New banner and stuff

Well, here it is. I finally figured it out. Thanks so much to Jill and her helpful email, or I never wouldhave been brave enough to mess around with my blog in such a major way. Next I'm going to do a banner with a photo. I just need to find my photo CDs. I thought it would be funny to do a photo of my pregnant belly (covered by a form fitting sweater, of course! I would never put a picture of my naked belly on the Internet! Yuck!). We'll see. It's grown quite a bit since Jill snuck a picture of it in March, so maybe I'll get Jeremy to take another. Or maybe I'll be safe and chose a picture of Kaitlin.

Today was my first day out of nursery. Did I mention that Jeremy and I were finally released last Sunday? I suspect that I did, though it's hard to understand how I could do that becasue I was so happy to be joining the adult world at church. Released seems like such a funny word to use when a church calleing is ending. Don't we usually use the word "release" to describe captives when we let them go? As is "He was released from prison last Wednesday." Well, maybe by the time we are released, that's what our callings feel like. In this case, it did. I hate to be so shockingly honest, but nursery felt like captivity. Every Saturday night Jeremy and I just dreaded the thought of going to church the next morning. In our defense we always left church wondering why we had those feelings the night before, because nursery can be a pretty fun place to be, but without fail, by the next Saturday there we were in the same situation.

I attempted to take notes in Relief Society today. I would have liked to in Sacrament Meeting, but Kailtin has decided that she'd rather play in the aisle than on the pew, so most of my attention was taken up making sure she didn't stray too far. As for my Relief Society attempt--writing in one's lap is not an easy thing when that lap is almost nonexistant. I did get a few down, but the best part of trying to take notes (although I didn't succeed to the level I would have liked) was that I at least listened much closer than I would have. Maybe that will have to do.

In other church related news, I tried to put on one of my maternity skirts today and I had grown too big for it! Talk about depressing! How in the world does that happen?

New Look

I just love this template that everyone's switching to, so I switched also. It's so clean and simple. I made a banner today with the Rhonna Farrer Digital Kit that is free on Two Peas in a Bucket, jsut to prove that I had figured it out. I failed rather abysmally the other night when I tried to do a demo. I have to have Jeremy help me host it in our .mac account so I won't be able to post it until I can get him to help me this weekend sometime. As for tonight we're going out on a date. Our first in quite a while. I'm excited. It seems like we always have Kaitlin with us, which is great for the entertainment value alone, but it will be nice to reconnect as just us.

Tagged

It's taken me a day to get to this. I'm horrible at answering these. The other day Jill asked if we have any whimsey in our lives. I'm not sure I responded, but the answer is no. So this is my first step.

5 Things in my fridge:
Less than 1/4 gallon of milk
salted and unsalted butter
chocolate milk chug
old left over chicken nuggets
condiments

5 Things in my closet:
maternity clothes
lots of magazines
suitcases
flip flops
bins for our unmentionables

5 Things in my purse:
cell phone
lip gloss from Victoria's Secret (yummy!)
receipt organizer
wallet
pens

5 Things in my car:
iPod
car seat
change
empty drink cup from Wendy's
crumpled up Post it Notes

5 Things on my Tivo/DVR:
Law and Order: Criminal Intent
Law and Order: Victims Unit
Masterpiece Theater
Home Theater Workshop (that Jeremy won't let me delete)
CSI

Tagging:
Nicole

Is there anyone else left? And if there are any lurkers out there who don't usually post comments, post your answers as a comment to this post!

