Stuff

Yesterday was Little Dude's birthday and I think he had a great time. As usual, I spent several days preparing for the party. And, as usual, I think it was worth it. It is a lot of work to make food, clean things, and decorate a cake. But, it's the kind of work I like spending my time on because I cherish being able to spend time with people I love, and the way I show them I care about them is by doing things for them.

I also spent a lot of time trying to convince Little Dude that he didn't need an Angry Birds cake. Then I got over myself and made him a round cake that looked like a red Angry Bird. For his birthday he got a lot of presents that had either Batman or Angry Birds on them. He was so happy that I realized that it really doesn't matter that much in the end that he likes so many commercial products. We still don't watch a lot of TV and he's not obsessed with any one thing over others. I think I'm just a bit of a snob.

This weekend my parents came to town. On Saturday we went to Ikea because I've been wanting to buy a new bed for a while. I had bought some matching furniture for my bedroom previously but I didn't have the bed that went with it. I bought myself a bed and then moved my old one downstairs so I now have a guest room. I'm really excited to have a place where people can come and stay. In the past I've never been very excited about decorating my home, but I've been slightly envious of people who can do it well. Now that I have a place that I know I'm going to be in for a long time I feel much more enthusiastic about decorating it and making it feel like it's really my own. I don't even care if it happens slowly and takes a while for everything to come together.

I've been reading a lot of trashy books lately. Not anything 'dirty', just stuff with overly soap opera-ish plots and easy to read language. I think my brain is lazy and I just want to chill out when I'm at home. Last weekend I also spent a few hours debating internally about whether I should check some mindless TV-on-DVD out from the library. There are a lot of things I could do with my time: yard work, sewing projects, organizing, reading better books, going to bed on time, etc. But this week I decided to watch TV instead. I still feel a little guilty about it. I guess as long as I don't do this every week of the year, I'll be OK. Right? Now that I've updated the blog (yay!) I'm going to go eat some homemade ice cream and rot my brain. Remind of this moment when I complain about being fat in the future.

Adjustments

I've been working at my new job for two weeks and I've been meaning to write about it for at least a week. The truth is, I've had the time, I just haven't taken it. I've been trying to readjust my thinking and speaking to reflect the fact that most of the time when we say "I don't have the time for that", what we're really meaning is "I haven't made it a priority." Apparently wasting at least an hour each evening on reading internet articles is a priority of mine. I think I need to make some adjustments, because other things really should be on the top of my list.

People keep asking how my new job is going, and the truth is that at this point it's hard to tell. I always have a hard time getting used to new things and new situations. It's not that I dislike my new job, not at all (and things like this are why I hesitate to write about my employment on the internet). In fact, the people I work with are great and I love my new office and my even shorter commute. The work environment is just so different from my previous job that it's going to take some adjusting. Plus the first month or so at a new job is always hard because you just don't know what you are doing or how to do it. I don't have a lot of work experience to draw on either. I do like my job, but I also know that I will like it even more in a few more months.

The transition to working full-time has also not been as bad as I feared either. I have a bit of flexibility in my schedule, so I've been able to get the kids out the door to school and get to work by 8:45, then I take a half-hour lunch and leave work at 5:15. I'm home by 5:30 at the latest. After spending a year working many evenings and Saturdays, I almost feel like I have more free time, even though I don't. It also helps to not have the constant back-of-the mind feeling that teaching classes always brings. I can truly leave work at the office when I leave at the end of the day (although I've already had at least one dream about work so I guess I'm feeling settled-in already).

The kids seem to be doing all right with the new routine, as far as I can tell. I found a very nice girl who is a BYU student and has worked as a nanny before, and the kids seem to like her. P. Bibby gives her the cold shoulder in the morning when I'm leaving, but during the evenings she tells me all about what she did that day so I know she likes her. At bedtime Little Dude still tells me he is sad and that he wishes I didn't have to go to work and that Daddy still lived in our house. He's been doing that for a while, and all I can do is tell him that I'm sad too and rub his back until he gets sleepy. There's not much else I can do; other than that, during the day he generally seems to be doing OK with everything. S-Boogie has actually not even met the new nanny yet because she's in school all day for another two weeks. To save on childcare expenses we only have the nanny come over for six hours a day and then Mr. Fob comes over for the last few hours. There are good and bad things about that, but I know it's the best for the kids so I'll deal with it.

