Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Ali's LiveJournal:

[ << Previous 20 ]

Wednesday, December 31st, 2008
4:33 pm	Books I've read this year I am trying to keep a record of all the books I read this year so I can see how many I actually read. I'll update as I finish books. Uglies by Scott Westerfield Pretties by Scott Westerfield Specials by Scott Westerfield Mao's Last Dancer by Li Cunxin The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch Doomsday Book by Connie Willis A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik Princess Academy by Shannon Hale Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank B. Gilbreth,Ernestine Gilbreth Carey Off Armageddon Reef by David Weber The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diana Wynne Jones Half Magic by Edward Eager Tunnel in the Sky by Robert A. Heinlein Invitation to the Game by Monica Hughes Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild Roller Skates by Ruth Sawyer The Jade Throne by Naomi Novik Extras by Scott Westerfield The Gift by Gail Carson Levine The Annotated Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett Sucks to be Me (ARC) by Kimberly Pauley The Midnighters trilogy (The Secret Hour, Touching Darkness, and Blue Noon, I think) by Scott Westerfield Pegasus in Flight by Anne McCaffrey Dragonsdawn by Anne McCaffrey The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom Grantsville Gazette by/edited by Eric Flint Grantsville Gazette III by/edited by Eric Flint Ring of Fire by/edited by Eric Flint 1634: Cannon Law by Eric Flint and Andrew Dennis Mountain Magic by David Drake, Eric Flint, Henry Kuttner, and Ryk E. Spoor A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle Kitty and the Silver Bullet by Carrie Vaughn 1812: The Rivers of War by Eric Flint The Wizard Hunters by Martha Wells The Ships of Air by Martha Wells The Gate of Gods by Martha Wells Another Fine Myth by Robert Asprin Myth Conceptions by Robert Asprin Myth Directions by Robert Asprin Hit or Myth by Robert Asprin Myth-ing Persons by Robert Asprin Little Myth Marker by Robert Asprin 1824: The Arkansas War by Eric Flint Peeps by Scott Westerfeld Camp Concentration by Thomas M. Disch (eh, interesting, but I wouldn't read it again) Trickster's Choice by Tamora Pierce Dragonhaven by Robin McKinley Trickster's Queen by Tamora Pierce Boundary by Eric Flint and Ryk E. Spoor Dragon Weather by Lawrence Watt-Evans The Servants by Michael Marshall Smith The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White The Ropemaker by Peter Dickinson The Fortress of Glass by David Drake (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008
6:25 pm	Overheard in my house Chris: Brenna, don't pick your nose. Brenna: Why? It make the boogers sad? Chris: Brenna, time to come have dinner! Brenna (from her bedroom): I can't! I'm making pie! (She had a pile of stuffed animals and toys in a pile and was stirring them around.) (Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 15th, 2008
10:35 am	Interesting ways to start a conversation I called my mom yesterday and this is how the beginning of our conversation went (more or less): Me: Hi, Mom! Mom: Hi, Kristy, I've been meaning to call you! Me: No worries. :) Quick question for you: What's the tool called that you use to turn bulls into steers? Mom: ... you mean a castration tool? Me: Oh, yeah! I kept thinking "neuter" like a cat. Mom: ... okay. (I'm working on my farm book again, so there was a reason for this particular randomness...) Of course, I'm often treated to random conversations, as well, since I live with a toddler. Such as walking in to get Brenna up from her nap, a big wet stain on her bed, and an empty sippy cup next to her. Me: Brenna, what happened? Brenna finishes spitting out a mouthful of water onto her legs and industriously scrubs away with her hat: I'm cleaning my knees! Me: ... well, at least it's just water, I suppose. Brenna: Water's good. It's clean, see? Your knees need cleaned, too? Me: Um, no, no, I think I'm good, thanks. (Comment on this)
Thursday, July 10th, 2008
1:19 pm	Toddler comments from the 4th of July weekend (and update) Scene: Brenna and Ella came out of my parents' guest room/computer room into the living room where all the adults were spending time. Shannon: "What were you girls doing?" Brenna and Ella: "Playing a game!" Me: "What game?" Brenna and Ella: "Your game!" Shannon: "'Your game?'