It's November!

Happy Day After Halloween! Halloween is one of the few holidays in which I may actually be more excited the day afterwards then on the holiday itself. That's probably because of the even greater holidays just around the corner! I've always found it extremely appropriate to start listening to Christmas music after Halloween. Christmas is too fun to only celebrate for one month... I think it deserves 2. Not to overshadow Thanksgiving, however. I love Thanksgiving as well. It's an enjoyable time. Lots of good food, the last of the pretty fall colors, and time with family, AND the "official" and possibly more socially-accepted-beginning of Christmas! I guess I've made it clear what my favorite holiday of the year is. Why do I love Christmas? This is a good question. Here are some things that come to mind, in no particular order:

1. The holiday music!
2. Snow (Good thing we will be visiting in Utah during the Christmas holidays, otherwise, this most favorite of traditions would be lost... I fear that no snow will be coming to Arizona anytime soon).
3. Christmas decorations
4. A twinkling Christmas tree (I especially enjoy lying underneath the Christmas tree at night with only the tree lights on. It's so pretty to look up through all the lights!)
5. Temple Square outings... always way too cold, but full of great memories!
6. Advent (a tradition from Ben's family that I've particuarly been happy to adopt as one of my own... Over the years, Ben and I have really enjoyed inviting friends over and spending time with them reading scriptures, singing Christmas hymns, and eating awesome desserts!)
7. Getting up early on Christmas morning with the family and fishing through stockings.

There are many more, but I will bore you (if I haven't already) if I continue any further. This last one I mentioned, though, made me think of something else. I have extremely vivid memories of getting up EARLY (like 4:00... and we would have gotten up earlier if mom and dad hadn't started setting rules... later on, I remember we weren't allowed to peek downstairs until 5 and we couldn't wake up mom and dad till 6 or 7). Anyway, my siblings and I would have a pact to wake each other up if were still sleeping so we could go downstairs all together. We would be soooo excited to see what was hiding by the Christmas tree and under our stockings. This makes me realize what a good job my parents did of making Christmas exciting, magical, and memorable for us kids. Now that Ben and I are parents of a growing family, we were now realizing the fun task we have of making the holidays exciting and worthwhile for our children. It was soooo fun to go trick or treating with Emma! I've been way too old for trick or treating for quite some time now and it was wonderful to be able to get away with going out again! I get to relive all my childhood fun all over again through my own kids. How exciting! And this time I get to watch Emma (and other's to come) have fun like I did when I was little. Speaking of having fun, Emma is once again wearing her Tinkerbell costume this morning. She loves dressing up and loves to wear her wings and tutu. She's such a girl.

So, I took some pictures of what the Morning After Halloween looks like. First, is Emma dressing up again (but not in her full attire) and enjoying a taste of her loot from last night.

Speaking of loot, here is a good chunk of the candy Emma has collected over the past few days. Obviously mom and dad will have to help out. Darn. ;)


The last of the pictures is frightening indeed.... and that is of Moldy Pumpkin Man. A thing I've learned is that pumpkins don't last very long in Arizona. It's just too warm, even at the end of October, to keep pumpkins preserved. Poor Pumpkin Man. We will need to dispose of him quickly before we scare the neighbors.

Pumpkins, Costumes, and Candy!

We started the "Trunk or Treating" marathon last night. Emma seems like a real pro. I think she may have done this before in another life (do they do trick or treating in heaven?). Anyway, she carried her pumpkin around even after it was dragging on the ground from being so heavy with candy. She refused to let anyone help her with the load. What a trooper! Trunk or treating is particularly popular around here. In fact, it seems that most kids never do the door to door, at least down in our neck of the woods. The wards have all
started up trunk or treat traditions, in which the kids can collect candy from the back of everyone's decorated vans in a safe contained area. We've enjoyed it and you get a lot of candy without a whole lot of walking! What a bonus. Candy, without exercise. My favorite. So, last night we went trunk or treating in Ben's family's ward and tonight we went out to a friend's ward. We were all dressed up in a theme with Ben's family. Emma was Tinkerbell, I was Tiger Lily, Ben was a Lost Boy, Emily was Wendy, Ben Lee was a pirate, Adam was Peter Pan, Carol was Smee, and Clyde was Captain Hook. We were quite a sight. I never did get a great picture of all of us together, but I've included some scattered photos, so you can get an idea as to what some of us looked like. I hope to get some better pictures on Halloween night, particularly of Emily and Ben Lee because I never did get a decent shot of them in their costumes. Anyway, the trunk or treat we went to tonight in our friend's ward was particularly popular. There was a ton of cars and some great decor. We were laughing at the fact that 95 percent of the cars in the lot were vans. I fear we will be falling into this same mold soon enough. (Gasp!) We ate dinner at Ryan and Taya's home just before going out for our candy exhibition. Taya made a gormet meal of homemade bread and stew and other great goodies. It was wonderful! Below is a picture we tried to take of all the kids on the couch; it was tricky to get everyone to look at the camera.

Before and after our outing with our friends, Ben and I successfully completed carving our Halloween pumpkins. Ben had the clever idea to make a Pumpkin Man. He got three large pumpkins and stacked them on top of each other. We carved the top one with a great silly face. Currently he is out on our closed-in porch, instead of at our front door, so pumpkin smashers won't mutilate his body. I think this is my favorite Jack-O-Lantern we've ever done. Pumpkin Man makes me laugh... a simple face, but full of personality.

Slide Show

I discovered another fun photo gadget, called slide.com. I love the internet! There are so many fun free things. :) Anyway, I just wanted to experiment with this, so I took all my flickr photos and used them for my slide show. Pretty fun, eh?

