Yellow Wallpaper

Today is the last day of January. I'm excited because that means that tomorrow is February. It's a much better month; not only is it shorter, but right in the middle of the month you get Valentine's Day. As I've said before , I'm a sucker for "Valentimes" (as S-Boogie calls it). So far this year is going well. January flew by in a whirl of illness, working, and rain. Hopefully the next two months of darkness, disease, and dampness will fly by just as easily. After four weeks of the new year my resolutions are still going well. I've been making an effort to have some scripture study time after Little Dude starts his nap each day. I haven't been really consistent so far, but I think it's a time that works well for me and I've been feeling more in tune than I have for quite a while. I've also been going to the gym pretty consistently three times a week, except for that week when I was sick. I think that each month I'm going to try and ...

Yesterday in Sacrament meeting one of the speakers asked, "Do you have a testimony of the resurrection?" I thought that was interesting, given the various things that have been happening in my life during the last few years. I also realized that this is one thing we really have to rely on faith and the Spirit to understand, since it's not going to happen for us to see and it won't happen to us directly for a while just yet. Also yesterday we went visiting teaching and taught a lesson about the purpose of our mortal life and the plan of salvation. Then I came home and got on the internet and found out that President Hinckley had passed away. I guess my thoughts of mortality and death were appropriate after all. I can remember clearly finding out that President Benson had passed away. I was working at Taco Bell near my house and had stopped off after my shift to see my mom at the laundromat where she was washing my family's clothes. She told me that the prophet had ...

First of all, I'm impressed that I have 24 people who care enough about me to give me advice on shoe shopping. I probably won't be going shopping for a few more weeks, but I'll report on it when it happens. Second of all, we have set up an email account for S-Boogie. At first I was a little hesitant about doing it, but she loves dictating emails for us to send on her behalf, and she can actually type a few words herself. It's a great tool for keeping in touch with distant family members. Plus she sends me some very sweet notes sometimes. Tonight I received this in my inbox: Dear Mama, Today is fun and I love my mama and everybody and all my friends love me and I love you and you love me and it was fun today to be with you. And I had fun in my class today and everybody was fun with me but I was sad a little bit times in my class and then I started not feeling sad anymore. And tomorrow I will have fun with you. And I love Mommy and Mommy loves me. And let's have fun t...

I have a problem when it comes to buying shoes. Well, it's actually a problem with buying clothing in general. I'm cheap. Very cheap. I tend to have arbitrary price limits in my head and refuse to buy anything that costs more than that. This does come in handy considering our limited funds for things like clothing and shoes, but it also means that I tend to have a wardrobe of odd, non-matching, ill-fitting clothes. While it's true that I have found some great things at thrift stores and on clearance, I definitely have other clothes that are just plain lame. I will often choose to buy things because they are cheap, even sacrificing what I really want because it doesn't fit my predetermined price conventions. I am convincing myself to buy this jacket because it is comfortable, stylish, fits a wardrobe need (I don't have a blazer or jacket), and matches a skirt I already have. Oh and it comes in petite, so I can get a large that won't squeeze my tummy and not hav...

I guess I'm starting to feel better because I'm getting fired up over the news today. To be blunt, I get really pissed off when people use the tragedies of others for their own political agenda. I've had a few sudden deaths in my family over the years and so I have a lot of empathy for Heath Ledger's family and friends right now. I really don't get why people are freaking out because, as an actor , he pretended to be a homosexual man in a movie . Um, that's what actors do. Why don't we condemn everyone who plays child molesters, mass murderers, adulterers , torturers, and so on? How many people were picketing Marlon Brando's funeral? Also, has anyone who thinks Brokeback Mountain promotes a "gay agenda" actually seen the movie? If you can call living a life of quiet desperation, sleeping with prostitutes, breaking up your family, and getting beaten to death some kind of gay idyll, then I think you're pretty strange. While it's true th...

