So... Tired...

I know posts about lack of sleeping aren't that interesting, but it's 5:00 AM and I can't sleep! I have to vent.

1) We're traveling to CA in a few hours, and I always have trouble sleeping the night before a big trip.

2) I have sewing going through my head. I don't know how to sew clothes, but a little dress that I bought for Baby Girl for my sister's wedding needs sleeves, so I've been experimenting with sewing little puffed sleeves. I've gotten the hang of it:
(final practice sleeve before using the real material):

but this means that this project is on my mind a lot, and so I go to bed thinking about sewing, and for the past few nights I've been DREAMING OF SEWING. I won't be able to stop thinking about it until it's done, but it's taking a while.

3) Tonight I was able to play a few games of League of Legends with Mc, and now scenes from that are going through my mind. It's a game that takes a lot of concentration to play and I really should know better than to do that right before bed.

4) This baby inside of me has decided it wants to wiggle around tonight and keep me from getting comfortable.

Ever since about 11:30 PM I feel like my brain can't turn off! I've laid in bed for hours and I cannot fall asleep. Probably around 2:30 I guess I finally slipped into unconsciousness, but then something woke me up at 4:15 AM and I've been wide awake ever since. Still tired and weary, but awake. I didn't get a nap yesterday because Baby Girl didn't nap for long and I had too much on my mind with having to pack and all. I didn't sleep long the night before either. So I'm running off of about 6 hours of sleep from two nights ago and less than 2 hours from last night.

Maybe I'll be able to sleep on the plane? Yeah right. Not unless Baby Girl sleeps too, which is unlikely.

I'm really REALLY hoping that once I finish making these sleeves for Baby Girl's dress and once we're all settled in CA for the holidays I'll be able to sleep better. Then my brain can relax and stop obsessing over, "Have we forgotten to pack anything?" (we haven't) and "What if I gather more material at the top of the sleeve, will that make it puffier?" (it does).

Sad Santa Photos

I was just looking at an online article of a compilation of photos of kids whose parents make them sit on Santa's lap for Christmas pictures and the kids are crying (and Santa doesn't look too thrilled either). I know they're supposed to be funny-- and with a few of the toddlers it is kinda funny-- but not with the infants. Those little kids look genuinely scared, and some look scared and heartbroken at being left by their parents with a scary-looking stranger, and I actually started to cry at seeing picture after picture of little kids crying and reaching out for their parents. I think I'm a little emotional tonight. Stupid hormones.

These pictures remind me of the family pictures we had in Utah back in July. Baby Girl and her cousin (who's just a little older than her) were sitting on the grandparents' laps and both of them were crying, and the photographer commented, "You'd be surprised at how many of those pictures end up as Christmas card pictures." Why would I want other people to see my daughter in such distress? It breaks my heart to see her like that and I don't find it cute at all.

We are not going to make our kids sit on Santa's lap for pictures. Ever. Baby Girl is one of those kids who would cry and reach out for us and I won't put her through that. Plus, we're going to explain to our kids that Santa isn't real, so what's the point in getting a picture with him anyway?

Ugh

For a while now I've been okay with how my body looks; I know I'm overweight but I decided not to let it bother me until after I'm done nursing our second baby. I try to do my hair nicely and wear clothes that fit me well, and in general I'm okay with my appearance. Until today.

This afternoon we had a rubber ducky race at our apartment complex's pool for a charity event, and at the pool there was a gal with her boyfriend in the hot tub, and she was in a skimpy red bikini which she flaunted when she got out of the tub for the race. Apparently nothing will make my confidence plummet like standing next to a girl who looks good in her bikini. I'm big and I'm pregnant and I know there's nothing about that that's attractive, and I'm also fairly emotional and irrational, and hence I've been in a slump ever since this afternoon. Since becoming pregnant it's harder for me to come out of a bad mood, and I think this encounter is going to bother me for a long time. :(

Bountiful Baskets; Stupid Oven

This is our second time receiving a Bountiful Basket. It is fresh produce that gets delivered to specific locations every two weeks and you go pick it up. The gal at Mc's work who told everyone about the program has set up their work as a location for those in the company who wanted to participate, which is really convenient for everyone. We don't know what we'll be getting in the box each time, so it's kinda fun seeing what we will have to work with for the next two weeks.

This time we got a pineapple, some apples, oranges, blackberries, tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers, onions, radishes, lettuce and broccoli. We had a choice of a few extra things that we could order, and what sounded best to me was apples... only catch was there were 40 lbs. of them! Mc asked me a few times, "Are you sure you want that many apples? You're sure?" and yes, I am. :D I got quite a few good suggestions from Facebook friends for recipes that require apples, and with 40 lbs. worth of apples I will have enough to try all of those recipes and even mess up on the first few.

I'm not looking forward to messing up on some of these recipes but I know it's inevitable on the first few because our oven does not cook at the right temperature. For instance, a recipe requires cooking at 350 degrees, so I put it at 350 degrees and whatever I'm cooking comes out overcooked, even at the low end of the cooking time. So now I have to guess and play around with the temperature nob to find the right setting, and unfortunately the food will pay the price until I get it right. Last night I set the oven to about 340 instead of 350 and I used the pineapple from our bountiful basket to make Pineapple Banana Bread. It turned out really well... except for the burnt outside. I get sad when the house smells really good at first and then starts to smell of burned food before the food is done cooking. So tonight for our dinner I get to try again. It's discouraging but I'll get it right eventually.

The bountiful baskets are forcing me to cook and eat more healthily because I know we'll be getting fresh produce on a regular basis and I don't want the food to go bad. I'm looking forward to seeing what new foods Baby Girl can and will eat. It's a good feeling to provide meals for my hubby and daughter; it makes me feel like I'm a successful wife and mother. :)

Baby-Brain Moments

I've had two "baby-brain" moments this past week that make me chuckle.

