Tag Archives: random

En boca cerrada, no entran moscas.

Posted in Diapers, Divinity by
(photo credit)

Translation: In a shut mouth, flies cannot get in.
Interpretation: Sometimes silence is the best option.

Even though my mind has been really busy, none of it has seemed very blog-worthy, and no one wants to bore others on purpose.  So here’s a brief report of the happenings around here lately:

  • Matt is on his way home right now from finishing day two of the Bar exam.  It was hard.  He feels nervous.  I gave him a hard time about “You’d better pass or I’m getting a nanny and going to Hawaii for two weeks to recover,” (because I’ve been single-parenting for so long while he’s done law school and studied for the test, and because I’m so supportive like that), but I know he really did his best and we just have to wait for fate to play itself out.  I really am proud of him, regardless of the outcome.
  • When it’s a school holiday and you are trying to keep your children under control so your husband can study, might I suggest driving an hour and a half to an indoor swimming place and letting them swim for FIVE hours?  They will be so tired that they can’t even speak on the way home and then you simply have to tuck them into bed on arrival.  Plus you get to sit in a chair and read books while you “supervise” them.  (I fully admit that I have entered a new stage of life where my children are big enough to need minimal supervision.  This would have never been possible in the last 8 years.  I acknowledge the new-found blessing, and I embrace it.)
  • I have been using MyJobChart.com for a few weeks and it has worked so well with my kids.  I just want to mention how much it warmed my heart when Grant — the child I have been butting heads with lately– spent his very first hard-earned job points on “Mom time.”  I still can’t believe it.
  • Have you ever noticed that even though you complain a lot about something and even have small-scale tantrums about it, as soon as you make it a matter of prayer, progress is made, and then you feel like an idiot for complaining so much in the first place?  Cases in point:  1.  Boo hoo, poor me, I’m new and it’s hard to make friends. –> More people than I ever imagined signed up for my girls’ night out and made me feel like a rock star, plus some little doors cracked open and I’ve felt some positive opportunities for new friendships.  2.  I’m annoyed with the school situation here. I wish I could find some better options for my boys. –> I got a phone call saying that they had both (literally) won the lottery and were accepted into a well-reputed charter school.  3.  I feel a little “underwhelmed in the kingdom.”  I miss teaching. –>  I got an invitation to substitute for an Institute class at BYU and some random emails with loose invitations for possible speaking assignments.  Common ingredient in all three “solutions”: prayer.
  • I think I might have been marked in the pre-existence as “the one who will always have library fines.” I’m just faithful at fulfilling my destiny, that’s all.
  • I am so sick of filling out medical history forms.  Shouldn’t there be some big database out there for that?  Kind of like ancestry.com, except it’s more like diseasesofyourancestors.com.  I should really market that.
  • Clark just came into the room singing about how happy he is.  When I asked him why, he replied, “Grant said he’s going to run away because he hates me.”  I’m so proud of the loving family I’ve raised. *shaking head*

See?  Sometimes silence is the best option.

Crunching Numbers

Posted in Diapers by

Here’s what the math facts are saying around here lately:

15:  the number of people who said they want to come to the Girls’ Night Out!  Actually, there were a lot more that said they wanted to come, but they had silly excuses like 28-hour drives or previous commitments and stuff.  (We’ll miss you.  *Sniff*)  If you said “yes,” go check your email RIGHT NOW.  I need a confirmation before I buy your ticket.  It’s not too late to join the fun.  Here’s all the info, so just leave a comment on that post to let me know you’re interested, and I’ll forward you the email about it.  I’m going to purchase tickets Thursday night or Friday morning.

The rest of the ugly numbers . . .

7: the number of days left before my husband has to take the Bar exam.
3000: the number of dollars it cost to buy the prep materials for the Bar exam.
0: the number of times I smiled when I told him that if he doesn’t pass this test, he’s a dead man.
90,000: the number of dollars we owe the government for allowing us to have 4, now going on 5, years of school-related stress and husband-related absence.
30+: the number of times I’ve put the kids to bed by myself while he has been studying (because he has to, not because he’s lazy) since Christmas.
0: the number of trophies I will win as “most supportive wife ever.”
6: the number of months we have lived here because all of that work really did help him get a wonderful job, even though we had to move across the country.

changing subject, but still counting . . .

