30 Before 30

Well everyone, today marks a very sad day in my life. I have finally caved and joined Facebook. I have extremely mixed feelings about this new stage in my life. I kind of liked being totally off the Facebook radar.

Anyway, one of my favorite bloggers, Nicole Balch of Making It Lovely turned 30 this year. She had a list of 30 goals she wanted to accomplish before she turned 30. I thought that was a really great idea. My thirtieth is on Wednesday. I have been really really busy, but it's never too late, right? Here is a list of 30 goals to reach before I turn 30:

1. Join Facebook--DONE!
2. Gain an ounce (for the baby!)
3. Put Gulliver's toys away.
4. Clean the kitchen.
5. Clear the junk on the dining room table.
6. Put all adorable baby clothes for our baby girl in one place.
7. Put away the Mr. Potato Head parts in the guest room.
8. Make the final changes to El Senor's wedding invitations.
9. Feed Gulliver some vegetables.
10. Get two nights of sleep (technically not possible since I was born just after midnight Eastern time, which is actually Dec 14 Mountain time...)
11. Throw away all junk in our Civic.
12. Get oil changed in the Civic.
13. Watch a Pixar short with Gulliver.
14. Actually figure out what I want to do for my birthday evening with Murray.
15. Vacuum main floor.
16. Pack and send gifts to clients.
17. Sleep in. Twice. (Morning of birthday counts.)
18. Eat a decent breakfast.
19. Give Gulliver a bath.
20. Send Gulliver's portrait to my parents.
21. Make 2 real goals for the new year.
22. Throw away spoiled food in fridge.
23. Make a proper dinner.
24. Share at least one photo or video to Facebook.
25. Call my grandpa.
26. Chat with my mom. (Tuesday is chat day!)
27. Shower and get properly ready.
28. Fold laundry.
29. Make the bed.
30. Have fun with Gulliver and Murray.

Okay, wow, 30 is a LOT. Wow. Maybe I won't be so successful in accomplishing all my wonderful goals. But if I do accomplish these goals, I know I will be a better human being. Also, note to self, I may spend the last day of my 20s frantically crossing a lot of really banal chores off of a list.


-- Post From My iPad, with apologies for the typos and for the self righteousness of admitting I have an iPad.

A Heart Breaking Work of Staggering Genius...

... is what I would have titled my book but some shmo already took it. Tonight, I printed a draft of my book at Kinkos. To hold this manuscript in my hands... well... it's topped by only two things in my life: the moment I met Murray, and the moment I held Gulliver for the first time.

Basically Murray and I have been in crisis mode since October. And we're technically still in crisis mode (I have a couple projects I'll need to address but I'll have them done by the beginning of next week) but the end is really, really, really in sight.

And so I present to you a video of me presenting my book to you. I couldn't narrate the video for some reason, so I had to do it all silent. But I'm showing you my disheveled, unshowered hair, my no-makeupness, the bags under my eyes, and my manuscript. My precious, precious manuscript!



UPDATE: Here I am, four hours after writing this post, at 1:00 a.m., after having done an edit on my heartbreaking work of staggering genius. I think that my video says it all. (Note: I use paperclips to mark the pages that have edits.) Please note the more disheveled hair, the deeper bags under my eyes, and the unexplainable red splotch on my forehead. Also, notice my general will not to live. Also notice that the shoulder angels are back, both of whom are now telling me to go to bed. (Realistically, I can breeze through implementing all of these edits in less than 2 hours. It's not the end of the world.)

2009: A Year in Review

For the past couple of years (2007, 2008), I've been reviewing goal success on my blog. Here's the review for 2009!


*******

2009 goal: Don't go into hermithood because of baby.

Result: I think that we've done fairly well on this. We have been out socially a lot. We have missed seeing a lot of movies in theaters, but that is more due to work hermithood, I think. We have also done some traveling, not letting Gulliver slow us down!!

2010 goal: Don't go into hermithood because of work. In fact, establish very clear boundaries. Like no working on weekends and holidays.

*******

2009 goal: Have a baby. Like, really really soon.

Result: Done! And he is awesome.

2010 goal: Work out insurance solution so that we can have another baby. Get pregnant as soon as insurance solution is worked out.

*******

2009 goal:  Get down to undisclosed goal weight, five pounds at a time. (So I'll focus on this goal monthly rather than setting a large goal for the whole year.) Hopefully I will kick-start this weight-loss with at least a 15-pound jump! A friend said she actually weighed less after delivering her baby than she did when she got pregnant because of her gestational diabetes, so here's hoping.......

Result: Lost baby weight and more. Got down to Kick-A weight within a month of having Gulliver. And then started putting it all on again in diabetes-free carb splurges that lasted almost the whole year. Went off sugar at the end of the year, which went really well up until my birthday.

2010 goal: Don't set a goal weight at all. Simply make a chart that helps me to focus on correct behaviors and reward those behaviors with points. I will focus on one behavior a month that will give me triple points!

