A Puzzling Miracle

A new activity has taken hold at our house - puzzles. The story I am about to tell you is true and accurate and sure to amaze... Last Saturday our 2 oldest, Sophie and Ben, woke up early as usual, but they did not disturb us, nor did they raid the pantry for left over Christmas candy or fruit snacks as they have been known to do on very naughty mornings. No, they came downstairs and quietly worked on a puzzle together!! Like they actually worked together in peaceful harmony on a 100 piece Ravensburger chameleon puzzle - for a long time letting the rest of us sleep peacefully! I didn't witness the moment that Adrian descended the stairs to find them happily puzzling at our dining room table with the TV turned off, but he says the scene almost brought tears to his eyes. It was our little Saturday miracle and since then we have bought a few more puzzles in hopes of recreating that moment again... We hope this Saturday morning!
(Here they are doing the same puzzle together on another day.)

U2 in 3D

Saturday night Adrian and I went out with a group of wonderful friends to U2 in 3D at an IMAX theater and it was awesome!! I am probably what you would call a casual U2 fan - which basically means I own Joshua Tree, Actung Baby, and have (or had, I have no idea where it is now) the tape of the Sunday Bloody Sunday single which I procured sometime in middle school. But even as a casual fan I would say it was almost the coolest concert I've ever seen. The Tori Amos"Under the Pink" concert I went to in high school is still the best concert I've ever been too, but this one was just so neat to see because the band is right in front of you. It felt like Bono was right there and you could almost touch him. There was this one point were he reaches out during "wipe your tears away" in Sunday Bloody Sunday and I thought to myself "oh, look he has cute chubby hands!".:) I also found out that the Edge plays a very sparkly guitar! They played so many of my favorites like Where the Streets Have No Names and With or Without You... If you have the chance to see it I would highly recommend going!


So I think it is the best idea to see concerts in 3D - I really hope they start doing lots more like Sting and The Cure! Wouldn't that be great!! But I'm sure it makes Cami and Kellie - the "fans" from our group - happy to know that U2 were the first ones to do it!:)

Romantic Art History Pic for February

So I just had to pick a romantic art history piece for February because of Valentines Day, so what could be more romantic then this lovely painting of Romeo and Juliet by Sir Frank Dicksee?! Dicksee was a Pre-Raphaelite in style, but was never actually a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a reformist movement in art that happened right before the turn of the 2oth century. Many other movements were going on at this time such as Impressionism and Post-Impressionism and even some early Expressionism (lots and lots of 'isms) so the Pre-Raphaelites really didn't get a whole lot of critical attention in comparison with all these other extremely innovative movements.

As much as they weren't considered all that "important" (who can compete with the Impressionists?!) the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood had an interesting point of view. They absolutely abhorred Mannerism which was the "out-there" style of art that took over after the Renaissance. They actually trace the corruption of what they thought was beautiful, un-mechanical, art to the Renaissance painter Raphael which led to their name the "pre-Raphaelites". It's funny because you really never hear anything bad about Raphael except for these guys!:) Raphael was kind of the "darling" of the Renaissance masters - he wasn't as innovative as say Leonardo (as you can see innovation really is the key to be considered historically important), but he was a patron-pleaser and his workshop pumped out massive amounts of art. Raphael was very well liked during his time and in ours. Hey there's even a Ninja Turtle named after him right?! Well the Pre-Raphaelites believe that art started to take a horrible formulaic, ultra-posed turn with Raphael and they instead took their cues from Flemmish art like say Rembrandt and Vermeer and Italian Quattrocento art. They really took painting to a new ultra-romantic and luciously beautiful height. The Pre-Raphaelites major themes are almost fairy tale-ish really, like the knights and ladies of Camelot, Shakespearian characters, and beautiful historic women draped in extremely detailed clothes.

My senior year of high school I had a Pre-Raphaelite calendar which was filled with works by Rosetti, Millais and Waterhouse (though like Dicksee,Waterhouse was never an actual member of the Brotherhood). I loved that calendar and think I left it hanging up for a couple of years just cause I loved all the prints. When Adrian and I got married I bought a print of Midsummer Eve by Hughes (stylistically a Pre-Raphaelite too) at Prints Plus in the University Mall to hang over our bed and to this day it's still in the same place just in a different house now. I have a special fondness for Pre-Raphaelite art - it is considered a bit "fluffy" art-historically, but it's beautiful and oh so Valentines Day-ish.

