Julyishness

1. Went and saw The Police in concert last weekend for a belated celebration of our 16th wedding anniversary (Forrest was in Moab helping out with Youth Conference on the actual day). We had a fabulous time ogling Sting's yoga-charged physique (well, maybe I was the one ogling, can't speak for Forrest, although you wouldn't blame him, really), swaying with my honey on a beautiful summer night, and listening to some excellent music. Even knew almost all the words. Perfecto.



2. On Wednesday, took the kids to Cherry Hill, Davis County's famous water park, and spent the day. My good friend Sally lives in Kaysville and she even lined up a babysitter for Wyatt for part of the day. He was supposed to nap--and didn't--but it was nice to have a few hours to lounge by the pool and chat with a good friend while the big kids ran loose. And once Wyatt joined us, he had a great time in the kiddie pool.

3. My neighborhood had a big 24th of July celebration. Tons of families, mucho bbqing, kids on bike jumps, cookie baking contests, and (of course) a truckload of illegal fireworks courtesy of the bravest and most pyromaniacal of our neighbors and the state of Wyoming. We had lookouts posted on either side of the street, ready for cop sightings, and most of the fireworks were done by the time the big fire truck showed up. (Really! A fire truck! So much more fun than the coppers). I think a bunch of South Jordan firefighters roam the city all night on the 24th, busting folks like the good people of Ivory Crossing. Actually, they were really nice. Didn't fine anybody, didn't even confiscate anything, just told us to cease and desist, honked their horn, waved at the kids and took off. We all cheered.

4. Saw Batman. Very intense movie--well made, strong story, gripping but unsettling. It was satisfying to finally see a movie in the theater and not be disappointed. When it was over I noticed that I still had half my Diet Coke left in the cup. Now THAT's a sign of a good movie--when Angie forgets to finish her drink.

5. Finally finished reading all the contest entries for Irreantum. 75 or so initial entries for the fiction contest, 40 or so for the creative nonfiction. That's a lot of reading, I've gotta say. Granted, I didn't read every word of every piece. If something was obviously not going to win, I'd give it a couple of pages and move on. But still--LOTS of manuscripts. Glad to be over that hump, although I do enjoy working on the contests. I love finding new talent, being surprised by the quality of the work (one contest had more quality represented than the other, but I won't get into it here), and getting the chance to promote/encourage LDS writers in whatever small way I can. So, truly, I remain honored to be involved at all even when it does take up some time.

That's it for now. Forrest has taken the big kids to the Wilkey's so he and Darrin can go on a bike ride. Forrest's triathlon training is well underway . . . he continues to kick it in a very admirable fashion. Wyatt is sleeping and the laundry is tumbling. Better go be productive.

But oh! I almost forgot. I discovered this blog about a month ago and keep meaning to publish a link to it. It's a new blog, but it's getting famouser and famouser by the day. It's pure satire (and hopefully you can tell--some people are legitimately confused) and can get a little snarky, for sure. But a little snarkiness comes in handy sometimes at the end of a long, hot summer day. It's called "Seriously, So Blessed." Check it out.

My Favorite Summer Picture So Far

is this:


Just home from the library, every piece of electronica shut off. Ahh . . .

I have a few other good photos, too, though, but since the setting is Lagoon they're not nearly as peaceful-looking. But that's what summer's about, right? Time to chill on the couch and read, time to go to Lagoon!

We met the Wilkeys--our perfect Lagoon companions, since there's somebody for everybody to hang with--and all the kids (and grown-ups) had a great time. I still love roller coasters and had a blast going on Wicked and the Colossus with the kids. (Hate the skyride, though. Had to sit behind Forrest holding Wyatt in the car in front of me, and every time the ride wobbled itself to a stop I had to gaze off into the trees and try not to notice my 1 1/2 year old wiggling around or else I would have had a panic attack.) There were no injuries, no throwing up (poor Elise was sick last year), very little whining, and it wasn't even that hot. Hot enough, but not scorching. So a great day all around. Here are some commemorative shots:


Wyatt officially entered the ranks of big-kiddom and went on some rides all by himself. Although he looks decidedly grouchy in this shot (love the jutting lower jaw) he really seemed to enjoy himself most of the time. No wild-eyed screaming, etc.


Sweaty big kids. Although Jonas went on every big kid ride he could (the aforementioned Wicked and Colossus), I took this shot in line for a ride he was 1/2 an inch too short to go on. Ethan took off with the older Wilkey boys by himself for a while and reaaallly enjoyed that first taste of Lagoon independence (remember??).


We let Jonas try his hand at some carnival games to take the sting off of being 1/2 inch too short, and soon he was feeling good enough to take his little brother Wyatt on a couple of rides. What a nice big brother.



