My time in Austenland

I just finished the cutest book, Austenland by Shannon Hale. If I could have read it in one sitting, I really would have. But as it turned out I read it in about a day and a half. It was a fun, little, romantic-comedy of a book. It's all about a woman's vacation at a resort in an English manor house were they recreate Jane Austen novel fantasies for their guests. If you have ever seen the PBS documentary Regency House Party (which I loved) it's really similar to that. The main character has to wear period dress and adhere to all the Austen-period social rules. Isn't that a neat idea for a book?!! I loved it, but of course this is coming from a person who is now typing this post out on a computer named "Mr. Darcy"!! (And my i-Pod is named "Mr. Bingly"!! :)) I really loved the author's voice and I'm looking forward to starting another of her books, Princess Academy, which I've heard rave reviews for. So thanks Mendy for suggesting this little escapist gem and now I think I'm going to see if the kids will tolerate me watching Pride and Prejudice while they play. :)

Brakes!!

I was just informed by my minivan's mechanic (which we dropped off at the dealership this morning for routine maintenance) that I need among other things new brakes!! I guess they are metal to metal. I am so bummed out about this. It's going to be 525 bucks to get new brakes (along with the normal maintenance stuff) and that's just not what I was hoping for right now... Honestly, I was a little concerned that they needed to be replaced - a little squeaky lately - but I was so hoping they would last through the summer. Oh well. I know that a few friends with the same minivan have had the brakes go out too and at inopportune times, so I'm glad I'll get new ones before they go out completely. Hmmm... I have a sneaking suspicion it might be a common problem with this model of minivan. I called Adrian at work to let him know they were replacing the brakes and also told him about friends' vans that have had theirs' replaced in the last couple of months too. He said that my friends and I needed to do some cutting back on the drag racing!! I thought that was funny!

Because I always like to include a pic, below is a favorite pic of Sophie and Ben asleep in our minivan. Hee hee!!

Dad Day

I'm going to take the opportunity to blog for Adrian today. I think he had a really good Father's Day, with exception of the long home-work hours at the end of the day. This class he's taking is a killer and he pretty much has to spend hours every single day working on home-work for it. Poor guy. Yesterday he got to take 2 much needed naps, got presents from me and the kiddies, and had his favorite dinner - crockpot BBQ ribs, manly pasta salad, watermelon, root beer, and brownies for dessert. For presents this year Adrian got a new lawn mower (our old push rotary mower was horrible) and his favorite candies and cards from me and the kids. Also on Saturday night we had Father's Day eve dinner at the Outback, which is Adrian's next to favorite restaurant. His favorite is a Japanese hibachi restaurant about 20 minutes away, but that is absolutely not a favorite of our children, so he consented to go to his next to favorite restaurant for our sanity's sake.

Adrian, thank you for being a wonderful husband and father! You are amazing with our kids and they all light up when you are with them. You know they each have you wrapped around their little fingers - even little Nina has her own special "Daddy pick me up" whimper already which is hilarious! So happy Father's Day to the best Daddy in the whole wide world!!

Flashback Friday

I was just watching the Today show and they had a story on the cicadas emerging in Illinois. If you don't know what a cicada is, that's one over there. GROSS and they only come out ever 17 years. I guess there are some varieties that come out after less time then that, but they spend most of their lives under-ground feeding off of tree roots and then they come up out of the ground and mate for short period of time. Something like 2 weeks?? And then they die. It's an incredible life-cycle when you think about it and they are very interesting.... This aside they are freaky and a few years ago I spent my own time in cicada-mania, to which I will now flash-back... ( I feel like there should be some sound effect there.:))

Let's just say I had no idea what I was in for that summer of the cicada. When they first started to come up out of the ground we, as a family, went out into a wooded area in our neighborhood and took lots of pictures. We were so excited to find ONE in the grass. (This was really early on in the emergence.) I even let Adrian get near me with the thing so I could get a better look at it. "Oh, that's pretty cool." Little did I know... Soon more and more AND MORE started emerging from the trees around our house. They were so loud! They are the worst fliers, because they can hardly see out of those HUGE RED EYES and they fly right at you. My most vivid memories from this time were dropping Sophie off at preschool and trying to run as fast as I could with her to the preschool door. This while carrying Ben who was just a baby and praying that if one landed on me that I would not drop him. I would repeat over and over , "I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine....." to convince myself that I could handle it if one landed on me. And oh, they did land on me... I remember one that landed on my shoulder when I was going out to the car and I couldn't bring myself to touch it to brush it off so I just ran in circles - nice visual, hu - until it fell off!!! They don't bite or anything, but they are huge and GROSS. And me being well...myself, I just had the hardest time. Most of the time I tried to stay inside and if I did go out it was only because I HAD too (so pretty much just to drop Sophie off and pick her up from preschool). I seriously got a little depressed because I felt trapped in my house and wrote lots of melancholy entries into my journal. (I think I remember listening to an unusual amount of the Cure during this time too - does anyone remember that part of The Wedding Singer!! :)) Sophie was in heaven though. She loved those cicadas. She made little cicada crafts in preschool, caught them in the yard with Adrian, and talked about them constantly. She thought they were the coolest, so for her I am glad we had the experience, but for me... not so much. When all the cicadas started dying it was gross. Squishy dead bugs all over. But I was happy! So good luck to everyone in Illinois!!

