Thrice the Blessings

Today I got a triple dose of Auntie goodness. All three of my new little nieces--Lillian, Vivian, and Caroline--were blessed today. All three! Mindy and Peter blessed Lillian at 9:00, Tony and Cindy blessed Vivi at 1:00, and since Andrew and Andi were (lucky us) in town for Andi's sister's wedding, they were able to bless Caroline at my mom and dad's house this evening.

So not only am I full-to-the-brim with pot luck bounty (three blessings, three potlucks, three opportunities to overindulge) but I'm feeling so, well, blessed to be an aunt to these three beautiful little girls. And there's one more niece on the way in August to boot! Amazing.

So here are some shots of the beautiful girls. First, the full-length, pretty dress shots of Lilly, Vivi and Caroline, respectively:





Now, the cute girl close-ups:





And just a few more pics I'm throwing in because I like em:


Uncle Forrest and Lilly, both with their Hallstrom good looks


You gotta love the arm rolls. Chubby babies=happy babies, no?


Isn't this a fabulous picture? All three generations. Love it.


A bunch of amazing Priesthood holders, all in the same house, all a part of our family.

There's much more to post about (4th of July, canyon trips) and Yuba is tomorrow, so I'll get to that soon. But I couldn't resist getting these cute pictures up and sharing them as soon as I could.

Sum Sum Summertime

Summer is upon us, yes it is.

Right now I'm sitting in the airconditioned comfort of our family room, updating my blog while the kids watch Teen Wolf.



Even Wyatt's joining in (well, at least as long as his sippy cup lasts). Forrest Tivoed it for them yesterday. It was one of his all time favorite movies in the 80s and he used to go see double features of this Michael J. Fox classic and Pee Wee's Big Adventure at the dollar movie at Valley Fair Mall and it made him feel all was right with the world. Probably not okay to let my seven year old watch Teen Wolf . . . but it's the AMC version. It's been edited. He closed his eyes during the kissing.

Yesterday was the kids' official last day of school (July 1, FINALLY!). This is the first year Elise hasn't come home crying. She was sad, but no tears. They're growing up. Here they are, posing in front of the tree (and no, Elise doesn't have a really funky fashion sense--it was pajama day in Miss Ernst's class):



And Elise displaying her Applebee's coupon for kids who did all their reading, Ethan giving the "I just finished elementary school!" fist pump, and Jonas proudly offering up his excellent report card.




So now we have six weeks of summer till Elise and Joe go back, seven weeks for Ethan. A lot of hot, lazy days to fill, but we have some plans. Much fun will be had. Heck, last night the kids had an impromptu sleepover at the Wilkey's gorgeous house in Bountiful (thanks Darrin and Katie!) and we spent the afternoon at the Tracy Aviary looking at condors and bald eagles and kookaburras. When I bought the kids ice cream at McDonald's on the way home they sung out their "Thank You, Mom!" chorus and promised to be very, very good all summer long if I'll continue provide an unbroken string of days just like the last one. One day down . . . we'll see how things are lookin 30 days from now!

I had a great weekend myself. Exhausting, fun, stimulating, all that. I spent Friday night and Saturday day up at Darlene's family's cabin in Heber, chillin out with the Segullah girls at their annual retreat. It was so much fun, even though I had a conversational hangover after talking from 4 p.m. to 4 a.m., then getting up at 9 a.m. and talking till 4 p.m. again--amazing conversations, too, with a group of some of the smartest, most interesting, most creative women I could imagine getting together in one room.

