Sunday, July 31, 2011

what i did in july

I've been busy. And stressed. So there has been less blogging. But I still feel the great need to document my life (I'm not journaling at all, basically), so here goes.

In July, I:
  • Went to the AquaSox baseball game for the 4th. Wesley ignored most of the baseball game, instead choosing to eat a hot dog and run around like a loon (which is my favorite part of the AquaSox -- lawn seating). He then deemed the fireworks "scary" and cried the minute they started. We went home. He still says (even today) he wants to watch fireworks and I remind him he cried.

  • Looked a houses. A lot of houses. In fact, we made an offer on a house, but won't know until at least Monday if we got it. We wanted to do something in July to get an interest rate before the whole August 2 debt debacle concluded itself, either positively or negatively, so we'll see. We have a rate locked in, but we may not even get that house. So now we wait and worry.

  • Have had 5 or 6 showings of our condo. Not bad for one month on the market. No offers. A couple people "interested." We wait.

  • Went to my company's summer picnic. And skipped Church to go. (I am so rogue!)

  • Drove many hours to our family reunion. Highlights of the drive include stopping for my night at my in-laws' vacant home and realizing the key we had did not open their door. So we kept going until we found an overpriced hotel. We also saw many windmills. VERY cool. And Wesley didn't sleep a wink.

  • Enjoyed two nights at our in-laws' cabin in Palisades, Idaho. Highlights include my getting attached by flesh-eating ants. We packed an overnight bag, but neglected to pack enough for two nights. So I went out to our car, still mostly asleep, at 8 AM one morning to get clothes... I was in PJs and flipflops and as I'm rifling through our trunk I feel little stings on my feet, and look down to see I am under attack. I jump in our trunk, leaving my flipflops on the ground, then I have to reach down and grab them and shake them violently to get the ants off them. I put them on and RUN like the wind, not even closing our trunk all the way. I was wide awake after that. I liken it to drinking coffee, which I have never tried. I suppose I don't recommend either and I wished I was still sleeping.

  • Had fun at our family reunion in Soda Springs, Idaho. We stayed in a lodge that had "alligator sofas" (i.e., couches that are so old they swallow you whole when you sit on them), lots of missing light bulbs, and uncomfortable beds. The woman who runs the place with her husband had a two-week-old baby, and when I mentioned I was in a similar baby-growing-predicament, she gave me a heap of maternity clothes. Freaking CUTE clothes. I need to write her a thank-you note. I had fun catching up with family and laughing lots, although it was a bummer a lot of high-adventure things I couldn't do. Pregnant ladies can't jet ski or go down huge water slides or get in lava hot springs (or hot tubs) or zipline. I just entertained Wesley while Shane got to do that stuff. It was fun though, I loved the sunshine and the company. Although no family reunion is exempt from family drama and in those respects this event did not disappoint :-) that is all I'll say about that.

  • Fell in love with cloud-gazing on bright summer says. I discovered I like finding shapes. I saw fish and elephants and the Star Ship Enterprise. I hope to teach my son to entertain himself in such a sweet way. I was lucky my cell phone got crappy reception... I couldn't check Facebook on the long country drives and had to, you know, enjoy the world.

  • Felt baby kick for the first time. It was during my 17th week. Very cool. We were on our way back from Bear Lake in Idaho to the cabin. At a gas station. Just sitting there. It was exciting.

  • Read Tina Fey's Bossypants for book club and have been watching the video of her as Sarah Palin a lot. So funny. She has incredible self-deprecating humor and anyone would love the book. She's a mom, too, so she had fun mom things to say, in addition to her SNL things to say.

  • Mourned for some family. My (older) cousin has some adopted (older) girls, and three of them were in a tragic car accident on Sunday. One of them (who I had not met) died. The other two are still in the hospital, the driver with a shattered right leg and hip, the other with a serious neck/spine injury. I love these girls; they live near my brother and watch his kids and have just been angels. They are so sweet. My heart aches for them and their family.

  • Got a new (replacement) cell phone. My phone wasn't receiving calls or logging missed calls. Unacceptable. So I got a new phone, and I'm pretty happy since it isn't laggy or buggy, it's new and clean and lightning fast. The BIG problem though... evidently this new phone isn't as forgiving as my old phone, and it doesn't like my wall charger. It will only charge in my car, with a newer charger. In the house it won't hold a charge, and I plug it in at night and wake up the next morning and it's dead. I am so stressed. I ordered a new charger on eBay and this has better fix the problem or I'm going to get another new phone.

  • Had an OB appointment where I got some rough news: I have high blood pressure and because I have had kidney problems in the past they want me to see a maternal fetal medicine specialist at UW. I am nervous. I did some research and my symptoms (kidney and blood pressure issues) are both signs of preeclampsia, which is bad bad bad. I don't want that. So this week I've been eating more veggies and taking more walks and just praying this isn't really happening.

  • Have considered potty training. I bought a posterboard to make a sticker chart. And some bags of M&Ms. We have done some sitting, but nothing to write home about. And I mean nothing. So we'll see. Slowly but surely, this kid will use the potty before he is a big brother.
It's been a crazy month. I can't believe it's August! Coming up this month:
  • ULTRASOUND on Thursday! We will know if we continue to be staunch supporters of Team Blue or switching to Team Pink.

  • Boeing Family Day -- only once every 2 years do we get to see where Shane works.

  • Les Miserables! Cool!

  • Seafair -- we are doing the Blue Angels this year!

  • Hopefully many sunny days. Hopefully.

Monday, July 11, 2011

my most useful mnemonic device

Hey Internets!

Just a quick post. I am working on a better post which is a photo recap of our life the last few months. I have yet to report on my folks coming or 4th of July or anything else of interest, yeah?

For now, for many of my LDS friends, I need help. My good friend Sarah and I came up with an excellent mnemonic device in college to help us remember all the living prophets. Here goes:

HMPPHFMNOBWSHHE

How many people play hockey for money? No one, because winter sports have hockey enthusiasts.

Hickley Monson Packer Perry Haight Faust Maxwell Nelson Oaks Ballard Wirthlin Scott Hales Holland Eyring

There you go. But... we have a problem in that in the last 10 years since this mnemonic device was created, 5 or 6 of these letters have passed away and been replaced with new letters. Including the all important "hockey" and "money" people.

Now we need a device for:

MPPNOBSHHEUBCCA

Monson Packer Perry Nelson Oaks Ballard Scott Hales Holland Eyring Uchtdorf Bednar Cook Christofferson Andersen

Here are some tries....
  • My pretty parrot Nellie once blew smoke (holy hot!); everyone understood blowing created chaos always.
  • Mother pretty please no one believes stories Holly Hobby endured unending bedroom confinement (and) cuddling abuse.
  • Most people purchase, not one but several hundred, handkerchiefs, especially until blue Christmas carols adjourn.
Ok that was a valiant effort. Anyone want to give it a try?