...you mean, on the computer?" Brenna and Ella: "Yeah!" Jon had left his computer game running, and Brenna and Ella were sitting together on the computer chair "playing" the game. When they ran back to play some more, we followed. Ella was in charge of the mouse (she was using the scroll wheel to make the screen move up and down) and Brenna was banging on the keyboard. They looked like they were having a great time. Brenna had a turn with the mouse by the time I got my camera out. See?: Brenna and Ella had a blast together. They shared toys and took turns remarkably well for being only two, and they were sad to leave. Brenna now calls Ella "My Ella" and Ella keeps asking to "Go to Nana's house and see Brenna." They were cute. We had a lovely time watching fireworks and hanging out with my family over the Fourth. It was good to see everyone. The drive back home was a pain, because there was a huge accident that slowed traffic to a crawl for over an hour (it took over five hours to get home, instead of just under four), but otherwise, it was all lovely. Now, if I could just get in to see the doctor, I'd be a completely happy Kristy. It's been two months since my last appointment, and I still can't get my records to transfer correctly (the new place won't let me set up an appt. until the records show up. Sigh. Very frustrating.) (Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 1st, 2008
10:55 pm	Eulogy for a blender Goodbye, Magic blender. I'm sorry that nasty glass bowl took off part of your glass threading today, rendering you unusable. (Stupid bowl, taking out vengence as I lifted it from the dishwasher.) It's been a beautiful eight years, and I'll miss you. You made everything from smoothies to hummus with ease, and everything I made in you was fantastic. You even helped me create a mint milkshake enjoyed by someone who hates mint! Now that's talent! I hate to throw you away, but when I have an extra blender (a returned wedding gift after the recipient called off the wedding) just sitting there, it seems silly to spend the money to replace your broken part. Believe me, I wouldn't be replacing you if you were still intact. If it's any comfort, the smoothie you helped me create yesterday was absolutely lovely--a great and healthy lunch! Fruit is yummy. Farewell, my Cuisinart. I will always remember you, and I mourn your loss. (Now, new Oster blender. If you don't live up to Cuisinart's standards, I will be very disappointed in you! And stop whirring for joy that we finally took you out of your box. It's disrespectful to the dearly departed.) (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, June 28th, 2008
11:31 pm	It's entertaining...for now (a toddler tale) Lately, if we're at home and we ask Brenna to do something she doesn't want to do (like go fetch her clothes for the day, or go to the bathroom when she's watching a show or something) she collapses in a puddle and pretends to be asleep, eyes shut and snoring noises included. Today, Chris was asking her to go to the bathroom and she did this. He rolled his eyes, picked her up and took her into the hallway. "Look, Brenna. We hung up the dice picture today!" he said. She opened her eyes, lifted her head to look, said, "Oh, nice!" then proceeded to pretend to sleep again. Since both tickles and stern warnings "wake her up," I'm pretty sure she's not suffering from narcolepsy. *rolls eyes at the child* I'm sure it'll get annoying if it keeps up for much longer, but for now, it's about 10% irritating, and 90% disgustingly amusing/cute. Especially since she'll increase the noise level of her "snores" if she can tell you're coming--which is easy, since she'll peek out of one eye to see your reaction. And she grins the whole time. Cheeky child. On a related note, I took Brenna to a puppet show held at the local cultural arts center today. It was well done, with a mix of hand puppets and marionettes. Brenna loved it, and mostly kept her "what's that puppet doing? What's wrong? What's he doing that for? etc." questions pretty quiet. After it was over, she was a bit upset. "More, Mommy! More!" I may have to take her to one of the next few weeks' shows...she got a postcard from the puppeteer that had his picture with a bunch of his puppets, and she used the picture to tell Daddy about all she'd seen at the show (Chris was at an Elder's Quorum activity). It was cute. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, June 27th, 2008
2:50 pm	Pottytraining excitement Brenna has had 0 accidents for 7 1/2 days in a row. This means that she finally earned her brand-new Blue's Clues video. YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Here's hoping that she'll continue this trend and will earn herself a trip to the movie theater in a couple of weeks (that's the reward for a whole month of no accidents). This doesn't include night-training, because I take forever to get her in the morning and don't want to deal with a possible mess because of my slowness in getting her out of her room, but I'm very pleased with the fact that she's doing so well during the day. Oh, the things you get excited about when your child is a toddler... (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, June 23rd, 2008
