clark had just gotten out of the shower. Imagine his dismay when he hears such a clatter! (And he knows it's not reindeer on the roof!) I immediately started crying. Let me remind you, I was absolutely fine, I don't think I even got a bruise from it, but it startled me quite a bit. Especially the crash and the boom. In the end, the picture frame didn't even break, everything was fine and dandy. And a few days later I got a Christmas package in the mail from my mom - 2 new pairs of slippers, with plenty of traction. All's well that ends well.

Just a couple of little things

A few thoughts to share:

1) I am almost out of lotion. This is quite the feat for me, actually. Normally I have all kinds of lotion, and by the time I'm halfway through a bottle, I get more. It's the classic gift idea. But somehow I've used it all up. And normally I at least have my bottle of unscented lotion to rely on as a back up, but no. That is almost out as well. It only took 3 1/2 years to use, but we finally did it. I guess I'll have to go out and buy some more. Or just wait until Christmas in hopes that St Nick wants me to moisturize!

2) The other day it became rather apparent that I can't wear my regular pants for much longer. I'm actually rather pleased that I've lasted this long (5 months in). And some of my pants will fit for a little while longer. But we're going to have to break down tonight and go maternity clothes shopping. I'll let you know how it goes.

3) We had another ultrasound yesterday, and it went well. I'd post a pic, but none of them are nearly as cute as the pictures we got last time. They are all pretty fuzzy, and not very good. But Wombsly is a cute kid, and most definitely a girl. And we got a pretty good live action shot of her opening her mouth and sticking out her tongue. Cute :)

4) So I've decided to educate myself, it's a great thing, I'm excited about it. And I even mentioned that it could be good to have some sort of online discussions about the things I'm learning. But alas! I have no idea how to actually go about having an online forum! I'll have to think about it. Stay tuned. This might take a while.

Oh, and today I'm thankful for: new slippers!

Edumication!

Doesn't it seem like when you are in school all you want to do is graduate? That you can't wait for the day when you don't have homework and classes and tests? But almost immediately after I graduated (well, maybe a few months after), I missed it. I didn't miss the tests, and there were certain classes that I never want to think about again (think O-chem), but I missed the learning. And I still do. It's been a sort of quest of mine to keep myself somewhat educated, but I've been sadly lacking lately. Mostly I have just tried to read good books and listen to more informative podcasts. But I want to do something more.

Yesterday I finally told Clark of my desire, and he asked me, "What do you want to learn?" That is a key question. That might be the worst part of school, having to take classes that you just don't care about. So I decided that I'd like to know more about art history. He suggested I try to find a textbook from the library. I was a bit wary, the Washington County library system doesn't exactly have the largest collection. But they have the textbook he suggested, Gardner's Art Through the Ages. So I'm on my way!

The only thing I'll be missing out on is the social interaction that a class would facilitate - the lecture and discussion. So if anyone wants to join me on my quest, I'm open to learning just about anything. We could have an online forum of sorts to discuss what we learn. It would be like a book club, but online. Of course, no one has the free-time that I have, so I don't expect anyone to jump at the chance to add more to their hectic lifestyle. But know that the offer is out there.

And to go along with all this, today I'm thankful for my degree. I might not use it much, but the fact that I have it says something.

Weekly Quote 12/3/07

"Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother, and in His name all oppression shall cease." Such a good line from O Holy Night. I love Christmas songs! New quote up.

Christmas is coming, the Shan is getting fat

Another belly shot.

Tidy Shan

Today (and every day) I'm thankful that I'm not sick anymore. But today I'm particularly grateful that I feel well enough to clean our house again. I've been slowly getting back into the swing of things around here, the dishes are getting done every day now, and the bathrooms are being cleaned about once a week (give or take a day or 2). However today was the day that we vanquished the "piles of stuff." You know how it goes. You'll have some piece of paper, and you know you want to keep said piece of paper, you just don't know where to put it exactly. So you put it on the floor by your bed, just for a place to put it, and you think to yourself, "I'll figure something out later. I'm too busy right now." Then you have a book that doesn't have a place on the bookshelf yet, and rather than trying to squeeze it in, you put it on the floor by your bed, on top of the piece of paper. "That way I'll remember to find places for them both," you say. Pretty soon, there is this pile of random stuff that has accumulated, and you don't even want to touch it because you know you'll have to find places for it all, and that's a lot of stuff to find places for. It grows, collects dust, and generally annoys your spouse. Well, today I pulled myself together, moved all the stuff from the floor to the bed, and made Clark help me find places for it all. My room is CLEAN! It's such a happy feeling.

Thankfulness

I have this blog I read. I don't know the person, I just found them randomly, and I enjoy her blog, so I check it from time to time. She recently started posting things she was grateful for, and I thought it was a great idea. The plan is that I'll post one thing I'm thankful for each day. I figure it can only help me to realize how truly blessed I am. And maybe it'll help make me a more optimistic person.

Today I'm thankful for: Cloudy days. Maybe it's because they are a novelty here in the land of sun, but they put me in a good mood. They just make me feel all cozy inside.

Baby Clothes

Clark and I went to Old Navy last night to purchase him some new pants, and we saw this onesie. I thought it was cute, and pointed it out in passing. However, Clark lingered, found a 3-6 month size, and asked if we should buy it. So we did. It's the first article of baby clothing we've purchased for ourselves. I thought it was very fitting for Wombsly.

The Twilight Series

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for: A Book Review!

I finally finished the Twilight Series. Oh, where to begin? Well, first of all, I had high expectations for this book. I first heard about it back in August at an enrichment activity. Everyone was raving about it, talking about how good it was, how I just had to read it. So I asked what it was about. "It's a vampire romance." Oh, I , uh. . . . sounds. . . interesting. But I was told not to judge the book by it's description, if you will. Since then it's come up all over the place - everyone I know has read it, it seems like. I put it on hold at the library, only to find that I was #117 on the list. So I fully expected this book to be incredible.

I was somewhat disappointed. Don't get me wrong, it was an enjoyable read, but it wasn't that good. It's just another novel. Something light to keep your brain occupied for a while. And it's a fast read. But there is nothing life-changing about it, and it's not something that I'm going to read over and over again. It was just good, not great.

