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!

Actually . . .

After re-reading my most recent post, I've come to the horrifying realization that I overuse the word "actually." I will try to remedy this in the future.

Also, I forgot to tell you the one name that Forrest has decided he likes after our conversation last night:

First name Jimmy.

Middle name Dean.

This is the main reason why we can't come to any baby naming conclusions until a tangible human being is involved.

And, yes, I'm using Andrew as inspiration for inserting charmingly illustrative clipart in my posts.

A Rose by any other name . . .

So today I've been thinking a lot about baby names. I made Forrest stay up a good ten minutes past his bedtime last night and fired away with my name ideas--and very few of my name ideas actually hit the target. Both Forrest and I aren't very good at picking names before the baby comes. It all seems like so much speculation until you actually see the kid and can put a name to the face, so to speak.

It's also funny to think of what our children could have been named. Ethan could have been Noah. Elise could have been Emma. Jonas almost was Zachary, but they brought us the birth certificate to sign the second day we were in the hospital and by then we'd chaged our mind. So instead of signing our Christmas cards Forrest, Angie, Ethan, Elise and Jonas it could have been Forrest, Angie, Noah, Emma and Zach.

Now, whose family is that?


(Speaking of "whose family is that," I've included more soccer shots--that my mom actually took--because I know pictures are more fun on blogs than the actual blathering. Unfortunately, I still haven't taken any new pictures lately, but I PROMISE I will on Halloween. I'm at least good for major holidays, especially ones that take some preparation on my part. I want hard evidence that I actually did something. Which, I think, is part of the reasons moms take pictures. For proof.)

Which reminds me--I went and picked up Elise from Lauren's birthday party today, and I hope that Cindy and Tony took pictures for proof because it was SO CUTE. They'd set up a whole spook alley in the basement with (I'm sure) every blanket and sheet they own hung from the ceiling to make a scary maze. They had spooky music, a freaky pumpkin headed scarecrow guy, and even a STROBE LIGHT. So hopefully when Laruen is a teenager she'll remember that her mom cared enough about her to go to Pary City and buy a strobe light and spend all day hanging sheets from the ceiling in the basement.

So--back to names. I want to invite any and all of you to suggest names that you might like. Anything. Go crazy. Because, as of right now, I'm completely clueless. I was liking Owen for a while, but Ethan absolutely hates it (there's a mean teacher at his school named Mrs. Owen, and that can ruin it for anybody.) When he says it, he even has this certain disdainful inflection "Ow-uuun." So for now he's kind of rained on my Owen parade. I was thinking about posting a lits of all the names I DO like, but then they might be Owenized--you'll tell me why you don't like them and I'll be outta luck. It's best sometimes to keep your names to yourself, because once the baby's got the name, all people can do is sigh and roll their eyes behind your back.

So, final random thought of the day: SATs, cheerleader handwriting, and soccer. (See, I'm bringing the soccer pictures full circle.) I've been grading the essay portion of the SAT online (yes, I'm crazy, and I don't know when enough is enough. I realize this.) At any rate, for those of you who have children who have yet to take the SAT, or any other standardized writing test, a few helpful hints:

-If you have a daughter, encourage her to stay away from cheerleader handwriting. It's the puffy, captial-letters-are-the-same-size-as-lowercase, and (more rarely, but still surprisingly often for the SAT) i's dotted with stars variety that I'm sure we've all come across. As much as we are told as essay graders not to be influenced by handwriting, and I try very hard not to be, cheerleader handwriting is surprisingly ubiquitous and very rarely is it associated with what we in SAT grading land call "outstanding critical thinking."

-Teach your children one or two vocabulary words like "ubiquitous." Yeah, I know you thought I was just being presumtuous when I used it before, but really it was calculated. But a word of caution: if your child doesn't know exactly what ubiquitous means, then he/she should avoid shooting himself/herself in the proverbial foot by using it incorrectly. But, I'm telling you, two or three impressive vocabulary words go a looooong way.

-This isn't a suggestion, more like an observation. Due to the oath of secrecy I signed before agreeing to sell my soul for $17 an hour, I can't discuss the actual prompt I've been scoring. (As a matter of fact, I could very well get in trouble for this very post. But I doubt the SAT people know about my blog. Or do they . . . .?????). Anyway, sports comes up a lot, and in the context of sports, soccer comes up a TON. I mean, every other prompt mentions playing soccer, I swear. You'd think with what seems like a solid majority of American children participating in competitive soccer, it would be a more popular spectator sport, like in the rest of the world. See, Drew, this part of the post is for you (if you've been able to hang with me this long, that is.) So, what are your theories as to the lack of support for professional soccer in the USA? I've also read three essays so far that mention competitive rowing. Who knew there were so many rowers out there?

Now I'd really better go. Forrest has gone to Target and come back in the amount of time it has take me to write this . . . time that I should have spent grading essays and earning my $17 an hour.

I'm sorry, baby no name! That's one less outfit for you!!

