Sunday, August 31, 2008

I Should've Known

When I said that I didn't have to worry about Sports Illustrated Swimsuit covers again until Februrary, I was sadly mistaken. Grocery shopping last week, I was greeted at the check out line by their "Special Edition Painted On Swimsuit Edition". Oh, Joy. Of course I spoke politely to the manager about removing it or covering up the picture. I got a polite but non-commital response from him. If any of you see that, will you please speak or write a note for the manager? I really appreciate that.

I was talking to my husband's cousin the other day, and she mentioned that their Relief Society is doing an Enrichment activity based on President Hinckley's 6 Be's. The key-note speaker was covering "Be Clean" and it is a therapist who will be speaking on how to keep safe from internet porn. (S--Correct me if I got any of this wrong, okay?) This cousin also mentioned how in her husband's extended family, an 11-year old boy was given a link to a pornographic website from his "friends". He checked into it, started experimenting, and had to be removed from his own home because he was making it an unsafe environment for the other family members. This cousin realized that she needed to start talking to her older boy (is he 10?) about what he was seeing. When she asked if he'd ever seen any inappropriate pictures, he said, "Yes, in the checkout line at Walmart." It's exactly like JoAnn Hibbert Hamilton says in her book, People Speaking Out for Decency:

"Phil Burress, President, Citizens for Community Values, Cincinnati, Ohio, said at Impact America Conference, April 2000, "Ninety-five percent of our children have already been exposed to pornography. Much of this early exposure was in store checkout lanes. ...Of the hundreds of addicts I have spoken to in the last four years, about 95% of them said that their addiction first began with swim suit images, often seen for the first time on or in a magazine. Donna Rice Hughes, Kids On Line, stated that....Often in play [children] act out what they have seen."

This cousin also said that Sister Beck talked in the BYU Women's Conference about needing to do more in the community to protect our children. I haven't been able to find the transcript and I wasn't there, but it sounds good to me!

Friday, August 29, 2008

My Take On Breaking Dawn

I finally finished the book. Wow, that was a bit of a surprise and a bit of slogging through. I'll follow Anne Marie's example and post my thoughts as a comment, so as not to spoil if there's anyone on the earth who hasn't finished it yet. But here's a small spoiler: My comments are not all positive.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Ice Cream Junkie

Those of you who know me, know that Ice Cream is a staple at our house. I come from a long line of ice-cream-o-holics. The kind who consider a serving of ice cream to be less like 1/2 cup and more like 1/2 a house. The kind who say "Do you mind if I polish this off?" as a euphemism for "I'm going to take the final 3/4 of the carton." And it just so happened that I married a man after my own palate. Which is why I am thoroughly devastated that the ice cream conspirators decided to shrink the carton size. Which is also why I was ecstatic the last time I went shopping and scored this coup! Among all the other shrunken cartons, I found one last tall and proud one. And it cost me the same $2.88 as the little ones. Take a good long look below because this may very well be the last full-size ice cream carton you will see in your life.
P.S. This ice cream is already long gone.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

A Stephenie Meyer/ JK Rowling Romance

I'm in the middle of re-reading the Twilight series before I launch into Breaking Dawn. So last night, as I was curling up in bed with my warm-blooded husband, I naturally said, "You are my very own werewolf." Obviously a compliment. So I was stunned when he whispered back, "And you are my amoeba."

Pause. Blink, blink.

My brain was trying to make sense of that comment. Tee was a microbiology major...is there more to being an amoeba than I had previously assumed? Was he unintentionally offended by my werewolf compliment? Has our marriage fallen apart completely without my being aware of it???

"An amoeba?" I repeated in confusion.

Which is when he laughed and said, "No, my veela." OH....Okay. I may be going deaf but at least we still have the fireworks!

Friday, August 8, 2008

Response to Sarah

Sarah asked to see a picture of me in my new black dress. So here are T & I on our lovely anniversary. Sorry that you can't see much of the dress, but I'm sure you can see that time has been very, very good to us, don't you think?



P.S. Actually T has had so many random people tell him he looks like Edward Norton. I didn't even know who he was and had to look him up. And understandably, I've had just billions of people mistake me for Salma Hayak.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

It's a Wonderful Life-- 9 Glorious Years Together

Yesterday was busy and wonderful and celebratory!

7 am: I hit the early bird sale at a department store and bought myself a lovely little black dress for our 9th anniversary celebration dinner, as well as for Kari's upcoming wedding. (The dress was 50% off--Sweet!)

8:30 am: Tee-Roy and Avandra go help build a wheelchair ramp for a 90+ year old woman in the ward who has been housebound.