Just as a warning, I'm going to delve a little deeper into some of my issues with the book, so it might be a spoiler for you if you haven't read it.

The first thing I must say is I am 26, and I do not feel old. Bella has this paranoia about aging, and it cracks me up. The thought of being 20 really bothers her. And 30? Forget it! I recognize that then she'll feel "older" than Edward, but my goodness. He was born in what, 1901? And is there really a huge difference between 17 and 20? But such is the mind of a teenage girl, I suppose. My bigger qualm is how willing and eager Bella is to give up everything to become a vampire. You see her start to realize in Eclipse what becoming a vampire really means, and yet she still wants it with all her heart. My life is obviously quite different from Bella's, but I wouldn't want to be an immortal vampire. I love my family too much. I want to have kids. I don't have a problem with the thought of growing old. And I am not afraid of dying. Part of me just feels like she hasn't fully considered the ramifications. But then again, she seems to fully believe that she can't function without Edward. Which leads me to my next issue.

I think I've become a lot more cynical over the last few years when it comes to tales of romance. Maybe cynical is the wrong word. Realistic? I just don't buy it when people fall head over heels in love within a day or so. It seemed to me like Edward and Bella met, and WHAM! They can't live without each other, so desperate is their love. What on earth is this love based on? Physical attraction? The mystery surrounding Edward? And then the way she completely falls apart when Edward leaves in New Moon. Breaking up is hard. It hurts. But you can get over it. In fact, most people do. You can love someone, say goodbye to them, and continue living. Let's not be ridiculous. Compare what she has with Edward to what she has with Jacob. One seems like an absolute fairy tale, and the other is her best friend. Maybe it's because I chose to marry my best friend, I don't know. But it seems to me that life isn't a fairy tale.

Then again, this is a book. With vampires in it. I guess I shouldn't take it so seriously.

A Quandary

I've had a little cold the last few days, and so I've been sneezing a lot. And I came up with this thought: Is it possible to sneeze in your sleep? Would the act of sneezing wake you up? Or does your body regulate it so you can't sneeze in your sleep? Any thoughts/personal experiences?

Pictures! Oh wait, no pictures.

I had every intention of taking pictures this weekend. I brought the camera. I brought extra batteries. I even brought the battery charger, so there would be no excuse. Unfortunately, I was FOILED, YET AGAIN! I forgot to take any pictures on Thanksgiving, but I thought to myself, no matter, I'll take plenty of pictures of the wedding festivities. I forgot to bring the camera to the wedding dinner, but I thought to myself, no matter, Saturday is the big day, I'll get plenty of pictures of that. So Saturday comes. I brought my camera! I even brought the extra batteries! And I knew the batteries had been charged up, even if it was a few weeks ago. The happy couple exits the temple. I pull out my camera. . . . the batteries die. Well, don't worry, I brought extras! Yeah, those were dead as well. I guess 3 weeks of sitting there wears those batteries right out. LAME! I had even brought the charger, but I only had the car adapter, nothing that would plug into the wall, and we weren't driving anywhere the rest of the day. I was pretty ticked. But oh well, what can you do? I was uber prepared, and it still didn't work out. I am not meant to be a photographer.

That being said, it was a wonderful weekend! We had Thanksgiving dinner at the Blockburger residence, and pie at the Anderson abode. We were able to see the Calls, and my good friend Angela. And the wedding was lovely. My mother did a fantastic job of making the bridesmaid dresses, Kim looked beautiful in her wedding dress, the crepe bar was delicious, the cake was masterfully decorated, and we got to see so many people from the Yale ward. I can't think of any major mishaps, which is a good sign. In any event, Kim and Patrick are married! Hooray for them! They really are a cute couple, and they work well together.

Oh, and BYU won. GO COUGS!

Weekly Quote 11/26/07

"Is this where you were the cream of corn?" This is from Hope Floats, which is not a movie I watch very often, but I always remembered this line. New quote up!

On Saturday Clark and I went to the Jubilee of Trees here in St George. For those of you who are familiar with the Festival of Trees, it's pretty much the same thing, only it feels a bit smaller. The proceeds go toward improving healthcare services for children, which is wonderful. According to the website, "In just the past three years the event has generated nearly $1million for the introduction of Newborn Intensive Care, Maternal Fetal Medicine and a 2nd Jubilee Home featuring special suites for mothers and babies." When I saw that, I thought to myself, wow, we are directly benefiting from this event (seeing as I go to the Maternal Fetal Medicine clinic about once a month). So I decided that we should at least go and support them. And it was actually pretty fun! One of the highlights was the Harry Potter tree (they even had a Sorting Hat! And a Snitch! And so many other things! It was cool!). I thought it warranted a mention on the blog.

Also, IT'S THANKSGIVING WEEK! I love this holiday - good food, lots of family, and the kick-off to the Christmas season! And on top of all that, my sister is getting married! Congrats to Kim and Patrick! We're heading up north this evening so we can be there for all the festivities, and I'm just a little bit excited. I'm also excited for the cold weather, how crazy am I? I just miss all my winter clothes, and I want a chance to wear at least some of them before the belly gets too big. Anyway, hopefully I remember to take lots of pictures this week so I can post them on here next week. But for now, I leave you all with the wishes of a Happy Thanksgiving.

Weekly Quote 11/19/07

"We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing;
He chastens, and hastens his will to make known;
The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing.
Sing praises to his name; he forgets not his own."

Maybe I should have saved Prayer of Thanksgiving for this week, but it was in my head all last week. Could be because I had to practice it on the organ for Sunday. New quote up!

Progress

The bump grows. . . .

Prune Juice

I feel Like I've been blogging a lot lately. Apparently I have a lot to say.

Ever since I got pregnant I've been having constipation problems. Ok, that's not entirely true. I've always had . . . a somewhat irregular bowel system, to put it delicately. But pregnancy has exacerbated the problem. And being dehydrated certainly made it worse. Don't get me wrong, being constipated is 10 million times better than being as sick as I was, and it's really not that bad. But I decided to ask the doctor if he had any suggestions for helping things move along, because if there is something I can do, I might as well do it. He suggested prune juice, a common constipation remedy. So yesterday at the grocery store, I purchased some. You hear lots of bad things about prune juice, how disgusting it is, but I've had prunes before, and they aren't SO terrible. How bad can it be?
Pretty bad, as it turns out. It tastes like liquid raisins that have had the sugar sucked out of them. Not good at all. I think it helped, though, so I am going to continue having a small glass a day and see how it goes. And maybe next time I'll buy plum juice instead.