First, I was looking for a pair of scissors that I had used earlier in the day and I couldn't find them. Then later that night I went to get a frozen burrito out of the freezer and there were the scissors, right where I had left them next to the package of burritos. It's one of those odd moments where your brain goes, "..... ?" and then "Yay!"

Second moment was a day or two later. Mc and I were on the couch with Baby Girl and he said, "Is her dress on backwards? 'Cause she's got pockets on her butt." My response was this: ".... yep, it's backwards," and I laughed. A minute before he said that I had noticed some decorative buttons on the back of her dress but it didn't occur to me that those were supposed to be in the front... and I didn't notice the pockets at all until he mentioned them. So she was wearing her dress backwards the entire day and I didn't notice. Baby-brain can be frustrating a lot of the time, but sometimes it's good for a laugh.

Car Seat on the Freeway

On our way home from visiting friends last night Mc was driving and I was looking out the window and I saw what looked like a broken car seat on the side of the freeway. This alarmed me because car seats should always be on the inside of a car and securely strapped in. There was debris all around it, too, as if it had been thrown out a window or fallen off a truck or something. We had driven past it at freeway speed so I only saw it for a second, but I was worried that if it was a car seat then there was a good chance that there was a baby inside it.

On a TV show called "World's Dumbest"--which is a show of actual home/surveillance videos of people doing stupid things, and actors & comedians comment on the videos-- there was one episode called World's Dumbest Drivers, and what happened was this guy stole his girlfriend's car, but her baby was in a car seat in the back of the car. He was being chased by police down the freeway (this was caught on the police car camera) and what he did was slowed down to almost a full stop, set the car seat and baby down on the road, and then took off again to try to get away. The baby was fine; the car seat had tipped over because the guy didn't set it down perfectly, but the baby wasn't hurt and the police were right there to take care of it. The show's commentators were pissed off (pretty much everyone's comment was "What the f***?!"), and Mc and I were shocked that someone would actually do that to a baby. So this video came to mind when I saw this car seat with debris around it, and I had to know if there was a baby inside.

We were at our exit for home but Mc hopped back on the freeway southbound and then swung around again so we could check it out. We didn't see it and we really wanted to get home but I wouldn't have been able to rest without knowing if everything was okay. So we did another flyby, this time going further back down the freeway, and this time we saw it. He pulled off onto the side of the road and put on his four-way flashers and I hopped out and waddled down the freeway to get a closer look, listening for a baby along the way. Much to my relief, it wasn't a car seat at all; it was some big plastic thing that I didn't recognize, but from the way it had broken I could see how it looked like a car seat from the freeway. So I picked it up and dragged it further away from the oncoming cars and headed back to our car.

It turned out to be nothing serious, but I'm so grateful for Mc who was willing to go back twice to check and make sure. If it had been a car seat with a baby inside, the baby would have needed immediate medical attention-- if it was even still alive-- and I didn't want to brush it off and hope that the thing on the road was nothing to worry about.

A Few More Halloween Pictures

We did take individual Halloween costume pictures, and per my mother's request I am posting them here. :)

Baby Girl as Snow White (yes, that's her real hair) :

Mc as Mayhem, a hot babe jogging:

Me as a beautiful bovine:

And here's a picture on Halloween of Baby Girl in a glow-in-the-dark shirt and pumpkin hat that my mother and sister got for her while they were down here visiting:

She always takes the hat off right away, but it's still cute and fun. :)

Confidence is Sexy (and Halloween)

Yesterday afternoon I was watching this show that I like, "What Not to Wear", where these fashion experts take women who look either frumpy or over-the-top inappropriate and show them how to dress for their age and their body type and this decade, and they make these women look good. On yesterday's show they were talking to a woman in her 40s and they said a few times, "You look good in this outfit, but what really makes this look fabulous is your confidence. We love your confidence, and confidence is sexy!" You don't have to be super-thin or dress trampy to be confident.

Up until now I've been down on myself, and here's why: I'm fat. Like, I was overweight before I got pregnant the first time and I didn't lose any of that weight before getting pregnant again, so now I'm rather large (luckily I'm tall so it's not as bad). And yet while I'm not happy with how big I've gotten, I'm going to stop letting it bother me and just be content. My body is working properly. It's doing what it is supposed to do right now: grow a baby. And once this baby is born my body will again be doing what it is supposed to do: produce milk to feed the baby. I likely will not lose any weight until I stop nursing this second baby... so I have a choice: I can either spend the next year and a half being disgusted with my body or I can start dressing so I look good at any weight.

I've known many large women who are full of confidence, and that attracts people. A lack of confidence doesn't attract people, whether the person is in shape or not, pretty or not. I need to be healthy, this much is true, and I will work on losing weight eventually, but my girlish figure can wait. For now I'm going to be fine with my womanly figure and let my body do its thing and care for my new baby.

I'm accepting how I feel about my body and I'm confident enough that I can do this: I was a cow for Halloween. :) A few ward members who recognized me and know I'm very pregnant thought this was great. Here are a couple of pictures of our ward's Trunk-or-Treat activity this afternoon.

Mc has always been confident enough to do Halloween costumes. This year he was Allstate's "Mayhem" as a hot babe jogging, and quite a few people recognized who he was supposed to be and they thought it was great.  Baby Girl was Snow White and she looked very pretty, and she's already got the hair for it!

We had fun. I hope our confidence will help Baby Girl be a confident little girl as well. She needs parents who are happy with themselves, and she'll have them!

Worst. Musical. Ever.

Okay, Mc and I thought the musical "Bye Bye Birdie" was the worst we've ever seen. The only redeeming things about that movie were: Dick Van Dyke was in it, and there were two good songs. But tonight we found a musical that topped it as the worst: "The Pajama Game". There was nothing good about it.

