Turkey

It's been a rough couple of months.

Stress from moving

Stress for renting out our home

Stress from Blaine's commute

Stress about the swine flu

Stress about economic collapse


But in the end, I have so much to be grateful for.

Especially this little girlie.

And I'm grateful for the perspective she gives me. Sometimes I think the only way I am making it through the trials of the last few months is with the perspective I now have of how truly precious life is.

It can be taken in a heartbeat, and I am so thankful it wasn't.

I love this little turkey.

In which I am nearly obliterated by large meteor

So....I am never going to sleep, ever, ever, EVER again. I cannot believe I missed this! Seriously. Watch the videos and check out the 911 calls! I guess in a way I am glad I didn't see it because surely I would have died of heart failure.

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

ksl.com - Meteor lights up early morning sky, alarms Utahns

Finally!

Finally a decision that I am excited to stew about for days and days.

It won't affect my life whatsoever

It has no lasting consequences (unless I get food poisoning)

Noone cares what I choose

Life will go on if I make the wrong choice

It affects noone but myself

Are you ready?

What should I pre-order for Blaine's company Christmas party dinner? I will choose whatever gets the most votes. Unless you choose #3.

1) Lemon Pressed Chicken Breast (with artichokes, polenta, chorizo and shaved mimolette)
2)Capalleni pasta and zuccini ribbons with mushrooms, overnight tomatoes and warm oil vinagarette
3)Maple Brined Grilled Pork Chop (with pinoche, pancetta, roasted apples, and grilled radicchio)


I LOVE THESE KINDS OF DECISIONS!

Far Fallen Fruit

You can tell a lot about a person from their parents. Blaine is smart. His Dad is smart. Blaine is organized, his mom is organized. The fruit doesn't fall far from the tree, that's what I've always heard and it seems to be true in many many instances. I've met many of your mothers and they are all upstanding citizens. Baking cookies, darning socks, listening to MoTab.

So, I am a little concerned for myself.

My Mom (yes the one who painted the infamous sign) sent me an email today, and this was her signature.

I think I may need professional help.

The Giver

I am just going to be upfront about this, I am a horrible gift giver.

If it really is the thought that counts then I'm not too shabby but if it is the actual gift? Horrible.

Especially when it comes to my parents. They're good people. They are great gift givers. And all they really want from life are gift cards to Sizzler. Truly. Going out to dinner makes them happy. But the thing is...how lame and unthoughtful is it to give your parents a gift card to Sizzler every. single. year?

Very.

So I conjure, imagine, think, stew, meditate. And I come up with really great ideas! Like the year I gave my dad, whose back has hurt for his entire life, a certificate for a massage. See? Thoughtful! Useful! Non-generic.

He never got the massage. (I got one by the way and it was hands down the creepiest thing I have ever done....."disrobe to your level of comfort" ....psh...another post for another day). The certificate expired, and my twenty five bucks was as good as flushed down the proverbial toilet.

He would have been much happier enjoying steak and all you can eat shrimp. Twice!

Then in 2007 Bentley was born. Both of my parents came out to visit. We had a grand ol' time watching "Everybody Loves Raymond" together. My parents laughed, my dad genuinely enjoyed himself (you don't realize how amazing it is for my dad to enjoy a movie...or at least admit to enjoying a movie). So... a few months later... an entire season of Everybody Loves Raymond was shipped to their house for Christmas. Upon visiting them the next Christmas, a full YEAR later....the Raymond Season was still in its shrink wrap, tucked on the movie shelf, dusty, unloved.

There goes that $30.

So what's a person to do? My most successful gift was when, on his fiftieth birthday, I gave him a cane with a horn and a rearview mirror. It got some good laughs and use for that day. Same thing with the time I got him a "Bop It".

But come on! My parents have done a lot for me. I really want to show them how much I appreciate them and how much I love them. And I want to do it for about fifty bucks. So I can't buy them a cruise. Or their own Sizzler franchise.

Do I give in? Do I give them a Sizzler gift certificate?

HELP!

On the fence

Being a fence sitter is THE WORST. It really is. It makes making any sort of decision impossible. I wish I could just be a die hard ___(insert something to have an opinion about here)____. Then decisions would be so easy because I would feel so strongly one way or another.

As it is I get all worked up about something and then hear one opposing argument and then I think about it and can start to see that side and before I know it I am completely on the fence, yet again.