Adding a little beauty to my day

The Earth laughs in flowers ~~Ralph Waldo Emerson

The other day I bought myself flowers. Yes I bought myself flowers. That's a photo of them up there. For a long time I've been minorly obsessed with the idea of having fresh flowers in my home. I remember flipping through a book of my Mom's when I was a lot younger--like early teens. I think it was called Living a Beautiful Life by Alexandra Stoddard. The only thing that I remember from this book is her suggestion to splurge and buy flowers whenever you can. In my young, romantic little imagination, I strongly believed this would add so much beauty to a house. I have never been able to give up this idea. I love flowers, though it hasn't been until recently that I could even consider buying them. (I thank Costco for this development, by the way. Right now, at least, they have the most beautiful flowers at the best prices!) The times that Jeremy has given me flowers I always enjoy the effect they have on a room. They brighten it, soften it, make it more cheerful. I've also always been a little mesmerized by the idea of having a beautiful cutting garden in my back yard, but without a backyard, or the gardening know how, to make that dream a reality. Seeing Tasha Tudor's flower garden in the current issue of La Vie Claire (thanks for that one Jill!) has renewed that interest and infused me with an interest in going outside to plant a flower garden. Click here to read the story. Anyway, the point is that over the last several days every time I walk by my kitchen table I feel a little thrill of pleasure to see that vaseful of white hydrangeas and orange tulips. It makes me feel that achieving a little beauty is not such a difficult thing to do. It's also amazing how much happiness something as simple and beautiful as a vase of flowers can bring.

Oh, and speaking of happy things, I look this picture of a stack of books I bought at Barnes and Noble a few weeks ago. I needed a little retail therapy, and this was the result.
I'd been hoarding this reading list for a gloomy day. The books I bought were Giada's Family Dinners by Giada deLaurentiis, The Agony and the Ecstacy by Irving Stone, A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth, Bridedshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh and Excellent Women by Barbara Pymm. Also included in that stack were a new journal, and La Vie Claire and Domino magazines. It was a very satisfying evening at Barnes and Noble, and I might add, that little collection of books made my book shelves a renewed source of happiness and beauty for me.

So what do you do to add beauty to your life? Although my job as a wife and mother adds a good amount of happiness and beauty to my life, I find that external stimulous is sometimes necessary. Do you need external stimulous, like I do, or are you able to carry beauty in your head and revisit it whenever you want?

Some cool web sites

As you've probably figured out I'm in a bit of a home decorating frenzy right now. I managed to be very good last month and was able to save several hundred dollars from my budget money (I guess I have a lot of wiggle room!) to buy decorative items for my home. I recently started buying Domino magazine. It's the self titled "Shopping Magazine for Your Home." I was initially drawn to an article from the April issue about organizing your home office. Since my scraproom is also my office, I thought I'd check it out. The article had several sources for buying cool thing for your office, but none were so cool and had so much to offer as See Jane Work.com. If you like Russell + Hazel, you'll like this site. The cool thing is that they actually have some really good stuff for pretty cheap. A few hundred dollars is not much when shopping online, so I want to get a lot of bang for my buck, and this just might be the place to give me that! Have fun browsing.

Since we seem to be doing random thoughts

It's funny how being unable to post to my blog put my mind into blogging overdrive. I kept coming up with things that I wanted to write about, with no means of acually posting. So, in the tradition of Jill and Amy M, here are a few of my random thoughts.

