Thursday, March 27, 2008

It's A...take 2

Seeing as some have been confused by the other ultrasound picture that shows whether the baby is a boy or a girl, I thought I would go ahead and post the somewhat easier picture to tell. Blame Russ for the harder picture. He's the one who wanted me to put on the harder picture. Of course, he also says if you can't figure it out from that, you're out of luck. And to help those who aren't sure what they are looking at, toward the center of the picture, the largest shape is basically a picture of the bottom. Toward the right side of the picture is the back. There is no head in this picture. I will give you a hint though...there is a 50% chance that Katie is wrong.

Where's my camera when I need it?

So while Russ and I were at the ultrasound appointment today, the girls did as they usually like to do and played in my parent's basement. Only this time, Emma found sissors. And locked the three of them in the bathroom. Yes, she cut their hair. Even hers. I had two little pony tails in Molly and Lyssa's hair and she basically cut those off. Looks lovely, let me tell you. And of course, just before we are getting a big family group picture taken. I'm thinking Molly and Lys will wear hats. Well, Lys might be okay if we slick her hair down. Not sure how we can hide Molly's. I'm going to need to trim up Emma's a bit, but hers is okay.

Of course, Emma, who usually has to be told to clean up after herself, was very careful and cleaned up every last bit of hair that she cut. We think she was trying to hide the evidence. She was very proud of herself and not real happy when Russ told her she's grounded. Says she didn't know it was bad. Russ told her she did after all the times Jimmy has cut hair and gotten in trouble for it. Ah, well.

It's A.....

Ultrasound pictures!
Profile.
Closer profile with hand by face. Actually took a bit to be able to see the face because the baby put its hands in front of the face for a while.
The "It's A" picture. See if you can figure it out. Of course, the baby was being quite shy and the ultrasound tech would kind of shake my stomach to try to get the legs to move so we could tell. Took a bit for that one, too.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