Busy Days

It's Friday morning, and I thought I'd sit down and blog a bit . . . just so those of you who have actually gone to the blog don't think I've given up on it completely. I've just been busy, busy--and I'm not complaining, because I get myself into these things. As soon as I get the next issue of Irreantum out the door (and finish the grant proposal, and the AML writers' conference presentation . . .) I'll be able to breathe a little bit more. I also decided, before Laraine (the Irreantum editor) passed away and I suddenly became temporarily in charge of Irreantum, that I would do a little grading for the SAT essay during October to earn some money, mostly for baby stuff. I graded the SAT last year and it's a little mind-numbing to sit and read essay after essay by high school students on the same topic--but the pay's not bad and I want to buy one of those cool new papasan baby swings :-).

So, the kids are off track for the next 3 1/2 weeks, and I'm spending an inordinate amount of time in front of my computer. Which is why I haven't posted on the blog--I have computer-guilt.

Right now Ethan and Elise are at piano lessons. Ethan's memorized his simplified version of "Fur Elise," and Elise (who, obviously, will have to learn "Fur Elise" at some point as well) has memorized her latest song, too, a number called "Grandmother" that uses BOTH HANDS at the same time, and she sits down and plays it just about every time she passes the piano. We all go around humming, "Grandmother, Grandmother, will you make some pumpkin pie?" (I think that's how it goes. Could be wrong. But Elise has the book at her lesson, so I can't check!). I also made the kids wake up this morning and finish their reflection contest stories before piano at 10:00. There was some grumbling, but then it got eerily quiet for about a half an hour and they all produced some really good stuff. Ethan's is about a magical tree of "infinite space" in futuristic England that everyone takes refuge in after the air becomes unbreathable. (He's still not finished. I'll keep you updated.) Elise's is about a runaway horse named Butterscotch and a mean sister. Also very compelling. And Jonas has written a poem about Minnesota. Here's an excerpt:

"We had good friends in Minnesota
and we played with them a lot in the cul de sac.
But sometimes, they weren't home.
But we still had more friends, and we could see if they were home."

I think the line breaks are particularly effective. And the pathos! :-)

And, finally, because a picture is worth a thousand words, here are some shots of the kids playing soccer and flag football. I feel terrible because I don't have any pics of Jonas. I waited until the last game to get pictures of all of them, but unfortunately Jonas's last game was the night of Grandpa Ranquists's funeral. But he knows we love him. I'll include another cute shot of Joe doing karate, just so he doesn't feel left out.



Jonas, the karate master, literally breaking a board with his bare hands!



This was Elise's first year playing soccer. She did a good job, and had more fun than I thought she would. She preferred playing "defense." And cheering.




And this is Ethan, his first year doing flag football. He's learned a lot--and had a really good time just so long as the ball doesn't get hiked over his head!

That's it for now! Gotta run and pick up kiddies.

Thought the kids deserve a little face time!

I realized that the kids haven't been getting a lot of (well, any, yet) attention on the blog and I thought I'd post a few cute pictures we've taken lately.

This is a shot of Ethan and four of his friends taken on his 10th birthday. He was a really lucky kid because not only did he get to have a sleep-over (and they stayed up until, probably, 2 a.m.!), but he got to have dinner at Famous Dave's, his favorite. He's a lover of meat, particularly barbecued meat, just like his father. I love this picture because there's nothing like 10 year old boys, still kids but almost not. In this group, you have the quiet, cool one; the rowdy, slightly naughty one; the well-adjusted, polite one; and the clown. You can decide which one Ethan is :-).

This is a picture of Jonas and Hanshi (not his real name, I'm sure, but some kind of honorable karate title) after Jonas received his yellow belt in karate. Both Ethan and Jonas are taking karate and like it a lot. Jo has been doing such a good job that they let him come at the same time as Ethan and train with the "big boys."

Elise looking good on the first day of school. She's wearing black gauchos that Grandma Sweat bought for her. Grandma Sweat has since discovered that all the granddaughters have black gauchos, and she wants to get a picture of them all wearing them together (and if Whitney can't come, she'll photoshop her in!).

Going through these photos makes me realize that, if I am going to be a good blogger at all, I'd better take more pictures. I am ashamed to say that it's been over a month since I've taken any new ones of the kids (gasp!). It is hilarious to think that letting a month go by without taking a picture is a bad thing, isn't it? Think back to our own childhoods and how many pictures we have. I think Forrest has, maybe, eight. No kidding. I obviously have more than eight, but still, our lives weren't documented in such meticulous detail as they are now in the digital age. I wonder what kind of effect that will have on kids' memories down the road? With so many pictures and so much video, don't you think it will be even harder to separate out true memories from things you see in photographs?? (This qualifies as my blogworthy thought of the day).

Help, you blog savvy folks!

Okay, so Amy/Dave/Andi . . . how do I make my photos so they get bigger when you click on them? Just curious. Anything else I'm doing wrong, let me know!
Ang

Our Hawaii Trip

I thought I'd venture into the wide world of blogging . . . if only to share photos every once and a while! We'll see how often I actually update. But it's been so fun to see some of yours that I thought I'd give it a try with some pictures and other chit chat related to our Hawaii trip. So here goes . . .