1. Have any of you ever participated in a Family Home Evening Packet group? I did for a while--I think we lasted less than a year. The idea was that ten people would prepare one lesson for nine different people and themself. We got together on a quarterly basis to exchange lessons. In theory it was a great idea. But the pressure to produce a "fat" packet (lots of activities, stories, games, etc.) was just too much. It seemed like some of the girls were always trying to "one-up" each other. As much as I complained about having to prepare a lesson for ten people--the time commitment, the money commitment--I was kind of sad when it ended. I really enjoyed getting the packets. A few days ago I had an Eureka! moment. Jeremy and I were talking about how we ought to start trying to have a short Family Home Evening every week with Kaitlin. She's 2, so she should be able to handle, oh, about 2 minutes of something gospel related! The family home evening packets came to mind, and I thought I'd start sifting through the ones I have to see if there is anything age appropriate in them. That thought led to an idea for incorporating Conference talks into our Family Home Evenings. I thought I could pick six talks and prepare a kid friendly Family Home Evening lesson around it. I would only have to prepare one lesson a month, until the next Conference, and my family would have a forum to discuss topics that the General Authorities find relevant for our time. Since I didn't have this idea until now, I think I'll begin when the Conference issue of the Ensign comes out. I'll start over with the next Conference issue. This way I don't have to start out by feeling behind. Hopefully this will be a good way to bring more of the gospel into our home. I really feel it's important to start soon with teaching Kaitlin the things that we believe as a church and as a family. So, does anybody else do something like this? If so, or if you do Family Home Evening in a fun and interesting way, what do you do?
2. One day at the hotel I entered the lobby to find they had laid out complementary copies of Newsweek magazine. Knowing I was facing a few hours cooped up in the room, I grabbed one to read. I read this touching little article written by a man who had lost his wife two years ago. If you don't have time to read it (if you're wondering, it's short!) I'll sum it up. The writer, William Shaw, always knew that his wife loved him, but after her death he wished that they had taken the opportunity to write love letters to each other throughout their marriage. He would have liked to have something of her left behind as "proof" of their love for each other. I immediately resolved to start writing letters to Jeremy every once in a while, just to let him know that I love him and tell him why. Do any of you write love letters to your spouse or significant other? (Two post scripts on this one. First, if you liked that article, you might want to print it out. I'm pretty sure that Newsweek doesn't archive their articles for long. Second, this article plays very nicely into my emphasis on journal writing--something that I want to post about more thoroughly later!)
   
3. This week we're trying to begin to transition Kaitlin fromt the crib into her big girl bed. I want her to take ownership of her new space as soon as possible before the baby comes. Does that sound really psychobabble-ish, or what? Anyway, we tried it yesterday and it freaked her out so badly that she refused to take a nap at all, even when I moved her into her crib. I think she could smell my fear and was reacting to that! Last night and this morning I worked on making the room a little more her own. All of her toys are there, her clothes are there, I made the bed (well, the mattress on the floor) and made sure to get her dressed and change her diapers in her new room. We also talked about all of the furniture in the room, the sheets, the pillows and pillowcases--everything. You name it! A few hours before naptime we had some errands to run, and then we stopped for lunch. At lunch I asked her where she wanted to sleep. She chose the big girl bed, and so far so good. I'm not sure that she's actually sleeping in there, but at least she's not screaming! Do you have any good tried and true techniques for getting a kid to sleep in a bed?
   
4. Today's an exciting day. Jeremy's new Mini Cooper is ready to be picked up. We're going to Salt Lake this afternoon, after my doctor's appointment to get it. I'm bummed that I'm going to have to drive the Explorer home while he gets to ride in his new plaything. But that's ok. There will be plenty of opportunities to ride in it later. I'm just really excited for Jeremy to get this car. He's been working so hard lately both at the office and at home--he deserves something fun for himself.

OK, I know I'm going a little long winded again. Sorry. I'll go try to get started on what I really should be doing--getting a few things done while Kaitlin's asleep.

Have you ever. . .

clicked on the "Next Blog" button at the top of your blog? If you're a Blogger user you should. It changes every time I click it, but I sometimes find some fun and interesting stuff by doing that.

Just wondering.

Blogging Spring Break is Over! We're Home!

So, I know I've been MIA this past week, but I've been trying to keep up with comments. All of you should look back at your posts if you didn't see mine. Some nights I went on a commenting spree and commented on several day's worth of posts at once.

