Because My Blog Has Been Sadly Void of Pictures Lately

Here is an almost crawling Cooper. Yeah, he's almost 11 months old and still doesn't crawl. I'm a little concerned. But he is highly mobile. He rolls and scoots and army crawls himself all over the place. That counts right?

Ready for his close-up. And a haircut.

Peter and his mad bike skills. I love having a garage.


Finally, our friends Arnold and Mandi were in town from Germany and took the time to hang-out with us for an evening. Peter keeps asking to go to Sam's house. I've tried to explain the concept of a different continent, but I don't think we're quite there yet.

25

This has been bouncing around Facebook for a couple of weeks and I've been been tagged by a few people. I figure that since I'm going to go to the trouble to type this up for Facebook, I might as well post it here too.

And now, without further adieu, 25 random things about me!

1. When I was 12 I decided that I didn't like the carpet in my room anymore, so I tore it out. Without asking my parents. When my mom found out what I'd done she asked if I could pull the carpet out of her room next. I did.
2. The first play I was in was Cinderella when I was in the third grade. I played Cinderella.
3. I love acting, singing, and dancing and grew up doing all three. Now I use those skills to read funny books to my boys, sing with them, and have dancing parties with them.
   
4. When Bryan and I got engaged I told him that I didn't want a stone in my engagement ring. I didn't want to go into debt for it and I was afraid I'd scratch him (or myself) in my sleep. So we bought a $15 cubic zirconium ring that was sparkly. Someone actually commented that the "diamond" was choice. Now Bryan and I wear matching wedding bands. I love them.
5. I grew up in Southern California less than 10 miles from the beach, but I can't swim or surf.
6. But I do love the ocean. A lot.
7. I don't like the word hate. I think it should be used sparingly.
8. I hate peas.
9. I have a recurring dream that I'm running with giant strides around an island that looks like pictures I've seen of Greece. I'm not sure if I'm running to something or running away from something.
10. Bryan and I are both oldest children. I joke that we take turns as to who will be the Type-A personality, but it's kind of true.
11. I have always loved having an uncommon name. I just wish that more people pronounced it correctly.
    
12. I'm neurotic about locking doors. This includes the car doors and house doors.
13. I'm afraid of dogs. Even little ones.
14. I'm also afraid of the dark.
15. I went to 3 different elementary schools, home-schooled for 5 years, went to private school for a semester, and 2 different high schools. Only one of those switches was because we moved.
16. I want a food processor. (I melted the last one in the dishwasher)
    
17. I'm hypoglycemic so I avoid refined sugar. I found out about this after my freshman year of college. I can eat honey, fructose, and artificial sweeteners. Although every once in a while I'll have a brownie, because I love them.
18. A few weeks after I graduated from high school my 18-year-old clunker car was stolen out of my driveway. This was especially sad because I used my trunk as a giant locker and lost many pairs of dance shoes. The police found it a few months later about 20 miles from my parent's house. I had already replaced all the shoes.
    
19. I always wanted to be 6' tall. I am 5'4 and 1/2".
20. Making crafts stresses me out. So does hand-sewing. I get all tense and agitated. Hence my aversion to both.
21. I would eat watermelon everyday if I could. Mmm, watermelon...
22. I'm really good at remembering people and names. I'm also good at remembering dates, specifically birthdays.
23. My left eye is quite far-sighted. My right eye is just a little bit near-sighted.
24. Once while baby-sitting one of the kids I was watching cut my hair. Right at the nape of my neck. Luckily it was a straight cut so all I had to do was cut 16" off to clean it up.
25. In high school a girl in one of my classes told me I had a beautiful voice. I thanked her and asked if she had been to one of the choir concerts. She said no, she had heard me singing to myself as I walked out of PE one day. Awkward...

The Spirit of Posts Past

So as not to leave you wondering about some of the things I've written about lately, here's an update:

1. I've decided not to "ax" anyone's blog from my Google Reader. I reread that today and reallized that it sounded kind of mean. And luckily some people post very infrequently.
2. The exercise group went well on Friday. The other moms brought their kids and Peter made fast friends with another little boy. They were the big kids of the group, which was kind of weird for me. The workout was a DVD of kick-boxing. It was only twenty minutes long but there were a few moments that I was afraid I might die. Pesky asthma makes that kind of exercise tough. But I lived. Then a few other women in the ward came and put in a Salsa workout DVD. THAT was fun. I think I'll be joining them again. And I bought some pants at Costco that hopefully won't fall off as I'm jumping around. (The ones I wore on Friday didn't fall off either, but, boy, I was afraid they were going to.)
3. Peter asked me today when we were going to have another baby. It's starting to make me nervous. Cooper's not even one yet. I just told him "Not for a while."
4. My grandma had fun on her cruise. Oh, and I forgot to add that she texts too. I know people my age that can't do that.
5. I have been working hard to pay closer attention when Bryan speaks. My minds still tends to wander, but I'm trying to keep it from wandering too far. Also, Bryan is my official proof-reader, so he knew that I was writing about how I don't always pay attention to him.
6. I bought a flat-iron. I've only used it twice, but my hair does look shinier.
7. I haven't put up a picture of my bangs yet because after we cut them I discovered a problem. Much like my mom, grandma, brother, and youngest child, I have a cowlick in the front of my hair. Why hadn't I ever noticed that before? Anyway, the bangs refuse to lay flat, but I've been in negotiations with them and I think maybe we'll come to an understanding.
8. Did anybody catch the musical theatre reference in the title of the Pinching Pennies post?
9. Cooper is starting to sleep better. It's been taking less than an hour for him to be asleep. He still cries, but not for very long. After that he kind of sings and talks to himself. We've added an aspect to the bedtime routine. We've been putting my MP3 player by his bed and playing The Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus. That seems to help calm him down a little.

You're welcome.

The Reader

No, this post is not about a Kate Winslet Nazi film. It's about another kind of reader. After many suggestions, I finally decided I would set up Google Reader to peruse the many blogs I frequent. It took some time to organize and I'm slightly annoyed that it won't let me add the handful of private blogs that I read. But overall, I think it should save me time and keep me updated a lot better on who's doing what.

And I do mean EVERYONE. Once I had all the blogs in and a folder of bookmarks for my private blogs I counted them. Including one TV blog and one finance blog, I read a grand total of, are you ready for this?

Ninety-two blogs.

Excessive, eh? I'm trying to decide which ones are going to get the ax. It will probably be the blogs of the people that I barely know and yet for some reason feel compelled to keep up with. For instance: the people that were in my ward but I may not have ever actually talked to (there are a number of those), the people that I talked with once in 1995, my friend's siblings that I haven't actually met but found a link to once and have been checking in on them ever since. You get the idea. That makes me a true blog stalker. Creepy.

Then again, what if one of these people find my blog and start reading it and discover that we would have been wonderful friends if we'd just spoken? And so they comment as such on my blog. But of course I've cut them off my list and have no idea that they now have ten children and live in Iowa. And then I have guilt.

I really should not write these posts when I'm so tired...

Anyway, I really have gotten to know people that I only kind of knew before, all through the magic of blogs. Beth, for instance, has taught me a great deal about being a mom of boys. I really look forward to reading what she has to say. (Sorry Beth, I know I've mentioned you before, but darn it, I'm so glad you have a blog!)

Oh well, I'll figure out which ones to drop.

Oh, gotta go, Google Reader just told me that someone I barely know has posted something.

Goodbye Comfort Zone, It's Been Swell

The mother's room at church is a happening place. One woman told me that there were 38 babies born in the ward last year. That's a lot of babies that need to nurse. In fact, I've been more successful meeting people in the mother's room than I have anywhere else in the ward.

This Sunday it was a little calmer than usual. It was just me and one other mom. We started talking and discovered that her son was just a few weeks younger than Cooper. We both finished up at the same time. As I was gathering my stuff together I did something that I don't usually do. I invited her family over for a playdate for yesterday. This is the first time that I've invited someone over that I don't really know. I think she tried to decline, but I just acted naive and asked what time was good for her.

And then I worried about it all week. Some of those worries included: Was she just being polite? Is it going to be awkward? Will the kids play well together? Will they even care? Do I come off as weird for inviting over a family that I don't know? Should I call and cancel?

Yesterday morning we were ready to go at the designated time. And we waited. After ten minutes I told Peter that I didn't think they were coming. It's much harder to think that your child is being rejected than it is to be rejected yourself. He was okay, although he did ask if I was sad.

But then there was a knock on the door. I should remember that it takes me forever to get anywhere with two kids and that it probably takes other people a long time as well. So we weren't stood up after all. Which was nice. The visit was pleasant, although Peter gets a little (read: majorly) intense when other kids are over. We're working on it.

Anyway, toward the end the mom told me how she and a few other moms in the ward get together three mornings a week at the complex clubhouse to exercise. I made some comment about how that must be nice. And then she asked if I wanted to join them. Now this is tough for me. I really want to make friends in the ward and have been having kind of a ridiculously hard time (hold on one minute while I hold a mini pity party for myself...okay, done). And I haven't been getting any kind of physical activity, except for our dancing parties, so the exercise would be really good for me. But I've never been a gym-going girl. And I don't have any workout clothes that fit. (I do have some old dance pants that I insisted on wearing when I was pregnant, thus stretching them way out, that might work if I could rig them so they won't fall off.)