(1) Bad singers. There was only one good singer, and that was the lead man. Doris Day was the main gal and she's not that great a singer, and there were some people in the movie that were downright bad singers.
(2) Bad songs. There were two songs that we had to mute; stupid lyrics and some of the notes drove me crazy.
(3) The love story was rushed and seemed forced; not believable at all.
(4) Dance moves were stupid. Someone needs to punch that choreographer.
(5) Attempted murderer not punished. A jealous man tried to kill his girlfriend by throwing knives at her, saying, "You've driven me too far," or something like that. And then he tried to kill the man he thought the girlfriend was cheating with. All three of them are employees and he did this on company property. But nothing happened legally to him. The couple looked happy-go-lucky at the end.
(6) Embezzler not punished. The plot was all about factory employees fighting to get a 7-and-a-half cent raise (this was made in the 1950s), and it turns out the boss had been given the money 6 months ago, but no one knew about it; he was hiding it on the books and embezzling the money! But only he and the main guy knew about it, and the main guy got the boss to make a deal with the employees by threatening to go to the board of directors with the information if he didn't. The deal he made with the union members was, "We'll compromise: I'll give you the 7-and-a-half cent raise if you promise not to seek retroactive pay." None of the employees knew there was retroactive pay that they could have sought, so they all cheered and gladly agreed. No legal actions were taken against the boss.

Do not waste your time with this movie. I'll be really surprised if we find another musical worse than this one.

Baby Girl's 1st Birthday

Today was our little Baby Girl's 1st birthday. Really it was more of a birthday weekend, and it was nice.

My mom and my youngest sister came down from California on Friday night for Baby Girl's birthday and they spent the weekend with us. Here's the little dress my sister made for her:


Here's Grandma playing hide-and-seek with her; Baby Girl loved it!


We traveled an hour south to see my aunt and uncle and two of my cousins; we had a good time, and Baby Girl liked her walking-on-grass experience (we don't let her walk on the grass barefoot at our apartment because people let their dogs pee and poop on the grass.


And here are a few pictures of her little birthday party tonight.
The decorations, thanks to my mother and sister:


We didn't have a cake for Baby Girl; too much sugar. We instead went with a pumpkin pie. It's not as sweet and we knew it would be very easy for her to eat. Plus we like pumpkin pie :) Those candles are in the shape of a 1, courtesy of Mc (she wasn't too keen on the fire).


She started off slowly, testing out her pie slice:


And she ended up like this:

This is the messiest she's ever been. She ate a fair amount and she liked the feel of it squished in her hands. It was funny.

Once she was cleaned up and I had come back from taking my mother and sister to the airport, we opened her gift from two of our friends: a cute little dress and a fun puzzle-type thing. It was very nice of them, and she'll get good use out of both.


A very low-key birthday which is how I like them, but it was a birthday with people who love her. Both her Uncle B and Uncle D (my brothers) called today to wish her a happy birthday; she's their only niece on our side of the family so far and it's nice that they remembered (and it was nice for me talking with them as well). :) Happy Birthday, Baby Girl!

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5-day-later P.S. We got a package from Nana and Papy who sent a pretty little card and an adorable dress. It's still a little big for her but that means she'll have plenty of time to wear it!

I don't know what face she's making there, but it's funny :) Thanks, Nana!

Baby Mischief

I took this picture of Baby Girl last night:

Yesterday she figured out that the cabinet doors open and there's cool stuff inside! So last night we started putting those childproofing latches on the doors.

Here's another one from a few weeks ago:

She likes to crawl inside her laundry basket, but she doesn't always know how to get back out, so we help.

One more, for fun:

Mctook this a few weeks ago. She in finally sleeping more during the night because she's comfortable sleeping on her stomach and she can roll over and still be comfortable. She likes to hold onto things when we put her to bed; this time it was a big marker (don't worry, she can't pull the top off yet).

Happy, healthy baby who is learning and growing well. We love her.

Commercial Woes

There are some commercials on TV that bug me for one reason or another, but there are two that distress me.

1) You know that song "Whoomp There it is" from the mid 90's? I like that song, but it is now being used in a diaper blowout commercial. There are cartoon babies in a contest to see who has the biggest blowout and if the diaper will hold it. Disturbing and unappealing commercial, and it saddens me that they're using that song for it.

2) There is a commercial for chocolate milk and how it tastes good and is good for you. I see that commercial and yell at the TV, "No! Don't do it! Don't buy the chocolate milk!!" (like they can really hear me. ;) ) When my sister Stacy was on her mission in Illinois, she was told by someone who grew up on a farm that you should never drink store-bought chocolate milk. Sometimes blood and/or puss from the cow gets into the milk. Rather than throw it away, the milk has chocolate added to it to make it chocolate milk which disguises the blood and puss, so it's sellable. Absolutely gross! If you ever want chocolate milk, use regular milk and just add your own chocolate syrup to it.

Baby-Brain

This is the part of pregnancy that is bugging me the most: my "baby-brain" as my husband calls it. Basically it's like the intelligence part of my brain is running at about 50% and I can't kick it into gear. I honestly feel like an airhead. I forget things all the time; I start saying something to Mc and I pause mid-sentence because the thought just completely leaves my mind. I can't think of the names of things-- nouns escape me. I get easily distracted by something and I forget what I was doing or what I was going to do. I'm surprised I haven't ruined more dinners that way. Nightly heartburn, growing belly, loose ligaments and joints... all those I can handle; but this stupid-spell I'm going through is getting really annoying, and there's nothing I can do about it :( Hopefully it won't continue after this baby is born!

Over-Scheduling on Purpose?

I'm curious about something:

Different things can stress out different people, and stress can manifest itself in different ways. Today's kids are getting stressed out at such a young age, and they're getting health/behavior problems that come from stress. Some of the stress comes about because their parents schedule too many things for their children to do during the week-- clubs, sports, band, and all sorts of other things-- and so I'm wondering: are all these activities for the benefit of the kids, or so the parents will be rid of them for a few hours at a time?