Then I took off from the retreat and headed to the Gateway to meet my good friends Sally and Michelle for dinner at Typhoon. The three of us have been friends since my early MN days, and this weekend was the best one for Michelle to come visit us from the Land of 10,000 Lakes, so I got to cram all my fantastic female bonding for the summer into three days of fun. Sally & Michelle and I saw a movie on Saturday (an arty one, The Visitor--thanks Sally--and it was really good). We hiked Timp on Sunday afternoon, and I have the sore calves to prove it, still. Here are a couple of shots of the three of us, outside and inside the caves:




Forrest made us all an excellent dinner Sunday night. I've gotta say, my dear husband went above and beyond that weekend, holding down the fort, cleaning house, making dinner, buying pie, even replanting a little tree in a fashionable pot he purchased from Tai Pan (how domestic is THAT?). And he even had a smile on his face when I came home. I'm a lucky woman.

Now we have family in town and all sorts of fun scheduled for the 4th and thereabouts. Lots more to blog about, photos to be taken, etc etc.

And I'll close today with a couple of catch-up pics. The first two are from Ethan's 6th grade play. They did A Midsummer Night's Dream and Ethan got to be Puck. He did a really fantastic job--memorized all his lines and got the crowd laughing. And then a couple cute shots of Grandma and Wyatt at the petting zoo at Gardner Village. More summerishness to come!

Somebody stole my title! What the heck!

So I was fiddling around with my blog template and lost some links on the sidebar. When I went to Amazon to get the URL for my book, I typed in "Bound on Earth" and THIS popped up:

http://www.amazon.com/Bound-Earth-Sacred-Feminine-Unfolding/dp/0595490956/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1214447491&sr=1-2

Huh. The Feminine Unfolding. Ah, well . . .

And speaking of fiddling with my blog template, what do you think? Now I have to have the cheesy banner ad running across the top of the blog, but I don't care. I still think it looks cool. And blogger now has a new application where it will show you when your favorite blogs have been updated (see sidebar). I think it's great. No clicking through to disappointment!!

Giving Us a Scare

Just a quick update for those of you who don't already know: Wyatt gave us a bit of a scare on Friday, but everything's okay now.

We went to Yuba with some neighbors and on Friday morning Wyatt felt just a little bit warm. But he seemed to be in pretty good spirits, so we dosed him with some Motrin and took off. I've had a cold (see last post!) and we figured he was coming down with it too.

Once we got to the lake, he was doing okay at first--but when we went out on the boat I could tell he was getting hot. I tried covering him with a wet towel and kept him drinking his bottle, but I could tell he wasn't feeling very well. I decided that when we got back to shore I'd just go ahead and take him home (we were already planning for me just to stay until that evening and Forrest was going to camp over with the kids.) So I sat with him under the awning while Forrest got our stuff out of the Tahoe.

Long story short, when I handed Wyatt to Forrest as I stood up to go, he started having a seizure. Now I knew that I'd had a fever induced seizure as a baby (they're called febrile seizures) and that they're usually harmless, but actually seeing one was really scary. The hardest part was that the seizure when on for about three or four minutes--the longest minutes of my life so far, to tell you the truth. Forrest gave him a blessing and held him tight, and watching Wyatt's tiny little body outside of his own control like that was terrifying. We called 9-1-1, and since we were essentially in the middle of nowhere they dispatched an ambulance--and it arrived more quickly than I thought it would (although it's really all a blur.) Wyatt was pretty out of it and lethargic after the seizure, which is common, but once I got in the ambulance with him he freaked out. Being so disoriented and having all these big burly guys poking him and trying to make him lay down was exactly NOT the thing he wanted to be doing.

Once we got him to the hospital they tried running some tests--and also tried, unsuccessfully, to take his blood. Seeing him repeatedly jabbed with a needle after all he'd been through was tough, so Forrest and I decided to take him for a walk around the hospital to calm him down. Once he was alone with the two of us he relaxed and finally started seeming to be more himself. (And I couldn't help myself and quizzed him on what a doggie says and where his eyes were and asked him to say Dad and Hi and ball and he passed with flying colors. They told me the seizure wouldn't mess with his wiring, but I needed to make sure for myself :-).