11:30 am: We hit the BK and go as a family to the local water park. We all had fun even though Couscous was a tad grumpy/tired. The bummer was when we found out the rules had changed and Avandra and Couscous couldn't go down the big tube slides on my lap. That had been the highlight last year. I took Avandra and she measured 1/2 inch too short to go by herself, so of course we decided to try it anyway. She got in 3 good runs before a lifeguard measured and booted her. But it was still fun.

3:30 pm: I ran to the grocery store.

4:30 pm: I take Avandra for new shoes.

6:25 pm: I pick up the babysitter 'cuz T and I are going out!

7:15: Tee-Roy and I are 15 minutes late for our 9th anniversary reservation at Zagat's #1 Italian restaurant in town. We were still seated and it was a wonderful 4-course, 2 hour meal...Bruschetta topped with eggplant, melon gazpaucho, artichoke-stuffed tortellini, and some amazing puff pastry & cream desset topped with fresh berries and an orange sauce. We were so tempted to lick the platter clean!! It's amazing how without the kids we can still slip back into just enjoying each other's company. It seems like so often our conversation is "Do you want to change The Ky-Guy's diaper or do the dishes?" It's nice to know that we're still good friends and not just partners in parenting.


I think we have the best anniversary tradition. We don't buy each other gifts. Instead we just go out to eat at the nicest place that we can afford. During dinner we read predictions that we made the previous year. These predictions were about what we thought the next year would bring. This can be about our family, our community, the world, politics, weather, whatever. During dessert we make new predictions to seal in an envelope to open the next year. It's always funny to see what we guessed. And we definitely shouldn't make fortune-telling our income-source. Last year I guessed that we'd be really close to inviting a 4th child into our home. Ha-ha! Now I predict that next year we will still be absolutely thrilled and satisfied with the 3 we already have.

Actually this year we are giving ourselves an anniversary present. It will be a month late, but we are going to Ireland--alone!! Woo-hoo!

So...in celebration of our 9th anniversary, 9 Reasons I'm Glad I Married Tee-Roy
1. When we were dating I felt different than I had when I was with anyone else. I felt like us being together was part of something bigger than ourselves. I have seldom felt the veil to heaven so thin.
2. He has always treated me with respect and calmness. He lets me ride out my emotional waves without feeding into them.
3. He seldom, if ever, criticizes me. He knows that I am aware of my flaws and feel the pain of them enough without him adding to it.
4. He is never sarcastic or uses negative humor.
5. He honors the priesthood of God that he holds. He recognizes it as an opportunity to serve. He is always looking for ways to serve others, and that stretches me into being more kind than I naturally would be.
6. He has unshaken faith. He never doubts and isn't pessimistic.
7. He is a very "hands-on" father and husband. There is nothing that he won't do in our household and with our family. In fact, if he doesn't do the dishes after dinner, they don't get done that night at all.
8. He is an excellent teacher. He teachs our children so well. He helps them learn how to do things independently at comparatively young ages.
9. He is incredibly supportive. If I have ideas of ways we can improve as a couple or a family, he will support me 100%, even if it might mean a sacrifice to him. He doesn't try to talk me down from my personal standards, even when they are stricter than the norm.

I love this boy! I thank God every day for His guidance in bringing us together. I am so, so thankful.

Mothering Moments

Tonight we had such a wonderful family walk. It was pleasant, we got rained on, The Ky-Guy made the girls giggle all night with his silly fun, and they caught loads of fireflies with daddy. It was a one of Elder Ballard's "moments" --

"Recognize that the joy of motherhood comes in moments. There will be hard times and frustrating times. But amid the challenges, there are shining moments of joy and satisfaction."
(Elder M. Russell Ballard, "Daughters of God")

Being Sarah-esque

My friend Sarah is a wonderful cook. She always finds these delectable recipes and so many of them become my family's favorites. Her blueberry whipped cream pie is just one example. Mmmm! It's not uncommon to see her blog-post about food. Well, I am feeling very Sarah-esque after a wonderful meal that we enjoyed tonight.

Tee-Roy and Avandra came in from the garden with 3 large cukes, a large bowl of green beans, and tomatoes. We enjoyed the bounties of T's hard work like this: Grilled Salmon with Cucumber Salad (the salmon was done on the BBQ and we didn't use quite as many red onions in the salad), fettuccine with pesto, steamed fresh green beans, and fresh tomato slices. We ended it all with Breyer's M&M Cookie Dough Ice Cream. It was a beautiful presentation, delicious food, and the kids totally didn't like it. Oh well, they got their blue box of mac n' chee yesterday with the babysitter. And the caveat, in case you want to try this meal: we were fasting today. And we have noticed that new recipes are quite successful on Fast Sunday, but tend to disappoint the second time around. Food just tastes a whole lot better when you're hungry!