I think kids should be given the chance to find something they like to do and that the parents should encourage them in the wholesome things they enjoy. But if a child, especially a young one, is involved in more than one extra-curricular activity it can be stressful for them. Kids need unstructured playtime where they can use their imaginations, burn off energy at their own pace, and just be kids. But I think some parents either don't like spending time with their children or it wears them out too much, so they enjoy sending them off somewhere for an hour or two so they can have time to themselves. Not only that, but do parents really expect their child to excel at something when they've got at least one other activity they're focusing on as well? The expression "Jack of all trades, master of none" comes to mind. At what point do these activities stop being about making the kids happy and start being about the parents wanting time away from their kids?

They're Finally Here!

They finally arrived: two textbooks about interior design!

Back in college while I was studying International Relations-- which turned out to be a huge waste of a college degree, but that's another topic for another time-- I sketched out a housing design for fun based off of a house that I saw in a movie that I really liked. A year and a half later when Mc and I got cable I found the HGTV channel which is all about house decorating and design and things like that, and I realized, "Hey, I really like this stuff!"

Fast-forward to today. Over the past month or so I've been feeling like I'm not going anywhere or accomplishing anything in my life, that I'm stuck in one place. So I looked online for community college classes that I could take either online or during the evening when Mc can be home with the baby. Something to make me feel like I'm learning something that's both interesting and useful; personal enrichment. I looked at interior design classes and cooking classes, and although some of them would have worked with my schedule, because I haven't been in Arizona for at least a year I am considered an "out-of-state resident" as far as colleges are concerned. There's no way I was going to pay $2,000 for 2 classes at a community college, NO WAY! So I became depressed again and I felt like, "Well now what? I'm back where I started." Then Mc suggested I could at least get some of the books, and I thought, "That could work. I would still be learning what I want to learn and then after a year I'll be ready for classes... if I still want to go that route." That helped me feel better. Now the books are here and I feel like I'm learning again and putting my brain to good use, that I'm working toward something and not just sitting at home wasting away, day after day. I'm happy :)

Movie Quote about Being a Woman

Through Netflix, Mc and I are watching some old classic movies that I've wanted to watch for a while. One of them was the 1950 movie "All About Eve" and the main woman said something that's stuck with me ever since we watched it. Her character has been a very well-known stage actress for many years, but she's 40 years old now and she is coming to grips with the fact that in 10 years or so her career will be over and she's wondering what will be left when that's over. Here's what she said:

"At best let's say I've been oversensitive to, well, to the fact that she's so young, so feminine and so helpless; so many things I want to be for Bill. Funny business, a woman's career. The things you drop on your way up the ladder so you can move faster. You forget you'll need them again when you get back to being a woman. That's one career all females have in common, whether we like it or not: being a woman. Sooner or later we've got to work at it, no matter how many other careers we've had or wanted. And in the last analysis nothing's any good unless you can look up just before dinner or turn around in bed and there he is. Without that you're not a woman. You're something with a French provincial office or a book full of clippings; but you're not a woman."

Feminists would hate that quote, I'm sure: the thought of needing a man to make yourself feel like a woman and that your career means nothing... at least that's how they would interpret it. But that's not what she's saying. What she's saying is that your title doesn't make you who you are; you might be a senior executive or a manager of a company, but you're still a woman, and you need to work at that too. If you look across the table or roll over in bed and your husband isn't happy, or isn't there, you're not doing your job as a woman; you haven't worked at it enough. We are supposed to be a "helpmeet" for our husband, and if we've failed at that, it doesn't matter what success we've had in our other careers.

Granted, this movie was made in 1950. Some people might say, "That was over 60 years ago; things are different now." They're right, things are different now... and look at the divorce rate in our country. Look at the number of children growing up in broken homes. This is going to sound harsh, but unless the man is a jerk or a scumbag, the fault of this is on the woman. Good men who are happy at home don't go looking for happiness elsewhere or with someone else. We're in the feminazi era where as a woman it's all about your own career, your own goals and desires, and any man or children who get in the way or want you to be more of a "traditional" woman or mother can take a flying leap off a bridge (while it's awesome to have goals, we shouldn't sacrifice our marriage or family to accomplish them). We're pressured to be competitive and to want the jobs that men typically have, to "pull our own weight" by adding to the family income. "Nurturing" as a feminine trait has been reduced to the equivalent of a four-letter word. Staying home to raise your children is considered old-fashioned, or worse, unnecessary. Working to have a happy marriage and doing things to make your husband happy are low on the priority list.

I'm not suggesting we as women need to adopt the "Leave it to Beaver" wife/mother image; the woman who said the quote above was far from being like that. But she understood the need to embrace what it is to be a woman, to be feminine, to let our man be the man of the house and to do what we can to make him happy. Some men are not worth keeping; that's up to your judgment. But if your man is worth keeping, keep him happy and he'll stay; it's that simple. All couples have problems here and there-- that's unavoidable-- but if you work on yourself and at the marriage, you can work through problems before they become big stumbling blocks. Being a woman, with all the complexity that this entails, is worth exploring and embracing.

Best "Jane Eyre" portrayal

A little background first.
The book Jane Eyre is one of my favorite books. I can identify with the main character, and at the same time I admire her. She has developed many talents, she is honest, hard-working, shows self-control, and she does what she knows is best even when faced with temptation. She's someone I can look up to and I can aspire to me more like her, and I haven't found that in most of the books I've read.

One day my youngest sister called me to chat and in our conversation she mentioned that she saw a great movie: Masterpiece Theatre's 2006 movie "Jane Eyre". She loved the movie, and I asked if she'd read the book and she said she hadn't. I had read the book again about a year ago so it was fresh in my mind, and I was curious to see how well the movie matched the book (I've been disappointed in the past with such attempts by movies like "The Lord of the Rings" and The Chronicles of Narnia). A short while later Mc and I signed up for Netflix and I searched the website for "Jane Eyre" movies and many popped up. Over the next couple of months I watched the two that were available streaming and then sent for 2 others through the mail.