5:19 pm	She doesn't get it from my side of the family... Chris: Brenna, guess what? In about a month and a half, Grandpa and Uncle Tim are going to come visit us! Brenna: Oh, no! They can't! We need to clean! The house is too messy! Chris and Kristy (through the laughter): It's okay, Brenna. I think we can clean the house before they get here. (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 18th, 2008
8:14 am	Adventures in GA Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas Holladay any more. Off topic: I really need to find icons that fit my posts better sometimes... :) Well, last night was an adventure. I went to a really nice "Welcome new sisters/Happy birthday to R.S. sisters born in May/June" activity at the R.S. President's house with Peyton, and really enjoyed talking to people and getting to know them better. Then I went home, watched Hell's Kitchen with Chris, hung out on my computer for a bit, then planned on going to bed--got ready and everything. Then some guy in a car below our balconey started blasting music. This was annoying, as it was 11 p.m., and I wanted to go to sleep. Plus, I didn't want the guy to wake up Brenna, either. So, I did what I would do if I were back at our old apartment in Utah. I put a shirt on, slipped some shoes on, and went downstairs to nicely ask the man to turn his music off. Apparently, that's a really bad idea here in GA. After about 3-5 minutes, I got the guy to turn his music off, if reluctantly. I figured he'd probably turn it back up as soon as I left, so I called up the license plate number to Chris so we could have a record if necessary. This was more difficult than normal because the guy's license plate was upside down on the back. Then the guy got out of the car and blocked my path back to my apartment. He was taller than me, bigger than me, spoke some English interspersed with Spanish (so was difficult to understand at times), and was REEKING of alcohol. Whoops. He started calling me names and swearing at me, and wouldn't let me by. I could have gone around the front of the car, but I didn't want him to jump in and try to run me over, which seemed likely at that point. Finally, I yelled at him to let me go past him, and he moved aside slightly. Chris was upstairs calling the police. They came by to talk to us (the guy closed up his car and left when we told him we were calling the cops), and mentioned that if we had noise complaints, to please call them. They told me that dealing with noise complaints was their job and that the guy could have had a gun, been doing dope, etc. Whoops, again. Luckily, no one was hurt, and the noise was gone for the rest of the night, but it really brought home to me the difference between my last neighborhood and this one. Not that this is a bad neighborhood, really--not at all. It's just not like my last one. At all. Fun times! Or something. And next time I'll just let the cops deal with the noisy people... (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, June 12th, 2008
2:35 pm	In Georgia and a funny Brenna story Well, we are safely in Georgia. Brenna and I got here last Wednesday. Our stuff is all in our apartment, though not all unpacked (we had to leave all our bookshelves behind, as it was cheaper to buy new bookshelves than pay for the necessary extra space on the moving truck). It's starting to look like our home, though it won't be complete until we have bookshelves up and pictures on the wall. The ward seems nice. I already miss the grid system. It wasn't perfect, but I could usually find my way around (eventually). So far I've managed to not lose myself completely here, so that's a bonus. I even found a local park, and random grocery stores (that I didn't mean to go to, because I'd just overshot where I was headed). It's nice having Ryan and Peyton here. Friends are good things to have, especially when you move to a new place. Brenna likes them, too. She refers to them as "my friends." She still hasn't called them by their names. It's pretty funny. My funny Brenna story: The other day, Ryan and Peyton were over spending time with us. I had the hardware that attaches Brenna's curtains wrapped up in tape sitting on an end table. There are several screws in there that slide around when you move the little package. Peyton was sitting next to the end table and idly picked up the little bundle and was making the screws slide back and forth. Brenna came into the room and saw what Peyton was doing. Her eyes got big and she exclaimed, "Oh, no, friend, no play with that! It's sharp. It hurt you! No playing with that! It's naughty! Not good!" She went on for at least several minutes, explaining to Peyton why it was a bad idea to play with it. Peyton, trying not to laugh, agreed that it was sharp and she shouldn't play with it, and put