I would have chosen Jacob

I have officially joined the ranks of those who have finished the Twilight series. It took me a little while to join the bandwagon of this one. My sister Kelsey gave me the first book for my birthday this past September. Despite how much talk I heard about it I just hadn't gotten around to reading it before that. I am going to share my thoughts on the series, and while I'm not planning to write a summary, if you want to read the series without my opinions which may or may not be spoilers, then stop reading here. I'll be honest about the first book: I enjoyed it, but it made me frustrated. I didn't agree with the choices that Bella made and Edward quite frankly bugged me. He seemed to me to be incredibly arrogant, overly protective, and self-righteous in his opinions (meaning that he did what he wanted to and nobody else's ideas mattered). He knew he was gorgeous, he knew he was intoxicating to Bella, and he knew he could do and say anything and she'd just go along with it. Plus I thought it was creepy that he sat in her room at night and watched her sleep even before she knew about it. And Bella just accepted it all! Like it was fate! Oh I just wanted to give some gumption to that girl! I felt that she was just becoming Edward rather than developing her own persona. I am fully aware that as a person reads a book, she automatically may transfer her own experiences and emotions onto the characters, and I am also fully aware that I perchance have done this. But I dated a few guys like Edward. The kind who knew they could have anybody they wanted, and wanted a girl who would just to orbit them and tell them how wonderful they were. The kind who didn't take the time to find out about the girl's talents and potential and to help her become who she could be. Anyway, to say the least I had a hard time with the first book. I was telling my sister Erin about my feelings and she gently reminded me that the book was written for adolescents. Hmmm. It made me think, and I ended up requesting the final three books on CD from the library. The series definately got more interesting as it went on. It introduced Jacob (well, I guess he was in the first book but he wasn't a big player), who tried to woo Bella away from Edward and was initially moderately successful. I felt that Jacob was perfect for Bella and that she was an idiot for considering anything else. He was funny, down to earth, focused on her rather than on himself, brought her joy and happiness, helped her learn and become and develop, and in general trusted her judgement. I loved how he was confident, but not overly so. He made mistakes but moved past them rather than beating himself over the head with them. The saddest snippet of the book was when Bella saw her future as it would be with Jacob: happy, sunshiney, and with two dark haired kids running around. And she still turned and walked away from it. Sigh. Yes, things ended up fine and dandy for everybody involved, but I'm not one that likes to depend on fate. See, when fate chooses somebody for you, and unfortunate things happen (as they always will in any relationship), then all of the sudden you're stuck thinking "WHAT CRAPPY LUCK DO I HAVE THAT FATE CHOSE THIS FOR ME?" Rather than if you take responsibility for your own relationship choices, and unfortunate things happen, then you think "OK, what choice can I make now to improve this...?" And although Bella was happy with Edward, I think I would have liked Bella as a person better if she had become the person she would have with Jacob. And I think she would have liked herself better. So I think I've made my point in enough ways that everybody can see the reasons that I wish she would have stuck with Jacob. Although if she would have stayed with Jacob it wouldn't really have made as interesting a read what with forgoing the whole vampire/human relationship. But another great thing about the book is that just as I felt the whole shebang was nothing more than a twisted love triangle, the plot thickened and honestly became pretty interesting and intense. And quite satisfying. I became very intent in how things were going to end up and began looking forward to bottle-washing time when I could put my headphones on and hear what they were doing. I finished the final book just this week and was very satisfied with the resolution. It not only held my attention through the entire series, but the grasp on said attention was stronger in the middle of the fourth book than it was in the first. Needless to say, I've already requested the DVD from the library. As soon as it comes out, we'll be the 15th person to watch it. And since they usually get like 50 copies of movies, we'll probably be the 1st people to watch the copy we'll get! So exciting!!

We have now entered the video age

In celebration of the birth of Elijah, my family gifted us a camcorder. I was in tears at the presentation and still cry when I watch a lot of the clips we've taken. I am SO grateful to have another way to save memories! My brother Adam once said that men want to pass on wisdom while women are more concerned with memories. Now, I am as wise as the next one, but he may have a point here. Anyway, here are two of my favorite clips so far...
First, this is when we were leaving the hospital. From the very beginning, Miriam was incredibly protective of Eli. The day he was born, she walked him down to the nursery. She was not invited to go in and when the door closed, she broke down crying. "BABY ELI! BABY ELI!" My thought is that she remembered the stuff they did to her behind those doors as a baby and was trying to stop the madness. ANYWAY, this is on the way out of the hospital. It was so incredibly tender to watch her carry his carseat all the way to the car. I'm crying now just thinking about it!

Here's the second one, and it's funny (in my oh so humble opinion - she IS my daughter, after all). Hopefully it will counterbalance the emotion of the first. Miriam learned how to play Hide and Seek and thinks it's great fun. The problem is, if Daddy isn't hiding in the same place (the bathroom), it really throws her off. She also has a hard time hiding and usually jumps out and says "HERE SHE IS!" as the Seeker is still seeking. ANYWAY, here is a round of her as Seeker. And yes, I know that her diaper and pants are completely sagging and not doing any good. It kind of adds to the moment, don't you think?

Name them one by one

Things I am grateful for:

*That I don't have to worry about going back to work.

*That Eli is so much milder than Miriam was. With Mim, every thing (waking up, diaper changes, even eating) was extreme trauma. She was a happy happy baby, but needed a lot of maintenance to be happy. Elijah just takes things as they come. It is so much nicer to wake up to squeaking and sqwaking that escalates to crying rather than intense screaming all at once. Plus, when he is worked up it is much easier to calm him down. To give Miriam some credit, she was the first child and we did learn a lot with her.

*My Sleepy Wrap. We love it! I can put him in and go about my normal routine but have a humming and squeaking little boy right with me.