Get Your Own! | View Slideshow

Recovery

As many of you know, I've had an aversion to hamburgers since I started to get morning sickness with this pregnancy. However, I must truly be recovering, because I ate a hamburger today and I very much enjoyed it! :) What a breakthrough. Ben and I ate a fun restaurant called Firebirds this evening. We went out with friends from school... kind of the calm before the storm of finals which will be starting up in a couple of weeks. We even went without Emma! A friend of mine was so nice as to watch her for us. It's been great because we've just started a babysitting tradeoff. It's wonderful to have someone you can call to babysit, especially someone you trade off babysitting with because then you don't have to pay. I'd much rather pay in labor, instead of cash. Anyway, it's a wonderful feeling to be fully recovered from the sick part of being pregnant. Speaking of recovering, I am finally over my cough. I went to the OB/GYN this past Monday for my second prenatal exam (and the baby is doing great; he says that Lumpy has a good strong heartbeat). I told him about the cough I've had for the past 6 weeks. He listened to my lungs and said that I do indeed have bronchitus. He gave me some great medication and I felt 95 percent better the day after I started taking it! Anyway, he gave me a antibiotic, steroids, chest congestion pills, an inhaler, and some great cough syrup for nighttime. I told him that I hadn't had a full-night's sleep since the coughing started and he prescribed me some really powerful cough syrup that just puts me in a coma at night. I was so excited that there was something safe I could take that could do that for me. I've been sleeping so wonderfully the past few nights. I feel so much better for just finally getting some sleep. Before, I could hardly even nap during the day because I would start coughing whenever I'd lie down. It was incredibly frustrating, because I was absolutely exhausted. I'm just so grateful to finally be better! Oh, and we really love this doctor. Ben came with me this last time and we both agree that he is a great, trustworthy doctor to be taking care of me and little Lumpy. And the most exciting part of all... we have our ultrasound to determine the gender scheduled for Friday, November 17th at 8:30 am. We are soooo excited! I'll start up a poll in a couple of weeks in which you can vote for boy, girl, or other. ;)

Ben is away right now at the hospital working with his preceptor. He needs 10 hours completed before the end of the semester in a few weeks. He's going to spend at least 5 hours tonight and then he'll go again another evening later on. He really enjoys spending time with this ER doctor. It sounds like he keeps things challenging, but fun. Ben seems to really learn a lot while he's there. It's exciting because Ben only has one more semester of classes and then he starts up with rotations. At that point, he'll be moved around every month to a different specialty. He'll get a wide variety of experiences and this will really be when he makes a decision as to what field he wants to work in. It's exciting to see him progress through medical school, especially since he's doing so well!

After 5 months, I finally posted another book review (how embarrasing!). I'm now starting to read the final book in the Series of Unfortunate Events, entitled The End. I'm so excited to see how this story concludes! View my most recent book review for The Screwtape Letters here.

Halloween is approaching...

Oooo yipee! Halloween is almost upon us as we enter the second half of October. I love Halloween... I think this is mostly due to it being the beginning of the holidays. I tell you, though, who arranged the holiday schedule to have the 3 biggest holidays 3 months in a row. Shouldn't we spread the excitement throughout the year a little better? Anyway, I also love the fall and Halloween is the perfect fall holiday. I love Halloween colors and I really love pumpkins! It's fun to decorate with pumpkins and it's great to carve and light a pumpkin to create a lovely Jack-O-Lantern for the porch. For Family Home Evening today we made and decorated sugar cookies in the spirit of Halloween. Emma and I went to the grocery store earlier and bought some things for our cookie extravaganza to be had this evening. She was quite excited to get started. She helped put flour on the counter when we rolled out the dough (and also helped put flour all over herself). Her favorite part, however, was eating the frosting. She alternated spreading frosting on her cookie and taking spoonfuls for herself. It was lovely to watch. Ben did a great job as well decorating his share of cookies. I've been eating his first, because I think they look the most fun. I like to eat fun looking cookies.

Emerging from the Cave...

I've had a leap of hope the past few days that I may actually return to civilation. I think I'm actually beginning to feel better! It's always hard to believe ever actually getting better when you feel so horrible. Anyway, my cough is on the outs and my nausea is much more tolerable.... my appetite is returning... I've been eating foods I haven't been able to eat for the past month (such as pasta, bagels, cheese, etc). Don't talk to me about hamburgers or salads, however. Those are still on my hate list. I was recently watching a DVD that my dad had burned of my mom doing an interview of me while I was 5 months pregnant with Emma. Apparently at 5 months, I was feeling very well.... I was no longer throwing up and I had even gotten over my aversion for hamburgers and salad. Surprisingly, my food likes and dislikes have been the same for this pregnancy as they were the last. (Does that mean another girl?) I thought it would be really different, but they haven't so far. My favorite foods right now (which were the same with the last) are fruit, peanut butter, orange juice, and cereal.

Anyway, since I've begun to come out the fog I've been in for the last while, I finally left the house for a decent outing. (If only the outside of my apartment looked like the picture above!)Ben was so happy that I was feeling better today that he took time off of a few classes and took Emma and I to the zoo. It was really fun! We even bought Emma a very cute "zoo hat" from the gift shop. She actually picked it out. She refused any color but blue. She wore it around the whole day and even went to bed with it. What a funny girl. Ironically, we didn't actually see many animals while we were at the zoo. We spent most of our time eating and watching Emma play on the spray pad and then in the playground area of the farm. We even took some time to eat some ice cream. Yum! We did see some animals, however... all of which Emma really enjoyed. She said "hi!" to them all and got rather affectionate with the goats in the petting zoo. She was petting and hugging all that she could get her hands on. Those poor goats didn't know what hit them. ;) As I write this, I'm uploading some videos of our zoo adventure to add to this post. They are taking forever, because I finally remembered to switch it to high quality video. So, this time they won't seem so out of focus. While they continue to upload, I'll move on to another topic...

