8 Tagged

Kim tagged me with the 8s list so here goes. . . .

8 TV Shows I Love to Watch:

1. House

2. Prison Break

3. Arrested Development (When we borrow the DVDs from my brother)

4. The Office (Which I only watch when we check out the DVDs from the library)

5. What Not to Wear (Which I only get to watch when I'm at my parents' house)

6. Super Nanny (Is that what it's even called? I haven't actually watched it in a long time. . . .)

7.

8.

— We don't watch anything else. Really it's only House and Prison Break.

8 Places I Love to Eat:

1. The Olive Garden

2. Rudy's BBQ

3. The Potbelly Oven (I've actually only eaten at the Potbelly in the Chicago airport and oh wow, it was delicious!)

4. My mom's house

5. Anywhere I don't have to do the cooking or cleaning

6. Earls (in O Canada! There are only three in the U.S.)

7.

8.

—I can't think of any others

8 Things that happened yesterday:

1. I took my parents to the airport :(

2. Megan went to bed without dinner for the first time :(

3. We finally got a computer chair so we don't have to sit o

n a camp chair anymore.

4. I won a game of Othello!

5. Went out to eat with my parents before taking them to

the airport.

6. Read. A lot.

7. Got some sewing done.

8. Played Set by myself as Nathan read the final Mistborn book to me.

—

8 Things I Love about Fall:

1. Leave changing color

2. Upcoming holidays

3. Good food

4. Fireplaces

5.

6.

7.

8.

—Sorry, I just don't like Fall enough to think of anymore. The arrival of Fall means Winter is coming and I hate Winter.

8 Things on My Wish List:

1. For Nathan to be done with school and in a secure career.

2. The economy to bounce back.

3. A house with a fenced in backyard. In Texas. Close to my parents.

4. Perfectly obedient children. (You're all laughing at me, aren't you? Well, it's MY WISH list, not my Reality list)

5. My own sewing/craft room.

6. Time to sew and do crafts and read and write.

7. To get my books published and be a beloved author.

8. To have more patience (because #4 isn't really going to happen).

—

8 People I am Tagging:

I'm tagging people who read my blog but don't leave comments (and anyone else who wants to do it). Let me know so I can check yours out.

Achoo!

So it looks like Jeremy's hip caught a cold, but it left in time for him to be home for Thanksgiving. He had a fever of 103 Tuesday night, but was well enough to come home on Wednesday afternoon! Apparently the cold was causing fluid to build up in his hip and that is why he couldn't walk or apply pressure anywhere on his leg. The doctors took some of that fluid out to get a culture of it and after that, he felt fine. They kept him there though because of the fevers and because they still weren't sure if it was an infection that they would need to flush out with surgery or an inflammation that would eventually go away on its own. In the end (or at least the way I understood it) the doctors think it was a viral infection that ran it's course and is now gone. So he's home and just as crazy and cute as ever!

It was a real blessing that it happened when it did. If it had been a week earlier or later we'd have gone nuts. Nathan would be in school and I'd have had to stay at the hospital with him and have the other two kids. STRESS! With this timing it was during break so Nathan could stay there while I took care of the other two at home and visited Jeremy when I could. Plus, my parents were here for Thanksgiving and were a huge help to us with the whole thing.

Thank you mom and dad!

So now things are back to normal and life goes on. . . .

Yay for Jeremy!

Jeremy is home! He's all better. I will post more about his time in the hospital and his recovery soon. We're about to eat Thanksgiving dinner! Yum!

Infection or Inflammation?

I'm taking a leave of absence for a while. I'm not sure how long. Yesterday (Sunday) Jeremy suddenly couldn't walk on his right foot, claiming that his knee hurt. We figured he smashed his knee during snack time or jumped off something. We discovered that it hurt worse than just a smash or a bruise. Last night he woke screaming and crying in pain repeatedly. We brought him into our bed so we could comfort him as much as we could. Then this morning Nathan took Jeremy to the doctor's office who then immediately redirected him to the E.R. The doctor thought Jeremy fractured his leg, which would have been nice because then he would have been back home the same day. Instead, when he got to the E.R. they did two sets of X-rays, an ultrasound, and also took fluid from his hip. They think the problem is with his hip, that there is fluid there and is either an infection or an inflammation. If it is the infection then he will have surgery Tuesday morning. If it is the inflammation, then they think it could be a thing where it could come and go. I don't really see one of those being better than the other.

So I will be spending time with Jeremy this week. Also, my parents are in town for Thanksgiving, so they came at just the right time to help. I hope everyone has a great holiday!

