Yellow Wallpaper

I've been planning on writing another whiny post for a few days, since my week hasn't been going so well. I've mostly recovered from my illness, and S-Boogie has had a great time at her first few days of kindergarten, but it's still been a less-than-stellar week. Thankfully our little mini-vacation today helped turn things around for me. So now we get a positive post instead. My younger brother came out to San Francisco on Thursday for a quick little business trip. He had to leave today at noon, but I thought it would be fun to try and see him for a little while. By the time we drove down and met up with him, we really only had less than hour to hang out. It was still nice to see him and we took a few pictures to prove that our paths had crossed. We stopped by the famous Ferry Terminal farmer's market and got some tasty pastry (and over-priced orange juice). The market is heaven for food lovers like me, but the truth is I'd probably be just as happy with my loc...

Apparently some sort of cosmic force heard last week's rant about church, because I was completely struck down on Saturday night. I went to bed feeling a little sore, but I thought it was just the bike riding we had done. After a fitful night of sweating and bad dreams I woke up feeling dizzy, achy, and delirious. Then I took my temperature: 102.8. Nice. I spent most of Sunday alternating between reading, sleeping, and sweating. I can't believe how exhausted I felt. Monday morning my temperature was back up, but thankfully by the evening it dropped. Unfortunately my throat is still sore and my glands in my neck feel like painful golf balls. All I want to do is lie around and eat ice cream, but my kids won't let me get away with it. But at least I'm getting better and tomorrow S-Boogie starts kindergarten (yay!). The only bad news is that we're having a "mini heat wave" and the high temperature tomorrow is supposed to be 105 (boo!). Maybe next week will be ...

I've been reading a lot lately about ways to save the earth like using your car less often, buying local food, recycling, and all that "crunchy granola" stuff. I'm a big fan of it, but the truth is that I usually end up being lazy and driving my car to the supermarket to get some food that's been shipped halfway around the world. Since moving here, however, we've been working hard to make some lifestyle changes that I hope will benefit the environment. The main reason we've been doing them is because we're poor, but I hope the good karma from earth-friendly living will help us out in the long run. First of all, we've started drying our clothes on a clothesline instead of in the dryer. The weather here is hot and sunny, and we have to pay one dollar per load of laundry, so the choice was simple. Plus we have a little patio on the back of our apartment that's just right for clothes drying. I'm still trying to decide if I want to pay for dryi...

I'll be honest: going to church lately has been hard for me. Not only is taking care of two kids by myself difficult, but I also feel self-conscious about the fact that my husband isn't there. I've been trying to get over it since I know it's mostly in my head, but I still can't help feeling really weird being alone at church. Also S-Boogie has lately been having a hard time since she really doesn't like sitting still in sacrament meeting. She loves Primary, but this morning told me that she "hates sacrament meeting" because it involves sitting still and waiting for too long. I need to work on helping her have a more positive experience. Going to a new ward is also hard. The last two weeks have been good in the sense that I can tell there are a lot of friendly people here. But they've also been very difficult because of the political climate. One of the first things someone from the elders' quorum said when they showed up to help us move in was...

Cicada's post about the squeamish ultrasound tech reminded me of the fact that Little Dude's new favorite word is "penis". He pretty much only talks about it when his diaper is off, but since I have a juvenile sense of humor I still find it hilarious. A few examples: Last month when we were at my family reunion I had to change a very dirty diaper. I took Little Dude into the small bathroom right next to the room where a solemn gathering was taking place in honor of my grandmother. He realized that his voice echoed in the bathroom and suddenly started yelling "penis" as loud as he could. I was laughing so hard I couldn't even breathe, let alone stop him. Thankfully no one could hear us in the next room. Another favorite phrase of Little Dude's is "big, heavy"--said in a very strained voice like he's picking up something enormous. He'll sit in the bathtub and say "big, heavy penis" over and over again. When we were moving Mr...

I think this is probably the longest amount of time I've gone without posting since I started blogging three years ago. We've had some trouble with getting the internet hooked up in our new place, which has been a headache not only for my personal use but also because Mr. Fob needs it for work. Today we finally found out that AT&T delivered our modem to us last week, before we even moved in and despite telling us that they couldn't get service to us before we had moved in. Thankfully the office had the modem and we were able to hook things up, but we are still very annoyed with both AT&T as well as Comcast for being entirely confusing and unhelpful when it comes to installing internet for us. Blah. But we made it and our now in our lovely spacious new apartment. And California decided to bless us with a heat wave this week in honor of moving in. It's going to be 100 degrees today, and the wall unit in the living room mostly just cools the living room and kitc...

