AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!! WHAT IS THAT WHITE STUFF??!!

We had an inch of snow today.

School was cancelled.

Wait, wait. Are you still with me? Did you get that? School was cancelled.

My response?

If school in northeast OH was cancelled every time there was an inch of snow, there would be no school for 6 months.

Ha! I exaggerate. But only slightly. ;)

I like to make fun of Washington schools' response to "extreme weather".

Balderdash

We just had the largest gathering ever held at a BK abode. There were eight adults and four children, including us. It was a bit nervousing, just because I'm not too keen on hosting parties or being in large groups, but it was fun. We chatted for a bit, had a lesson by Hugh B. Brown--oh, I mean Braden--, and then played some Balderdash. Here are some of the best entries of the night:

SWEDGE - The ebonics version of "so what are" as in "Swedge ya doin'!"
NABOB (which someone misspelled as NABOOB, causing much laughter as it was discovered just now) - To see or hear a strange voice. ("Uh oh, I'm seeing voices again!")
LIBLAB - A chemistry lab at Evergreen State College (For those who don't know, ESC is well-known for being extremely liberal. Most students have alternative lifestyles and clothing, and you can usually spot a "Greener" just by what they are wearing)
CHORALCELO - Italian for an obnoxiously loud male singer
DAK - A thin layer of foam built up on the back of a turtle's shell (This, rather surprisingly I think, got three votes. I heard "foam" and "turtle's shell" and was like, What??)
DAK - An Australian expression used in place of a profanity. (DAK! OH, DAK!)
DAK - An X-wing pilot who dies stupidly on the planet Hoth. (That was me. Thank you. Thank you very much-a.)

Braden peed his cords laughing at the last one, because he was thinking how funny it would be if the real definition included the adverb "stupidly".

President Hinckley

My reaction upon hearing of his passing was sadness mixed with happiness that he is reunited with his beloved wife and is now free from pain and sorrow.

The next General Conference just won't be the same without him. He was such an example to all of us, and we will miss him sorely.

Everyone is Waiting with Bated Breath!

Christmas pictures! Believe it or not, I have just now gotten them off of our digital camera, a month after the event(s).

CHRISTMAS EVE SHENANIGANS

Jenna all dressed up for Christmas Eve fun


Beginning to open her Christmas Eve present (we chose for her, of course).


Her remote/phone


The classic "Cleopatra" pose (at S&A's house for an untalent show on Christmas Eve):


Braden's bro supposedly about to juggle some knives. He's wearing a shirt that says "Han Shot First".


CHRISTMAS DAY HOOTENANNY

Our lovely, no fuss Christmas tree, along with all of our loot:


Jenna opens her second stocking present (she's "wearing" the first one around her neck)


Jenna is in love with phones:


She also has figured out a way to get out of her Bumbo seat. It's really quite humorous to watch.


The before picture of our grand, massive, lovely breakfast


And...the after. We were, um, hungry.


Hi, I'm Alphabet Cow! (It really says "Alphabet Pal", but it totally sounds like "Cow")


This phone has been wonderful for when we're in the car:


"Hmmnnnyes, now, where was I, my dears?" (said with a British accent)


I got Jenna a bunch of books for way cheap at, where else, Value Village:


CHRISTMAS DAY FUN AT GRANMOM AND GRAMPA'S HOUSE:

J got a beautiful set of ABC blocks from Granmom and Grampa E. The blocks actually have things inside that you can shake around. For example, the I has ice cream and sprinkles, and the P has penguins. They're rockin' cool.


Jenna shows S&A what she thinks of their family photo. Just kidding. She is no respecter of photos or anything else, really.

Thank you, Grandma G!

Jenna loves to eat her presents from Grandma G. They are also great for putting in Mommy's pockets on trips to the store. Any fussiness and BAM, she pulls out a finger puppet! :)

My Little Guinea Pig

Ryan and Kevin can attest to the fact that I love to mess with people's hair. Not so much long hair, but short hair is fun to comb and hairspray in a weird manner. I'm thinking of a particular picture of Ryan when he was probably 8, and his hair was practically sticking straight up. Good times.

Now, of course, I have a helpless guinea pig around me 24/7. Sorry, Jenna.

There's not much I can do with it yet, but it's growing. I LOOOVE to part her hair! It's so cute. Let's see it from a few angles, shall we?









Braden says I'm mean, because he thinks I'm emphasizing her bald spot, but I disagree. I just think it looks cute to give a baby a part. :)

Go BYU!

That Tall Baby is Really Tall!

Jenna measured 28 inches at her well child checkup yesterday. She's in the 95th percentile for height. That is a loooooong baby!

