Vote on Birth Announcement Photos

Wyatt and I had a little photo shoot this morning and I want your input about which pic would be best for a birth announcement. Some are in black and white and some are in color--and I'm still not sure what I like best. So let me know.

Today it's WARM in Utah. The kids have been outside playing, which is nice. I can use the quiet! The night before last Wyatt slept pretty well, but last night was a little bit rougher. What made things harder was that Forrest had to go to LA for a day trip today (left at 5:45, gets home tonight), so I didn't get my two hours in the morning, gear up for the day sleep. Wyatt woke up at about 5:30, but was fitful until about 7:30. When I finally got him tired enough to be able to lay down with him and sleep on the couch, I could already hear the kids upstairs and knew they'd come down and wake me up asking for breakfast--but I was so tired that just 10 minutes was precious. Well, to my surprise when I opened my eyes it was 9:30 . . . and the kids were still upstairs!!! Turns out that Elise came down about 8:00, saw that I was asleep, and told the boys they couldn't come down until I woke up because I needed my rest. Is that a good girl or what?? I was so grateful. Now I can function the rest of the day.

Also, my bones are too old for this baby business. My left heel hurts from propping up my leg on the ottoman while I feed him, my left knee hurts because that's the leg I put my crossed right leg on while I nurse him and when I (accidentally) fall asleep while nursing my leg stays like that for waaay to long, both of my wrists hurt from curling my hands around his body while he's sleeping on me, and my left arm constantly aches because that's the arm I use to hold him. I know for sure that I didn't have all these aches and pains when I was a 24 year old mom.

So here's the pictures--let me know what you think!

Light at the end of the tunnel

Oh, hallelujah, I'm feeling a little bit better. Yesterday was a really hard day. Forrest had been planning to go on this snowmobiling trip with the Wilkey family for months and we'd lined up my Mom to stay with me the night he was gone. If I hadn't have been sick, it would not have been such a big deal. I even thought I was better by Wednesday evening. But Wed night was a hard one and I only got about 3 1/2 hours of sleep. I think the lack of sleep thrust me back into the clutches of sickness because the coughing came back with a vengance. Forrest left early that morning without really knowing that I was getting sick again. So yesterday I was sick, feverish, and operating on 3 1/2 hours of sleep--and due to Wyatt waking up or the phone ringing or the kids' friends coming over or the kids basically running crazily throughout the house, I was never able to take a nap. I just kind of moaned and shuffled around. Finally my mom heard the sound of my voice on the phone and decided to leave work early to come and rescue me (bless her). So my mom came and my dad took the kids to karate lessons and I crashed from about 5-7 p.m. and woke up feeling 10 times better. Then my mom took Wyatt until about 1:00 a.m. and let me sleep even more--and even after 1:00 a.m., Wyatt ate and fell right back asleep and I got a couple more good chunks of rest. Now my mom and dad have the three older kids and are taking them on a little adventure today: they're riding the Trax downtown to go to the cool public library. So I just got Wyatt down for a nap, the house is nice and quiet, I'm not coughing much anymore, and I think I just might make it.

When Forrest called yesterday he felt terrible and told me that I get all the sleeping and footrubs and special food I want all weekend. So hopefuly the good times will keep rolling :-).

Here are some more pictures. Babies change so much, so fast, in the first few weeks. I already feel like Wyatt is bigger, although chances are good that he's still just right around his birthweight. We'll see at his 2 week appointment on Monday.

This first picture is of Jonas and Ethan. In the course of 24 hours they both received fat lips (see why I can't nap?). Ethan was responsible for both fat lips, giving Jonas his with a rogue karate move and getting his while flinging himself over something in the basement (I'm still not entirely sure of the whole story):



And of course, here's some more cute ones of Wyatt. The first one is a sweet picture of him sleeping that I fiddled with a bit on my photo software.



"Hey, Mom! Stop taking my picture at 2:00 in the morning!"



And I think he looks like such a big boy in this shot. He's been spending a lot more time just looking around and even engaging with us. It's fun to look into his eyes and see somebody in there!

Mental Powers Not As Powerful

You know how I was relying on my positive mental energy to remain healthy in the midst of all this sickness? Didn't work. Sick. Now I have one of those lovely deep chest coughs and I feel terrible having to turn my head and hack whenever I'm feeding Wyatt. I also feel totally drained, much more drained than I did after having him. I'm also entirely sick of television and Wyatt's sleeping and I tried for 30 minutes to take a nap and it didn't work so now I'm posting on the blog. The other three are at friends' houses so the house is nice and quiet. So maybe you all can send me some of YOUR more effective postive mental energy that I recover quickly and that poor Wyatt doesn't get sick. The threat of RSV doesn't go over too well when you're prone to the post-pardum anxiety like I am (see, I'm the woman who got all worked up a week after Ethan was born because I thought his soft spot was too small).

Hey! Now Wyatt's awake. Luckily Forrest came upstairs from where he was working downstairs and he's changing his diaper while I finish this and before I start feeding him. Nice to have a husband working from home, for sure.

Okay, so more like 5,000

So Forrest has said that 10,000 weeks is something like 200 years, so even though I guess there will be a lot of medical advances in the 21st century . . . hopefully we won't live THAT long. So I'll downgrade it to 5,000. Strange to think that if Wyatt lives to be 100, he'll be alive for almost all of the 2000s and into the 22nd century!! Wow.

One week down, 10,000 to go

Ahhh, motherhood. Wyatt is a good boy. He's happy and content just as long as two conditions are met: 1. I am holding him and 2. he is eating. Actually, right now he is asleep in his swing, instead of in my arms, which has freed said arms up for other activities, such as typing. It took about 11 tries to get him to stay asleep in his swing . . . but he's so dang cute I forgive him. He's not a terrible crier (in that he can always be consoled if I nurse him :-), but he definitely hates having his diaper changed. It's also been fun to see his gassy little smiles and catch the dimples peeking out.

So I'm going to post some pictures, but first I'll give you a few highlights of the last week. First of all, Wyatt has successfully fought off the sickness that seems to be ravaging all of Salt Lake City (not only have Elise and Jonas been sick in the last week, but so have Aunt Mindy, cousins Bella and Ayva, Uncle Tony, cousins Reagan and Eli, and Grandma Sweat.) I'm feeling a foreboding tickle in my own throat, despite the twice hourly application of Purell (but not to my throat, of course), but I'm hoping my mental willpower can chase any illness away.

We've received dinners every day since I came home, which is so nice. Our ward is really great about bringing in dinners and it's been wonderful to see all the love and support from our family and neighbors. Wyatt has had his share of visitors, with the dinner makers as well as lots of family (including some great help from Grandma Sweat), and even some friends of ours from Minnesota who were in Park City skiing with friends and dropped by yesterday. He's also been spending more time awake and looking around, which is fun. You feel like you're starting to connect with that little person inside there as you mutually try to figure each other out.

Myself, I feel a little more worn out today than I did last week. I think the second week can actually be harder than the first: all the endorphins and other "let's climb Mount Everest" hormones that the body releases are starting to wane and the sleep depravation begins to take it's toll. Even though Wyatt hasn't done much inconsolable screaming in the night, and he seems to like to sleep in a good long chunk from 12:00 to 4:00 or thereabouts, he really only does it if I'm holding him--so we've been doing a lot of couch sleeping, the two of us. I know that it would be better if I didn't let him do that and got him used to his cradle, but you know how it is at 1:00 in the morning. You'll do anything to go back to sleep--so, so far, my longest stretches of sleep have occurred either on the couch in the family room or leaned back in the green La-Z-Boy we brought up from the basement. Forrest usually takes him until about midnight so I can sleep in the bed then again at about 6:00 so I can sleep in the bed, which helps. It feels so good to get under those sheets and stretch out my legs, I can't even tell you.