The other day my dad was going through some video footage on his computer when we stumbled onto a large video file labeled with S-Boogie's name. It turned out to be about fifteen minutes of footage from her birth--something Mr. Fob and I had never seen before. It was fun to watch her looking around, getting to know people, and (unfortunately) still rooting her little mouth at least an hour after birth since no one let me try breast feeding for a few more hours. Don't worry--that actually went well and she nursed for a full year. Watching the video made me realize how much things had changed, because I honestly have a hard time remembering her as a baby. S-Boogie's birth story is pretty unremarkable. We had wanted an unmedicated, low-intervention birth and so we found a practice of nurse midwives. But S-Boogie decided to spend the last few months of gestation in breech position, and an ultrasound revealed some issues with my uterus that precluded turning her around externall...

Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley I first read Beauty as a twelve-year-old and it soon became one of my favorite books. I was surprised to find out a few years ago that McKinley had retold the Beauty and the Beast story again, but I decided to give this book a try. It's quite a bit different, and longer, but I enjoyed it as well. The writing is beautiful and the story is interesting. I didn't like the main character in this one as much as in Beauty , but it's still a good book. Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier I read this book when it first came out, but I didn't remember it at all. This time around I was mostly struck by the beauty of the writing. The characters are all interesting and the plot kept me in suspense. I do admit to being turned off by the ending; I was disappointed because the book is so unique and yet the ending is just like every other best-seller out there. It's a wonderful book except for the last few pages. A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann a...

After four weeks of visiting we finally left Utah yesterday afternoon. It was nice to visit all of our family members and friends who live there, but I think we'd all agree that a month is a pretty long time to visit. As much as we like everyone, Mr. Fob and I are anxious to get back into a home of our own. It really was a great visit, and as we drove away with our car packed full of hand-me-downs for S-Boogie and Little Dude as well as birthday presents for them, we felt grateful for the generosity of our family members. Thanks everyone for letting us visit. Now we're in Las Vegas for a few more days of fun. Yesterday we spent two hours in the pool with the kids, and then we had a delicious dinner and dessert. True to form the kids refused to go to sleep in yet another new place. Things were also complicated because Little Dude wanted to sleep in a bed (not his crib) and kept crawling in with his sister in her bed. Then this morning the kids got up at 6:30 thanks to the time c...

Actually, my mom wants to be a millionaire. Last month she got a chance to try out for the show Who Wants to be a Millionaire? , and they called her up a few weeks later to ask her to come out for taping. Today was her special day, and it turned out to be mine too. She asked me to be her "phone a friend", which means I had to sign a bunch of legal agreements and spend most of today hanging out next to the phone. I just got off the phone with Meredith Vieira and my mom, and I can't tell you what we talked about. But I can tell you that I thought it was pretty cool and I hope I don't sound quite as goofy if I ever get on Jeopardy! . Talking on the phone is not my strong point. I can't remember the exact air date, but I know it's sometime in October and I'll let everyone know when we get a little closer.

I had planned on meeting a friend for lunch today and then going to the Provo Temple for a session. Then this morning I suddenly had a sinking feeling. And I just checked my wallet: no temple recommend. I often take it out of my wallet and stick it in my temple bag for easier access. And I always forget to take it back out. And of course I don't have my temple bag since I didn't want to take up space in the car. The most annoying thing is that I've done this more than once before. Grrr .

Science Teacher Mommy recently blogged about a "perfect day" they had, and it made me jealous of all their vacation fun. Don't worry, though, the jealousy didn't last too long since we're still on vacation and still having a lot of fun with our family and friends. I don't know if yesterday and today were totally "perfect days", especially since we didn't go anywhere spectacular, but they sure were nice. Last night we went camping with Mr. Fob's brother and his wife and baby, and Mr. Fob's sister and her daughter and neighbor (does that make sense?). We've never taken our kids camping and don't own any equipment, but my brother-in-law is a master camper and took charge of selecting a site, cooking, and building the fire. Thanks a lot! S-Boogie thought her first camping trip was fabulous, and it actually went really well. We got up there around dinner time, spent some time getting things set up and eating, went for a short hike to ...

It's been almost two years since we last had a blog party, so we're long overdue for one. If you would like to meet us in person (or renew the friendship if you already know us), we'll be having a picnic next Monday night at 5:30 in Kiwanis Park in Provo. We'll provide chips and dip as well as paper goods. If you could indicate in comments or email if you plan to come and what you'd like to bring, that would be helpful. Or you could just show up and surprise everyone. As long as you're not a crazy blog stalker. Then you're not invited.

There's something about Utah in the summer that scrambles my brain; although I lived here for a number of years, it seems that most of my memories are from the summer. Mr. Fob and I started dating and got engaged during the summer; both my children were born in summer; I've attended a number of funerals in the summer. Now that we're back here during the summer, I keep having weird flashes of memories. That one ride we went on up Provo Canyon with my baby niece? Oh yeah, she's turning seven now. The birthday party we had for S-Boogie at the pool? That was three years ago. I don't feel that old, but for some reason lately I keep feeling the weight of so many years of experiences coming to my mind, and I realize how far I've come from my life years ago. It's a good feeling, but also bittersweet. I think that many of the ways I have changed are positive, but I also can't help but remember when we were younger and more innocent. I'm not sure that innocenc...