6: the number of “breakfast” purchases I just saw on Clark’s school lunch purchase history. He eats breakfast at home every day before he leaves, mind you.
3: the number of the hour in the morning that I stayed up until last week watching “The Locator” on TV? Have you ever seen it? They help reconnect lost or estranged family members.
4 and half: the number of gallons of tears I shed while watching multiple episodes of aforementioned show.
2 1/2: the number of books I’ve read in the past week. Yay me.
1: the number of really decent meals I’ve cooked in the past week. I’ve cooked a few others, but they don’t really fall into the decent category.
57: the number of degrees that our house was when I woke up the other morning.  I about died. I think I might have felt the same if I had spent the night inside our refrigerator. I awoke to Grant standing in our doorway wrapped in a quilt.
5: The number of books Natalie read this week. Natalie learned how to read this week!!
12: The number of phone calls I had to make to get Natalie an appointment with a pediatric endocrinologist that could see her before April. (I’ll say more about this a little later when hopefully I have more answers.)
10: The number of children that were baptized at the same time as Grant the weekend before last. It was not easy for me to make the transition to what seemed like a conveyer-belt approach to baptism, but I’ll bite my tongue and try not to complain about it (publicly). Despite my frustrations, it was a lovely day, mostly because a lot of family was here to share the  day with us. And, of course, because Grant was happy.
4 or 5: the number of times I have wanted to put Grant in solitary confinement this week. Incidentally this number is down about 235% from last week.
-4.61: the number under the column “available balance” in my checking account right now.  (Sorry, honey)
623: the number of words in this post.  Egads, I’m wordy.
2: the number of times I thought about chocolate while I was writing this.

Stuff that just needs to be said

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This week will be our first Find-a-Friend Friday and we’ll all meet a new blog friend.  To all of you who “applied” for the honor, you made it!  It’s a long list, but I’ll get to you eventually.  If you missed it, go back and check out the new plan and add yourself to the list if you’re interested in playing along.

—-

I almost feel like I owe a small apology about my post yesterday.  I still stand by a lot of the points, but in my attempt to say that we all need to be more forgiving of each other, I also kind of lumped the people in the “statistics” into a category of people who don’t get it, which I didn’t mean to do or say or imply.  I joked with a friend that we all need to study this talk by President Monson over and over and over again until we start to realize that we can NOT judge others unless we know their hearts, which we usually don’t.  It’s hard to do, especially when we think we’re right about something, but we need to extend the same kind of forgiving mercy that we hope to receive in return.  (And the less we think we need it, the more we probably do.)

—-

After I declared my undying love for Enrique Iglesias on my Things I Love post the other day, one of his songs showed up in my Pandora feed and it was VULGAR.  And then I felt really stupid.  So just in case you were all thinking I’m some kind of closet listener to explicit music, I’m not.  At least not on purpose.  I still love his old-school Spanish stuff.  But please don’t run out and buy his latest stuff on my recommendation. Please.  Okay, thanks.

—-

This is not any kind of formal announcement or anything, but last week I decided I wanted to write a book about motherhood.  Not a how-to book, but more about the doctrine of motherhood.  Of course, as soon as I started writing it, my children were possessed by demons and I’ve spent most of my time trying to hide from them or sending them to their rooms.  So then I felt like “Who in the world do I think I am trying to write a book about motherhood when I don’t even like my children?”  (I do, of course, really love my children, but you know, there are days . . . ).  If I could only learn to be as patient with them as God is with me.  So we’ll see how that all pans out.

—-

And finally, as a public service announcement, if you stay up too late relishing the child-free time you have, you’ll always pay for it in the morning.  Just go to bed and get your sleep so that you can deal with the next day better than the day before.  The “freedom” feels great at midnight, but it hurts come morning.  And have you ever noticed that if you try to get away with it anyway, your children will always wake up at least a half hour earlier than normal just to rub it in?  You’re welcome.

The season where dreams (almost) come true

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A week or so ago, we were on our way home from a family outing and decided to eat out because it would be too late by the time I got dinner ready at home.  We stopped at a Chinese buffet.  Is it weird that except for when I actually lived in China, I don’t think I’ve ever been to a Chinese buffet before?