Emma's been really getting into dress-up as of late. It started with the Nemo costume we got her. Since then she's gained a growing love for hats, purses, dresses, etc. For Halloween she is going to be Tinkerbell (as part of a family theme of Peter Pan... I will be Tiger Lily and Ben is going to the Indian Chief... the rest of Ben's family will taking the parts of Peter Pan, Wendy, Captain Hook and others). Anyway, Carol and Emily put together a lovely Tinkerbell costume for her. Here's an early photo of Emma trying on her new costume. There are actually some darling shoes with ribbons and bells that go with it, but they are still "under construction". Emma also had fun wearing around some wild rainbow pants (which were actually Ben's when he was a kid. You'll have to ask him why and for what purpose he wore these). So, I'm going to try to compile a dress up box for Emma, since she enjoys it so much. Carol gave us a good start with some hats and other clothing items. I'd like to get her some fun scarves and jewelry and other accessories that she can put on herself and strut around all she pleases. What a good activity for her. ;)

Oh lovely! The videos finished. Enjoy!

Childless for a day

Today was much different than most days. Carol picked up Emma this morning a little after 6 and took her to their house for the day. She wasn't returned until this evening! So, we were Emmaless for the day. It was wonderful! I hope that doesn't sound insensitive, because of course we miss our Emma any time she is away, but it sure was great to have a repreive. I took a great long nap this afternoon and pretty much just spent the day relaxing. It was fantastic! It reminded me a little of when Ben and I were in our married with no children stage of life. We didn't have Emma until 3 years into our marriage, so we had a good long time alone together. It's definitely a different dynamic and lifestyle. But as much fun as it is just the two of us, Emma is just way too amusing to imagine life without her. She keeps us busy and also extra happy. She adds some real purpose to our life. In fact, one of the main reasons Ben and I are so motivated to get through medical school is so that he can be a good provider for our family. We really love being parents! Speaking of parents, just last night, Ben and I stumbled across a Power Point presentation that Emma and I had made for him for this past Father's Day. I've uploaded it to FileFactory. It isn't the most user friendly of file hosting sites, but it was one of the few I could find that would let you upload and share a large file. To view it click on the following link:
Father's Day Presentation. Then scroll down about a third the way down the page to where it says in itty-bitty letters "Downlaod for free with FileFactory Basic". Click on this and then once again scroll down and click on the link that says "Click here to begin your download". The pictures gave us a good laugh and reminded us of how quickly Emma is growing up. For example, she no longer has her pacifiers and she has much more hair! I'll leave you with a picture of Emma when she was a mere 3 months old. What a cutie!

There's a fetus in my belly...

It's been a little while since I blogged, so I feel like I should think of something to blog about. I'm still morning sick (or really, "all-day" sick). I don't know who coined the term "morning sickness", because I'm never just sick in the morning. Anyway, I've been plagued with other illnesses as well, such as a bronchitus-like ailment, and the stomach flu. Some may wonder how I could tell the difference between the stomach flu and morning sickness... well, trust me, there's a big difference, and it's not pleasant. So, the bottom line is that I'm absolutely sick of being sick! I miss being productive and staying busy with the cleaning and taking Emma on outings, and doing grocery shopping and even making mundane post office and bank trips. I miss my routines and just all around feeling well. It's definitely worth it, being sick for my little fetus (a.k.a "Lumpy), but it's not easy and I hope it passes soon. I have 3 friends who are pregnant right now with their second child, just like me, and they all feel like this second pregnancy is much harder than the first. It makes me worried that not only am I sicker than the last time, but that it will linger throughout the entire pregnancy. Oh, good grief!

Well, other than being ill, the only other thing I can think to discuss is the Season 3 Premeire of Lost that aired last night. Man, that show is wild. I'm just so intrigued by the story. Ben and I always have a question/answer/theory session after watching an episode, in which we try to decipher what everything means, and things we desperately want answers to. I'm going to throw out some thoughts on last night's episode:

1. I was shocked to discover that The Others are living in a make-shift suburbia in the middle of the island. This was actually a satisfying discovery for me. I mean, they had hinted in the past that the brown ratty clothes they've been wearing around were merely "costumes". I'm not sure why they want to disguise themselves as crazy native island dwellers, but this is only one of hundreds of other questions I have been asking... best not to get ahead of myself.
2. Why do the Others live on this island? It seems they are actually trying to live normal, modern lives, but how did they get here? I presume that they were all brought here having something to do with the Dharma Initiative, but why are they still hanging around when the project seems to have gone to the wayside? Or has it?
3. I learned from watching the Official Lost Podcast (to view, click on the link and then click on the "Season 3 Video Podcast 1" in the list of Lost videos clips) that there are indeed several factions of "Others". Maybe that Carl guy that was in the cage next to Sawyer is part of some other group, outside of the one we know.
4. Who is Rouseau, really? What are her intentions/loyalties on this island? I have been wondering recently about Henry's capture. He seems to be quite a leader figure with the Others; he doesn't seem like he really would have allowed himself to be captured, unless it was on purpose. Was Rouseau in on his capture to help him get in with the Lost survivors? I definitely think that Henry being captured, and brought back to the hatch, was all intentional, in order for him to get entrenched with the plane crash survivors and to learn about them, and maybe even with the plan to get Michael to do his dirty work with the promise of returning Walt.
5. Speaking of Walt, what is going to happen with him and Michael? There is no way they are really just heading home. They must have been set up for another trap or something. The Lost Podcast says that we will find out about them, but not for a little while. Apparently, we need to learn some other things before returning to their story.
6. What happened to Desmond, Locke, and Ecko? Are they dead? I have a hard time believing that, but I believe they were all still in the hatch when Desmond turned the key and that bright light occured. So, I'm not sure what happened with the hatch and the magnet and all that.