It's good to be home again, paint fumes and all. We moved home Saturday morning, and since then we have been working hard to get the house back in order. Today the painter finished his work. It's my fault that he got behind. I ended up hating the colors I chose for the master bedroom and bathroom. Imagine blue buble gum ice cream--that's what the color I chose ended up looking like. Unfortunately, he painted my entire room before I saw it. We had a small crisis on Thursday night when I saw it that resulted in and resolved itself by me making a mad dash to Restoration Hardware to buy these cool little benches for the end of my bed. I knew I loved the color and that I wanted to base the color of my room on them. Kaitlin was a little trooper. For some reason she just loves to go to Restoration Hardware and Pottery Barn. I think it's becasue there are so many candles for her to smell. She actually cried when I told her we couldn't go into Pottery Barn that night. What can I say? She is my daughter after all! (PS My bench color is not in this picture. Mine is more of a blue/green/gray.) Other than the paint color fiasco--and how I so wanted to consult Michelle with her talent for picking paint colors!--, everything went well with our little decorating project. We survived. Kaitlin still misses the hotel and talks about it every day. I'll have to take her to the pool at the gym so she knows that her swimming days aren't over.

So I'm back. I may not post too many times over then next few days. I really want to get everything put away so I can truly enjoy my "new" house. But at least I can be a regular reader again.

Book reviews: The Known World and The President's Lady

I'm sitting here alone in the hotel room. Jeremy's at the house doing some cleanup and some additional work on the floors. Some of the steps in the staircase still squeaked, so Jeremy's trying to fix them. Anyway, I thought I'd do another post. To catch myself up on my book reviews, I'm just going to do a very brief review for each book. Just my general impressions. So here goes. (And if you're laughing because you know I'm incapable of writing a brief post, I know, you're right)

The Known World by Edward P. Jones (The slowest best book I've read in a long time!)

The consensus last week when we talked about this at book club was that we all really liked, some even loved, this book, even though it was such a slow read. What made it such a good book? I think it's hard to pinpoint any one thing, but I'll go ahead and give it a try. One thing that I liked is that it was thought provoking without being preachy. It takes for granted the idea that we all view the institution of slavery as repugnant, and thus simply tries to teach us about the realities of a slave's life. And what a horrible life it was. I can't imagine not having an ounce of control over the events of my day. Even with samll children one can attempt to try to control the day! Slaves were forced to work hard, they had to be completely submissive to their master and his overseer, they had to depend on that same master to be benevolent and provide everything for their well being. Sometimes the provisions were terrible. Sometimes they were passable, but they were never abundant and they were never extravagent. Add to that the complete uncertainty they were forced to live with, and I know I couldn't do it. Imagine not knowing if your wife would be sold away from you in the slave market, or what happened to your children because you'd been sold away from them. The very idea makes me sick to my stomach and sick at heart.

At BYU I had to take a senior course to complete my English degree. I chose to take a course comparing the works of Toni Morrison and William Faulkner. It was one of the best, most eye opening classes I've ever taken. The professor, Gloria Cronin, talked about the long term impact of slavery on the black community. She asserted that many of the social problems that blacks face today are direct results of slavery. Her main argument was that slaves (the ancestors of blacks in America today) were not allowed to form cohesive family units. Thus, children grew up without fathers, and women raised children without husbands. Studies show that the lack of a father figure in a child's life can have devastating results. Crime rates increase, high school dropout rates increase, social mobility becomes nearly impossible. At first I totally agreed with her. It seemed so logical. Then, as I got older and more Utah-ized (read conservative) I began to dismiss the theory as too simplistic. After reading this book, I've come back to it, and I think it has more validity than I gave it. Although people are still responisble for the choices they make, sometimes they don't have a good foundation on which to base those choices. It's probably not the only answer, and I know it's probably not the only theory, but it does give a lot of food for thought.

The President's Lady by Irving Stone

I read this book for my ward book club. I'd read it previously for real book club (RBC) a few years ago, and knew that it was clean and acceptable for a Relief Society activity. The cover has a quote, "Beyond any doubt one of the great romances of all time," that I find very off putting. I have a hard time thinking of the story of Rachel and Andrew Jackson as a great romance. I really wanted to like Andrew Jackson, really, but I found that I just couldn't. He was so self absorbed and driven, and Rachel suffered for it. I know what it's like to be married to a driven man, but I also know that if I say anything about him neglecting me or our family he will reallign his priorities, and work to be better. Rachel suffered in silence, while Andrew did nothing to alleviate her pain. Well, in all fairness, he did try to defend her honor, but he generally did so in a manner that exposed her to more gossip and hurtful treatment from people outside of her social circle. Had they not put that quote on the cover, I would probably have had a completely different opinion of this book--because I truly enjoyed it. I like historical fiction when it's well researched. From the research I did on the facts surrounding this book, it seemed to be fairly accurate.