And another Jonas-related bit of commentary. If you'll notice in the car behind him, Ethan and Elise and Jane Wilkey are all crammed in together. Jonas had tried to squeeze in as well, but the attendant wouldn't let all four kids do it. So who had to man up and let two girls he'd never seen before in his life smooshify him for four whole minutes? Good ol' Joe. He was plucky about it. (And notice in the blurry shot behind him how Ethan and Elise and Jane got into their car incorrectly. Ethan lost the arms-behind-the-head pose pretty quickly and ended up squishing the life out of poor Elise and even poorer Jane Wilkey, who probably weighs 50 pounds soaking wet. Physics. Tricky.)

We stayed until dark and Wyatt held up incredibly well, considering this was his only nap for the day. Oh, and how do you like Wyatt's new big boy haircut??:



We drove home sticky and sweaty, sore-footed and tired, but it was worth it.

Happy Birthday to Me, I'm 103

Or at least getting closer to it.

Had a great birthday yesterday. Lots of nice phone calls, the kids all gave me kisses, etc etc.

Then last night Forrest and I went to a new exhibit at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, "From Monet to Picasso," and went out to eat and a wonderfully funk little Thai place. So much fun.

I've seen a few exhibits featuring the Impressionists over the years, so while it wasfun to see a few new Monets like this one, "The Red Kerchief," (featuring his wife who died in her early 30s)


and this one, Renoir's "Romaine Lacaux" (his "first" painting, since he purposely destroyed all his work before this one):



I was more interested in seeing the work from other artistic movements. I've seen Van Gogh live a few times, but he never fails to disappoint. The paint is so surprisingly thick, and there's so much emotion, even in landscapes. I usually prefer art with people in it (does this mean I'm shallow???) but I could sit and look at Van Gogh for a long, long time, even if there's no person staring back at me. We got to see this:



and it was beautiful.

I've been debating whether or not I should put pics of some of my other favorites directly on my blog since they contain (horror!) nekkid people (yes, Angie likes the nekkid people, think what you will) . . . so I've decided to put in hyperlinks instead. That way those of you who DON'T want to see nudes or partial nudes don't have to.

I loved Gauguin's In the Waves

and I've never seen a Picasso in real life before (well, that I can remember. I'm sure I saw one in Paris but I can't remember it!) and there were a bunch of wonderful Picassos. I don't like his cubism as much as stuff from his Blue period, like La Vie.

There was a whole room full of Rodin sculptures, too. Just amazing. This one, called "The Bronze Age", was such a perfect replication of the human form that Rodin was accused of casting a real person--which he, of course, vehemently denied. Seeing the detail up close, it was easy to see why people were suspicious.

Okay, enough nekkid people. There were a few cool surrealist pieces, like Max Ernst's "Le Dejuener sur l'Herbre":

It's a riff on a well known Manet painting of the same title, where a (yes) nekkid woman is picnicking on the grass, surrounded by clothed men, and looking straight at the camera. I'm not going to hyperlink that one--you can google it if you'd like. So in good surrealist fashion, Ernst replaced the woman with a freaky scary fish and added a few other flourishes. It's a pretty big painting that uses a lot of interesting techniques--and cheeky and fun, too.

I also liked Dali's "La Reve" ("The Dream" . . . although I hope I don't dream anytime soon that my mouth is covered in ants):



At any rate, we had a great time and missed the big crush of crowds (as we left there was quite a line forming), so it was fun to linger in front of paintings and get up close and look at the brush strokes without feeling as if you were in anyone's way. Great opportunity. If you live in Utah and you like art, go see it.

Then we went to a great little Thai place called Chanon Thai Cafe. A hole in the wall, for sure, but the food was great, and the whole experience was a little hilarious. First there was our waiter giggling when we ordered the combination appetizer plate (he started laughing and yelled, "Combination Appetizer!" into the kitchen and when we asked him why he was laughing he said, "Oh, combination appetizer so hard. So many steps! My brother is cook and he HATE combination appetizer so I think it very funny." And excuse the probably racially insensitive dialect but it's only funny if you hear it they way he said it.) Then there was the decor: Precious Moments figurines; Pottery-barnish candle holders holding candles melted down to the nub; Gold's Gym posters hanging crooked on the wall, covered in packing tape; a penguin with a missing leg on the fireplace mantel. You get the idea. TGI Friday's and their ilk are going for eclectic, but licence plates and baseball caps are nothing compared to one-legged penguins. Then when they brought us our check, instead of a nice little ball point pen to sign our credit card receipt, they provided us with a Crayola marker. Classic. Anyway, the appetizer plate was FANTASTIC (thank you waiter's brother), the Pad Thai delish, and our desserts were wonderful. Fried banana and coconut ice cream and mango sticky rice. Mmmmm. One dish was a little too hot (and had a weird spice I couldn't identify and didn't really like), but everything else was tasty tasty.

And that's enough of a recap. Going to the zoo! Kids are waiting. But it was a fun day, and now that I'm 36, I'm on the slippery slope to 40. Ahhh!

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 . . .