Okay, this is getting way too long. The bottom line is that I have way too many questions, and who knows when they will be answered. I'm with Dadoo: I'm so "lost".

General Conference Weekend

Oh, relief! Emma has gone to bed. She has been very 'alert' today and only took a 30 minute nap. She's been pretty wired lately. It's like her personality has doubled in enthusiasm in the last few days. She's so funny. I've been particularly impressed with her ability to recognize her alphabet as of late. She pretty much knows her entire alphabet, with the exception of a handful of letters. She definitely can't just spout of the ABC song, but she recognizes most letters when shown them. Even when we've been out places, she yells out "B!" or "O!" to me. She's really been noticing letters all around her: on signs, books, food boxes, etc. She is amazing. She really enjoys reading Curious's George's ABC's. She likes the animals in it and all the letters. Ben has recently been trying to see if we can get her to learn her numbers. So far, she says that all numbers are "two". That's amusing.

Ben is studying right now. He's been studying all day, and even sacrificed one of his brief break moments to do the dishes for me. He's really been super dad/husband lately. I've had a complete aversion to dishes and many food items. He's taken it upon himself to keep up with loading and unloading the dishwasher, wiping the counters, and cleaning the pots. What a good husband I have. I don't know what I'd do without him.

So, as the title of this post declares, it is General Conference weekend! I discovered a great option for watching Conference. Recently, BYU TV started up an online broadcast of their shows. You can watch BYU TV live all day from your computer! It's really amazing, and especially great for conference. I was able to lie in bed with my laptop and watch Conference today. It was very comfortable. And the best part is that you can pause and rewind! Awesome! Anyway, the video quality is really great. To view, go to www.byu.tv. Happy Conferencing!

Games

I've been really enjoying playing Yahoo! games the past couple of days. One arcade game in particular, called Dynomite, has some strange memories associated with it. For some reason, I was really into playing this game during the last month of my pregnancy with Emma. I remember sitting there in our Provo apartment playing Dynomite while having contractions. Towards the last few weeks I would have a few contractions a day and sometimes they would come in spurts every five minutes or so. One evening, Ben and I were at home and I was having contractions about every 3 minutes for a couple of hours. We called the doctor and the nurse told us that unless I'm really in pain with the contractions, then it's nothing to go to the hospital for. Well, they weren't anything particularly painful, just tight and strange feeling. The bottom line is that nothing came of it and in the end I was induced into labor anyway. What was I saying before? Oh, yes, Dynomite. My point, I guess, is that now when I play Dynomite, it makes me think about contractions. How funny. And since I'm pregnant again, it has an extra special meaning. I've also been enjoying a game called Typer Shark, which is funny in that it is really just a typing game, like Typing Tutor. But, it's really fun! To me anyway. You have to type given words as fast as you can before the sharks eat you. It's amusing. With both of these games, it has three options for play. You can buy the game for 20.00, or you can download a free trial version, which is just like the game you buy, but you can only play for 60 minutes. The third (and my favorite) option is to play the web version. It's a simpler version of the game, but without any time restrictions and it's free! So try them out. And if you look around, I'm sure you'll find another game or two you'd enjoy as well.

Mom mentioned to me that she's been working on a 500 piece puzzle. Well, I must admit that I was working on a puzzle of the same size last week, but I threw in the towel. I had made some good progress, but finally got to a point where I just couldn't make any more headway, without getting super frustrated. To me, the key to a good puzzle (at least when trying to finish one on your own) is to find just the right difficulty. Even very hard puzzles I can get a good start on, but eventually (unless outside help is given), I get to an impass where I've already put together all the easier parts and then I'm left with 200 pieces or so that tend to be the same color. Blast! So, to me, a 500 piece puzzle is perfect for a group/family project, but if being done alone, I'd prefer a 300 piecer. What's your opinion? Do you like puzzles? What's your frustration limit?

Oh, and ABC is back showing episodes for free online. They have a special Lost preview show, where they go back and look at the last couple of seasons and talk about what's happened. I thought it was entertaining and a good review before starting into the new season next week. To view it, click here and then click on Lost. It will bring up two episodes to choose from: the last episode of Season 2 and the Sneak Peak episode I'm talking about. Happy Lost watching!

Round 2

So, I'm going to make an official announcement for all the world to read and declare that I am 10 weeks pregnant! Yipee! I finally went to my first prenatal appointment yesterday afternoon. They even did an ultrasound! When I was pregnant with Emma they only did one ultrasound at about 20 weeks to determine the gender and just check up on how she was doing. At this new doctor's office, though, they like to do an ultrasound in the beginning to confirm the due date by checking on the growth of the baby. They have ultrasound equipment right there in the office, so it is definitely more convenient. The doctor's office is also attached to Arrowhead Hospital, which is where I will be delivering this new baby when the time comes. By the way, the due date is April 24th, and I should find out the gender around Thanksgiving time. For now, the fetus name is Lumpy, which is what my belly is right now. ;) Emma's fetus name was Squishy. We find that a fetus name is quite handy during this time before the gender is determined, let alone any name ideas. Then we don't have to just refer to fetus as "baby" or "it". Anyway, Lumpy is keeping me quite nauseous at the moment. I hope it will end soon. I've been feeling quite gross for about 3 weeks now and I anticipate about another 2 weeks of this, assuming it goes like the last one. But we will see. Oh, and like I mentioned before, I got an ultrasound done with a cute little picture. Lumpy is small but has a strong heartbeat and was wiggling around. How amazing! I don't have a scanner, but I tried just taking a picture of the photo... it didn't turn out great; even with the flash turned off, I was getting a lot of glare. For now, this will do. Ben is going to try to get it scanned at school so I have a better quality picture saved to the computer. It's nothing that exciting, but exciting for us, so we want to share it.