So after all that, I'm happy to say that besides having a cold and a slight ear infection, Wyatt is just fine. It turns out that around 5% of all kids are predisposed to febrile seizures, and having a parent who had one as a child makes a child more likely--so Andrew, I guess you had one too when you were a baby, just FYI. The seizures can last from a minute to ten minutes or so (and I'm very very grateful that it didn't go on that long because I would have completely lost it there on the beach) and they say there aren't any lasting side effects.

So today I'm grateful to have my little guy sleeping safely up in his crib. It's a good reminder of how lucky we are when our loved ones are healthy and safe, and how quickly things can get turned upside-down. And the next time my baby has a fever . . . I'm not taking him to Yuba!

I have a cold in June

which is really a big fat pain. It's a bad one, too. Head cold. Can't sleep. Sniffing all the time. Although Wyatt thinks it's absolutely hilarious when I blow my nose, so there's that.

We had a good Father's Day (other than the fact that I was really sick that night and Forrest was a saint and got up w/ Wyatt at 6:00 a.m. and for that he wins a Father Award). I had to (got to?) speak in church that morning, so I sucked on some lozenges and blew my nose and did it. I think it went pretty well. One thing is for sure--I know I'm lucky in the men in my life: husband and Dad and Grandpas and all of them. And I recovered sufficiently after coming home from church early w/ Wyatt that I was able to make Forrest some chocolate chip cookies and chicken enchiladas, and we had the Sweats (and G&G Hiatt, too) over that night for dessert. Great time! Stayed up late, hung out outside playing bocce ball and watching the kids run around, chatted. Ah, family. Here are some pics:


Wyatt and Eli in their matching blue shirts (courtesy of Grandma)


Wyatt and Eli in the water feature in their matching blue shirts (courtesy of grown-ups not paying attention)


Crazy cousins


Isn't she delicious? Cute baby Vivi.

Forrest and I also went to a "Mystery" party in our neighborhood where you come as a character and everyone tries to solve the mystery. This particular mystery was 80s themed, and Forrest and I were "Lenny" and "Linda," married members of a rock band. Forrest's eyeliner was a last minute idea--totally 80s rocker, dontcha think? It was the hit of the evening. Now that he's lost so much weight he also has a bit of the skinny Steve Tyler look going, too (although he's much better looking than Mr. Tyler, of course, hon). And my hair was pretty easy to poofify, especially considering I didn't have the assistance of my once-ubiquitous perm. I remember thinking in the 80s that if I didn't have a perm it would have been IMPOSSIBLE to do anything with my hair. But no--some aerosol hairspray, a good brush, and a suitable ratting technique and you're good to go!



Aren't the lot of us totally gitchen? (To explain: Forrest had a shirt that said "gitchen" in the 80s . . . but the "g" was really a "b," it was hard to tell . . . so he told sensitive types that it said "gitchen." I think some even believed him. Mom???) Anyway, it was fun. And I was glad that Forrest got all the eyeliner off before going to church the next day and listening to me extol his virtues during sacrament meeting!

Rise and Shout!

Good news! Looks like I got the job at BYU. All the details haven't been worked out yet, but I should be teaching creative writing at the Salt Lake Center Fall semester. They offered me a MWF class at the Provo campus, but I decided that making the commute and dealing w/ child care three times a week would be too hard. But at the SL Center, I'll only teach one night a week--Thursdays from 5-7:40 p.m. I've always wanted to teach creative writing so I'm thrilled.


And the boys wrapped up baseball last night with Ethan's last game. And his team won! Ethan was the very last hitter of the team's last inning and he made a great hit--really hard with a wicked bounce right past shortstop--and he could have had a double, but I think he was so excited about the hit that he didn't want to risk it by trying for second and getting thrown out. But he was able to score two other runners, capping off our best inning as a team with seven runs. (The league has a rule that once a team gets seven runs in an inning, they call the inning). It was a great way for Ethan to end the season, and I think both he and Jonas had a good time. Learned a lot. And Ethan was able to spend a lot of quality time with his dad, who assistant coached.