I think the thing that we, as women, have to learn from this book is how to support our husbands. Rachel was the epitome of the supportive wife. I'm not sure that her equivilent exists in the modern Western world today. But she was unfailingly supportive of Andrew, sometimes to a fault. But exaggeration is sometimes the best way to make a point. The person of average intelligence will take what is useful from the exaggerated details, tone them down and apply them to become a better person. As for me, I know that I will continually have to remind Jeremy to momentarily turn his head away from his career and focus on the family, but I also know that this is what I agreed to when I married him. The trick is to make peace with your spouse's faults (because they are hopefully accompanied by great strengths, as Jeremy's are) and become accepting instead of critical.

Ahhh.....life with a 2 year old

I don't think I have the energy for this! We spent most of the day out and about, so my frustration is completely my fault. What is it that makes Kaitlin think she will get what she wants, and get it faster if she repeats the same word over, and over, and over? I swera she must have said "REI" about 100 times in the 15 minutes it took us to get there from my sister's house today. Then she must have said "Jenna's house" about 50 times in the 15minutes it took us to get back to Lehi from REI. Then she probably said "hotel" about 200 times from the time I left my house until the time we got here to the hotel. I swear! Even turning the radio up didn't help drown out the incessant demands. Hopefully I'll be able to get a good night's sleep tonight so tomorrow can be a better day.

Oh, and not to disparage Kaitlin completely, I'll leave with a bit of praise. She is a great little shopper. Even when she wants to be in the hotel playing with her toys (or at home, as the case may be) she still bears my little trips out with great patience and good humor. It seems like a great contradiciton--a kid who demands to go to one place who doesn't complain when we don't go where she wants--but it seems to work for Kaitlin. I'm very grateful for that!

Strange Side Effects

Ok, this is not a post about some strange medical phenomena. This hotel living has had some interesting effects on my life that I wouldn't have expected.

First, I've been reflecting on how much I love the location of my house. Living in Orem for the past week has made me realize how living in Northern Utah County has changed my habits. OK, so I'm talking mostly about shopping, but still. I spend a lot of time going to stores, browsing around, looking for things to add to my ever growing list of things I want to buy. Window shopping is ok, isn't it? Anyway, when I lived in Provo I almost never went to Salt Lake City to shop. Occasionally I would go up with a date, or after I got married, with Jeremy. Now I head North for almsot everything. And I like it. This week I've wanted to go to Restoration Hardware to look at stuff for my laundry room. The problem is that by the time Kaitlin and I have breakfast, get ready and actually get in the car to go, we don't really have enough time. It takes an hour to get to Trolly Square--twice as long as it takes me when I leave from my house. With Kaitlin's strict nap schedule (we don't mess with the nap schedule!) I don't have time for an almost two hour round trip to Salt Lake. It seems trivial, ok, it is trivial, but I never realized how the location of my house gives me the freedom to do much more of what I want to do.

Second, I've come to fully realize the importance of downtime for children. I have this deserate need to be gone from our room as much as possible. It's not very fun to be here. We don't have a DVD player for Kaitlin, so she tends to wander up and down the hallway, dumping the dirty laundry out of the laundry basket, dumping toys out of the laundry basket that I'm storing the toys in, dumping crayons out of their box. See a pettern here? Anyway, it drives my crazy, but yesterday I decided to hang out here and see how Kaitlin did. She did all of the above dumping, but she was so much happier than she is when I drag her all over town. The up side to my frustration--she fell asleep a lot faster than she did when I keep her out until bedtime. This translates into a much happier baby in the morning.