Having Wyatt has also reminded me how much T.V. is watched during a baby's first month or so. I swear, if I see the "2.99" Wendy's commercial where one guy has a teeny tiny combo meal and the other guy has a Wendy's combo meal, I'm going to scream. I also think that it should be illegal to run the "Girls Gone Wild" infomercial late at night on regular cable. Makes me mad every time I flip past it, even if things are blurred out. It is an interesting peek into humanity to scroll through the channels at 3:00 in the morning, though. I usually find myself watching either TLC or Discovery or the Home channel (what is that one? HDTV or something like that??) There was this really great reality show about cake decorators on the other night that I was mad at myself for falling asleep in the chair because I wanted to see the end and how they ended up making the dog cake.

So that's it for now. I am grateful every morning that the kids are off track so I can sleep until 8:30 or so and don't have to get them out the door; I am grateful to not be pregnant anymore so I can roll around in the bed (whenever I'm in it, that is); and I'm grateful for my papasan baby swing, as it's the only place we've found any success in putting Wyatt to sleep. And I'm grateful for Wyatt. And the other three kids. And Forrest. And you guys.

Here's some pics:




Notice the red on his chin? I'm thinking it's from breastfeeding and his binki--like he's sucking so vigorously he's rubbing it a little raw. What do you think? I started putting some of the Lasinoh ointment (for nursing mothers, if you know what I mean) on his chin to see if that will help heal it up.



Gotta love the papsan swing.



Looking like a big boy in his bouncy seat. He already like's to look at the little toys hanging down from the bar. (Probably a genuis, no?) :-)

Wyatt Dean Hallstrom is Here!

For the first time in (what seems like!) 24 hours, we've been able to put Wyatt down in his swing instead of holding him in our arms and/or nursing him (which, of course, only applies to me), so I might have a bit of time to post some pictures and tell you a bit about Wyatt.

I went into labor on Sunday morning, about 3:00 a.m. All three of my previous births were induced, so I've never gone into labor on my own . . . and was pretty much convinced I never would. So imagine my surprise when I noticed contractions that were close enough together to warrant going to the hospital and they kept me! We got to the hospital at about 7:00 a.m., they broke my water around noon, and by 2:30 I was ready to push. It only took two pushes and Wyatt arrived. It was an amazingly easy and stress-free birth. The epidural was wonderful--powerful enough to take the edge off, but not so powerful that I felt completely numb and helpless--and Wyatt's heartrate was good and strong throughout.

As soon as he was born, I thought he looked like Ethan as an infant. Here's a picture and you can see for yourself:



Here's another hilarious picture of Wyatt fighting mad (he came out swinging):



It took us a while to decide on a name, as most of you already know, but after thinking about it for a day and spending a good long time checking him out, we decided that he was definitely a Wyatt. We'll have to get back to you in a couple years and let you know if we were right.

We're home now and Wyatt is spending a LOT of time eating, a reasonable amount of time sleeping (although I was begging to differ last night between midnight and 4:00 a.m.) and more and more time looking around and checking out just exactly what he's gotten himself into. The kids are thrilled to have him in the house . . . but the biggest wrinkle now is that both Elise and Jonas are sick. I can't believe it. They've been healthy all winter long, but on Friday Jonas threw up. I just thought it was a 24 hour thing and that he was over it, but yesterday he started up with a nasty cough, as did Elise. So this morning as I was stumbling blearily into the family room, Ethan informed me that Jonas was covered with a rash. Yep, wouldn't you know it, Jonas woke up covered in hives. So I had Forrest take Jonas to the instacare to make sure he didn't have the Ebola virus--and while Forrest and Jo were at the Dr., Elise came downstairs, sat on the couch, told me her stomach hurt, and promptly threw up. So I put Wyatt down--screaming--and tried to help Elise without getting any germs on myself and remembered that this parenthood thing is definitely not easy. Luckly the Dr. said that Jonas just has a run of the mill virus and the rash was hives, but I'm supposed to keep Jonas and Elise away from Wyatt for 5 days. It's so hard, not only because I'm worried about Wyatt getting sick, but because I feel so bad that I come home from the hospital with this new baby and have to tell my other kids to keep their distance. Luckily they are old enough to understand why . . . but it just broke my heart after Elise finished throwing up and she said "I'm really sorry, Mom." Uggh. So pray for a speedy recovery for Jo and Elise and that no one else gets sick.

So here are some other pictures of Wyatt you might like:







And last but not least, Wyatt has dimples. Two of em'!



We think he's pretty cute, and plan to keep him even if he forgets to sleep from midnight to four. :-)

More Listiness

So I haven't had a baby yet. Sigh. I went to the dr. on Tuesday and had my membranes stripped (although she ended up delivering TWO BABIES while I was waiting, sitting on the examining table with a sheet over my lower half for two hours--every twenty minutes the nurse would pop her head in and say, "She should be here in 10 minutes!" Read two entire People magazines.) Now I'm a "good 4 plus," says the doctor . . . but the membrane stripping was a no go and here I sit. I'll have to do a running tally of how many people ask "Are you still here??" at church on Sunday.

Since the only two things I have left to do are 1. housework and 2. waiting to go in to labor, I figure I'll avoid #1 and distract myself from thinking about #2 by adding to my list. I'll pick 'er up at #31.

31. I developed a mysterious bump on my nose about 5 years ago. I went to a dermatologist to have it removed (and they had to give me a shot--on the tip of my nose!) but it grew right back. Jonas calls it a "witch bump."

32. I also developed a mysterious keloid (is that how you spell it?? it's bumpy scar tissue) on my upper left arm a few years ago, too. The reason it's mysterious is that I don't recall ever cutting or injuring myself there, which is how keloids come about. It freaked me out so the same dermatologist who tried to fix my nose bump did a biopsy on it--but it's just a keloid. Weird.

33. When I was a teenager, I had a sneaking suspicion that some of my friends liked my mom better than they liked me. Some of them even wrote her notes when I was in Jr. High.

34. My first college major was history, but after taking my first history class I decided that what I really loved was my high school history teacher, Mr. Jones, and not history itself, and switched to English. It really makes no difference to me whether stories are true or false, and when you major in English there's not nearly as much memorizing.

35. The worst grade I ever received was a D in "Philosophy of Logic" that I took to fill my math requirement at BYU. Long story, but I thought I could game the system by taking the introductory course to Philosophy of Logic independet study, getting the textbook, then dropping the course and getting my tuition money back and reading the book on my own to prepare. Like that would actually happen. Plus I always liked philosophy (Plato and Descaretes and all that). Little did I know that the Philosophy of Logic was actually an entirely new language, this weird math/philosophy hybrid, and on the first day of class I felt like I'd stepped into Mandarain Chinese 301. The professor told us that this was one of the most often failed classes on campus and that we could drop out as soon as we had enough points for the grade we felt comfortable with. I felt comfortable with my D and happily dropped out after 3 weeks of torture.

36. My favorite class at BYU was a Contemporary Lit class taught by Darrel Spencer, an amazingly smart and thrillingly left-of-center-for-BYU fiction writer. He would type up page long, single spaced commentary on everything we wrote. When he told me I was "bright" it literally made my year and reminds me to this day how much a few encouraging words from a teacher can mean.

37. When I started student teaching, my supervising teacher came in for a surprise visit and I was sitting cross-legged on a book cart in front of the class whilst talking about To Kill a Mockingbird. Apparently sitting crosslegged on a bookcart is bad teacher protocol, because some of the folks I knew in classes she taught afterword said she used me as an example of "how to remember that in order for the students to think you are older than them . . . . don't do THIS."

38. I hate going to the dentist.

39. The older I get, the more irrationally afraid of heights I become. It's gotten so bad that I can't even walk out on hotel balconies and if I'm in a mall on a high level and the railing is that see-through plexiglass stuff, have to stay a few feet away from it. What is that?

40. When I got married at the age of 20 (and I'd been 20 for two whole weeks) it never crossed my mind once that I might be a little young.

41. I love watching reruns of "100,000 Pyramid" and think that Dick Clark is by far the best game show host ever.

42. I love playing board games, particularly word games, but Forrest usually beats me at Scrabble. I, however, usually beat him at Boggle.

43. I like wearing slightly high heeled shoes, but it makes me feel guilty and self-conscious, too, like people will think I'm being inappropriate and overly flashy.

