Things Weighing on My Mind

So a few things weighing on my mind as of late:

We've been out looking for a new kitchen table. We inherited our current table from Wade's grandma when we got married. It's ugly and there's only 3 1/2 chairs left standing. Not good for when we have people over for dinner. So, we've hit all the major stores in the area over the last little bit and haven't found "the one". The hard part is we both have a picture of "the one" in our minds, and nothing we see fits the bill. However, the other day, I was somewhere and found it. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to plunk down $1500 for a kitchen table, so we opted not to buy it. Maybe when Wade is making his millions, I won't think twice about it, but right now with a mortgage to pay off, $1500 seems a bit excessive. The really, really bad part is that KSL classifieds is in my reader and I've been watching the dining room tables (there are some really ugly ones out there) and two have popped up in the last month that would've fit the bill just fine at a mere $325. 8 chairs and all. But, we're not the only ones out there looking and two very lucky families got a kickbutt deal on a dining room table. The only thing to do is to just keep looking...

Sunday, at a meeting for the Relief Society Presidency of which I'm a member, I was informed that I'm the Humor Specialist--the person that brings humor to the many situations we face as presidency of a very large and needy ward. Do you have any idea how much pressure that puts on me? I was merely being myself, but now I feel as though they're all looking at me to provide comic relief. I'm choking here people. I can't handle this kind of stress.

Lastly--and this one is much weightier than the previous two-is the slow death of a friend in the ward. She was diagnosed with colon cancer two weeks ago and suffered a stroke last week. Did I mention that she's only 37 years old??!! She has three young sons and they recently moved here from South Carolina. I was assigned to be her visiting teacher when she moved in and she's become a close friend. Why do bad things happen to good people? Yesterday, devastating news came when it was confirmed that her cancer is stage 4. It has spread to her liver, lungs, brain and lymphnodes. She and her family have an amazing attitude, and I hope things go well, but it's hard to sit on the outside and watch it happen. My visiting teaching partner is amazing and has all the right things to say. I just stand there like a blubbering idiot. Unfortunately, she's been in Mexico for the last week and doesn't know of the lastest developments. Last month, another sister that we visit had her third miscarriage after having tried for over a year to get pregnant. As usual, my partner stepped up to the plate and left me out in left field picking my nose.

Conversations in the Bleachers

Last night, Wade's cousin called him about an hour before kick-off between TCU and BYU and said he had three extra tickets. Luckily, we were in Salt Lake looking at kitchen tables, so we hopped in our car and inched towards the stadium. We only missed the first quarter of the game and it was a perfect night for football. Not too chilly. Good thing, as we weren't really prepared for sitting out in the cold. This was Josh's first football game and he had a blast. We even let him eat popcorn for dinner. What more could a kid ask for.

As any semi-football fan knows, the real fun of going to a game is listening to those around you. We were sitting in the "blue-hair" section--the section reserved for the oldest, most dedicated season fan ticket holders. When I say old, I mean they're old. Like 80 years old. And dedicated. They all have their 1980 style headphones on with their walkman's listening to KSL broadcasters call the game on the radio. There's no booing or doing the wave or...anything...but it was still a lot of fun.

Behind us were three guys about our age. They had this to say during a half-time routine put on by the marching band, flag girls, cougarettes (dance team), and the cheerleaders.

<> Do you know any flag girls?
<> No.
<> Me neither. I mean I've known a few cougarettes, a few cheerleaders, even some people in the marching band. But no flag girls.
<> You're right. I do too. I wonder why that is.
<> They must keep a low profile.
All three guys sit and ponder this deep revelation.

About a half hour later, during a spirited performance by Cosmo, the mascot, guy 1 says: I even knew a Cosmo once. But no flag girls.

Hmmm...deep, I know. So, this got me thinking: Did I know anyone in the marching band, dance team, cheerleading squad, or a flag girl while I was in college. Barring the two years I spent at a Junior College where it was impossible not to know who everyone was, the four years at the U of U yielded no inner glimpses into these elite squads. Then I thought, well maybe it was because I was a girl. So I asked Wade. Nope. No relationships formed on his part either. Perhaps it's because we're really big nerds, getting degrees in really geeky fields like computer science and mathematics. These types of fields don't generally attract those that spend college dancing, jumping up and down screaming, and girls twirling big poles with pieces of cloth attached to them. And everyone knows that if you're in the marching band, you certainly don't advertise that to the general populace. Mystery solved.

