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!

Merry Christmas!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

A, You're Adorable

My daughter is absolutely brilliant and there's just no getting around it! In a past post, I mentioned that we had talked about the letter "M" and that she recognized all letters as such. Well, my friends, those times are in the past. Miriam definately knows what letters are and can distinguish a whole bunch of them. One of her favorite songs is the ABC song. In fact, when she chooses which song to sing to Baby Eli, 90% of the time, that's the one he gets. Once she was running with her dad and she stopped at a big sign that is low to the ground and she started singing the ABC song. She totally recognizes that letters are a big part of this world and they are everywhere. She has had "O" down for a long time, and once when we were in Boise, I pointed to a Boise sign and asked her to find the "O." She pointed right to it. I didn't know she knew "B," but she then pointed to the "B" and said "B!" She knows "B!" At this point, she gets B, H, I, M, O, S, and X almost always. She usually gets A, D, E, F, P, and Z. It makes me proud as a parent that she sometimes points these letters out in public. The other day we were at the checkout of a grocery store. The word "Bakery" was written in huge letters on the wall. She pointed to it and clearly said "B." "Yep," I said, "that's the letter B!" The checker was absolutely amazed. Her choosing which letters to learn is affected by other things. She has recently developed an obsession for the Wiggles. This has been enthusiastically fostered by her dad. She can name all of the colors of the Wiggles (red, blue, yellow, and purple), can name two of them with color (purple is Jeff and yellow is Sam [sorry to all of you early Wiggle watchers who knew the Wiggles when Greg was yellow]), and can identify which color of Wiggle is whose favorite (Dad likes blue, Miriam likes yellow, Zeke likes red, and luckily I haven't had to choose a favorite). Anyway, one day she was playing with her alphabet letter magnets at the fridge and she started freaking out about the Wiggles. It seemed odd to me, but it turns out that she had found this letter "g," which is in the same font that is used in the Wiggles name and she hooked the two together. For a long time, she would pick this letter up, and use it to instigate a request to watch the Wiggles. She would hold it lovingly as she danced and sang along with them. Now, she always identifies "g"s that are in this font as "Wiggles!" I'm trying to make it be "Wiggles g," but it's a slow process. Needless to say, she looks for and finds letters all around the house. For Christmas, my sister-in-law Jenn made us these adorable letter blocks that spell out "FAMILY." We have them up in the bedroom and Miriam loves looking at them because there is the "M" and the "I" that she's really good at. And it is because of these letter blocks that she is starting to find "F" and "A" in other places. We haven't started lowercase letters (with the grand exception of the Wiggles g, of course) and last week when the number 2 was in a puzzle she was working on, she said it was an S. There is definately room for growth, but I am going to end just as I started. My daughter is absolutely brilliant and there's just no getting around it!

Christmas Crafts

I don't consider myself a "crafty" person, in personality or in the enjoyment of making things. But I have added two major (to my standards at least) hand-put-together projects to my Christmas decorations this year.

The first is a vinyl saying board that I have put above the piano. It is a quote from the second verse of "Hark the Herald Angels Sing," and one of my all-time favorite Christmas lines. It states "Born that man no more may die!" My favorite version of this song is done by Jewel on her Christmas album Joy (which is, by the way, one of my very favorite Christmas CDs). I feel that the line just sums up the entire reason for celebrating Christmas. For years now I have wanted to put the saying above one of my nativity scenes, and this year I did it. It is, like I said earlier, a vinyl saying on a painted board. The painting of the board was no problem, although I did wonder how to select the color of green that would match both the greenish wall and the green of the other Christmas decorations. The problem was solved when I realized I had paint left over from the greenish wall and just went with that, to heck with the other greens. Then came the application of the vinyl. I had a 9-step direction sheet on "How to Apply Vinyl" complete with a contact name and number at the bottom if I had any problems that I got from the craft store where I ordered the vinyl. I read it over about twenty times and debated taking the whole project to Boise over Thanksgiving so my sisters and sister-in-laws could help me do it right when I finally took a deep breath and just did it. And to be completely honest I think it turned out fabulous! I have it hanging over the piano over my Chilean nativity scene. I've had it hanging up for less than a week and have already had multiple comments both on the phrase and how good it looks. I absolutely love it.

The next project was a nativity scene that I found on Sugardoodle.net. I knew I would never do it alone, but quite liked it, so I invited my siblings to take part in the activity. We made sets after Thanksgiving dinner and it was quite fun. Miriam actually did most of the painting on this set, with some help from Malone. She was so energetic and focused that I don't think I could possibly have told her no. Each time she finished a piece, she turned and said, "more paint?" And she was quite sad when there were not any more, even after painting both sides of each one. When we were unpacking it and putting it out on the table, she said "Mimi paint! Malone help." Still now, she picks up a piece of it from time to time and reminisces about the time she got to paint. I kept finding them on their backs and figured it was a lot more wobbly than I thought. Then one day I realized that I had put them on the table that Zeke uses to look out the window. And the nativity scene doesn't stop him from using it. But I like the table it's on and I certainly don't want to take away a spot from Zeke because he might want to replace it with a spot that I don't like him in, so I'll just keep setting it up.