Tag, I'm it.

Well, I've been "tagged" by Alex, so I guess I'm supposed to write 6 things about myself. Nobody said they had to be interesting things, which is a relief.

1) I love grocery shopping. Love it. I haven't been able to enjoy it much the past few months, but now that I love food again, I'm back in action. I love planning a menu, writing a list, and checking the stuff off. Don't ask me why, it's just fun to me.

2) I have never sent a text message. I'm sure I could do it, but then it would cost something like 15 cents since we don't have a texting plan. And it would take me a very long time to actually type in the letters.

3) While we're at it, I don't really get the point of MySpace or Facebook. I like having a blog, I can write stuff, people can read it, people can comment. I have a Facebook profile, and I just don't know what to do with it. Hooray, I added a map of where I've been! Oh wait, I've been nowhere. It just seems pointless.

4) I like to read. I've been thinking of doing book reviews on my blog, but I always forget. Currently I'm reading Twilight.

5) I bruise like a peach.

6) I hate country music, and yet I love Rascal Flatts. I can't even use the excuse that they aren't really country, because they are VERY country. And I love em.

So there are 6 things about me that you probably already knew, since most people who read this blog (all 7 of you) know me pretty well.

Our Living Room

It's hard to get a good picture of how our living room looks, so I have to use 3 different pictures to get the overall idea. But it's really opened up the middle of the room, which I love. Now I just need more stuff on our blank wall. And I hate the way blogger arranges the pictures, but oh well, we're just going to have to deal with it.

2 Things. . .

First of all, we rearranged our living room. It feels like we have a lot more space, and I love it. It was hard to figure out a way to make everything fit, what with our couch, loveseat, and 3 tables, plus the limitations on where we can put our TV, but we finally figured it out, and it's FANTASTIC. I also measured the furniture in our study, aka Wombsly's room, and I think we can make it all fit elsewhere. If that's what we want to do. Maybe Wombsly needs the computer in her room; she is being born into the age of technology, and she'll probably come out knowing more about computers than I do.

Second, as we walked into the grocery store today, they started playing a Guster song. Yeah, that's right, Guster. First the Golden Corral, now Harmons. This time it was Dear Valentine, yet another lesser known song. And as fate would have it, I was wearing my Guster shirt today.

Weekly Quote 11/12/07

"Oodalalee! The crown! How exciting!" Robin Hood is such a classic. When I watched it the other day, I realized just how many good lines there are in that movie. New quote up!

Wombsly's a She!

In case you haven't heard yet. . . . IT'S A GIRL!!!

Clark and I are SO excited! We keep saying stuff about "our daughter," and "she is kicking me." The ultrasound went well, everything looks healthy and normal (that's always a huge sigh of relief). This picture is my favorite. What do you think? Does she look like an Anderson or a Blockburger? Can you see any red hair?


Someday she'll kill me, but I had to post a picture of the evidence:

As we now have a gender, our search for a name becomes more serious. Especially since we seem to have a multitude of boy names, but only a couple of girl names. We are taking all suggestions, but more serious ones are appreciated. And remember, folks: it has to go with Blockburger. So things that are hard to pronounce or tricky to spell will probably be eliminated. That being said, we really do need more suggestions, so fire away!

Pumpkin Waffles

Last night I actually made dinner. This is amazing in and of itself, it's been a while since I full on made dinner. And I made something new! I found this fantastic recipe for Pumpkin Waffles with Apple Syrup on my friend Danielle's blog. I can't even tell you how great they were, they tasted gourmet, but they were easy! I highly recommend it.

Good Times

As Clark mentioned, we went to SLC this weekend. It was so good to get out of the house and go on a little vacation. And it was so great to see Carrie and Lauren! My one regret is that I didn't take any pictures of them - DOH! But I did get some shots of Kim's shower, so here they are for your delight:

Weekly Quote 11/5/07

"After these messages we'll be right back!" It's just so catchy. And such an integral part of Saturday morning cartoons! Here's a link for your enjoyment. New quote up!

Happy Halloween!

Yesterday was Halloween, a day of candy, costumes, and adventure!

If you're under the age of 13.

Seriously, I don't know what adults are supposed to do on Halloween. If you have kids, you can take them trick or treating. If you're single, you can go to a Halloween party. Except I don't remember attending many Halloween parties, and the ones I did go to were usually pretty lame. But as it turns out, I'm not single, and I don't have kids (yet!), so what am I supposed to do? Can Halloween ever be fun for this group of people?

As it turns out, it can. Last night we went over to the Hunts' place and made some Mummy Dogs (perhaps you remember them from last year). Then we ate popcorn and watched a great movie. And it was quite fun. It didn't really feel like Halloween, except for the Mummy Dogs, but we had a good time. So maybe the trick is to treat (wow, I didn't even mean for that pun to come out) Halloween like just another fun day.

Barenaked for the Holidays

I feel really great these days. Really really great. And you know what else is great? The fact that Christmas is just around the corner! I know it's jumping the gun a bit (OK, quite a lot), but I just love Christmas music, so I'm listening to BNL's Christmas CD today, Barenaked for the Holidays. SO GOOD!

I have a bump

Well, here is the first "belly picture." I guess there really is something in there, even if it's small. Enjoy!

Weekly Quote 10/29/07

"Every other day of the week is fine,
But whenever Monday comes
You can find me cryin' all of the time."

I was feeling crummy last Monday, hence the quote. But I feel much better today! New quote up!

A Good Weekend

First, the pregnancy update: I am feeling a LOT better these days. I still feel the fact that I'm pregnant, but in a much more "normal" way. I get to eat a lot, and I don't throw up much anymore. It's so great. I'm a happy camper. Oh, and I felt the baby kicking the other day. Very fun.

Next, we've had visitors this weekend! First my parents came down on Thursday evening, passing through on the way to my cousin's wedding in Arizona. They'll be staying with us again tonight on their way back up to SLC. It's always good to see your parents. And then Friday evening the Millars joined us for the rest of the weekend. Hooray for the M's and the B's! We worked a game of Fantan in, had a campfire cookout with the Phippens (who were finally in town on a weekend when we were not out of town), and just generally had a great time.