(I love both of these pics, although I DON'T like how grainy my camera looks with outside shots. I'll have to fiddle with it.)

Now we have two more weeks before school lets out for summer. Trying to come up with things to do. Zoo? SL Library? Parks? In some ways it gets harder as the kids get older. I might sign Ethan up for a cool "zookeeper" camp (the other kids are too young) but I'd like to come up with something for the other two that doesn't break the bank. We keep hearing stories about people our age who've paid off their houses and it's making us feel like the undisciplined consumers we are . . . sigh . . . Discipline!!!

Does not buying myself the new pair of capri pants I lengthily considered at Target count toward some kind of discipline? And getting my hair done at Fantastic Sams? And never spending more than $25 on shoes? It's got to count for something, right? But then we've taken the kids to see Prince Caspian AND Kung Fu Panda--I went to Caspian, Forrest went to Panda. We're such suckers for the first run movies. Forrest said Kung Fu Panda was hilarious, by the way, which is high praise considering we've both become a little jaded about most animated movies. I thought Caspian was good, but I thought the first Narnia movie was better (very moving--I cried). This one seemed to have more battle scenes, which always make me zone a little.

And now that I've rambled from employment to baseball to summer to money to movies, I must sign off. The Irreantum fiction contest beckons (so many manuscripts to read, so little time . . .)

Miscellanea

First, a baseball report. Both Ethan and Jonas's teams are doing just fine. Win some, lose some, etc. Both the boys have improved quite a bit during the season, though, which is the important thing. And they look so dang cute in their uniforms, especially when they keep their shirts tucked in.





I don't have any current pics of Ethan playing. But I will! He has a couple more games left and I've sworn I'll remember my camera to get a few final shots.

Elise updates: She's tan again (already). We had a nice hot weekend and she spent all day Saturday on her friend Tayler's slip and slide. She had a pretty good burn (bad Mom! I let her go w/out sunscreening her up) but it's deepened into a nice tan without peeling. Lucky duck. She looks like an Indian princess.

And Wyatt: His favorite word right now is "Maom." It's like a contraction of "Mom" and "Ma'am". I'd like to think it means me, but it really doesn't. What it means is "Gimme that!" He says it constantly. He's also obsessed with horses ("sissess!" "neeeiiigggggh!") and whenever we got to the boys' baseball games he can see them waaay far away at the South Jordan Equestrian Park and points and points and neighs and neighs until we take him close enough to the fence that he can see them better.

He's also getting really good at feeding himself with a spoon. A little messy, but for a 16 month old he has some excellent dexterity. Here he is, eating sweet potatoes all by himself.
(Yes, he's using two spoons. He's ambidextrous. And Mindy, yes, I think that's Ayva's bib. You left it here lo so many months ago and we keep forgetting to give it back to you! And in the meantime, we let our own kid use it! Isn't that what family's for??)

I'm really enjoying having a break from teaching--last semester just about wore me out. (And no, still haven't heard back from BYU.) I've been busy, though, with the Irreantum fiction contest and some other projects. Another small independent LDS publisher called Zarahemla has asked me if I'll edit a short story collection, so I'm just getting going on that--a big job, but a fun one. And I'm doing a few piddly writing projects here and there. I still haven't been able to get my buns in gear and do more than fiddle around with my next novel though. It's like jumping into potty training a two year old: as the mom, you've gotta be emotionally and psychologically ready and be willing to endure some poop on the floor. So I'm gearing up :-).

Oh, and one last thing. Last night we bought a really fun new Wii game, called Wii Fit.


(and no, that's not Jonas with shaggy hair or Elise and I wearing some kickin' new leggings--the picture is simply to add to the aesthetic experience of reading my blog and is courtesy of Google Images.)