*******

2009 goal: Read 15 books, at least 5 of which should be baby/family related.

Result: I have no idea how many books I have read, because it's probably under 5. But I have at least read lots of parts of different books, including baby/parenting books. 

2010 goal: Read at least three books for leisure. And others for personal improvement and business stuff.

********

2009 goal: Set up proper website, market myself, and design some baby announcements and Christmas card templates before September 2009 so that I can get in the game.

Result: Website, check. Marketing, check. Design baby and card templates, sortof check (although I've decided that filling orders like this isn't really what I want to do with my time).

2010 goal: Start to learn Web Design so that I can increase my marketability. Increase my rates to hopefully maintain what I make, but in half the time.

*********

2009 goal: Read the Sunday School and Relief Society lessons each week, even though I will be teaching some other primary class that I don't know about yet.

Result: I was not so much good at this. But at least I didn't have a primary calling!! Yay! 

2010 goal: Same. I still really want to read these lessons each week, and that should be easy with my iPhone app. I can find time to do this while I watch Gulliver take baths, for example.

*********

2009 goal: Shower, brush my teeth, and do my makeup at least 5 days out of 7.

Result: I don't want to talk about it.

2010 goal: Shower, brush my teeth, and do my makeup at least 5 days out of 7. (Good thing today is still 2009...) (ed. note: most of this post was written yesterday, Dec 31)

*********

2009 goal: Focus on work that frees me up (like templates vs. custom work).

Result: Ideally our online classes and textbooks should do a lot of this. Now if only we could finish those... 

2010 goal: Sit down with Murray and aggressively plan our time and projects for the new year. Make sure that we're focusing on what matters most. Plan projects that will be less time-intensive to maintain and work out new, more efficient systems.

*********
New 2010 goals, not based on goals of previous years:

Meal planning! Plan meals weekly so that we make efficient use of our groceries and don't waste money to spoiled food.

Budget, budget, budget! Set a budget and actually stick to it. (To kick start this, we are doing a January spend-freeze where we will not make any purchases [other than a modest birthday present for Gulliver] other than groceries for the month of January. This includes eating out, entertainment, and clothing purchases---which is a biggie, considering that I'm going to a design conference this month and would normally buy all new outfits for such a thing.)

*********

Other tidbits:

Accomplishments:
* Had a baby.
* Had two foot surgeries.
* Did some traveling (see below).
* Helped to plan and host an Art Weekend.
* Taught legitimate classes in San Francisco and people paid to learn from us.
* Went to a couple of business-related conferences, perhaps beginning a conference addiction that some of my friends (that's you, Ali) suffer from.
* Wrote a whole book. (Just working on laying it out now.)
* Recorded all the content for an online course. (Just needing to submit the files now.)
* Grew my own business enough that I'm too busy. That's a good thing, sortof.
* Sold art at Beehive Bazaar.
* Have product sold in Target.
* Have product sold at Deseret Book.


Places traveled:
Maryland
St. George
San Francisco
Maryland again (incl. Pennsylvania)
Disneyland

*********

How we did on our 2009 other plans of note:

Learn how to be good parents.--Check! We are awesome. (Except for this.)
Take lots of pictures of us and our activities and our baby.--Check!
Use lots of cool and different cameras.--Needs Improvement.
See Wicked in Salt Lake?--Nope! Way too much $$.
See Love in Vegas?--Nope. Deferred to 2010!
Go to San Francisco.--Yep! It was awesome and I can't wait to go back!
Make a new calendar for 2010.--Yep! And it's awesome!
Set up business properly and legally.--Yep! I just need to buy a business license, but I'm waiting till Monday to do so.
Make lots of art just for us.--We did make SOME art just for us. Yay!


Here are our 2010 other plans of note: 

* Go on a cruise?
* Get online classes and textbooks launched!
* Do three more Art Weekends in fun cities.
* Do the Purging of a Decade, and really really pare everything we own down to the essentials. (I have already given away two beloved coats, lots of high quality wonderful fabric, and we actually sold some clothing to Plato's Closet before donating the rest to DI.)
* Go see Love in Vegas. Seriously this time. (Maybe for Murray's bday?)
* Go snowshoeing. (Switchback? Do you hear me?)
* Go camping. (Ali? Jenny? Want to come?)
* Learn to use our camera better.

And finally, for a big moment of schmoopiness, in 2009 I am extremely grateful for my wonderful, perfect, doting husband. Sometimes I spare you the schmoop because I'm aware that some people are resentful that I used to be a single blogger, blogging from the trenches of singlehood, and now I blog about my perfect life with my perfect husband and my perfect baby. But in all likelihood, those readers who were legitimately bugged by my finding True Love aren't reading my blog anymore anyway. So here goes. Marriage to Murray just keeps getting better every year. He is my best friend and the one I want to tell everything to. He makes me laugh every day, dances for me whenever I ask him to, accepts me as I am, and is the best dad ever. (And in return, all he asks is that I buy him Muppets for Christmas.) Since being married to him (stop reading if you're still single...) my life has been happier, richer, fuller, and not even remotely bitter. Murray, I am absolutely in love with you. Thank you for a wonderful year and for our wonderful perfect baby boy, who lights up our lives. (And who has played happily all morning by himself, allowing me to finish this blog post and even read a little bit of a magazine, which I haven't been able to do forever.) (And Nicole, if you're reading this, I PROMISE that in addition to doing a bit of relaxing today, we will be hitting our courses again hard as soon as Gulliver goes down for the night, and I promise that we have legitimately been working on them as hard as we can every moment we can spare!!)

