Dinner Theatre

Dinner at our house is usually pretty loud and it's not uncommon for someone to say something to make Josh and me just look at each other and laugh.

We had some Sweet & Sour rice concoction for dinner Saturday night. That's the name I give to food that I just throw together and hope it comes out okay. Anyway, we had fortune cookies and Abby's said, "You will find luck when you get home." She thought that was funny since she was already home, but then she said, "This would be a really good fortune for a missionary!" She was so adamant about giving her fortune to a missionary that she actually took it to church yesterday to give to the full-time elders serving in our ward. Unfortunately, they weren't there and she gave it to her Primary teacher instead. But, I thought that was so insightful for Abby to think of. Maybe we actually get through to her sometimes!

Last night we had dinner at Mom and Dad's, as we do every Sunday. Matt had quite a LOT to drink. He kept having to make trips to the restroom. He didn't make it in time once, prompting us to leave as soon as we could. We got in the door at our house and he had to go again. I don't know what his problem was. We only live like 15 minutes away from Mom and Dad. Anyway, Josh made a flippant comment about Matt being diabetic and Emma decided to run with that idea. She immediately went and wrote a note to Matt. It said, "To Matt I'm sorry to say you have Deabedese. You pee too much. You need to stop going to the beth-room. By Emma." I don't even know what else to say about this. My daughter thinks my son has Deabedese.

On a more spiritual note, Genica (Pete's wife) got to go to the temple Saturday. Hooray for her!! I asked for pics, but they didn't get to take any. Josh and I couldn't go because we had childcare issues. For any of you that can go to the temple, eat a meal, and drive home in under 12 hours, let me just remind you that YOU ARE BLESSED!!! Please, please, go to the temple. There's no reason not to! FYI: Josh and I will go as soon as we can, it's a matter of being able to afford a babysitter for 12 hours. I read Mindy's blog about people in the Ukraine selling anything they could to go for the first time. I guess we're still blessed. Our other option would be for us to take the kids to Billings or Cardston, Alberta, Canada (the temple district we actually are in) and each of us attend a session while the other attends to the kids. Several of the more faithful people in our ward do that. I'd just prefer to attend with Josh. Is it selfish for me to delay my own temple attendance to be able to go with my sweetheart? I'm afraid of the answer, so don't really answer that!

Waiting For Godot

Here I am, 25 weeks pregnant, wondering if my pregnancy can progress any quicker. Ironically, five weeks ago I was in awe over how quickly the first half of this term has flown. How naive. To my credit, we moved, it was summer so there were lots of family members coming to visit, Pete got home from his mission, Pete got married, and life was just a crazy mess. Now that things have calmed down, I have a lot more time to realize how much longer I have and I miss the mess. Little freak outs here and there in trying to get Christmas done as much as I can already. That's actually a habit from living in Alamosa. Because the only real toy store in town was Walmart, you had to do your shopping early or nothing was left on the shelves. Buying Christmas presents while the Halloween costumes were hot items was not uncommon. This time I'm worried about having everything done and in order, especially since family will probably be visiting for the baby's birth and Christmas.

I had to do my gestational diabetes testing yesterday. The phlebotomist missed my vein in my left arm the first time. I think my constant, "Oooh, yikes, aaaaah" noises prompted her to stop digging and just try my other arm. Oh man, I thought I was going to pass out. When I was 16 I attempted my first blood donation. Because I almost fainted before I donated, they wouldn't let me do it. I don't know why it bothers me so much. I consider myself a pretty strong person, I had NO painkillers in my system during the birth of both girls. I've performed onstage in front of a couple hundred people each night (including the real live woman I was playing once). I even tried calamari once. Believe me, that took a lot of guts. But needles are NOT my friend and I think they should all die.

Oh, as for the title of this, Waiting for Godot is a play about two guys on stage waiting for a dude named Godot to show up. Yep, that's it. That's the whole play. They talk about him coming, but he just never does. Sometimes I feel that way about our baby. Anyway, this play was written by Samuel Beckett. If you have a chance to see a Beckett play, you totally should, just don't pay money for it. He's a pretty significant figure in theatre history, but seriously how exciting is a play about two guys waiting for another guy? Who never shows up, nonetheless. Anyway, the only real cool thing I know about Beckett is that according to the special features on the Princess Bride dvd, Beckett lived next door to Andre the Giant and sometimes drove him to school since he was the only person with a car big enough for Andre. A funny movie based on the title, but not the plot is Christopher Guest's Waiting for Guffman. I'd much rather watch that than the play.