My First Blog Award

Thanks Shauna! I'm so excited! Thanks for the bloggy love

Patience. . .

is something I don’t have much of. In high school I always thought I had some. Even in college I thought I did. Apparently it wasn't patience I had, but instead a bad case of lack-of-a-backbone-itis. And then something happened. I had children. And then something happened to make it worse. A lovely woman named Elizabeth told me that I shouldn’t keep things bottled up inside. From that moment I’ve been like a firecracker. I guess I need to find a balance. I've lost good friends (one of them a sister in-law that I love and miss very much) because of this.

I guess now I suffer from lack-of-tact-itis.



I wrote more about my lack of patience here.

Abinadi by H.B. Moore-Book Review

I finished Abiniadi by H.B. Moore last night. I stayed up till after 1 A.M. to finish it. This book was different from every other "Church" book I've ever read. Moore is the author of the Out of Jerusalem series, the last of which, Land of Inheritance, won a Whitney Award in 2007 for Best Historical.

I first met Heather Moore at a writing conference back in 2006. When I saw on her blog she was requesting people to read her book and review it, I quickly offered. Then I was even more excited when she accepted my offer.

For those of you who aren't familiar with who Abinadi was, here's a quick low down. Abinadi was a prophet in The Book of Mormon. Abinadi was called to preach repentace to the Nephites, a group of decendants of people who traveled from Jerusalem to the Americas at 600 B.C. At the time, the Nephites were incredibly wicked and in the end, caused Abinadi to suffer death by fire.

Most Latter Day saints tend to think of him like this. The Arnold Friberg version.

Copyright Arnold Friberg

Old, near the end of his life, and physically weak.

While Moore was writing the first draft of her book she saw Walter Rane's verion of Abinadi. Young, strong, prime of life. Probably had a young family, children. . .being bound by the Nephites to be brought before King Noah and presented at a mock trial.

Copyright Walter Rane

After viewing the painting she decided to place Abinadi at 27 years old at the beginning of the novel. Moore's book is incredibly well researched. I was impressed with the level of historical detail (much of which is discussed in the chapter notes at the end of the book.) While Moore has taken creative license with Abinadi's life, everything she has created is realistic. I loved the way she integrated actual scripture into the dialogue, especially in the mock trial scene where Abinadi recites the ten commandments to King Noah and his wicked high priests.

While I was reading the book I took the time to reread Mosiah chapter 11. It was amazing to read the chapter and include in my mind the rich, descriptive images from Moore's writings. Reading Moore's novel actually helped this passage of scripture come more alive for me.

While the book focuses on Abinadi, there is another character which is sculpted out in such a way that I feel I now have a better understanding of Alma. I always knew Alma was a high priest of King Noah, that he'd felt the Spirit of God when Abinadi preached, and had left the court of Noah to preach the words of God in secret. I knew this, but never really understood what it meant for Alma to be a wicked high priest in King Noah's court until I read this book.

Her fictionalizations didn't overtake the truthfulness of the scriptures, but rather helped me understand the scriptures better while giving me a terrific story.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants a better understanding of this time period, wants a clearer perception of life for the Nephites during this time period, particularly the extremely righteous and the extremly wicked, and anyone who loves a good story.

Digital Scrapbooking Genius

I've been thinking about doing a post on this for a while. While we were in Logan I came across a company called Piggies & Paws. I got online and saw a few of their way cute designs; they don't have a lot posted on the site for copyright reasons, but the artists themselves have huge binders full for you to browse through. For those of you who haven't clicked on the link on the bottom right sidebar, you can click the link above to find out more about them. They are a specialized group of artists who take your child's foot/hand print and create a fun picture out of it. For example, one of mine has Megan's hand and fingers blossoming into beautiful flowers (I'd show them here, but again, they are copyrighted) and Emma's footprint is in the upper corner transformed into a bumblebee. In the other picture, Jeremy's footprint was transformed into a a spaceship and looks dang cool.

The Piggies & Paws artist who did ours is Pam Odd and she is, besides extremely talented in the Jedi ways of making kids sit still long enough to get a print off their hands and feet, an amazing digital scrapbooking artist. I know some of you out there do digital scrapbooking instead of the traditional paper scraping. I haven't been enlightened in the ways of how to actually do it digitally, but wow! Just looking at the stuff she comes up with is inspiring. She has an online shop and she is a visiting artist at The DigiChick. Go to her site and check out her stuff, she really has the cutest and most fun scrapbooking designs I've ever seen.

It's Alive!!!

Dr. Frankenstein has done his job and the Lappy is b-a-c-k! I'm so excited!

So here are some things y'all missed while the Lappy was on Dr. Frankenstein's operating table.