And finally, I bought a blender. I know, it's shocking, we've never had an actual blender until now. We've got a hand blender, and we had a little blender for a while, but it got a crack in it. But I really wanted a fruit smoothie yesterday, and alas, we have NO Jamba Juice in town, so I went and bought a blender. It was on sale, which was great, and it seems to work well. I had my smoothie, and it was excellent. Big thanks to Sabrina for the smoothie instructions, and for telling me to just buy the blender. It's one of those things that I've wanted for months now, but I never go and just buy the thing. There is actually a pretty long list of those. Maybe that should be my Christmas list.

Unprecedented!

Last night Clark and I were eating at the Golden Corral (no, this was not Clark's decision) with the Young Men and Young Women. Suddenly, Clark leans over to me and says, "Um, do you know what song this is?" It took me a minute, but then I realized, it was GUSTER! Satellite from Ganging Up on the Sun, to be more exact. This was shocking because 1) I haven't heard any songs from Ganging Up on the Sun on the radio (even though they were out there), and 2) Satellite wasn't even one of the singles from that album. And they were playing it at the Golden Corral of all places! It totally made my day. I'm wearing my Guster shirt today in honor of the experience.

I also went to the doctor today for my regular check-up. He walked into the room and asked, "What's Guster?" So now my OB knows about Guster, woo hoo, getting the word out! Anyway, 2 good things happened at this visit. First, he took a listen to my heart, and it sounds even better than it did last week. Yay! And second, he took a listen to the baby's heart, which sounded great, but it was interrupted by 3 little blips. Apparently the blips were kicks. Kicks! The baby is kicking! I can't feel it yet, but soon.

Weekly Quote 10/23/07

Last week's quote was a Clark original. I asked him what my weekly quote should be and he busted this out: "I heard a joke the other day. It goes like this: What did the sweater say to the socks? You're fuzzed!" So weird. Of course I had to use it! New quote up!

Suze Orman

Suze Orman was on Oprah yesterday. Now, I've seen The Suze Orman show a couple of times, and generally I like her. She is all about telling people to get out of debt, which is fantastic. We need more of that in this world. And she really isn't afraid to lay into someone and say, "Hey, you're being dumb with your money, fix it." Go Suze.

Back to yesterday. Oprah had on some people that were in debt. I didn't watch the whole show, I flipped to it maybe halfway through, so I only got the full story on one couple. These people are $350,000 in debt. Good gravy! That's a lot of debt! So she was telling them not to buy a $900 pair of shoes (do you know how many pairs of shoes you can get at Payless for $900?!) and to sell their expensive cars, etc. Giving them tips. This is a good thing. Mr. Debt likes DVD's, and has about 900 in his collection. So Ms. Suze busts out this "helpful advice": Put the DVD's on an iPod and sell them.

Um, excuse me? You can't just make a copy of a DVD and then sell it. That is what we call piracy, and is in fact illegal. Tell him to sell the movies, but don't tell him to copy them first! I thought it was pretty lame.

But overall, she was helping people, so I have to give her credit for that.

Getting Some Relief

I had a pretty good weekend. My dear sweet mother came into town to help me out, which has been just wonderful. There's nothing like your mom taking care of you. Anyway, I had a good day on Friday, a good day on Saturday, and a mostly good day on Sunday. Sunday started out not so good, but by some miracle I managed to turn it around and not puke all day, just for a few hours. I got me some of those motion sickness bands and they actually seem to help. Even if it's all in my head that they are helping, I don't care, I'll take the placebo effect. Any relief I can get is completely worth it to me. So yeah, I've been feeling pretty good.

And we've been feeling the love! On Saturday we got an awesome "feel better" package from our friends, which totally made my day. Just knowing that so many people are out there thinking about us and wanting to help makes me feel better! And my visiting teachers got the Relief Society on the job, so we're going to be getting a few meals and some cleaning help. It just makes me so grateful for the church, and especially for the RS. It's wonderful to be part of a sisterhood that pulls together so well. All in all, good weekend.

Weekly Quote 10/15/07

Last week's quote was indeed from the timeless S&G. And thanks to the website I copied and pasted it from, the font is all messed up on the weekly quote! Hopefully I can fix it. Or at least Clark can fix it for me. New quote up!

2nd trimester!

It's official: I have made it to the 2nd trimester! 14 weeks today! Unfortunately, I still feel like a pile some days. Today is shaping up to be alright, but only time will tell how I'll feel tonight. But at least I've hit a milestone!

Weekly Quote 10/8/07

"I've got to admit, it's getting better
A little better all the time."

Gotta love The Beatles. Sorry there was no quote last week, it was a tragic week. New quote up!

Sense of smell

I'm back in the land of the living! Yesterday and today have both been good days. I still take it easy, but I'm hopeful that this will be another bout of good days. If nothing else, at least I got 2 days of a break.

Random memory time: You know how certain scents can remind you of things? I always find that amazing, that our sense of smell can pick up on something from years ago, and suddenly a memory is triggered. Yesterday I was putting on some Bath and Body Works Sweet Pea lotion. I wear that lotion a lot, and yet for some reason it smelled just a little bit different yesterday, I'm not sure why. Anyway, I took one sniff and remembered My Little Ponies. I loved those things! I'll never forget when I got one from my Grandma Bo in San Diego, it was a blue pony with pink hair and little pink bow ties on the side (her name was Bow Tie, in fact), and I loved to brush her tail so much that by the time we made the long trek back to SLC, she had no tail. It was all brushed out. But man, I loved that pony. Such a good memory. Way to go, nose!

Sorry. Not back yet.

So, I don't post much anymore. Sorry bout that. I just figure no one wants to hear about the constant puking, or the IV's, or the strong desire I have to put myself in a coma for the next couple of weeks. I don't know anyone who has had the morning sickness this bad. And I hope no one I know ever does, because this is absolute hell. 7 weeks of it. And still going strong. The puking, not me.

I'm dead. Again.

I was doing so well! Thursday night I yakked. It's been a yak-fest ever since. I want to DIE.

Wombsly!

And now, in 3-D, I present to you:

Wombsly!