(Midsummer Eve, by Edward Robert Hughes, 1908)

Meme from Miriam

I was tagged by Miriam to do this fun meme, so here it goes...

10 Years Ago: I was a newly-wed of 5 months, a full-time student at BYU in art history and a part-time teller at First Security Bank. These were special times in my life. We lived in a tiny little house that was infested with spiders and had cracked windows... Oh that house was so cold in the winter and sweltering hot in the summer. But it did have a fireplace which we fired up at least twice a week to keep warm... So 10years ago, as of right now (8:20pm), I had probably come home from work about an hour ago, had grilled cheese sandwiches and chicken noodle soup with Adrian for dinner (that was a typical dinner for us then, either that or Arby's) and was curled up on the couch with a blanket doing homework listening to the crackling of the fire and Adrian typing away doing his computer science homework in the other room. I'm sure at the time I felt stressed and all that, but now I look back on those days and think of just how sweet and wonderful they were.

5 Things on my to-do list today:
1. Register Ben for preschool this fall. (Check, I got to the preschool early this year and was number 16 in line to register - yay! It was a no-stress registration and Ben is all set to be in a great 3-day 4 year old class in the fall.)

2. Return a couple things to Michael's and get a few frames for new picture arrangement on the buffet in the dining room. (Check. Honestly I'm lucky Nina didn't break anything in there - she is so grabby lately, but all things she grabbed and knocked off shelves ended up being non-breakable, thank goodness. Oh she also started pinching Ben's fingers whenever he put his hand on the cart, which is the rule - one hand on cart at all times for Ben. Ben of course kept saying "Ouch, Ouch, Nina no pinch!" I had to keep pulling her hands away from him. Oh, she is getting so naughty! I can't believe the sibling rivalry on Nina's part is starting so early!:))

3. Go to Target and buy a birthday present for Ben's preschool friend's party this Sat. (Check. I also ended up getting a lot more stuff - like the kids' valentines, cereal, eggs, etc. etc. and a pair of baby sunglasses that Nina grabbed and broke before I could pry them out of her little fists.)

4. Go to our dentist for them to fill out a dental form for Sophie's school. (Check. This was annoying. I realize it's important for schools to track whether or not a child is getting dental care, but does the form really need the dentist's signature - don't they trust parents to tell them the truth if their child has been to the dentist in the last year?? I guess they don't. Oh well. It was pretty painless to have the dentist fill out the form, just another round of getting kids out and into car seats again.)

5. Mail 2 packages. (Didn't do. I went to the drive through post office and everything, but they were only excepting cash, and of course I had none, so instead of braving the post office proper with all 3 kids at this point I decided to ditch this to-do item today.)

Snacks I enjoy: apples, string cheese, cheese-its, and now for the bad ones: brownies, and chocolate, chocolate, chocolate.

Things I would do if I were a billionaire: Travel lots, buy some wonderful art pieces, do some good with it. Buy my mom a Porsche! And Adrian too, but if I were a billionaire then I'm just assuming Adrian bought a Porsche back when we were millionaires.:)

3 of my bad habits:
1. biting my nails
2. staying up way too late
3. diet Coke - which by the way I've cut way back on, but when I do fall off the wagon I am a diet Coke junkie


5 jobs I have had/ My first Job Experience:(I think I did this in a meme a little while ago so I'm going to change it up and do my first job experience.)

The first time I got paid to do a job other than babysitting, was working over a spring break when I was 16 at Albertson's giving out samples. A man in our ward hired a bunch of young women to help out just for a week or so. I gave out little mini Wonder Bread loaves and man they were popular. I realized just how much people love free stuff during this spring break.

5 things people don't know about me:

1. One of my most EMBARRASSING moments was during a big auditorium Biology 100 class. I was a brand new freshman at BYU and I was sitting one of the front rows because couldn't see the writing on the over-head projector from further back in the auditorium. I got glasses about 2 months into my college education. Anyways, one day because I was up so close to were the professor was I ended up being asked a couple questions and had microphone handed to me while the whole auditorium quieted and waited for my answers. Here's how it went:

Professor: "Have you read The Old Man and the Sea by Earnest Hemingway?"