44. Same thing with big earrings.

45. I prefer my six-year old, slightly-musty-smelling, denty van to our new Tahoe.

46. My back actually hurts less when I'm pregnant that when I'm not.

47. I rarely feel guilty about reading too much.

48. My three culinary specialties are salads, cheesecake, and chocolate chip cookies. Everything else I leave to Forrest.

49. Donald Trump makes my skin crawl.

50. Even though I think that Rosie O'Donnell has gone sligtly cuckoo in the last 5 years, I still have soft spot for her, probably stemming from my early days as a stay-at-home Mom watching the Rosie O'Donnell show (back when she was nicer).

51. I love going to church on Sunday now that I'm no longer the Primary president.

52. I really don't think I like to snow ski. I'm going to give it another whril after I have the baby . . . but I really don't think I'm going to like it. Sorry, hon.

53. I do like waterskiing, though.

54. The only excercise routine that I've found that I enjoy (after attempting jogging at home, treadmill at home, treadmill at gym, weights at gym, aerobics tapes at home, and elliptical machine at gym) is group aerobics classes. But only if they're really full and I can stand at the back.

55. I'm convinced that my body wants to weigh what it wants to weigh, pretty much no matter what I do. I know this sounds like a cop out. But it's true, I swear!!!

56. Although I do love Oprah most of the time, sometimes I wonder if she realizes how self-involved she is.

57. I love watching Meet The Press on Sunday mornings and would talk about politics more if it didn't bug or bore almost every single person I know.

58. When I wake up in the morning, the thought of a bowl of Honey Bunches of Oats makes me really, really happy.

59. I still make my kids get in bed by 8:30 every night and wonder how much longer I can keep this going until Ethan figures out that 8:30's a bit on the early side.

60. I can't not answer the phone when it's ringing and let it go to voice mail.

61. I love Christmas shopping the day after Thanksgiving.

62. The three male celebrities I find most attractive: John Cusak (smart, soulful, funny, not so physically attractive as to be intimidating); Kurt Cobain (Kurt! The pain in your eyes! The artistic angst! Let me save you!); L.L. Cool J. (I know. He represents a side of me that I rarely acknowledge). So I know my Grandpa reads this blog, but I'm leaving this anyway.

63. The female celebrites I like best are: Meryl Streep (so talented, and so fun to listen to in interviews); Julia Roberts (such a happy smile, and I like her even more now that she's married to the camera man and has babies); and anyone who has recently been given newfound fame and is grateful for it and not jaded (like Jennifer Hudson at the Golden Globes).

64. Angelina Jolie scares me. She looks like she's made of wax.

65. Although I love reading stuff by Sheri Dew, she kind of scares me when I look at her, too. (Hey, that rhymes).

66. Even when I shave my legs in the morning, they are as stubbly as sandpaper by the end of the day.

67. I love anything marshmallow. Peeps, circus peanuts, just plain marshmallows from the bag. Back in the "low fat" days this was an eating bonanza, but now that carbs are the enemy I can't feel so guiltless about it.

68. I have to read at least some of the newspaper every day.

69. I like to turn on lots of lights in the house. Whenever I go to someone's house who doesn't turn on lights, it's all I can do to restrain myself from standing up and flicking them on.

70. After living in Minnesota for 7 years, I can't wear shoes in the house.

Okay! So that's enough! Now you all should know everything about me.

I am not blogging again until this baby is born. So there. Induction, Tues. morning 7:30 a.m. Or sooner?!?!?!

My List

Both my sister (Valinor blog on sidebar) and sister-in-law (Sweat Family Adventures on sidebar) have written a list of things folks may or may not know about them, so I thought I'd chime in with my own. Don't know how far I'll get . . . so we'll see!

1. My first vivid memory is of picking up a rock by my friend's swingset and seeing a bunch of earwigs wriggling underneath it. I think I was about 2.

2. I used to wish that Laura Ingalls Wilder could be zapped to the future to become my friend and I could show her all the cool things about the late 20th century, like slurpees and television and airplanes.

3. Once I was old enough to notice them, I hate, hate, hated my freckles. I used to say that if a genie would give me three wishes, one of them would be to take away my freckles. Luckily they don't bother me anymore. (Freckles--not genies.)

4. I had a longstanding fantasy that a director of Broadway plays would come to my elementary school, see me on the playground, and just KNOW that I was the little girl he'd been scouring the country for and whisk me away to play Annie.

5. I started reading Stephen King books when I was about 10 years old. Stole them from my Dad's stash. They never really scared me, either.

6. The first boy I ever had a crush on was named Mark Rydalch and he gave me a wooden apple pencil holder in the 4th grade.

7. I was a messy child. I would leave congealing bowls of ice cream on my nighstand for weeks on end, and in the 6th grade my teacher Miss Anderson gave me the "Messiest Desk Award," which was highly humiliating since the next boy I had a crush on, Keith Evans, was in my class and I was convinced he'd never like me after that.

8. Also in the sixth grade, I hid in the p.e. equipment closet in order to avoid getting my eyes checked because I knew they would tell me I needed glasses. I successfully fooled everyone until the 8th grade when my Dad noticed I was squinting when I played basketball with the Young Women. It wasn't until then that I realized trees had individual leaves.

9. I am a terrible athlete. My dad thinks it's just because I didn't care enough about it and that if he would have been able to work with me, I would have been like the rest of my siblings and lettered in things in high school. But no, really . . . I'm just a terrible athlete.

10. I started writing stories and poems when I was a little kid and kept many of them in a journal my primary teacher gave to me because she wanted to encourage me. My first really good story was about a girl who desperately wanted to play Annie, but she botched her audition and ended up in the chorus instead. It won the district reflections contest. Interestingly, I never ever dreamed of being a writer--just an actress-until I was about 18 years old.

11. I really hated it when people would say that my hair was "dishwater blonde."

12. I've twisted my right ankle quite badly two times: once when I was racing my brothers up in the mountains at our annual "Mirror Lake" family photo shoot and I was wearing some kickin' (but impractical) white boots and stepped in a pothole; the other when I was in the 9th grade in student government class and I jumped up to show my enthusiasm for the perm I'd be getting that afternoon and landed on my (already damaged) ankle wrong. Both times, the pain was so intense I fainted. Those are the only times I've ever fainted, too.

13. From the age of 14 to the age of 16, I kissed eight different guys. But of course, I didn't date until I was sixteen.

14. Soon after we met, I was pretty certain that I was going to marry Forrest someday. Of course, I was also pretty certain that I was going to marry four of the other seven guys I had previosuly kissed as well. But this time, I was more mature and knew what I REALLY wanted. :-) Luckily, in retrospect, the only person out of those eight who would have been at all right for me was Forrest, and he's still the most right for me guy I've ever known.

15. When I was in the 9th grade, I wouldn't tell any of my friends my standardized test scores because I thought they wouldn't like me anymore if my scores were higher than theirs.

16. The only time I remember flat out lying to my parents was when I was 15, working at Hardees, and this cowboy guy named Kurt wanted to take me to the "Boot Boogie" on a Friday night and I knew my parents wouldn't let me. Although I hated country music, Kurt was apparently "cool" so I told my parents I was going out with my friends and went with him instead. We promptly went to his brother's house where he drank a beer, offered me one (I indignantly refused), then he drove me to the Boot Boogie (and all the while I was terrified he would get in a wreck because he was "driving drunk") and I was so mad I wouldn't dance with him--and I didn't know any of the dumb line dances anyway. We both had a terrible time. I decided it was God's way of punishing me for lying to my parents, and I never lied so blatantly again.

17. In high school, I had Reeses Peanut Butter Cups and a Dr. Pepper for lunch almost every day.

18. I used to be able to do the splits.

19. My Grandma Ranquist bought all my school clothes every year until I graduated from high school. We'd go on these fantastic shopping trips every August and eat lunch in ZCMI's Tiffin Room. One of the highlights of my year. (I think I was the only member of my family she did this for. Should I feel guilty about this? She also bought me a complete set of bedroom furniture--white Victorian with a canopy bed.)