We got Emma a Nemo costume at the Disney store recently. She thinks it is the greatest. It's really funny. One time she insisted on wearing her Nemo costume, holding her Nemo stuffed animal and watching the Nemo movie all at the same time. What a funny girl. She definitely knows what she wants. Currently, she really enjoys Nemo and Elmo. I'd like to get Emma the new Elmo TMX for Christmas. She'd think it was hillarious. And secretly, I'd like it too. :) If you haven't already seen what the new Tickle Me Elmo can do, check it out on the video that my sister uploaded to the Muffin's blog. That Elmo is so funny.

Girl Shopping!

Oh, Saturday. How is everyone doing today? I am disappointed in that my cough/cold is still grasping on for dear life. I feel like my cough in particular is becomming more and more intense. In fact, Ben and I both have it, and when we are together, we sound like a bunch of dying, old people. I'd say my only hope is that it will past quickly, but Ben has had it for a few days longer than me, and his cough is still going strong. Good grief. Despite our illnesses, Ben thought it would be good for us all to get out of the house together. I haven't left in the house in three days (since I got back from Utah) because I've been feeling so under the weather. Ben thought it would be good to get some fresh air, so we did. We went over to the nearby Arrowhead Mall. It was a fun outing. We even got some fun things. It turns out, we were rather blessed with good fortune this month regarding our bills. First off, since we just traded in the truck to get the Altima, we won't have a payment to pay for about another 45 days, so that means we don't have a car payment to pay this month. Also, we were shocked to receive our utilities bill and discover that they actually owe us 45 dollars! Does that ever happen?! Well, I guess we paid a deposit at the beginning of the year or something, and now that the new payment year is starting, we received it back. What a lovely surprise! In addition to this, we are finally closing our account at UCCU up in Provo, which is where we've been had our auto loan for the truck. When we close it, we'll get 100.00 sent to us from our savings account. Anyway, other than rent, those are some of our largest bills to pay (car payment and utilities), so we justified a little fun money! Ben decided to spoil "his girls" by getting me some cute new shirts and makeup and Emma a new outfit. We even found Emma some very darling pink sneakers and a pink belt. She is so petite that she has been in desperate need for a belt. She turns 19 months old today and she is still often times too big for 12 month old clothes. Especially with pants... if I find something that fits her tiny waste, than the length is usually way too short. So, I think the best compromise is to find pants the correct length and then put on a belt to keep them up. Oh, what a chore, but what a cute Emma we have! :)

Ooooo... so, the 3rd Season of Lost starts on October 4th! I'm pretty excited. I really believe that Lost is the best show on TV right now, with 24 in a close 2nd. I'm not sure what to think coming into this new Lost season. I have so many questions and I'm worried about being disappointed with the answers. So far, I feel like my questions have all been "answered" with more and more questions. It's like a door is opened, only to find 10 more doors behind it. It's frustrating but very exciting. I think this series could go one of two ways... I will either be extremely pleased and satisfied with the story and its solutions, or incredibly disappointed. The writers have just really set up quite the mystery and I hope it all ties together in a logical, yet fantastic way. We will see... Woohoo Lost!

Speaking of TV shows, I've been really enjoying another series called Numbers. It's basically a detective show that utilizes math to solve crimes. It's pretty fun. I've really enjoyed it and have found that the characters (so far) are respectable people who live decent, moral lives. It's rather refreshing... and I love how math is the central theme. It's quite different from other shows on now.

Have a good day, or for whatever is left of it. And Happy 19 month old Birthday to Emma! :)

Puzzles, Munchkins, and Sheep.

So, I've been visiting my lovely family in Utah for the past week. Thus, I have been away from the blogging life for a little while. As I've mentioned before, I tend to never blog when actual fun things are going on in my life. I guess because I'm too distracted to bother. It isn't until my life gets back to the regular day-to-day routines that I actually post something. If I was really fun, I would post some audio blogs while I'm out and about at fun places... like when I went to Disneyland this past summer. How amusing it would have been to hear "Yo ho, yo ho, a pirates life for me!" in the background, while describing my experience on the Pirates of the Carribean ride (a.k.a. The Johnny Depp Adventure). But, no... instead, I took minimal photos or things to remember my trip by.... and the same has occured for my Utah trip. I, once again, took no photos or record of my travels. I'll just have to sum up for you. I came down with a cold for much of the trip, putting a slight damper on my outings during my visit. However, I found much to do, despite this ill-fated intruder. We put together many a puzzle and played many games. Dad even purchased a new game, under Aaron's counsil. Apparently, he played it often on P-days and really loved it. It's called Munchkin. It's basically a parody of games such as Dungeons and Dragons. It was pretty amusing, and fun to play... it did take a once-through before we all got the hang of it. There are a lot of cards and many different rules and steps. But it was worth the learning curve. Apparently, there are also a ton of expansion sets to get that add even more fun. Aaron said he especially enjoyed Star Munchkin. In addition to game playing, we also made another visit to Wheeler Farm. We took lunch and visited the animals. Emma's favorite seems to be the chickens, especially the rooster. She also conversed with the sheep, by approaching one and saying "Baaa". I think they shared with each other their own versions of the meaning of life. We also made some shopping trips, mostly for Emma stuff. She got some new pants, a dress, socks, and shoes. Grandma also bought a booster seat for her to use at the table. She's been ready for a while now to sit up with us at dinner and be a better part of the conversation. :) This morning at breakfast, we hooked up the seat to her own chair at the kitchen table. She chewed her muffin with the rest of us, and gave us all looks that said, "why are you all looking at me". Ben and I thought she was really cute eating like a big girl with her mom and dad. She is growing so quickly and developing quite the sense of humor. It's nice to have another personality in the mix to keep us entertained.