We had a $50 gift certificate to Best Buy, and even though the game is nearly impossible to get right now, last night I felt "inspired" to call our local store (does the spirit prompt you to buy video games?? Hmmm . . .) but anyway, they'd just received a shipment, so we hurried over and snagged one. And it's SO FUN. You'll have to click on the link to see what it does. But all of us have had a ball with it. I even "exercised" this morning for about 40 minutes, and it's a good alternative for days I can't make it to the gym. Not nearly as hard a workout as my 600-calorie-and-hour-wicked-cycling-class (where, amazingly, I can keep my heart rate up as high as 165 and not feel like I'm going to die, whereas on the treadmill I think I'm going to keel over. Why is that, I wonder?). But the program is fun and challenging and even addictive, so I'm glad we got it.

And, lastly, it's raining again. Again! Whats up with the rain? I mean, seriously?

The Nieciness Continues!

Yet another niece has arrived--the third of my four nieces due to make an appearance in 2008.



Introducing . . . Caroline Rose! She was born on Wednesday, May 28th, 2008 and weighed 7 lb. 2 oz. And I so wish I could rush over to the hospital and see her, but alas, North Carolina is too far away. Luckily we'll be meeting her soon!

Congratulations, Andrew and Andrea! We're so happy for you. And isn't that the cutest picture of Caroline with her new big brother and big sister?? (Drew, I stole the pic off your blog AND cropped you out of it. Only because I wanted to get a closer shot of the baby's cuteness, though. Forgive me??)

3 Things I Like. 3 Things I Don't Like.

Things I like:

1. Pretty blue-skied Sundays like today. Walk to church, head home and nap, have some dinner (Forrest made), have some family over, go on a walk, nice breeze coming in the windows. Blissful.

2. So You Think You Can Dance.
New season started on Thurs. Hooray, hooray! One of the best reality shows out there, and I'm serious. Once you get past the cheesy try-out stage, the actual competition is really fun to watch because the people are so dang talented. And I secretly wish I could dance ("So You Wish You Could Dance?" could be my reality show) so it's fun watching people who are so good at something I'll never be able to do. 'Specially now that I'm careening toward middle age. Isn't 40 middle age? Unbelievable!! But I digress, and this is supposed to be the "things I like" section.

3. The Megaplex 20 at the District

I'm not a huge fan of Larry Miller, and it definitely bugs that with 20 dang screens they insist on showing National Treasure 2 nineteen times a day (you can't spare one little screen for Academy Award nominees? Really?). BUT--I love having a movie theater so close that has comfy seats and a nice sound system and reserved seating so Forrest and I can get tickets ahead of time. I love the embarrassing refillable mugs we bought so we can get our drinks for $1.00 a pop. And I LOVE that we can put Wyatt down and go catch an 8:00 movie on a Saturday night. I wonder when (and if?) going to the movies is going to lose it's luster. Hopefully never.

UNLESS . . . people like George Lucas and Steven Speilberg insist on throwing millions of dollars on mindless, storyless, soul-sucking, CGI reliant DRECK like the Indiana Jones movie. We saw it last night. And as much as it was fun to go to the movies . . . man, that movie was bad. Bad. Disappointingly so. Which brings me to the three things I don't like:

1. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull



I'm not going into all the reasons this movie fails. Suffice it to say that I truly, in the bottom of my soul, don't understand why seemingly intelligent people like Steven Spielberg can expend millions of dollars and millions of hours to create seamless CGI effects, but yet they can't seem to get a coherently written script together. I mean, plot holes the size of double-decker buses. Non-existent character motivation. Soulless acting. I just don't get it. If a relatively discriminating movie-watcher can not only figure out all the plot problems but come up with plausible solutions . . . then why oh why can't they spend, say, $100,000 on a smart person to FIX THE SCRIPT?