Quick note on an unrelated topic - last night was our quarterly enrichment night. We had the biggest turn out ever in my experience as enrichment counselor - 54 sisters!! Yay!! The theme was "Extreme Home Makeover" and we had classes on room-makeovers, de-cluttering your house, and a cute President Hinckley's "Be's" plaque-craft. We had chicken caesar salad for dinner and that ended up being a great thing to feed such a big crowd. I did have to go buy more lettuce and chicken because we ran out, but it was so fast to put together more. Big shout out to Corinne, our fearless enrichment leader, and too everyone on the committee, and those who attended that might be reading this, thanks for making it a wonderful night!!! I really felt a sense of sisterhood last night and I am so grateful for the Relief Society!!

Persuasion

I just had to share this paper I found in Sophie's school folder. In her class they are learning how to write persuasive paragraphs - making an opinion statement followed by supporting arguments. I'll just put down what Sophie wrote.

Dear Mom and Dad,

In my opinion I should have a cell phone. First, I could order us dinner. You wouldn't have to call the restaurant yourself. Second, I can call you if I need you. I'll stay safe. Finally I'll buy the cheapest phone. You will save money. As a result I hope you agree that I should have a cell phone.

Love,
Sophie

Wow, so can you believe that!! I read it and then talked to Sophie about it asking her if she really wanted a cell phone. She got all giggly and nodded her head. I totally had no idea that this was on her mind - my Sophie is acting so tweeny!! I showed the paper to Adrian and he just chuckled. We especially enjoyed the ordering dinner and "cheapest" part. Sophie is a hoot! You can also tell in that that we've been stressing the need to save money at the moment for vacations and what not. Isn't it funny how much kids absorb that you don't even realize. Anyways, I don't think we'll actually be buying our 7 year old a cell phone just yet, but it was fun to hear her opinion on the subject!! :)

Attack of the Blue Lizard

Maybe I should call it "Revenge of the Blue Lizard". For all I know the lizard that is RIGHT NOW!!!! in my downstairs bathroom is the same little blue striped lizard that broke into our house a couple of years ago - or maybe its the brother or grandchild or great-grandchild.... I have no idea what the natural life-span of a lizard is.

I should start at the beginning. This morning when I was heading out the door to go visiting teaching a little blue lizard ran at my feet! I cannot begin to explain the terror of that moment for me. I started screaming and jumping up and down (whilst holding Nina tightly:)) and just as it went for the door I slammed it hoping to either keep it out of the house or smoosh it. No such luck!! It went straight into my house!!! ICK ICK!!! I seriously didn't know what to do. I didn't want to try to find the thing myself, but I could just imagine it getting all cozy in my house and I'd find it crawling on me in the middle of the night or something... I'll admit these thoughts were not entirely rational, but I had them. So what did I do?? I called Adrian at work!! I told him I needed to go visiting teaching and while I was gone he needed to come home, find this lizard, and KILL it (or at least catch it and take it to another neighborhood across town so it could never find its way back!!! :) I am realizing everyone is getting a not too pleasant glimpse into my deep creepy-crawly issues..... Anyways, Adrian agreed to try to find it and he did come home and try, but couldn't find it anywhere. Oh, the horror, but I managed to fight my fear and go home after visiting teaching to have lunch and get Nina a nap. If I had no children I'd probably be at the mall right now waiting for Adrian to get off of work so I wouldn't have to face being alone in a house where a blue lizard may or may not be. So anyways I get the kids lunch and in the course of events go into the downstairs bathroom near the front door. I looked down and saw a little lizard tail sicking out from under the trash can. I probably jumped a couple feet in the air and started screaming!!! So of course Nina started crying hysterically - poor Nina... She hates loud noises... The lizard in the midst of all this is staying put under the trash can so I went into the kitchen and got our bigger trash can, dumped out the trash and tried to put it over the smaller trash can in the bathroom to trap the lizard. It didn't work. The lizard ran into the opposite corner of the bathroom which was of course followed by jumping and screaming on my part and renewed hysterical crying on Nina's part. I hurried and shut the bathroom door and quickly pondered the situation. What to do. I had it in the bathroom, but what if it came out under the door!!! So quickly I got the packing tape out and sealed the door up. I really laid the packing tape on and I give myself some credit here because I was thinking when putting that first strip of packing tape over the space at the bottom of the door that that lizard was going to coming running out towards my face at any moment!! My hands were shaking, but I did it. Then... I called Adrian again. His co-workers have now also gotten a glimpse into my neurosis and I'm a little embarrassed, but oh well... So Adrian said good the packing tape should hold it and that when he got home he'd take care of it.