The verdict for the best version is: the 5.5-hour-long 1983 BBC version with zelah Clarke as Jane and Timothy Dalton as Mr. Rochester.



I could give you a rundown of all 4 of the movies I saw but that would likely be boring, so I'll just glorify the best one :) The casting was excellent. Not only did all the actors look the parts, but the way they delivered the lines and their mannerisms while acting were spot on. The dialogue came straight from the book, with some lines left out of course but nothing added (in other versions they added a lot of dialogue that wasn't in the book; typical). The events in the movie happened in the order that they happened in the book and no events were left out. There is a little bit of narration but it was well-placed, helping to move the story along and give some character development; it did not distract from the movie at all nor replace the actors' responsibility to tell the story through their acting (as was the case in the 1973 BBC version).

Really the only downside to this version is that at times, mostly with the indoor scenes, the filming seemed to me like they were filming a theater production. This was the first version of the movie I saw and after watching the 1973 BBC version last night I realized that it's just the way the British filmed things a few decades ago. If you've seen some of those British comedies that are sometimes on TV, you can tell that the way they film is... different somehow, and it's the same kind of thing with this movie. If I knew cinematography terminology I could explain it, but I don't. If you watch it you'll know what I mean. It took a little getting used to at first but after a while I didn't even notice.

If you want to watch a "Jane Eyre" movie without having to read the book, this is the one to see. 1983 BBC. Timothy Dalton. The British also did a fantastic job with their 1995 mini-series of "Pride and Prejudice" with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. Another instance of "watch this version if you want to get the full picture of the book without actually reading the book." Come to think of it, the British also did the best portrayal of the Chronicles of Narnia. Straight from the books! Our American version was so disappointing. Good movies for what they were, but they strayed from the books when they didn't need to and it ticked me off. Leave it to the British to accurately portray their classics! :)

Frumpy Housewife no more?

When I was single, and even once I first got married, I thought, "How can women look like slobs when their husbands come home from work? The guys are around professionally dressed people all day, and then to come home to a wife who's wearing sweats and hasn't done her hair or makeup; I would think it would be a disappointment for him. If she looked like that when they met there's no way he would have considered dating her." I told myself I would never let that happen to me. And then I had a kid.

I have now become what I thought I never would: a frumpy housewife. Mc comes home from work and I'm not dressed, I haven't showered, my hair is a mess... and makeup? Forget about it (I'd need a shower first). What happened was: I had a child, and one who at the moment has a case of separation anxiety. When your child is young you're told, "Sleep when your baby does." Especially now that I'm pregnant again I really need the sleep. That leaves me with only being able to do things around the house when my baby is awake. Housework is manageable since I can be within eyesight of her, but she cries whenever I leave the room for more than a few seconds and she crawls after me. Once I tried putting her in her sitting chair and placing that in the bathroom while I took a quick shower, but she absolutely hated it and cried the entire time. I've heard some mothers say they just let their kid cry while they take those few minutes for themselves. I tried that once and I won't do it again. It may work for some mothers but I don't like doing anything that purposely causes my child distress (and it's real distress, she's not old enough to fake it yet).

So until now my only option was to wait until Mc got home from work so he could watch Baby Girl while I made myself decent. When he walks in the door I smile and say hi, and Baby Girl gets so happy when she sees him, and then I hand her to him and hop in the shower. But that means that for a few minutes he sees me looking my worst, and sometimes on top of that I'm in a bad mood if Baby Girl has had a rough afternoon. I always feel better after the shower but I wish I could take it before Mc gets home.

Today I tried something different. I let her loose in the bathroom but I put some of her favorite toys in there, and it kept her occupied long enough for me to shower. I feel great, and I'll try it again tomorrow. Now Mc can come home and he can think, "Oh, you look nice," instead of thinking, "Oh... you, uh, wanna go shower or something?" He's never said anything like that-- he's not mean-- but he knows that I know that we both wish I looked better. Perhaps once Baby Girl grows out of this separation anxiety phase I'll be able to leave her in the living room for 10 minutes while I shower up, but that probably won't happen for a while. So until then hopefully this new routine will work out for both of us. It's either that or lose precious sleep to go shower, and that won't last long. Hopefully this is the end of my frumpy stage... until I give birth again. Ugh. I'll think about that later.

Same Ol' Stories and Stretched Doctrine

Church today was tough for me to get through.

First of all, the Sacrament meeting talks were all about Pioneer heritage since today is Pioneer Day. To me, those talks are the most boring talks EVER! I do not have pioneer heritage, and no disrespect to those who do (a lot of people in our ward do), but I just don't find those stories interesting. Plus, many of those stories are the same ones I've heard multiple times all my life in the church. It's kinda nice to know that some people have a very deep connection with those early latter-day saints who crossed the plains and went through persecution, but to me there is absolutely no interest whatsoever. Mc has pioneer heritage and so to him I'm sure some of those stories are nice to hear about, especially the ones about his ancestor, but I just can't wait for those talks to be over. I dunno, to me a Sacrament meeting talk shouldn't be story after story of the early pioneers; save it for, oh I don't know, a Pioneer Day celebration. So not only were both talks all about the early pioneers, but the first speaker told so many pioneer stories that she went over her time by 10 minutes and all the church meetings after that were 10 minutes late.