The Report

So here's how it went:

6:30: Wind down time. Murray and I take Gulliver for a walk so that he gets fresh air and we get a little exercise.

7:15: Gulliver gets a bath by Murray while I prepare his bedroom so that it is a tidy, sleep-inducing place of serenity.

7:30: I nurse Gulliver while Murray reads a story. Gulliver falls completely asleep. I can't remember what my book says about nursing to sleep at night, so I have Murray fetch the book, but I can't find what it said. So we decided since he was asleep anyway, we'd just put him down sleeping. We put him in his crib, he continues to sleep, and we quietly sing "It's in Every One of Us," since we'd like that to be a part of the sleep ritual.

8:00: We come downstairs and start making dinner.

8:15: Gulliver wakes up and starts to cry. We ignore, but it is extremely painful. I hate it, hate it, hate it. We get dinner ready and put on a movie. For the most part, the air conditioning and movie drown out the crying sounds. Which makes me even sadder and more guilty that I'm drowning out the sounds of my crying babe.

9:15: Gulliver stops crying. Wow! We did it! We've arrived! We now have a baby on a perfect sleep schedule!

9:16: I start to think that I need to just check on him, because what if we actually let our baby cry himself to death!? (See this post.) I tiptoe up the stairs. I carefully and almost noiselessly turn the knob of his bedroom door and open the door ever so slightly. I squeeze my body into the room so that I can get a look at my child, and what I see is the saddest, most pathetic thing I have ever laid eyes upon. There was my baby, sitting right up against the crib bars, slumped over, head resting on the crib bars. What do you even do in a situation like that? You can't in good conscience just let him sleep like that, can you? So I make a move to go into the room a little farther, and his head pops up immediately! Maybe he wasn't sleeping at all! Maybe he had just given up on the crying, but wasn't actually asleep! In any case, he saw me, which basically makes it impossible for me to leave him alone in his room again.

9:17: I come down the stairs with Gulliver.

10:00: Gulliver nurses himself into a deep sleep. I hold him for an entire half an hour as penitence for the horrible mistreatment of earlier in the night.

10:30: I put Gulliver down in his crib. He's there for the night.

So during the night, Gulliver woke up and cried out a few times, but was never crying for more than five minutes, so I never went to him. I'm really pleased about this, and it gives me hope. What I'm not pleased about is how many times I woke up during the night and went to the room to see if he was still alive. I did not get a good night's rest. I clearly have to get used to my baby sleeping in the other room. It did not help that I also had nightmares that Murray and I were kidnapped and held in this awful, dirty apartment, and had to find a way to get rescued, and we could see and hear the people who were trying to rescue us, but they couldn't find us. (Please note: The separation of me and Murray from Gulliver, due to kidnappers. Also note: Seeing and hearing the people who are trying to rescue us is like Gulliver being able to hear us in the house, but we never go to him. So cruel!!)

7:00: Gulliver woke up on his own (at 6:58) and was crying, but this time I went to him because it was time to get up.

THE END (of day 1, beginning of day 2)

Please Ignore the Electrical Cord

And please don't call child services.

I am asbolutely swamped. Like I'm going to go insane swamped. Like I'd better get a pile of money when this is over to replace all the happy summer memories I could have been creating with my husband and first born swamped.

So today, poor Gulliver has been having a hard time because he's teething. Also, he's learning that when I park myself in front of the computer, that means that my focus is no longer on him, and he starts to cry. Add to that the difficulty of the fact that everything on my list right now has to be done in the unbabyproofable office. So we've been having a tough day. I'm going to be honest with you. I am in my underwear and I have sweet potato baby food ALL OVER MY BODY but I can't stop to shower.

So after lunch (when I got all that stuff all over my body---also, I sat Gulliver on the kitchen counter to feed him... child services?) we came back upstairs and I put Mr. I Refuse To Nap today in his room to play.

By the way, we never childproofed the nursery. Of all the rooms in the house that should be childproof, that's the one. But we made it when he was in utero, so what did we know about childproofing.

When the noises stopped coming from the other room, I went in to inspect and here's what I found.


Dear Gulliver,
I promise you a really nice vacation next month and I promise you I will better organize my time so that we can both slow down a little. And I'm sorry I let you play with the electrical cord.

Family Fitness!