This is a picture of me standing outside our hotel, the Ko Olina Marriott. Ko Olina is on the "leeward" side of the island, which means it gets about 1/10th of the rain that the windward side does. The mountains are pretty dry, but it's great to be able to look across to the other side of the island and see clear skies when the other side is getting rain. This particular hotel is located about 20 minutes out of Honolulu, and the original owners blasted four little inlets, or bays, into the beach, which are perfect for kids to swim in (and for snorkeling, if the fish decide to show up). It was a beautiful place to stay.

Forrest checking out a spiky pineapple at the Dole Pineapple Plantation. Not only are the pineapples spiky, but so are the leaves on the bush. We went on a little train ride around the plantation and had some quite excellent fresh pineapple afterward.

This is Forrest at the bottom of Wiamai falls (and no, I don't think I spelled that right). We went on a pretty hike through the mountains and ended up at this spot, where there's a waterfall and a little pool you can swim in. Okay, so I mostly waded around, but Forrest went for a swim and sat at the bottom of the falls. They say they've had very little rain this year so the falls aren't as raging as they usually are, but it was fun to see nevertheless.

This is another shot of the beach outside our hotel. You can see the very corner of the hotel on the left hand side. It was fun to walk from bay to bay, and there was a little restaurant by the water where we had some great dinners and watched some gorgeous sunsets. As much as we wanted to come and relax, though, we didn't spend nearly enough time laying around on beach chairs reading books.

The two of us at the Polynesian Cultural Center. It was fun to wander around and see so many good looking BYU students putting on such a great show. We especially liked the guy from Samoa who walked on fire and climbed up a coconut tree . . . and he was funny! What are the chances of being able to shimmy up a coconut tree barefooted and also engage in witty repartee with Japanese tourists?!?! So I hope he's paid well.

My windblown, vacationey look. Forrest and I took a catamaran breakfast cruise (and boy, were people grateful when the host asked if anyone didn't drink and wanted to donate their drink tickets to anyone who could hold their liquor! . . . :-). Even without the alcohol, it was a great time. The cruise was advertised as a "Dolphin Watching" expedition; unfortunately, though, there weren't any dolphins to watch (dang!). But we did see a huge sea turtle flapping past, and when we stopped to snorkel there were a ton of different fish to see. I was a little nervous about snorkeling because I hadn't done in years and years (and, at almost six months pregnant, not at the peak of grace). Unlike Hanauma Bay where a person gets to wade in gradually, here you basically jump into the ocean and go. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that once I put my head down and started kicking, I pretty much floated. I'm sure the six months pregnant part contributed to my buoyancy. I did get a good mouthful of saltwater to begin with, but I figured out the snorkel soon enough, and Forrest and I had a great time kicking around and looking at all the sea life.

This is a shot of the flag at the memorial aboard the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor. It was a madhouse the morning we went--tons of tourists. At first I was surprised to see so many Japanese tourists there, but I suppose if I visited Hiroshima I would go see a memorial there, too.

Hanauma Bay, legendary tourist destination on Oahu. At first I wasn't expecting much. I vaguely remember visiting Hanauma Bay when I went to Hawaii with my Madrigal group when I was a senior, and didn't think much of it (apparently). (It's suprising and a bit disconcerting how little I remember of my Hawaii trip my senior year. I mostly remember 1. going to the Hard Rock Cafe, which isn't nearly as cool as I though it was back then, 2. My friend Natalie Foote getting sunburned, and 3. bringing a framed picture of Forrest to put on my nightstand because I felt guilty leaving him so soon before he was supposed to leave on his mission. Yes, I was 17.) Anyway, back in the day when I first visited, they allowed tourists to bring frozen peas and bread to lure the fish, and as many tourists as they could pack in, so the place was a zoo. Now, you can't feed the fish at all, which seems very reasonable to me--all that bread and all those peas clogging up the fragile reefs. They also limit the number of people there at any one time. I'm surprised they didn't implement these changes sooner. ANYWAY . . . this time, Hanauma Bay was amazing. The water was crystal clear, and it wasn't very crowded, so Forrest and I got to explore quite freely and saw an amazing variety of fish. My favorite was this huge, clown-faced fish that looked like she was wearing lipstick. Good times.

On the last day of our trip, we went to the Honolulu Temple. It's a gorgeous temple, set up on a hill with a huge path of flowers and palm trees leading up to it. The temple is nearly 100 years old and was the 5th temple built. It was a peaceful and relaxing way to spend our last day there . . . especially since soon after we were done, we headed to the airport for a three hour wait and eight hours of flying overnight to get back home (most of which I spent trying to sleep upright with my arms folded, trying not to bug the rather large stranger sitting next to me. Forrest I didn't mind bugging and had no qualms completely overtaking his armrest).

Although we both felt pretty hammered and jet lagged when we got home (and were both hit with--surprise!--a nice welcome home cold) it was a wonderful trip. We couldn't have done it without all the people who helped and watched the kids, feeding them, helping them with homework, shuttling them to soccer and football, and putting up with their general craziness. It was wonderful to spend time together just the two of us, especially since, in a few months, we won't have nearly as much "alone time" as we've grown accustomed to lately!

And to all of you reading this blog, I promise it won't always be this long!!