101 Things...

Okay, after reading Challene's post and "tag" of 101 things and after realizing that Jo sent me one a really long time ago and I never got around to doing it, I finally sat down and made my list of 101 Things About Me. Good luck if you choose to read it all. So here it is...101 Things About Me:
101. I'm very blind without my contacts or glasses
100. I find it hard to come up with a list of 101 things about me. (Which is fairly obvious if I'm putting this as #100.)
99. I was named after a dog. Granted, the dog's name was really Dog.
98. I hate making phone calls.
97. I love to play soccer but never was all that great at it because I'm somewhat afraid of the ball. Well, not of the ball, really, but of getting hurt by the ball.
96. I watch way too much tv.
95. I have colored my hair once in my life.
94. I am left-handed because of the whole mirror-image twin thing.
93. Which also makes me a freak of nature. (The whole twin thing, that is.)
92. I once had a fastest milkshake eating contest with Stacey, who started to choke on hers and I nearly choked on mine laughing really hard when her contact fell out when she was coughing. Just dropped straight out onto the table.
91. I know how to speak in "double-dutch."
90. Sometimes I really wish Russ did, too.
89. I have over 100 pages written of a story but stopped a long time ago. Not sure where to go from there. Probably just have to rewrite the whole thing.
88. I got my appendix out when I was 9.
87. I was in the hospital after getting my appendix out when Regan won the re-election for President. I just wondered why nothing else was on tv.
86. My teacher wasn’t going to make me do any homework for the time I missed from getting my appendix out, but Stacey decided to be “nice” and stopped and picked it up for me so I had to do it.
85. I played the Wicked Witch of the East in my 5th grade class play. (The play was called Santa in Ozland.)
84. Stacey played the Good Witch.
83. I spun off the stage and Stacey spun back on. A friend’s mom wondered how we did that because she thought it was just one person.
82. Only lines I remember from that play are “Boil, boil, toil and trouble!” And that my hat fell off during one performance as I ran down the aisle.
81. When I was three, I got my heel caught in the spokes of a bike while riding behind my dad. I remember it happening.
80. I’m amazed I’ve been able to come up with this many things about me.
79. Russ is the only boy I’ve kissed. Well, unless you count that boy I kissed in some birthday party kissing game. But since I didn’t even know his name, I don’t count it. Oh, and unless you count having your brother make you kiss your friend when you are 5, but I don’t count that one either.
78. I used to know how to play the clarinet.
77. I can sort of pick out the top hand on the piano, but if I want to add the bottom hand, I have to memorize it note by note and slowly combine it with the top hand. I have no idea how people can read the two lines of music at once.
76. I almost always have some song stuck in my head.
75. Also almost anything can get a different song stuck in my head.
74. With small children, however, usually the song is a song from one of their shows.
73. I was a chorus member in my high school production of The Music Man.
72. Opening night I missed my curtain call.
71. During the times we weren’t on stage, we would sit in the drama room and play B.S.
70. That started a long tradition of playing B.S. at lunch in the halls at school.
69. Occasionally we would break tradition and play a different game.
68. Now when we get together with friends, we usually play the card game Contact Rummy.
67. I think we stopped playing B.S. because they got tired of our cheating at that game.
66. I once got into trouble in drama class in high school for playing cards during class. Who knew the teacher thought was she was saying was important?
65. I really like being able to stretch one subject into several lines for this.
64. The first time I ever flew on a plane was the night before I started high school.
63. While at the zoo as part of the activities for Senior Prom, a bird managed to poop on my head.
62. I watched a runner go by with the Olympic torch for two different Olympics Games.
61. I have a Great Dane. She’s old and sleeps most of the day.
60. I always wanted a Great Dane before I got one (I trace this back to the movie The Ugly Dachshund) and should I decide to get another dog eventually, I will most likely get another one.
59. At this point, I’m not sure I want to get another dog.
58. I took keyboarding at Dixie just because I wanted a class that would be an easy “A.”
57. I later took Shakespeare for the same reason. Trust me; it really was an easy “A.”
56. Okay, I also took Shakespeare because I like Shakespeare.
55. While on the subject of easy “A” classes, I also took Freshwater Fishing.
54. Not long after taking that class, I went fishing with my dad and my uncle. I caught more fish that both of them together, so the class must have helped.
53. Every year I tell Russ I’m going to try to take him to a lake to go fishing. Somehow, we never quite get around to it.
52. I came very close to getting a hole in one on a par 3 golf course once. Ball went right over the hole.
51. If I remember right, it took me three more strokes to actually get it in the hole.
50. I still think my dad and brother would have killed me if I actually had gotten the hole in one.
49. The summer after high school I went with my parents, Stacey, and grandpa to Germany to pick up my brother from his mission. We spent 2 weeks touring Germany and Europe.
48. If you go back and read my journal from that trip, most days will say something like, “We stopped in some town today. Can’t remember the name of the town.”
47. While we were eating lunch in an open court area in Barcelona, a police van pulled up near us and several officers armed with Uzi’s got out and just stood there for a few minutes. Then they got in and drove away.
46. I much preferred the flight home in business class rather than the flight to Germany in coach.
45. Growing up, my oldest sister would bring home all the strays and find them homes but I would be the one who took care of them.
44. I would have to say that my two favorite rides at Disneyland are the Haunted Mansion and Splash Mountain.
43. I took Concert Choir at Dixie my last quarter there just to go on the trip to Disneyland with the class.
42. I don’t like to go shopping. But I like it better after working at ZCMI than I did before working there.
41. I am not sad that they tore down the ZCMI building downtown. There was a certain elevator there I hated.
40. Twice that elevator did strange things. Once it stopped suddenly between floors and the doors opened up then closed again then it continued on its way. The second time I started out on the second floor and pushed the button to go to the basement level. Instead of just going down two floors, it went up to the third floor then down and stopped at the first floor.
39. Maybe it was the free samples I got, but one of my favorite jobs was working at the Western Nut Company.
38. Although I much prefer having my current job as a stay at home mom.
37. I have made Caramel Layer Brownies enough that I don’t need to look at the recipe anymore. Even if I go a long time in between making them.
36. The main problem with Caramel Layer Brownies is that I eat them all. By myself.
35. I think I sent Russ a letter when he was on his mission once a week for his entire mission.
34. I got 5 or 6 letters total from Russ when I was on my mission.
33. Granted, that’s better than the 0 letters Stacey got from him.
32. When Russ proposed to me, he had plans on being all romantic and having us take the dog for a walk along Bountiful Blvd. Then the dog didn’t behave very well and got him upset so we went back to his car, got in it, he handed me the two 25 cent rings he got out of a vending machine for until we got the real ring and said, “Well?”
31. So now sometimes when Russ will say that he’s still glad I said yes, I’ll say, “I’m still glad you said “Well?” I don’t think he finds it as funny as I do.
30. I really don’t mind Russ’ long hair, in fact, I sort of like it. I just think he looks better with shorter hair.
29. I have only been pulled over by police once. And that was because the headlight was out on the car. So no ticket.
28. I’m still a little nervous driving next to big trucks after nearly getting squished by one on the freeway when it was under construction and only had two lanes of traffic each way and no shoulder to speak of.
27. When Russ and I go places together, I usually drive because I back seat drive too much when he’s driving.
26. Plus it’s easier on long trips to be the one driving than the one who has to take care of the kids when they get upset or need things.
25. When doing visiting teaching recently, for some reason I mentioned the X-Files. The husband’s eyes lit up and I discovered that he’s a bigger geek than I am. At least I never cancelled out on a date to stay home and watch the X-Files. (Of course, I doubt he used a quote from the show in his missionary homecoming talk.)
24. Instead we always had X-File watching parties where it was tradition that I would make milkshakes.
23. It has been a very long time since I’ve made a milkshake.
22. Every year on our birthday, Stacey and I sing to each other, “Happy, happy birthday to me. Happy birthday to me. And to you.”
21. Only reason I’m happy about Daylight Savings Time starting earlier is because it’s no longer close to my birthday.
20. But I’d rather they get rid of Daylight Savings Time all together.
19. Wow, I never actually thought I would make it down to #19.
18. I am really not looking forward to the heat of the summer. Especially being pregnant.
17. I have found out that there are times that showers with only the cold water turned on feels really, really nice.
16. And that’s usually when the air conditioning of your top floor apartment in Georgia breaks and so it gets to be over 110 inside.
15. I keep thinking about getting a few inches cut off of my hair but then I start to wonder if I really want to have shorter hair than my husband again.
14. I also keep thinking that as it gets warmer, I won’t care and will go ahead and get my hair cut.
13. One of the most entertaining things about growing up with a mother who is hard of hearing was when telemarketers would call and we would say, “She is here but is hard of hearing. May I relay a message?” The telemarketer would almost always then say, “No, that’s okay, I’ll call back later.”
12. It would seem strange to me when other people’s mothers answered the phone.
11. I have gone to movies enough where the weather was nice and sunny going in and raining when I came out that it seems strange to come out and have it be sunny.
10. I once won a case of ketchup from the old Alpha Beta store.
9. A case of ketchup is really hard to carry when walking home from the store when you are about 10 years old.
8. Although at 10, I don’t know that I was all that thrilled to win ketchup. I was thrilled to actually win something though.
7. I like living in Kaysville where I do.
6. I like being able to have a dollar theater close enough to walk to.
5. Part of me wonders if I will still be the Webelos den leader when Jimmy goes into Webelos in a year.
4. At the rate they are going with getting an assistant leader for me, I also almost wonder if I will have an assistant who will be able to cover for me when the baby is born.
3. Even though I’ve seen all of the episodes, I’m still looking forward to Psych being on NBC starting the first Sunday in April.
2. My favorite Psych episode is still probably the Scary Sherry one. I laughed and laughed.
1. Man, I really need to get a life, but I actually finished my list! Yay!