And so, that is what life is like around here. Time seems to fly by faster when I'm at work all day and then home at night for not that much time. However, I've decided to really focus on the kids during the few hours I'm home at night with them (no computer time before 8 for me) and I really like it. It's nice to be home every evening to eat dinner together, go for walks or play outside, and then read scriptures and some stories before getting to bed. I'm learning to readjust my menu planning and shopping and I miss some of my more elaborate cooking, but I'm also realizing ways I can fit it in. I guess my theme for this post is that working is not as bad as I feared it would be, at least so far. We'll see how I feel in a few months.

Reading Roundup: April 2012

Rearview Mirror by Stephanie Black

I think I might have liked this book more if I had not been reading it in the middle of the Whitney crunch. I was trying to read it too quickly and I should have slowed down a bit. It was well-written and deserving of the Whitney award that it won, but it didn't make me want to read anything else by Black.

Gifted by Karey White
I kept putting this book down for a while and then coming back to it. The way it was written made it hard to read; it felt like reading someone's personal journal, but in a boring way and not one that brought out any sense of personality. It was a first-person narrative, but rather than reading like a novel unfolding as the protagonist tells us the story, it read like a rather boring chronology or life history. I also think that I am not the target audience for this book, because I felt like I was missing something. I wasn't entirely sure what the point of the book was or what message the author was trying to get across with everything that happened.

Acceptable Loss by Anne Perry

Out of all the Whitney nominees in the mystery/suspense category I thought this was the most well-written. I also appreciated the fact that I could really get into this book and enjoy it without reading the rest of the series; it almost made me want to read the other books, but I'm not quite ready to commit to that yet. That being said, it was nearly impossible to compare it to the either books in the category.

The Evolution of Thomas Hall by Kieth Merrill

There were so many things wrong with this book that I could write an entire, lengthy post about it. There were some parts that I enjoyed, but there are also major flaws in the plotting, stereotypical characters, and campy overwrought prose throughout the book.

Defending Jacob by William Landay

I actually listened to this as an audiobook; I checked it out during the week the two older kids were gone on spring break so I had a lot of time to listen to it. I might have enjoyed it more as a regular book, however, because the narrator was really irritating. But the story was gripping and I found myself staying up late with my earbuds in just so I could finish the story.

Would it Kill You to Stop Doing That? by Henry Alford

I listened to an NPR interview with the author that was quite enjoyable, but the book was not as interesting. Some chapters of it were brilliantly written and I found myself laughing out loud, but others just didn't capture my interest or were just to self-indulgent to be enjoyable.

I am Nujood: Age 10 and Divorced by Nujood Ali

This was our bookclub pick for this month and I wasn't really sure if I would like it. It was actually a quick, powerful read that made for a very good discussion. The writing style is a little uneven in spots, but this is not a book that is written or read for the quality of the writing. The story and its message are just amazing and this is a book that should be read by a wider audience.

Perla by Carolina de Robertis

The narrative style of this book was much more postmodern and magically realist than I had expected from the description so it took a little while to adjust my expectations and really get into this book. Once I did, I really enjoyed it and found it to be a fascinating look at recent Argentine history.
The Good Father by Noah Hawley

I think it's interesting that I ended up reading this during the same month as Defending Jacob, because they are books about very similar subjects, but written in very different ways. I liked the father in this book more and I think I responded more positively to the more literary writing style.
Movies

Zindagi na Milegi Dobara

I didn't know anything about this movie before watching it; it was a new purchase at the library and I volunteered to watch it just to get an idea of the content. I loved it; there was male bonding, Bollywood dance numbers, a hot guy who didn't like to wear a shirt, and gorgeous footage of Spain. Fun. On a serious note, I appreciated the fact that this was a movie about guys who are friends that was sincere about that friendship and didn't feel the need to make fun of it by adding a bunch of fart jokes. That was refreshing.

The Help
I was a bit reluctant to watch this movie because I had mixed feelings about the book. However, I thought the movie was really well-done and made me rethink some of my ambivalence. Now I want to go back and reread the books simply to see if I would enjoy it more this time around.