This has been the first week of the Amore Family Fitness Initiative to Promote Better Health and Sleeping here in our home. My theory is that if we go to bed every evening at 11:00 and get up by 8:00 every day, and if we eat balanced meals, and if we get 1/2 hour of exercise every day, then Murray will sleep better. We'll see if I'm right. And if I am, I will patent my sleep prescription, write a book, and sell my health plan to millions.

(You probably won't notice, but it's after 11:00 p.m. and we're still up. Unfortunately I implemented the AFFITPBHAS during a week when I am super busy with work and deadlines. And I am blogging to procrastinate my work and deadlines.)

Murray and I get prizes if we each lose 15 lbs. For Murray, it's a Mac Mini, which he hopes will change our TV viewing experience forever. For me, it's a set of yellow chairs that I want desperately and will improve the quality of my life. And heck. If I lose 15 lbs and get 1/2 hour of exercise every day, I reduce my risk of developing type II diabetes by 58 percent!

Anyhoo. Tonight our 1/2 hour of exercise was swimming at our pool. Murray thought that "swimming for exercise" meant floating around in the water. Boy was he surprised when I forced him into doing the back stroke! But I was met with a little resistence, and I'm not talking about the water. So to make our water exercise more fun, Murray and I developed some pool olympics. Here are some games that may not be making it as official sports any time soon:

1) Racing across the pool by walking across the bottom of the pool. No hands allowed. No kicking allowed. You must walk across the bottom of the pool.---WINNER: MURRAY

2) Worming across the pool. Hands and ankles must stay together as you worm your way across the pool.---WINNER: CICADA

3) Bunny jumping across the pool. Hands must be tucked under the knees and you must hop across the pool.---WINNER: MURRAY

4) Kicking across the pool. Hands must be to your sides. You must face upwards. You can get across the pool only by kicking.---WINNER: CICADA

5) Paddling across the pool. Feet must be held still. You can get across the pool by using your arms only.---WINNER: MURRAY

6) Peeing in the pool.---WINNER: THE KIDS WHO WERE THERE AT 10:00 AT NIGHT ON A SCHOOL NIGHT. (What's up with that?)

There were some other water sports that I can't quite remember. Some involved hefting the other person. Oh---there was this great ab workout where you had to wrap your legs around the other person, keep your head above the water, and keep your hands out of the water.

So in the end, we both got a great workout. And I got to wear my new swim suit from Lime Ricki and Murray said I looked hot. And then we got back home and I helped myself to a second serving of spinach artichoke quiche.

By the way, Gulliver stayed in his swing in the corner of the pool area (far away from the pool edge) and seemed quite indifferent to his parents making fools of themselves. He's such a good boy.

2008: A Year in Review

So last year, I reviewed my goal successes on my blog. Now, looking back at them and the goals that I set for 2008, I'd say I did pretty well. So here is 2008: A Year in Review!

*******

2008 goal: Get couple friends.

Result: Murray and I haven't made friends in the ward, but at least we've spent some time socially with other couples. Of note are Jenny & Ed and Steve & Moleste (who technically are family, but since we like them socially, too, they count as couple friends).

2009 goal: Don't go into hermithood because of baby.

*******

2008 goal: Get pregnant?

Result: Got pregnant way ahead of schedule. Go us!

2009 goal: Have a baby. Like, really really soon.

*******

2008 goal: Lose 30 lbs. (Then get pregnant in time to gain again.)

Result: Did not lose any pounds, but did not gain much during pregnancy (about 15). Developed gestational diabetes which forced me to develop and maintain proper eating habits which I hope to continue (thus reducing my risk of developing type 2 diabetes).

2009 goal: Get down to undisclosed goal weight, five pounds at a time. (So I'll focus on this goal monthly rather than setting a large goal for the whole year.) Hopefully I will kick-start this weight-loss with at least a 15-pound jump! A friend said she actually weighed less after delivering her baby than she did when she got pregnant because of her gestational diabetes, so here's hoping.......

*******

2008 goal: Read 5 books.

Result: Joined a book club and read 6 of those books, plus at least 5 on my own. Go me! Joining a book club did wonders for my book reading stats! Plus I've read most of a few books on pregnancy.

2009 goal: Read 15 books, at least 5 of which should be baby/family related.

********

2008 goal: Start designing wedding invitations as side-work.

Result: Designed several wedding invitations and have built up a small collection of templates, but have yet to market my templates properly. Did at least one wedding invite job for profit this year, but also two adoption announcements for profit. Yay! Of course, all of this transitioned from "side-work" to full-time work as it is part of my full-time business now.

2009 goal: Set up proper website, market myself, and design some baby announcements and Christmas card templates before September 2009 so that I can get in the game.

*********

2008 goal: Read the Sunday School and Relief Society lessons each week, even though I will be teaching the sunbeams. (I do not yet know what kind of scripture study preparing my lessons entails... do 3-year-olds know how to speak yet? Do they still pee their pants?)