Anyway, it was a pleasant week, and really fun to see the family. Now I am trying to get back into life at home. It's hard to just jump back into routines, but it's nice to have them. Oh, and while I was gone, Ben held down the fort, got 100% on his Pathology test (I have a genious husband!), and cleared the way for the carpet cleaners. I love clean carpets!

Oh, and please comment on my newest post for the Book Review. I am seeking suggestions.

Happy Labor Day!

Aw, labor day. A strange holiday... I've never been quite sure what I was celebrating. This year, I thought I would look into the meaning of Labor Day and how it all began. Of course, I consulted the trusty Wikipedia site and discovered that there really isn't a great story associated with the holiday. I was rather disappointed. I learned that in 1882 the Knights of Labor, a labor union consisting of a small group of Philadelphia tailors, organized a parade in NYC. Another parade was held in 1884, at which point they started to pass resolutions to make it an annual event. President Grover Cleveland made it an official holiday in 1887. I suspect that their may be more to the story than this, but this is all I could gather. Let me know if you could add anything. I was a little surprised to learn that the holiday was started so long ago. I guess I would have thought that it was more a recent holiday that didn't begin until at least the early 1900's. Anyway, so I guess we can thank the labor union of Philadelphia tailors for our holiday celebrations to be held today.

So, I don't have any plans for today, other than clean the house some. Ben may need to study during a chunk of the day. In an ideal world, today we would be having a picnic at a park (and the weather would be a magical 78 degrees with no wind), spending some time swimming, and maybe going to see a movie. I'll let you know if any of my dreams come true. Actually, let me be a little more adventurous in my dreaming here... I really wish I were in Disneyland, or on a cruise, or traveling Europe. Yeah, that sounds like a wonderful Labor Day, eh?

What are your Labor Day plans? If you don't know yet, see what Strong Bad is doing for Labor Day... mabye you'll get a good idea from him.

Some videos...

In addition to the post below, I thought I would add something else for today. I told mom I would post some more videos of Emma since it has been so long. Emma changes so quickly. She's been speaking more and more everyday. I could no longer write down all the words she can say. It would be too many! How exciting! Anyway, I made two quick videos. The first you can watch below and the second you can watch by clicking here.



Sorry about the poor quality. I often forget to switch the camera to the high quality video and then when it gets stretched out, it looks quite blurry. Oh bother.

A new car!

So, I have not fallen off the earth. I have just been rather busy and distracted from things such as blogging. You may wonder what else falls under such a category as "things such as a blogging". These "things" often include writing in my journal, taking a bubble bath, curling my hair, reading a book, exercising, etc. All of these things are much enjoyed when I get myself to do them, but often not at the top of the pile of things to get done, so many get pushed to the wayside, until the right moment arises. So, I'll get to the couple of major points I wanted to fill you all in on (even though, most that read my blog, already have known long beforehand regarding anything I post... but act surprised anyway, so that I feel like this is worthwhile). We got a new car! Well, actually we said goodbye to our much beloved Chevy truck and traded it in for a more family-friendly and fuel-efficient vehicle. We are now driving around a lovely 2005 Nissan Altima, so it's used, but practically new. We feel spoiled with many of its features... especially considering the fact that we have never been privileged to have such luxuries up until now. One such prized convenience is finally having power doors and windows with a nice little clicker for my keychain. My naughty secret from the past is that I would always leave the back door unlocked, so that I could get Emma in and out without having to unlock the front door with my key and reach around to unlock the back door. Now I just push a button and I am much more secure in the process. I also have a tilt wheel... which for many may seem like a standard feature, but in the past, I haven't had one... now I can truly see over the steering wheel in a manner that is pleasing to me. There is even power seating on the drivers side, and I can raise my seat up a little if I want to. Oh, the joys of being short. Emma can relate, as is shown in the picture to the right (taken at the Tucson Children's Museum). Here's another secret... when I was in high school and first started driving, I would sit on a phone book in the good ol' Nissan Pathfinder so that I could see over the wheel more easily. And I guess I haven't really gotten any taller since then... oh drat. Anyway, we are just loving the new car and since we were buying used we didn't have much color choice and ended up with another white car. We tend to always have white vehicles. So, now we have the Altima and the particularly-crappy-now-that-we-have-a-better-car Chevy Cavelier. Two white cars... one nice, one not-so-nice. Currently, Ben and I are trading off on a weekly basis, so that no one gets jealous. ;)

Another fun event that occured was that we finally spent a day at the waterpark... at the tail end of the summer. Waterworld is only about 10 minutes away, so we spent last Saturday playing with our school friends. Emma just loved it! We all know she loves the water, but I was worried there wouldn't be much for her to do... but there was plenty! I could even take Emma down the big slides that you sit on a tube for; I just had Emma sit on my lap. She giggled the whole way down. I don't think she could believe we were doing such a crazy activity as sliding down a twisty 30 foot tall slide on an inflatable device while wearing swimsuits. It was a grand time!