Me (very nervously into the microphone): "Yes."

Professor: "What an amazing book...Tell me in one word what that book was about."

Me (I completely blanked out and I was overwhelmed by everyone listening to me in this huge and abnormally quiet auditorium.) : "um....sharks...."

Professor and ENTIRE AUDITORIUM: "Hahahahahahah....!!!!"

The professor laughed and then moved on to the next person who of course answered "endurance" and I totally knew that, but well it was a bad moment for me and I felt like a intellectual loser for many weeks following that. It was then I decided to get glasses so I could move out of the question answering range.

2. I love many Patsy Cline song. "Walking After Midnight" is a particular fave, but "You Belong to Me" and "I've Got Your Picture" are lovely too.

3. I watch the new vampire show "Moonlight" but am hoping they get some more funding and that the writing gets better soon... You can only go so far with a bunch of beautiful actors saying bad lines while sitting on Ikea furniture.

4. I love the board game Lost Cities.

5. I am really getting into politics lately and have enjoyed watching the debates and news coverage - before I found it all annoying, but right now it all seems so exciting and different than past presidential elections.

President Hinckley

President Hinckley passed away on Sunday night. He was an amazing man and had been the prophet since my freshman year in college. I remember the first time I went to a devotional when he spoke at BYU and feeling great love for our sweet prophet. He led the church with kindness and optimism. I was always in awe of how energetic he was and all the countries he traveled to. He was a true prophet and disciple of our Savior and I am going to miss him.

MORE!!

Nina made the sign for "more" on Friday and I was so excited that I got out the camera and videoed her doing it. We've been working really hard on "more" and I was so excited when it clicked for her. All during lunch she used the sign to get spoonfuls of the chicken noodle soup that I was having. But for the video fruit snacks were the bribe of choice. Other signs that we are working on are: baby, open, drink, and milk. She has actually signed "baby" also and it's so cute!!



Oh, and I think I forgot to mention that we did have her hearing checked a couple of weeks ago and she can hear just fine - the little stinker just ignores me half the time!:)

Tekken 5

After many many years Adrian and I once again played each other at Tekken today and it was awesome!! We went to an arcade as a family and I forgot just how much I love playing arcade "fighting games" like Tekken and Soul Edge. Playing arcade games was a huge part of my social life as a teenager and when we started dating it was a favorite activity of Adrian and I. We used play Tekken at the bowling alley in the Wilk at BYU. I was so happy today when we saw Tekken 5 in a quiet corner of the arcade - which was a wild and crazy place, but not too many people were interested in this particular corner which also had Donkey Kong and Mrs. Pac Man right next to Tekken. It was like this little corner was made for our family! Sophie sat at Donkey Kong and played away and Ben sat at Mrs. Pac Man and I think really played it once, but thought he was playing and had a grand time with just the demo screen for a long time.:) So Nina hung out in her stroller and Adrian and I battled away.

As a teen I can flaunt the fact that I whooped almost anyone in Tekken, but my mad skills have gotten a bit rusty... But hey I think the Tekken I played (like 13 years ago) was the original or maybe Tekken 2 and it's changed at lot and has lots of different and might I add super cool characters now. I did pretty good, but Adrian beat me. Obviously the years away from the arcade have dulled my hand to eye coordination. Don't worry though I'm already planning a rematch next time we have a date-night. After we had played a couple rounds a guy came up to us to see if he could play too and Adrian played him first and lost - this guy was obviously quite the gamer. This guy was pretty surprised that I challenged him after he beat Adrian and was equally surprised by my character choice, Sergei Dragunov. The guy chuckled and said, "Man that character looks evil." (Sergei looks like a vampire hence my choice.:)) Well this gamer guy beat me, but before he did I grabbed his character and slammed him down in a fantastic move that made him say "Wow, that was nice!" So I felt vindicated. It was so much fun!! Adrian found it quite funny how happy I was after playing Tekken - it just made me feel all young and silly again and brought back a lot of fun memories. Don't worry though Adrian and I won't become arcade junkies - Nina made it very apparent that a 1/2 hour was her maximum patience for parental gaming fun.
(That's Sergei on the left.:))