I'm Afraid I'm Old

I've begun teaching the 9- and 10-year-olds in Primary at church. This was our second week together. They seem to be just as bad as the little kids when it comes to sitting still. They sit quietly for an hour of Sacrament Meeting and then are expected to come sit quietly and learn in class. I was a bit perplexed by how we can remedy this. I have no problem teaching, I even considered being a Shakespearean college professor. But that's adults that want to sit and learn. If they don't want to learn, they'll get drunk the night before and not show up for class (I knew several of these types). I came up with what I thought would be a great segue into class: we go around the room and everyone gives their favorite thing that happened during the week. Great, no problem, good times. Then I began thinking...what was I doing at their age? This is the point when my stomach twists into knots at the realization that, gulp, I'm old.


When I was 10, at the end of my fourth grade year, my dad had two tickets to see the President of the United States and Vice President as they boarded Air Force One at a base in New Orleans, LA. Dad actually took me. We rode this bus across the base to the airstrip. The bus was pretty full, so I thought it would be cool to be able to grab the handle along the top of the roof of the bus like everyone does in the movies, but I was a good foot too short. I jumped, but missed. I don't know why I thought jumping would work. Even if I grabbed it I'd just be hanging in the air in the middle of a bus. Anyway, we finally got to the airstrip and Dad, being the socially adept man he is, made friends with the Secret Service Agent standing near us. We were barricaded back from the aircraft, but close enough that we could get a picture of the president as he was boarding the plane. One of the reporters was able to ask the president if he knew who his vice president was going to choose as his own vice president when he ran for office in November. Now, this may sound like a great story to have as a 10-yr-old, but when I think of the kids I'm teaching and trying to identify with, I feel like I need to break out a cane and Efferdent. The president I got to see was Ronald Reagan. His vice president, George H. Bush, was keeping his vice president hopeful (Dan Quayle) under wraps for a few more weeks. Yeah, when I was 10 George Sr was CONSIDERING running for president. Where the heck does time go? How am I supposed to identify with a generation that doesn't even know the whole Dan Quayle potato/potatoe scandal? Remember when the tabloids got a great story from a misspelling rather than sordid marital affairs and pregnant teenage daughters? Remember when gas was $1.20/gallon? Remember when I had to walk to school uphill both ways? In knee-deep snow, nonetheless.


Today at church Matt was trying to squish into Emma because he didn't want to sit at the end of our family row. Emma told him he could sit on her lap. He looked at her disgustedly and said, "No! Sit on your own lap!" I don't even know what that means.

Random Movie References

So, Josh made fun of me for coming up with some randomly obscure movie/tv references. Let me know what you think.

Do you remember "Flight of the Navigator"? The boy is abducted by a spaceship and returns home eight years after the abduction with no memory of what happened. Something like that. Anyway, he hi-jacks the spaceship and attempts to fly his way home and they stop at a gas station. The gas station attendant comes out and begins gaping at the spaceship. He's a bit stereotypical: big fat white-trashy guy with overalls. As the kid leaves the scene the computer aboard the ship sticks his head out the door and in a Pee-Wee Herman voice says to the plump attendant, "Heeey, Fat Boy! Too many twinkies!" Got that image in your head? So, I was looking for pants with pockets (see my last post as to why) and I came across some of Lori's overalls. Now, Tara and Lori and I have been passing maternity clothes back and forth with each pregnancy. Tara began the collection, but we've each made additions and we just share them when we need them. I know these overalls are Lori's because Tara and I are a bit bigger than her. But I figure, I'll try them just to see. I put them on, look in the mirror, and I'm sure you've already figured out where this is heading. Instead of saying to myself, "Man, I look almost as cute as Lori," my first thought is, you guessed it, "Heeey, Fat Boy! Too many twinkies!" Is that really all that obscure?