A little pebble in the ocean

Dear blog readers,

How are you? Have you had a good day? Did you make anyone smile? Did you do something uplifting for your mind, such as read a book or have an intelligent discussion with a friend or loved one? I sometimes like to evaluate my day with questions like these... at least today anyway. I made my primary children smile today when I brought them a treat for following directions. Our lesson was on obedience today and they were good examples of this important attribute. I also read my scriptures today and that was quite intellectually uplifting. Anyway, I would love to hear what some of you have done today to make it a pleasant one.

On another subject, Emma is now in a big girl bed. Her crib is officially put away and is now sleeping in a twin size bed. We had initially planned on getting her a toddler bed, but instead found a lovely antique twin bed that we couldn't pass up. The real story is that we thought it was the width of a toddler bed, but when we got it home and actually measured it, we discovered that it was about 12 inches wider than that. So, we changed our plans and just decided to have Emma sleep in this bigger bed. We found a great thin, but comfortable foam mattress at IKEA. Since it isn't as thick as a regular mattress (and it is without box springs), it keeps the bed quite low to the ground and will hopefully prevent any injuries as a result of rolling off the bed in the night. So far, Emma's new bed experiences have been successful. She's taken good long naps and slept through the night without falling off. She's also been quite good at not getting out of bed when it's time to go to sleep. She's learning quickly that she needs to stay in bed when we put her there and it isn't a time to get up and play with toys. We are very proud of our big girl... but I tell you, she looks quite small in this bed... a little pebble in the ocean. ;)

Days of the Week

So, today is Saturday. I don't know what to think about Saturday. I used to really love Saturday, because Ben and I would go out and do fun things on Saturday. It usually consisted of shopping and eating out. Nowadays, though, Ben has either been busy studying for school or needing to work at the hospital. So, lately, I haven't been able to form an opinion on what I think about Saturdays. It basically just turns into any other day of the week. Since Ben is often gone, Emma and I try to stick with our regular routine, so we don't go crazy. Anyway, since in the last post, I was blabbed about how I loved Mondays, I thought I would create a quick poll for what everyone's favorite day of the week is. The poll creator only let me have five answers, so I just put other to include Tuesday-Thursday. I'd be interested to find out if anyone's favorite day of the week is actually one of those. Especially if you select "other", be sure to explain your choice in a comment. Oh, and I voted Friday as my favorite day of the week. I like it the most because I still have routines for the day, but I usually have something to look forward to for the evening, since Ben and I have tried to set apart Friday evenings as "Ben and Susan time". It's usually a simple activity like watching a movie at home with some ice cream, but I enjoy it just the same.



The past couple of days, Emily has been in Tucson inspecting schools. So, we've had Adam at our place during the day. It's been very eventful and busy. On Thursday morning, we spent some time over at the apartment playground. I thought they were pretty funny to watch, so I took a short video:

While watching this video afterwords, I was rather surprised to notice that I actually giggled after Emma took a face-plant off the slide. I guess she didn't get hurt, but you'd think I would run to her aid or something. Good grief. Who gave me permision to be a mother, eh? ;)

Fishing for Family Time

Happy Monday everyone! I enjoy Mondays. I haven't always, but recently I've really appreciated each new week. It's like a new start. One of my goals for today was to do something fun with Emma, so I took her to a new squirt park I discovered that's relatively close to the house (about 10-15 minutes away). It was great! It was small, but new, nice, and fun. Emma enjoyed herself. She always likes to get wet. I haven't taken any Emma pictures for a while, so I've posted a couple from our squirt park experience.


My other goal for today is to have a decent Family Home Evening. I started to prepare some things last night (which is great, especially considering if we even do an FHE at all, I usually won't pull something together until 5 mintues before). Yesterday, Emma had done some coloring in nursery of some "Obedience fish". Each fish has a simple statement that needs to be followed, such as "Sing 'I Am a Child of God'", or "Put your hand on your head". So, I cut each fish out and put some magnets on each of them. I just need to fashion myself a small fishing pole. Hopefully Emma will have fun with it. Anyway, our Family Home Evening will be on Obedience, so I also found a good Conference article on Obedience, in which I'll pull out a few thoughts for Ben and my sake. This is the first time I've ever even tried to really include Emma in our Family Home Evening. We usually do something in the late evening, after she's gone to sleep. But, especially now that she is starting nursery, I really think she'd enjoy some FHE activities we can do as a family... such as fishing for obedience fish. I'll let you know if we are successful. I welcome any suggestions for fun lesson ideas or activities to do with young children in a Family Home Evening.

Pioneer Day?

I really don't have time to be doing this right now... but here I am anyway. What does that tell you about me? Well, to begin, I am often a procrastinator. I know others that are worse procrastinators than me, however, because they never seem to get worried about stuff until the very last possible second, or even until it's too late. I start to get a sense of looming doom as due dates come near, so I start dealing with stuff soon enough that I can take care of it, but still not as soon as I would like. Maybe good advice would be that if I'm feeling a sense of doom upon me, I've already procrastinated longer than I should have. I would prefer to be so on top of things, that sense of "doom" would never arise. Anyway, second of all, I am not great at prioritizing. Otherwise, I would be planning my tutoring for this afternoon, or paying bills, or cleaning my house... instead of blogging.

