Come Follow Me

I went to my G&G's ward - the downtown SLC ward that meets in the former Hotel Utah ballroom. Gilded ceilings and filligre walls... Coiffed gray hairdos and fifteen-minute testimonies about foreign experiences... I could write a whole blog about that. But I digress from my intent. We sang all 6 verses of Come Follow Me today. I had never heard the 5th verse before:

We must the onward path pursue
As wider fields expand to view,
And follow Him unceasingly,
Whate'er our lot or sphere may be.

Beautiful huh! It fit so perfectly all I'm feeling right now. I have been trying so hard to seek the Lord's "will" for me, and sometimes it takes getting your life turned upside down to make anything the Lord desires for you possible. I love the testimony I have of the fact that the Lord knows best for me, and in trusting whatever He desires for me I KNOW I'll be happy. Even if it means hurting in the short term. That's really "following" Him isn't it - to follow right on through the mucky hollows of life instead of just on those breathtaking vistas.

Love for you all!

The Sad in Life

I don't have anything happy to blog about so I'm avoiding blogging in general and trying to read other's happy/fun/entertaining blogs. I'm downright sad today.

In the meantime, my top pet peeves:

1. People who drop cigarette butts out the window of their cars. Littering!!! Hello?! I guess cigarette butts don't count as litter? I seethe with anger at this one and wish I could get out my car and go yell at them. Words can't even describe how strongly I feel about this one.
2. Talking to people who are wearing sunglasses. Isn't it proper etiquette to pull up your shades when vising face-to-face with someone?
3. Receiving email forwards from people who never write me personally.

Want to share your TOP peeves?

The Happy in Life

My new shoes, shipped from the Forever Young store in Ogden - the last size 8.5 in the state of Utah.

My new $4 shirt from the junk store. Originally from Charlotte Russe, new with tags price $15.99. I love junk stores. (Sorry, no picture. It's navy blue peasant-like with a wide sash that ties in the back.)

Matching hairdos.

Help! Adobe Premiere

I need a super-brief Adobe Premiere tutorial. I pick up computer stuff fast, all I need to know is how to make a slideshow of photographs and potentially video clips, then add music and burn to dvd.

Simple enough, right? (Unless you're me, and learn best seeing & doing.)

So if you know enough about Premiere to teach me, or might know someone who knows someone who knows someone, PLEASE have them contact me and I'll pay whatever you feel is fair for an hour (or likely less) of your time.

Guilty Little Pleasures

I ate an entire Large Coldstone Irish Cream
with Cookie Dough
IN a waffle bowl
-and-
dipped with chocolate
-and-
covered with graham cracker crumbs.

I deserve it.

Daniel Meade is the new Michael Scofield.

I think I'm a little bit in love with him.

Maybe a lot.

First Birthday

It has officially been one year since I've spent an entire 24 hours by myself, slept without waking in the night, worried about feeding only myself... Haha but really, and it's been a whole year of all those other wonderful things too. Here are some pictures, I'll try not to write too much as I've done plenty of that lately!

Adrie was in a sad, sad mood for the first half of her party. I think she's working on some more teeth so she cried forlornly unless I was holding her. You can see how somberly she ate her birthday cake. Luckily she cheered up near the end (after the Tylenol kicked in) and played with some of her new toys with all of her boyfriends. Yup, only boy children attended this party. What a diva.

Then she got to wear a new dress to church & play with the old balloons (she LOVES THEM!) and today she's wearing her new tech vest-slash-leisure suit from Grandma. Thank you everyone for a wonderful time!










PS to Kendall & crew, thanks for the help setting up and the fun presents. She took her doll to church and hugged it all over the place. She cries in the car when she drops her Dora doll, and she tries all the time to sit on the larger pink ball and bounce on it.

An Hour in My Life

WARNING: Actual events depicted with NO exaggeration. May cause dizziness in men and desire for career life in teenage girls.

After putting Adrie to bed I need to get a load of laundry done and make some cupcakes for the party tomorrow. I start to gather supplies for the cupcakes but then have a 3-second debate in my head and decide to start laundry first, so it can finish and dry while I'm still up and about.