it down. She promised Brenna she wouldn't touch it any more. Then Brenna ran into her room. Several moments later, she came back with a plastic toy and gave it to Peyton. "Here, friend," she said. "This is not sharp. You play with it. Not with sharp thing. That's not good. This is a good toy. You play with this. It's better, see?" Peyton thanked Brenna for the new, safe, toy and promised again that she wouldn't touch the sharp thing again. After that, Brenna brought about half her toybox out, one toy at a time, and gave the toys to Peyton, reminding her again that these were good toys, and not to touch the sharp thing any more. I love my little parrot. Seeing a person "in danger," explaining why what they're doing is not a good idea, and redirecting them to a safer toy/activity? Think that might be what I do with Brenna? :) It was pretty cute to see how concerned she was, and Peyton thought it was very amusing, too, so that's good. And last, but not least, here's a link to pictures of Brenna that my sister took for me. I'm glad my sister's willing to take pictures whenever we visit, since Brenna's not always in the mood to be photographed (as you'll see if you look at the gallery. Sigh. She's a teenaged toddler! At least in attitude that day...). Luckily, we got a few that are really cute and Shannon is willing to erase the scratch on Brenna's chin on whatever pictures I decide to print. Some of the pictures remind me of me, too--she was trying so hard to stay grumpy, no matter what ridiculous thing my sister did, but in the end, she couldn't help smiling, at least a little bit. I do that, too, when I'm mad and feel like staying that way for a bit. http://www.photographybyshannon.com/Brenna/ (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 28th, 2008
12:20 am	And last, but not least.... Right before Chris left, we had an ultrasound (the doctor was concerned that it might be awhile before I find a new doctor/have a chance to get an ultrasound). So, even though it was a bit early, we got to go see what the baby looks like. And, according to the ultrasound tech, ( It's a... ) (10 Comments |Comment on this)
12:08 am	Sweet Brenna things (don't want to forget!) About two weeks ago, now, Brenna was getting her pajamas out of her dresser, and she smashed her finger in the drawer as she closed it. It was pretty bad looking, with ripped up skin and everything. I tried to get her to let me put ice, or ointment, or a bandaid on it, but she kept telling me no. Finally, I asked what she wanted, and she said "A blessing." I told her I could arrange that. :) She asked if I could do it, and I explained that no, I didn't have the priesthood, but I could call someone who could give her a blessing. Our friend Andy came over (Thanks, Andy!) and gave her a quick blessing. Then Brenna let me put ointment on her finger, because I explained that Heavenly Father likes us to help the blessings work by doing everything we can to fix the problem, too. The next morning, her finger looked much better. She ran up to me, and said, "Mommy! Look! Jesus helped my finger!" She was so excited, and it was so very, very sweet. Then, last Tuesday, after we got home from Ashley and Mat.'s house, I put her on top of her covers with the windows open because it was so hot in her room. At about 11:30 that night, she woke up, because she was cold. I closed the window, and put her under the covers, but she was still upset. I asked her what was wrong and she said she needed to pray for Daddy (She was half-asleep, and I don't think she remembered that we had said her bedtime prayers earlier). She wanted to do it, so I just listened. I didn't understand a lot of what she said, since she was half-asleep and mumbling, but I did pick out the following "Heavenly Father...mumble, mumble...bless Daddy sleep better...mumble, mumble...have good day at work...mumble, mumble...that we love him....mumble, mumble, Amen." So sweet. She just melts my heart. Today, she brought the big broom into the kitchen while I was reading the newspaper. She looked around and said "This floor is not clean. It is dirty. I clean it for you!" Then she spent about ten minutes pulling the broom around the floor. I'm not sure if she made much of a difference, but she sure tried. :) I called Chris to tell him that Brenna is definitely his daughter. She already likes to make sure the house is clean. :) I also introduced Brenna to the exciting fun of sleeping under her bed on blankets when she didn't want to go in for her nap/not-nap a week or so ago. Since then, she's spent quite a few nights sleeping under her bed as well. Tonight, she's on top of her bed again, but with her pillow on the opposite end of the bed from normal. I figure, as long as she's sleeping and enjoying herself, it works for me. :) (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 27th, 2008
