random stuff about me

Whimsy tagged me awhile ago to list seven random things about me. I've decided my "angle" will be "seven random things that happened to me this year."

So here goes. I'll even do it by months.

1. January: We got a new car (which I've talked about before). The sad thing is, we haven't named it yet. I can't decide if I want to name it, or if I shouldn't name it so I don't get too attached. My last car, En Fuego, was a red Suzuki Swift and when we sold him, I cried. We even sold him to family members so it would be easier for me. Although when I heard they knocked one of his side mirrors off (by accident of course), I wanted to walk 200 miles to rescue him. So should I name my new car? It's a "newport blue pearl" Subaru Impreza. I've considered "blue ice" or "Subarupert" (I had a friend who named her Subaru "Subaruby," but I think my car is a boy). Any ideas?
   
   
2. ~March: Once I was on the bus and looked at the window and saw a guy reading one of my very favorite books. He was reading Book 1 in a "fantasy" series that isn't very common, but my aunt named her son after the hero and she introduced me to the books. I wanted to like, bang on the window so he'd look up so I could give him a thumbs up or something. But I didn't. But isn't that interesting? If I had been outside of the bus I totally would have talked to him.
   
   
3. ~April: I used to be an avid follower of the original CSI series. I've seen almost every episode. Sometimes I see things in the news and say, "that was a CSI episode." I was/am a purist -- meaning I only like CSI: Las Vegas, not Miami or New York (bleh!). But, I just don't have the time anymore. Plus, The Office is on during the same time slot, and we got rid of cable so we can't videotape one channel while watching another. Sadly, I've moved on. My folks still keep me updated on the plots. I miss it, I do.
   
   
4. June: I recently achieved more than 50 feedbacks on my eBay profile. I mostly buy stuff. My best score was a complete Clue Master Detective, which is ultra fun if you haven't played it before. My sales average 99 cents or something.
   
   
5. August: I got pulled over just outside our condo this summer. Boo hoo. I think the only reason the police officer let me off with a warning is because I was so close to home. Drive the speed limit, folks. I am trying to be better.
   
   
6. September: I've considered brushing up on my French from high school since I'd love to volunteer for the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver, BC. I think English/French is the "official language." I volunteered for the Salt Lake games and would love it do it again. I took 5 years of French in school, the first in middle school (8th grade) and all the way up to my senior year. Plus I went to France. The language isn't as "useful" per se as Spanish (in the United States), but I like it. In fact, I've tried to learn German and most recently Spanish by plastering words and phrases around the house and renting CDs and DVDs from the library, but each time I'm trying to speak and don't know a word I just insert a French word into the conversation. So I might as well stick to what I already know.
   
   
7. November: My first email address was @juno.com, which in the days of dial-up, downloaded all my emails to software on my computer so I could read and compose emails offline. As we've upgraded computers over the years I've tried to carefully put all the Juno stuff in a folder and move it from PC to PC. The other day I opened the software and tried to read some old emails, and I couldn't. Something somewhere went awry with the software. I am so so bummed. When me and Shanester were dating, he wrote me cutesy love emails to my juno account. All those love notes are lost. Anyone who is a genius with computers, please help. I love my love notes.

There's seven. I win.

a day in the life of a baby sock

The other day I strapped Wesley in his baby carrier and went shopping at Fred Meyer. Half-way through the frozen foods section I realized we were missing a baby sock. It was one of the black Johnny Trumpette socks, and many of you know they are not cheap (got mine used on eBay), so I raced through the store, retracing every step, breaking a sweat, looking for the sock. I left my cart with the greeter and ventured into the parking lot, fearing the worst. I finally found the sock ... in the car. Yup, it was sitting there in the back seat, grinning at me.

Contrast that with today: I'm at my Friday Moms & Babies Group at Steven's Hospital, which I love, and I notice Wesley is missing a sock. I don't care, because last time I 100% flipped, it was in the car. I expect this one to be in the car, too. (Please note, to date, I have not yet lost a baby sock. My naivete is understandable.)

I'm at my group for something like 2 1/2 hours, just chatting, enjoying some treats, playing with my cute bebe. I wander out to my car, and what do I see on the asphalt in front of me, equidistant from my car and the hospital front door, but Wesley's errant tiny blue baby sock, all crumpled in a little heap. It was in the middle of the parking lot for almost 3 hours. How it managed to stay there, waiting for me, I don't know. But it was there. I can't believe it.

Funny.

I think my boy needs bigger feet. Or I need to be more vigilante about being on baby sock duty. The darn things need their own GPS.

need your help

I'm in desperate need of your opinion, faithful reader and friend. Please comment on one or all of the following.

I.