Anyway, I wasn’t very impressed, but my children pigged out to an embarrassing level (Matt gave them free reign of the dessert buffet.).  Then they each got a fortune cookie as we were finishing up.  Grant opened his and started jumping up and down for joy.  He started yelling, “Yes!  I’m going to Disneyland!”  He was SO excited.  Matt and I looked at each other quizzically and I asked him for his fortune paper.  A close look revealed the following fortune:

“You will soon be traveling to a distant land.”

His hasty reading had an unfortunately over-abundant translation.

I tried to comfort him by reminding him that he had just consumed more desserts than children in most third-world countries get in a year.  Somehow that wasn’t quite as magical to him.

Personally, I think it was a nice introduction to the season where Santa politely says no to most of the things on his Christmas list anyway.  🙂

(For those of you who missed it, please join us in the  12 days of Christmas challenge! Random acts of kindness daily until Christmas. Today’s the “2nd day of Christmas.”  Click here or on the button on the sidebar for more information.)

Behold, a blog-stuff extravaganza!

Posted in About Blogs by

We now take a break from deep thoughts to just have a little bit of fun.  It’s like a three-ring blog circus:

  1. General Conference Blog-sharing Activity/Contest
  2. Comment Prize Giveaway
  3. Post-It Awards

General Conference Blog-sharing Activity/Contest

It’s been a long time since I participated in a meme (don’t worry, I had to look it up once, too–it’s basically some kind of questionnaire that you can fill out and pass along to others).  I thought it would be fun to have an extra reason to pay careful attention at Conference.  Here are the meme questions:

General Conference Highlights, October 2010:

1.  Who were your three favorite speakers?

2.  Favorite talk?

3.  Favorite hymn sung during Conference?

4.  Who wore the best tie?

5.  Do you think conference had a “theme”?

6.  Share a few of your favorite quotes (paraphrasing is fine).

7.  Something that made you smile during conference.

8.  Any evidence that your children paid attention?

9.  If you had to give a talk in General Conference (don’t faint, this is hypothetical), what do you think you’d speak about?

10.  What are some of your post-conference goals?

On Monday morning, I’ll post my own answers here on this blog and you can post your answers on your blog.  (You can cut and paste the questions and just fill in the blanks with your answers.)  Then just leave a link to your post in the comments on Monday’s post here.  That way I (and other readers) can check out what you had to say.   And you can invite your readers to do the same thing so you can find out their conference highlights.

Also, on my Monday post, I’ll post a General Conference trivia quiz.  Whoever has the most points will be entered into a drawing for a prize!  (Not sure what yet, but something cool.  Oooh, I know.  How about President Monson’s new biography?)  Monday will be a fun day.

Comment Prize Giveaway

Now, any of you who have a blog know that blog comments are like little Christmas presents.  They make you happy.  My little ol’ blog has been up and running here since last March and I just noticed in my stats recently that I’m eerily close to getting my 5,000th comment!  I know some people get that many comments in a week, but whatever.  I still felt like celebrating.  So whoever makes magical comment number 5,000 will win another prize.  I’ll figure out what after I peruse your blog and think of something fun.  Just wanted to do something to say thanks to my fantastic readers for giving me so many little comment-gifts over the last couple years.

Post-It Awards

Here are some of my recent favorite September posts from BlogLand.  Several of them are from the the September Celebration of Family from Cocoa and Jocelyn‘s blogs.  Enjoy!


What is Real from Chocolate on my Cranium , written by Misfit Cygnet

Eternal Families from Chocolate on my Cranium, written by Allison Kimball

On Women and Men: Can’t We Just Get Along from Mormon Mommy Blogs, written by Braden Bell

Stage Two from Tatro Family

Presence from Mommy Snark

Peace of Mind for Fifty-Eight Cents from Write Stuff

We are where we are for a reason from THE MEANEST MOM

Love from Sweet & Simple Truths of the Gospel

Making Service A Way of Life For Your Family from We Talk of Christ, We Rejoice In Christ, written by Misty

Warnings and Forewarnings In The Family Proclamation from We Talk of Christ, We Rejoice In Christ, written by Susan

Lucy from Rabbit in the Headlights