Sunny, with a hint of autumn

Ahhhh, fall is here! I love it! Today I am wearing long sleeves. That's right, long sleeves. And I actually wore real shoes, with laces and everything! I love flip flops, don't get me wrong, but it's nice when you can wear real shoes without your feet getting sweaty. I finished my book (Steal a Pencil for Me) so I went to the library and got a couple more, including A Wrinkle in Time. It's been a really long time since I last read this book, I was probably in the 7th grade or something. But I remember absolutely loving it. Madeleine L'Engle recently passed away, so there's been a little more buzz about her recently. And in today's paper, I read Ann Cannon's column, and it inspired me to go read that book again. After getting the book, I picked up a package of root beer barrels at the store, grabbed my blanket out of the car, and I was ready to go. I went up to the grassy area at the top of our complex, plopped down on my blanket, and read my book. It felt so nice. 73° weather, slight breeze, root beer barrels, and Madeleine L'Engle. It doesn't get much better than that. Well, Danielle came out and we chatted for a while, that was just as good. Really, it's the fact that I wasn't sick and I was outside, enjoying myself. Just a way good day.

As a side note, Happy Birthday, Stewart!

The War

So, this weekend was actually really good. No major episodes, I managed to keep lots of food and beverage down. Of course, who knows what today will bring, but as of right now I feel pretty good. Let's hope there are more good days in store for us :)

Last night I watched the first episode of The War by Ken Burns. I'll admit, I fell asleep for maybe 20 minutes somewhere in there, but not because the program wasn't interesting. I was just all snuggly in my PJ's, I had a warm blanket over me, and a cool breeze coming through the window. Conditions were perfect for a small nap. Anyway, it was very well done, I really enjoyed watching it. It made me realize just how many WWII stories there are out there. Everyone who lived through the period has a story, whether they were on the front lines or the home front. It was a war that affected every person in the world in a very personal way. My heart especially went out to the Japanese-Americans who were rounded up and sent to concentration camps. To hear these people tell about how they felt like they had no country, they were citizens of nowhere, it just broke my heart. Episode 2 is tonight. A small part of me would rather watch Heroes, but I feel like this documentary is just more important. Too important to miss. And I'm pretty sure I can watch Heroes online in a day or so.

Now, if The War was on during The Office, that'd be another story. Good thing it plays Sunday-Wednesday.

Weekly Quote 9/24/07

"Wake me up when September ends. . ." Green Day says it best. I thought it was rather appropriate, since I am counting the days to October, when I'll hopefully feel better. New quote up!

Weight Loss

Today I weigh 122 lbs. For the last 10 years I've weighed about 135-140 lbs; it's fluctuated some, but I've stayed pretty well within that 5 lb range. 122. Unbelievable.

New Page Element

I have added a "Pregnancy Ticker" at the bottom of the blog, in case anyone is interested. Also, I had an ultrasound today, everything looks normal, the baby is healthy, and I'll post the pictures as soon as we can scan them.

Weekly Quote 9/17/07

"Oh, Life is waiting for you
So messed up, but we're alive
Oh, Life is waiting for you
So messed up, but we'll survive"

Ah, gotta love the words of Our Lady Peace in their hit song Life. New quote up (better late than never)!

Are we there yet?

It's been a little while since I posted. I had 5 (5!) good days in a row! It was marvelous! Then Sunday night hit. From Sunday night until, well, pretty much this morning I've been feeling absolutely rotten. Lots of throwing up, lots of feeling like I'm going to throw up, nothing staying down. It's been bad. My body gets kind of out of control once I start the yakking. It just won't stop. And I get all worked up emotionally, which just makes it worse. Last night I had quite the meltdown. Poor Clark :(

But today has already started out to be a better day. I just hope it stays that way. I really can't afford to loose any more weight, I'm already lower than my high school weight. I guess most people would be rejoicing over that, but trust me, this is NOT the way to loose weight.

On a completely unrelated note, we slept with the windows open Monday night. And our house actually got cold! It was great. Fall is finally coming to St George! Or at least late summer - high of 90° today.

Tic Tac Toe

I just had to post how happy I am that this is the 3rd day in a row that I haven't been puking. YAY! I still don't feel 100%, and I have to be careful with what I eat and how much I do, but even if I just lay around, as long as I keep food/fluids down, that's all that matters.

I've been watching a lot of Law and Order lately. The other day I was just going to watch 1 episode, but it was one of those "To Be Continued" shows, so I watched the next one. And then that one was "To Be Continued" as well. It ended up being like 4 episodes in a row that were all connected to each other. I had to see it through, see if they convicted the killer! And that got me hooked. Lame, I know.

Doctor's Visit 9/11/07

Look at me, I'm a posting fiend now that the secret is out! I went to the doctor today, he said everything is fine, my heart sounds good, we heard the baby's heartbeat, it's all good. I just realized that some of my readers might need a little explanation as to why I mentioned that my heart sounds good. It's a complicated story, I'll try to shorten it as much as possible.

When I was 9, I got rheumatic fever. It was not a pleasant experience, lots of doctors visits and medications to decrease the swelling in my heart, and I was out of school for about 4 months. As a result, I have a heart murmur. It actually hasn't affected my life much at all for the last 15 years, I had regular check-ups with my pediatric cardiologist until I was 18, and then I was told I should go to an adult cardiologist every 3 years or so. And that is it. I just go, they check it out, no big deal. Well, I came due for an appointment this year, so I went in to the cardiologist here in St George in April, Dr. Chander is his name. Very nice man. He checked everything out, and said my heart was a little bit weaker than he would like. He prescribed some medication, and that was that.

Then my OBGYN got the cardiology report back. You see, we had been trying to conceive for 2 years, and we were doing some infertility treatments. He called me in and said, "Well, this doesn't look good for pregnancy. You should just adopt instead." Talk about a change in plans! And so we decided to follow his advice, and we looked into adoption. Lo and behold, one month later, BAM, Baby Blockburger decides to come into our lives. We were a bit surprised. But in a good way. Anyway, I am a high risk pregnancy, and I've got all sorts of doctors. Dr. Gonzales is the Maternal/Fetal Medicine doctor, Dr. Fagnant is my OB (he's the man I get to see once a week for check-ups), and Dr. Chander is my cardiologist. And Dr. Astle is my regular OBGYN, but he decided that his office wasn't well equipped for my pregnancy, so he turned all care over to the other guys.