So, I've also got this dress. I don't know which sister bought it, it isn't either of their styles. I think it may have been from a friend. Anyway, it clings to me. You can see every curve, and unfortunately, my family has the "Bailey Butt" curse. (The Baileys have really big butts.) So as I put this dress on, I'm confronted with yet another somewhat random character. Ever watch "The Carol Burnett Show"? If you haven't, go buy a season on dvd. Then burn me a copy and mail it to me. I love Carol Burnett so much. She's one of the comedienne's I'd love to emulate. I played a lot of comedic drunks on stage at college and I'm convinced it may have something to do with being the only 10-year-old in the world that would rather grow up to play drunk Miss Hannigan (played by Carol Burnett) on Broadway rather than be the adorable Little Orphan Annie. Anyway, she played this great character on her show named Mrs. Wiggins. Mrs Wiggins is the secretary for Mr Tudball, played by Tim Conway, and walks with her butt sticking out, and this clingy black skirt. Just add a baby belly, and that's what I look like when I wear this dress. I gotta go on a shopping spree!

The 2nd Anniversary of my 29th Birthday

Okay, so this blog thing is kind of fun. I like reading the comments people leave and I just am having a little fun with it. Can I be more redundant?

Well, Tuesday was my birthday and one reason I decided to write this blog. I'm securely in my thirties now, and I need to become one of those trendy soccer-mom housewives. I'm not quite Desperate, but turning 31 is a bit of a shock to my system. Today could've really resulted in a rough day. Josh ran out of gas on his way to work and he couldn't get a hold of me on my cell phone because I didn't have it with me as I went to pick the girls up from school. The problem is, none of my maternity pants have pockets except for one pair that has a cargo pocket next to my knee. Because the waist rides below my belly, when I put my phone in my pocket it makes my pants fall down. So, I didn't have my phone so I knew I needed to pick up my sweetheart to take him to work on time. Luckily, when I told him the reason I didn't have my phone with me, he laughed because it is a bit of an absurd story.

I was trying to think of good things to update everyone on and my sister Lori thought this story would be entertaining: We've been trying to get the kids to say their personal prayers morning and night. Matt is having a hard time with this. He used to say prayers by himself, but once at dinner at Mom and Dad's house he got in trouble for using the phrase "Nobody knows me" which is a part of a song that he made up. He's generally a happy boy, so why such a melancholy song, I have no idea. Anyway, from that time on he hasn't said a prayer by himself. So, having him say a personal prayer has become a challenge. I try gentle persuasion, which usually isn't so gentle, but he still repeats after me. Finally I said to him one night, "Tell Heavenly Father what you're thankful for," and he responded with, "Me thankful for everything." I tried to push a little further, "Anything else you're thankful for?" He huffed back at me, "Me said, 'Me thankful for EVERYTHING!'" I gave up and told him to ask for what blessings he wants. He said, "Please bless everything." I'm about to give up!

Baaa!

So, this is the world of blogging. Everyone else does it. I guess I'll try it too. Actually, we're so far from so many of our friends and family that it makes sense for us to have a central location to update everyone about our many different adventures. Admittedly, our lives have become quite mundane since finishing school and moving away from the college life. But, our kids are still too cute to keep to ourselves and I gotta brag about something!

Quick update: Josh is working hard as a Registered Nurse in the Great Falls, MT, Emergency Room (yes, there's only one). He's an amazing nurse. He learns quickly and cares about the patients, so he's the ideal nurse to have. Plus he's a huge stud.

Emma is in second grade. She's so smart she scares me. How long will it be before she realizes that Mom's more talk than actual smarts?

Abby is in first grade. When she smiles she lights up the world, but when she's grumpy keep a hanky handy because she'll bring you to tears.

Matt is in preschool. He's healthy and strong. He loves anything with an engine and thinks the helicopter at daddy's work is especially cool.

Our new baby will be born (tentatively) Dec 22. We'll have her by c-section (it's a long story why) and we should both be home by Christmas Eve.

I'm trying to keep our house in order (good luck, me) and keep everyone else on schedule. No one ever told me that being the mom would be such a gruelling job. But someone has to do it, and I'm glad that someone is me, usually!