But I said yes. I'm supposed to be down at the clubhouse with the boys at 9:30.

Wish me luck.

Crocodile Dog

Good Eats

I'm a sucker a for recipes. Cookbooks, cooking shows, recipe emails, I love them all. Part of it is that I need to come up with dinner every night. The other part is that I discovered recently that I like to cook. Those of you that have eaten my food (mostly any former roommates that had to suffer through experimental noodle dishes) may be surprised by this. I'm still at the stage where I need to use a recipe. I can't just taste a dish and know what it's missing. Bryan can do this. It's kind of intimidating cooking for such a natural.

The Food Network is one of two channels that Peter knows. (The other is PBS.) There were a few times when Cooper was new that I needed to feed him and sit still and not worry about Peter destroying things. My solution? Yeah, we'd watch 20 minutes of the Food Network. Peter often conducts his own cooking show in his room. Anyway, I dig the Food Network.


That brings me to my favorite cooking show. Good Eats. It appeals to my desire for comedy and entertainment and Bryan's penchant for science. And we both like food. Alton Brown brings the funny while explaining the chemistry and the history behind whatever food he's focusing on for the day. For instance, we learned that my least favorite food, lentils, is a nutritional wunderkind, and that Bryan's least favorite food, eggplant, has almost no nutritional value whatsoever. Which is probably part of why Bryan likes the show so much.

It happens to be on while we're waiting for Cooper to go to sleep. Which is why I'm writing a whole post about it. And also because it's awesome.

Does He Know Something I Don't?

*Peter's been telling me about his sister. He's mentioned her a number of times recently. I keep asking what her name is, but he hasn't told me. I've tried to convince him that he doesn't have a sister, he has a brother. Today he told me that after he's a missionary and gets married, he's going to have a sister.

"You mean a daughter, " I told him.
"No, a sister."

I don't know where that sister is going to come from, considering that by that time I'll be 44, and I'd really like to be done having kids by that time.

I've been asked by a number of people recently how many kids we're going to have. My answer is that we don't have a set number in mind. That doesn't mean that we're going to follow the path of the Duggars (the thought alone is exhausting), we just don't want to say a number and announce that that is all and there will be no more.

I'll be honest, I think I'm a mom of boys. Maybe I'll get a girl, but I'm not holding my breath. I love having boys. But apparently Peter thinks he'll have a sister someday.

Just not any day soon.

* After I wrote this I realized it came across as kind of judgmental. Please know that this is just what our family has decided to do. I fully respect the right of parents to decide how many kids they will have, whether it's one child or ten children.

My Grandma is Cooler Than Your Grandma

My Grandma Bonnie at Adham-Ondi-Ahman in 2007.

No offense, your grandma might be really fun, but mine is cooler. Need proof?

1. My Grandma writes. She's been keeping a journal, writing poems and short stories for years. Last year she started a blog. That's right, my grandma has a blog. You should read it. Here.
2. My grandma has always been an athlete. Sadly, none of her skills passed on to me, but we're hoping that the boys get something. Anyway, she taught PE and coached for 30 years. She's still active. Not only does she go to the gym, but she also plays ping-pong with (and beats) the missionaries that live in the apartment behind her house.
3. She stays active in another way: she has a Wii. And she plays it. And she invites her friends over and they play the Wii too. What's more, she's good. Apparently she's a formidable tennis opponent.
4. In 2007 she and my sister decided on a Thursday to take a road trip. They left the following Monday. They started in southern California, went all the way up to Maine, down to Georgia, stopped at a number of church history sites, drove through Manhattan (which was crazy), visited National Parks, and monuments, and even stayed with me for two weeks. My grandma road tripped across the whole country! I think that's awesome.
5. Speaking of traveling, she leaves for a mini-cruise today. She travels by land and by sea.

I could go on and talk about her paintings, her cooking, her mad thrift-store-shopping skills, but I'll end by saying that the best thing about my grandma is how much she loves her family.

The Lights Are On, But Nobody's Home

I made a sad realization this week. When Bryan starts explaining how things work (which is often) I automatically stop listening. I also tune out scientific explanations. This is bad for a number of reasons:

1. I'm severely limiting my ability to learn
2. I'm not giving Bryan the courtesy of listening when he talks about things that are important to him
3. He's probably giving me the answer to something Peter will ask tomorrow
4. I want him to listen when I talk, so I should listen to him
5. Guilt

He was telling me something as I opened the window to write this post. I stopped what I was doing and looked at him. He thought I was telling him to hurry up so I could write. Actually, I was wondering whether or not I had been paying attention. Turns out I had.

Now, I love learning news things and Bryan is a fountain of little known facts, so it makes sense that I would want to soak in everything he says. How can I get my brain to stay focused?