Yellow Wallpaper

I picked out my accesories all by myself Mommy's shirt makes a very nice dress. I can help with my nebulizer all by myself.

Anyone? S-Boogie and I seem to be going through a difficult phase lately. Whenever I start feeling like I'm getting the hang of things and parenting is going well, I get knocked off my little pedestal of smugness flat onto my butt. Over the last few weeks I feel like she's become a totally different person--a defiant little person who only likes to scream, hit, pinch, and run away. It doesn't help that pregnancy doesn't feel very good and school is stressful. Today after our doctor's visit she ran off across the grass and it caused me major pain to have to run after her. Plus, my school schedule this semester has ended up working out so that I'm pretty much not home while she's napping. So anytime I am home, she's usually awake. And Master Fob has picked up some extra hours at work over the last week or two, which is a very good thing, but it also means that I get even more S-Boogie time all to myself. It's probably a good preview for how this fall i

I had another appointment with the doctor today, and everything is going wonderfully. I've gained 5 pounds in the last 4 weeks, which at this point is an acceptable rate of growth. My weight gain has progressed steadily and slowly, which is good. I still haven't topped 170, so this is great. Also, my blood pressure is staying nice and low, which is also good. Last week I started to experience a lot more swelling and stuff in my feet, so I was getting worried. It turns out that I've probably just inherited the family curse of varicose veins, so the blood isn't pumping well too my extremities . I haven't seen any veins in my legs popping out yet, but I've been developing troubling enlarged veins in, ahem, other places that are causing pain (don't think about that unless you've been pregnant before). Anyways, I'm supposed to try staying off my feet more as well as drinking plenty of water to keep my pressure up and the blood flowing. We'll see how

The Salt Lake Tribune has been running a series of articles that profile all the counties in Utah. Yesterday's article was about Utah County, and centered on the fact that it is the county in the United States with the highest proportion of its residents under the age of 18 (34 percent). In fact, in many newer suburbs like Saratoga Springs or Cedar Hills, over 50 percent of residents are under 18. Scary. I was most disturbed, however, by a "cute" little vignette that started the article off. It told of a first grader who didn't like what the school cafeteria was offering for lunch, so she called up mommy and daddy to complain. Mommy showed up with a Lunchable , but by that time Daddy had already picked the girl up to take her out to Taco Time. How cute--she's only 7 and already knows how to manipulate her parents. Can't wait to see what she's like as a teenager...

Wow--this has been a crazy busy week! I spent Monday and Tuesday involved with the whole Jeopardy! thing. Then on Thursday Master Fob got an acceptance letter to the library program at the University of Washington, and on Saturday got rejected from Hawaii, so now we now know for sure where we are moving this fall. And on top of all that, we had a pretty fun and busy weekend. Friday: During the afternoon we went to see Master Fob's sister perform in the Living Legends alumni talent show. We actually had to leave early because S-Boogie desperately needed her nap, but the numbers we saw were fabulous. I think my favorite one was put on by five original members of the "Lamanettes" from the early 1970s. They performed in white fringed pantsuits and danced to a souped up version of "Cherokee Nation." It was awesome. Then Friday night I went down to campus and dropped S-Boogie off at the pow-wow with Master Fob's sisters while I went to the annual Spanish Trivia

As of tomorrow, I will be 28 weeks pregnant. I am officially into the third trimester now, and for some reason this week my body feels really crummy. I don't remember feeling too bad when I was pregnant with S-Boogie. Then again, I graduated when I was about 28 weeks pregnant, spent the next two months working part time, and then spent the last 4 weeks sitting on the couch in my apartment reading books. No wonder I feel worse this time around. I have been trying to convince myself that I am strong and that I can do lots of things while pregnant. Heck, I'm taking a feminist literature course in which we continually debunk the notion that women are the "weaker sex". Well, guess what I'm figuring out: women who are 7 months pregnant are the weaker sex (at least physically, not mentally). But, I also want to graduate with my master's degree, especially since we are for sure going somewhere this fall. I can probably still drag myself to campus for class for the n

OK, not really. But if you look at this article about the tryouts, you can see me in the picture. My face is just above the top corner of the computer screen, and I've got my hands over my mouth (naturally). Actually, I'm glad that they didn't use one of the pictures they took with me in it. That would have been a little more embarrassing. And the caption is wrong--the picture was actually taken yesterday, not Monday, and it was at the Sheraton hotel where we had the big test and interviews.