Thoughts on Hollywood

I don't like movies about adultery. Even if it's just a subplot...it bothers me. We just saw "Waitress", and a bunch of people are having affairs and are pretty much like, "Well, my life sucks, so this is a way to make it not suck so much." And do I have a problem with that? Yes. Yes, I do.

I also just saw "Juno" to get some mommy time (read: Ker time), and it was decent, even bordering on good in some parts. BUT, if I had known the amount of profanity and crude sexual dialogue contained therein, I would not have spent the money to see it. It's the kind of movie that would make a great little edited DVD. However, no way would I want my kid watching it...and if I don't want my kid watching it, then I probably shouldn't be watching it, either. It's pretty cavalier about sex and pregnancy, even trivializing the latter. I really don't think that you walk away after having given birth without being profoundly changed on a physical, emotional and even spiritual level. I guess that Hollywood would have us think otherwise.

Pins and Needles

I was biking about 3 days ago, and my leg felt kind of weird in the middle of it. I hadn't biked in a while, but I was trying to find some variety in my exercise, so I hopped on our ol' stationary bike. In retrospect, the pedals may be a mite too far away, but it's doable. In any case, since then, there is something going on with the back of my leg...my calf, if you will. Even if you won't, it's still there. I notice it mid-stride a lot. It's like I forget about it until I start walking, and then there it is again, right in the center. I must have done something to the nerve, because it is actually an absence of feeling. It's funny how you can notice that you don't feel something, but the "off" feeling has been quite persistent. I think I'll stay away from the bike for a little while, eh?

The General Health and Well-being of the Young Child in My Abode

It's that time of year, folks! Jenna is sick. Again.

I suspected it yesterday, when she took a 2 1/2 hour nap (unprecedented!!), and even then *I* had to wake her up, because I was like, "Did my child expire in her crib??" Now, she's cough-y, snot-nosed, and her voice is getting more hoarse by the minute.

This means general, all-around crankiness. It also means that I am soon to have the same symptoms, since there's no way I can stop myself from being the recipient of wide open mouth kisses from my Jenna! In her defense, she's under the impression that "Kiss?" means open your mouth as wide as you can while bearing your fangs.

You Didn't Think I Was Done Yet, Did You?

Smiley Jenna:


Jenna's usually not too keen on letting us dry and dress her after a bath, since we give her a bath BEFORE feeding her:


I Am Siamese, If You Pleeease:


That would be my office chair:


Uh, can we get a close-up of that, please?


Okay, NOW I'm done. For right now, anyway. You may now return to your regularly scheduled daily activities.

Cuteness, oh

Just trying to catch up on some picture posting. I know Mom's been going through withdrawal, and I wouldn't watch to deny her her fix. I mean, what kind of a daughter am I if I don't feed my dear mother's habit?? :)

Miss Claus about to be examined:


When is the dang doctor going to get here?? I mean, I'm almost done with my bottle, for pete's sake!


What are you lookin' at, punk?


All bow before the...camera:


I got it! I got it by the tag!

I Know Who Missed Jenna

Who doesn't love baby jeans??


Jenna eating out with us:


Your order is ready, miss:


I can't remember if I posted this already, but I'm too lazy to look right now, so you get it again, maybe:


Our lovely dining room table. We actually have a dining room! But not for long:

Hmmm....

Say it with me: MOIE Gallery! MOIE Gallery! Anyone want to watch a MOIE tonight? Or perhaps MO is greater than IE? I think that maybe IE would beg to differ.

Rascal Flatts

Rascal Flatts (from OHIO!!) is one of my all-time favorite bands. I wanted to share some of their songs:

I sang this song to Jenna when I was pregnant with her. I don't know if she remembers it, but when I just tried to sing it to her again, she wasn't as compliant. It sure was a lot easier to keep her in one place back then! :)


This song will always be one of my favorites:


This one's for Braden:

Speaking of Yaz...

I shall have to probe Dan's memory, but I seem to recall that there's another song by Yaz that is rather disturbing if you think or have ever thought that the lead singer was male. And, quite honestly, it's hard not to think that. She sounds like a man...baby.

When I was looking up the song "Situation", I clicked on one of the related links on the side of Alison Moyet (the lead singer) singing it live. Wo. Stick with studio and synth.

By the way, Howard Jones is a synth wizard. Just thought you all might want to know. I think only Dan will get that, so I'll explain. In my Billboard Top 40 music trivia books, the author, Joel Whitburn, calls Howard Jones a synth wizard under the artist's description. I would dearly love to put that on my resume under "Miscellaneous Skills".