I go upstairs to gather my laundry basket of whites - grabbing an armful of miscellania to move from floor 1 to floor 2 on my way. Upstairs I'm accosted by toys all over my path so I stoop to toss them in the toy basket. While on the floor I gather up my pj's from last night, too. As I walk back to the closet I pick up toys in my right hand and trash in my left. Deposit toys in basket and trash in can. Look at bathroom garbage can and know it needs to be emptied, but so does Kurt's bedside one, so I'll get to it later. When I reach my closet I'm bothered by all of my socks strewn on the floor (thank you Adrie) so I stoop to put those away. Get bag of whites. Pass the open suitcase on the bed on my way out of the room and while gathering whites decide I may as well unpack it and put it away. Lots of trips to the closet, bed, closet, bed, then deposit toiletries on the vanity which is a mess. Gather up makeup, toothbrushes, razor; deposit them in their proper places. Wipe down vanity so it's actually clean. Look at the rug I'm standing on but decide it can be washed later.

Down the stairs I go, white laundry bag in left hand and dirty dishes I grabbed on the way down in my right. Start hot water for washing machine. Put dish in sink. Notice there are a few other dishes in the sink so I load the dishwasher, start it, 1-second debate; decide to wait to start dishwasher until after I've finished cupcakes. Dash over to the washing machine and add soap. Enter pantry, grab supplies, start cupcakes. Ooops add whites to washer, close lid. Start cupcakes. Dash back to add fabric softener. Mix the cupcakes, throw away box, notice that trash can is overflowing and start to empty it but *2-second debate* decide to wait until I'm done with everything. Fill the cupcakes, get 'em in oven, sigh. Decide since I'm in the kitchen I may as well start Slush Punch for tomorrow. Gather supplies. Get sidetracked with straightening up the pantry floor (Adrie loves moving around boxes and sodas and brooms, etc.). Start the stove & making the punch, decide to clean up a little while it's heating. Gathering, gathering - won't bore you with this but I managed to clean up cupcake mess, start dishwasher, clean out the diaper bag, refill the formula can, calculate hours and write checks for the babysitters, etc. Walk through the front room to deposit diaper bag by door and stoop to gather up the toy pile there. Straighten couches & ottoman. Put away remotes, magazines, dirty dishes, towels, etc.

My punch is almost ready, my cupcakes are baking, my laundry is washing. Life is good. But wait. There's no room in my freezer for the slush to freeze. I sit down on the floor to organize freezer, end up reeeally cleaning it out - throwing out food, wiping up spills in bottom, etc. While I have the rag in hand I clean some of the top fridge, too. Rag in hand, may as well wipe up the counters... and some spots on the floor. Filthy rag goes on the dryer for the next wash load. Open the dryer to find leftover laundry from last time which I then have to put away. Move the whites to the dryer, may as well start a colored load (on account of filthy washcloth).

Head up the stairs again, another armful of miscellania, take the time to put miscellania away (of course getting sidetracked to put away other miscellania; start gathering colored wash. Decide to fold & organize some of Kurt's clothes since I'm standing there anyway. Down the stairs, carrying more downstairs-belonging stuff along my way. Start wash.

Cupcakes finish, they are a little darker than I'd like due to my business elsewhere. As I'm pulling them out of their tins with a knife I think I hear my cell phone ringing. Where is it? I walk three circles around the downstairs, looking for it. Give up and finish cooling cupcakes. As I stand there I'm hearing ghost rings in my head so I reach over and stop the dishwasher to listen more carefully - nope. Give up again. Decide it's okay to empty the kitchen garbage now, but I gather up more garbage from the pantry and desk just to make sure my trip to the outside can is really worth it. I realize that I demanded Kurt call me before he leaves work tonight and if I don't have a phone to answer that causes problems. Oh my GOSH I left it in sleeping Adrie's room. I head up the stairs - clean whites get deposited in a heap on my bed - then sneak into her room and crawl around on hands and knees in the dark until I find it. Breath of relief.