For a baby gift, I got a cute matching set of 5 onesies (packaged together) and 5 swaddle blankets (packaged together). The onesies were 3-6-month size, so they sat unopened, while we ripped into the swaddle blankets and used them constantly for Wesley's first four months.

Well, now we're well into his 3-6 months of life, in fact Wesley is almost 6 months old, and the onesies are still unopened. Reasons include 1) we have a ton of clothes, 2) the onesies are short-sleeved, meaning that if I open them, I'd make the boy wear a long-sleeved onesie underneath anyway, and 3) I can't be 100% sure they still fit. They are Target's Circo brand, and Wesley still fits 2 or 3 newborn-sized Circo onesies, but I consider it a risk.

So do I open them and use them (if only for a little bit)? Do I sell them? Do I regift them?

Please consider that I love little sets of stuff. So the fact the onesies match the swaddle blankets makes me so happy. But we rarely use the blankets anymore. Do I open them anyway, just because? And wipe the dust off the swaddle blankets and use them too? Or do I regift the onesies and give the used swaddle blankets as a hand-me-down so the next person has the cute matching set? Do I sell the onesies on eBay since they are more valuable unused "in the wrapper" ?

II.

I love the newspaper. Ever since majoring in communications at BYU and being forced to read the newspaper for a Comms 101 class, I have enjoyed the paper. I like the news in print. I wrote for the BYU newspaper and seeing my name on a byline for news article was so exciting. I love knowing the current events. I don't read every word, but I glance over almost all of the sections, and I feel like I learn a lot.

That being said, I'm a mom now. I don't have time for it. Newspapers sit unread around the house until I get the gusto to just recycle them. Sometimes I'm up at night, reading the day's paper just because I feel like I should, but I should totally be in bed. I can get news digitally (as my husband does), and the cost of the newspaper has dramatically increased. What used to cost $44 dollars (for 3 months), now costs $58. The Seattle Times doesn't even cut you a break if you prepay for a year. So I have no incentive to pay ahead or anything.

So, do I unsubscribe? Newspapers are hemorrhaging money, and losing a valuable customer like myself won't help them any. But all these factors are just against me reading the paper. Even though I love it.

III.

Wesley is in dire need of a dresser. We have limited space, so I want what is interestingly called a "lingerie chest," a tall skinny dresser. And I want one to match his cherry/espresso/dark brown crib furniture. But, I can only find ones on eBay or Craigslist in white, oak, dark oak, or black. Even a search for "cherry" returns dressers made of cherry wood, not a cherry finish.

So, should I buy a white one and paint it? Should I buy an unfinished one from somewhere and stain it? How tough is it to paint a dresser anyway? Should I give up and just get another color? Should I keep looking and not sell out for the unperfect dresser?

I mean, the kid is 6 months old and we're keeping his clothes in plastic storage containers under his crib. He needs an upgrade.

So, what would you do?

it's that time of year again

You may be interested to know that today's celebrity birthdays are Linda Evans from Dynasty, the very famous Owen Wilson, Brenda Vaccaro who I think was in Pretty Woman, and rabber Fabolous, who I don't like not because I've never heard his music, but because he spells "fabulous" wrong.

And me!

Actually, there are more. Every year, as people get more "famous" they make the list of celebrity birthdays, or at least I begin to recognize them, so also celebrating today is Oscar from the Office (very cool!), and Senator Ted Stevens! The felon! Whoo hoo!

And: I like to say today is Mickey Mouse's birthday because Steamboat Willie premiered in 1928.

(Sidenote: Do you guys know the famous people born on your birthdays? I think it is absolutely essential information.)

Now that you have some juicy celebrity trivia, on to the real purpose for my post: to celebrate me! Ha ha ha. Actually, I think it's fun that on our birthdays when we were kids, we'd all gather around in a little huddle and ask mom to tell us our "being born" stories.

So here's mine, as I remember it. Mom, dad, please comment if I get it wrong.

It was a dark and stormy night.

Just kidding.

I think I was born at 3 in the afternoon, in Towson, Maryland, at a nicely petite 6 pounds 6 ounces. Mom told me she had contractions at home and went in, and yay a baby! She said she had me without drugs, which is a WOW, since I have had a child myself and those epidurals are nice. So way to go Mom.

I was going to be named Ryan if I was a boy (I may be making this up; I think mom says she knew I was a girl even though she didn't) and Jessica if I was a girl. But I looked so much like an angel she changed her mind at the last minute.

Cue the awwwwwws.

Now it gets fun.

They were so excited to have a baby, they drove home and left all their luggage at the hospital. Ha ha ha! They had to go back to retrieve it. And, when they got home to their little apartment, there was some kind of ahem, septic problem, and the whole apartment was flooded. So they took their brand new baby over to grandma's, where I spent my first days and nights sleeping peacefully in the bathtub.

Cute little me!