Result: At least I prepared my sunbeams lessons... And I found out that they do sometimes still pee their pants, or dresses as the case may be!

2009 goal: Read the Sunday School and Relief Society lessons each week, even though I will be teaching some other primary class that I don't know about yet.

*********

New 2009 Business-Related goals:

Shower, brush my teeth, and do my makeup at least 5 days out of 7.
Get a functioning, kick-A website.
Market myself better.
Focus on work that frees me up (like templates vs. custom work).

*********
Other tidbits:

Accomplishments:
* Designed two day planner designs that have been published and printed and used by thousands.
* Designed items that will be sold in superstores (like Target and Office Depot and Staples) in 2009, AND on the home shopping network. Boo-yah.
* Sold original creations at craft fairs.
* Was (and am) married to a man who had an actual piece of actual artwork in an actual museum.

Places traveled:
Canada (all the way up to Moosonee)
Texas (all the way down to Galviston)
San Diego (no Mexico this year)

*********

How we did on our list of 2008 other plans of note:
Buy a 24-inch iMac.---Check! And it's beautiful. AND we bought a powerbook, too because we're greedy.
Go to Canada (maybe twice).---Went once and did a good job of it!
Go to Texas.---Check! And I can't wait to go back!
Go to Europe?---Got pregnant instead. Yay!
Go to San Francisco?---Went back to San Diego this year and plan for San Francisco in 2009.
Go to Las Vegas to see Love.---Nope! Hopefully 2009 will be a good year for this!
Go birdwatching together.---Nope! Unless you count driving up and down the I-15.
Make lots of paintings and artwork.---Yep! Our house is like unto a gallery. Except that I have a hard time hanging things so very little of our artwork is actually on the walls right now...
Have fun day trips.

*********

2009 other plans of note:

Learn how to be good parents.
Take lots of pictures of us and our activities and our baby.
Use lots of cool and different cameras.
See Wicked in Salt Lake?
See Love in Vegas?
Go to San Francisco.
Make a new calendar for 2010.
Set up business properly and legally.
Make lots of art just for us.

Two Hearts Beat As Two

I think the thing I appreciate most about my baby doctor's office is the complementary apple juice that they have sitting in the bathrooms. Not to look a gift horse in the mouth or anything, but unfortunately the stuff I drank today had gone bad. And was warm. And "Hillary" was written on the cup.

So this morning Murray and I heard our baby's heartbeat for the first time. Last time we went, we only got to hear mine, which was not as exciting. This time, we heard the heartbeat as soon as the probe touched my soft belly. And then it went away. And then the doctor found it again. And then it went away. And then the doctor found it again. Apparently we have a swimmer.

It was a relief to hear the heartbeat, especially considering that I apparently am really good at being pregnant. I really don't feel pregnant at all, and my pregnancy so far has been a breeze. I honestly half expected the doctor to tell me today that it was all a misunderstanding and that my body only thought it was pregnant. But nope. There's a little heartbeat in my belly.

Also, I have gained one pound in the past month. I am pretty proud of that. Daltongirl told me that this is the only time that I get to go to the doctor's office and be praised for gaining weight, so I should enjoy it. And let me tell you, I'm enjoying it. But I have a theory, and in five or so more months, I'll look back at this post and laugh at my stupidity, but here it is. First I have to start with my missionary theory.

I went on my mission (to Italy, land of pasta, pizza, and gelato on every street corner) and lost weight. Most of the sisters in my mission gained some weight. But before my mission, I exercised never and I ate anything I wanted. While on my mission, I walked everywhere I went and had the damning watch of a companion at all times who could judge me for what I was eating, so I was able to clean up my eating habits a little. (A very little.) And I lost weight. Meanwhile, sisters who were careful about exercise and diet before their missions gained weight because the daily walks were less than their regular routine, and the pasta and gelato and other such treats were more than their caloric intake pre-mission.

So. As an obese person (O! the shame!), I'm only supposed to gain about 15 pounds during my pregnancy. I am a person who hasn't exercised for a long time (O! the shame!) and eats whatever she wants, and indulges pretty much every craving she gets (why am I recording this for posterity?). So how will pregnancy change that? I haven't noticed an increase of food consumption, or a change in cravings. And NOW, I am feeding TWO with the same amount of calories. And those calories are being used making brains, guts, fingernails, and a heart. So I'm hoping to gain only the necessary 15 pounds of baby, fluid, placenta (is it gross that I just said that or is it okay to say placenta?), etc.

We'll see how true my theory holds. Maybe it's just wishful thinking. Or maybe, I will be queen of pregnant women everywhere, with minimal discomfort, minimal weight gain, and a painless delivery. It's at least a worthy goal.

[By the way, Switchback is always keenly interested in how much weight I'm gaining. She said that the most she's heard is 65 pounds. So recently at her sister's baby shower, she started asking all these women who she'd never met how much weight they gained while they were pregnant, and if anyone could beat the fattest pregnant girl ever with more than 65 pounds. After the shower, her sister told her that all her friends got offended. I'd love for you to participate in my new poll, in honor of Switchback.]

