A Long Day?

I made a real gourmet dinner tonight--mac and cheese with chicken nuggets. It was a little late as Wade went to Biaggi's for lunch with work and I wasn't very hungry. And then I spilled the first pot of macaroni down the drain. Josh came to the table when called. I turned my back to finish the preparation of the mac and cheese, turn back and here he is:

As you will notice, he is in his pajamas. This is not because I had him ready for bed early but more that I didn't get him dressed from--embarassingly--yesterday. Yes, he's been wearing his pajamas for 2 days straight. Why? Because I can't get him to change out of them. It use to be that I could ambush him when he was sleeping and get him dressed. He seems to have caught on to my antics. He's all tooth and nail if he catches me trying to sneak clothes on him. Why don't I exercise my rights as a parent? When he doesn't want to do something, he's not going to do it. And I was running late for bowling this morning and didn't have the time or desire to instill in him the importance of getting dressed before going out in public. I'm really embarassed that I've become one of "those" moms that allows their children to run around all day in their pajamas, but what do I do? It's a battle, and I've learned to pick my battles. I mean, I do have a line. He cannot wear pajamas to church or Wal-mart. That's just too tacky. In the grand scheme of things, does it really matter that much if he wears his pajamas two days straight? I promised myself he'd get dressed tomorrow at whatever the cost. I'll post pictures of the battle wounds.

Speaking of bowling...181. WAHOOOOOOO! That's the best I've bowled ever. The closest was 157 a few months back. I kicked Kandiss's and Sadie's trash. Watch out PBA. Here I come.

Called To Serve

This morning, I awoke after a very fitful night's rest thanks to a sick toddler and got all dolled up to...(roll drum please) make my first ever appearance to jury duty.

There's a lot that goes into making our courts run smoothly. Involuntary jury duty is one of them. Let's face it, the only people who would actually go on a volunteer basis would be Law and Order buffs, Court TV addicts and crazy loons.

But I've been summoned, so my gracious mom came out to watch my son because who knew how long I was going to be gone.

We sat in a room for a long time. Then we watched a cheesy video that showed us what we should expect to happen--wait, I thought I'd get to see some guy in shackles led in, yelling obscenities to us. Darn.

Then we're escorted to the courtroom to await jury selection. We're given a piece of paper with 9 seemingly benign questions on it. Name, Occupation, Residence, Level of Education Obtained, Spouse's Name, Spouse's Occupation, Number of Kids and Ages, Newspaper and Magazine Subscriptions and Hobbies. It's like I'm interviewing for a date. We have to all stand up and answer these questions out loud.

There are 21 of us in the jury pool. There were suppose to be 30, but who knows what happened to the last 9. In any case, I'm number 30, so I have a long time to come up with the best answers to the questions that will get me thrown out of the running for jury. The first six questions are pretty straight forward. There isn't much you can do about them. However, I could have some fun with magazine and newspaper subscriptions as well as my hobbies. According to the Tooele District Court--and it's all true--we have subscriptions to the Salt Lake Tribune, Consumer Reports, Runners World and a bunch of nerdy computer magazines. My hobbies include anything to do with math, puzzles, reading, and running.

I'm happy to report that I was sent packing. Yay! It was suppose to be a two day trial and nothing can interfere with bowling.

On another note, I was asked what I will do if my friend from yesterday reads my blog and realizes that I'm talking about her. The answer is simple...no one in my neighborhood or ward knows I write a blog. I did this on purpose. I want to be able to freely write. Obviously, I would feel bad if someone read that and knew I was talking about them. But if everyone I knew and interacted with on a daily basis was reading my blog, I would have to censor what I said and that would defeat my goal for my blog--writing about everyday life and what's going on inside my head.

Where'd January Go?

At the beginning of the year, I set myself 5 goals:

(a) Attend the temple monthly by myself
I live in close proximity to 3 temples. There really is no excuse, especially with being home and having a mom that doesn't work either, that I can't attend the temple during the day once a month. I even recruited an older lady in the ward to go with me. My hopes are that it will catch on and we can put together two groups of people and trade off babysitting.

(b) Attend the temple monthly with Wade
We've been lacking in our temple attendance so I would like to start going to Ward Temple Night. Not a lot of people go from the ward, but at least it's a set time every month.

(c) Read a "classic" a month
(d) Do a book review a week
(e) Deep clean one room a month
This month the room I'm suppose to deep clean is the master bathroom. Considering that I just painted it not too long ago, this seems like an easy room to start the year off.

It's January 28. How am I doing? Well, I was all set to go to the temple tomorrow morning, but Josh is getting sick and I have to report for jury duty on Wednesday, so I have to find a babysitter for that and don't feel like I can ask for two days in a row. Especially with a sick kid. Wade and I missed Ward Temple Night because we were out partying on a ship. There's still 3 possible temple nights left in the month. Maybe a miracle? I'm about 50 pages into my classic and I'm not really engaged in it. I've been pretty good about reading a book a week and reviewing it. And my deep cleaned room--not so much. I've been lazy because I did just deep clean it and paint it not too long ago. I know I have to do touchups and such, so it's still there weighing on my mind.

Sigh.

The New Fashion Icon?

