#9: Foot in Mouth

Oh NO!! Kate's inherited my foot-in-mouth gene!

I thought of one more thing that DEFINITELY should have been on my list of 8 things (of course now, after I scraped the barrel for my 8 things, I keep thinking of new ones!):

I tend to ALWAYS stick my foot in my mouth. (I'm like you on this one, cuz.) I have an example of this one that has been observed in awe by fellow foot-mouthers. Some of you know this story, others do not. It needs to be revisited from time to time to remind me not to say the first thing that comes to mind!

I was working as a temp during college just before my mission (in Omaha) making ballots for the upcoming election. I started to get to know one girl who worked there. We ran to get lunch together one day and brought it back to work to eat. I asked her where she lived and she mentioned that she lived in the neighborhoods near Burke Highschool. That was the highschool I had graduated from. But I knew she hadn't gone there. I could only think of one thing that I knew about that neighborhood, and so I said it. "Oh! So did you know that guy that went crazy and shot his mom?" I say as I chomp down on my chicken sandwich. I was just trying to make conversation and it had been a big news story a few years back.

Her response: "Um, yeah. That was my brother."

Silence. Our simultaneous gulps of our Wendy's sandwiches filled the otherwise quiet lunch room. Shock, dread, disbelief, self-loathing all rushed through me at that moment. All at once, I notice the visible scars on her neck and arm and remember that the boy's sister (the girl in front of me!) had jumped in between the gunfire and her mother, trying to save her mother. Her mom died. The girl had been hospitalized in intensive care and almost died herself.

"Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry. I had no--"

"It's ok."

I couldn't think of what to say. It somehow felt wrong to just drop it. Too awkward. I felt terrible. It was just hanging there between us. I began to sweat. The only thing I could think of to say was, "So, how's your brother now?"

After all these years, I can't remember her exact response. He had either tried to kill himself in prison or had succeeded in killing himself. I can't remember now. Either way, it wasn't good. I don't think I've ever felt so awful!

It really was a horrible story. The family had been homeschooled by the mom and the mom had been very strict. I guess it was too much for the son. So sad!

Anyway, that was definitely the worst foot-in-mouth story I've had...though there have been many. But seriously, what are the chances that would be her family??

8 Things...

Since I've been tagged, here are 8 things about me (you probably did not want to know). I warn you, I tend to go blank when I have to come up with this kind of stuff. I did the best I could!

1. I don’t like Harry Potter. I’m sorry. I’ve tried to like the book and the movies. It’s just not for me.

2. I’ve had my leg hair lasered off several times. It’s still there and stronger/thicker than ever. It will not be deterred. Along those lines, in fourth grade a boy finally told me and my best friend that we needed to shave our legs. I was mortified and promptly did so. In Hong Kong, a random Chinese girl pet my arm on the subway and told me I was like a monkey. An investigator naired (their version of Nair) my arm hair off during a discussion. She wasn't too serious about the Church, obviously. So, I have excess hair. There. I said it.

3. Andrew and I literally bought our house in the dark. Long story, but the real estate agent left the door open for us, we went there around midnight with a flashlight and decided to buy it the next day (we were on a severe time constraint.) We're not impulsive...

4. I had my period when I was 10. None of my friends even knew what it was yet, so when they invited me to go swimming, I’d have to come up with a lot of excuses why I couldn’t go. It was kind of sad actually. I spent many a day alone…in the fetal position.

5. I was a major tomboy growing up and was dubbed the “Worm Nurse” by my best friend because I scraped a flattened, sun-dried worm off the sidewalk, took it home, put it in a cool whip bowl full of mud and nursed it back to health. There was a huge rainstorm soon after that took my little worm home.

6. I spent the better part of my life in love with Patrick Swayze. One of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do was throw away all my pictures/posters/movies/letters written to, but none from (there was a LOT of stuff) associated with Patrick Swayze and many other celebrity males. I did it before I left on my mission. It was the right thing to do. :)

Sidenote: In high school, my parents drove me out to Lola, Nebraska where Patrick was shooting a movie. When we got near the set we were asked to leave by a security guard. SO close!