Get up, get dressed.

Well, I've been working independently now for almost a week. I haven't made a dime, of course, but I feel like I'm really close. Really, really close. I'm coming to find that I hate setting prices and I hate negotiating. It's all just so uncomfortable. Oh well.

I haven't been doing the best at my get up and brush my teeth and shower goal. But I think that'll get better. I told Murray this morning that without my commute, I still don't feel like I magically have extra time, and he suggested that maybe it's because I'm sleeping away that time. Good point. But it takes 10 hours a night to incubate a baby properly, doesn't it? At least I don't reach a mid-afternoon slump. But the laundry is piled up around the house and we still haven't unpacked, and the dishes are stacked to the ceiling. But hey. I've actually been preparing meals.

So basically this new life is going to take some getting used to. I didn't do my hair this morning. I don't think that the bandanna counts, necessarily, but I'm calling it good. Anyone who's known me for a while knows that the bandanna is a summer staple for me anyway, due to the fact that I'm a head sweater, so basically no haircut is going to look good during the summer months.

Pro-Creating

Murray and I are creative people. We're always creating. We really support creative endeavors, too. In fact, I might even say that we are pro-creating. Even when we're not planning on being creative, it just . . . happens. We can't help it.


Yep, it's true. Well, I mean, not entirely. I stole this ultrasound from Stanclax. Our baby (just one that we know of) is currently only about this big:

| - - |

But it's also supposed to double in size this week, so if you're not reading this post in a timely manner, it might already be this big:

| - - - |

It's early to be telling people, I know. And I would have kept it a secret a little longer, only I told one of my carpoolers why I was leaving our carpool (I don't know how my body's going to behave over the next little while and I don't want to be stranded at work when I should really go home and barf and sleep). And then I went to a work baby shower on Friday and this carpooler's boss made my announcement for me to every single woman in my department. So really, what's the point of keeping it in any longer?

And now, before I leave you to your congratulating of me, I have to say that I've been surprised by the number of people who have cited miscarriage statistics to me when they found out that I'm pregnant. As if I didn't start worrying about miscarriage the moment I found out that some serious cell division was taking place in my uterus. Why do people find it necessary? Is it going to prepare me more? Was I not already aware of the statistics? I may point out that statistically speaking, one is more than twice as likely to get a divorce as one is to have a miscarriage. But you won't find me, next time a friend announces her marriage to me, telling her, "Congratulations! Now, just so that you know, often times, the first one doesn't stick."

Cinderella, Giselle, Snow White, Great-Grandma

When I was a little girl, I always thought that it would be the coolest thing to be able to call birds and have them land on my finger like the princesses in Disney. The farthest I ever really got with that was training chipmunks to climb on top of my head to eat peanuts. I should be grateful for what I've had, but really, I still want birds to come and land on my finger. I'll admit it.

Yesterday, my mom sent me this picture of my great grandma. Apparently she could sing to birds and have them come land on her finger. So apparently it's not only in cartoons and it's not only princesses. At point point, she tamed a whole family of fly catchers in her backyard, and she'd go out with a container of milk, call the little birdies over, and they'd drink from her container.


Don't think that the fly swatter in this picture is menacing. She was just being clever: Fly catchers in both hands.

You can see from this picture also that she's not young. So apparently I have my whole life to work on this goal. You'd better believe this is making it to my list of things to do before I die.

Recent Purchases

Forgive me for the lapse in blogging. We made some major and minor unexpected purchases over the past week, and I must admit that they've been keeping me fairly busy. Let me share.

The first of these purchases is by far the largest of all. Last week, our 17-inch iMac went into a coma, and although it is fixable and still under warranty, we decided the time came to cross off one of our goals for the year. We bought a 24-inch iMac. And it's beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. Since purchasing this computer, I've been able to work on wedding invitations for two people, and do a lot of design work from home. And I've never been happier with a computer in my life. I wonder what's next. What is more incredible than a sleek self-contained computer with a 24-inch screen? Check back in two months. I'm sure that technology will have made our purchase obsolete by then. But I assure you that we are going to bask in our feeling of superiority these next two months.



Saturday was a fun day for Murray and me and we just went where the day took us. We finished up our first roll of film on the Holga camera I bought him for Christmas. We dropped it off for developing and I almost passed out when I found out that it costs $13 per print to develop medium format film. So instead of getting prints, we'll have it developed and scanned directly to CD so that we can choose which shots to have printed. That makes me feel good, especially because I know that I forgot the lens cap on at least one shot.

After nachos at El Azteca, a delicacy that Ambrosia introduced me to and that I hadn't had for a couple years, Murray and I headed to DI just because. We immediately went to the chair section, which is where I always immediately go. I should just stop going to DI because I find a new chair every time I go. This time was no different. In fact, I found about four chairs that I would have been happy buying, but we limited ourselves to two office chairs. Those who used to work with me may know these as B------ chairs---a style of chair that a coworker was once so attached to, she lost her job over it. Now we have two. And they're so comfortable. If only I still had B------'s phone number, I would have let her know that there were several available. If it's worth losing a job over, it certainly must be worth the $10 DI was charging.