Move Out, Don't Mess Around

This is a little known fact, but I once had a prayer answered by Yaz. I was in AZ, and trying to decide if I should move in with an LDS classmate of mine, because I was really unhappy with my living situation at the time. I lived in a condo with two LDS girls/juzzums, and both were kind of Jack Mormon-y, and I just wanted to be in a more uplifting environment. Anyway, I was trying to figure what was best, and as I surfed channels on the car radio, the chorus to this song was playing on the radio. I burst out laughing...and did as I was bid. :)

Go to 1:37 on the video, and that's what I heard that day.

news, news and more news

It has been almost 2 weeks since I/we last posted. Sorry for the wait, ya'll. I just got less bloggy and more other-stuff-y.

No, but seriously, folks. Seriously. A lot has gone on. I mean, we've considered living in a tiki hut, for goodness sake.

Jenna had her eye appointment, and the doctor said she wants Jenna to continue to wear her glasses, and she will observe her again in 2 months. Unfortunately, she also said, "I just want to prepare you, but she will most likely need surgery." So, that isn't the best news. We're just glad we caught it early. So Jenna will probably be about a year old when she has her surgery, which is better for anesthesia anyway. The eye doctor also said that Jenna still crosses her eyes a little bit with her glasses on, which we hadn't noticed. All in all, not what I was expecting to hear.

Also, as you all are aware, Braden has been an RN for a few weeks now. He's been actively searching for an RN position in the ER, and at first really had no luck. I was beginning to think he'd have to suck it up and work on the hospital floor (which he really didn't want to do)...and then not one, not two, but THREE ERs called and wanted to interview him for full-time positions. One was 30-35 mins away, one 35-40 mins and the furthest away was about 45-50 mins from where we currently live. Braden had all three interviews last Friday, and then we found out early this week that all three want to hire him. After much consideration, we've decided to go with the closest one (also the smallest, but it does have 6 more ER beds than the next biggest one). Braden accepted the position yesterday and gave his notice to his current employer. He should have a couple of days free in the next two weeks to begin orienting at the new hospital, though. Or is that "orientating"? You tell me, Bear Grylls.

Based on our decision, which I think we basically made last week, we've found a nice place down the road from Braden's new job. It gets hard to commute 35+ min (depending on traffic, which is heavy with Seattle commuters) when you've only got one car. This is earlier than we expected to move, but things are really falling into place, and we feel good about the job and the place we found. Vancouver was a great option, but they weren't able to give us an answer when we needed to know what our chances were, since they don't even start interviewing until Feb 1st, and then we wouldn't even know until probably a week or more later if Braden got the position. The contact person told Braden that he was probably better off taking the position he had in hand, and then coming to Vancouver in a year or two as a regular RN instead of a resident/intern. It all goes to show, when you think you know where you'll be in a year....do you really have any idea?? I wouldn't have thought we'd be going where we're going, that's for sure!

Honkety-Honk-Honk

The Schmenna and I were heading to an appointment yesterday. I'll give a little background info here, so ya'll can understand the situation better. The road that I was on is a 4 lane road, but the left lane turns into a left turn only lane a couple hundred feet down from where I was waiting to turn left. What a lot of people do is stay in the left lane to avoid people turning right at the previous intersection, and then all these cars try to get over to the right lane so they won't be forced to turn left. This is a pretty busy street, since the hospital is only a little further down. Anyway, my turning left before being forced to messed up a lot of cars playing the "quick-get-over-to-the-right-lane" game. I've been there myself; I know it's annoying.

As I was waiting to turn, I looked to my left and saw a pedestrian quickly coming up on the driveway I was going to turn into. Since I am cognizant of the fact that not many pedestrians pay attention to what's going on around them, I checked to see if she was paying attention, which of course she was not. In the meantime, there was a clear opportunity for me to turn, but I had to wait to see what the pedestrian was doing. In the FIVE SECONDS it took to ascertain that said pedestrian was turning left alongside a building and not crossing the driveway, the car behind me honked. Um, HELLO. HELLO??

I'm so sorry that I didn't risk committing vehicular homicide just so you could get to work five seconds earlier.

A Tongue in Cheek Sort-of New Year's Resolution

A recent verbal exchange, inspired by the sight of Kerry's library haul:

K: I have so many interests that my past interests just lie there on the shelf!
B: You are so my father! Hi, Godfrey.
K: But he actually finishes stuff.

It is my New Year's resolution to resolve to try to attempt to maybe finish what I start. Perhaps. Maybe. I'll try my darndest. There will be darnding in the attemptness of my trying.

Musings on Luke 21

So I was reading my daily New Testament chapter and two verses caught my eye:

11 "And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven."

I think I was a teenager before I realized that "divers" was really just missing an "e" and didn't mean places where people go diving. You know, divers' places??? Earthquakes in the sea by steep cliffs...that's what I always pictured in my mind as a kid. :)

23 "But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people."

The second verse has been worrisome to me ever since I've been of childbearing age. Seriously, every time I read that, I think to myself, "Gotta get the whole having kids thing out of the way", because I do NOT want to be one of those people with all the woe.