Please Listen to the Menu, Then Make Your Selection

I think most teachers work ridiculously hard. Anyone that thinks a teacher's job is cushy simply because they get a summer vacation must not know any teachers, or be related to any. I'm lucky enough to be related to quite a few. My mom (one of those teachers) posted this on her blog. I don't necessarily agree with what they say about languages at the end, but the rest of it is fairly awesome.



P.S. If you go to the YouTube channel directly, don't read the comments. Trust me.

Me Llamo...

We now have less than two weeks until Baby Sister is due to arrive. Notice how I capitalized Baby Sister? That's what we call her. Because she doesn't have a name yet.

Peter and Cooper didn't have names at this point in their development either. I am wildly jealous of people that have names picked out early on. Do you folks know how lucky you are? Bryan and I have some serious procrastination issues, but this is ridiculous.

In reality, we're not trying to put off picking out a name. We're also not battling over one name or another. We just have trouble thinking of names. Or liking names. My brother Isaac spent a solid twenty minutes suggesting every girl name he could think of. I liked one of them: Ruby. When I told Bryan, he made a funny face and said no. Bryan has been suggesting the name Zoe, particularly if she has red hair (which could totally happen, Bryan has a brother with red hair and a sister with almost red/strawberry blonde hair). It's too popular for me.

And so we call her Baby Sister.

Are you ready for the plea? Do any of you have suggestions for girl names? Suggestions you would be willing to share? Here are the things we're looking for: a two-syllable name with a good meaning that isn't too popular that sounds like it goes with Peter and Cooper.

Hmmm... perhaps our real problem is that we have to many requirements.

At this point, I'll take any suggestions.

Love and Marriage

Today is our 9th wedding anniversary. I told Peter that yesterday and he couldn't remember the number. He kept asking about our 5th or our 1th (as in one-th) anniversary.

When I would say, "No, 9th. Daddy and I have been married for 9 years," he would ask,

"Why?"

Ummm... because that's how long we've been married. I have trouble answering those questions.

One thing that sets this anniversary apart from any of our others is that we recently reached a new milestone. We have now been married with children longer than we were married without children. Bryan and I were married for close to four and a half years before Peter was born, which is almost an eternity in Utah.

Happy 9th Anniversary Bryan!

Maybe next year we'll have enough energy to actually celebrate...

Foot In Mouth Disease

While I was pregnant with Peter, I was angry. Often. That was my go-to emotion. Usually it takes a lot to get me all riled-up, but wow, I remember being mad at the drop of a hat. I worried that this was a bad sign for the little baby I was growing, but for the most part, he's not a very angry kid.

With Cooper, I was weepy. Soooo weepy. I'm kind of a crier anyway (at things like commercials and stories I read in the Ensign) but during that forty weeks, I was extremely prone to tears. Again, I was concerned that my little boy would be excessively emotional. Actually, Peter's more of the crier and Cooper has more of a temper.

This time around, I have what I like to call "Foot in Mouth Disease." My personal filter is broken. I am usually amazingly tactful, but now? Words come out of my mouth that have no business even being in my brain. I've made people cry, including myself. My internal monologue has grown frighteningly public, and it's not a good thing.

I can't remember how long it took me to get back to normal after each of the boys, but I don't recall any crying binges after Cooper was born or any fits of anger after Peter joined us. Hopefully that means that I only have a few more weeks of saying whatever pops into my brain.

You know, I have held back a few times, but it's taken all of my large reserve of willpower to do so.

To anyone that has crossed my path in the last almost thirty-eight weeks, my deepest apologies. I hope to soon be back to the world of the tactful.

Security Item

Cooper has been having trouble sleeping. We do bedtime around 7, but he stays awake until 8, 9, or even 10. I'm growing concerned over his lack of sleep.

Last night when Bryan tried to say goodnight Cooper started his I'm-terrified-of-something cry. Bryan had been snuggling with both boys in Peter's bed and decided to leave Cooper lying next to the now sleeping Peter. Thirty minutes later I went to check on them and this is what I found.

Maybe Cooper just needed someone to cuddle.

Not Yet

It's bizarre to me that school has already started for some people. Not until I came to college did I have a first day of school in August. The thirteen years before that, school started in September.

Reading other blogs about kids starting kindergarten (in combination with the poem I posted yesterday) has made me realize that I'm glad Peter has a late birthday. While I'd like him to be able to start school with the other kids born in 2005, I'm glad that I have one more year to spend all day with him.

Selfish, eh?

Time Is of the Essence

I just saw this on a friend's blog (on her sidebar) and it really struck an emotional nerve. I'm still a little weepy over it. We could blame hormones, but honestly, I would have gotten all teary-eyed even if I weren't three weeks away from having a baby.

Now is the time to get things done...
wade in the water,
sit in the sun,
squish my toes in the mud by the door,
explore the world in a boy just four.