On our way out the door, we stopped in the "collectibles" section at the front of the store. There I saw the most adorable cradle ever. And we didn't buy it.

But we did go to BYU to buy some Sunbeams supplies (a copy of Gospel Doctrines and a small Children's Hymn Book). Then we went to the hip part of Provo, namely Coal Umbrella, Mode Boutique, and Maestro Gelato. At Coal Umbrella, we bought a fish eye camera that takes 35mm film. That means that we can take cool pictures and develop them for slightly less than $13 per print. That is if you know where you can still buy film (we went to Albertson's and found a 3 pack that had dust on it---real dust on it!). At Mode, I bought some earrings and a cute headband. At Maestro's, we bought gelato and enjoyed the art. (We enjoyed the art at both Coal Umbrella and Mode, too, but telling Murray that there was art at Maestro's was enticement to get him in since he doesn't love gelato as much as I do.)

We spent the rest of our daylight going around and taking a full roll of film with our new fish eye camera.

On Sunday, in church, I started to regret not buying the cradle. Which I think was The Spirit.

Also, Murray was exhausted from Saturday's shopping. That accounts for him passing out half way into our closet while tidying. Look at this picture and decide if this looks like a man asleep or a man who is dead.



Today I have been working from home, so I went to lunch with Murray. On my way, I picked up our fish eye prints ($8.60 for 24 prints and a CD). We enjoyed looking at them over lunch.


After lunch, The Spirit directed me to DI where the cradle was still available. Let me be clear: I am not pregnant, nor am I planning to become so any time in the next eleven months. But when there's a solid wood, hand-crafted, high-quality, antique cradle for sale at DI for $65, I think the right thing to do is buy it. As I looked at it, about three other people came by to look at it, rock it, and ooo and ahhh. I think that it takes someone giving it attention to get other people's attention. Luckily I beat them all out by getting to the cashier first.



I don't really know what we'll do with it for the next eighteen months. Maybe we'll use it to store extra blankets or something. But before our baby comes (in eighteen months), I will have given it a rich, dark stain and outfitted the interior with Amy Butler fabric, thus creating the cutest little cradle you've ever seen. Ever.

And if I'm barren, then my brother-in-law's soon-to-be bride will be getting the best bridal shower gift in the world (in thirty months) accompanied by my bitter, bitter tears.

(Which won't be too bitter if I keep spending a lot of time with the Sunbeams.)

I give a hoot about children.

So. I taught the sunbeams yesterday. Both of them. Well, both of them in my class anyway. We live in a new development so we have a very young ward. So there are actually three sunbeams classes with five kids per class. Only two of mine were at church, and they're thinking of just combining my class with another anyway, and pairing me up with the other teacher as team teachers. Which is great that I won't be alone, but not great that Murray will have to go to Sunday School all by himself. Poor thing.

Anyway, on Friday night, I bought myself a long sensible brown skirt. It's just plain but it certainly does the job. I wanted a long skirt so that I am free to sit on the ground with the kids if I want. Or so that I don't have to squeeze my legs together for fear that the kids can see straight up my skirt.

I prepared my lesson on Saturday (the manual says that you must prepare your lesson at least a week in advance, but I only got the manual on Saturday, so I'm sure that I'm absolved of that sin). It said that I could make crowns, which was pretty exciting. Even more exciting was where it said I needed a bean bag. I didn't have a bean bag of course, but needing a bean bag meant that I could haul out my sewing machine and get crafty. I made the bean bag and a bunch of crowns while Murray painted. How productive! All of a sudden, I think that I'm going to really love teaching Sunbeams, if only for all the fun preparation I get to do. I can't wait to see what next week's lesson requires! (I should have also prepared that yesterday or Saturday because now, it is no longer at least a week in advance, so I'm clearly not absolved this time.)

This is the bean bag I made. (Why sew two squares of fabric together when you can make an owl instead?)


Our Primary starts with Opening Exercises and Singing Time and Sharing Time, so I got to do that first. Of my two boys, one didn't speak at all, and the other only managed to mutter that he wanted his mommy and daddy. So I pulled out Walter the owl and let him play with it, and it was extremely gratifying to see his face light up as he exclaimed: "A owl!" And then for the rest of Sharing Time, I got to try to get him to play with the owl quietly and not chuck it at the other children. (I may include here that I saw the other little Sunbeams of the other classes eying that owl enviously.)

When it was time for class, Murray was waiting for us outside. He had permission to join us to help me. My owl-bribed kid had no problem coming into the class, but the other little boy needed a lot of coaxing. So I finally laid out a crown on the ground for him and promised him that he could choose the first crayon for coloring. And so it was that I just ended up teaching our lesson as we all colored crowns on the floor. I think I could get used to this. (I promise that they were paying attention as much as they could and I even got them to answer questions.)