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Congrats to John and Tina!

Congratulations to John and Tina on the birth and adoption of their newest daughter, Ella! Looking forward to being able to meet her after you get back from Minnesota. She was born March 18th.

I really need to get a life....

Last night my cell phone started to ring. This doesn't happen often when Russ is actually home, as he's usually the one who is calling me. Russ was the one who picked up my phone and was taking it to me. I told him he should just answer it. He said, "I'm not going to answer it, it's your sister." He didn't tell me which sister though. I saw on my caller ID that it was De.

When I answered the phone, she told me that she had a goofy question for me. Explained that she couldn't come up with which movie a certain scene/characters were in and wanted to see if I could help her out with it. Then she went on to describe the scene. I decided I really need to get a life when I interrupted her description to tell her the name of the movie. I do feel a little bit better about it after I told Russ and Stacey and they both came up with the movie. At least I know I'm not the only one who needs to get a life.

This was basically her description: A bald police chief who is too nice and (here's where I interrupted her as she started to say) he keeps coming out.... When I jumped in with, "So I Married an axe Murderer," she replied, "Oh, brilliant! Thanks." And that was the end of the conversation.

I'm still wondering why she was thinking of that movie. Although that is one movie that does make me laugh. I have memories of the first time I saw it. It was at someone's house when I was at Dixie. We were watching it with a bunch of girls from our sorority (I think it was at one girl's cousin's house). During one scene where the mother is going on about the World Weekly News, the girl's cousin (I think his name was Rob...can't quite remember...just remember he was cute and played one of the leads in the production of Guys and Dolls Dixie put on) quietly stood up and went into a back room and when he came out, he had a newspaper-type magazine in his hands and sat back like he was reading it. He grinned as everyone noticed that it was a copy of the World Weekly News. I thought it was funny. It was also funny when one girl would scream every time the axe was swung in the movie. But here I go again, proving that I need to get a life. Ah, well. At least when I'm old and senile and stuck in a nursing home and can only remember the trivia that my mind sucked up at earlier ages, I'll be entertained.