20. I used to hope that the second coming wouldn't happen until after I was married and less inclined to be sinful.

21. Of all the things I did in high school, Madrigals was the most fun.

22. Of all the things I did in high school, being a Student Body Officer my senior year was the least fun. Mostly a lot of work, and I was in charge of assemblies and got in big trouble for one where I'd asked Lucius Matalii to be the emcee (he was our version of Arsinio Hall) and for some reason, he started throwing out condoms to the assembled students during his opening monologue. How this was my fault I wasn't sure, but I did get in trouble.

23. Cheerleading was fun, but I wasn't a very good cheerleader. It always amazed me how quickly my cheerleader friends would catch on to routines. Also, being a base in cheerleader pyramids runied my back, and when I look at my old J.V. cheerleader uniform it amazes me how small my waist used to be. I also vividly remember a fight that the J.V. cheerleaders were having with the Varsity cheerleaders and when we met to talk it out I told the Varsity cheerleaders to stop "patronizing us" and they got even madder at me for using arrogant vocabulary words.

24. I finally got to play the lead in a musical my senior year of high school (Cinderella), which ended up being the last time I ever performed in a play despite all my childhood dreams of Broadway fame.

25. A ginormous publicity photo of me as Cinderella is still hanging in the halls of Cyprus High School (so I'm told).

26. I've never liked my hands.

27. I've always liked my feet.

28. I don't recall ever really fighting with my siblings.

29. Every year a company called Union Carbide selected a student from Cyprus High to send to Washington D.C. and my junior year they selected me. I went to D.C. with students selected from each state in the country and apparently learned a lot about our government, but mostly remember having a ton of fun with these strange kids from places like New Hamshire who drank COFFEE in the morning.

30. Our high school graduation was held outside, and somehow the sound system picked up a Latino radio station and Mexican pop songs played over all of our commencement speeches.

Okay, that's it for now. And I just got through high school! We'll see if I have the wherewithall to add more another time. As you can see, I'm a bit more longwinded than Andi or Amy. Sorry. But there are so many details that must be explained!!

Good News

Okay, so some good news to share:

1. First, baby news: I went to the doctor on Friday and found I was dialated to (almost) a three and 70% effaced. Even though I'm ALWAYS right around a three at 37 weeks, it was still good to hear. Also, the Dr. decided that if I haven't had the baby by Tues., January 23rd, she'll go ahead and induce. (She says it's because of the borderline Gestational Diabetes and not wanting to go overdue, but I'm sure it's also for her convenience--and mine :-). I always say that I want to be a trooper and wait until I go into labor, an experience I have yet to enjoy having been induced w/ the other three, but once I get to this point it's too hard to wait. I just want to get the baby out and meet him!

2. Jonas had a basketball game on Saturday and scored THREE baskets! One of the best things about watching Jonas play sports is that he doesn't get all angst filled and worried whenever things don't go his way. He'll shoot, miss, smile, shrug, and run down the court happy as all get out. So it makes it even MORE fun when he actually scores! I was excited about the one basket . . . but three? Pretty cool. I think it's because Grandpa Sweat was there, the biggest basketball fan I know (and I know a lot of them). When the game was over, Forrest went over to congratulate Jonas and Jo said, "Yeah, Dad. Where's Grandpa?" Although Grandpa does think that Jonas's super-short John Stockton shorts and light up shoes communicate a less-than-incredibly-serious stance regarding Jonas's basketball career. (Yeah, he was kidding--but it was funny to see some of these little kids in their stylin basketball clothes and expensive Nikes, and Jonas in his light-up Target tennies and size 4T shorts I pulled out of the summer clothes bin.)

3. Irreantum came in the mail today! Okay, so there were a few glitches with the shipping of the magazine, because it seems that nothing can go absolutely smoothly (the printer delivered it to the wrong place and it, well, sat there over the holidays) but it has arrived safe and sound and looks great. I did catch a period at the end of a line in a poem that I should have caught . . . sigh . . . but I knew that would happen. Can't catch everything. A member of the Irreantum staff had a connection with a circular put out by the Salt Lake Tribune that did a review of the magazine, as well. I was a little worried when I was asked to send the reviewer a PDF copy of the magazine (i could see the headline, "Interim Editor Stumbles Badly" or something equally scathing), but the review was actually very favorable. Here's a link, if you'd like to read it:

http://www.inthisweek.com/article.asp?id=848

4. Discovered a way to help Elise with her times tables. They do timed tests in the 3rd grade (and it's made very obvious who has passed their 2s or 3s or 4s and so on), so for kids like Elise who don't, ummmm, techincally "enjoy" math can get pretty stressed out about it. I'm conflicted over the methodology, frankly, because although I understand that it's important to get kids to learn their times tables, the shaming element of it really rubs me the wrong way. (And I also think, why oh why don't they make the kids stand up and do oral or timed spelling tests? Elise ROCKS on those, and, of course, those scores are completely private.) Anyway, Elise is on her threes and has been under a considerable amount of stress regarding her timed tests. She can do it if she has enough time, no problem, but she has to do 20 questions in 2 minutes, and she would invariably take too long. Last night, Forrest and I sat at the kitchen table with her for almost an hour thorugh much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth on her part, and we were pretty much stumped as to what to do. (And, I must admit, the looming prospect of having a newborn and getting from the 4s all the way through the 12s wasn't very thrilling.) So we decided to give her a break and let her go watch "Full House" and chill out, and in the mean time I found this website that had mnemonic devices for memorizing times tables. For example, for the threes, there are a bunch of stories about "trees." For three times four, there was a story about a "tree" and "door" and an "elf" that eventually wound up to be three plus four equals twelve. (Tree plus door equals elf. Get it?) It sounds like it makes memorizing even more complicated--but I called Elise down and lo and behold--she could finally memorize the hard ones!!!! (4,6,7,8, and 9). I can't even explain the relief that both she and I enjoyed that we found this method. I even get why it works--I can see an elf walking through a door on a tree much better than I can memorize anything mathematical. So she had her test today--and didn't quite pass--but she got 17/20, which was MUCH better than the 9/20 she got on Friday. So we're going to drill again for the Wednesday test and keep our fingers crossed. Mostly she feels much better about the whole process, which is the most important part.

So that's it from here for now. Is it too much wishful thinking to hope that the next time I post, I'll have pictures of a new baby to share???

Whew!

It's been a busy couple of weeks, but a fun couple of weeks, too. Christmas was great, the kids had a good time, and we were able to enjoy spending time with lots of family members. Hauling this baby around has taken its toll, though--today I'm beat, and I still haven't taken down the decorations (tomorrow?). So here are some pictures from the holidays:



Elise and her cousin Lauren dressed up as angels for the Nativity at Grandma and Grandpa Sweat's on Christmas Eve.



Yessss!



Mounds of Christmas everywhere.



The kids and their cousins banging pots and pans on the front porch on New Year's Eve. This was the first year that we've let the kids stay up until midnight. The grownups stayed up until 2:30 playing "Singing Star" on the PlayStation--although I finally gave in and curled up on the loveseat at about 1:45. When Andi and Tony started in on (what seemed like!) their 45th rendition of Sweet Home Alabama (see photo below), I think I started moaning in my sleep. We had a great time that night, though. One of the best New Year's Eves in recent memory. Made me feel like I was 24 and not 34, which would make it 1997. 1997 seems much more reasonable to me than 2007. Who woulda thought time would go this fast??? When Forrest reminds me that this baby is going to be graduating high school in 2025, it does give me pause.



Hope you all had a great holiday week and are ready to take on the new year. I have the baby's room *almost* ready, Jonas is moved into Ethan's room, I've washed all the baby clothes and sterilized the binkis, so I think I'm good to go. C'mon baby! We're ready now!

What I Did Today . . . and Didn't Do

I'm kind of grumpy today. I notice that last Tuesday (the last time I blogged) I was in a particularly GOOD mood. I wonder why that is? Nothing is very different from last Tuesday except me being grumpier. Interesting to contemplate.

