Thanks to everyone for their sympathy on the last post -- which I now realize was almost 2 months ago! I wonder what happened to keep me from blogging?
Well, this post is just a warm-up. Our #2 child is expected on or around 8 May 2009. I'm driving myself crazy with waiting. So tonight I've decided just to get everything all ready, put it in the trunk of the car, and just go about my life as if the baby was going to stay there for another 9 months.
If I have some spare time in the near future, I'll take a picture of my beach-ball belly and post it.
Love to all.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Snow Lessons
So our pipes froze last night. I accidentally left the garage door open on the only night that it has really snowed at our house. I called around to see what I should do -- never had a house or been responsible for pipes before -- and decided that I'd try the only suggestion I got: pour anti-freeze down each drain and see what happens.
I don't know if that was really the best idea -- especially in hindsight, thinking that anti-freeze probably would be a bad thing to have mixing around with the city's water supply -- but after an hour or so, the water started running in the toilet I'd flushed earlier, so I was just happy. I'm not really sure whether my subsequent water use is what caused the pipe to burst, or if it was just a gremlin that was determined to cause problems and wasn't going to be outdone by a bottle of anti-freeze.
In any event, the pipe is fixed now. I'm hoping that, despite the relatively small nature of this particular life challenge, the ordeal was big enough to fill the quota of trials that each person is supposed to be allotted on a regular basis. I sometimes wonder why nothing really bad has happened to my family. Maybe really bad stuff just doesn't happen as often as I think it does, and it's just the cumulative effect of all the sorta bad little stuff that can make life a pain.
I don't know if that was really the best idea -- especially in hindsight, thinking that anti-freeze probably would be a bad thing to have mixing around with the city's water supply -- but after an hour or so, the water started running in the toilet I'd flushed earlier, so I was just happy. I'm not really sure whether my subsequent water use is what caused the pipe to burst, or if it was just a gremlin that was determined to cause problems and wasn't going to be outdone by a bottle of anti-freeze.
In any event, the pipe is fixed now. I'm hoping that, despite the relatively small nature of this particular life challenge, the ordeal was big enough to fill the quota of trials that each person is supposed to be allotted on a regular basis. I sometimes wonder why nothing really bad has happened to my family. Maybe really bad stuff just doesn't happen as often as I think it does, and it's just the cumulative effect of all the sorta bad little stuff that can make life a pain.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Sunday
"But then again, perhaps I have the strength after all."
I wasn't going to blog tonight. But my stomach changed my mind. Instead of sleeping and dreaming, I'm eating and blogging. Just as long as I'm ing-ing, I think that's the important thing. If you can't -ing anymore, that's when you know you're in trouble.
And speaking of ing-ing, I thought I should record, for posterity, today's events and the utter lack of stress that most of them caused. A sign of progress . . . or just numbness.
8:30 a.m. Ward council meeting. I gave the spiritual thought.
10:30 a.m. Fast and testimony meeting. Bore my testimony.
12:10 p.m. Conducted opening exercises in Relief Society.
12:20 p.m. Defended Church doctrine against the notions of a 17-year-old girl in the class.
12:22 p.m. Taught a lesson to the combined YW classes, including the 17-year-old girl who sulked for the duration of the lesson.
2:30 p.m. Planned a training meeting with the 2nd counselor in the YW presidency.
4:30 p.m. Typed and formatted an agenda for the training meeting.
9:00 p.m. Wrote dialogue for part of Starfire III.
Normally, I think the combination of all of these events on the same day would have caused a significant amount of stress, or at least fatigue. Most of them were things that I have either never done, or rarely done. And the rest (except the typing and writing) were things that I get nervous / stressed about no matter how many times I do them.
I don't really know why my stress level stayed so low today -- but it must be significant in some way. I'm sure if I look back on this in 10, 20, 30 years or so, I'll either realize the significance or the complete in-significance of it all.
And on that note -- goodnight all.
I wasn't going to blog tonight. But my stomach changed my mind. Instead of sleeping and dreaming, I'm eating and blogging. Just as long as I'm ing-ing, I think that's the important thing. If you can't -ing anymore, that's when you know you're in trouble.
And speaking of ing-ing, I thought I should record, for posterity, today's events and the utter lack of stress that most of them caused. A sign of progress . . . or just numbness.
8:30 a.m. Ward council meeting. I gave the spiritual thought.
10:30 a.m. Fast and testimony meeting. Bore my testimony.
12:10 p.m. Conducted opening exercises in Relief Society.
12:20 p.m. Defended Church doctrine against the notions of a 17-year-old girl in the class.
12:22 p.m. Taught a lesson to the combined YW classes, including the 17-year-old girl who sulked for the duration of the lesson.