I especially want to thank Master Fob for being such a great help today and yesterday. I've spent a lot of time away from home fooling around with the whole Jeopardy! thing, and he's been great about hanging out with S-Boogie. Especially since he's had the stomach flu for the last two days and I know he feels like crap. And especially since she decided that since Mama got up at 6 this morning, she needed to also. As soon as he's not contagious anymore, I'll make sure he gets some extra kisses and hugs!

Anyone who has known me for a while knows that one of my life ambitions has always been to get on Jeopardy!. I actually tried out for the teen tournament when I was in high school, and though I got to go take the initial test in the studio, I did not make it. My dad and I still spent a fun day in LA and he even treated me to a yummy dinner at a nice restaurant in Malibu. Over the last few years I have sporadically watched the show, and I started to get more into it last summer when my friend Ken was on and we actually got cable so we got the right channel. S-Boogie enjoys watching "Jeppy" as part of our nightly routine, so my interesting in appearing on the show has been renewed as of late. Like any other rabid fan, I had been watching the website to see if auditions will be held anywhere within a reasonable distance of my home. Well, on Sunday morning I was reading the Tribune online and I noticed a little item stating that the Jeopardy! " Brain Bus" would be comi

Easter is coming up in about a month, in case you haven't been in any stores lately and couldn't tell. It's always been one of my favorite holidays, because of the fact that we're celebrating the resurrection of Christ and the fact that it's in the springtime. I really don't like that so many holidays have just become an excuse for people to buy more stuff, especially for kids. I don't want my kids to always be expecting to get things every time a special occasion rolls around, plus I like to minimize the amount of crap we have sitting around our house and the amount of junk that S-Boogie eats. Most of my memories of holidays from when I was a kid were all the fun things we would do, like coloring eggs for Easter or baking cookies for people at Christmas. Those are the kind of memories I want S-Boogie to have. I'm excited because this year she's big enough that she could help me do some fun things. We're either going to make carrot shaped cookies

I didn't really intend to boycott Saint Patrick's Day. I usually do try to wear something green and I know I cooked corned beef last year. But this morning there was nothing green available for me to wear, so I'm wearing a purple and black shirt. And yesterday at the grocery store corned beef didn't sound very good so I didn't buy any. I did take advantage of cabbage being on sale and bought some to make my favorite Asian coleslaw. We're eating that with calzones tonight. Then I'm going to watch a movie from Spain. In this house, we're just avoiding Ireland all together.

We finally got our tax return last week, so now our car loan is completely paid off and we have some nice padding in our savings account. Earlier this week I finished a paper for my literature class and submitted it to a conference. The only thing I have left to do for that class is to take an oral final at the end of the semester (well, and keep up on the reading, but that's not too hard). I just finished a yucky syntax exam, but at least it was take-home and I felt pretty good about most of my answers. I passed all of my specialty exam (hooray!). Last Friday we had our first quarterly Primary activity for the year and it went over very well. We don't have to do another one until May (which hopefully means I won't be doing another one). And, I finally got my maternity underwear out of storage so I am feeling much more comfy. Aaah . I think I'm going to go eat brownies and watch Law and Order reruns. I deserve it.