*How Miriam adores Eli. She loves talking to him, getting things out for him, helping to hold his bottle, and sharing her toys. She'll even offer her blankets to him, which is big.

*That Elijah was born healthy even with the cord wrapped around his neck three times.

*The way Eli's little head is warm and fuzzy when I kiss it.

*How my recovery from this birth is so much better than from Miriam's. I honestly feel like I'm a month after birth rather than a week and a half.

*That Elijah is man enough to use a pink blanket, a pink burp rag, or a flowered binkie. This picture is pretty mild: Miriam spread her blanket out on top of him after he was asleep. Sometimes he gets the total swath of pink. But he still looks like a boy.

*The "Ba-ba Machine," aka my breast pump. I love being able to give Eli breast milk, for health and even more so financial reasons, but I adore feeding him with a bottle because I get to see his little face and eyes so much better. With pumping I get to do both. Plus it doesn't hurt while I'm actually feeding him.

*The way Eli likes to hold one of my fingers while he eats.

*That Gripe Water, an old-fashioned remedy for upset stomachs in babies, seems to help him so much. He's a lot calmer and sleeps better after a dose of it. No gripes here!

*That my mom stayed with us two days more than she planned on. Thanks mom!

*That Brent can take care of either or both kids without flinching. Here he is rocking Elijah and donning slippers on Miriam's request.

*He also gets up during the night as often as I do without complaining.

*Indoor plumbing and electricity. I can't imaging trying to clean up a dirty diaper in the middle of the night without at least a little light. And I just shudder thinking about doing anything with this sweet little guy without indoor heating!

*That Miriam loves having Eli do ANYTHING with her. She was extatic when we put his rocker next her hers.

*Just that I have such a great life!

*That I can't figure what's up with my font or my spacing but that I'm not going to worry about it!

Elijah Brent Moore

I got on to post this yesterday and thought I had... when I logged on this morning it was still in the editing phase. Stay tuned for more details!

Rock-a-bye baby

First of all, sorry to those who logged onto my blog, saw the picture of the gorgeous baby girl, and initially thought that Eli had come and was Eliza rather than Elijah. He hasn't, and he isn't. As an update on him, we are smack in the middle of our two due dates (the ultrasound lady said February 5th, the doctor said February 10th). If he doesn't come before then, we're heading in on Monday morning.

Secondly, I think we are finally ready for this kid. I've had everything except for his bed done for quite a while. But the bed caused some thinking for me. See, Miriam still sleeps in the crib and doesn't act like she's trapped in there, so I would like to keep her in there for longer. But I also remember that Miriam grew out of her bassinette superfast, so I wasn't sure if we'd have time to transfer both kids to their respective beds. I decided to get a cradle instead, thinking that it would be big enough to hold Eli for enough time for Miriam to transfer out of the crib on her own timetable. I looked on ksl.com and at Kid to Kid and other places and never found one that I liked at a price I was willing to pay. Remember, I'm a cheapskate. So I was telling my mom about my thoughts when she offered the cradle that she rocked five of her six kids in. She got it when Nathan was little and they were expecting Erin for the same reasons that I have wanting one now. So when I was home at Thanksgiving, I took a gander at it and decided it would be perfect. Mom and dad brought it here on Christmas when they made a spontaneous trip to visit Kelsey. It has since been sitting in the basement with me thinking that I just need to wash this down and sand it so that Brent can paint it. And I just kept thinking that. Finally I went down and washed it and sanded it. I don't think I sanded it enough, but I washed twenty five years of garage grime off of it. I also figured out how to reproduce a non-standard sized cradle mattress without utilizing the twenty five year old foam. No dust mites on my watch! Last week Brent hauled it up and onto the back porch when he carefully laid out some newspapers under and started to paint it. The first coat was spray paint and done in the virtual darkness. Miriam stood at the window and watched in fascination. The next day when Brent got home from work, she was not going to let him paint without her help. So Miriam got to paint. And she loved it. Brent had decided the second coat would be regular brush paint what with the round bars causing difficulty with the spray paint angle, and Miriam threw herself into the project with reckless abandon, holding a brush in each hand and layering on the paint like nobody's business, the whole time talking about how she was helping Daddy paint Eli's bed white. The newspapers only made it so that there is now a clean square amongst all of the white splatter on the porch. The resulting paint job has some cracks due to my not sanding and a lot of lumps due to her effective can-to-brush-to-cradle techniques. Brent said he got most of the paint he used off of the areas she took charge of. She stayed focused and energized the whole time and had to be pulled away to let the coat dry. Even as she jumped on the trampoline, she kept a close eye on the cradle to make sure it was okay. She went out the next day and helped with the final spray paint coat, then was thrilled when it got brought inside to mama and daddy's room. She was a little disappointed we didn't put it in her room, but it'll be there soon enough. Probably too soon in fact for her liking. Either way, this little girl is so excited for Baby Eli to sleep in his brand new white bed and she is fully aware that without her, the bed wouldn't be ready for him. And I love the lumpy paint because it shows how much she already loves him.

This is her first energetic swipes when I thought I'd better get a picture before she lost focus. I shouldn't have worried.

This is about fortyfive minutes later when she finally consented to take a break. I love the casually crossed ankles and the impish smile as she continues to dip the brushes. And I think Brent is pretty handsome too.

TWO!

My baby girl turned two on Saturday. My, where has the time gone? Here she is at five days when we finally got her home from the hospital. We were so glad to get out of there we forgot to wash her face before we left. Oops.
By her first birthday she was walking and talking and laughing and loving life.

















But two is an entirely new story. Miriam is an AMAZING little two year old girl. If you'd like to know all the brilliant and astounding things she does and can do, just keep reading.