Thanks mom, for going through what you did so I could be born. I like my life. I know how it feels, having a bebe of my own. Thanks dad, for being involved and treating mom good. I owe lots to you guys. It's a day to celebrate! (Some friends say I only enjoy celebrating since I'm not 30 yet. It's probably true.)

In other news, Wesley let me sleep in so that was nice, although his gift to me first thing this morning was a poopy diaper. I made eggs for breakfast. Shane is getting to-go Olive Garden for us for dinner. I get to go grocery shopping (not my idea of a great "birthday" activity, but it must be done). My big gift is an elliptical machine. Last year, my big gift was a papasan chair, and Gabby is the one who sits in it the most. So I joke that Gabby will use the elliptical more than me. We'll see.

Here's to another year.

little worker bees

This morning I went to the cannery for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Mukilteo. I've never been to a cannery before... it was a wild experience!

And the fact I went today was particularly apropos, since there was an article in the Seattle Times this week about the cannery. Go me for doing stuff when it's newsworthy!

Anyway. So you place an order for a bunch of canned goods, like flour, sugar, oats, whatever, and then you have to come on a certain day and can all your stuff yourself. Yes, they emphasized that if in fact I had not shown up to can my own stuff, my order would have been canceled. No one would have canned it for me. My, those Mormons sure are industrious, are they not? I think it only makes sense that the logo for the cannery (and a bunch of other Mormon stuff for that matter) is a beehive.

But, back on track: What happens is, it's not like I canned a can of flour, a can of oats, and a can of rice and then took my three cans and went home. There were 15 of us, and we all had little jobs. I was in charge of spaghetti. I filled and sealed 15 five-pound pouches of spaghetti. Some people took huge bulk-buy bags of sugar and poured them into #10 cans. (Number 1o, not 10 pound.) Someone else shook the cans so the sugar leveled. Then someone sealed it with the canning machine. Which was loud. And in the end, every can that was ordered was filled.

Basically, I felt like I got my "money's worth" (and time's worth) since I went home with 27 cans, or 4.5 cases (6 cans in a case). Contrast that with someone else there who had 18 cases... which is too many cans for me to count. I think her bill was over $650. Dang. So, my point being, if I only wanted like one can of wheat, I would have been totally jipped into doing everyone else's dirty work for just one can. So I guess my advice is, if you're going to go to the cannery, go all out.

I feel pretty good. It's nice to know we have some food storage. I mean, I need recipes still and the creativity to USE the food storage, and heck I also need a wheat grinder because what will I do with little wheat kernels if there is an emergency? But I feel like we've taken a step in the right direction.

I've been encouraged to have food storage on hand for actual meals for 3 months, and food storage on hand for sustenance only (i.e., you won't die) for 9 additional months, for a total of a one year's supply. I think I'd like to do it.

So I add another huge project to my list. Why do I do this to myself?

freeze fried

Friends. Lend me your ear. And give me your opinion.

In May 2007, I embarked on a fun adventure called "Meals for Month," wherein I prepared, in one day over Memorial Day weekend, 20 fully cooked meals to freeze. There was a recipe book and ingredients list all planned out for me to follow. I purchased all the ingredients over the course of a few months (getting most of them on sale), and felt dang good about myself when all the meals were finally prepared. I started at 9 am and finished at 4:30 pm or so. It was a long, hot, dishes-filled but productive day.

Over the next couple months, most of the meals were eaten. The really tempting ones went first... enchiladas, manicotti, chicken noodle soup. Some of the weirder ones it took me longer to get around to... shrimp creole, Chinese chicken salad, albondigas soup (whatever that means).

And one still sat in the freezer. Until last night.

So, 1.5 years later, we finished my Meals for a Month.

Well, I did. My husband refused to eat it.

"What!?!" I declared. "It's food! And it was frozen! It doesn't matter when I bought the ham for the Stir-Fry Ham; it's fine!" I vehemently defended the ham, circa April 2007.

He didn't buy it.

I was kind of offended.

We ended the evening with a small chat where I admitted the origins of the dinner were suspect, but his accusations made me particularly defensive and I just wanted to be appreciated for trying, even if my try this time did not equal success. It was a nice resolution, so we are still married (and for the most part, happily).

So.

1. Was my husband wrong/right to refuse to eat 1.5-year-old food?


2. Was I wrong/right to expect he'd have no problem eating 1.5-year-old food?


3. Would you have eaten 1.5-year-old food?


4. How long do you keep food in the freezer?


5. Does it really matter how long it is frozen? I mean, is there some formula where the longer food is frozen the less edible and more inedible it becomes?

Just so you know, the rest of the dinner did end up in the trash. I mean, it wasn't so bad. I ate it, and I'm not sick today. It was a little salty and watery, but... ahh, I don't know. That could have been from the soy sauce I added to it.