So the kids are finally sleeping better, and we are too. We figured out that they need cool rooms to sleep in and that they need to sleep apart, at least until Little Dude gets over his climbing out of bed fetish. Yesterday we put some doorknob covers on the inside of his room and on his closet, so now he can't escape or play. It still took him a while to fall asleep last night (and he's reverted to needing a parent to help him fall asleep), but he stayed in bed and slept all night. So did I. It was fabulous. My day has also been fabulous because we met up with the McCullochs in the park today, and Jenny is such an awesome friend that she made me chocolate croissants. I feel so special! They were fabulous, and S-Boogie was so happy to have a friend to play with. We're going to get together again next Monday. Speaking of getting together, I think that some time during the next two weeks I want to have a picnic with my Utah friends and blog readers. I'm kind of thinking ...

I keep reading about other people's fun experiences during the summer: how their kids will spend all day happily playing outside in the pool and then crash into sleep at night, sated on activity and Popsicles . I guess I had some sort of expectation that our summer could be like that. Instead, my kids seem to get more and more sleep-deprived with each passing day. Then I tried buying a little pool today, and a bunch of pool toys for it. Both the kids got in for a minute or so, and then decided they were done. S-Boogie would at least play with the water, but Little Dude kept giving the pool dirty looks until he finally stripped off his swim shorts in protest. Then he headed for the house and could only be bribed to stay out a little longer with sidewalk chalk. I'm sure all this would be slightly more humorous without the ragged edge of sleep deprivation. After our marathon night a week ago my body seems to have decided that it never needs to sleep again, and after a week I'm...

I know I've done a post like this before , but I thought it was time again to highlight some of my favorite things: 1. Dove clinical strength deodorant I've always had serious sweating issues, but when they recently introduced more powerful deodorant I was reluctant to try it due to cost reasons. Sweating while in Seattle hasn't been too much of a problem for me, but since we've made a move to the desert I decided to spend the money on it. And I can say that for me it really works. Today we spent a few hours out in the sun at a picnic and exploring Wheeler Farm and I still ended up with a wet shirt, but that was the first time this whole trip and the rest of me was incredibly sweaty too. Other than that, it's been great. 2. Natural Cheetos I was also completely skeptical about "natural" chips, and I still think they're a marketing ploy, but these taste delicious. Little Dude is also in love with them. Their flavor is a lot like Pirate Booty, but I like...

So, remember my last post about how wonderful moving was? And how I was so excited to be doing it? I think reality caught up to me sometime around two this morning while driving through Boise. We had a lovely Fourth of July, which included a very short local parade (one fire truck and a few random people), a pancake breakfast, and a barbecue with friends. It also included a whole lot of frantic packing, continued on Saturday morning. On Saturday afternoon we had a bunch of guys from church show up and empty our apartment in less than half an hour. Then we realized that our stuff wasn't all going to fit into our moving cubes. About two hours later we finally made it fit by giving up our bed. It was either getting rid of it or a bunch of smaller things, and I figured the bed would be the easiest to replace. Then we had to spend Saturday night cleaning and Sunday morning entertaining children in a barren apartment. After church some sweet friends had us over for lunch and we finally ...

This afternoon I decided to suck it up and clean our fridge, since I haven't cleaned it since some time last year and it's now nearly empty (anyone in Seattle want a half-empty bottle of Hoisin sauce?). While I was cleaning, Mr. Fob received a phone call from the moving cube people saying that they are willing to drop the cubes off on Saturday instead of Monday. This accelerates our moving plans a bit, but we're actually both happy about it. I'm definitely going to miss our friends (and the nice summer weather) here in Seattle, but we're getting to the point where we're ready to pack up our stuff and head off to a new adventure. I'm looking forward to seeing all our friends and family in Utah for a few weeks. So tomorrow we're going to spend the holiday enjoying a parade, pancake breakfast, and barbecue with friends. Then Saturday we'll hopefully farm our kids out to friends and spend the day packing like mad. Sunday Mr. Fob will clean the apartment...

Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner I tried to describe this book to someone, and failed. The plot is easy: the book alternates between past and present as a retired historian researches his grandmother's life. I found myself liking the narrative in the past more than the frame story, but they work together well. It took me a long time to read it, and nearly a month later I'm still digesting it. It's a long, slow book, but the writing is fabulous and the story compelling. Long After Dark by Todd Robert Petersen After reading Theric's review , I remembered that I had read a few stories from this collection over the last few years and decided to buy it for myself. I actually didn't like the novella that much, although the quoted section and the theme were powerful. I mainly found myself not liking the characters all that much, though I'm not sure why. Also, as much as I like Mormon fiction, it's so refreshing to read fiction that's just about Mormons and ...