Yellow Wallpaper

When Little Dude wakes up from his afternoon nap we usually let him hang out and play in his crib for a few minutes. Today that strategy backfired on us; when Mr. Fob opened the door of the room the stench was even worse than a regular dirty diaper. Little Dude had pulled his pants off and had been digging in his diaper and wiping it on his bed. At least it wasn't as bad as that time S-Boogie took her diaper completely off. I was on my way out the door at the moment, so I silently rejoiced that I didn't have to deal with that mess. Then I ended up stuck in traffic and was half an hour late to my class that I'm teaching. I leave my house an hour before class as it is (without traffic it only takes 20 minutes to get there), but today the last few miles of the freeway were horrible. It took me an hour to go two miles. Apparently on Halloween everyone decides to leave work early. Now I know for next year.

Since this blog has been kind of boring lately, I thought I'd try a debate. I don't know if this is controversial or not, but here goes. How do you feel about dressing up like a Mormon missionary for Halloween? Cool? Not cool? Why or why not?

1. I went to the Trunk or Treat tonight and managed to not be too grinchy. It was cold and dark, but the kids had a great time. I even wore a Superman shirt. 2. Today was my last day of completing four-weeks of exercise. I found this fun little calendar online and I managed to follow it for four weeks (I think I missed one or two days, but I've still been pretty consistent). Exercise is not one of my strong points, so I'm pretty proud of myself for sticking to a program for that long. I don't think I lost any weight (I haven't checked), but I feel good. I've noticed that my ability to walk and my desire to do it have really grown over the last few weeks. What I actually want to do know is get my bike fixed up and buy a helmet, because I've remembered how much I like riding my bike and it seems a shame to miss out on the lovely trail right behind my house. Now if I can just improve my diet, I might actually lose a bit of weight with all this exercising I'm ...

Yesterday morning S-Boogie went in her room and got dressed all by herself. I was so proud; usually she drags me in there to discuss her clothing options. We spend twenty minutes arguing and she rejects all of my suggestions. If I tell her I don't want to argue and I don't care, she throws herself to the ground sobbing that she needs help. So yesterday was great because I didn't have to do any of that and she actually picked out something cute. Later in the day I went and picked her up from the bus. She came home, put away her shoes and backpack, and announced: "Guess what? I didn't wear panties to school today!"

I don't normally do this, but I need to feel good about myself. There's another, longer post I've been wanting to write, but I've been so busy lately that it will have to wait. First of all, last night I had to fill out a form detailing all my language classes that I've ever taken and my grades in them. I discovered that my GPA in undergraduate Spanish classes is a 3.95 and in graduate classes is 3.97. I think I'm prepared for additional graduate work. Oh, and I got a perfect score on the verbal part of the GRE. That surprised even me. Also, this is a photo of the cool stuff I won in a random drawing. I don't usually win things, but I was so excited to get it. The blog I entered the drawing on is really cool and I've tried a number of recipes from it that were fabulous. It also led me to this blog , which has the tastiest recipe for chicken pot pie I have ever tried.

Now that she is in school Monday through Friday, S-Boogie is learning about the concept of a "weekend". It's been nice lately that neither Mr. Fob or I have to work on the weekends, so we've been trying to get out and have some fun as a family. Yesterday we drove out to a pumpkin patch over in the Snoqualmie valley. The scenery was worth the long drive. Although it had been rainy and cloudy, the autumn leaves looked gorgeous with the misty clouds over them. The skies were clear during our time at the farm, though it started pouring as we drove away. We did go to the outlet mall because we've been trying to find some good pieces for S-Boogie's Halloween costume. I seriously doubted that we'd be able to find her a blue shirt and red skirt; it can be hard to find basic kids clothes like that. But we actually found a shirt in the perfect shade of blue as well as an adorable red velvet skirt that will work for Supergirl. With a new cream-colored sweater it als...

Today I finally realized something that I wish I had learned about ten years ago, at least. It all started a month or so ago when I saw this sweater in the window over at Eddie Bauer. It's perfect: stylish and practical at the same time. I love cardigans and I don't have a dark brown one. Unfortunately the regular price of the sweater is 68 dollars, and I think it's insane to spend that much money on one item of clothing, no matter how nice it is. But I didn't stop thinking about the sweater. Then I got a Chadwick's catalog that came with a nice coupon for 20 percent off your order. I looked around and saw a shirt that I liked and that came in the perfect shade of blue to match some pants I have. But the shirt wasn't on sale and I didn't like the idea of spending 20 dollars for only one shirt. Instead I looked around on clearance and found a few things I liked and ordered them instead. A six dollar shirt is a better deal, even if it's not exactly the o...

I've started applying to PhD programs. I already paid money to one school and I've asked professors for recommendations, so there's no going back now. I've been somewhat ambivalent about things lately because I really like my life right now. I like teaching just two evenings a week and spending the rest of my time lazing around reading whatever I want. I like not having to do homework and I certainly don't miss the insane politics of grad school and the constant feeling that I'm not worthy to be there. But there's a little voice in the back of my head telling me that this is the right decision and that I won't regret it. And when I looked at UC Davis' website and saw that they have an emphasis in critical studies--including translation theory--I started feeling a little giddy. Course descriptions always make me feel so optimistic; oh yes, I would love to spend an entire semester discussing the theory of myth or "domesticating" vs "fore...