2:30 p.m. Planned a training meeting with the 2nd counselor in the YW presidency.
4:30 p.m. Typed and formatted an agenda for the training meeting.
9:00 p.m. Wrote dialogue for part of Starfire III.
Normally, I think the combination of all of these events on the same day would have caused a significant amount of stress, or at least fatigue. Most of them were things that I have either never done, or rarely done. And the rest (except the typing and writing) were things that I get nervous / stressed about no matter how many times I do them.
I don't really know why my stress level stayed so low today -- but it must be significant in some way. I'm sure if I look back on this in 10, 20, 30 years or so, I'll either realize the significance or the complete in-significance of it all.
And on that note -- goodnight all.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Psychedelic Blues
Today I heard a song written with the idea of what the jazz greats would have written if they had been alive in the '60's. The song was called "Psychedelic Blues". I'd love to post some music on the blog -- there is some great bluegrass I have in mind, but I don't know how to do it. Someone call me and tell me how to do it please!
And just for kicks, here are some pics:
In the drier with the cat, who was trying to hide from her.
The scrubs, a Christmas present from Poppy and Nana, say, "Dr. Adara".
Adara's first bubble bath.
Her favorite toys, Oo-oo Ee-ee and Dinah the Tiger
And just for kicks, here are some pics:
In the drier with the cat, who was trying to hide from her.
The scrubs, a Christmas present from Poppy and Nana, say, "Dr. Adara".
Adara's first bubble bath.
Her favorite toys, Oo-oo Ee-ee and Dinah the Tiger
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Your time to go
You've probably heard some version of the joke about an anxious man on an airplane, afraid that he might die. His friend reassured him with the popular idea that, "if it's not your time to go, then you'll be okay." The anxious man replied, "Sure, but what if it's the pilot's time to go?"
Today's Sunday school lesson touched briefly on this idea. My brain started working overtime, but I didn't want to risk derailing the carefully-planned lesson, so I thought I'd send my question out into the ether.
The scripture reference is Doctrine and Covenants 42:48: "And again, it shall come to pass that he that hath afaith in me to be bhealed, and is not cappointed unto death, shall be dhealed."
Here's a scenario leading into my question. This story was related in the October 2008 General Conference - a young girl was hit by a bus. The wheels of the bus drove over her head, so she was in pretty bad shape. After a priesthood blessing and a significant amount of time in the hospital, she miraculously recovered and lived a long life. (I don't know if she still is living, but that's not the point).
My question is: what if no one had exercised faith for her to be healed? Would she have died anyway, even though she obviously was not "appointed unto death"?
Today's Sunday school lesson touched briefly on this idea. My brain started working overtime, but I didn't want to risk derailing the carefully-planned lesson, so I thought I'd send my question out into the ether.
The scripture reference is Doctrine and Covenants 42:48: "And again, it shall come to pass that he that hath afaith in me to be bhealed, and is not cappointed unto death, shall be dhealed."
Here's a scenario leading into my question. This story was related in the October 2008 General Conference - a young girl was hit by a bus. The wheels of the bus drove over her head, so she was in pretty bad shape. After a priesthood blessing and a significant amount of time in the hospital, she miraculously recovered and lived a long life. (I don't know if she still is living, but that's not the point).
My question is: what if no one had exercised faith for her to be healed? Would she have died anyway, even though she obviously was not "appointed unto death"?
Monday, February 9, 2009
A Tale of Two Babies
(Lest this tale overwhelms my infrequent readers, let me call your attention to the post just a few days earlier than this one. There are long-awaited pictures for all of you photo-junkies.)
It was the best of times, it was the worst of, it was the age of enlightenment, it was the age of bewilderment, it was an epoch of freedom, it was an epoch of captivity -- in short, the noisiest authorities of the land insisted on being received, for good or evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
Today began a 3-week period of babysitting 8-month-old Carolyn while her regular babysitter, grandma, is on a long-awaited vacation to Hawaii. "This will be good practice," I thought, "for when the new baby finally arrives." Famous last words.
I thought it would be fun just to give an outline of how the day went:
7:15 Left Adara at home with Jon so I could pick up Carolyn.
7:35 Arrived back home and then turned around again to take Jon to work. Since Jon was sick yesterday, and all of us spent the day laying low, I didn't want him to ride his bike.
I didn't have all the ingredients for his lunch, so I thought I would stop by the grocery store and take his lunch to him right before my midwife appointment.
7:45 Smelled the necessity for returning home as quickly as possible in order to change Adara's poopy diaper.
8:00 Changed Adara's diaper while Carolyn cried herself into a fit on the floor. She calmed down, but not until we were almost done with the diaper change.