She knows all of her colors, foods, animals, body parts, and clothing. She knows where all of her toys belong, and can get things out or put them away with just a little reminding.

She can crawl, walk, run, gallop, and somersault. She can squint her eyes (especially if I tell her to keep her eyes peeled or to only look with her eyes and not her hands), do a wobbly walk, a cold walk (crouched down with her hands shaking), and adapts other animal walks at random times. She does a great horse impersonation.

She knows that if she gets up in the night, she can't watch TV. Or read books.

She knows Baby Eli is coming and is so excited. She's helped with his bed, his mattress, and his clothes. She remembers that for Christmas he gave her the set of Baby Einstein books she loves, and calls them her "Eli books."

She loves french fries and brown juice (root beer). She also loves green beans, peas, and broccoli. And chocolate milk. And even if she doesn't eat them, she'll still say she likes them.

Her language skills are great. She does have a tendency to put Ts on the front and/or end of words. "Milk" is "mit," "cat" is "tat," "stuck" is "tut," as is "truck." And sometimes she drops the Ts out of the middle of words. "Letters" is "ay-yuhs." But she's understanding how to string them together and create some great sentences. Tonight's big one was "Bubbles taste gross." You've gotta learn it sometime. The longest sentence I've heard yet was 6 words. "Big green truck take Mimi's diapers." Initially, this was traumatic but then she realized she didn't WANT her old poopy diapers and the garbage truck could have them. We now thank the big green truck when it takes Mimi's diapers.

She has a sense of humor that makes me laugh. She knows when she's doing something funny, and she'll keep doing it just to make us laugh. Sometimes she thinks things are funny when they're not, like running around the car in the driveway three hundred times instead of getting into her carseat. Or kicking her feet while her diaper is getting changed. But we're working on that.

She knows a lot of her shapes. She always gets circle, square, triangle, and star. She's a little iffy on oval and rectangle, but sometimes she remembers them.

She loves letters and numbers. She knows most of her capital letters and quite a few of the lowercase letters. She knows that her favorite letter is M, for Miriam, and dad's favorite letter is B, although I don't know if she knows why. She can count to twelve on her own and to 20 with just a little help. She can identify the numbers up to 10 (I haven't really tried her on the double digits), although she sometimes understandably calls the 9 a 6.

She totally understands the potty and the diaper and even tells me when she just went peepee. She gets marshmallows when she sits on the potty and fruit snacks when she peepees or poops in the potty, but because of Baby Eli, Mama decided to put off the serious "potty training" until a bit later.

Most of all, she loves her Mama and Daddy (although the other day she just called me "Mom" and it made me just a little sad), Baby Eli, and Zeke and JoAnn.

And most of all I just absolutely adore my little two year old!

Supercalifragalisticexpialidocious!

Just in case you were wondering if I've been quoted in the paper lately...
http://www.sltrib.com/midvalley/ci_11565910

Going extinct

So the big SWITCHOVER from analog to digital is coming right up. Is anybody else worried that their television reception is going to take a hit? Don't get me wrong, digital is MUCH clearer than the nondigital, and usually I highly prefer watching in digital. But it's also much harder to get it to stay. Here's the thing. After the television that my sister Erin gave to us instead of the DI (for which we are grateful, and which was made by a company that quit making TVs in 1983) finally gave up the ghost, we purchased a brand new television that has the digital option. So we're good, right? According to all the question/answer websites, we are! But what about the fact that the digital side of things only comes in half the time? Even when we balance the antenna just right and get it to come in clearly, if somebody walks through the room it blanks out. Or even if somebody just moves from one place on the couch to another, it freezes. Or if the microwave is going or a cell phone rings, it gets shuddery. Even Miriam recognizes when it gets jagged and she puts her arms out and says, "what's up?!?" That's my question too! Anyway, once they cancel the analog, is the digital reception going to be easier to get? Or are we going to be forced to decide between downright nondependable reception or actually paying for cable? Does anybody else have issues with their digital reception? Has anybody else solved their issues with their digital reception? Help! Time is running out!

And just because I like it...

Week in review

Here are three moments from this week that didn't get their own blog post, but I love the memories, so they are going to be here, in a "Week in Review" post. When you have a week where I, the blogger, am fixated on the croup and a broken-then-fixed washer, some things just get missed.

First, Wednesday, January 20th was Inauguration Day. Although I did not vote for him, I think that President Obama will be an excellent leader and hopefully will be able to accomplish many of the things he wants to. I am excited to see where the next four years will go for this country. Miriam has been able to identify President Obama by a verbal question. I'll ask, "Who is the next president?" and she'll say "OH-BAMA!" Although we'd talked about it, I didn't know that she could also identify him by picture. But as we were watching the Inauguration, I asked, "Who is that?" She looked at the television and said "OH-BAMA!" I was proud! She sat on my lap and watched as much of the speech as you would expect a two-year-old, albeit one who can identify the newly sworn in President of the United States, to focus on. Then she was off. But I loved the attention she gave it, seeming to know that it was an important moment.

Secondly, Brent's birthday was Wednesday the 21st! Happy Birthday Brent! Miriam had a great time helping to make the cake, and talked about it being dad's birthday all day long. She chose the number, color, and placement of the candles, but was a little overwhelmed when we lit them, as you can see. I guess it's a good thing that open flame bothers her. Anyway, we had a fabulous day, and I think Brent did too. It is really good timing to have Brent's birthday just 10 days before Miriam's, because now she completely knows what a birthday is. She's already talking about how daddy had a brown cake, but she wants a pink one. We'll get it for her!