Yesterday morning I read an interesting article in the LA Times health section. I'm not going to post a link, since most of you probably don't want to read it. It was about how the latest trend in plastic surgery for women is getting a, um, certain part that starts with V "redone" to look "better" (aka, more like a porn star). Needless to say, I was rather shocked that people actually worry about how that looks and that they have boyfriends/husbands who will actually compare them to porn stars. But yeah, I'm still getting over the fact that a lot of women shave or wax themselves, so surgery really is a mind boggler . Anyhoo --in my brain that sort of evolved into a post about how I feel grateful that I don't have body issues. I really don't think that I do. I've had plenty of roommates that had eating disorders and were convinced that they were fat because their size zero dresses were getting a bit snug around the hips. I could definitely not

And she wants to turn the rest of us into zombies too. S-Boogie got up about 6:00 this morning. Then at 6:15. Then 6:20. Then 6:30. At 6:40 I rocked with her until she fell asleep and put her in her bed. Then she got up at 6:50. At about 7:00 Master Fob had gotten out of the shower and I decided that I might as well get up then too. She came in announced that it was now morning, the sun was up, the moon and stars were hiding behind the clouds, and it was time for breakfast. Now it's 9:30 and she's wandering around the house in a daze sucking her thumb. So am I.

The Daily Universe actually published a letter that I wrote them. They did cut a few lines, but the message still got across. I feel so special. You can read my letter here . (It's the third one down) If you want to read the editorial I was responding to, it's here . My email managed not to save a draft of the letter, but I think that they just cut out a line that talked about how, in addition to students that are homosexual there are students that are married to or dating homosexuals. I really can't remember any more--it seems like there might have been a little more in there... Now I'm just curious to see what kind of feedback my letter gets...

This is what happens when I don't want to get off the computer--I bribe her with office supplies. Who needs toys when you have scotch tape?

We watched the Academy Awards last night. It was a lot of fun, mostly because we had a party with a bunch of friends and way, way too much food. I woke up this morning with a nacho cheese hangover, but it was worth it. Whenever I watch the Academy Awards I think I need to watch more movies. I had seen hardly any of the movies that had been nominated. I also have never seen anything by Robert Altman, even though I've heard he's very, very good. This fact embarrasses me a little, since I'm writing my thesis about literature and film. But, I have watched a lot of old movies. I love film noir--now I just need to catch up on the last 10 or 15 years of film. I also realized that over the last year or so, most of the movies we have gone to see in the theater have been at the insistence of Master Fob ( Batman Begins , Brokeback Mountain , Dave Chapelle's Block Party). I'm not sure if this means that I no longer have my own opinions, that I don't care about movies as mu

I have three brothers, but only one sister. She is only 16 months younger than me, and it's a good thing we've always looked fairly different since we could practically be twins (not that people haven't mistaken us for them before, for some reason). I'm sure she wouldn't mind me telling you that we didn't always get along while we were growing up. I remember beating each other up, and I know I split her lip open with a carrot once. The other day I found my journal from when I was 13, and about half of the entries were about how much I hated her (sorry). Of course, pretty much all of the entries were about how I hated someone or something. I was a rather angry 13 year old. I don't hate very many people anymore. Then I went away to BYU and grew up a little (I think). Then she came out to BYU a year later and we took some classes together. The next year we lived together as roommates. And we got to be good friends, even more so when I got back from my mission.

Four Jobs I've Had 1. Early morning paper delivery person 2. Taco Bell slave 3. Secretary 4. Spanish teacher Four Movies I can watch over and over 1. Moulin Rouge! 2. Disney's Robin Hood 3. Little Women 4. Some Like it Hot Four Places I've Lived 1. California 2. Maryland 3. Spain 4. Utah Four TV Shows I Love 1. The Simpsons 2. Jeopardy 3. Law and Order 4. Most stuff on the Food Network Four highly regarded and recommended TV shows that I've never watched a single minute of 1. 2. 3. 4. Um, what are some highly regarded shows? Four Places I've Vacationed 1. Wyoming 2. Hawaii 3. California 4. New Mexico Four of my favorite dishes 1. Anything Thai, especially chicken satay, sticky rice, curry, or that coconut chicken soup 2. warm homemade brownies 3. oreo milkshakes 4. arroz con leche Four sites I visit daily 1. NY Times 2. Yahoo Weather 3. Salt Lake Tribune 4. 100 Hour Board Four Places I'd Rather Be Right Now 1. San Diego 2. The beach at Ko Olina 3. A nice hot