Finally, and this is probably the most serious of the three side effects, I have almost completely given up watching TV. I haven't watched an episode of any of the mulitude of TV shows I usually watch in a week. Jeremy and I were going to have our Tivo plugged in at home, but we decided against that, just so we could see hwo we did. I actually kind of like it! I've done a lot of reading, a lot of writing in my journal, I'm getting more sleep at night. I'm not sure how this will translate when we move back into our house, since I do have things to do that I liek to do in front of the TV. But I will say right now that I feel quite liberated, no longer a slave to the boob tube. I'll follow up on this later.

Well, if you've stuck with me this far, I thank you! I'm feeling the need to spout off even more than I usually do. Blogging withdrawal. What a dangerous thing!

I'm still here!

I feel like I'm in blogging limbo. Jeremy and I can't seem to get our schedules in synch enough for me to have access to the computer at night. We're never in the hotel together for long enough to read and comment on your blogs and for my to write my own. So, I've chosen to read everyone else's blogs, but I unfortuantely have no time to comment or write my own. No matter about my own blog. My life is pretty unvarying right now. It's hotel life. We're just trying to get through it without killing each other! Work on the house is going really well. The floors are fixed, the texturing is done, and the ceilings are all painted. Hopefully the Venetian plaster work will begin today and be finished by Monday. Monday the time contractors are coming to work on the tile on my poder room walls and the painter will begin painting the walls. I can't wait to see it all under way and then, finally, finished! I really can't wait! So until then, thanks for allowing my to lurk on your blogs. Maybe this weekend I can catch up and leave some comments. I've really enjoyed everything that you all are saying.

A Good Mail Day for Me!

Although my camera is lost somewhere amidst the jumble of stuff we brought to the hotel with us yesterday (yes, we "moved" yesterday) so I can't take a picture of the fun package I got from Michelle, I just had to write to let you and her know how excited I was when I openend my mailbox and saw a padded envelope from her. Inside was, to use her words, a bounty of gorgeous ribbon and a couple of the large Heidi Swapp flowers. It really made my day. This has been a rough week for me and it was so nice to know that Michelle received something from her mother, thought about me and decided to share. I'm not generally a good mail recipient--although a few weeks ago I got a beautiful thank you note from Jill that I just couldn't get a good photo of--oh the sadness of not having a scanner! So the advent of good mail is a major boost to my day, and usually a few days beyond. The otherhappy thing about Michelle's package is that I got the mail after my craft room was packed, so it's here with me, and I can look at it and create with it in my mind for the next two weeks! Do you think that will work when Kaitlin's sick of being in this tiny hotel room, and her whining has reached fever pitch? Probably! So thanks, Michelle. I LOVED it!

I've gotten way behind

Tonight I'm making a public declaration that I am going to catch up on my book reviews. Here are the books that I need to do writeups on:

1. Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation, by Jospeh J. Ellis
2. The Known World, by Edward P. Jones
3. The President's Lady, by Irving Stone
4. Isabel's Daughter, by Judith Ryan Hendricks

I'm counting yesterday's post as my The Planets post because it's nonfiction and I don't want to feel like I'm writing a research paper. Besides, since I am not a science person a lot of it went over my head.

In the meantime, I found this quote tonight about the importance of journal writing.

"I promise you that if you will keep your journals and records, they will indeed be a source of great inspiration to your families, to your children, your grandchildren and others, on through the generations. Each of us in important to those who are near and dear to us--and as our posterity read of our life's experiences, they, too, will cme to know and love up. And in that glorious day when our families are together in the eternities, we will already be acquainted."

President Spencer W. Kimball

Isn't that a cool promise? I know part of the reason we're all blogging to leave some sort of record, but do you still write in a journal? And if you want to see an interesting journal, check out this link. What do you think? Wouldn't it be cool to have the talent to do that kind of journal?