So, now that I've given you a peak into my inner flaws, let me continue with other more cheery issues. Yesterday was Pioneer Day! I had several interesting convesations yesterday regarding this most obscure of holidays. First of all, I would never have thought of it as "obscure" until I moved out of Utah. In Utah, Pioneer Day is a state event. Businesses close, people have barbeques, and parades and fireworks ensue. I even called a bank in Utah, whom we still have an account through, to pay a bill and they were closed in honor of treasured Pioneer Day! It is a lovely holiday. In fact, it has always been like a second 4th of July for me. But now that I am in Arizona, I have learned that Pioneer Day is obscure indeed. Even most the church members don't even give it a second thought. It's quite a change in perspective. However, I had my own "inner" Pioneer Day celebration yesterday. I wished many people, "Happy Pioneer Day!" and reminisced of my Pioneer Day childhood memories. So, yesterday was a lovely "private" holiday for me, despite the lack of fireworks, parades, or barbeques.

Well, I will now go back to dealing with my errands, tasks, and chores. In parting, I wish you all a lovely belated Pioneer Day!

Living like a Queen....

So, this past week (since Sunday night) I've been down in Tucson, AZ, working and playing. I had to visit several school districts to do inspections in the area, and there was also an AASBO (Arizona Association of School Business Officials) Conference going on in Tucson as well. Because of the Conference, we were able to stay at a great resort during the week! We stayed at the Marriot Starr Pass Resort. It was a lovely place, with a great pool! We all spent a lot of time swimming. Above is a picture of me looking lovely in my white swimsuit. ;) Also, Emma really showed off her daredevil acts, jumping off ledges and dunking herself repeatedly, giggling all the while. Anyway, our only real parking option was valet, so I got really used to driving up to the front and giving up the car to someone else to park for me. I felt rather spoiled, always having someone at the front to open the door, welcome me back, and help me with my luggage. I also reaped the benefits of room service, something I wouldn't mind having at home as well. What a joy to call for a variety of meals, from breakfast to dessert, and have someone deliver it to your very room! Anyway, now I have to figure out how to find food for myself as a lowly commoner. Oh, if only I were the Queen of France, with people serving me at every call! I wonder if I would tire of such a life. I may never know. :)

My brother is home!

So, I feel like I've died and now come back to life. It's been quite a while since I've posted anything, or checked the computer at all; now I feel like I have at least 10 posts worth of material to share. So much has gone on in the last few weeks. First of all, my brother came home! Elder Szymanski is now Aaron and we are so glad to have him back with the family. Emma and I flew up to Utah on June 28th to get ready for Aaron's return. We made silly banners and signs throughout the neighborhood and decorated the house up real nice and tacky like. :) We even made him a cake shaped like Wisconsin with little flags marking all of his areas. So, on June 30th we went to the airport and picked up our lovely brother. He was smiling, but quiet. After a couple of days though, he was rather normalized and seemed to be happy in familiar surroundings. We had a great couple of weeks together as a family. We visited grandparents, did fireworks in the driveway, played some disc golf (Aaron's new passion that he picked up on his mission), geocached, watched movies, played games, and went to Disneyland!! Disneyland was wonderful... it is my absolute favorite place! Ben drove up from Arizona to meet us in Anaheim. Sadly I wasn't the greatest at taking pictures while we were there. I was too excited and busy to bother. ;) But I did take a couple...

To the left is Aaron, Mom, and Dad in line for the newly remodled Pirates of the Carribean. The classic ride is now sporting several appearances of the infamous Captain Jack Sparrow. There were also a couple other special effects changes. I found the differences to be subtle but quite pleasing.
Below is the family taking a break while at California Adventure. This was taken on the second Disneyland day; as you can see, we look pretty worn out. ;)

So, we had two days at Disneyland and then on the third day we spent the morning at Newport Beach. It was busy but beautiful. It was nice to be able to sit and and enjoy the ocean breeze. Emma really appreciated the big waves as well. Aaron also dug a hole for Emma. We put her in it, but she didn't like that very much.
After the beach we started our long drive home. Luckily we opted to stop about halfway to spend the night in Prim, Nevada... about 30 minutes outside of Las Vegas. We stayed at the Buffalo Bills Hotel and rode on the scariest roller coaster ever! Good grief... it was an experience of a lifetime I tell you. Apparently in 1996, "the Desperado" was listed in the Guiness Book of World Records as the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world. Well, I believe them, because it was the craziest ride I've ever been on. I was giggling, and crying, and screaming all at the same time, if you can imagine. So, the next day, we drove the rest of the way home and I was then able to spend a couple more days with the family before flying home on July 12th. My birthday was on the 11th. I turned 24! I had a nice day... Mom took Emma and I to a new aquarium that opened up nearby. We saw sharks, and stingrays, and octopus, and jellyfish! It was very educational and entertaining. I also did a little birthday shopping, and went geocaching and disc golfing with Aaron, Dad, and Sarah. Mom was so nice as to babysit Emma for me while I got to get out for a while.

On Wednesday morning I flew home with Emma and Ben had a few birthday surprises as well. He had cleaned the apartment top to bottom (even dusted!), and made me a romantic gormet dinner. I feel like I have a chef for a husband. I thought the meal looked so nice, I took a picture of it. Yes, I don't take any great Disneyland pictures, but I was sure to take one of my dinner. :) He also got me some beautiful flowers and a cute trifle bowl from Crate and Barrel.

Today, I'm trying to get back into my responsiblities... figuring out our finances, putting away Emma's vacation stuff, tutoring, and visit teaching. Next week, Emily and I will be traveling to Tucson to inspect schools for the week. Oh, if only we could be on vacation every week.... but then, I guess they would no longer be vacations.