Tales From the Potty

Today, we had a breakthrough on the potty scene. Josh came running in to inform me that he had pooped. Nothing new, he's been telling me for awhile now, but when I went to change him...nothing there. Which only means that he's about to poop and I have time to get him to the potty. Yay! Visions of not having to carry diapers in my purse, not having to wonder if that horrible smell was emanating from my kid and not having to figure out how to change a diaper in a one stall bathroom with a questionably clean floor soon flood my brain. I happily grab Josh off the floor and high tail it to the potty. All hell breaks loose.

First, he doesn't want to sit on his potty. He wants to lay on the floor and *gasp* do his business there. Secondly, he's perfectly happy pooping and sitting in it and he's not about to change, but he definitely doesn't want to put on a new diaper right now. He's busy trying to poop.

Now I have a problem on my hands. I can't just let him lay on the ground and poop because that's worse than cleaning it off of him. So I do what every potty training book tells you not to do. I force him to sit on the big potty and do his business there. I hold him, of course, because otherwise his legs would fold up and he'd slip right in. This doesn't seem to comfort him any.

I'm happy to report that he completed his duty and after I showed him his accomplishment, he seemed to be quite pleased with himself. We called daddy and grandma, each giving him much praise for this seemingly easy task. I am quite confident that he has the idea now. No more diapers. So I put on his choney's and off we go to the church and the store. I keep asking him if he needs to use the potty. He responds "NO!" Okay...point taken.

We're safely at home when he comes running in. "Mommy, mommy, I'm wet." And sure enough, he was. Okay, I think to myself, accidents are to be expected. A little later, he pulls the leg of his (new) underwear and out falls...yeah, gross, I know. Then a friend comes over with her son, and Josh announces again that he's wet. I sit him down and patiently tell him that he needs to tell me BEFORE he pees. That Lightening McQueen is not suppose to get wet. We put on our third pair of choneys and head off to play.

Sometime during our little play date, Josh is bad and has to be put in time out. When I release him from his prision, he's naked. So on goes our 4th pair. Everything's good and then the straw that breaks the camel's back is when he stands up on his chair at dinner and pees. At the dinner table, right through his underwear.

Clearly we've missed an important step along the way...we're back to the drawing board.

More of the List

52. Sew an outfit
53. Make a quilt
54. Do the "Young Love" cross stitches for mom
55. Read the classics
56. Be president of an organization
57. Backpack the Western Trail
58. Hike King's Peak
59. Meet a celebrity
60. Memorize the Gettysburg Address
61. Go super short with hair
62. Go super long with hair
63. Go funky with hair
64. Own an evening gown
65. Own a home with a swimming pool
66. Become Java certified
67. Start a business
68. Take the Actuarial Exam
69. Return to the workforce
70. Own a pair of designer shoes
71. Teach in a public school
72. Get a full body massage
73. Spend the day at a spa
74. Go on a retreat
75. Eat at a five star restaurant

The List

The ever elusive list (to be altered as I--and my life--see fit):

100 THINGS TO DO BEFORE I DIE

1. Run a marathon
2. Get a bachelor's degree
3. Get a master's degree in a completely unrelated field
4. Read 1000 books
5. Write a novel
6. Go on a cruise
7. Go to Hawaii
8. Go to a sport's championship game
9. Qualify for Boston
10. Win a 5k
11. Win a triathlon
12. Join Toastmasters
13. Work in a bookstore
14. Pull an all nighter
15. Make a spectacular scrapbook
16. An entire Christmas of homemade gifts
17. Sponsor a missionary from the ward
18. Join a recreation team
19. Hit my target weight
20. Do an entire crossword puzzle book without cheating
21. Take a college course a year
22. Learn the guitar
23. Get out of debt
24. Buy a new car with cash
25. Custom design a home
26. Give birth naturally
27. Own a pair of designer jeans
28. Visit every state in the Union
29. Take a rubbing of monument erected for Grandpa in Washington D.C.
30. Do temple work for mom's side of family
31. Be a volunteer firefighter
32. Live on the east coast
33. Shop with abandonment
34. Volunteer for a good cause
35. Go kayaking in the sea
36. Go skydiving
37. Go scuba diving
38. Learn to ballroom dance
39. Get married
40. Make a family cookbook
41. Write my own obituary
42. Plan out my own funeral
43. Take Dad out for lunch at least twice a year
44. Visit mom once a week
45. Decorate the house how I want to
46. Create a safe haven in my home
47. Say hi to someone new at church every week
48. Invite a family over for dinner once a month
49. Attend the temple alone once a month
50. Attend the temple with Wade once a month
51. Be part of a bowling league

So that's about all I can come up with right now. I'll add to the list as I come up with new ideas.

A new start

New start. New blog.

After decribing the nitty gritty details of training for a marathon for nearly a year and a half, I'm moving on to something a little more light hearted and fun to read.

Enjoy!