As I've been writing up my monthly reviews of books, I've left a few out that I wanted to comment on more extensively. Over the last six months or so I've read a number of self-help (or as one wants to call itself, "self-awareness") books. The following three are ones that I found to be particularly interesting: Nice Women Get Divorced: The Conflicts and Challenges for Traditional Women by Geneva Sugarbaker This book was published in the early 1990s and is currently out of print. It focuses on women who grew up during the 50s and 60s, so it didn't necessarily apply directly to me. However, it was a good start on my journey to finding out more about my own voice and recognizing my own needs. I like how she really makes clear the difference between being assertive and aggressive, because I often worry that I'll go straight from being passive to being overbearing and strident. Loving Him Without Losing You: How to Stop Disappearing and Start Being Yourself b...

Since I usually blog about the disasters, I thought I should blog about the wonderful weekend I just had. Things got off to a good start on Friday when the college called to let me know that my paperwork had reappeared and my contract was ready to sign. Even better than that, Mr. Fob had decided to work from home so I could drive over there without Little Dude and sign the darn thing. I stopped off at Trader Joe's on the way home and got some yummy munchies, including some cool baby kiwis from the produce section. Friday night we decided to go down to Ikea for some family fun. S-Boogie played in the kids' area while we spent an hour window shopping with Little Dude, then we all ate dinner together at the restaurant (the kids even got free meals from their Kids Club membership). The best part of my weekend arrived on Friday night at the Amtrak station. My sister came up from Portland for two days and we had a fabulous time together. We started things off well by staying up unti...

As I was sitting here feeling exhausted from the last few crazy days, I opened up my blog reader to find this post from Science Teacher Mommy. I thought it was cool, so I'm going to copy it. Tuesday 8 PM--The kids are both in bed, so I decide to spend some time vegging on the internet. Spend nearly an hour making up my mind to go to the grocery store and pick up some milk. 9 PM--Get my cart and my canvas bags and walk to the grocery store. Get my milk and cheese, and then decide to get some canned vegetables because they are on sale for a really great price. After looking around, I realize that some other canned things like tomatoes and fruit, as well as pasta are also deeply discounted. I make a snap decision to stock up our pathetic pantry and fill my cart. The guy at the checkout is not amused, but I manage to save sixty dollars while spending fifty. 10 PM--Feel trashy while walking my grocery cart back to my house. After Mr. Fob helps me unload all the stuff, I take the cart ...

The weather is still cold and wet, and Mr. Fob is still sick, so we mostly stayed inside this weekend. I discovered that staying in the house for two days is not the best way to promote family harmony, especially since S-Boogie is used to going to school with her friends every day of the week. I tried to watch conference and discovered that combining a laptop with cranky children is a bad idea. Little Dude has figured out how to climb on a chair and then up to the table. One of these days he's going to dive through the pass-through and crack his head open on the kitchen floor. That child has such an appetite for destruction--nothing in our house is safe any more. It really wasn't all that bad. Yesterday S-Boogie and I escaped for a while to the library and a wonderful bakery (Grateful Bread Baking Company, ha ha). I bought a hot cocoa to share, but she insisted on orange juice. Such a health nut. When we got home I discovered that Mr. Fob had cleaned the bathroom and trimmed L...

1. On another blog I posted a comment about the general Relief Society President's hair. That was tacky and rude, especially since I just wrote a post about avoiding judgement and striving for unity. 2. Mr. Fob has been sick for almost two weeks, and instead of being sympathetic and supportive I've been grouchy and irritated. 3. Even though I took S-Boogie out to ride her bike this afternoon I was grumpy with her when she wanted my help pushing her up hills.

I know this sounds like blasphemy to many of you, but I really don't like Halloween. I don't like dressing up, I don't like creepy or gross decorations, and I don't like the fact that it's basically an excuse to buy lots of junk and feed kids candy (well, most holidays have now been co-opted by corporate America, so I guess it's not all that different from any other holiday). At least since having kids I have come to enjoy dressing them up in costumes because they look so cute, but it still isn't high on my list of favorite things. I love pumpkins and fall and all that fun stuff, but Halloween is not for me. I'm also really not a fan of the 'trunk or treat' thing. I don't get how wandering around in a dark, cold parking lot is going to be any fun at all. Why can't we just go inside? In my old ward we had a Halloween activity inside the church where people decorated classrooms and then the kids could go around trick or treating to the room...

Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn I thought it was interesting that on my edition of this book they had changed the subtitle from "a progressively lipogrammatic epistolary fable" to "a novel in letters". Since this is a book about the dumbing down of language, I find that interesting and ironic. I didn't really know what this book was about before I read it; all I knew was that it had a cool title and I know several people who loved it. I think I didn't like it was much because I didn't expect political satire--no one told me about that. Once I got over that shock, I found myself liking the book. It was clever and fun. In Pharaoh's Army by Tobias Wolff This was another book I was pleasantly surprised by. I bought it because I have a weird obsession with the Vietnam war, but this was unlike any other war memoir I have read before. There wasn't any slogging through the jungle, buddies getting pulverized, swearing, or anything much like that. It was a...