Who Would Have Guessed?

The other day I figured out how to put quotes into my sidebar becasue I was unexpectedly touched by a quote from the book, The Planets by Dava Sobel. For you book club girls, this will actually come as no surprise to you. She is the woman who wrote Galileo's Daughter, and anyone who can weep unabashedly at the end of a biography of Galileo should have no problem being touched by a book about the planets. But for everyone else, it is, I'm sure, a little weird sounding (at best). I've changed the quote since, but I like the one I have now so much better. Perception is a funny thing. When seen in one light an event or circumstance, a color or physical characteristic can seem to be one thing. When seen in another it can seem to be something else completely.

Jeremy and I recently watched the movie Crash. If you're a heathen, like I am, and you occasionally watch rated R movies then I would strongly suggest it. One the surface the movie is about racism, but deeper down it is about people's perceptions of one another. There is one character who stands out in my mind. He's a Latino man who is a locksmith by trade. He has been hired by the LA District attorney's wife to come in and change all of the locks to her house after she was the victim of a carjacking. When she sees a Latino man, who looks like a gang member, working in her home, she insists that all of the locks be changed again--by a white person--becasue she thinks the Hispanic man will sell a set of her house keys on the street. The camera flashes on him momentarilly to show the look of disgust in his face. Later, we get to see this same man again justr as he has arrived home from work. We come to find out that he is a man with a wife and daughter, who has worked hard to get his family out of the rough neighborhood in which they were living, and into a safer one. The scene between him and his daughter is one of the most touching of the entire movie. We get to see that he has been judged wrongly, and that he is a good and tender person despite his rough exterior. Misperception played such an important part of the mistake that the woman made. She knew nothing about him and made a snap judgment based solely on how he looked.

I don't really know where I'm trying to go with this--it's just been something that has been on my mind a lot lately. Jeremy and I have discussed several times in the last few weeks how he sees things in black and white and how I see things in shades of gray. The problem with black and white vision is that you don't allow yourself to see anything from more than two angles. You don't really get a good sense of what a thing is until you add that third dimension. It is the third dimension that allows illumination and true insight.

Imagine--all that from a book about space.

So, you may be wondering, how did Amy's ward book club go?

Nobody showed up!!!!

What I did while Kaitlin slept

Tonight I'm hosting the first ward book club where we are actually discussing a book. I was nervous about it, but now, after reading Jill's post, I'm terrified. I feel responsible for the discussion because the book was my suggestion. Also, last month I gave a presentation about literature and my experiences with my Real Book Club (is it bad to think of you girls that way?), so now I feel like they look to me as the book club guru. I've had lots of people come up to me at Enrichment and in church telling me that they're coming. I wonder if I am becoming the unofficial book club leader, or if they're just telling me because it's at my house? Anyway, I love to be prepared for book discussions. Tonight we're discussing The President's Lady by Irving Stone. I had some difficulty knowing what to discuss when the Real Book Club discussed it, so I decided to do some research on Andrew Jackson, mostly during his presidency, after the book's ending. I was looking around on Google and I decided to do a photo collage of Andrew Jackson and some miscellaneous images from his life and career. I am pretty happy with the result. I printed it out on photo paper, and I was amazed at the quality. Bear with me as I stray off topic here: Remember when printing images from the Internet meant getting some pixelated mess that hardly resembled the image that you were orignally trying to print? Well, those days are over. When did that happen? Back on topic now: You can click on the image for a larger view. I feel much better and more prepared for tonight's discussion. Now I'm off to bake some goodies for the evening. Wish me luck!