I wonder if there was a "food in the freezer" class before/after college that I was supposed to take and didn't. I'm the kind of person that thinks food = money, so I don't usually throw stuff away or let it go to waste.

Anyway. I'm looking forward to learning something from this.

lovingly referred to as...

My most excellent post today features a number of Wesley's baby toys and the funny names we call them. I think my friends and I are particularly creative.

This first is what I call the Matrix Duck. Why? It reminds me of the Matrix and how Keanu Reeves and everyone else has funky wires coming out of their heads when they are "in the Matrix." I actually scoured the Internet looking for an image so you could see, but I only found icky disturbing ones. So yeah, it was a weird movie. And we have a weird-looking duck. I have a friend with a Matrix block... looks just like the duck, except it's a red cube.


Our next exhibit is courtesy Whimsy's creativity. I got a set of these cubed farm animals (perfect for singing Old MacDonald -- thanks JJ!), and they all make some kind of noise. The pig has always been my favorite since it's kind of a rattle. Well, Whimsy noticed the little balls were brown... so of course, she nicknamed this toy "Piggie Poo Pellets." And now everytime I play with my son I say, "Yay Wesley! Piggie Poo Pellets!"

More duckies. We love duckies. These are from Corey, YAY, and they are most fun. We have a blue, red, and pink duck.... the Sissy Duck, the Pissy Duck, and the Prissy Duck. Just to be clear, I didn't think of the names, they came in the package with those names. And sometimes when I get upset Shane likes to say, "Wesley! Mom is being a Pissy Duck!" So they're great names.

Our last installment for today are the Googly-Eyed Fish. We have a big one and two small ones. I just love to say "googly-eyed fish!" after which Wesley will get the eyeball right in his mouth and start chomping.

Ahhh baby stuff. Much laughter all around.

P.S. Many thanks to our product tester and model for today, Mr. Wesley!

some things that i like

Since most of my friends' blogs are all-politics as of late, I am jumping on the bandwagon as well. I'll come out and say that I tend to vote Republican because in general Democrats scare me (think Hillary), but John McCain wasn't my first choice for President during the primaries and now that Barack Obama has won, well, we as a country need to make the best of it.

In an effort to be positive about the president-elect, I offer the following:

• I really like how Obama has scolded fathers in some of his speeches, calling them to action to lead and take care of their families. If Obama does nothing else for his country but convince black (and white) fathers and parents to better respect their responsibilities in raising the children they have created, then it will be a good thing.

• I appreciated, in Obama's acceptance speech, how he addressed those whose vote he did not earn that day. Those of us who were hoping (although I'll be honest, not expecting) the election to go a different way. He seemed genuinely humbled by his appointment and he wants to earn our trust and support. Humility is the first step, and I thank him for that.

• I was most impressed with something he said during the DNC... I didn't watch it, but I read his speech. He tends to put some issues into a light where, yeah, we can agree. He was talking about gay marriage, and he said though many of us differ on gay marriage (whether it should be legal), we can and should agree that if our gay and lesbian friends have a loved one in the hospital, they should be able to see them. And I thought, you're right. I may not want to call it marriage, because of how I feel about the sanctity of the institution of marriage, but I'm sure we can figure out something where a gay citizen can visit a loved one in the hospital (a right sometimes limited to family members or spouses only) or help a loved one deal with estate issues or whatever. I think we can all agree that creating a way, some way, where people can be happy with the life they've chosen is a good thing.

• I like that Joe Biden is from Delaware. I happen to have grown up a stone's throw from Delaware, and have many friends from Delaware. They are often greeted with either, "Delaware? I've never met anyone from Delaware before," or a version of the humorous ploy about Delaware from Wayne's World. So it's nice that the country finally sees that yes, people live in Delaware, and in fact, one of them is now the Vice President.

• I really think the guy who does Obama on Saturday Night Live does a great job, so four more years of that should be a real hoot.

That's all for now. Here we go America, four years of interesting stuff ahead of us.

name game

I have a friend named Doug. He has always been named Doug. But for some reason, there must be some vibe about him or something, I want to call him Jared. Every single time I see him, I have to stop myself and think before I speak so I call him Doug and don't call him Jared.

How weird is that?

When I was in high school, I had a friend named Aaron. But, he looked like a Tony. He would have been much better named Tony. And in high school, I was a bit more audacious and flirtatious than I am now, and I called my friend Tony and told him I thought he was better named Tony and that was that.

Has this ever happened to you? Am I loony? I am really good with names and faces, so I don't usually forget or call someone the wrong name by mistake. I know what your name is. But with these guys, they just look like they should be named something else! It's wild!

I just got to thinking about this phenomenon since Doug is moving to Utah. Bon voyage, Doug. I'm grateful I made it through all of our conversations without calling you Jared.