7. I can count the number of boys I’ve kissed on two hands. Most of them weren’t worth a pinky toe.

8. Something that drives my husband nuts and used to drive my mom nuts: it takes me a LONG time to set my alarm every night. I’ve always been scared that it won’t go off when I need it to (remind anyone of a Seinfeld?), so I will sit there and carefully push it into a certain groove over and OVER until I am convinced that it is in the right spot and will go off. This may not sound like a big deal to you, but I am really compulsive about it. I’ve worn the little button down to nothing. But I can’t say that I’ve been late to anything because of my alarm!

My Little Ragamuffin

So I was at Lowe's tonight at 10pm to get paint for our kitchen walls and I noticed people kept looking at Kate. I figured it must be because she's so cute, but on closer inspection, I realized she looked kind of like a little ragamuffin (I would have taken a picture, but I can't find the dang camera). For starters, she had green paint on her toes (she kicked the cupboard just after I painted), she had some remnants of dinner still on her cheeks (that hadn't come off with the first cleaning), her knees were all red and dirty from crawling around all day, her hair was all disheveled, and to top it all off she had poo stains on her onesie from an earlier blow-out (that I thankfully wasn't present for, but as a result had not noticed). I had her sitting in the cart without a carrier and she was flailing her legs about and "talking" loudly. She looked a tad wild. I should have brought some wires from home for her to munch on to complete the picture for the spectators.

I just got home and am going to give her a bath! I don't want her getting a reputation (or me either for that matter). :)

PS (11:30pm now) I went to go see the progress in the kitchen after putting Kate to bed and when I went in to chat with Andrew, he exclaimed, "The two middle buttons on your shirt are undone!" I look down and scream, "How long has it been like that?!" Reply: "I don't know!"

The perfect finish to the story, I thought-if I'd been walking around like that at Lowe's!

Playing Catch with Kate

My Little Helper...?

"I think it goes here, Mommy."

I've been meaning to move Kate's crib level down for a while now. She can get up really high on her knees and could potentially flop over the side of the crib. I thought Andrew and I could get it done really quick before he left to work, so I started unscrewing everything. He had to leave before he could help me, though. So I was left with a dismantled crib and a freaking out baby. Kate has really been moody lately. She used to love playing on the floor alone, but now if I let her down for a second, she starts screaming. I think it's mostly due to her two top teeth coming in. She kind of got like this with her other teeth.

Anyway, I'm trying to get the thing screwed back together and Kate won't play by herself. She kept crawling into my lap and trying to get my attention in every conceivable way. So I would hold her in my lap, while I tried to get the darn thing together. She was ready for a nap, the crib was no where near ready to be slept in, and her pack n play was in the trunk of the car that Andrew was driving.

It didn't look good.

I'd get one part together, then realize the next part didn't fit quite right, so I'd have to undo the other side and start again. Meanwhile, Kate's got her fingers following mine--they were constantly grabbing screws that I was trying to screw. At one point, I could not find a part that I needed and was frantically searching everywhere, when I see little Kate clutching it tightly in her hand.

I got to the final screw and it would NOT match up with the hole at all. I finally just got a hammer and started beating the railing until it fit. And--presto. I got it done and Kate is sleeping peacefully in it. PHEW.

Just a FEW More--I Swear!

I'm sorry if you feel like I'm making you watch a hundred home videos with me on a Sunday afternoon. It's just that this is probably the most exciting thing I'll do all summer and I have a LOT of pictures. But this will be my last installment of the family reunion, I think, and then I'll move on to weightier matters. :)

Water Balloon Fight!