Birthday Trip

 There aren't any kids in these pictures so I can put them on my blog. I don't think I've put pictures on here for years. This year I decided to go on a trip for my birthday. I got some extra money from my tax return, and I just wanted to go do something different. I went up to Oregon because my sister lives in Portland. I flew up Tuesday night and spent the night at her apartment. The next morning (after a stop at Voodoo Donuts for a maple bacon bar) we drove out to the coast and spent a few days there. It was a lot of fun. Our first stop on Wednesday was Cannon Beach. I love Cannon Beach; the town is small and beautiful and the beach is gorgeous. I had originally thought of staying there, but even off-season it was more expensive than I would have liked. We walked down the beach and enjoyed the scenery. It was fairly cold most of the time I was in Oregon; I knew it probably would be when I scheduled the trip, but I like the beach even when it's cold. After Cannon Beach we drove down the coast to Tillamook and went to the cheese factory.

We had lunch at the cheese factory (I had a grilled ham and cheese sandwich and salad--which came with cheese on it) and spent some time watching the workers cut up and package blocks of cheese. We also got small ice cream cones for dessert and browsed the gift shop. It was really nice to be able to spend as much time as we felt like whenever we went places and to not have to worry about keeping small children happy. After Tillamook we drove down the coast to Lincoln City, where our hotel was. We took the scenic route and stopped at a few pretty spots to look at the ocean. I got a great deal on a big hotel room with two queen beds and a fireplace. The hotel backed right up to the beach so we had a gorgeous view. After we settled in to our room we browsed the phone book to find a restaurant for dinner; I thought Thai food sounded good so we went there. The good thing about the restaurant was that it had cheap food and the service was fast. The bad thing was that the food was not very good. We ordered a lot so we would have leftovers the next day, but it was kind of mediocre and not very flavorful at all. The spring rolls I ordered only had lettuce and a few scraps of carrot in them. Lame. After dinner we stopped by a drugstore and I bought some snacks, bubble bath, and a cheap mystery novel to read in the tub. I think it was mostly a good birthday, though dinner could have been better.

When we woke up on Thursday the weather was rainy and stormy. We were originally scheduled to go whale watching that day, but when we called the charter service they said they needed to cancel their tours. I didn't want to go out on the water in that kind of weather anyways. We decided to drive down to the aquarium in Newport. I thought it was a bit overpriced, but I did learn quite a lot from the exhibits. Once again it was nice to just enjoy it without the kids, although  at the same time I did miss them a lot while I was gone. We ate lunch at a little restaurant right on the bay and it was the best food I had on the whole trip. I had fried shrimp and chips and it was fabulous. The shrimp were super fresh and the breading was crisp and tasty. The potatoes were perfectly fried too and even the coleslaw that came with it was divine. After lunch we shopped at the outlet stores for a while. I found some cute clothes for S-Boogie for the summer and got myself a few things too. For dinner that night we just ate our leftover Thai food and sat around and watched TV. I don't have cable and I haven't watched any TV since last year, so it was kind of nice to indulge a bit.

 Friday morning the weather was actually sunny and dry. It was a beautiful day. First we went for a hike down to Drift Creek Falls. The trail was fairly muddy and slippery, and we accidentally took a detour that we didn't need to, but the falls and the bridge over them were spectacular. I had worried about doing a hike since I'm not in great shape, but the trail was just the right length for my level of (non)expertise.

After the hike we drove down to Depoe Bay for our whale-watching trip. The sun was out and it was a beautiful day. I had been picturing a bigger boat; we actually had reserved a trip on a smaller Zodiac-style boat, so it was just me, my sister, and a couple on their honeymoon, along with the driver. It was really fun being in that little boat zipping along the water. This is kind of a freaky picture of me because it was really hard to get pictures when you're bobbing up and down in a tiny boat. Those seals ended up being the only animals we saw, unfortunately. The entire experience was still really amazing and I would love to do it again. After our boat trip we were really hungry and tired. There was a big Indian casino in town so we thought we'd try the buffet. Unfortunately the food wasn't great, especially not for the price. My prime rib was juicy and delicious but the salmon was dry and my cheesecake was inedible. We learned our lesson about believing the advertisements. That evening we just ended up watching TV again; there was a beautiful sunset outside but my legs were dead from hiking and everything else that day.

Saturday morning we got up, drove to Portland, ate lunch at Burgerville (fresh strawberry shake!), and I got on a plane and flew home. It was a fabulous little trip and I would love to go do it again some time. Next time I will try to eat at better restaurants. And, as much as I love my sister, I would love to go to the Oregon Coast sometime with someone I'm willing to share a bed with.