So, not to open a can of worms or anything but....swine flu.

I've always been in moral angst about the flu vaccine. On the one hand....never had the flu. On the other....don't really want the flu. I always got it for my kids and then one year my friends mom died from complications that arose from getting a flu shot. Agh! Isn't that awful? You do something you think is healthy for you and then...? So then I started getting all angst ridden every year but would usually opt to get the vaccine, and feel kind of sick about that decision.

And yes, people die from the flu too.

There's no winning I tell you.

I hate making important decisions. I really do. Yes I understand that there haven't been long term studies on the swine flu vaccine, but I also underestand that it is a disease running rampant and that people are getting really sick and dying. I know it has preservatives in it...but, people are getting sick and dying. I know I should be able to prevent it by frequent hand washing and gargling with salt water and clapping three times and doing a cartwheel before bed. I've been trying for five years to get Gwen to not pick her nose, totally not happening, even with a rampant virus around. She doesn't care.

People I am in angst! I am totally with the people who think the vaccine is scary and could give you GBS and I am totally with the people who think those people are idiots.

What's a fence sitter to do?

Tell me what you did? Why?

I feel like I wouldn't be able to live with myself either way. If we get the kids vaccinated and something horrible happens, I can't live with myself. If I don't get them vaccinated and something horrible happens, I can't live with myself.

See Blaine Run

On New Years Eve 2004 Blaine set a resolution to run in the St. George Marathon in October of 2005. He had never really been in to running before, so as you can imagine, it was a somewhat lofty goal. On January 1, 2005 he set out for his first run. He made it all of a half a mile and came back huffing and puffing and realizing more exactly how lofty his resolution had been.


But if there's one thing Blaine has, it's determination. He has a stick-to-it-ness that I seriously lack. I am a big quitter. Not Blaine. He went out running every. single. day. It was amazing and inspiring to watch his progression.


But there was only one problem. All of this running was taking a lot of time, and it left me home with a screaming baby. Totally not cool.


So we bought a jogging stroller.

[Pretend this is a picture of Blaine pushing a cute baby Gwen in a jogging stroller]

[we got a new computer! : ) All my pictures are still on the old computer : ( ]

And Blaine and Gwen would go running together while I relaxed. It was what Michael Scott would call "a win-win-win". Exercise (with extra resistance!) for Blaine, peace and quiet for me, exciting scenery for Gwen. Perfection.


They ran together in Provo, they ran together in Oregon, they ran together in Provo again, and then in Minnesota, and then in Provo once more.


As Gwen grew older they would have talks on the runs and it was something they both looked forward to.


We move to Texas and they ran there. Bentley was born and a month later we upgraded to a double jogging stroller, and the three of them would go running.


We got two dogs and he would take them running too.

Many things changed about their runs; the locations, the distance, the company, but one thing stayed the same. Always Gwen and Dad.

I bet Gwen has logged well over a thousand miles in strollers in her short life so far.


It's complicated matters now that we have three kids. I've seen triple joggers around, but that is just getting a bit ridiculous. Plus, Ivy is the best baby in the history of mankind and I live for spending solo time with her. So Ivy would stay with me while the others would go out running.


Then the other day we strapped Gwen and Bentley in the stroller.


We both stood there looking at Gwen. Then we both looked at eachother. And it was then that we realized that Gwen is just simply too big to go on runs anymore. She doesn't fit in the stroller.


And it was a sad, sad day. For all of us. But especially me. And Blaine.

I'm trying to be like

Rallllllphie. Well, kind of. I'm at least trying to get a decent picture of my children once in a while. One time I asked Ralphie why some pictures she took did not include the heads of the subjects, she told me it's all about capturing human interaction. And sometimes that doesn't involve heads.

So with that in mind, I set out to take some pictures of my adorable children.

But my children don't hold hands or dance around in tutus, frolic in meadows or walk alongside railroad tracks or really anything too pictorally cute. Instead they give eachother wet willies.

And poke eachother's eyeballs.

And pull out eachother's pacifiers

I guess we will stick with the individual shots for now !

And just so you know, I am totally aware that this post is center justified and that it is weird. Apparently when I upload pictures from picasa directly to blogger it forces me to do it this way. Either that or I am just too lazy to figure it out, oh well.