These pics are from last Friday when we had a little water balloon fight at the park. Unfortunately, I bought the wrong kind of balloons--they were huge and VERY thick. They did not break easily at all. We even played baseball with them and some took a few whacks before breaking! They hurt when hit with them, so we opted for throwing them at the feet of the target. It felt nice on a HOT day.

The Blog Must Go On!!

I'm sorry, Fellow Bloggers, for neglecting my post (pun intended)for the past week. My entire immediate family has been in town for the past few days. They are here until Tuesday. It has been FOUR years since we have all been together. FUN! My parents and brother Paul live in Omaha. My sister is close by in Riverton and my brother and his family are from Alabama. So it has been a wonderful time getting to know everyone again. And for anyone who is curious--no, we didn't get our kitchen done in time. 'Sigh.' I knew it was a long shot.

We've been doing tons of fun stuff. It's late and I won't go into it all--I have about 400 pictures to go through, but I'll post a few tonight--just to let you know I'm still alive!

And one quick cute story. My little niece, Celeste Alayna (her name means 'celestial light'--cool, huh?), is three years old and LOVES Baby Kate and babies in general. Kate was "talking"--"Gaa gaa, daa, da." And I asked Celeste what Kate was saying. She immediately replied, "She's saying 'I'm a child of God'." How cute is that! My brother, Mark, said, "She probably is saying that." :)

"Purple Rain"

1996 Saturn SL2

Well, we ended up buying a car tonight (YAY!). We only had a few days left to work with and were more than a little stressed about finding a car. There have been several cars we've been interested in but they have always sold before we could check them out. So tonight we drove up to Murray in our Nova (temp registration) with no shocks (yelling "Ouch!" every few minutes) and no AC (in 95+ weather) and the cloth on the ceiling of the car falling down on our heads making it impossible to see out the back (you get the idea--not a fun ride. I shouldn't be so harsh on the Nova, though--it's been a good little car for us. After all, Andrew proposed to me in that car!) Kate was a sweaty, irritable mess by the time we arrived (we were as well for that matter). The wife of the guy selling the car kept saying how cute Kate was--Kate just glared back in response. The car is not without its own few problems (again, no AC) but it was a decent price and seems like a pretty good little car (a definite upgrade from the 1987 Nova. You can always tell by the speedometer: Nova max speed=85. Saturn=140.)

Andrew is fortunately secure enough in his manhood to drive a car with a paint color title "Purple Rain" and that has flower seat covers (we'll be removing those shortly, though). Now let's just hope it passes safety and emissions tomorrow!

Stop the Insanity? Mmm...Maybe Later.

Andrew and I scraped the popcorn off our kitchen ceiling from 11pm to 3am this morning. These pictures were taken after I had already swept up most of the popcorn dust. Ugh--I hate feeling coated in dust. After we were done, I went outside to dust off--I was patting and swatting so hard that my wedding ring went flying into the night. I heard it 'tink tink' somewhere, but had no idea where. I was down on my hands and knees covered from head to toe in dust searching for it. I'm sure I looked like a monster deformed bunny or something. Luckily, I was able to find it, though. After picking out the popcorn from my hair in the shower, I got out and got some out of my eyes! I had even worn goggles--oh well. Anyway, we at least got it all scraped. Now we have to try to get it painted before my family comes to visit us next week! No problem... [Insert nervous laughter HERE.]

Fourth of July: Always a Wild Ride

Andrew pushed Kate's stroller down the street and ran along beside her. As you can see from the picture, she thought it was the funnest thing ever. A little bit chilly in Park City.

Playing patty cake while waiting for the fireworks to begin.

Well, this year's fourth was another great one. Made even greater because we have Kate with us now. She is so fun to take places. I think she just loves getting out of the house--wherever it is. She always gets a little silly at night when she gets tired--we were in a gallery and she was laughing for a good twenty minutes and I wasn't doing anything. When she wasn't laughing she was saying "DAA DAA DAA" as loud as she could. I think the salesman was a little annoyed because she was distracting potential customers. :) Anyway, we first went to a family gathering on Andrew's father's side in Provo in the afternoon. He doesn't know that side as well (and I haven't seen them since we got married), so that was fun.