I came around the corner of the living room yesterday to find my darling 2 1/2 year old dressed like this:

He did this all himself. Apparently, he got his other underwear "wet" (whatever that means) so he took them off in the bathroom, found a new pair and attempted to put them on himself. He did a pretty good part, minus the whole flap thing in the back. And his boots are on backwards as well.

I think this might be a new look. He's slightly obsessed with Cars and the ONLY reason he's wearing a dinosaur pajama top is because his Cars pajama top was outside in the freezing cold car, so I lied and said we left it at his friend's house. I know. I know. I'm mean. But it was really cold and I didn't want to go get it. Besides, it's time to wash it anyways.

He gets weirder and weirder as the days go on. Should I be worried?

Building Snowmen

I hate the snow. It's cold. It's wet. It's miserable. But Wade, he likes the snow. And Josh likes it too. So at 11:00 this morning, Wade started digging in the closet for gloves and a hat and I got Josh ready to go outside. I went happily back to the project I was working on.

20 minutes later, I look out the window at the hugest ball of snow sitting in the front yard. I walk over to the window to peer out and see Wade rolling another ball of snow around the front yard, gathering more snow. Josh isn't in sight. Apparently, he's off playing in the side yard while daddy does all the work. He does come over briefly to lend his support:

But then he's back to the side yard.

My brother and his wife gave us a snowman kit for Christmas this year. Pretty ingenious. It has a felt hat and scarf, wooden eyes, a carrot-shaped wooded nose, coal-shaped wood painted black for the mouth and wooden buttons. It's adorable.

I came out to snap some pictures of the miraculous birth of the largest snowman I've ever seen in a front yard. It will probably still be around in June when the rest of the grass is dying of heat.

Wade came in to tell me what a great father he is.

He says, "do you know how to tell who's a great father?"

"How?" I reply.

"Drive around and see how many snowmen are out on people's front yards."

And you know what? He's right. He is a good father.

When Did This Happen

My mom called yesterday. No big news there. We talk daily. However, during the course of our conversation she tells me how my dad fell on some concrete steps that had iced over. Then she goes into graphic, vivid detail about what the bruise looks like. Images flood my brain of my father's backside--of which I don't ever think I've seen in the flesh--and keep me awake most of the night. Ew.

So I'm in the shower this morning thinking about my father's fall--not his bruising, just the fall. And it dawns that only old people fall and have battle wounds to show for it. So that led me to wondering about his age. He'll be 60 this year. 60! It's preposterous. In my eyes and mind he hasn't aged at all for as long as I can remember. I don't recall him looking any different than he does right now. Either has my mom. She has the same basic haircut in pictures where she's pregnant with my older brother. So when did it happen? When did my parents get old?

Then my mind wanders to my brothers. Of course I remember being younger and them being younger, but my older brother, who turned 30 last year, peaked in my mind at 25. When I'm reminded of him, I see him at 25. The weird thing...my twin brother tops out at 20. I don't see him as being older than 20. When they had their third child 18 months ago, I distinctly remember thinking "He's not old enough to have had three children. He's barely 20." Not so much. We turn 27 in May.

So where do I see myself? 21. Why? Who knows. It wasn't a particularly memorable year. I was married, working, going to school. Nothing stands out as to why I would pick this age. I have to remind myself almost weekly, "oh yeah, you are 26." My only hope is that I will see myself at 21 when I hit 41.

Book Review Friday 1/25/08

Book: Whatever You Do, Don't Run: True Tales of a Botswana Safari Guide
Author: Peter Allison
Pages: 246

I've always been fascinated with big game; elephants, tigers, lions, etc. I find it mesmerizing to watch them on PBS in their natural habitat. The other day at the library I came across this book on the new arrivals shelf and picked it up. I love animals and I love funny stories involving animals. It was a perfect fit.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The author, Peter Allison, left his homeland of Australia at 19 to seek out a challenge and backpack his way through Africa. Six months into his journey, most of his money had been spent and the rest had been stolen. Kindly fellow travelers offered Allison a ride to South Africa so he could secure more funds. On the way, they stopped at a game reserve. Allison was offered a job tending the bar at the end of their stay. He put down his backpack and waved goodbye to his traveling companions. It was the beginning of an amazing and astonishing experience.

The book is broken up into chapters, each detailing a particular incident that happened involving animals, tourists, fellow guides, or any combination of the three. While some were more serious like the realization that native African guides were not exempt from the harsh realities of the AIDS epidemic running rampant through the continent, many stories were surreal encounters with nature's largest mammals. One particularly funny story involved a search for a drunk, half-naked tourist who happened to be part of the British royal family.

Allison's writing is superb, putting the reader in the very story. I remember thinking on many occassions throughout the book "why didn't I think of doing this after I graduated high school?"

I was surprised at how well the beasts tolerated people in their territory. They even hung around, earning nicknames from the fellow guides. I found it particularly interesting that the guides could pick out individual families and prides of animals. I have always found that one lion looks quite a bit like every other lion. But I guess when you're living with them, their differences shine through.

This was definitely the best book I've read so far this year. It was heartfelt, exhibitiing a true love for wild animals. I thought it was going to veer off in to the "eco-friendly" terrain, but Allison mananged to keep politics out and captured the true essence of the African wildlife.

I would recommend this book to anyone who loves animals and loves adventure.