Little Dude was sick for about a week. He finally stopped having a fever last Thursday and has only been moderately cranky and snotty since then. Having him sick for that long was difficult and I was so happy when he got over it. Then Thursday night I tossed and turned feverishly. I woke up Friday with a sore throat, a headache, and a very bad temper. I've been feeling pretty crummy ever since then. My throat, tongue, and jaw ache. I can't stop coughing and I am amazed at the amount of snot that my head is producing. The only consolation is that today is a holiday so I don't have to get dressed and go to work. Except that tomorrow I need to. Hopefully I'll still have a voice by then. And I won't have killed myself just to make the suffering stop.

The other night on the freeway I saw a Jeep and suddenly had a flashback to that time in my life when I thought that was the coolest car in the world. I'm not really a "car person", but over time I have been obsessed with a few. I thought it was interesting to look back on them and what they say about the kind of person I was at the time. Toyota Corolla I remember being about five or six and deciding that I wanted a Corolla. It had to be almond-colored. I don't think I really even knew what a Corolla was, but somewhere I had heard the phrase "almond-colored Corolla" and decided that it sounded fascinating. There were a lot of phrases I fell in love with as a kid, even though I didn't really know what they meant. For a number of years my sister and I were obsessed with Weight Watchers, even though we had no clue what it involved. I just loved the alliteration of the phrase. Geo Storm When I was about 11, the Geo Storm appeared on the scene. I thought the...

After nearly four-and-a-half years of parenting I finally made my first call to Poison Control today. I woke up not feeling very well this morning, so I tried to spend most of my time reading on the couch ignoring the children. S-Boogie had a friend over and they were playing in her room. I thought Little Dude was in there with them, but then the girls ran in yelling that he had made a big mess in the hall. Turns out he was getting into the hall closet dumping things out. Most of the medicine is out of his reach, but a few things got left down where they shouldn't be. At first I thought he had just dumped out a big bottle of Rolaids. Then I found a mostly empty bottle of chewable acetaminophen and realized that Little Dude's mouth was purple and smelled like grape. According to the bottle there should have been 30 tablets, but there were only 7 left. I know we've used a few, so he could have eaten somewhere between 15 and 20 tablets. Not good. I called up Poison Control and...

First of all, I just wanted to say thanks to everyone for your kind comments on my previous post. There's a little article about the incident here , if you're interested. I talked to my dad on the phone tonight and he reported that most of my family has been able to gather for the funeral. I wish I could be there tomorrow, but I hope that keeping them in my thoughts and prayers is good enough. Thanks to all my readers for your sympathy even though you don't know my family personally. Several friends have posted this new meme , which I think is kind of cool. We travelled a lot last year, sometimes for happy events and sometimes for not so happy reasons. But here's a list of the places I stayed overnight in during 2007. I only hope 2008 is not quite so hectic. Roseburg, OR El Cerrito, CA Elko, NV Orem, UT Smoot, WY Baker City, OR Orem, UT (two trips in a row) Salt Lake City, UT Spanish Fork, UT Orem, UT (again--hi Lika!) Makakilo, HI Pahoa, HI Cannon Beach, OR Beaverton,...

I know I just posted about the great blessings in my life. And I have a lot right now. But for the last few weeks I've been feeling pretty down. I'm sure part of it is the cold, rain, and darkness around here. Plus it seems like every time I look at my computer the headlines are just horrible. The night before Christmas a girl in a town near here decided to kill her whole family, including her young niece and nephew. She shot her mom while she was wrapping presents for the grandkids. I keep seeing updates on the pregnant girl that got killed and burned and on the guy who decided to kill his children. Then there's the girl in Utah who was shot by her ex-husband. On her birthday. In front of her mom. Drunk drivers, child abuse, war--it's just getting to be too much. Especially since many of these stories involve people my age or who have children the same ages as mine. I've always enjoyed reading the news, but it's really getting me down lately. It's not only...

This week was the beginning of a new quarter for me. I spent most of the last month in a state of limbo with work. For quite a while it looked like I would not have any classes to teach. But then a bunch of students suddenly registered for both classes and I found myself teaching four evenings a week. I am now teaching Monday through Thursday from 5:30 to 8:00. Plus I get to commute each night in the dark and the rain (yes it's dark by 4:30 when I leave my house). So far it's been a little exhausting. But at the same time, when I am in class the time just flies. I really do like teaching a lot. I feel somewhat timid still but I am learning how to direct things and how to teach well, but the fact that five out of six students from my 101 class signed up for 102 is a big confidence booster. I also remind myself of last year when Mr. Fob was not only in school but working two or three jobs. Now we both have the weekends completely off, and I get Fridays as well. Plus I still have ...