So here's my day:

1. Got the kids up and off to school. So far, I think we have officially lost 5 pairs of gloves, and it's only December. Elise has done quite well keeping track of her gloves--but Jonas and Ethan could be doing much better. Ethan has either left his snowpants, or his boots, or both at school each and every time he's worn them. Each and every time! Then we end up rushing around in the morning with Ethan saying, "Sorry, Mom, Sorry, Sorry!!" when he can't find them and I feel like not only am I a grumpy mom, I'm apparently a scary one, too.

2. Drove to my doctor's appointment. Stopped at the Burlington Coat Factory on the way to check and see if they had a changing table with a cherry finish that would match my crib. Burlington Coat Factory isn't a welcoming place. It's hollow and slightly cheap and makes me kind of sad. And they did not have my changing table.

3. Went to the doctor. Gained three pounds, bringing the grand total to 19. I must say that I'm pretty happy with the 19. I gained 40 w/ Jonas, but it looks like I'm on track to gain about 25 w/ this one (hooray!). Of course, I started out 12 pounds heavier this time. Just goes to show that my body wants to weigh what it wants to weigh, pregnant or not. Next Dr.s appt, she starts checking my cervix. Unbelievable. This pregnancy has seemed to drag on forever, yet it's hard to believe it' s almost time for this baby to arrive.

4. Got home 5 minutes before Jonas's bus. Had lunch, then Jonas and I went to Super WalMart after I discovered online that they might have my changing table (and I also needed to buy cookie ingredients and holiday tins for neighbor gifts). WalMart isn't as bad as Burlington Coat Factory, but I'm such a Target girl that WalMart tends to give me the heebie jeebies, too. Their clothes are so crammed together and there's always stuff dropped on the floor and the people there seem gloomier--it just doesn't make me happy like Target does. Which is why Target has so much of my money. And, no, they didn't have my changing table either (online liars!).

5. Came home. Ordered my changing table from Amazon.com and got free shipping. Sometimes I wonder why I even go to the store anymore.

6. Took my blood sugar. Under 120. Good news.

7. Jonas helped me make cookies . . . and a gigantic mess. I am an incredibly messy cook, and being pregnant makes it more obvious because I always--ALWAYS--seem to get something on my shirt. Especially if I'm working with flour. Made 60 cookies and felt grateful for the double oven. Only one batch was ever so slightly burned on the bottom, so I was pleased.

8. Big kids came home on the bus. Looked through homework folders. Wondered why on Elise's timed multiplication test (her 2s), she got every thing right but 2 x 1 and 2 x 0. Gotta love her. 2 x 12? No problem. 24. But 2 x 1? Why, that's 4. Children are mysterious creatures.

9. Walked by laundry room, despairing over cat-stink. Last week I dumped out all the old litter and soaked the box in hot soapy water (and I know all about toxoplasmosis and how I'm supposed to stay away from kitty litter when I'm pregnant, but Forrest was gone all week and I couldn't stand it anymore, and I was very careful. Washed my hands thoroughly.) I even changed the cat's food. But Buttercup persists in putting up a stink and it's driving me crazy. Pets. What are we thinking? Life doesn't throw enough at us, we need to throw another living creature into the mix? And one that ruins the furniture?

10. Packed cookies and Christmas candy into 7 tins for neighbors and friends. Made the kids fill out gift tags for the little gifts for their buddies that they bought at Target last night. Was very patient helping Jonas write out all the names, but then got increasingly more impatient when Elise kept misspelling her friend's names and Ethan put his hand down on the paper and smeared all the ink on his friends' tags and had to start over.

11. Wrapped the kids' friends presents. Attached properly written, non-smeary tags.

12. Drove the kids around in the van from house to house delivering gifts. This was actually kind of fun (well, when the kids weren't rambling all over the van, yelping and bonking into each other because I didn't make them wear their seatbelts). Halfway through we had to go back home because Jonas had to go potty so bad that he was doing a little dance on his friend Dylan Marrott's doorstep and I thought he just might lose it, right in front of Brother Marrott.

13. Came home. Gave Elise the timed multiplication test that she brought for homework. She got 100%. Woo hoo! Had no trouble with 1s or 0s. Let's see if she can do it in class tomorrow.

14. Wanted to make kids take a shower, but too tired. Hoping to get them up early enough tomorrow to do it before school (yeah, right). Wanted to read scriptures with kids before bed, but too tired. No excuse or remedy for that one.

15. Talked to Forrest on the phone from LA. He is tired as well, and was unhappy with the pizza he ordered from Buca, an Italian place. Bland, he said. I told him that I had Rice Chex and banannas for dinner. Kind of grumpily.

16. Looked at the kitchen. Still very, very messy. Also a good number of Reeses Puffs rolling around on the floor from when the kids got their own cereal this morning that I never swept up, and I have been stepping on them and turning them to Resses Puffs Dust all day long.

17. Decided to sit down for just a bit before I hauled my preggo self up to clean before bed. Hopeful to find something on television, but there was nothing. Nada. Not one thing of interest. I watched a little bit of COPS (which shows you how desperate I was) . . . but it just wasn't doing anything for me. Hauled my preggo self up. Cleaned the kitchen.

18. Walked through the office on my way to the kitty-stink laundry room to get the whites out of the dryer and move in the colors so Elise has pants to wear in the morning. However, got distracted (trying to avoid work that involves leaning over?) and sat down and started blogging instead.

19. Blogging. But now I must finish. I can't imagine who would hang with me this entire entry since it's really about nothing whatsoever, and mostly just a way for me to avoid laundry. (I also spend a good deal of time commenting on my brother's blog the other day as a laundry-avoidance method. Interesting).

20. Sleep. Awaken. Repeat.

:-)

Little Luxuries

Life is pretty good right now, and I've been thinking about the little things that make a good life even better. So here's my list. Feel free to add your own little luxuries in the comments section (I'd love to hear them).

-A just right pillow position. The perfect puffiness, nice and cool, doesn't crink your neck. I especially enjoy a perfect pillow position when I wake up at 5:00 in the morning to go to the bathroom and lie back down and realize that I get two more hours of sleeping.

-Christmas cards. I love mailtime during the month of December. The day's just humming along, nothing too exciting, then you think, "Hey! I bet the mail's here!" and then you get to open it and see who sent you a card (preferably with a photo AND a Christmas letter . . . although just a card is nice, too). Since I'm focusing on the positive, I won't mention the days in mid-December when one SHOULD be getting at least ONE card in the mail and comes up with nada.

-A good sing-along song on the radio. Today I was driving along and Kelly Clarkson's "Because of You" came on, which I sang enthusiastically at the top of my lungs, followed by "Welcome to the Black Parade" by My Chemical Romance, another winner. I even stayed in my car in the driveway for a minute so I could finish singing.

-Forrest's cold hands and feet. I know I'm probably alone here, but I love cold feet and cold hands. I'm always warm, so there's nothing I like better than a cold hand to hold or a cold foot on my leg at night. Most people hate this--I realize--but, no, not I. I'll even make the kids hold my hand if they're cold.

-A handful of M&Ms. Nuff said.

-Having all the laundry done and hanging in the closet so when I go stand there in my robe I have my entire wardrobe of beguiling maternity fashions from which to choose.

-Being in the middle of a good book that I can think about all day and look forward to nighttime when I can get in the bathtub and finish it.

-Someone else making dinner.

-When I'm running late in the morning and both kids opt for hot lunch instead of cold--no PB&J mess to clean up, and I have a better chance of remembering to send their library books.

-A cold can of Diet Coke.

-New earrings.

-A good article in the New Yorker--one that's just the right length. Not so long that I have to set it down and forget to pick it up, but long enough that I can justify sitting on the couch by the fireplace for 20 minutes.

-Throw blankets. What a good idea, throws! You can curl up with them and feel cozy instead of lazy (which I do feel when I curl up with an actual blanket). Curling up sideways in the crook of the couch with a throw is cozy. Lying down completely on the couch with a blanket is lazy. So I'm glad I have the cozy option.