The third noteworthy-but-not-yet-noted event happened yesterday. Miriam found her babydoll stroller and was dead set on taking her babydoll for a walk. So we bundled up and headed out. She headed straight for the middle of the road, and I guided her back to the sidewalk, pointing her in another direction. She walked her stroller that way until there was a break in the foliage, where she again headed out to the middle of the road. We asked if she wanted to cross the street and she gave a resounding YES! Unbeknownst to me, she was making a beeline for her favorite winter-walk destination, the amazingly decorated-for-Christmas yard across the street that still has a few Santas up. She walked her little stroller there, then stopped and pointed all the Santas and snowmen out to her babydoll. When she was done, she went back to the place to cross, waited for us (thank goodness), and went back home. It was so dang tender I couldn't stand it! This picture is when she's heading back home after showing the baby all of her favorite winter things.

Hope you all had a great week and here's hoping for another!

We're going on a trip in our favorite rocket ship

Has it been long enough since I wrote about the glories of the public library system that I can do it again? After such a sick day yesterday, Miriam had a great night. She only woke up between 3 and 4:30, then slept again til 8:30! Wow! What a girl! And although she was coughing and breathing raspily, she was pleasant and happy and was playing with her stuff and asking to eat and watching her movies when she politely asked for Little Einsteins. "Mimi watch Einsteins please?" Uh... we didn't check out a Little Einsteins last time we were at the library. Oops. Usually when she wants something we don't have, she understands and chooses something that we do. But not this time. She was sick and gawldarnit she wanted Little Einsteins. So we went to the website and saw that it listed a copy of Little Einsteins at our library. But that's been wrong before. So before I packed up a much-better-but-still-sick kid, I called Miss Kami and gave her the scoop. She went and checked on the shelf and pulled not one, but TWO dvds of Little Einsteins for Miriam. Oh hooray! So I packed up my much-better-but-still-sick kid and drove down to the library. Miriam was so excited to see Miss Kami AND get Little Einsteins that she just couldn't keep calm. She bounced her way to see Miss Kami, received condolences along with her stamps, and we picked up our two Little Einsteins. On one of them there was a taped get-well-soon note from Miss Kami adorned with the stamps Miriam gets every visit. I am so lucky to have a librarian who loves my daughter! Miriam was thrilled with the movies and we watched them as soon as we got home, then after her nap, then before dinner. She was so excited about it that she didn't even want to stop for fries on the way home... just get there and watch Einsteins! Below, you can see Miriam hugging the box as she watches the movie, and a closeup of Miriam pointing to Miss Kami's note. What service! And I didn't have to spend a penny! Hooray for the library!

Liberation on all fronts!

It is finally Thursday, January 22nd. Finally the washer guy was scheduled to come to our house sometime between the hours of 8 and 12. Hallelujah. For those who had the image that Miriam's clothes were getting moldy sitting in gross water for the past week and a half, please let me clear up the misconception. The fatal door lock occurred before any water was let into the wash drum. The clothes were fine and dry, just dirty and locked in the washer. So here's how it went down. Last night Miriam was coughing and had a scratchy voice. She thought it was pretty funny, but ended up coughing quite a bit throughout the night. She woke up about 4:30 and was definately sick. She struggled to breathe, coughed every time she took a deepish breath, and choked herself awake anytime she did get to sleep. It just kept getting worse and worse and worse until I honestly wondered if she was getting any oxygen at all. I called the doctor to see if they could fit us in today and she set an appointment for 10:20. Great for Miriam's health, not so great for Miriam's clothes. I called the Sears repair place where, after some explanation and waiting, the repair guy called me back and said that we were pretty far down the list and he probably wouldn't get there til after noon. So far so good. We headed into the doctor's, where after a few stethoscope listens to her breathing it was decreed that she did indeed have the croup and needed a steroid mist for 20 minutes followed by a three hour "watching period" where they could see if the steroid mist would help for the long term or if they needed to do something else for my poor little girl. So I called Brent who said he could come home for lunch if the Sears guy called and we got the steroid mist in a face mask thing, the entire time Miriam was yelling "Mimi house please!" over and over with tears pouring out of her eyes. Add that trauma to her already fever-stricken and chafed face and she looked pretty pathetic. Poor little girl. She was simply miserable. After the treatment was over and we were in the waiting phase, I asked if I could take her home and just bring her back in three hours, but that wasn't good enough. We moved to a chair in the waiting room where were sitting by the fish tank and could see the television and Miriam finally calmed down. I can't remember the last time where she sat so placidly on my lap for so long. It was nice, but made me realize how terrible she must feel. Anyway, after getting her breathing listened to every half hour for a long long long long time, the doctor told me that the nurse who was helping us had to take her own daughter to the doctor and he had some errands to run. So they were going to head out for a little but they'd be back before our waiting time was done. Sure, THEY can leave and come back but we can't?!? ARGH! Anyway, to make a really really really long story a little bit shorter, the steroid mist seemed to work great on Miriam. Every few minutes she'd get more energy and be more herself. When she asked for fries (after denying any sort of caloric offerings all morning), I knew she was swinging in the right direction. Being at the office, all we had was a vending machine so she took Cheetos as a consolation prize. The doctor finally came back and cleared us for takeoff, telling us that the croup is always worse at night and she'd probably have another night or two of rough times. Got it. When we finally got to the car, it was 2:30, an entire FOUR AND A HALF STINKING HOURS since we had left our house. Still I imagined that our finally leaving the office was comparable to those clothes finally getting out of the washer... THE CLOTHES! I had forgotten! Once I got home and Miriam set up comfortable with an Elmo movie, I called Brent. No Sears guy. No call. No free clothes. It was after 3 by this time and I was a bit discouraged but decided to just not worry about it. I'd taken care of enough today. Then at 4:30, Jack from the Sears Repair Center called and said he was on his way! HOORAY! He opened the washer door and showed us how to do it through the top panel. He diagnosed that it was merely a power surge that had put the electronic portion of the washer on hold and told us to get a good surge protector so it wouldn't happen again. After looking at our paperwork he said that we were still under the warranty time, so the whole thing cost us absolutely nothing unless you count the week and a half that we were washerless. Which I don't because I didn't have to pay any real money. So Jack saved the washer and the doctor saved Miriam and both Miriam and I made it out of the doctor's office finally and all of Miriam's clothes made it out of the washer finally and are nicely folded on the table (look! socks that fit! pajamas that don't stretch at the neck when we put them on!) waiting to be put away tomorrow after Miriam gets up. After sleeping in late, I hope. It's not July, but I'd like to wish everybody a very Happy Independence Day!