11:22 pm	So, I figured I'd better post while I still have computer access... The last month has been good. Crazy, but good. First, we had a lovely vacation at my parents' home back in April. Brenna and I got to go bowling and swimming, and Brenna even got to go to a baby gymnastics class with her cousin, Ella. She loved the balance beam and the foam pit, and was really nervous about the trampoline. I have a picture or two, but forgot to upload them from Chris's computer before I turned it off. And now I'm too lazy to reboot it just for that. We were able to get Brenna's photoshoot for her Alphabet book completely done over the time. Now Shannon just needs time to work on it (paying customers take precedence over my free ones, for some strange reason...:p )so it'll be ready to be printed and bound. We were also able to go to Ella's second birthday party. It was fun. It was a Backyardigans themed party, and all the kids had a lovely time. The second week, Chris got to come. He flew in on Saturday. On Monday, Chris and I drove to Atlanta so he could attend a job interview (I went along to give him company in the car--it was an 8 hour round trip). He got the job, and it was a great opportunity, so he accepted. Now we'll be moving out to Atlanta! The next day, we headed up to Dollywood with my parents and Brenna. She was well behaved for the 5 hour car ride, for the most part (thank you, portable DVD player!), but she did get car sick about 15 minutes before we arrived at the hotel. That was nice and smelly. We had a blast at Dollywood. Brenna loved the music shows (especially the Russian dancers), and there were tons of fun rides for her to go on. I didn't get to go on many (grumble, grumble, stupid pregnancy restrictions), but I had fun all the same. There are some fun pictures under the cut: ( Dollywood fun--Photo heavy! ) It was a lovely trip. Even better, I can go back anytime this season, because it was only 6 dollars more to get Chris and me season passes than it would have been to just go for the second day at the normal discounted price. Brenna's still little enough to be free. I think I'll take her at the end of June, since it's their "Kidfest." One funny thing--at the end, my dad took Brenna into the gift shop and was showing her various things she could have. Brenna was interested in these little wooden figurine things. Dad pointed out a cute little bluebird one, I think a bunny one, too, but all Brenna wanted was this wooden rooster. Dad pointed out a couple of other things, but Brenna was firm in her choice. She sleeps with it occasionally, even a month later. It's name is apparently cock-a-doo. She went home and slept with it that night at the hotel, too. It's kinda hard and pointy, but whatever floats her boat, I suppose. After we got back, we had just a few more days of fun with the family before heading home. Chris got back and turned in his two weeks notice, and we started making plans to move. Chris left on the 10th of May and made it out to his Grandmother's in S.C. in two days. He took one day (Monday) to relax, then began to look for housing. After a long and agonizing process which I don't feel like getting into, we now have a place to live. Even better, it's in the same apartment complex as our friends who happen to live in the area. Yay! I've spent the last three weeks packing and making arrangements to get our stuff out to our new place. Chris's dad is the best father-in-law in the world, and has made arrangements to ship my van out to my parents' house (and got tickets for me and Brenna to Nashville, which is only a 2 hour drive from my parents' house) so that I'll only be driving four hours with a toddler instead of 30 hours. have I mentioned how much I love my father-in-law? He's really wonderful. Tomorrow, Janci is coming up (and Drew, for a bit) to help me finish packing and start cleaning. The truck comes on Thursday, and so does Chris's dad, to help. We'll load it that day/evening, then we'll clean the apartment on Friday. Then, it's off to Huntsville until my van arrives. Happily, I actually get to see Chris on Saturday, because he is going to drive to Nashville to pick us up, then we'll spend the weekend at my mom's before he has to go back to work. Busy rest of the week! The good news is that Chris is enjoying his new job. I think it'll be good for our family, and it's always nice to be interested in what you're doing. It seems like a great company to work for. The other nice thing is that, because of the wonderful internet, I get to keep my steady freelance client, and I may be able to do work for another client I've worked for in the past. yay! ( Cut for the more introspective, sad musing bit ) Well, this is a horrendously long post, so I'll save the rest for the next post (which I will make in just a moment, as I really need to get to bed, and I want to finish writing all this down before I lose the opportunity!) (Comment on this)