2. Polygamist cults.



I've been following the whole Texas raid for weeks now--despite myself. I don't know why I feel so torn about it. On the one hand, I have a lot of sympathy for those poor mothers who've lost their children, and I don't think that in this country it should be legal to take children away based on something that "might" happen. Sets a terrible precedent and in this case, in particular, smacks strongly of religious persecution. But on the other hand, there IS some awful abuse going on there. Have you seen the most recent Warren Jeffs/12-year-old girl "wedding" photos?? Horrifying. I also just read the Carolyn Jessop memoir Escape for my ward book club. It's a fascinating (albeit rather poorly written, technically) account of what it was like to grow up in Colorado City and especially the precipitous descent into cultish madness that happened after Warren took control. But it was also so creepy and unsettling to see some of the elements of my own religious beliefs that I hold sacred twisted and warped into what the FLDS have become today. Bad stuff, all around.

3. The Excesses of Materialism

Last week we had a big community yard sale. I did okay--don't think I'll do it again in a long while, though, as I'd rather just give stuff away--but I took the opportunity to try and get the kids' toys under control. It's been since before Wyatt was born that I've done a big ol' toy purge, and let me just say, it was a little sickening to see all the stuff that accumulates in a couple of years time. Plastic stuff. Broken stuff. Useless stuff. And then trying to figure out: should we save this? Sell it? Give it away? Throw it away? Absolutely exhausting. I honestly think that if my kids had less stuff, they'd probably have more fun because they'd cherish what they have. And my kids aren't nearly as spoiled as some of their friends--mine only get toys on major holidays and birthdays--and still I get this sense that we're overdoing it and need to scale back.

(Ethan, if you're reading this, don't worry--you'll still get birthday presents. As a matter of fact, I'm sure nothing will change, which is the usual result of Mom's fleeting epiphanies. This will probably rank up there with the "we should change over to whole wheat bread" epiphany or the "I need to keep track of all my expenditures in Microsoft Money" epiphany. Good ideas, all, but the follow through isn't always the best.)

Ahh, but now I'm ending on a down note and I don't like to end on a down note. So one more thing I like:

4. S'mores.



Mmmmmm . . .

Introducing Vivian Mae

(Although I don't know if I'm spelling "Mae" right!)

Vivian was born on Thursday, weighing 7 lbs. 7 oz. I went and visited my newest niece on Friday, and not only is she a darling little peanut, but her mom looked fabulous, like she'd hardly even broken a sweat (pun intended?!). Once you're on number five, I say you deserve to look like you've breezed through labor and delivery! But Vivi is gorgeous and we're thrilled to have another little girl in the family.

New Segullah post

Here's my latest Segullah post. I steal a little bit from Great-grandma Jolley. Hope she's okay with it :-).

Top Ten Reasons Why I'm Not Posting Very Often

10. Kid stuff. Beyond the homework and Scouts and friends and whatnot, there's been a lot of extra-curriculars lately. First, there's the boys' baseball, and even though it's been fun and a great learning experience for both of them, man it's time consuming. Forrest's been serving as Ethan's assistant coach, too, so he's gone a lot as well. But I do have some cute baseball photos! And just as long as I'm not killing myself with nerves and dread (it's a sports related mental illness that goes back to my childhood, don't ask) the games can be pretty fun.




(note how in this photo his eyes are closed and the ball is coming in under the bat :-)

Elise also had her final performances for the Children's Theater group she's been a part of this year. They did a play called "The Little Mermaid Meets the Pirates of the Caribbean" and it was a full two hour song and dance and costume filled extravaganza. Elise played a mermaid and did a great job. Here are some cute shots of her performance:





Oh, and you may have noticed Elise got bangs. We both think they're very cute and it's been a very positive development, other than the mean boy in her class who told her she looked like she had a mullet. I told her he was full of it and had no idea what a mullet was anyway, and if she wanted proof I could show her my Hunter Junior High School yearbook photos.