Now is the time to study books,
flowers, snails, how a cloud looks;
to ponder "up" where God sleeps nights,
why mosquitoes take such big bites.

Later they'll be time to sew and clean,
paint the hall that soft new green,
to make new drapes, refinish the floor-
Later on... when he's not just four.

-By Irene Foster

Thank you Christina!

Foodies

On Saturday we went to Costco and stocked up on foods that we could prepare in our rodent inhabited kitchen. As we stood in line at the check-out I looked at the boys and said, "Well, so much for your lifetimes of healthy eating." Bryan assured me that one week of eating this way wouldn't cause too much damage. I'm sure he's right, but boy, I'm glad this is not our normal diet.

See, we usually eat lots of fruits and vegetables, homemade wheat bread, meals that we've built from scratch, not scratched the plastic cover off of to heat up. Right now our freezer is full of Hot Pockets, Corn Dogs, frozen burritos, and (shudder) Totino's Pizza Rolls. We do have some fresh fruit hidden away in the fridge, but it's not nearly as much as we usually have sitting on the counter, ready to grab and eat.

I've discovered I don't really like junk food anymore. Potato chips do little for me. Corn dogs are adequate. Yeah, I'll still eat a brownie, but if I had my pick between a brownie and a piece of fruit, I would go for the fruit. I just feel better when I eat that way. I have more energy (and that's definitely something I can use these days) and I don't feel bogged down or greasy the way I do when we eat out or indulge in junk food.

And now, I really want a watermelon...

Whittling Down the To-Do List

We're getting closer to living in a clean, safe home. I think. As of yesterday afternoon (when the repairman paid us his second visit) we have:

• Hot water, which is truly glorious
• Functioning plugs in our tubs
• A tub faucet that can fill up the tub or be switched into shower-mode
• A working garbage disposal
• New, tight weather stripping around both the front door and the door leading to the garage
• Our own washer and dryer in the laundry room

We'll be seeing the maintenance man at least once more this week because he's bringing newly fashioned screens for some of our windows and picking up the old washer and dryer. It turns out they don't belong to the owner, a former tenant left them here at some point, so instead of paying to have them repaired the management company is chucking them.

Lucky thing, too. After the fellow carted the old appliances out (and brought ours up, which I think deserves major kudos) I went down and looked at the plug for the old dryer. The outlet fit our new dryer nicely, and I was curious because the fellow that removed it had said the plug on the old one was different. Apparently someone had decided to force a diagonally positioned three-pronged plug into a parallel positioned four-pronged plug. When I told Bryan about it he said it was a lucky thing the building hadn't burned down.

And some good news regarding our unwanted house guests: upon seeing how many traps we'd set up without catching anything (ten, I believe) and the volume of mouse droppings under our sink (yes, it is gross, thank you) the maintenance man called his supervisor and recommended they get an exterminator out here. Huzzah! He said the problem looked like it was more than one or two mice. My only concern is that whatever they put out for the mice be safe for small children and pregnant women to be around. We'll be hearing from the demousers sometime this week.

It's starting to feel like there might be a light at the end of this tunnel.

Honesty: The Best Policy?

Yesterday at church I was asked two questions over and over:

1. Are you ready to have this baby?
2. How is the move going?

I thought before answering either question and then replied in a way that none of my questioners were expecting.

Them: Are you ready to have this baby?

Me: (Smiling very sweetly) No.

And

Them: How is the move going?

Me: Well, we found mice. In the kitchen. So, the unpacking is on pause.

I often wonder if I should just give a general, non-committal kind of answer. A simple, "fine" or "okay" would placate most people. But see, I decided long ago that when someone asked me a question I would give them an honest answer.

Which has led to me saying some odd things.

Lots of people have been asking me recently, "How are you feeling?" It's a pretty standard, ask-the-pregnant-lady kind of question. Sometimes I say "tired". Other times I say I'm "okay". My current favorite (and most accurate) response is "round" as in "I'm feeling round". No one expects me to say this, which might be partially why I continue to use it. But really, I picked that word the first time because it was the most accurate description of how I was feeling.

And I'm not ready for the baby to come. Even though she could make her debut any day after Wednesday, I'd like her to stay in a while longer. With the current state of our house, she's much safer in than she is out. Also, I wonder if I should just say the move is "coming" or some other mildly evasive response. Does anyone besides us really care that we found mice? (The answer, as far as I can tell, is that some people don't care, but some people do.) And even if they do care, do they want to hear the saga while standing in the hallway at church?

I wonder, do other people give such bizarrely honest answers? Do they expect the standard "fine" when asking how someone is doing? Do people really want to know how those around them are feeling or what they're thinking?

Know this: if I ever ask you how you're doing, I'm not just asking to be polite, I really want to know.