8:10 Prepared oatmeal for Carolyn
8:15 While Carolyn cried again, put Adara in her booster seat with a bib on and gave her cottage cheese
8:20 Fed Carolyn
8:35 Made Carolyn and Adara comfortable, with plenty of toys, and started cleaning up the mess in the kitchen, which had resulted from everyone laying low yesterday and doing minimal work.
8:45 Rescued Carolyn from another crying fit. Hoped that changing her diaper would solve her problems, changed her position and her toys, then went back to cleaning.
9:00 Realized Carolyn was probably sleepy and put her down for a nap
9:05 Received a phone call from the substitute babysitter, who was planning to take Carolyn while I went to my midwife apponitment. Before we had confirmed any plans, she had to hang up the phone, saying she would call back.
9:10 Started microwaving a South Beach Diet frozen dinner for my breakfast, and sat down for a moment to rest.
9:11 Adara asked for some water. There was some on the table, so I had her climb up to get it so I could rest a little longer. While she was there, I noticed her bowl was about to fall off the table. I asked her to move it so it wouldn't fall. She picked it up -- and let it fall through her fingers to the floor, scattering the remains of her cottage cheese.
9:15 I got up off the couch and asked her to help me pick up the cottage cheese. She ended up cleaning two bits of it.
9:20 Stirred my microwave dinner and started cleaning again when I heard a sound of water running behind me. Adara was pouring water from the pitcher (that I had left on the table) onto the hardwood floor and rug. She helped clean up more of the mess this time.
As I finished cleaning the mess, I noticed her playing in the recycling bin, which I had just moved because it was in a pool of water. Not wanting soggy cardboard added to the mess, I moved the recycling bin into the garage.
9:30 Ate my microwave dinner - interrupting myself for a moment to push a chair in front of the gas fireplace to prevent Adara from playing with the rocks inside it.
9:40 Started to clean again, loading dishes into the dishwasher. I was thinking about how almost humorous the morning had been, when I noticed Adara was playing with a broken mug, which I had put in the dishwasher a few minutes earlier. (Side note: we are house-sitting right now, and the mug that was now lying broken on the floor belonged to the owner of the house, and not to us.)
9:41 After removing the mug, I decided to take the garbage outside to prevent Adara from getting into it and playing with the mug some more.
9:43 Started loading the dishwasher again while Adara looked for new trouble to get into. Before it developed into something serious, I asked her to help me with the dishes. She played with the scrub wand and a pot of water for a second, before she started pouring water from the pot onto the floor.
I'm going to skip now to the end of the story. Shortly after 10, the substitute babysitter called again. She was leaving her house to go to a meeting at 10, and wanted to arrange for how to pick up Carolyn at my midwife's office. By this point I didn't have any brain cells left to organize anything that complex, so I told her not to worry about it. Taking Carolyn and Adara both to the midwife's office would be less of a hassle.
Of course I still didn't have Jon's lunch ready, so I hurriedly chopped up some turkey, ham, tomato, cucumber, celery, and the small bit of lettuce that we had left, and threw it into a container. I decided there was no way that I was going to have time to go to the grocery store with two babies to buy lettuce -- it was 10:30 by this point and Carolyn was still napping. Jon was just going to have a nearly lettuce-free salad.
Thankfully, Carolyn was awake when I went to check on her, so I didn't have to worry about waking her up and having a cranky baby with me at the midwife's office. The rest of the morning was relatively uneventful.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of, it was the age of enlightenment, it was the age of bewilderment, it was an epoch of freedom, it was an epoch of captivity -- in short, the noisiest authorities of the land insisted on being received, for good or evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
Today began a 3-week period of babysitting 8-month-old Carolyn while her regular babysitter, grandma, is on a long-awaited vacation to Hawaii. "This will be good practice," I thought, "for when the new baby finally arrives." Famous last words.
I thought it would be fun just to give an outline of how the day went:
7:15 Left Adara at home with Jon so I could pick up Carolyn.
7:35 Arrived back home and then turned around again to take Jon to work. Since Jon was sick yesterday, and all of us spent the day laying low, I didn't want him to ride his bike.
I didn't have all the ingredients for his lunch, so I thought I would stop by the grocery store and take his lunch to him right before my midwife appointment.
7:45 Smelled the necessity for returning home as quickly as possible in order to change Adara's poopy diaper.
8:00 Changed Adara's diaper while Carolyn cried herself into a fit on the floor. She calmed down, but not until we were almost done with the diaper change.
8:10 Prepared oatmeal for Carolyn
8:15 While Carolyn cried again, put Adara in her booster seat with a bib on and gave her cottage cheese
8:20 Fed Carolyn
8:35 Made Carolyn and Adara comfortable, with plenty of toys, and started cleaning up the mess in the kitchen, which had resulted from everyone laying low yesterday and doing minimal work.