Monday, March 24, 2008

Easter

Well, I spaced taking pictures of the kids coloring their eggs. They had a lot of fun doing that. And then come Easter, my camera only had enough batteries to take the pictures I have here. So I didn't get the pictures I wanted, but the kids had fun. I personally like the Easter Bunny to come on Saturday instead of Sunday, but for some reason the Easter Bunny won't come when Russ has to work on that Saturday like he did this past one. Go figure.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Happy 9th Birthday Jimmy!


Today is Jimmy's birthday. We also had his birthday party today. Figured since Sunday is Easter, it would be better to have his party before the weekend. Of course, I pulled a usual and totally spaced taking my camera along to take any pictures. Feel kind of bad about it. Especially since Jimmy made his own cake (he did almost all of it himself...including adding blue food coloring to the white cake mix to make a blue cake).

For his party we went to Burger King. He's been wanting to have a party there or at McDonald's for a very long time and I decided it sounded easier. I called a Burger King in Layton and asked them about parties and they said they allow them, but that's all they do for them. Which is basically what I wanted anyway. Jimmy made his own invitations, too. I have no idea why I haven't wanted to have parties at a place like that before. It was so much easier than the usual birthday party. Kids play on the playland stuff, order them each a kids' meal, open presents and eat cake. I think it ended up being cheaper than a usual party, too. The only thing Jimmy was slightly sad about going there for a party is that meant no pinata. I think this party was even easier than last year when we let him invite just two friends (one being a cousin) and going to a movie.

At one point Russ grabbed a little bag of balloons that he bought (hm...didn't even think of taking my balloons along for balloon animals) and went to blow a couple up. All of the kids who were in the play area gathered around asking for balloons. I laughed picturing these kids then going up to their parents to show them. Parent: Where did you get that balloon? Kid: From that long-haired man sitting over in the corner. I mentioned that to Russ and his response was: But I'm a good-looking long-haired man.

All in all, Jimmy has had a good 9th birthday. Hard to believe he's already 9 though. He's going to be a teenager before I know it.

Monday, March 17, 2008

Various pictures from St. George

I went down this weekend with my parents and some of my family to St. George for the funeral services that were held there for Uncle John. These are just a few of the pictures I took while we were down there. I mostly went down even though they are having services in Bountiful tomorrow because Di was going to be there with her family and I wanted to see her and her family. I'm glad I went. Anyway, here are some pictures.

Molly in the pool at the condo with two of her cousins.
Lys and Emma in the condo after they were done swimming. Didn't actually get my camera out to take pictures until they were out of the water. Wished I remembered it sooner. Ah, well.
Jimmy swimming.
This is a picture of those of us who were there from my family. Sue and her girls, Di and her family, my parents, my kids and me. I told Russ he would have been happy being there because he wouldn't have been the only one with long hair. Bill and Cole both have as long of hair as he does.
This was a picture that got taken at WalMart. We had gone shopping for clothes for Di's girls and Seth saw the Easter Bunny and asked if the pictures were free and got us to get one. Seth is the same age as Jimmy. Hard to believe since he's so much taller. Okay, he's one month older than Jimmy, if you want to be technical about it.
My kids after the services. They wanted to play, not get pictures taken.
Gathering around the cake that was for Cole for his birthday that was on Sunday.
Josie (behind the tree), Molly, Emma, Lys, Jimmy, and Madison looking at the Koi pond.
The kids and me after the services.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Uncle John

This is in memory of my Uncle John, who passed away unexpectedly early Tuesday. I'll miss you, John. Hope you get to do all the golfing you want.

(Yes, Stacey, I know you did this too, but I had been thinking of doing it and saw yours and decided to go ahead.)

Monday, March 10, 2008

A job I wouldn't like to have....

I could hear the sound of chainsaws going this afternoon and knew that someone must be working on a tree somewhere. I decided to go out and look after a while. Saw this guy in my neighbor's mostly dead tree cutting it down. All I could think of is that I would really, really not like that job. Maybe when I was younger when I liked to climb trees. Lately I've decided that I am afraid of heights. Basically decided this at the start of last summer when I was going to break down and get the swamp cooler running instead of making Russ do it. Got the ladder out and climbed up to the edge of the roof. At that point, I gave up. Couldn't figure out how to get from the top of the ladder onto the roof without scaring myself to death and thinking I was going to fall. I thought of that as I watched this worker climb up higher and higher on the tree than I ever would have dared go and then reach as far as he could with his chain saw to cut branches. Later watched him move from the tall branch he is on in the picture to the other tall branch a few feet away. So yes, I now have a new job to add onto my list of jobs I would hate to have. Tree trimmer. As you can probably tell from the picture, the tree was a pretty tall tree before they cut it down.
Yes, I know. Kind of a pointless post, but when has that stopped me before?

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

March Birthdays

Happy Birthday this month to Sadie, Cole, Jimmy, Sara and Mom! Hope you all have a great birthday!