Monday, May 12th, 2008
9:17 am	I intend to post about my vacation and all the newest life happenings this evening... but for now, this will do. Note to self: when a friend hands you a book you know you're going to love (like, say, Kitty and the Silver Bullet), do not start reading it at 9:30 at night the day she hands it to you. This just encourages you to stay up until midnight finishing it, and then you get to bed way too late. This is less of a problem when your spouse is there to help with child-minding duties, but when you're all by yourself? Bad idea. Please try to remember this the next time someone hands you such things. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, April 11th, 2008
3:54 pm	More progress with my book Another four pages of expanding stories today. Go me! :) Here's an excerpt that I just changed to put it in scene. Janci--let me know if you like this better. :) ( Cats and Snakes and Chipmunks, oh my! ) (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 9th, 2008
4:14 pm	Happy days Yesterday, I went to the doctor to try to hear the baby's heartbeat, since it proved elusive two weeks ago. We heard it! Yay! A nice 170 bpm, once we finally convinced the child to let us listen (it took forever to find it. I have a lovely, loud heartbeat, though). Also, I've been going through Janci's comments on my book. I got through the first six pages of her comments, and I've already added three pages of content to the book. Yay for progress! I'm very pleased with how it's going (and I'm adding scenes and descriptions of people and their reactions to things, even, Janci!). Off to release Brenna from her not-nap. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, April 6th, 2008
6:42 pm	Hummus recipe for Janci and my weekend (Mom, make sure you read the last paragraph) Roasted Red Pepper Hummus 1 can chick peas 1 jar roasted red peppers some tahini paste (a tablespoon or two?) 3 large cloves of garlic, minced a tablespoon or two of olive oil salt to taste lemon juice to taste Blend and serve with pita bread! This has been a lovely weekend. Yesterday was a nice relaxing day spent watching General Conference and playing games with Brenna. Chris had a demo for 4th edition D&D, so he missed the second session and the priesthood session, but Brenna and I had a lovely afternoon and evening together. We made homemade bread (one regular loaf, one with butter, rosemary, basil, and oregano rolled up inside and turned into a bread ring, and one with butter, sugar, and cinnamon made up into another bread ring) and had bread and split pea soup for dinner. Yum! Brenna was so cute. She kept taking a bit of bread or soup and saying "Oh, Mommy. This yummy! Thanks! This yummy soup(or bread, depending). I like it!" It's nice to have a child who appreciates my cooking. :) I'm so glad she likes things like split pea soup. Makes it more fun to feed her, that's for sure. We also watched The Jungle Book together. She likes that movie a lot and always asks "What's Mowgi doing? Where bear go?" etc. She also went easily to bed, which was nice. Today, Janci and Drew came over to watch conference with us and hang out. Chris and Drew painted minis for a while, and Janci and I chatted and made food (peanut butter cookies for dessert). Conference was really good. there were a couple really great talks. I really liked the one that...drat, I'll have to go look up whose talk it was. ANyway, it was the general authority who talked about motherhood and balancing things. I'm excited to read it in the Ensign next month. We had roast beef and provolone sandwiches on homemade bread for lunch, and Janci and I made the hummus that I posted above to go with the lamb meat, pita pockets, feta cheese, tomato, and lettuce sandwiches that we had for dinner. It turned out very tasty. We had a wonderful time, and Brenna loved chatting at/with Janci and Drew. She kept bringing them toys from her toybox. I guess she wanted to be a good hostess and make sure they had plenty to play with while at our house. I worked on making crocheted bees for Brenna and an internet friend and I started a cross stitch for another friend's child. I may have to redo it, as I'm making it very small at the moment, but it's fun to see how the pattern is emerging. Alas, as usual, I am short a few colors so I'll be going to the store tomorrow to pick up the ones I don't have. Brenna really wanted to paint minis, just like Daddy, so I'm going to get her some washable paint and maybe a big ceramic thing to paint tomorrow. I think she'll like that. I'll just have to save all the newspapers and put her in her rattiest clothes... The other awesome thing today (besides getting to play with two of my best friends) was that Janci has finished commenting on my book, so I get to go incorporate her suggestions. Thanks Janci! They were all very useful, extremely valid points, and I really appreciate it. :) Finally, a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my wonderful mother. Mom, you are the best mother I could ever ask for. Thanks for being one of my best friends. I think you're amazing and if I do even half as well at being a mom as you did, then Brenna will be a very well-adjusted and happy person. Thank you for always listening to me, being my champion, my confidante, and my friend. Thanks for getting my sense of humor and for always being willing to chat (even if I kept you up past midnight a lot as a teen). You have always been there for me, and it means the world to me. I love you! (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, April 4th, 2008
2:38 pm	Ramblings This past week has been pretty nice. Last weekend was lots of fun. My friend Stacy came into town for a conference and she stayed with us. That's the first time I've seen her in ages, since she's up in Seattle, and we're here in SLC. We had a lot of fun, and had a nice Sunday dinner with a bunch of other friends I haven't seen in forever (which is sad, since they all live within half an hour to an hour of me...). I'm still feeling sick all the time, which is annoying. And the doctor told me to make sure to get enough to eat since I'm apparently losing weight (good normally, not so much when you're pregnant). I'm not sure what to do, though, since I've been eating regular meals AND snacking like crazy (seriously, I had tons of buttery popcorn, a bowl of ice cream, and some little biscuit pizzas as a snack last night, and I still dropped a pound). I'd love to have this problem normally, of course (darn! Eat all kinds of random things and still lose weight!). Brenna and I have been having fun staying outside a lot, since the last two days have actually gone above absolutely freezing cold. I sit and read and she plays in the dirt. Works for me! Conference weekend--meaning Janci and Drew are coming to hang out, and I don't have to make a program for Sunday. I actually will only be making one program this month, as I'll be gone for the last two weeks (heading to Alabama to see my family a week from Tuesday. Yay!), which is nice. My most exciting event from this week is that I got to meet some people from a message board I frequent. One lives in SLC, and the other is from England, but was in town visiting family. We met at the Blue Iguana (a Mexican restaurant downtown--a bit pricy, and a pain to find, but very good food) and got to spend about an hour and a half just chatting. Brenna was very well behaved, and we had a lot of fun. Sarah (from England) and her mom came back to my place to use the internet before heading out on one last shopping trip before heading back to England. She, her mom, and Angela were really nice, and it was really neat to actually meet two of the people I've been talking to almost daily for the past several years. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, March 24th, 2008
3:51 pm	Easter We had a lovely Easter. Brenna loved her Easter basket (upon opening one of the plastic eggs, and realizing what was inside, her eyes got very wide and she said, in an awed voice "Candy!") She was thrilled when we let her eat some of it. :) Church was nice, too. I substituted in Nursery, and the three adults working in there took nine kids between 18 months and 3 years old on a walk around the church. It went very well, actually, and they all listened and held hands. Then, the main program was mainly provided by the choir (I've been singing in the choir during the last few months), so I got to stand and sing. And Brenna was even well behaved for 95 percent of the meeting. Yay! After Brenna's nap, I hid some plastic eggs with candy in them out in the backyard, and she got to find them. She was running all over the place and really having a blast. We needed to help her find a couple of them, but she found most of them all by herself. For dinner, an older couple in the ward invited us to eat dinner with them. It was lovely. Ham, potatoes, jello, steamed veggies, brownies, and ice cream. Yum! They pushed Brenna aroudn their yard on a little bicycle and let her play with the toys they have for their grandkids. Towards the end of the evening, they turned on their Wii, and we played Tennis and Bowling. It was a blast. Brenna got to bed about half an hour late, but it certainly didn't take her long to fall asleep--she wore herself out having fun at their house. All in all, a lovely day. (Comment on this)
Friday, March 14th, 2008
8:30 pm	Quick entry Happy anniversary, Megan and J.T.! I love you guys! (Comment on this)