There are many, many more little luxuries, but I leave it here. I'd love to hear about some of yours.

Hallelujah!

Today is a day to celebrate: We sent Irreantum to the printer! Hooray! It's 220 pages long and I think I probably read every word at least five or six times, not to mention all the other mind-numbing, time-sapping minutae that goes into publishing a literary mag. It's not going to be a perfect magazine--I know there will be some mistake I'll catch as soon as I read the finished product--but we worked hard and did our best, and now I can move on to less-stressful pastures.

I also wanted to put in a plug for Ethan's new blog. He'd been bugging me about starting his own blog for a few weeks now, so I finally sat down and helped him sign up for one. We got the template all done, and then Forrest and I left to go see a movie at the theater down the street (Deja Vu with Denzel Washington. Quite good!). And, yes, leaving the children alone for two hours while we go see a movie is an incredible luxury, and one we won't be enjoying any longer in about 6-7 weeks. Anyway, when we came home, Ethan had produced quite a blog, all by himself, with pictures and everything. So go take a look. It's at: http://ethancentral.blogspot.com/.

Finally, I went to do my first non-stress test yesterday. (I like the name "non-stress test"--as if it somehow it keeps me from getting overwhelmed and helps me learn to chill. But, alas, these tests are not for me, but for little Owen Bytheway--Forrest's newest joke name. Say it outloud and you'll get it.) At first they wanted to do non-stress tests because of my placenta problems early in the pregnancy (the baby might be too small); now they also want to do them because of the borderline diabetes (the baby might be too big). To me, it seems that--a la Goldilocks and the Three Bears--the baby should be just right. Anyway, little no-name performed like a pro at the first test, kicking and moving around so much that it only took about 20 minutes and they had all the "accelerations and decelerations" of his heart rate that they needed in order to deduce that, yes, he's moving around, and yes, he has a nice strong heart. So good to know. (Even Forrest can attest to the fact that this kid is an active one. If I snuggle up against him in the night, he gets kicked good and hard. Already something Oedipal with this kid??)

So that's the weekly summary from Hallstrom land. Time to clean up the bowls of Cheetos the kids left out when we went to the movies and head to bed.

Baby, it's cold outside

Why is it that after living for almost eight years in Minnesota I've become a total winter baby? It's been in the 20s the last couple of days and I've been cold, cold, cold. In Minnesota, the 20s were childplay. Slightly cool, if anything. But when the people on Channel 5 Eyewitness News say "Oooh! Near record cold in the 20s!" instead of feeling judgmental and superior ("You want to see record cold? Try -15 below baby!") I agree with them and dread going outside. How quickly we humans go soft.

Today I get to pick the kids up 15 minutes early from school so I can take Elise to a Sunshine Generation performance at the Festival of Trees. I remember doing the Festival of Trees once in Young Womens--one of my leaders was above and beyond crafty and we made this glorious tree. I think it was Cookie Monster themed? Not entirely sure. However, I have very little recollection of actually helping. Mostly of being slightly bratty and 15 and sneaking around the Festival of Trees with my friends, looking for boys, and avoiding assisting anyone in any way. Do you ever think back on your adolescence with shame? I also regret what a whiny lazybones I was at girls' camp. I never liked girls' camp. Sleeping on the ground with half a dozen chattering, gossipy girls; digging latrines; going with out a shower or a (gasp!) curling iron for days on end. (Remember, this was the 80s, and a girl without a curling iron was seriously desperate. I do remember one year that Jenny Sproul bought a cordless curling iron powered by butane or some such thing and her hair looked PERFECT the whole time. Irked me.) Did anyone like girls' camp? I'm sure they did. Just not whiny, gossipy me. I remember when I missed out on going on Pioneer Trek because I had cheerleading camp I was overwhelmed with relief, then everyone else in my ward held it against me spiritually for oh, about two years, ("well, Angie, you would like totally understand if you had gone to trek, is what I'm saying,") at which time I whisked myself away to BYU, land of learning to be eminently spiritually superior. I am now extraordinarily humbled and realize that trek or no trek, BYU or no BYU, I'm in my mid-thirties and still don't sign up to go to the cannery if I can help it. So maybe I'm still the same as I was at fifteen, running around the Festival of Trees and letting other people do the hard work.

Okay, so I'll end this ramble with two pictures. First, here's a picture from home evening on Monday night. (Okay, so we DID have family home evening. Point.) Ethan had an "Armor of God" lesson in Primary on Sunday and wanted to do Home Evening himself, so he and Elise dressed up Jonas in the Armor of God. Ethan even read corresponding scriptures.




Then, on Tuesday night, Jonas lost his tooth. (He also promptly dropped it on the stairs while I was trying to get Elise dressed for her Sunshine Generation dress rehearsal--as she wolfed down a bowl of hastily prepared spaghetti; wrap a present for Grandpa Hiatt's 82nd birthday; find the address for Jonas's Jr. Jazz basketball meeting that night; and locate Ethan's shoes.) We all dropped everything and searched the stairs for a few minutes and-hallelujah!--found it, the all important (teeny tiny) first lost tooth. We were about six minutes late for everything else we had to do that night, but I'm usually six minutes late anyway, tooth on the stairs or no.


And please ignore Jonas's boogery nose. As I said in the beginning of the post, it's cold outside. Let the booger season begin!

Talking Turkey

So it's Sunday (my favorite day right now--don't have a hard Sunday calling, the kids are reasonable during church, and I get to come home and TAKE A NAP!) and I'm feeling particularly good because we've gotten so much accomplished now that Thanksgiving's over. Got the house all clean, got the Christmas decorations up, made lots of food for lots of folks, got almost ALL of my Christmas shopping done on Friday, and I even just sent off the final articles for Irreantum to the typesetter yesterday (while everybody else watched the BYU/Utah game). So I'm luxuriating in leftovers and the prospect of a few weeks of relative downtime where I don't have much to do but worry about the Enrichment Christmas party on the 13th--which shouldn't be too hard to pull off.

To kick off my round-up of Thanksgiving goings on at the Hallstrom house, here's a picture of Jonas in a turkey hat he made in Kindergarten. (For those of you who follow the Sweat family blogs, Jonas's cousin Brandon made an almost identical Turkey hat in his Kindergarten class in North Carolina, which is posted on Andi's blog--see sidebar :-).

Also notice Jonas's scraggly lower front tooth. It's been tempting to just yank the thing for the past week or so, but it's still pretty stuck on the front end, so I'm restraining myself. He's excited to finally lose a tooth, though, and get a "golden dollar" from the Tooth Fairy.

Thanksgiving Day was a lot of fun. We had 22 people total at our house (12 adults and 10 kids 10 and under). Thanksgiving was always one of the hardest holidays for me while we were living in Minnesota because I love the hustle and bustle of lots of people, and this Thanksgiving definitely had both hustle AND bustle. We were able to set up the grown-ups in the dining room and the kids were left to their own devices (kinda) eating at the table in the kitchen. So here's a before and after shot of the Hallstrom family's dining room table being put to actual good use:

Before:

After:

We had two roasted turkeys, one smoked turkey breast, and a ham--not to mention all the other Thanksgiving staples (stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes--the whole shebang.) We even bought a case of sparkling cider (note the lined up bottles in photo #1)--a product that is much easier to find at Thankgiving time in Utah, land of fake alcohol. You can hardly walk down a grocery store aisle without tripping over the stuff here. I've never actually tasted champagne (I haven't, Mom--I promise!) but I'm sure that a nice glass of Martinellis tastes a lot better than a $100 bottle of Cristal, albeit the sophistication factor is lowered somewhat.

The kids had a great time running around in the basement. Gotta love a basement. I also bought the DVD of Ice Age 2 so the adults could enjoy a touch of peace and quiet while we let our food digest.