Then Andrew's dad came along with us to our fourth of July family tradition--Park City. This is our third year running. We go to the photography galleries on Main Street in the late afternoon, then eat dinner (Kate got to try her little munchers on a rice chip--her first thing besides baby food--she was quite adept at it, I must say), and watch the fireworks (they're right by the Alpine Slide). They are the greatest firework display I've ever seen. It's mostly because you are RIGHT under them (and some of them misfire--making it even more exciting). I mean RIGHT under them--it feels like you could just reach up and get burned. Of course, this year we had Kate so we weren't sure how close to sit. We still opted for right under them. Kate was intrigued by them for a minute or two, but her curiosity quickly turned to dismay and she began crying and trying to get away. Andrew held her close, covered her ears, fed her a bottle and she was asleep half way through. So we missed the first part, but got to enjoy the finale--which is all that really matters anyway.

And I have to say, (Andrew will be happy to hear me admit this) Andrew is probably the best driver around. All those years of delivering pizza really have honed his skills. As his dad put it (to Andrew), "It's like the car is simply an extension of your body." There were A LOT of cars blocking every way we turned (in Park City and back in Provo), but Andrew out-maneuvered them all. He's always able to find the quickest route. We were back home by midnight--which I wouldn't doubt people in Park City were still stuck in traffic. Amazing.

Fourth of July Memories

The fourth of July has turned into one of our favorite holidays. Since we've been married we've always had great July 4ths. One of our all-time favorites (and probably will always be the favorite) was when we were living in San Francisco. We went to Yosemite National Park during the day (bad day to go--it was worse than Disneyland), and then tried to figure out a good place to go that night. We heard about a lake that they were shooting fireworks over and decided to go there. We were late getting to the place and were running around in the dark (we already parked) trying to figure out how to get to the dang lake as we heard the fireworks going off. We finally found a way (through someone's yard) to the lake. We set up by some bushes. As we sat there, we realized we were still on someone's property. We could see them through the bushes, sitting on their dock. We suddenly saw all the signs that said NO TRESPASSING. Uh oh...I started to get kind of nervous. We realized that they would see us for sure when the fireworks were all over and they weren't distracted anymore. We were really close to them.

We whispered to each other that we would make our escape during the finale--they would never see or hear us then. So we waited anxiously for the finale...once it started, Andrew said, "This is it! Go! GO!" We took off running through the trees with the BANG BANG of the fireworks nipping at our heels. I know it sounds dramatic--but at the time it really seemed like someone was shooting at us and we were running for our lives. We ran until we came to a fence. We were surrounded by tall fences and signs that said NO TRESPASSING. I wasn't sure how the heck we had even come in. We frantically scurried around, searching for a way out. Finally, we came to a HUGE drop off. Andrew jumped, but I hesitated. I would, under normal circumstances, NEVER have jumped off--it was really high. But with the BANGS and BOOMS becoming more frequent, I leapt. Sweating, scared, and a little bit impressed that I had just jumped off a cliff, we made it to the street in one piece. Andrew still marvels that I jumped--but hey, we had worked ourselves up into such a fright--I figured it was the only way.

We really didn't even get to enjoy the fireworks that night, but it was definitely a night to remember. We couldn't stop laughing afterwards about how silly we had been.

This year, I don't think we'll be leaping off any cliffs in a dash for our lives--with the stroller and all it may be tough. But, as always, I expect to have a great time tomorrow. Happy 4th!

Going, Going, Gone!

Early this morning, Kate was playing on the floor of her bedroom. She was playing with the cap to her bottle (her favorite toy) when somehow she flung it really far under her crib. She was a little apprehensive about taking the plunge, but managed just fine to crawl under her crib; she emerged a few minutes later with bottle cap in one hand and reaching for the remote with the other.