And while I'm talking about amazing homemade Christmas decorations, I just have to share when my sister Erin painted for all of us this Christmas. I have always been impressed with her talent for doing anything that she wants to, and this is just another example of why. I don't know how the project came to her, but she did an absolutely amazing job. If you can't tell, it's the wise men traversing across the desert. One is pointing the way, one is leading the camel, and one has his hand on the camel's side. There are stars stamped in the sky and letters stamped onto it saying "Hallelujah, glory to the Babe who will save us all." Because this is my blog, I will take credit for the saying. It is from an extra verse that I wrote to "We Three Kings" in an arrangement that will someday be described in an entire seperate blog entry. But although I put the words together, she stamped them on the painting in silvery paint and it looks awesome. I am just so dang impressed.

Decorating for Christmas is one of my favorite things to do. One reason is because each item I take out of the box is a reminder of the birth of Christ and how His life has incredibly and undeniably affected mine. I am so grateful for this time of year and the chance we have to focus so much on Him and His life. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The Twelve Days of Christmas

Please accept with my best holiday wishes my gift to you, my dear blog readers. It is a link (I am nothing if not generous) to a "Twelve Reading Days of Christmas" article. It is a list of suggested scriptures starting Sunday the 14th and going through Christmas, highlighting aspects of the nativity, the prophesies of Christ, and their impact on our lives. I am excited to use it as my daily scripture inspiration for the next few weeks and hope that it makes your holiday brighter.

Things Miriam Loves #1

Because she spends most of her times with me, I still have a large impact on the things Miriam does or does not do. Still, she definately has her opinion and lets me know if it's something that she loves loves loves or something that she'd rather not do again. So although I have a deep and abiding love for public libraries, it's not just my love rubbing off on her. I do believe that Miriam's very favorite time during the week is her Library Class time. Officially it's called "Storytime," but we always call it her "Library Class." After trying out various and sundry baby and toddler library classes across the valley, I finally attended one at our closest library. The suggested age is 3-5, so I didn't take her earlier, but I should have. It's a small enough group that the storytime leader can interact with all the kids. She has a routine setup, starting with "If You're Happy and You Know It," and ending with a craft. No matter how many times I sang this song to Miriam before we attended our library class, now when we sing it, she always identifies it as Miss Kami's song. I frequently tell Miriam something that's we'll be doing the next day as she's getting ready for bed. If I tell her that her Library Class is tomorrow, however, she gets super excited and runs to the door, sometimes even grabbing a library book to turn in on the way, yelling "Kami Kami Kami!" Even if we are attending the library on a non-class day, Miriam gets really excited to see Miss Kami. When she goes to Miss Kami's desk, she gets a stamp on each hand. Miriam LOVES her stamps. She shows them off to everybody she sees for the rest of the day and says "Stamp. Kami." The picture above is her doing just that. And thankfully, Miss Kami knows and likes Miriam too. The other day we went to the library and Miriam was talking about Miss Kami the whole way. It made her think quite a bit when I said that the library isn't Miss Kami's house, but that is is Miss Kami's work. When she walked in and saw Kami at her desk, she yelled "KAMI!!" Miss Kami, bless her heart, looked up and said "Miriam!" Then Miriam went and collected her stamps, telling Miss Kami all about something or other that was super exciting. I don't know how much Miss Kami understood, but she sure acted excited about it. And one strange twist of it's-a-small-world-ness, Miss Kami turns out to be the cousin of my friend and Logan roommate Kristen! No wonder she's wonderful! Anyway, Miriam also knows the setup of the library, and usually helps me turn her books in before she trucks off to the board book section and sits down to make some selections. She also knows where the videos are and usually requests either Elmo or the Wiggles. I'm not sure if the "Thing Miriam Loves" is the library in general or the class or Miss Kami herself, but the combination of the three is definately a highlight of her life.


This is Miriam choosing a sticker from Miss Kami after her class was over. Please note the marshmallow turkey clutched in her hand. By the time we drove to dad's work after the class to show him, the mini marshmallow feathers were gone. But she kept the big marshmallows to be able to show him what she did with Miss Kami in her beloved Library Class.

Daddy-Daughter

Miriam adores her daddy. And her daddy adores her. No matter how sad or frustrated she is, as soon as she hears the back door opening which signals the arrival of dad from work, she runs to it yelling "DADDY DADDY DADDY DADDY!" She simply loves him and loves being with him. The other day, I picked up the camera to look at some pictures and I found this adorable little series.
I had no idea she could make faces on command for the camera. She's never done that for me! I'll have to ask Brent what his technique was. I also know they're in the office, what with the window and computer in the background, but other than that I don't know the circumstances under which these were taken. I recognize Brent's "mean face" in the last picture, although the expression is a bit skewed when he's trying not to laugh. Miriam doesn't look too mean, either, but she's trying!