1.) We got a van!!! (Yes, I'm aware that I'm using excessive exclamations, I'm very excited)
This van will save my sanity. We are planning on driving to Arizona and Utah for Christmas. Can you imagine that fun road trip in a tiny Honda Accord with two toddlers and an infant smashed together in the backseat? But no! That doesn't have to be my future! Now I can relax in a captain's chair with my darling baby in her car seat, safe from the other two hooligans. All the while they have a good amount of space between them, as well. We'll listen to the Sirius radio (if they haven't figured out that we aren't paying for it by then) and books on CD, and it will be so fun! Can't wait to see you Arizona Omers and Buckner G-parents!

2.)The Squealing Pig (his mother gave him that nickname, not me) that I babysit has now put himself to sleep three times. This is a wonderful development.

3.) The semester of dental school is almost done! Classes are out and the students will be doing sealants at the local schools. Yay!

4.) I'm doing a REAL BOOK REVIEW! That's right! Wahoo, People! H.B. Moore sent me her new book, Abinadi, for me to read and review and so far it is great! I don't think this book is even out yet at bookstores, but I have it! I've been wanting to read this book since the last LDStorymakers writing conference and she told me about it as we ate icky hotel breakfast food together. As soon as I'm done I'm going to post the review right here for you all so you can run out and get it as a great read for yourself or someone you luv!

5.) My kids are dang cute.

6.) Jeremy is doing pretty good with the potty thing. He has now earned two Matchbox cars!

And I think that's about it for now. I'll post a picture of the car later today. I haven't had a chance to take a picture yet because the weather has been so cruddy every time I think about it.

Just Curious . . .

For those girls of you who are married, just a quick question because I've noticed a strange trend among my girlfriends who are married.

Before you met/started dating your husband, did it seem like the only guys you ever went out with or showed any interest in you were strange? Like really strange? I had this experience in high school and college and I've been wondering how common it is.

I had a list of strange guys I met in high school and college, but decided not to post it. I don't want to scare my mother and I'm planning on using it all as material for a book one day.

So how 'bout it? Did you experience the strange dating scene or were you one of the popular girls who dated all the cute normal guys?
.....................................................................................................................

I feel the need to clarify or expound. I didn't want to list strange things the guys I know did, but apparently some of you think I'm talking about the normal weirdness. I'm not talking quirky. Nathan is kinda quirky, sure. He knits and remembers everything he reads and everything he hears (as long as it's academic, if it's me asking him to do something, then the likelihood of retention goes down drastically, but that's typical of guys). I'm talking the guy was kicked out of college because girls complained about him to such an extent that the dean had no choice. I'm talking the guy had swords on his wall and said he could carry them and chase you down. I'm talking the guy ended up being a child molester. I'm talking the guy was a total player. I'm talking the guy thought you were going to get married after y'all barely met. I'm talking the guy accuses you of liking his roommate just because he broke up with him and starts telling lies about you to your ward. I'm talking he writes really strange fiction (let's hope it was fiction and I just can't bring myself to actually type what kind of fiction it was because he was so freaky) and leaves you a love note in your band cubby. Like WEIRD! Not quirky.

Somebody Told Me

I saw this on Crazyland and had to do it. It just looked way too fun to miss out on.

Come play along...
1. Put your music listening device on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. You must write that song name down no matter how silly it makes you look.
4. Title this post what the answer to your last question is.
5. Good luck and have fun!

IF SOMEONE SAYS 'IS THIS OKAY' YOU SAY?
Dream Big-Ryan Shupe and the Rubber Band

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF
Apologize-One Republic

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
How to Save a Life-The Fray

HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
The 50 United States and their Capitals-Animaniacs

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
Move Along-All American Rejects

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
Everlong-Foo Fighters

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Realize-Colbie Caillat

WHAT DO YOU OFTEN THINK ABOUT?
Nightswimming-R.E.M.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Homestar Runner-The Very Low Sodium Band

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
That's How You Know-Disney's Enchanted

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
She Will Be Loved-Maroon 5

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Hey There Delilah-The Plain White T's

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
Clocks-Coldplay

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
Good Riddance-Greenday (this is honest, it really came up!)

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST FEAR?
Chasing Cars-Snow Patrol

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
Will I?-Rent

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
Bent-Matchbox 20

WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO NAME THIS POST?

Somebody Told Me-The Killers

Star Wars

Nathan stumbled upon this when we were looking for a funny commercial from El Salvador (that's where he served his mission). I was dang impressed. Enough to get on the desktop computer and put this on here for you. But really, who is this kid? He's amazing!

A Tragic Death

It sputtered. It flickered as it sent it's final error message. Then the next day it sat-cold and still, face black, but fan whirring. It beeped. Once, twice, three times. But alas, no life could be found. I cried. I moaned. I gnashed my teeth. I called the morgue, hoping they could resurrect it, but even they couldn't help me. They were having problems of their own. So I went to the morgue and all they could do was mourn with me and told me to send it back to its Maker.