So there you go. And that was the short version! Things look good right now, the heart shouldn't be an issue until later in pregnancy, when I have all this extra blood pumping through my system. The big issue right now is dehydration, so we're trying to get that under control. Wow, this is a mother of a post already, so I'm going to finish up. I think most of you already knew all this, but I just wanted to make sure that we didn't have anyone in the dark.

A Good Day

Today is a miracle day. At least thus far. I haven't thrown up at all, and I actually feel pretty decent. We're not going to jump right to good, but I'm doing alright. I even had a bowl of Special K for breakfast (thanks to Steve for the suggestion), and I haven't had "breakfast" in weeks. Maybe I'm just destined to have 3 awful days and then 1 good day. And while that isn't very fun, at least I've got the 1 good day in there. I go to the doctor today. I'll let you know how it goes.

I want this to be over!

I seriously don't know how anyone does this pregnancy thing.

Granted, I think I've got a lot more nausea and vomiting than most people I know. But seriously, this is awful. I just puke and puke and puke. I tried vitamin B6 and unisom. Didn't really work. Tried some phenigrin. Couldn't keep it down. Got the phenigrin in suppository form. That worked for like a week and a half, and then it just stopped working. So I got some Zofran, but it was in pill form, so again, I couldn't keep it down. I got Zofran that dissolves in your mouth. Didn't work yesterday. I just puked and puked and puked. I've been to the ER 3 times now for IV's. I've lost 10 pounds. I woke up every hour last night feeling nausea. I didn't necessarily vomit, but I sure couldn't sleep. I've got bruises down my arm from leaning it on the toilet. I've got bruises on my legs from kneeling on the bathroom floor. I guess you could say I'm about at my wits end.

That was quite the rant. But seriously, I just don't know what to do. And I feel like there is not really anything left for the doctors to do, I've got all the anti-nausea drugs they make. I just hope this is limited to the first trimester, and I'm not one of those lucky few who feel sick the whole 9 months.

Weekly Quote 9/10/07

"Would you like to ride in my beautiful balloooon?" This quote is from homestarrunner.com. Strong Bad says it on one of the home pages. I thought it was funny. New quote up!

The Truth

This is the real reason I've been sick.

This is the baby at 6 weeks. I'm at 9 weeks now. I guess it's still kinda early to be announcing, but oh well. I figure the profuse amount of vomiting tells me that things are going well. And I heard the heartbeat last week!

An interesting piece of mail. . .

I am on the Tai Pan Trading mailing list, which means that I always get the ads, even though I don't go to the store very often. I love that store, it's one of the few stores I can wander around in for a long time and not get bored. So many cute things! And it's affordable, which is great. Anyway, I always get the ads, and I think to myself, ah, I need to go there next time I'm in SLC.

Well, I got an ad on Saturday, and it says:

ST GEORGE
Opening Fall 2007
Exit 10, Behind Costco

I cannot even tell you how much this made my day. Clark and I even went for a drive around Costco to see if we could find the building, but alas, we could not. I kind of get the impression that they are still building it. We shall see. I was just very excited to have a Tai Pan coming my way!

Weekly Quote 9/3/07

" Oh somebody kill me please!
Somebody kill me plee-ase!
I'm on my knees,
pretty pretty please kill me!

I want to die!
Put a bullet in my head!"

Such a good one. Love The Wedding Singer. New quote up!

My Excuse

Clark has been listing his excuses for his lack of blogging. I have an excuse, too.


I'M SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK.

That is all. I hope to feel better soon.

Weekly Quote 8/27/07

I'm a little bit late on this one, but better late than never. "Kevin, you're such a disease!" was indeed from Home Alone. New quote up!

Weekly Quote 8/20/07

"Here comes the sun, and I say it's all right." Hooray for The Beatles! New quote up.

Brandenburg

For the last little while I've been looking up postal codes at work. I finally finished a week or so ago (I started them like 3 months ago). Basically they'll have accounts that have an address, but no postal code. So I got to go on a little hunt and find them. For the US, it was pretty easy, just use the USPS website. It was also pretty easy for Australia and Canada, they have similar websites. The UK was a little more tricky, because their website only allowed you to search for 6 postal codes per day, but I managed to find other resources. The countries that speak foreign languages were trickier still, seeing as I don't speak any language other than English, at least not very well. But I managed.

Anyway, that was somewhat of a tangent. As I was working on finding German postal codes, I would also update the State, since it was fairly easy to figure out. Well, every time I would find a city in the state of Brandenburg, I would immediately get one of the Brandenburg Concertos playing in my head. And always this one. Got me to thinking about how often this happens: the original makes you think of the namesake. I was trying to think of another example of this, but it is proving to be rather difficult. Anyone out there have an example?

Weekly Quote 8/13/07

"Ambition has given way to desperation and I lost the fight from my eyes." This is from Boxing by Ben Folds Five. New quote up!

Happy Birthday to ME!

Well, yesterday was my birthday, and I had a great day! As Clark mentioned, he took me to lunch, and while the service left much to be desired, the food was good, and it was fun to go out. Clark also baked me a delicious Banana Pudding Cake, and gave me the most awesome card you'll ever find. And he even managed to get up early this morning and do the dishes! What a guy. Anyway, I also received numerous phone calls, cards, e-cards, and gifts; it was a good birthday. Thanks to all who made it such!

Wait, wait, you're an idiot

"Wait Wait . . . Don't Tell Me" is the NPR news quiz show. It's actually quite an entertaining show. They have panelists on the show, there is witty banter, there are guests, and they even have people call in to answer questions. All in all a great show. So I'm listening to last week's show, and there is a caller from Salt Lake City. They ask him how Salt Lake City is, and he says, "Hot." To which the host replies, "Didn't they know that about Salt Lake City when they settled there? Cause I've been there in the summer, and it gets pretty hot." And the resident of Salt Lake City responds with this gem: "No, I don't think they came in the summer." Um, hello? The 24th of July? Has he only lived in Salt Lake for 2 weeks? Because just a few weeks ago there was a huge holiday, people off work, a parade, fireworks, in honor of the day the pioneers made it into the valley. What an idiot.