Perseverance

I know I've done a lot of digital scrapping posts lately, but since this is my blog and you can stop visiting any time you want, I'm going to put another one up that I am particularly fond of. If you're getting bored of them, just think of how many I'm NOT posting and be grateful. I was really excited to figure out the overlay thing of putting Miriam's face into the background. Fun stuff! This is actually a layout of some pictures from a blog post back in the day so I thought you might enjoy them. If you for some reason don't remember, you can refresh your memory here.

And for those who were wondering, Elijah has not yet arrived into this world of air and light. He's doing great at 37 weeks and we're just waiting on him. I think he realizes we're in the middle of a streak of red days what with the smog and inversion and is waiting for it to be cleared out before he has to start filtering his air on his own. We're planning the 9th of February - I quite like the sound of 2-9-09. When he does get here, you'll surely know. If you can believe it, I already have a scrapbook layout just waiting for his picture!

Great men

Miriam has developed a great interest in money. I have a coin jar where I throw all my loose change, and she knows where it is and how to get it down to play with. She puts the coins in the bathtub, under the rug, in the couch, and everywhere else. She also remembers where they are and can show you. She thinks its really funny to say "where money?" and then lift up the rug and say "there it is!" She loves it, and I love hearing her say "more money please?" when she gets to the bottom of the jar. I know just how she feels. Anyway, yesterday Brent and Miriam were playing money. He held out a nickel to her and asked her whose picture was on it. Not having discussed this with her previously, I was interested to hear her response. She looked at it carefully and solemnly said, "Jesus." They only put Very Important People on coins, ya know.

Today's project

I really like this one. It's actually a collage of seven separate pages that I put together in one happy collection. Here's my critique... In doing it again, I would make the "mood words" darker so they could be more visible when shrunk down. I would also just do without the place and date words. You probably can't see them anyway. I also think I would do less "background" stuff in the small pictures and focus more on the pictures themselves. But this series didn't start as a collage, so what can ya do? Other than that I think it's perfect!

Held hostage

After a week of doing only two loads of necessary laundry, I woke up Monday ready to tackle all of the dirty clothes, towels, and other sundry dirty items in our home. I started with Miriam's, put the load in the washer, shut the door and poured some detergent into the drawer thing. Although unfinished and slightly frigid, the newly cleaned and organized basement is one of Miriam's favorite play areas, so we ended up by her little kitchen cooking all sorts of plastic delicacies. After a bit, I realized that I was hearing no washer noises. I checked to make sure I had started it, and the outprint box was flashing "F-22." I turned it off, went through the startup sequence again, and again "F-22." I decided to start from scratch and went to open the door hoping to reset the thing. The door was locked. And nothing I could do would open it. I unplugged the machine, I pushed restart, reset, I tried to start at the rinse cycle... nothing. I dug out the troubleshooting portion of the handbook. F-22 is a call-a-repairman code. Argh. So I called Sears where I hope we still have a warranty (we bought it in July) and felt like I was on hold for an exorbitant amount of time. So I went to the online repair scheduling schedule and the first time somebody could be here was Thursday. Okay, I thought, Miriam's favorite clothes and blankets might be locked in the washer, but she has others, this might be a good chance to see if any of her off-the-bench clothes should be moved up or gotten rid of... so I took it. Like I had another choice. I did gather up some things that I felt couldn't wait until Thursday and washed them at my friend Shauna's (thanks, Shauna). Then I set out to live life as normal until Thursday when, after the repairman came between 8 and 12, I planned to spend the day doing laundry. Yesterday, the day before washer-fixing-day, I was tidying up the office and picked up the printoff of the appointment. I glanced at it and was shocked to see that the appointment was for Thursday, January 22nd. Due to the lack of being able to capitalize numbers, I'll do it this way: the TWENTYSECOND! As in NEXT week! Not today, but NEXT WEEK! I was so sad! I can resolve most of my laundry woes by just giving in and doing some wash loads at the laundromat down the street. I have many happy memories of laundromat times in my college days, so although it would be a pain it wouldn't be that big of deal. Our dryer still works, so I'd only have to do the wash cycle and then come home. Not bad at all. But remember Miriam's clothes? Locked in the washer? Where I can't get to them? I'm just lucky that she hasn't asked for her soft blanket specifically this week. Or that I've not had an overwhelming desire to dress her in her/my favorite jeans or shirt or coat... I'll get through this, and trust me I know it's not a big deal but GOSH it's been a sliver in my side this week. You will notice in the picture that the F-22 code is thankfully no longer flashing. Now there's just the bright red light on "DOOR LOCKED" that seems to mock me every time I venture down to look at it. Even though it's been since Monday, it seems like a fresh wound because I had planned on it being fixed today. Oh well. If anybody knows how to clear an F-22 error code on a Kenmore HE-2 washer, please let me know. An entire load of Miriam's cutest clothing hostages and I would be ever so grateful!

I'm getting better at this...