I couldn't make the call. I was too upset. Nathan tried to reach this Supreme Maker via the internet, but we could not reach a person of real power. Indeed, we did not even speak his language well enough to understand his noncommittal answers. The answers that were given were strange and foreign to us: $398 to resurrect my dear friend, but $502 if I want the means to resurrect my friend myself? We were much confused and frustrated.

So upon Nathan's leaving to study, I buoyed up my courage and love and made the phone call. The first person I talked to was no help and gave similar foreign answers. I asked to speak to the Arch Angel of Makers, but was transferred instead to another person whose language I could not speak. I insisted upon speaking to the Ultimate Maker, but was denied time and again. I sat there with the blank face staring back at me and I stroked the shiny black face, cleaning it with my spit. The new person assured me he could help and upon Nathan's sudden reappearance, for much time had passed, gave us instructions in hopes of resurrection. But sadly, it was fruitless.

Nathan did infact continue speaking, attempting to learn the strange language of the Makers until finally a breakthrough was reached! Halleluia! Joyous Day! For finally a phrase was uttered which was understood by all and was most joyous to the ears!

FREE REPAIR.

And so it will be that a custom coffin will arrive today to take my dear friend back to it's Maker to be resurrected and brought back to me. YAY for bugging HP employees to the point that we get what we want for free! If they'd just answered the dang question I'd have been happy (almost) to pay for the stupid repair or buy a whole new laptop.

So, since I can't use my laptop, I don't know how much I'll be blogging for the next little while. I find the desktop cumbersome and the keyboard makes my wrist hurt, so probably not much. Let's hope for a speedy recovery! That or I'll just make Nathan blog for me while I dictate to him :) Love you, Nathan! I know you don't mind:) right?

Body Image-Dove Commercial

I saw this first video on Janette Rallison's blog (she's in the list of LDS authors on the right) and could not believe my eyes. Those of you with a TV that actually receives channels might have seen this before. Since the only shows I watch are House and Prison Break, and I only started watching them on TV and not the internet about a month ago, I had not seen these commercials.

I've thought about many "talks" I'd get to have with my daughters, but for some reason self-image talks never crossed my mind. I don't know why I never thought about it before, it isn't like I didn't suffer from low self/body image problems because I totally did (do). But never again will I allow myself to be fooled by "glamor mags" or any such nonsense again. I will be blogging on the same topic on the family blog, just so you know. (If you don't mind, just click on the link on the side bar so the site knows people are visiting it.)
Megan is always asking me if she looks pretty or cute or beautiful. And of course I think she does! I think she's a beautiful little girl, but I'm her mom and more than a little biased. Still, without all my biasedness, she is beautiful! I don't want her feeling like she has to compete with these women that don't really exist, or women who practically starve themselves, or who have eating disorders, or who butcher the fat out of themselves. It isn't realistic or healthy for our daughters to aspire to standards such as these. I for one will be more positive about how I look so that my daughters will have a good role model and I will be continually praising them for all their wonderful attributes, letting them know they are beautiful inside and out.

Dove commercial - Onslaught

Candy The Way It Should Be

Last night, being Halloween, the kids invested in tradition and came away with huge dividends (in the form of bagfulls of candy). When we came home from the successful Trick-or-Treating, the kids went to bed and Nathan and I inspected their candy. What we found astounded us.

Before I continue, I need to have you recall your trick-or-treating days. I personally remember wandering from house to house, filling my bag with candy and returning home to discover my hard work amounted to a lot of Smartees, Tootsie Rolls, Dum-Dums, Bit-O-Honeys that made me barf (literally), awful tasting gum, and the occasional fun size candy bar.

The following is a picture of the contents of Megan's trick-or-treat bag:



1) Candy bars and other chocolate
2) Non-chocolate candy (note only one thing of Smartees)
3) A Beanie Baby
4) One piece of awful gum

She received a total of 44 pieces of candy -- 61% were chocolate!!

Jeremy's bag was very similar. High chocolate dividends galore! Usually I don't let them eat much of their Halloween candy, but Nathan decided that it was a special day and that they could gorge themselves. At least until they repeatedly ran around the apartment with suckers in their hands after we told them not to. Then the suckers were taken away and placed on wax paper for later. A little too much sugar for little bodies.

Thanks Grandma Rosie for the Halloween shirts!

Here's some of the group we went Trick or Treating with,
two families who are also in the dental program at Case.

Poor little Jeremy kept getting scared. There were lots of kids in masks, The Hulk, the Scream guy, and one woman that I could have sworn was actually an expensive robotic monster.

Fun times abounded for us and afterward we all enjoyed some homemade root beer.