9. Computerholicism. I am spending waaaaay too much time in my office lately. Between the end of the semester (reading and commenting on 60 or so 4-5 page Classical Argument Essays are enough to make anyone, I mean anyone, want to stay away from a computer keyboard unless absolutely necessary) and the very pleasant but also computer related reading of both my bro the T-Bone's highly anticipated Deseret Book offering (Ever Wonder Why? will be coming to a Deseret Book near you sooooon. The DB suits will probably insist on using his given name, "Anthony," instead of T-Bone on the cover, although it would be cool and attract lots of teen buyers. Maybe he'll have to run that by Sheri Dew?) and my awesome friend and writing homey Kathy's book, due to hit the stores next Spring . . . well, let's just say I've been using the "insert comment" function in my MS Word program a heckofa lot in the last week or so.

8. Parentheses. No matter the time of year--winter, spring, summer, fall--a good deal of my mental energy is expended trying to figure out new and amusing ways to insert parenthetical comments into any of my written communication (you know you love 'em, right?).

7. That blasted coccyx! For the first time in my life, my tail bone hurts. It's probably due to all the sitting at the computer--my computer chair has absolutely no padding left--or maybe I'm just an ol' lady. Could be that. But I've taken to heating up our corn bag (if any of you don't already own a corn bag, please visit the link provided. I mean it. Corn bags beat heating pads hands down). Anyway, I've taken to stuffing our corn bag in the back of my jeans for a little relief. It's both healing and very attractive.

6. My Personal Development and Entertainment. I've been a busy lady lately. After all those years of Forrest going golfing and hunting and fishing and snowboarding and him telling me, "You need to get out and find something you want to do!", well, I think I'm taking him up on it. After not going to Provo ONCE since moving to Utah, after tomorrow I will have been to Provo EIGHT TIMES since February. EIGHT. An AML conference, a publishers' fair, a poetry reading, a job interview (yes, I interviewed to teach creative writing at BYU, but the committee that makes the decisions hasn't met yet. Will keep you posted), a play (at least Forrest went with me to that one), a baby shower, Women's Conference book signing (will discuss in more detail next) and tomorrow I'm going with Kathy and Darlene to the book signing of one of our other writers group members (Ms. Sharlee Glen's book Just What Mama Needs has just been released to wild acclaim.) So there's that.

5. Bound on Earth stuff. It's slowing down a bit, but I've had some book club requests and the aforementioned Women's Conference signing. That was a really fun experience. They invited a passel of writers and I was honored to be able to come. Lucikly, I got to sit by a very intelligent and interesting woman, a psychologist who wrote a book called Forgiving Ourselves for Deseret Book, and we kept each other entertained and staved off feelings of dorkiness during lulls in the action. But it was exciting to see my name in the brochures and hanging on a sign from the ceiling--just like Chieko Okazaki's! Now, she probably sold a few hundred books and me a few dozen if I was lucky . . . but still! And after the signing I got to hang with my Mamacita and her friends. We quilted and had an undersauced Polynesian dinner and went to a concert jam packed with all the Mormon Light Rock Faves (your Hillary Weekses, your Kenneth Copes, and even, yes, your Michael McCleans). To be honest, I was skeptical about the concert because I'd had some rough McClean experiences in the past (I'm not a grab the hand of the person sitting next to you, raise it in the air and sway kind of girl)--but I'll be darned if the concert wasn't really good. Fun, energetic, and some of the performers were just fabulous. A great day.



(a big thanks to my Mom's friend Debbie for the pics. Even though the dreaded Sweat family sloping esophagus is on full display in the profile shot. Gotta avoid the profile shots!)


4. Housewifery. Cleaning. Laundry. Dishes. Dinner. Killing the ants that have invaded the kitchen. Etc.

4. Playing Man on Man Defense with Wyatt. I have to lock all the doors and now whenever poor Forrest goes anywhere, he ends up locked out. Gotta get that man a house key. Especially when he comes home from somewhere and I'm drying my hair or in the basement playing Guitar Hero. (That only happened once. The one and ONLY time I've played Guitar Hero in the last month or so. I've gotten rusty.)