Bad mood

Yesterday I was in a really bad mood. Let me qualify that--yesterday night I was in a really bad mood. Kaitlin has a cold again and she was really whiney all day. I couldn't do anything right by her and she changed her mind every time she told me what she wanted. It was not a good day for us. If I'd had my choice she would have sat on the naughty step all day. Then I started thawing chicken for dinner too late, so we ended up having to go out to get sandwiches. Kaitlin hardly ate any of her food. She's not adjusting very quickly to the no chicken nuggets rule that I've put in place. Then Jeremy got home from work an hour and a half later than I was expecting. Almost as soon as he got home I jumped in the car and headed out. I know it was Monday, and that I should have been spending time with my husband, but I couldn't do it! I had a CD going in my car--which never happens in this day of iPods. It was the new Jack Johnson Sing Alongs and Lullabies for the Film Curious George. That CD always makes me happy. It got me to thinking how music can really lift me up. I have happy CDs that I listen to when things are down, and songs that I can turn on when I don't have time for an entire CD. Another one of my happy CDs is Dave Matthews: Live at Luther College. I love, love, love this CD. There's something about a performer up on stage with nothing but a guitar to back him up that I find so refreshing and good. In particular, I like the first song on the CD (actually it's a double set), One Sweet World. I love the opening of that song. It also reminds me of the Ben and Jerry's ice cream flavor named after that song, and then I thought about my favorite B & J's flavor--brownie batter, if you've never tried it you must!--and really, when Ben and Jerry's gets involved, all traces of bad mood go out the door.

So, I went to Roberts and bought some watercolors in a tube to play with for my Claudine Hellmuth knockoffs, some new paintbrushes and some micro tip pens. Let the fun begin. I think I'm going to bring this stuff with me to the hotel next week. Then I went to Target and bought some kids hangers, some little necklaces for Kaitlin that I think are going to be part of a rewards system, and did tons of looking. My last stop was Maggie Moos for a 24 treat for me and Jeremy. Bad mood gone. Speaking of 24, did any of you watch it? (YOU MAY WANT TO STOP READING HERE IF YOU DIDN'T) I'm getting sick of it! I'm seriously feeling like its one of the shows that I could give up right now. I know it's the middle of the season slump, but the ending! Come on. I just don't buy it. That guy's (and I hope you know who I'm talking about) an idiot!

I thought I was done. . .

but today when Kaitlin was napping I decided to try my hand at a Cluadine Hellmuth knockoff. I didn't have any of the supplies that I think I need (like some good paintbrushes and a good sharp point black pen), but here it is. The picture of Kaitlin is from her recent trip to Arches with Jeremy. It's the only picture that we've taken of her lately where she's smiling, but not flashing her cheesy "pretty" smile. Anyway, it's a night picture, that's why I made the background black and blue. The quote says "There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One is roots; the other, wings." I did it by writing with my embossing pen, embossing with clear powder and then ironing it off after the paint dried. (Using the supplies--it's amazing what a girl can pull out of her stash!) Other than that the scale is a little off. I think Kaitlin's head looks a bit too big. And now I can't wait to get my Claudine Hellmuth kid's arms and legs stamps. They have a 4 week turnaround, though. It's going to be torture.

Thanks for all of your Conference posts

Jeremy and I went to Idaho to visit his parents for conference. Unfortunately the most important thing I learned from my conference weekend was that I don't want to visit Jeremy's parents when I really want to listen to conference. Somehow one does not get so much out of Conference without the ability to hear it--a fact to which I'm sure Kristi will attest. I did hear most of Saturday's session, but Sunday was a complete loss. I have vowed to myself that I will read the Sunday sessions in their entirety when they become available online on Thursday, or in the Ensign, and take notes in my new church journal (thanks for another great idea, Jill!). So I was grateful to read all of your blogs about conference. From what I hear it was a good one, and your posts reaffirmed that for me.

The bright side for me was my journal. I found it at Target for only $2.99. I simply stamped my initials, added ribbon, made a matching pen and voila! The thing I really like about it is that it has a pocket inside the front cover that is the perfect size for holding notecards. Now, when I do get to go to Relief Society--they assure us they're looking for our replacement--I can either take notes, or if the lesson gets off topic and I start to zone out, at least I can write a note or two.