8:45 Rescued Carolyn from another crying fit. Hoped that changing her diaper would solve her problems, changed her position and her toys, then went back to cleaning.
9:00 Realized Carolyn was probably sleepy and put her down for a nap
9:05 Received a phone call from the substitute babysitter, who was planning to take Carolyn while I went to my midwife apponitment. Before we had confirmed any plans, she had to hang up the phone, saying she would call back.
9:10 Started microwaving a South Beach Diet frozen dinner for my breakfast, and sat down for a moment to rest.
9:11 Adara asked for some water. There was some on the table, so I had her climb up to get it so I could rest a little longer. While she was there, I noticed her bowl was about to fall off the table. I asked her to move it so it wouldn't fall. She picked it up -- and let it fall through her fingers to the floor, scattering the remains of her cottage cheese.
9:15 I got up off the couch and asked her to help me pick up the cottage cheese. She ended up cleaning two bits of it.
9:20 Stirred my microwave dinner and started cleaning again when I heard a sound of water running behind me. Adara was pouring water from the pitcher (that I had left on the table) onto the hardwood floor and rug. She helped clean up more of the mess this time.
As I finished cleaning the mess, I noticed her playing in the recycling bin, which I had just moved because it was in a pool of water. Not wanting soggy cardboard added to the mess, I moved the recycling bin into the garage.
9:30 Ate my microwave dinner - interrupting myself for a moment to push a chair in front of the gas fireplace to prevent Adara from playing with the rocks inside it.
9:40 Started to clean again, loading dishes into the dishwasher. I was thinking about how almost humorous the morning had been, when I noticed Adara was playing with a broken mug, which I had put in the dishwasher a few minutes earlier. (Side note: we are house-sitting right now, and the mug that was now lying broken on the floor belonged to the owner of the house, and not to us.)
9:41 After removing the mug, I decided to take the garbage outside to prevent Adara from getting into it and playing with the mug some more.
9:43 Started loading the dishwasher again while Adara looked for new trouble to get into. Before it developed into something serious, I asked her to help me with the dishes. She played with the scrub wand and a pot of water for a second, before she started pouring water from the pot onto the floor.
I'm going to skip now to the end of the story. Shortly after 10, the substitute babysitter called again. She was leaving her house to go to a meeting at 10, and wanted to arrange for how to pick up Carolyn at my midwife's office. By this point I didn't have any brain cells left to organize anything that complex, so I told her not to worry about it. Taking Carolyn and Adara both to the midwife's office would be less of a hassle.
Of course I still didn't have Jon's lunch ready, so I hurriedly chopped up some turkey, ham, tomato, cucumber, celery, and the small bit of lettuce that we had left, and threw it into a container. I decided there was no way that I was going to have time to go to the grocery store with two babies to buy lettuce -- it was 10:30 by this point and Carolyn was still napping. Jon was just going to have a nearly lettuce-free salad.
Thankfully, Carolyn was awake when I went to check on her, so I didn't have to worry about waking her up and having a cranky baby with me at the midwife's office. The rest of the morning was relatively uneventful.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Belated
These are the highlights from Christmas. Well, the highlights that we have pictures of. Somehow when something interesting happens is usually the time that we forget our camera. Which is most of the time.
The first is the long-awaited umbrella Christmas tree in all its splendor. Pretty much like you imagined it would be, isn't it?
Next up is the Jewish Cultural museum in Brooklyn. Adara and I were crawling through a loaf of bread. It wasn't called bread, though. It was special. And it has a special Hebrew name. But I'm sure it tastes a lot like bread.
The Christmas tree on Rockefeller Plaza. We did not actually get close enough to take a nice picture of it. My brother, Ed, took this one.
Ah, now the fun. I was taking cute pictures of Adara. We bought her new earrings and I wanted to document the cuteness of it. She had other plans.
Thankfully, cuteness did not forever escape this mama's camera.
Really good hair day, plus fun new earrings. Sometimes being a girl really pays off.
The first is the long-awaited umbrella Christmas tree in all its splendor. Pretty much like you imagined it would be, isn't it?
Next up is the Jewish Cultural museum in Brooklyn. Adara and I were crawling through a loaf of bread. It wasn't called bread, though. It was special. And it has a special Hebrew name. But I'm sure it tastes a lot like bread.
The Christmas tree on Rockefeller Plaza. We did not actually get close enough to take a nice picture of it. My brother, Ed, took this one.
Ah, now the fun. I was taking cute pictures of Adara. We bought her new earrings and I wanted to document the cuteness of it. She had other plans.
Thankfully, cuteness did not forever escape this mama's camera.
Really good hair day, plus fun new earrings. Sometimes being a girl really pays off.
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