I finally sat down and watched some tutorials about my scrapbooking software and I feel so much more competent and so much more able to do things. Funny how a little education will make that happen. I've figured out things like "actions," which brighten a picture or make it sepia toned or black and white. I can add "elements" and feel like I have seen enough to not make them feel awkward but rather that they accentuate the page. I've downloaded freebies from other sites and incorporated them into my doings. I really have had a lot of fun. And I really need to start setting a timer when I sit down to work on it because I could keep doing different things and dig into old pictures and just spend forever if I could. But I am going to post a few of my favorites that I've been doing lately. The first is a very simple page of when Miriam was a baby. In the sake of full disclosure of copyrights, the background is a freebie from simplementscrap.free.fr. The second set is the first of my version of the "365 Project." The idea is to take a picture a day and get the "daily living" portion of life instead of the highlights like scrapbooking usually does. I've kind of changed it to a photo scrap journal. I don't worry if I miss a day :). It's desiged to be side by side pages, but I don't know if they'll post that way. You can get the idea though, from what's here. The backgrounds and some elements come from the "It's a Boys World" kit from sweetblossomdesigns.blogspot.com. The rest of them came with the My Memories Suite Software. Enjoy! I certainly have!

Miriam in Miseryland

Yesterday Miriam had her first empathetic emotional experience. It was actually quite traumatic. She had checked out "Elmo in Grouchland" from the library and put it in to watch. For those who haven't seen it, it starts out with Elmo dancing around his bedroom looking for his blanket, who is also dancing around and teasing him a bit. Miriam loved this because she, like Elmo, loves her blankets. In fact, I have a half-composed-in-my-head post of "Miriam's Favorite Things #2" about her blankets. Stay tuned for that one. Just know for now that she does have an emotional attachment to her blankets and was totally getting into Elmo and his blanket playing peek-a-boo. Elmo and his blanket then went outside where they found Zoe, who was really sad because her dad was working and couldn't take her to the zoo. Elmo put the blanket down and started pretending to be different animals to cheer Zoe up. It worked a little bit, but Zoe picked up Elmo's blanket and wanted to use it. This made Elmo very nervous and after numerous grabs to get it back, the blanket fell into Oscar the Grouch's garbage can. At this point, Miriam began to be extremely worried. She kept repeating over and over "Elmo blanket... Elmo blanket... Elmo blanket..." in a very tense voice. She climbed up onto her dad's lap and peered out to see what Elmo would do. "Elmo blanket... Elmo blanket..." So Elmo climbs into the garbage can and sees the blanket falling down a psychadelic rainbow tunnel. Elmo jumps in after it. "Elmo blanket... Elmo blanket..." We both kept telling Miriam that Elmo was going to go save his blanket and that everything would be okay. It was actually pretty funny because at this point the movie action stops and Ernie and Bert show up on the screen. Bert is all worried about the blanket but Ernie assures him that Elmo won't give up until he gets his blanket back. I wonder how many kids were freaked out by this part during pre-screenings to make them put in the Bert and Ernie segment. Anyway, during the fall, the blanket goes through one tunnel and Elmo through another. Elmo lands in Grouchland, which is populated by, you guessed it, Grouches. It's actually pretty funny... the carwash slaps slime and goop on all the cars coming through, the hair place is called the "Ugly Parlor," and the streets are paved with mold. Miriam calmed down a little while Elmo looked around for his blanket. Then came the tragedy. Mandy Patinkin, the guy who plays Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride, showed up with the lost blanket. Miriam watched in horror as he sang and danced around teasing Elmo with the blanket. When he threw the blanket into a chest in his airplane and flew away, she absolutely lost it. Shudders, sobs, and tears poured forth from my little girl as she collapsed on her dad's shoulder. "Elmo blanket back! Elmo blanket back!" Ernie and Bert showed up to reassure us, but it was way too late. I told Miriam that we were going to fast forward the show and see what happens. We put the DVD onto the 8x forward and narrated the show through the flashes of pixels that we saw. Elmo is brave and going to get his blanket, Big Bird comes to help, even Oscar shows up. Still Miriam is bawling and shaking. She has switched from dad's lap to mine and my arms are positively wet with her tears. We get to the end where Elmo finally gets his blanket back and is safe on Sesame Street. They start singing the happy "Together Forever" song, and Miriam finally calms down. She's still crying, but finally laughing and smiling a bit through her shaky and shuddery breathing. Ernie tells Bert that he shouldn't have worried, that Elmo of course was going to find a his blanket. Yeah, thanks Ernie. A lot of good that did us all. As soon as they cut to the credits (where Bert was excited to see who the caterer was because GOSH those sandwiches with the crusts cut off were so good), Miriam started crying again. "Elmo blanket back? Elmo blanket back? Elmo blanket back?" So we had to watch the closing segment a few times before she calmed down. I think it was emotionally draining for all of us. This morning, Miriam again asked for Elmo. She shuffled through her stack of movies and pulled it out. I didn't want to tell her it's too scary or make her think that she's not tough enough to watch it, so we tried it again. Same thing. This time, though, she knew that the guy wouldn't give the blanket back and she started crying as soon as he came on the screen. Ernie and Bert certainly couldn't handle this one. We fast forwarded it, sang the happy song a few times, and put the movie up. It's going back to the library where it can haunt some other poor little child. I was planning on getting "Elmo's Potty Time," thinking that it would be an enjoyable romp through the potty world. But now I see that it's "Not Rated." Seeing as though "Elmo in Grouchland" is G, I just don't know what a "Not Rated" would do to our otherwise happy and well-adjusted little girl...

Oh say, can you see?

