Yellow Wallpaper

Several years ago I was a member of a message board for LDS women. One time a member posted her feelings about the fact that her sister was getting married outside of the temple to her boyfriend, because she was pregnant. This woman was upset because her parents were going to pay for her sister's wedding, and she didn't think that non-temple wedding deserved equal treatment with her own temple marriage. The reaction to this post was interesting; some agreed with her and felt that withholding a fancy wedding was a just punishment, others disagreed and thought that the parents deserved to treat their children equally and that the daughter was at least making a good choice in marrying her boyfriend. This experience has stuck in my mind because it opened my eyes to something I had not realized before: when we attack others it often reveals some kind of insecurity within ourselves. I realized this after reading a few comments that went something along the lines of "I followed ...

S-Boogie started preschool on Monday this week. When we moved here last year, several people told me to get her signed up on the waiting list for the preschool program at UW. I did, and got a call earlier this year that she had been accepted. At the time things were really up in the air for us so I ended up turning them down. Then interest in the program was so high that they opened up a second classroom this year. S-Boogie got back in after all, and it turns out that nearly half the class is made up of her friends from church (and they all live here in student housing with us). The program is really nice: she goes to school every day, she gets to ride a bus, and they feed her lunch. During the entire sign-up process I neglected to ask how many days a week the school was, so I was a little surprised to find out that it was every day. S-Boogie is also one of the youngest in her class, because the cut-off date for school here is the end of August. Some of her friends are nearly a year ol...

I spent it on saltwater taffy.

Last night was my first time teaching my class. It went pretty well and I think I like this group. So far it's pretty small and they are all female, but there were a few people on the list who weren't there last night. I'm also nervous because two girls want to drop because they didn't realize the time and expense involved in taking Spanish "just for fun". Um, it is a college class, and it's worth five credits, so it will be a lot of work. Anyways, I'm really enjoying teaching again and I think this is the perfect fit for me. I'm struggling a little adjusting from teaching for 50 minutes every day to 2 and a half hours twice a week. It's especially hard during the first few weeks because we can only repeat " saquen un boligrafo " and "no tengo bigote " so many times without going nuts. The book is also set up differently, but I still like it. One thing I like about it is the fact that it comes with an instructor's man...

Because I'm avoiding writing the syllabus for my class and because this blog has become too boring lately. 1. Even though I'm morally opposed to junk food and I'm trying to cut down on processed foods, I'm in love with Cheetos. I adore them. 2. I also think I have a crush on Gwen Stefani . She is so cool. Her name is Gwen and I love that name. And she breastfeeds her kids in public. Not to mention the fact that she makes awesome music and wears funky clothes. 3. When we were at a beach in Hawaii that didn't have a bathroom, I hid behind some bushes and changed my tampon. I've never done that before. 4. My first semester teaching I had a girl in my class who was in a wheelchair and had a helper dog. They sat up at the front of the class every day. One day I had really bad gas and I just couldn't keep it in, so I let a bit slip out. At the end of class a girl sitting up front turned and said to the dog "Misty, you are so stinky today!". I didn't ...

We got home from Hawaii late Monday night. During our entire flight my throat ached and my nose ran. Then I slept fitfully and woke up with full-blown flu on Tuesday. I spent all day Tuesday and Wednesday lost in fever delirium. By Thursday I started to feel better, although my head felt like it was packed with glue and I couldn't hear out of one ear. Since we hadn't already spent enough time away from home over the last month, we packed up our stuff again for a whirlwind trip to Oregon. It was my sister's birthday on Saturday; she just moved to Portland, so we wanted to see her and make sure she wasn't alone for her birthday. I'm not sure that being squished in our backseat with screaming children is an ideal birthday present, but we really did have a good time. We went to Cannon Beach on Friday night. It was unbelievably beautiful. Mr. Fob and I decided that we need to come back and stay in the oceanfront suite with in-room jacuzzi (as opposed to the parking lot-f...

This is probably boring to some of you, so I won't be offended if you just want to skip it. We made it home in one piece; and, while we love Hawaii, we are all very happy to be sleeping in our own beds again. Wednesday: We got up, made lunch, and drove out to Sea Life Park on the other side of the island. We had decided that this would be our one tourist-type splurge for the trip, financed with some birthday money we got for the kids this summer. The kids did enjoy the park, more or less, but I kept feeling like it was one of those amusement parks you see on The Simpsons . There weren't any run-down animatronic animals, but there were very few exhibits and at every turn they kept reminding us that we could pay even more money and swim with the dolphins. The most Simpsons - esque moment was the 80's themed dolphin show that included a very long middle segment accompanied by music from Styx. Nice. After the park we drove back over to Mr. Fob's mom's house. Both kid...

When you decide to stay for an extra hour at the beach, be sure to reapply your own sunscreen, not just the stuff on the kids.

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield Besides the obvious comparisons to the Bronte sisters and Daphne du Marier, I also kept mentally comparing this book to One Hundred Years of Solitude and Possession . Since I love both those books it was only natural that I would like this one a lot as well. It was an enjoyable, quick read and the story was compelling. The writing style wasn't particularly original and the ambiguous setting (especially the decade in which it was supposed to take place was confusing) bothered me, but it was a good fun read. If you like literary mysteries you'll really like this. The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards Another story of family secrets, but less gothic and less literary-focused than The Thirteenth Tale . The story was very interesting and I thought the plot was well-put together. There were parts of this book that seemed a little too maudlin and overwrought and I had a hard time really believing some of the characters at times. In...

We finally got a wireless connection that seems to be working, so I'll give you a quick rundown of our trip so far. I've learned that it's very hot in Hawaii in August, and I've remembered that the traffic in Honolulu is terrible, especially when you have two tired screaming children in the backseat of the car. I've also come to suspect that my children are vampires, because their skin glows white in the tropical sun. I guess we should stay in Washington. Thursday: We discovered why people call them " Northworst " airlines when we found out that you have to pay for any snacks (you don't even get free peanuts) and they didn't have enough pillows to give one to our tired S-Boogie. She actually did well and fell asleep for the last two hours of the flight. She stayed asleep through getting off the plane, waiting for the rental car, getting out at Tutu's (grandma's) house, and getting in bed. Little Dude stayed awake and got wilder and wilder. ...

I woke up at 6:30 this morning to bright sunshine, a cool breeze, and the sound of birds in the flowering trees outside. The kids were up early too, so after breakfast we went off to the beach. Then we went to the store, came back here for lunch and naps, and spent the evening at Mr. Fob's sister's home. We had a fun family party and yummy dinner that included teriyaki chicken and guava cake. I'd better get to bed now since tomorrow morning we've got to get up early to go to the beach again. This vacation thing is hard.