Well, that was Sacrament meeting... but then there was Sunday School. I do not like this Gospel Doctrine teacher, but we sat in his class because it's in the Relief Society room and so in case Baby Girl falls asleep on me I don't want to move her, so I can stay put. Anyway, each week this teacher says things that class members and I don't agree with. This week we were talking about Christ's resurrection, and the teacher was trying to make the point that the women who went to Jesus' sepulchre had more faith than all 12 of Christ's disciples because they were the ones who went to see him, and they were going there to see if he had been resurrected. The scriptures say that they were coming there with spices and ointment after the Sabbath was over to finish the burial process; they were not going there expecting to see Christ resurrected. Mc raised his hand and brought up a scripture to support the truth: that they could come no earlier than the third day because that's when the Sabbath was over, and that they brought these spices with them for Christ's burial. But the teacher was insistent that the women were there because they had more faith than anyone and because they believed Christ was resurrected. Perhaps they did have more faith, I don't know; but that is not the reason they went to the sepulcher. He also said that the women were the ones who stayed by Jesus and that all 12 of his apostles denied him and "went and hid". First of all, Peter was the one who publicly denied him, not the others. Second of all, John the Beloved was there at the cross with Jesus' mother before he died. There were disciples there, they didn't all "run and hide" like the teacher said. I didn't appreciate his slighting the disciples and their love for the Savior. The teacher said he's trying to give the women credit and we were fighting him on it, but here's my opinion: the Church gives women plenty of credit all over the place, and credit where it's due; there's no need to stretch the scriptures to make these women seem more insightful or believing than they were.

This isn't the only time the teacher has done this sort of thing. I haven't been there for a few weeks because we were out of town and I was exhausted, but the last time I was there the lesson was on the Last Supper, and first the teacher spent the first 10-15 minutes of class showing us the layout of the city of Jerusalem. Not important to the lesson at all, but I guess since he's been there he wants all of us to know what he knows. Whatever. But then once talking about the scriptures, this is what he referenced: "And the chief priests and scribes sought how they might kill him [Jesus]; for they feared the people. Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve. And he went his way, and communed with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray him unto them." (Luke 22: 2-4). The teacher then said, "Now look at this verse: Satan entered Judas; what is going on here? Let's look at this for what it is," and he was implying that Satan physically possessed Judas and that's why Judas sought to betray Jesus. To Mc I was like, "Um... that's not what this scripture means," and luckily someone in the class steered the teacher away from that line of thinking, so the teacher wouldn't get the class thinking that this passage of scripture was meant to be taken literally. Ugh. The week before that, he also spent the first 15-20 minutes of the lesson on the layout of the city and where the Mount of Olives was in relation to the city. Again, nothing to do with the lesson whatsoever and yet he spent so much time on it. Wasted half of the class time.

Sometimes in classes you'll have one of the class members say a comment that isn't really correct, and it's the teacher's job to not embarrass the person but to steer the discussion back to correct gospel principles. But it's really bothering Mc and me that it's the teacher who is teaching these wrong things and focusing on details that are not important, and that it's the class members who have to get the teacher back on track. And it happens EVERY WEEK.

I thought about it a few hours after church today, and I realized that the best thing to do in a situation like this is to read the lesson beforehand during the week, and then during class share what insights we got from our study of the scriptures, and share them before the teacher can take the lesson in an unimportant direction, or share them once he has taken it in a different direction to help get the lesson back on track. That way the lesson is centered on true gospel principles and the spirit can stay in the room. And hey, even if class members don't get anything from the teacher's lesson, at least maybe they'll get something from our thought-out and insightful comments.

Utah Trip, part 2: Friends

Monday: Dinner & Games with Friends

Monday was kinda chill; I spent much of the first half of the day catching up on sleep, Mc spent a lot of it reading the latest Wheel of Time book, and Baby Girl played with her cousins. Mc's oldest brother took a half-day off of work and he and his wife came over and brought their kids. Our girl had fun; her cousins played with her, and here they are checking out a scrapbook.

Her cousins are playing with her while my mother-in-law and I worked on a little scrapbook for Baby Girl; she likes the toys and playing with kids.


Mc's sister came over as well and she played Munchkin with some of the guys. Before we left for dinner she finally got to hold Baby Girl without her crying. Actually, here it kinda looks like she's about to cry. I think part of what helped her not cry was the necklace Aunt B was wearing.


Dinner was at the Rodizio Grill in American Fork. Blitzen and Blondie dropped off their kids with Blondie's sister for the night and we all went to dinner along with two of our other friends (I'll call them Mr. and Mrs. P) and their little boy. Our kids met for the first time and they got along well. He was really excited.

We just had to be sure Baby girl kept her fingers away from their son's mouth; he's got a full set of teeth and sometimes he chomps down too hard. He's such a cute kid; a clone of his dad for sure.

There was a lot of food there that I didn't think I should try and that just didn't sound appetizing (because I'm pregnant, not because it wasn't good), but I loved, loved the ham and one of the salad bar's pasta dishes. Everyone loved the meat, the salad bar was okay, but our server wasn't good. We were there for over an hour and she came to our table about 3 times, including when she brought us our check. Even as customers were leaving the restaurant and we were one of two tables left, she still didn't come over to see how we were doing. They give each table a little wooden hourglass-shaped thing that you put on its side when you're ready for dessert, and she didn't look for it at all; we had to ask her for our dessert. Ah well; it was nice visiting with friends, and the food was worth it.

Both Mr. and Mrs. P had to work in the morning so they couldn't come over to play games, so it was us and Blitzen and Blondie. Baby Girl was so comfortable with Blitzen, it was incredible. He's got some kind of magic touch with kids.


We played Small World and I won by one coin! We then played Boggle for a couple of hours. Mc won of course, he always wins at Boggle and most other word games; but Boggle is one of those games I like playing even though I know my hubby will win. It's fun to see what words I can find that no one else does. Around 3 AM or so Blondie was getting too tired to focus so we called it a night. The next morning I slept a lot and so did Baby Girl, so Mc and Blitzen and Blondie just talked for a few hours. Good times.