I could and maybe will sometime in the near future write a whole bunch about Miriam's hair. Usually she's more interested to see what it is that's in it that how it looks at all, and pulls out whatever decorative item is in it due to that curiosity. But she does like the idea of decorations in her hair. When she finds one of my headbands, she picks it up and puts it on her head. She has a tendency, though, to place them very carefully across her forehead rather than on the crown, where a headband is traditionally worn. Sometimes they slip down over her eyes and remind me of the StarTrek type of sunglasses that were all the rage in the late 80s. I rarely have my camera at these times and because the headband doesn't stay balanced for that long I usually just enjoy it myself without feeling the need to memorialize it. I did get a nice phone shot once, though, that you can see. With all of my cleaning and clearing lately, Miriam has gotten into the fun of things by searching through her desk drawers. These are basically empty, but she did find a grouping of baby headbands, the type I refer to as head-suckers. I didn't use these much on Miriam. When I did, she usually pulled them out and if she kept them in, they left dents in her head. But they're still hanging around. So when she found them, she put them on her head, Miriam-style. They were so tight that they scrunched her little eyes down and she could barely see out of them. But she loved it! She ran to the mirror and tilted her head to peer out of her one eye that was left a wee bit open to see how it all looked and was so excited about it. After we took some pictures and talked about how pretty it was, she let me push it up a little to her head. It looked a lot more comfortable, as you can see in the after picture below, but obviously it wasn't quite what she wanted. The headband came out and she was off on another adventure.

35 weeks and counting...

I have finally arrived at my favorite stage of pregnancy. True, I have a hard time moving, if I eat more than three bites of something I'm stuffed beyond words, and clothes that I like wearing are few and far between. But I'm not sick and I'm not exhausted. For as long as I can remember, the mornings and in fact much of the afternoons and evenings also have consisted of me going through the motions of life but spending most of my thoughts on figuring out a way to lay down and go back to sleep. It was much worse in the early days of pregnancy, but even though it got better that second trimester, I still would rather sleep than do anything. But no more! I finally have energy and gumption to do things! Part of it I'm sure is the fact that between the debilitating leg cramps and the bathroom breaks that suddenly wake me up in the middle of the night and the difficulty I have getting comfortable enough to go back to sleep, sleep time is really not as restful as it used to be. Still, I wake up now before Miriam and I'm really awake! I get things accomplished during the day that are in excess of basic survival! I have the desire to DO rather than to just lay! It's amazing! The experts call this the "Nesting Stage." I call it the "Not Being Sick and/or Tired and Finally Having the Desire and Energy to Do Everything I've Avoided For the Past Eight Months Stage." Although my title might be much more precise, I suppose they have the advantage of being concise. Whatever floats your boat. The reality of the matter is that I have cleared out and organized our three hallway closets, rearranged Miriam's closet to make room for Eli's things, cleared out the basement storage shelves and packed Brent's entire trunk, backseat, and passenger front seat with things he took to the DI. Well, Savers, because DI didn't take donations on New Years Day. Their loss. I have a plan of attack for the next two weeks of how to finish cleaning and organizing the basement, do the kitchen cupboards, and finish getting two birthdays (Brent and Miriam are both in January) as well as a birth day (obviously Elijah) prepared. Part of me is reveling in this energy not because I don't like to laze when I can, because I most certainly do. But I also know how much energy and attention Miriam likes at this point. I also know how much energy and attention Miriam liked during her first three months and can only imagine that Eli will want just as much. And I also remember how stinking exhausted I was after Miriam was born and trying to not only get her through the night but also the day and also somehow get myself some rest and recovery. And then I imagine adding a wonderful but typical two-year-old to the newborn and post-partum mix and I wonder how any mother has ever survived. So I'm getting things done now because I sure as all get out won't later. But as far as I can, I want to get as much done now so that I can feel like I'm ahead for the next few months rather than getting more and more behind. I want to spend that time focused on Mim and Eli and on me and not on feeling that I can't go anywhere in my house without seeing a project I haven't yet done. So I'm all about getting things done! Especially, if you couldn't tell, the organizing ones. For some reason, if something is well placed and organized then I feel like it is working for me rather than against me. And if I can get my organizing done now then I can simply enjoy it for the next year and can really focus on enjoying my two amazingly wonderful children rather than wishing they'd both sleep at the same time so I could get something accomplished. Now I'll just wish they'd both sleep at the same time so I could get some sleep myself. But I WON'T be worried about how far behind I am on the household chores that make me feel good. And that gives me so much happiness! I feel sad for the women whose kids come prematurely. They don't get this time of energy and gumption. There is something to be said about being the type of pregnant woman who, when somebody asks them when their baby is due, can honestly say "last week." I'm not to that point yet, mind you, although I did get there with Miriam. But think of all I could accomplish if it happened again!

Here Comes Santa Claus

In case anybody has forgotten, Miriam's Santa Hat was her favorite accessory during December. She wore it everywhere and with everything and made it look good. Here's a digital scrapbook page I made this afternoon highlighting the beloved Santa Hat. And yes, I do feel quite creative!