I haven't been posting as much because things have been busy getting started teaching again (more on that later). But I wanted to pass along some of my favorite things that I've discovered lately: With some Christmas money (well, gift card) we finally got a laundry sorter . I'm in love with the fact that my laundry room is now organized and we don't have piles of dirty clothes and random baskets hanging around. The other day at Ikea we picked up these bibs and they are perfect for Little Dude. I love the fact that they stay on and they cover up his entire shirt and sleeves. So nice! By the way, if you live close to Ikea and don't have any of their kids' dishes , you really should pick some up. They are cheap and durable. I recently discovered Cinnamon Wheat Thins and they are my new snack of choice. Not too sweet, but just enough to feel like a treat. We also checked out Baby Signing Time from the library and I really like it. I was a little skeptical becaus...

We've started an annual tradition of having a party for Dia de los Reyes . I love throwing parties, and it's nice to have one a little later than most other holiday parties. Plus it's a good excuse to eat yummy Spanish food and attempt to bake roscon de reyes . This year my attempt rose rather dramatically in the oven. It was still yummy, but a bit dry. I decided this year to make hot chocolate to go with it and that ended up being a perfect combination. In years past I've generally stuck to tortilla and paella , but this year I was inspired by our proximity to gourmet grocery stores to have a tapas party. It seems a little weird to have a Mormon tapas party since we didn't drink any wine. I did buy a bunch of fun drinks to try with our food; the sparkling blueberry juice was my personal favorite. From left to right we had: assorted Spanish cheeses ( Manchego , Mahon , Tetilla ) with membrillo , tuna tapenade on toasts, jamon serrano and chorizo , assorted olive...

This won't be a very accurate picture of what I read last year, since I didn't write down books for January and February. But I think I will keep up my monthly reading summaries. It's mainly for myself; I'm looking forward to seeing how 2008 compares with 2007. I've been trying to be better about labelling posts, so if you click on "books" that will show you what I've been reading. According to my blog, I read 96 books last year. I can think of at least 5 more that I read in January and February, so I probably read somewhere between 100 and 110 books in 2007. There were also some that I started and didn't finish; I've learned not to be afraid of doing that if I don't like something. I read 46 fiction and 50 nonfiction books. I read 58 books by women and 38 books by men. I know that I have a tendency to gravitate more towards female authors. I think this has more to do with subject matter--I like to read about women. It's more familiar ...

I was trying to remember if I even set any goals for last year. Then I found this post and this one and remembered that I had. I actually did finish one of my major resolutions: finish my thesis and graduate. At this time last year I was really doubting that it would happen. I'm still pretty impressed with myself that I could pull it off (and I'm eternally grateful to all my friends, family, and colleagues that pitched in to help me out). I still feel a desire to be more spiritually "in shape" but don't feel that I've made much progress towards establishing a regular time for study and reflection. And trying to get in better physical shape is still an ongoing project. As for my other, short-term goals, I have made some progress there. I've read a lot of books and watched a lot of movies (yearly report coming up soon). I've also done some work on cross stitch while watching TV and movies, but I'm still avoiding the unfinished scrapbook. I've a...

Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale This is a very good book, although I didn't feel as strongly about it as the Goose Girl series. If you liked those books then you will certainly like this one; the story is fairly similar. The voice of the main character is very strong and I liked her a lot, plus the diary format is interesting. I did figure out the major twist in the plot fairly early on, but it was still a good read. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See I mostly liked this book, but it probably won't go on my list of favorites. The writing was generally pretty good and the characters and story were compelling, but sometimes I felt too much like the voice wasn't very authentic. It felt in places like the author was trying to cram in all the information about nineteenth century China that she could, and while I appreciated that, it tended to distract from the story too much. Well Behaved Women Seldom Make History by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich I liked this book q...