It was also a lot of fun to have our three 1 1/2 year olds get to know each other. My brother Tony and his wife Cindy's boy Eli is 20 months old (Grandma Sweat's got him), Forrest's sister Mindy and her husband Pete's little girl Ava is 16 months old (I've got her), and my Aunt Denny and Uncle Joe recently adopted little Emma from China, and she's adorable and 19 months old (Denny's got her). Here's a shot of the three of them together:

We ate so much that I was physically unable to have any dessert--and no, it's not because I'm a girl of delicate appetite. I think it's more due to the fact that Baby No Name is taking up a considerable amount of room these days. (It's like having gastric bypass without the risky surgery!). There were a ton of leftovers for everyone, though, and I've been reaaalllly enjoying my turkey cranberry sandwiches for lunch the last couple of days. (Okay, so maybe the third trimester isn't *completely* like having gastric bypass surgery).

But Thanksgiving was a great time--lots of fun--and reminded me of all the good things that moving back to Utah has brought us. I even talked my mom and my sister-in-law into meeting me at Target the morning after for some Black Friday shopping! (And, yes, I got some smokin' deals). So it's been a fun weekend. I love the holidays. (Jonas drew a picture of a frightening looking alien at church today and drew a speech bubble coming out of his mouth and then asked me how to spell "I love Christmas," so, apparently Jonas and the Alien both share my sentiments.) I wish we could have had a dozen more people at our house on Thanksgiving so everybody in the family could have been included--but I know we'll be seeing all of you soon.

Let the Christmas Music Begin!

Random Subjects

Random Subject #1--I forgot to post about the boys' karate tournament a week a go last Saturday. They were both very excited, and as we sat waiting in the audience for the tournament to begin, watching some of the older kids perform exhibitions, suddenly some nunchucks came whizzing out of a performer's hands and into the audience. The speeding nunchucks hit Jonas directly in the face. I must admit, I freaked out a bit. He started bleeding--pretty badly--from his nose, and Forrest, Ethan and I hustled on out of there, followed closely behind by a woman from All-Star Karate who was probably praying we weren't the suing types. (We're not.) Forrest took care of his nose calmly and resonably, but I got a little panicky and even started to cry a bit when I thought his nose was broken. (It wasn't). It's so hard to see your child in pain, bleeding, upset. I'm not very good at it. I was also mad for him because he'd been so excited about the tournament and I figured he wouldn't be able to do it after a flying nunchuck to the face. But no! He surprised me by taking a good long drink of water, wiping the blood off his face with the back of his hand, and marching back into the auditorium to compete.

So here's my brave warrior, ready to take on the rest of those 5 year olds who hadn't looked death in the face and survived. (Note the warrior like blood ringing his nostrils. Very intimidating for his competitors, I'm sure :-).

Both Ethan and Jonas were able to earn trophies, Ethan for 2nd place in flag sparring (where you get to wear a cool protective helmet and try to rip the flags off of your competitor's belt) and Jonas for 2nd place in katas (which is basically repeating the specific karate moves you've learned in sequence) and 3rd place in "musical challenge." Musical challenge was by far my favorite event: kids freestylin' to "Eye of the Tiger" style music, dancing and coming up with their own karate moves. The 3,4 and 5 year olds were the best to watch because so many of them haven't learned shame yet, so they put their hearts and souls into kicking and spinning and whacking the air with great abandon. It was hilarious.




Random Subject #2--Elise is addicted to lip gloss. She went to the mall (!!) with her friend Taylor on Saturday and took her allowance with her. She came home with a baby bottle pop (if you're not the parent of a school age child, you are probably blessedly spared from knowing what a baby bottle pop is--a horrible candy baby bottle filled with sticky, sugary goo) and a tube of sparkly lip gloss, which she has been applying liberally about 10 times a day ever since. She even brought it to church without me knowing. I had to go confiscate it before sacrament meeting started because it was the Primary Program and I wouldn't have put it past her to whip it out and start applying during "Follow the Prophet."

I do have to give her props, though: She did homework for an hour and a half tonight (a book report on "Judy Moody Gets Famous" where she had to write a summary of the book, draw and color her favorite part of the book, color it, and cut it into a puzzle--AND she had a cursive handwriting worksheet) and didn't have a breakdown. I almost had a breakdown and I was just helping. Very impressive.

Random Subject #3: I'm getting tired. I wish I knew if it was because I'm pregnant or just because I'm tired. Being pregnant is a nice explanation, though, and a reasonable one, so I'll take it. But lately in the afternoon all I want to do is, well . . . nothing. Lumpify. Sit and think about what I could possibly eat for a snack that doesn't contain any carbs. Oh, and I'm already developing a bad attitude about the diabetes thing. Sometimes I techincally have "low" blood sugar (under 70), sometimes it's a bit high (140, when it should be under 120) but most of the time it's normal. I ate some peachy rings today, even, which are mostly pure sugar and which I LOVE, and felt kind of rebelliously pleased with myself.

Random Subject #4:

I took this picture of the kids today after school because I think it's hilarious. This is how they play computer games: All three of them squeeze into my computer chair, and two of them take turns watching the other one. I guess I should be glad for such expressions of sibling togetherness? Actually, I should probably be more strict about limiting their computer time (and t.v. time, and PlayStation time) . . .

but like I said . . .

I'm tired.

That's it for now. Need to go lie on the couch and wait for Forrest to get home.

p.s.--Please note the empty container on my desk in the above picture. This is the container that held the peachy rings. And NO I did not eat them all myself. The kids devoured whatever I hadn't while they were playing computer games. So even more responsible parenting points for me.

A Good Talking To

So, over the last 16 hours or so, I've had the opportunity to sit down opposite four different women and receive a good talking to.

The first three occurred last night at Monte Vista Elementary's parent teacher conferences. Here's the thing about parent teacher conferences (at least for me--I don't think Forrest is fazed by them): I actually get more nervous for my own children's parent teacher conferences than I ever did for my own. And to be totally honest, it's not necessarily because I'm such a great mom and care so much about my children's education that it ties me up in knots. It's that I'm still such an approval freak that I feel like the teachers are grading my momhood. ("Ohhh, yes," I imagine the teachers telling themselves when I sit down. "This is the mom who can never remember libraray day.")

But, like always (at least so far) parent teacher conferences went well. Ethan has straight 4s and Es (which, for those of us who went to schools with normal grades and citizenship means As and Hs). His teacher is young and sweet and had very little to say other than Ethan's a great kid--smart, funny, and helpful--to which Ethan responded in his Ethan-like way: "You know, parent teacher conferences always raise my spirits."

Where did this kid come from?

I was a little more nervous for Elise's conferences because my darling Lou is what one might call, well, an imaginative child. Which means that her head is in the clouds probably 72% of the time. I remember when I taught high school I could never understand the students who finished their assignments and then promptly put them in their folder and walked out the door--then wondered why they never received credit. And now I have one. :-). Hopefully by the time Elise is in high school we'll have her trained, but as it stands right now I have to say to her every morning before she walks out the door "What four things are you bringing home today?" and she says, "Lunch box, homework, caledar, coat." (Although, to be fair, Ethan has left his jacket behind just as often as Elise. He's in la-la land most of the day, too--he's just better at disguising it.) But Elise's conferences went very well also. She's an awesome reader and speller and scores very high on all those tests. She's also very kind and almost always happy and respectful. I was worried about her math scores because math is what most often makes her cry at home (you should be a fly on the wall some of our math homework nights . . . oh, my) but even with all the homework tears she was still in the 85% range and I was thrilled with that. Even her standardized test scores for math were smack average for her grade level at her school. So the lesson to me was that maybe I should chill a bit on the math and my poor girl won't be paralyzed with fear every time she sits down with me to do it.

Jonas had a very nice conference with his kindergarten teacher who said he was a kind and helpful friend, smart, and handsome. (His teacher is a very cute recent BYU grad and when she said that Jonas literally blushed. I think he has a kindergarten crush on her.) And--AND!!!--she said that he's an excellent cutter and colorer! Okay, so I know this sounds petty, but both Ethan and Elise have trouble with small motor stuf: handwriting, coloring, cutting, and general tidiness--and it has given me some anxiety over the years. Some of this issue must, literally, have to do with small muscle control, but I think a lot of it is the la-la land problem. They just don't notice detail. But Jonas. Jonas!! For the first time ever I come to a kindergarten parent teacher conference and don't hear how my kid's cutting and handwriting skills are in need of a major overhaul. Hallelujah! I betcha Jonas won't lose his lunchbox much, either.