Tuesday: Professional Pictures

Our sister-in-law is in a short dance video about a real-life couple and the wife's battle with Alzheimer's disease. They had a very short window in which to raise the money and to produce the video. She posted a few times on her Facebook status that they needed help with donations to make it happen. I showed the posts to Mc and we took a look at the website and the project description and how much they needed. They had 20% of the money they needed and only 2 days to raise the rest; it didn't look like it was going to happen. I asked Mc if we had some extra money we could put toward their project and he said we did. Mc then suggested that we could pay for the other 80% to make sure it could happen for them. We both have a love for dance, and our sister-in-law is family and she's making a career out of dance, which I think is awesome! She was to be the main female dancer in this video, and I could tell this meant a lot to her. So I thought about it and said sure. Their project was now funded and the filming was able to take place this past week. So now Mc and I are "executive producers" of a small film; kinda neat. :)

One of the "perks" for donating a certain amount was we get some professional pictures taken of our family by the director who also majored in film. I was excited because I knew these would turn out well. We went over to Rock Canyon in Provo for the pictures, which was a beautiful location. Baby Girl was great for the most part, and except for the breeze blowing our hair around I think the pictures turned out well. The photographer was professional and patient and had some good ideas for backgrounds and poses and such, and the few pictures he showed me from the digital camera looked really nice.

After the pictures we went over to Mr. and Mrs. P's house so Mc could play games with Blitzen and Mr. P. It was fun; I chatted with Mrs. P, and Baby Girl and their son played with some balloon animals that Mrs. P made for them. I didn't get any good pictures because the kids were too squirmy, but Blitzen held Baby Girl a lot and of course she was fine with it.

Wednesday: We Depart

I was still very tired; didn't fully catch up on my sleep when I was in Utah, but we got ready to leave around noon. Baby Girl FINALLY warmed up to Nana (Mc's mother), and Nana was happy.

Jade is being a good dog. I was eating in the kitchen and Jade was doing her begging thing, so Papy (Mc's step-father) told her to come to him and I pointed to Papy and told Jade firmly "Go" and she went. Good dog; she's giving the humans their space when they demand it.

The trip back to Arizona was uneventful, but the drive was incredible. We drove through the desert, through some amazing forests, and along the bottom edge of some cliffs. If you love a scenic drive, take the US-89A from Arizona to Utah. I believe that's the road you take to get to the Grand Canyon anyway, so it's a worthwhile drive.

Well, that was our trip to Utah. Quite enjoyable. It was good to see family and friends, and I'm glad Baby girl finally got to meet Mc's side of the family... even though it'll take her some time to get used to most of them. ;-)

Utah Trip, part 1: The Family

This past weekend Mc and I took our little Baby Girl to Utah to meet her paternal extended family. It was an eventful few days, and overall things went well.

Friday Night
Around 10:45 PM we left Arizona for Utah. I drove first and it was cool driving through the desert by the light of the full moon (and headlights). Baby Girl slept, Mc slept, and I stayed awake. We stopped at Denny's in Flagstaff and this buzzed college guy came over to our table and told us that we had the most beautiful baby. He told us we did an excellent job. We just smiled and thanked him; nice guy.

Saturday-- Family Picture
Morning: Mc relieved me from driving and I tried to sleep, but couldn't. So I was grumpy for about an hour after giving up on trying to sleep. But as we drove we came to southern Utah, and it is gorgeous scenery. If you're a camping/hiking type of person, this would be the perfect location.

We stopped in Beaver, UT where we got a screw in our tire. We wouldn't have noticed it but the gas station we stopped at has a Michelin shop next door and one of the workers saw it in our tire. The thought crossed my mind, "I bet they put screws down in the road so they're not at all surprised when they see them in people's tires." I didn't say that, of course, but I thought it even more when Mc mentioned that he'd gotten a tire fixed at that very shop a few years ago. Suspicious... But we agreed to get two new tires to be on the safe side and we continued on our way.

Baby Girl wasn't very happy to be back in the carseat, but it was just a little way to our friends' house
(I'll call the guy Blitzen and the gal Blondie) and we made it there just fine. Our daughter met theirs for the first time and they got along.



Their girl took Baby Girl's pacifier, so Baby Girl got her foot.




We got to my in-laws' house and I honestly hardly remember anything. I remember meeting my brother- and sister-in-law outside and I remember taking a shower a couple of hours later and getting ready for the family pictures, but in between there I don't remember anything at all. Except for a one-hour nap at Blitzen and Blondie's house I had been awake for almost 24 hours and my brain wasn't fully functioning.

We got to the picture location and Baby Girl met her cousins and aunts & uncles. All of them! I forgot my camera so I didn't get any pictures of those moments, but it was nice to see everyone and they were excited to see Baby Girl. She was fine until someone else held her, then she started to cry. :( She's not used to being held by people other than Mc and me so I knew it would take time for her to get used to everyone.

The photographer was supposed to be there at 6:00 PM and she didn't show up until almost 7:00. The kids ran around and played but the adults were getting impatient. First one of my sisters-in-law called the photographer around 6:20 to ask where she was and she hadn't even left the house yet, and then my sister-in-law got a call from her about 20 minutes later asking where we were: she had gone to the wrong location. Apparently "near the Mt. Timpanogas temple" wasn't specific enough and it was going to take her over half an hour to reach us. At this point we were getting ticked off. I think Mc's oldest brother was going to tell her off when she got there, because Mc's youngest sister told him to play "the silent game" and to use his competitive nature to make sure he wins. I was incredibly hungry and starting to get into that pregnancy panic mode of "I need food NOW", and the kids were hungry and thirsty as well, so my father-in-law gave Mc his credit card and told him to get something for everyone. Mc and one of his brothers went to Little Caesar's and got drinks and 8 hot 'n' ready pizzas and returned in time for the pictures. It helped me not throw up and the kids quenched their thirst after running around all over the place.