By the end of class, my silent kid finally said a word (about Walter the owl) and he was happily playing as he waited for his parents to come get him.

So all in all, it wasn't anything to worry about. I didn't have to wipe any butts this week (and I've been promised that I'll never have to) and both children left my classroom undamaged, but filled with the Spirit from the excellent, wonderful, perfect lesson that I taught them. And they wore their crowns with pride.

Now, I might add one more word about church. See, we only live about three blocks away from church, so I think that it's absolutely lazy and wasteful and environment-killing to drive. We made a goal to walk. But it has happened for the past few weeks that the walk to church is fine, but by the time church is over, the weather is raging, and we have to run through frigid winds to get home. Since church moved to 9:00 instead of 11:00, I figured we were safe---clearly the weather only got bad at 2:00.

On our way to church this time, the weather was very mild, but the sidewalks were so slippery that any time there was a slope in the sidewalk, Murray and I would start to slide downwards. It was a treacherous trip to be sure. But by the time church let out, it was snowing horizontally in gigantic snow pellets. And we had to walk directly into the direction of the snow if we wanted to get home. Having no other options (no home teachers have been assigned to us) we grabbed each others' arms and headed out. Outside was even worse than we could have imagined and we screamed and laughed as we tried to get home. We couldn't even lift our heads up to look where we were going, and of course, we knew that under all that snow, the sidewalks were still icy and treacherous. We walked for what seemed like an eternity, and only actually managed to walk from one side of the church building to the other, when a ward member offered us a ride home. And we accepted. When it is snowing like that, the environment deserves to be killed.

2007: A Year in Review

Every year starts (or should start) with the creation of goals. By New Year's Eve 2006, I had all of mine written out. It was going to be an ambitious year. I'd like to review with you my successes and failures of the year, and share with you some exciting goals for 2008.

2007 goal: Get girlfriends.

Result: Went out with girls from the ward on New Year's Eve. Really hit it off. Was confident that I could now hang out with girls on a regular basis instead of spending all my social time with El Senor. Went out with one for lunch on New Year's Day. Shared with her my "get a boyfriend" goal (see below). She decided to adopt that one, too. She had a boyfriend one week later (so much for my girlfriend goal) and was engaged a couple months later.

Revised 2008 goal: Get couple friends.

*******

2007 goal: Get a boyfriend.

Result: Got a boyfriend, then a fiancé, then a husband.

Related 2008 goal: Get pregnant?

*******

2007 goal: Lose 20 pounds.

Result: Gained 10.

Revised 2008 goal: Lose 30. (Then get pregnant in time to gain again.)

*******

2007 goal: Read 10 books.

Result: Read the last Harry Potter. And 1.5 books about marriage.

Revised 2008 goal: Read 5 books.

********

2007 goal: Get published.

Result: Well... technically yes... I wrote snippets about sports that have been published and are part of an item that is being sold in stores. Not quite what I was expecting... But I also wasn't expecting to become a designer either, so I think that it counts for something that I also have a bag with a lining I designed that's being sold in stores now. (And when I went to check it out in the store and opened the bag, the lady who worked there said, "Oh! The inside is so cute!")

Revised 2008 goal: Start designing wedding invitations as side-work.

*********

2007 goal: Topical scripture study: Create 26 Doctrinal Resource Sheets that explore different gospel subjects.

Result: Created 1.

Revised 2008 goal: Read the Sunday School and Relief Society lessons each week, even though I will be teaching the sunbeams. (I do not yet know what kind of scripture study preparing my lessons entails... do 3-year-olds know how to speak yet? Do they still pee their pants?)

*********
Other tidbits:

Accomplishments:
Attended Monster Truck Rally.
Got new design responsibilities at work.
Bought a bike.
Got married.
Moved to Springville.

Places traveled:
Washington D.C. with Switchback.
San Diego and Mexico with Murray (to see Switchback).
Maryland and New Jersey with family (and Murray who wasn't "family" at that point).
Costa Rica with Murray.

*********

In addition to any goals listed above, Murray and I have some great adventures planned for 2008. We have decided that since we both live in Utah, we need to take advantage of everything this state has to give us. So we'll be developing a list of things to do in Utah and we'll work through them over the next several years. This year, I think we'll definitely see the spiral jetty and maybe we'll bike around at the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge. Other things will include Moab and Arches, neither of which I've been to. We'll make a list of other Utah must-dos and make sure that we've done everything by the time we 1) move away from Utah or 2) if we don't move away from Utah, die.

Other 2008 plans of note:
Buy a 24-inch iMac.
Go to Canada (maybe twice).
Go to Texas.
Go to Europe?
Go to San Francisco?
Go to Las Vegas to see Love.
Go birdwatching together.
Make lots of paintings and artwork.
Have fun day trips.

I think that 2008 is going to be a good year.