While I'm up here I gather up dark laundry, may as well get it all finished, right? During that time I am again bothered by the full garbage can in my bathroom so I decide to empty it and leave Kurt's for another day. The bag isn't quite full though, so I wander around upstairs looking for trash I can get rid of. After a few empty gatorade bottles I'm good to go. I take another armful of dirty dishes (found during my garbage-hunt) downstairs with me. Ooops I went up there to gather laundry in the first place, so I have to go upstairs again. I bring a cupcake with me, thinking I'm near the end of my travails and I can finally write this blog. Wrong. After I've brought the dark laundry downstairs I get sidetracked by setting out paper goods for the party tomorrow so I know what to buy in the morning. And that toilet down there is disgusting so I soak it with cleaner to get ready for future cleaning. While I'm in that bathroom I gather up trash and straighten the things on the floor, vowing to finish hanging pictures and getting it decorated before the party tomorrow. As I head up the stairs for the final time I carry the two empty laundry bags and my shoes from today with me. When I stoop to put my shoes in their place on the shoe rack I end up organizing my shoe pile, since I'm on the ground anyway. One pair of shoes doesn't fit - I always keep one pair downstairs for quick getaways. I head down the stairs, taking my shoes and the last of the miscellania pile that sits waiting.

Finally. I come upstairs to start the blog. Where's my cupcake? I don't know where I set it. Head downstairs again, but since I'm going downstairs I may as well clean off the computer desk and take more miscellania on my way. I find my cupcake, climb the stairs, sit down, breathe a sigh of relief and write this terribly long, possibly terribly boring post.

ADHD? Perfectionist Housewife? What would you call it? I just know I love the feeling after everything's in order and I really can sit down and relax. I think it's hilarious though when Kurt asks, "What did you do while I was gone?" and all I can really say is "Laundry and cupcakes."

And now I'm done writing and I get to do this whole thing all over again - the slush needs to be put in the freezer, cupcakes to be covered, more laundry to move & fold... ahh the life.

Party!

Adrie turns one year old on Monday September 17th so we are celebrating with a little party on Saturday. Well, I'm calling it an "Open House" because it's more like a 'come, visit with us for a little bit, have a cupcake, give her a kiss' kind of party, no games or big presents or fancy decorations. She's only one, I'm not going that overboard. And I seem to have chosen the wrong day and time for a party because sofar about 75% of my invitees have called to say they'd love to come but can't for x, y, z (all valid reasons.)

So if you want to come and don't know where we live, give me a call or shoot me an email and I'll clue you in. The original invitation obviously had our address but for internet safety sake I've removed it.

Although if you really want to stalk me I'm sure you could figure out where I live pretty easily, thanks to the all knowing powers of the world wide web... I'm just gonna make you work a little harder than me simply giving it to you...

SIMPLIFY

Sorry for my absence from blogging, this story should make up for it. Read on.

Life is getting a little complicated, Kurt's health is going wacko, I'm temporarily up to more-than-full-time at work just after I got addicted to being a stay-at-home mom, and in general other ways we're feeling in over our heads. So we're toying with the idea of moving to Salt Lake to be closer to work for Kurt. Therefore today I decided to go APARTMENT SHOPPING. Of course I'm looking at cheap places in an effort to simplify life. I give you this list based on today's experiences.

Ways you know an apartment is too trashy for you:

1. You are afraid to take a deep breath in the lobby for fear of smoke or mildew inhalation
2. You won't touch the door handle with your actual hand to avoid contamination
3. The brown and cream marbled carpet is the same as 1963.
4. You refuse to set your child down on said carpet.
5. Your daughter is terrified of the large lady with no legs who chases her in a motorized wheelchair, shrieking "Hi pretty girl! Hi pretty girl!"
6. Same daughter refuses to look at a one-eyed woman singing to her, instead burying her face in your neck.
6.5. When making small talk with above mentioned women, nervous "hahaha I just don't think she's seen a wheelchair before" they say "Well if you move here you'll see LOTS of wheelchairs!"
7. There are vending machines from 1972 on each corner.
7.5 The whole place reeks of $19 motel from hell.
8. Again, you push open the door with your elbow to avoid contamination on the way out.