Weekly Quote 8/6/07

"I only knew him because I got to know him." I just thought it was funny. And it was from our very own Nate Tenney, ladies and gentlemen. New quote up, and it's not a live one this week.

A Post to Follow the Lack Thereof

I haven't blogged all week! But it has been a busy week. We had the Tenneys here Sunday evening through Wednesday afternoon, which was great fun. We got to go to Vegas with them on Tuesday, as Clark has already mentioned, and while it was hot, and a lot of walking, I still had a great time. The fountains at the Bellagio were really the best part of the evening. Oh, and Nate trying to get on the freeway to get out of town. THAT was pretty funny.

I also got a new calling. I am now the Ward Organist. I am actually really excited about it. I love to play the organ but I never have an excuse to practice. Now I have the perfect excuse! And really, Ward Organist is a pretty cushy calling. As is RS chorister, which calling I still hold. No meetings. For the one, I just practice when I want to, for the other I just pick some songs out. It's great. Clark and I realized the other day that now we are involved in all the music of the ward. I'm the Ward Organist and RS Chorister, Clark is the Priesthood Pianist and the Choir Pianist. We've pretty much got it covered.

Weekly Quote 7/30/07

"Be not afraid of greatness: Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them." Hooray for Twelfth Night! New quote up. Now, I don't expect anyone to guess this quote, seeing as it's a "live quote," if you will, and I was there to hear it. It's just funny. Enjoy.

Attacked!

As it turns out I hate cockroaches. A lot. You might be thinking to yourself, oh, I hate them too, but my loathing has reached another level. We've been blessed thus far to only see a few in our house, and I like it that way. This morning I got up, went into the bathroom, and I heard this weird noise in the wall. Kind of a scratching noise. Now, it could have been anything, but I got all worried that it might be bugs. And then I looked in the bathtub. HUGE COCKROACH!!! So I went into our bedroom, told Clark there was a bug in the bathtub, and I needed him to kill it. He was, of course, asleep, and thus he moaned and rolled over. I went back into the bathroom. He was crawling around in there, so I moved the shower curtain to keep my eye on him. That was a bad move, he flipped out and went into SUPER SPEEDY MODE! And what did I do? I flipped out. I yelled, I ran out of the bathroom, stubbing my toe on the way, and I ran into the bedroom, yelling at Clark that he had to get up and kill that thing. And then I started crying. Racking sobs. Yes, this is over a bug. I just couldn't handle the thought of that bug crawling around in my shower. So of course Clark is awake by now, but he's not really sure what to do, so he tells me to go on my walk, and when I come back the bug will be gone. "Gone? I don't just want gone, I want DEAD." He promised me he'd kill it. And he did. I just thought that my response was interesting. And that is how much I hate roaches.

Good times in Southern Utah

Well, we've been busy little beavers the past week! On Thursday we met up with the Millars in Cedar City and saw Twelfth Night (hence the weekly quote). It was excellently done, and, as usual, the tarts and humbugs were divine. We stayed the night in Cedar, and then headed up to Bryce Canyon for some hiking and beautiful scenery. I can't believe we have lived in St George for almost a year and we have not been to Bryce Canyon. It's breathtaking! Zion is great, don't get me wrong, I love it there, but Bryce is just a step above. It's so unusual, all the hoodoos, and it's so much cooler up there. It was overcast for most of our hike, which made the temperature absolutely perfect. We went out on the Navajo Trail and then came back on the Queen's Garden trail. We took a lot of pictures, which is so out of character for us. Here is a sampling:

The concessions stand:

The view from our seats:

Apparently all babies suck on their Snuglies:
Queen Victoria:Into the rock:

Clark and his fishes.

Weekly Quote 7/23/07

"Absolutely I do." This is what you say when Dwight asks you to be involved in anything secret. So, in case that didn't help, it's from "The Office." New quote up!

A few observations

I have 3 observations that I'd like to comment on:

1) We seem to have cicadas here, and I hate them. I assume they are cicadas, they make a terrible noise that sounds like electricity buzzing, but since the noise was there when the power was out, I'm guessing it's bugs. First off, bugs are gross in general, and secondly, I get the feeling I'm living inside an electric fence. Bug experts (really, this is just Suzanne): when does the buzzing stop?

2) I was driving to the store (which is really just a couple blocks away, and I could have walked, but it is just too hot these days for that) and I saw a bunch of utility trucks on our street. I couldn't figure out why they were there, until I saw the fire hydrant down the road gushing water. I seriously had to drive through a river, it was insane. And I laughed. I know we're in a drought and it really shouldn't be a laughing matter, but since there were people there working on it, I felt OK about it.

3) I hate pickles, and as such I never buy them. I actually had never even thought about buying them, but we had some hamburgers last weekend and Clark mentioned how he likes pickles. So I decided to make the purchase, as we are having hamburgers for dinner tonight. I even was careful to ask Clark what kind of pickles he'd want, because I knew there was more than one variety. So I went to the store (had a laugh at the fire hydrant) and strolled down the pickle aisle. Um, there are dozens of kinds of pickles. Sweet, bread and butter, dill, gherkin, cucumber chips, baby pickles, kosher dill, relish, garlic and onion, the list goes on. I was rather overwhelmed. And I almost had to laugh as I realized that there are hundreds of jars right in front of me, and I'm fairly certain that if you opened any single one of them, no matter the variety, I'd gag. I went with dill, by the way.

I have the power!

Yesterday at about 4:25, our power flickered, and at 4:30, our power was OUT. Normally when I think of power outages, I think of how nice it is to have no TV, and the fact that you have to be a little creative with your time. And they usually occur during a storm or something. But this outage was caused by a wildfire. In the middle of July. In St George. It got pretty warm pretty quick. By 5:15 I was laying on the floor downstairs, trying not to think about the heat. It took Clark quite a while to make it home in the traffic, since all the lights were out. I guess almost all of Washington County was out of power, it was pretty crazy. Neither of us had much gas in our cars, and you couldn't go fill it up anywhere. And we didn't have a battery-powered radio. Dinner consisted of cereal for Clark and dry ramen noodles for me. There were just so many little things that I didn't ever really think about before, but now I'm going to try to be more prepared. One of the first things I'm going to do is buy a radio. Anyway, we waited for a little while, and then went over to the Porters to hang out, have FHE, and try our best to stay cool. Eventually it started raining, which was a welcome relief. And we even had a killer lightning storm! The power came back on at around 8:30ish, so it wasn't terribly long without it, but I for one was glad that it didn't go off earlier in the day, it was hot enough. It really made me grateful for electricity and all the luxuries it affords us.