I didn't like the photographer. First of all, she kept 32 people waiting for over an hour while she took a nap and got the location completely wrong. The kids all looked nice when we first arrived but now they had grass in their hair and scratches on their hands from climbing trees. Then when she got there, some comments she made here and there rubbed me the wrong way, especially the few she directed toward my man. She better have at least taken some good pictures. She was paid full price but she is going to give my father- and mother-in-law a canvas picture of the whole family for free. That makes up for it, I suppose. It was still nice seeing the whole family together and spending time with them.

We got the big extended family pictures done and Mc and I decided not to take individual-family pictures since we were getting those on Tuesday with a friend of our sister-in-law (more on that later). So I fed Baby Girl in the car and we gave Mc's youngest brother and his wife a ride home. Baby Girl was DONE with the carseat. Poor thing had been in it all night and all day and she didn't want to be in it anymore. She cried all the way home which took almost half an hour. Once she was out of the car and we gave her some baby Tylenol for her little headache, she was better.

Sunday: Family Lunch/Dinner
The family came over for lunch/dinner on Sunday. Mc's brothers spent most of the time playing Magic downstairs and the kids spent most of the time playing outside and running and out of the house. The dog Jade got her workout for the week! Meanwhile, I tried to help Baby Girl get used to her aunts. She got used to one first and then another when she was downstairs with her cousin. Here are a couple of pictures I got of them (yes, Mc and his brother are in the foreground playing Magic).





The food at lunch/dinner was good, but I couldn't eat most of it. Since I was pregnant, all my stomach could handle were potatoes and chocolate chip cookies. My sister-in-law thinks I'm having a boy because of all the potatoes I was eating. I think we might be having a boy because I haven't been sick with this one like I was with our daughter, and I've heard that pregnancies are often different depending on what sex the baby is. We'll see in about 7 months.

It was an eventful couple of days with family. More to come in the next post.

I'm Pregnant (yes, it's real) :p

Today I am 8 weeks along in my second pregnancy. We found out via two home pregnancy tests on July 1 and we confirmed it at the doctor this past Tuesday.

Pregnancy story:
I've been having such a frustrating time for the past month and a half or so because I'm still nursing our 9-month-old but it hasn't been going well at all. I tried everything I could to keep it up: getting plenty of rest, drinking lots of water, eating enough food, even feeding her every 1.5 to 2 hours, but I still felt like there was less and less milk. Nothing is more discouraging for a mother than not being able to feed her child. Mc suggested a few times, "Maybe you're pregnant," but I shrugged it off because I wasn't feeling sick or anything. But then near the end of June I did start to feel sick-- I just thought it was something I ate-- but Mc said again, "I bet you're pregnant." So I took two different home pregnancy tests and sure enough, they both were positive :)

So now that I know I'm pregnant, I'll actively start weaning Baby Girl off my milk, since my body's been trying to do that for a while now anyway. We got pictures of the ultrasound on Tuesday, but I will NOT post those. No one needs to see my uterus. ;-) On a side-note, fathers should not miss the first ultrasound. Not only do you get to hear the heartbeat, but it's really cool to see. The baby looks like a little kidney bean, but the cool part is that in the center there's a sparkling area, and that's the heart. It's pretty neat.
/Endpregnancystory

This pregnancy was planned in that we weren't doing anything to prevent it. My siblings and I are all close in age and I liked how close we were growing up. My mother daycares a little girl who only has one sibling and he is 6 years younger than her. They have nothing in common at all, and she's lonely; I didn't want that for my children. People have asked Mc, "So how many kids do you want?" and he always says, "How ever many my wife wants to have, since she's the one who has to go through pregnancy and labor." So how many do I want?...

Funny story. I used to want 4 kids. Then one summer we went to visit a friend whose parents have 12 kids. I saw all these little kids running around and I turned to Mc and said, "Two. I only want two." Some people LOVE kids and really would be happy with a dozen of their own. I am not one of those people... never have been, never will be. Everyone says "It's different with your own kids," and they're right. I love my little girl and I know I will love this next child just as much, but I think more than 3 or 4 kids would be too much. Although, my daughter is a pretty good child, all things considered, so at least she will be a breath of fresh air if the other(s) aren't as good. Look at that cutie. :)



In short:
8 weeks along; due date= Feb. 23 (my birthday!); we're not going to find out the sex of the baby before it's born; I feel sick; Mc is awesome.

Introduction

This is a blog about me, my husband (who I will call Mc), and our little daughter (who I will call Baby Girl). I'm also pregnant, so there will be one more in our midst in a few months (I will have nicknames for the people in my posts for privacy reasons, including our new baby when it comes).

We're rebels 'cause we like to do things our own way. I'm sure as the months go by you'll see what I mean... like Christmas, family pictures (tee hee), etc.

Mc's sisters have wanted him to get a blog for years 'cause they want to know how he's doing and stuff, but he's resisted. But the other day Mc suggested I start a blog because it might be a good way to get some things off my chest and to get people's advice about things, and to give more detailed updates to those who care. Facebook is okay for that sort of thing but it's not the same. So here we are :)

I'm calling our blog "Some Like it Hot" because it has a double meaning for me.  First, I like the movie "Some Like it Hot" with Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, and Marilyn Monroe.  And second, we moved to Arizona a month and a half ago and we like it here, but it's reeeeally hot, like, above 100 degrees every day in the summer; the heat isn't for everyone, but many people have lived here all their lives and some like it hot, I guess (our air conditioner works and so I'm content).

Mc works less than 10 minutes from home which is awesome! And the people at work appreciate him and they value his judgment and opinions and experience, which is much better than his years in public accounting. I stay at home with our baby girl and I'm so glad that my hubby is both willing and able to provide for this little family by himself.

After I figure out how this whole blog thing works, I'll post more. :)