Vanity, pure and simple

I think my piano recital invite* turned out pretty darn cute,** so here's me shamelessly posting a copy of it on my blog. So far I know I've got RSVPs for a ninja, a bumblebee, Elvis, and a ghost. We'll see who else shows up tomorrow to delight us with their aspiring piano talent.



*Yeah, making this invite had NOTHING to do with the darling clipART packages they sell at PcCrafter
**Oh yeah, and it also had NOTHING to do with the amazing abilities of Adobe Photoshop. It was all me, me, me.

Tag, I'm It

I was tagged by both hubby and Kara (Brigham's wiffy*) on the same day.

I'm not huge into the tagging thing, but I'll humor you both today. : )

The Rules
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on the blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post (same deal as #3).
5. Let each person know they have been tagged.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Though I am usually not one to rebel, I'm a serious rule-breaker today. But I'll abide by rule #3.

Six Random things about myself:
1. I love cottage cheese.
2. In high school I loved pantomime, enough that I competed in drama competitions.
3. I'm a thief. A copy-cat doer. Most of what I've picked up over the years, I've heard of or learned from someone else and decided I wanted to adopt it. Including how I discipline my children (thanks Sara Fisk). Or making an amazing quiet book (thanks Stacy Yarrington). Or how we do family scripture study (thanks Rebecca Carlson). Or how I got rid of restless leg syndrome at night** (thanks mom). Or using asterisks in my blogs with little footnotes (thank you Stephanie). Or asking people to de-lurk and comment on my posts (thanks TJ, though I've just not had the success you've had. I think you just have the magic blog touch).
4. One of my pet peeves is people that don't believe in ADD or depression, and/or don't believe in medication to help remedy those situations. Clearly those people haven't struggled with these VERY REAL*** issues. Grump grump grump.
5. I almost always shower at night.
6. My favorite thing to say to my boys is, "Guess what???" or "I have a secret!" If I can get them to say, "What?," I cheerfully say, "I love you!" Jeffrey has reached the point that it doesn't even phase him--he rolls his eyes. Bryce gives a shake of the fist with a fake mad face (though he's smiling through the gritted teeth), but Nathan still falls for it hook, line, and sinker.



*wiffy=wife. And Brigham is Rob's childhood best friend, and Brigham and Kara are also good friends to me from college.

**Whether it's a wives' tale or placebo effect, this has worked for me: I put a new bar of soap down by my legs when I lie down at night. If my legs really get restless I've even rubbed the bar on my legs. I can't believe it, but it really has stopped my restless legs, which lead to panic attacks for me when I can't sleep at night. I started doing this begrudgingly to appease my mom who kept asking me if I was doing this, and now I'm glad I did. Thanks, mom. You can now insert "I told you so" into the comments. : )

***OOh, this could SO become a rant. The bottom line is, if you or your kid had high blood pressure or diabetes, would you say, "No, this is all in his mind"? Or "She just needs to have beeter sleep, diet, and exercise habits"? Of course you wouldn't. You'd seek medical treatment to help yourself or your child be the healthiest self possible. In the fast-paced society we live in now, sometimes our bodies lack the chemicals that allow us to function at our best, and I believe God has allowed remedy medicines to be discovered that help our bodies have the best balance of chemicals so we can function and even thrive in our daily lives. Thank goodness for modern medicine.

Sunday morning brotherly love:

Just call them the wrestling brothers. Or the Ringling Bros.

Rolly boys

Another memorable FHE (Family Home Evening):

This was what Bryce and Nathan were doing while Rob was teaching about "Developing Compassion."

This cracks me up.

Oh, and, at least they're not fighting. See, that fits with developing compassion, dontcha think?

Another Nathanism

Tonight, at the end of dinner:

Nathan to me: I want to go watch Fox and the Hound now. Can I?
Me: No, Nathan, it's time to get ready for bed.
Nathan, now looking at dad, without even pausing: Daddy, can I go watch Fox and the Hound?

He does this a lot. He doesn't even wait until the other parent is out of earshot!

(Rob's response to Nathan, by the way: "Do you think your dearest love will save you?," which, translated from Princess Bride, means, "Um, your mom just said no. Do you think you're going to weasel a yes out of me?")

Nathanism

Nathan's unsolicited dialogue last night just after a prayer on the food:

Nathan announced: Mom, I wasn't eating anything. (Meaning during the prayer; he has also announced on other occasions just after prayer, "Mom, I wasn't wiggling!")
Mom: Ok, Nathan.
Pause.
Nathan: I was just chewing.

I thought that was cute. I'm not eating mom, I'm just chewing.

Objective video

Please watch the video to the end before forming an opinion. It shows why I originally felt torn on the whole "Why not live and let live" issue of traditional marriage vs. nontraditional marriage (especially starting at minute 1:14 of the video clip). It explains how I feel, that I can accept and enjoy friendship with a person without being asked to legally condone their lifestyle as though it were the same as a heterosexual couple.