3. Boob Tubiness. I've gotten back in the TV habit now that the writer's strike is over. I really don't feel guilty about this--really I don't, and I'm NOT protesting too much--but these are the shows I TiVo and must watch each week:

-Medium (Forrest won't watch this one with me anymore. He ALWAYS bails on dramas after the first two years. Says he can't watch Patricia Arquette sit straight up in bed with that startled look on her face anymore. I see where he's coming from . . . but I still like the show, if only because Patricia Arquette is one of the ONLY WOMEN on television that is normal sized. Not skinny, not fat--because in TV land those are the only options--just a good Mom-size, probably a 12, a 10 if she's been counting her Weight Watchers points. Go Patricia!)

--American Idol, both days, although I zip through most of the results show on the TiVo. My heart's still with little Davey Archuletta, although I realize that he's a bit of a one trick pony, and the "gorsh!"ing and "aw shucks!"ing and shuffling around with his shoulders up around his ears in humility gets a little tough to take. But what about David Cook's smarmy little glances to the camera, like he's too cool for this and knows it? He's had some amazing performances, but something about him just gets under my skin. There's no way Syesha will win.

--Top Chef. Although it's not one of my favorite shows, it TiVos late on Wed night and then I can watch it Thurs morning when I'm doing the dishes or folding laundry.

--(Okay, I am ashamed of this one) America's Next Top Model. I know!!! I know. Kinda pathetic. And I don't watch it every week. Does that help? And at least I don't watch Dancing With The Stars . . .

--Lost. Of course. It's been a delicious season so far, although Jack (I'm sorry ladies) just bugs me. Bugs me! When it gets right down to it, I'm a Sayeed girl. There, I said it. Iraqi Republican Guard torturers are easier for me to identify with than mopey, drunken, bossy spinal surgeons. Oh, and do you think Claire is dead? I'm thinking yes. She had that wry little smile in the cabin and wasn't at all nervous about Aaron. And how bad is Ben, really?

--The Office. I can't believe Jim's on corrective action. And Ryan's pseudo hipster dude beard is one of my favorite new developments of the past few years.

--30 Rock. Some episodes are absolutely hilarious, others still a little wobbly. The season finale was great, though. And Forrest loves him some Tina Fey so much that I have to watch with him, just to keep an eye out. (And yes, we went to Baby Mama opening weekend. You've gotta support your peeps!)

So, yeah, that's a lot of TV. So sue me.

3. Magnifing my Calling. Or at least trying to remember to still do it the way I'm supposed to. After Christmas and the Birthday social, I think the Enrichmenty party of my brain wants to go on autopilot. And they told us at Stake leadership training that Super Saturday doesn't count as a Quarterly Activity! Travesty! But we will soldier on.

2. Wifeliness. Forrest has been on a travel "brown out" for the last few months. Kinda funny since six months ago he was supposed to travel 3 days a week whether he needed to or not (gotta show us that hustle!) and now he's not supposed to travel at all as a cost saving measure. It's been really nice to have him around, but part of me feels a little guilty, like I've been taking advantage of him. (Did I tell you I've been to Provo eight times??). So I'm trying to use whatever energy I have left to be extra nice and tell him what a hottie he is in his cute little running outfit and not stay up all night ignoring him while I type on the computer. Tonight he's at Scout camp with Ethan, which is why this post is so dang long. Love ya, hon.

1. Blog Exhaustion. When I first got my blog, I was excited about it and would think about it a lot--little witty things I could say, interesting topics to wax philosophical over, photos I could upload. It was kind of like a new high school boyfriend with whom I'd become infatuated. But the romance period is over and sometimes the blog feels a little like a chore. And I have so many dang chores. So I might not always post once a week . . . but when I do, watch out! I'll probably unload, just like I've done here.

Thanks for hanging with me . . .