See? The fact that I invest so much in a recent BYU grad's opinion of my 5-year-olds dexterity with a pair of scissors says something troubling about my personality. But at least I recognize my problem.

So, it was a good night overall. The kids are happy and doing well--and I wasn't even given a hard time about library day. Mommy got good grades!

Then, today, I had to go visit the gestational diabetes lady. (Mommy's apparently not getting the best blood sugar grades.) Although I don't technically have GD, I'm "borderline," so they wanted me to get a monitor and check on things since GD can progress throughout pregnancy. The nutritionist was very nice and said my numbers looked quite good--there was only one high blood sugar number out of four--but I still have to poke myself four times a day and watch my carbs. But the poking isn't so bad and I should be watching my carbs anyway (sigh). It's just not as much fun to watch one's carbs during the holidays. So now I have a little diabetes tester just like Dad. (And Aunt Karla and Uncle Ross and Grandma Ranquist. Hmmm . . . wonder if diabetes runs in the family?). The GD lady doesn't think that I should develop full blown GD now that I've got a handle on things, so that's good news.

So that's it for today. Oh! And I'm officially 30 weeks pregnant today, too. Hooray! 3/4 of the way done! Not too long before Sawyer Merriweather Hallstrom* makes his appearance.

*This name has recently replaced "Jimmy Dean" in Forrest and Angie's fantasy baby name game. Sawyer should be easy to recognize for those of you who watch the best t.v. show out there (now on hiatus!! Sad!). I'm a Sawyer girl. Sawyer and Sayid. Yes, I like the bad boys. I don't even mind if their hair is stringy. Jack doesn't do it for me. (No, not Jack Huish, sillies--Dr. Jack. Jack-the-kinda-boring. By the way, Amy, when are you going to dress up Jack Huish like Dr. Jack? I've been waiting.) Merriweather is Forrest's latest middle name suggestion, mostly becaue it's just so darn catchy.

Yep, I changed it!

Yes, I changed the template on the blog. I decided to go to the "Beta"--a little bit easier to navigate. Hope you like the changes!
Ang

Rainy Day at Home

So there's only one more day of "off track" left, and the time has gone by pretty fast. The kids have done a lot of playing outside (thanks to the weather), but today was kind of drizzly and cold so we stayed in. I kept trying to get the gumption to take them someplace thrilling and inexpensive, but there are very few thrilling and inexpensive places, it turns out. So we just stayed home. After a while I got sick of listening to the rhythmic shooting noises of PS2's "Star Wars: Battlefront" and the crinkling of surreptitiously snatched Halloween candy wrappers, so I gathered the kids together for some pictures we might be able to use for our Christmas card. (Yes, that's exactly what kids like to hear: stop playing video games and eating mini-Snickers! We need to brush your hair so we can take a picture!)

This year I feel absolutely no obligation to be included in the Christmas pictures due to my delicate condition. Besides, snapshots of the kids are just so cute. So here's a few. I'm still not sure which ones I'm going to use, but thought I'd share:

The cute, huggy pose I like so much. I wonder how many more years I'm going to be able to get them to do that?



I like this one, too.



We tried to get the cat involved, but Buttercup wasn't feeling at all photogenic. Sorry, Buttercup . . . it's doubtful that you'll make an appearance in the Hallstrom family Christmas card. Next time don't be so skittish.



Things started falling apart once Elise started kissing people. (I have a feeling I'll be repeating this phrase for other, more terrifying reasons in about 7 years.)

Since I don't have the wherewithal to actually dress the kids in matching Christmas colored clothes, I'll probalby have to turn these bad boys black and white or sepia in the end. But we have at least a couple good ones. Who can ask for anything more?

Final thoughts on the week:

So K-Fed wants full custody of the kids? Yeah. Right. A one year old and a newborn infant are this guy's idea of a good time.

Harry Reid, new Senate Majority Leader. A Mormon AND a Democrat weilding enormous political power. Hmmm . . . I'm sure some interpret this as a sure sign of the apocolypse.

Ethan's new friend, Cameron, has been pretty much living at our house while they've been off-track. He's a cute kid--nice, a little bit of trouble saying his Rs in an endearing way, never ever EVER wears socks or shoes even when it's raining and 45 degrees outside. His mother, Lohra Miller, just won a tight race for District Attorney in Salt Lake. (My friend Sally almost didn't vote for her because the way she spells her name--and I'm quoting here--"bugs.") Lohra's picture and her campaign signs have been everywhere. I've never actually met her (talked to the nanny a lot, though) but I'm sure she's very nice, and now if Forrest or I accidentally commit a crime against the state, we'll have a little leverage since I took her son to Classic Skating and have fed him lunch a half dozen times. Who says public officials aren't persuadable?

So that's it from here! Oh, and I need to put in a plug for Drew's blog and my very own husband's comments on the most recent Hagoth Award controversy. If he ever gets tired of selling commercial adhesives, he can start writing for SNL, I think. Actually, I'm very impressed with the quality of writing AND humor found in the whole lot of this family of bloggers. I think I can officially say as a former Freshman Comp instructor that we all could proably test out of that class altogether and go straight to English 2010.

A funny story & a helpful hint

Okay, no pictures this time. But I do have two blog-worthy items.

1. Funny story from church yesterday. Jonas was having a hard time sitting still during the sacrament, so I pulled him onto my lap and whispered in his ear, "Jonas, remember that we need to be reverent during the sacrament. We should think about Jesus."

He sighed and said, "That's so hard, Mom. I try to think about Jesus, but my mind just goes to silly things."

I couldn't resist and asked, "Like what?"

"Oh, I don't know," he said. "Like Jesus playing Wac-a-Mole."

Then I couldn't stop laughing during sacrament. :-)

2. I found a square tablecloth! For those of you who are on the hunt for a good square tablecloth (and I know that at least some of our family members have square tables), I found a 70 x 70 tablecloth at Target for $19.99. It doesn't hang very far off of the edges of my table (which seats 8), but far enough that I think it looks just fine. It's a really pretty tablecloth, too--gold, kind of velvety, good for both Thanksgiving and Christmas and could work for other occasions as well. Just wanted to pass that along!

So another Halloween has come and gone, and the house is full of candy wrappers. When I woke up this morning, I found all three children sitting in front of the television at 8:00 a.m. watching cartoons and eating Reeses Peanut Butter Cups. I figure the day after Halloween I'll let it slide . . . but I'm going to have to put their Halloween buckets in a less accessible place than the middle of their bedroom floor.

So here's some pictures from Monday night, carving pumpkins. The kids made their own designs this year, and even Jonas helped scoop out the guts!



Jonas looks particularly menacing with his shirt off, don't you think? The guns!





Ethan dealing with pumpkin goop.



Elise trying her best to look scary but gives up and looks cute instead.



This is a shot of the kids right before taking off for trick or treating. Ethan is a menacing knight of some sort, Elise is a model/witch (that's what Forrest was calling her because she had woo-woo legs in her short skirt and black tights), and Jonas was Yoda. Ethan and Jonas's masks lasted about 5 minutes before they whipped them off.

This year, Elise went with some girls in the neighborhood (by herself!--although she was usually within sight of one grownup or another) and Ethan and Jonas went with some of the boys. Forrest ventured out with the kids into the chilly night while I stayed in a handed out candy.



Ethan's four friends came inside with him afterwards and they all dumped their loot out onto the floor in the basement for trading and sorting. Sorting is the best part of Halloween, I think!

It was nice to have the kids off track so they could stay up a little later. We took it easy this morning, then went to Classic Skating this afternoon with some friends--the kids had a ball rollerblading and getting all sweaty in the jump house. Only a week and a half until they're back on track . . . and next time their off-track: BABY! Ahh! I'd better enjoy sleeping until 8:00 while I can!