The Bowl Games of Life

If you know me or have followed this blog for long (although if you don't know me, I don't know why you would be following this blog), you know that although I may not be athletically inclined, I do enjoy watching a good game. I'm not a huge baseball fan, which means summer is pretty lean on sporting events that I enjoy. But it also means that when college football starts in the late summer, it makes it even better. And luckily, for the past few years teams that I feel connected to (namely Boise State, Utah and BYU) have had great teams and great seasons. My biggest qualm as a fan of really good mid-major teams is the BCS. For the non-college-football watcher, years ago some high-and-mighties got together and decided which college conferences were "the best." They named these the "Bowl Conference Series," and they were the only teams that had a shot to get to any of the big bowls, including the bowl that names the "national title." It's kind of like all of the rich kids got together and made the rule that in order to run for any office or be elected "best of (fill in the blank)," you had to be one of them. A few years back, they tweaked the rules to make it easier for a non-BCS team to be invited to a BCS bowl, but it's still fishy because they only have to invite one. So the reasoning goes if one unpopular kid gets invited to the party, it's not an elitist event. The 2004 season Utah team was the first "BCS Buster" to be invited. Unfortunately, that same year Boise State had an amazing and also undefeated season. But because Utah was ranked higher, they got the spot and Boise State didn't. Still, Utah played and won a great although slightly disappointing game against Pittsburgh. Great because they soundly beat the BCS team and disappointing because the BCS team they played didn't have a very good year, record, or team that year. Two years later, Boise State finally broke through and played Oklahoma in the Tostitos Bowl in what I believe was the best football game ever to be played. Honestly, I've never seen anything like it. If you haven't seen it, I have the DVD and can hook you up. Last year, Hawaii went and although they had a great regular season lost pretty miserably. This year Utah and Boise State both had amazing teams and undefeated records, but because Utah again started the season ranked higher than Boise State, Utah ended the season ranked higher than Boise State and was therefore the one team invited to play in a BCS bowl. The headline in The Idaho Statesman sports page was "BCS: Bull Crap Series." Anyway, Utah played and soundly beat Alabama tonight in the Sugar Bowl. Alabama, who has an incredibly involved and storied football tradition. Alabama, who was ranked #1 for 5 weeks during the regular season. Alabama, whose coach said when they were among three undefeated teams this season (Boise State and Utah being the other two) said they were the only undefeated team in a conference that means anything. Alabama, whose fans respectfully but quite loudly said that they deserved to be in the National Title game and not stuck playing a ho-hum second-tier team like Utah. Yeah, THAT Alabama! Utah beat the pants off of them! The Utes jumped ahead 21-0 in the first quarter and never looked back. Alabama, while having a good second quarter and swinging the momentum in their direction a few times in the second half, never even took the lead! I sat down tonight to write about how amazing the game was and how it made me feel empowered over the situations I feel are trying to keep me down, and how even though I only see a few games throughout the season due to the tv deal they have (that is another rant entirely), I feel like I am a member of the team and not just a mere sometimes-spectator. Then all this BCS stuff poured out. Now, a majority of Americans feel that the BCS system is whacked and that it needs a complete revision. There is even a bill being proposed in Congress that would presumably force a playoff series. You can read about it here if you want. But the bottom line is that the only people who can change it are the college presidents of the schools in the conferences involved in the BCS. And they don't want to change it because they get millions of dollars each year for having their schools and other schools in their repective conferences play in the top bowls. So we are left with "life." It's not fair, the rules make no sense, and most times all your best efforts get overlooked in favor of somebody else's seemingly less remarkable results. But every once in a while, all your work and preparation get the spotlight and the nation pauses to acknowledge your greatness. For days I have been thinking of how to do a clever and cute Happy New Year post. But because I never came up with a good enough idea to make all the sweet little pictures of Miriam that I haven't posted yet tie all together, THIS is my Happy New Year post. If you have somehow made it through this entire post, this is my 2009 wish to you all. Keep doing your best. Continue working and slaving and focusing and making things work as well as you can. Most of the time nobody but you will notice. But every once in a while, you'll get a chance to not only show it all off but be recognized for it and reap all the kudos and accolades that you've ever wanted. May 2009 be that year for you. The Utah Utes, standing for all the little guys who never get noticed, have shown us that it can be done. GO UTES!

Digital Scrapbooking

I am not a scrapbooker. Mostly because I can't stand the thought of having to get out so much STUFF to be able to do it, and then having to put it all away again when I was done. I don't have an "area" for it to belong, so I've never gotten into the scrapbooking thing. HOWEVER, I have wanted a way to creatively display and store my pictures and memories. So for Christmas, Brent got me some digital scrapbooking software, namely Polaroid's My Memories Suite. I haven't done much yet, but so far I love it. I can sit at the computer and put things together, yet I can stand up and walk away and it's all put away. I don't have to have scraps of stuff hanging around, yet I can end up with something I'm proud of. I've not spent much time on it, but I feel like I've accomplished things with the time I have spent. Here is just one of my pages...

Before and After

This is seriously one of my very favorite things about Christmas morning. Usually I'm all about "GET IT CLEANED UP NOW!" But Christmas is different. I think that once people start cleaning up, it means it's over...

A girl and her father on a winter's day

The advertising is right!

For years now, I have used Max Factor's Lipfinity Lipstick. It's the kind that is a liquidy paint-type stuff that you put on, then use a glossy topcoat to seal it and make it shine. I usually use just a regular lip gloss throughout the day and feel great about my appearance. Who knows if I really look presentable, but it's all about how I feel, right? Anyway, on their website they claim that "the color can last for up to 12 hours — without touch-ups." Well, this morning as we were leaving for church, Miriam found my left-out makeup and decided to highlight her eyes for the special Sunday-before-Christmas service. She chose the Lipfinity, obviously wanting to go for something a little more vavoomish than just regular eyeshadow. After wiping, rubbing, washing, and otherwise attempting removal, the stuff had diminished but was obviously still there. I attacked it with a baby wipe during choir practice. When that rendered still nothing, I decided to embrace it. I thought that she looked like a little white rabbit with pink eyes, although most people asked who had won the fight. Either way, I'm sure it added quite a bit to the sight of her wailing pitifully at the gate of nursery before she remembered that she likes her class and fully participated. The picture above is her posing cheesily by the tree after church. The Santa hat, by the way, has become a favorite accessory and is on her head about 90% of the time. Lower you'll see a close up of the eye color. Even after her bath tonight, she still had her eye-highlights. If you're looking for long-lasting lipcolor, look no more. This stuff really works!