It causes me great anxiety to even speak up on this subject. I keep writing and erasing words, thinking, no, that may appear judgmental, no, that may hurt feelings, no, that may come across wrong. I worry, worry, about how to word my feelings so that my pure intent is understood. I feel like no matter how I try to express myself, someone will find a way to use it against me or mock me because I didn't articulate well enough why this issue WILL have such far-reaching effects on society.

I love people. I always have, I always will. I love you no matter who you are or what type of person you are, what you believe or don't believe, how you live or don't live.

I also firmly believe families are the building block of society (society is based on families having and rearing children to lead society and keep it going), and children's optimal development comes from the different unique roles of both father and mother whenever possible. To legally say marriage between a same-sex couple is the same is to call one gender role or the other irrelevant. It is NOT a question of civil rights or intolerance--the above video points that out, and it's worth watching.

Also, I appreciated my friend Rebecca's thoughts on the matter, with one clarification that I added in the comments, to which she agreed. I like how she looked at the issue from four different viewpoints: scientist, citizen, christian, & adult human being.

Proud Blog Mama

It's not even my own doing (I heard my sister Katie was the partner in crime), and yet I still feel like a new mama who's baby just took her first steps.

Ironic since this "baby" is MY mom. My very own mother, the sneaky rascal, quietly put up her own blog!

She's joined the blogging world and has already become a blog junkie.*

Way to go, mom!



*that's partly my fault--well, no, it's not my fault that y'all have catchy blog titles on my sidebar blog list.

Santa Ana winds

Does anyone remember the national coverage that the terrible CA fires got last year? A lot of it happened because fires broke out right during these Santa Ana winds that come every year.

When I was jogging this morning invisible pieces of debri kept getting stuck in my eyes. I still snapped all these pictures, and that's just of my little neighborhood from last night's winds. The wind was so furious this morning I thought my bedroom window was surely going to break.

The first picture down is an entire tree trunk uprooted.

Magic! Getting out grease stains.

It's magic, and I love it. I read a household tip from a dear friend's blog, and tried it, and IT WORKS!! It works worthy of all caps and two exclamation points!

And the kicker? It works even IF the stain is set (meaning you've already washed and dried the clothing before). Magic, I tell you. Just remember to rub the grease stains well with dish soap first, then soak it in some distilled water for a day, then wash. (First I only used distilled water and missed step 2, the dish soap, to no avail)

Three ruined favorite shirts and one jacket are now no longer ruined. I'm telling you, this is life-changing laundry advice for a mom with three little boys. ; ) Thanks Rebecca. Who knew!

Spring Flowers

Though it's fall, look at these beautiful spring flowers! The date on the link is May of '08. There's nothing like beautiful flowers to brighten one's day.

Wow!

"Wow!" is the theme for the national Reflections contest this year. (Can you tell the due date for entries is tomorrow, so we have Reflections entries on the brain right now?)

It is a perfect title not only for all the pictures my boys drew/photographed, but for General Conference. Several years ago, when I would watch/listen to conference, I would think, ok, ok, nice topics, good advice, good to remember. Somehow now, though, it's as if my spiritually weak self needs this nourishment, and the topics are on fire, uplifting and rejuvenating me every six months. I think, "What can apostles and our prophet say that haven't already been said? How could it get any better?" and then they out-do themselves every time.

Even though our router broke Saturday in the middle of Sis. Allred's talk, Rob bought and installed a new one by nightfall, and we watched Sat. morning's session about 8 pm last night.

Today we watched Sat. afternoon's session in between Sun.'s morning and afternoon sessions. One might think, 6 straight hours of listening to church talks, are you crazy? But it was just what I needed. (Not to mention I was just switching my addiction from watching hours of Alfred Hitchcock on Friday, to hours of conference today)

I can't even point out a favorite yet, but I have already re-listened to Pres. Monson's "Change/Enjoy the Journey" talk (Sun. morning session) and ate it up. Of course, I love Harriet Beecher Stowe's book Uncle Tom's Cabin, and I love Our Town, especially deceased Emily's observations about wanting to scream to her family to stop and look around at them, and realize what they've got while they're alive.

Two side notes:
1. I really loved President Hinckley, and though I missed hearing him in April, today several times I would hear a talk start and think the voice could almost be him; I missed him more this conference.

2. One song that was sung was "Faith in Every Footstep," the exact arrangement Rob and myself and my family sang in the 1997 Susquesential Celebration. It's amazing how when you've sung a song, it reaches you, it becomes a part of you. My heart was full and I cried while I sang the song with the choir today from my family room. I don't know how to describe how I felt I was worshipping God through song. The feeling was so strong. I know all you music-lovers out there understand; my mom is one of them, so is Rob's dad.