Next Complex:
9. Your 'community guide' is a gum-smacking fake blonde named Ginger who has had an obvious butt implant and wants to be your best friend.
10. While in parking lot on the way to view an apartment you get several catcalls from the local Hispanics who are tinkering on cars instead of out making legitimate money.
11. You get stared down by everyone, like maybe you ended up in the wrong neighborhood.
12. Delinquent teens who should be at school are tossing cigarette butts off their balconies.
13. The hallway to your apartment is dark, dimly lit, narrow, littered with trash, with few outside entrances.
14. The smell. Oh, the overwhelming musty-old-mildew-sick me out smell.
15. THERE ARE HOMELESS PEOPLE SLEEPING IN THE MODEL APARTMENT. (Yes! This really happened! Two teen girls sleeping in one bedroom and I walked in on an old man in the other.)

I promptly went home and washed my hands. Adrie's too.

Argh, Matey!

In my attempt to expose Adrie to lots of fruits and vegetables I often get very creative in enticing her to try some new slimy semi-sour foods. I had to laugh at this week's episode of feeding her peaches right off the knife. She didn't want to touch them, slimy and cold... but she loved snatching bits I offered on the end of the paring knife. I felt like a pirate. Don't call CPS - no children were harmed in the making of this breakfast.

This morning we are practicing wearing hats. She's taken it off several times but I put it right back on and keep her distracted, and finally she's left it alone. Kurt is determined to have a cute little girl who will wear hats.
Here's my clean garage, last week's project: (yes you can actually fit two cars in there, but it takes a lot of effort to get to some of the boxes in the back...) Did you see the baby in this photo the first time you looked?

Adrie is now saying "Hi" and waving to people in public. Adorable. It sounds like "Ha" instead of "Hi" so they don't respond, but she'll get the hang of it. She also says "Doh" and shakes her head when she doesn't want to eat what I'm offering. We have been SOOOO careful to not say "No" to her, but I'm thinking maybe a negative response is just ingrained in us. She doesn't say it petulantly or as a frequent response, just when she genuinely does not want something. She also says "Yaaaaaay" and claps her hands. She also claps her hands in response to anyone around her saying "Yay." The newest trick is giving five, and high five. (Of course not when under demand to perform, so don't call me a liar if you see her and she won't do these things for you ;).

Happy Sunday from our house! We've got 3 episodes of Ugly Betty in the lineup for our other-than-church entertainment.

Things that go Bump in the night

I had the worst stomach pains in the middle of last night, and finally headed for the bathroom to see if I could feel better.

Last thing I remember, I'm sitting there thinking "Ohhhh wow this is unbearable" as I clutch my abdomen.

Next thing I remember it was like my thoughts were coming from far, far away in slow, slow motion - "Why am I laying on a cold, hard surface? Oh well it feels very nice. Why are my arms underneath me? Where am I? Who cares it feels soooo good to just lay here."

Coming back from fainting happens in slow motion, like you can analyze every thought from the dark. All at once fast-forward kicks in and you're normal as can be. Reality set in when Kurt rounded the corner and said,

"Are you alright?" (BIG eyed look on his face.)

"Did I hit my head?" I ask. It sort of throbs. Half a second later I realize how funny I must look, flat on my stomach on the floor, bare butt up to the air.

"I heard a loud bump and thought it was the cat, but you didn't answer for a minute, so... ARE you alright?" (Still BIG eyed. I smile inside because I have never seen that look on his face!)

"I'm fine." (Explain stomach cramp situation). "Just give me a minute."

Ahahahahaha I think it's hilarious. I've fainted before - one curse of low blood pressure, along with the sister twins easy nausea and push-of-a-button-like queasiness. I've fainted after shots, getting blood drawn, eating nothing but brownie batter for a week during finals combined with too hot of a shower... it's part of my life.

Just don't tell Grandma, she worries too much! I'm fine, just a low-pressured-weanie.

PS - I think I must've bit my tongue, too, because it sure hurts today.

Who is Bigger?

My little assistant