Now we're almost at the point I'm at now, but there's been a new development - the lizard tried to come out and now it's stuck to the packing tape!!! It's making horrible creepy sounds as it struggles with the tape and I am feeling awful. If only it would have stayed away!!! I didn't start out my day wanting to kill or maim this poor little creature. The chain of events it set off by running at my feet are now out of my hands. It must be DONE IN in order for me to remain in my house with some level of sanity. I just hope its brothers and sisters don't seek revenge... :) I'll let you know what happens...

I'm now updating at 6:40pm - Adrian came home from work and took care of it. I was gone at the time picking up Sophie from school, but it's in a better place now. (Anywhere other than my house is a better place, but it's in a much better place if you catch my drift.) Poor little blue lizard...

Flashback Friday

This one is a flash back to middle school and my obsession with Romeo and Juliet. I had chosen in 7th grade to read Romeo and Juliet for an English class book report. We had to have the books approved by the teacher and read so many pages a night, blah blah... Well I had recently watched the 1968 Romeo and Juliet with my sister, Lori. She had rented it at Blockbuster and told me I should watch it with her because it was one of her favorites. I loved it!! It was instantly my favorite movie and still is. (On a side note I should say it is not my favorite because of that ONE scene, probably despite it! :)) So I thought, hey I should read Romeo and Juliet for my class. The teacher rejected the book and told me that I would have to wait to read it in 9th grade when it would be taught because I would NEVER be able to understand it on my own. I took this as a personal challenge! That's my rebellious streak for you. I HAD to prove this woman wrong. I read it on my own and studied that play (and the Cliffs notes for it :)). I memorized whole parts word for word. I can still remember the beginning chorus, " Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona, where we lay our scene...." I began to love the eb and flow of Shakespeares's beautifully written words even though they were hard to understand and I had to look up lots of phrases. I remember specifically wondering what "he'll have the chinks" meant and found out "the chinks" means money or specifically Juliet's dowry. My school notebooks from that time were doodled over with little Romeos and Juliets. For me there's just something about that story - it's just so romantic and crazy and full of impetuous youthful drama. I've seen all the movie versions (I think), the ballet, and live performances, as well as a Czech cartoon version with subtitles... that was interesting. So back in 7th grade I fell in love with Romeo..... and Juliet and Mercutio, Friar Laurence, Juliet's Nurse, Benvolio,Balthasar.... and even a little bit with Tybalt (he had some good lines... :)) I think I will always have a soft cozy place in my heart for this story.

Morning Out

After the wonderful morning I have had I would be remiss to not blog about it... My kind and generous friend, Corinne, babysat Benjamin AND Nina this morning for me to get a little time to myself. Ahhh, it was wonderful. Thanks Corinne!!! :) This would be the first time that I have left Nina awake with anyone (well except Adrian of course, but he doesn't count :)). Last time she had a babysitter she was asleep for the night, but sadly woke up and screamed until we got home hours later. BUT today was not that bad at all. Corinne said she was sad for a little while, but she calmed down and even crawled around and played with toys! Yay!! I am so excited that maybe she will start being a little less clingy. I can hope. I haven't even said where I went. I went to a local French bakery and had their petite dejeuner which was an assortment of little pastries (I had mini croissants) with butter, jam, and orange juice. I sat in a comfy chair, ate my croissants, sipped my oj, read my book, and loved every minute of it. A litte break does a mommy good. My shirt and hair actually still smell like the bakery - a nice reminder of my morning out. After I had my breakfast I strolled through a crafty shop near by with papers and stamping stuff and bought a couple of sheets of neat paper with vintage cookbooks and postcards on the them. I think I'm going to use them on a giant journal page about my morning. In fact, I think I'll go work on it now. :)

Flashback Friday

Since it's so hot and all the local pools have just opened up I think this is a good Friday to flashback to my first memory. I was probably 18 months old (so I've been told by my mom) and I was in an infant safety swimming class. We had a pool in our backyard so my parents really wanted me to be "water-proofed" in case I ever fell in, so they enrolled me in an infant swimming class meant to teach young barely toddlers how to roll onto their backs and float. Well it turned out to be a brutal affair. I remember being in the water and in my memory I thought the instructors were out to drown me. I was sputtering and flailing my arms, screaming, and looking for my mom. How is that for a first memory?!! I guess it is a first memory because it was traumatic enough to stick in my mind. I even remember quite vividly a sign on the wall that had crossed tennis rackets on it - the pool was at some type of sports club. I also remember the water had a greenish hue and burned as it went up my nose. It turns out I did learn how to swim at a really young age, so maybe it all worked... Crazy first memory, but there it is. What's your first memory??