Who's the Boss night

As Clark was flipping through the channels, we saw the Angels in the Outfield was on TV, and we happened to catch a scene with Tony Danza in it. Good old Tony! And after that we flipped past Law and Order: SVU, in which Judith Light was playing a judge. That's right, it was Angela Bower! 2 Who's the Boss stars in 1 night! I used to love that show, but I've seen it on TV recently, and it's definitely not as good as I remember it to be. Ah, the difference 15 years can make.

Weekly Quote 7/16/07

"Winter must be cold for those with no warm memories... And we've already missed the spring!" I love that this quote is from An Affair to Remember (which is an excellent flick), but it is so very memorable in Sleepless in Seattle (also an excellent flick). New quote up!

My food is out to get me

This morning I needed to do the dishes, so I took care of most of them, and then brought over the cookie sheet that had some food stuck on it from last night. We had cooked up some potato wedges, and 1 or 2 of the wedges got stuck to the pan, left their mark if you will. So I decided to run some water over it, maybe let it soak for a while. But soaking a cookie sheet isn't an easy task, they are quite a bit larger than the sink, so I ran some water over it for a minute and then decided to see how broken up the food was. I ran my hand down over the trouble spots. OUCH! The stupid glorified french fry cut my finger! And it's a pretty good slice, too. Think enormous paper cut, only deeper. I think the most annoying part of it all is that now my right hand has this band-aid on it, which makes it tricky to do things. Thwarted by a french fry.

Blinky Magee

I seem to have developed an eye twitch. It started on Saturday afternoon, and while it hasn't been constant, it is still annoying. I was starting to get concerned this morning when I couldn't sleep because of it, so I did a little online research. A very little. Ok, I looked at 1 webpage. Anyway, I looked through the list of possible causes of eye twitching and a few popped out at me: stress, lack of sleep, fatigue, and prolonged staring or eye strain. Check, check, check, and check. So i guess I just need to worry less, sleep more, and stop looking at a computer screen for hours on end. But until then, I'm all kinds of self-conscious about talking to people face to face, I probably look like some sort of Tourette's kid.

More of the Gym

I went to the gym again today, and this time they had a movie playing. Woo hoo! So I did the elliptical for about 35 minutes while watching Red Eye. And let me say, that is an excellent movie to watch while working out, I couldn't believe how fast I was going while she was running away from the bad guy. Anyway, I have great hope for this whole exercising thing, I think it's going to become a habit!

I'm a member

It's begun. I have started to go to the gym.

I know, I know, we all thought this day would never come. I hate exercising, just hate it. But I've come to realize that the problem isn't that I hate exercising, it's that I need to be distracted while I'm exercising. That is why dance was always so great for me, it engaged my brain in something other than the fact that my legs are giving out and I'm gasping for air. So I've decided that going to a gym is an excellent because they have a) aerobics classes, which are kind of like dance classes, and b) a cardiocinema room where you can do the elliptical/treadmill while watching a movie. It's a good thing. I also have some motivation to go, because as you all know (at least I think you all know) I've got a heart condition that could be benefited by an increase in cardiovascular activity. So I'm going to do it, and I think I'm going to like it.

I joined about a week ago, and then we went out of town, so today was the first official work out day. I went in after going on my morning walk (I figured that was a good warm up, right?), and I was all set to just do the elliptical machine. And then I read the sign saying that the cardiocinema was out of order. DOH! I still did the elliptical for 20 minutes (10 forward and 10 back), but I just got bored after that. I also figure that it's good to start somewhere, and I did get myself to the point that I felt my heart beating in my throat, so that's good I guess. Hopefully next time I'll get to watch a movie while doing it.

Weekly Quote 7/9/07

"Day after day, day after day,

We stuck, nor breath nor motion;

As idle as a painted ship

Upon a painted ocean."

Hooray for memorizing poetry in the 9th grade! Every time I quote that passage of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner I see Shirley Smith, striking a pose at the front of the classroom. That was a long time ago.

New quote up, this one is in honor of the fact that I'm considering St George to be having "winter" right now - the time of year where you just don't go outside.

Yellowstone Excursion, Part 2

I started out my last post by saying that I hadn't even mentioned our Yellowstone trip yet. And as it turns out, I still haven't. Lame.

In a nutshell, Yellowstone was a lot of driving. But it was also a lot of fun. We drove up to West Yellowstone on Saturday, saw the park on Sunday, and drove back to SLC on Monday. There were 4 vehicles, none of which were ours, so we were able to bounce around a lot, which was actually pretty fun. We got to spend time with everybody, and it was especially great to hang out with our nieces and nephews. It got me to thinking about the fact that I haven't been around little kids in a very very long time. My youngest sister is now 20, we don't live close to any of the nieces or nephews, and we moved away from the Wasatch Front right about the time that all our friends started having kids. Add in the fact that I went to a student ward while I was at BYU, then we went to a married student ward, and now we live in St George, there just aren't a lot of little kids. Granted, we do actually have a primary in this ward, so there are kids around, but I'm not around them all that often. Just a funny thought.

That is what you call a tangent. The fact is, we did all the usual things that Blockburgers do in Yellowstone. We ate at the Three Bears Restaurant. We at ice cream at the Inn at Old Faithful. We saw Old Faithful go off. We walked on the boardwalk to see a few other geological features. We stopped at Artist's Point to see the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. We saw lots of buffalo. And generally, we had a good time. Considering the number of people we had there (15), it's pretty incredible that we did anything, really.

So, we went on this vacation, and I really don't have that much to say about it. About half of the people who read this blog were there. And it was a great vacation, but I can't think of any really great stories to share. After we got back we had tin foil dinners in Provo in honor of Brett's birthday. I hadn't had tin foil dinners in years. In fact, the last time I did that might have been when I was in Young Women (yikes!). So that was good. Ok, I think I've made it abundantly clear that it was good, but I have nothing to say, so I am going to be done posting.