from a book i'm reading now...

"I'm tired of being a skeptic, I'm irritated by spiritual prudence and I feel bored and parched by empirical debate. I don't want to hear it anymore. I couldn't care less about evidence and proof and assurances. I just want God. I want God inside me. I want God to play in my bloodstream the way sunlight amuses itself on water." -Elizabeth Gilbert, "eat pray love"

clean ii!

And so the second phase in my cleanliness crusade is the living room! Isn't it beautiful?

clean!

Brett and I cleaned the garage recently, and it is beautiful. I won't embarrass myself with before and after pictures, but perhaps you can imagine the disaster it was before.

I feel so much more calm and happy when my surroundings are clean. And although we have slowly been cleaning the house and basement, I now feel more motivation to get the job done quickly. So that I can think again. And maybe even eat at the dining room table during meals, instead of elsewhere.

magical youtube

I want to share these three wonderful videos with you all. All three are very silly and entertaining.

(Thanks to Devon and James & Doralie for spreading the youtube joy!)

excuse me?

I just placed a classified ad on KSL Classifieds and I got this very interesting message after the site accepted my ad:

"NOTE: It is recommended to have a potential buyer contact you via telephone before making a sell. You should be VERY suspicious of anyone calling from overseas, out of state, or via any form of relay service for the deaf."

According to KSL, Deaf people and relay interpreters must not be trusted! Very strange.

sedona

You can tell when I go on vacation because I don't post for a week or so. But don't track that too closely and come rob my house while I'm gone...besides, my rabid cats would totally attack anyone that tried.

Last week we went to Sedona, AZ with Brett's family. The whole family went, all 12 of us. It was a lot of fun. There are always fun reasons to go anywhere with a large group, but sometimes it takes way too long for 12 people to all get headed in the same direction. So I was glad I brought my novels to keep me entertained during the waiting periods.
Sedona was quite beautiful. It was a smallish town that reminded me a lot of Park City, very artsy with plenty of turquoise and Kokopelli and other such Southwestern art. The plan, for me, was to spend the entire week shopping and swimming. But there wasn't anyplace to shop, since I didn't want to buy any turquoise or Kokopelli figurines. And it rained for an unexpected amount of time while we were there, so I didn't get much swimming in. But we did a lot of other things that I didn't expect to do.

A few weeks before we left, we were wandering around the Costco and I found a book called something like "Top 100 Places to Visit Before You Die". One of those places was Sedona, and it gave a few recommendations of what to do while you were there. The book recommended that we visit the Chapel of the Holy Cross. Of all the places we saw while in Arizona, this was my favorite. Brett and I went alone; it was a wonderful way to spend Sunday afternoon, very peaceful. I liked the way the cliffs behind seemed like sentinels, watching over the Chapel. The building itself was beautiful. Plus we got to see this offensively huge mansion being built just below.Another wonderful Sedona discovery was The Caramel Apple. (glorious music playing in the background) I hadn't ever eaten one before, but they had a Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory in Old Town Sedona. I seem to be all about trying new things recently (for example, a few weeks ago I had a cheeseburger with an onion on it for the first time) and so I got one. And oh, my. All I can say is, I'm glad they have Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory stores here in SLC, too. (Also, Jackie, they totally have one in the Chicago Premium Outlets.) Many of you probably already know about this magical chocolate store, but since I'm not too into the whole chocolate scene, it's pretty new to me!

As usual, the best parts of the trip were the nieces. Belle and Lizzy are so interesting! They have tons of stuff to talk about. And I love their little girl bellies. I'm glad we have been able to spend more time with them this summer, because they are getting to know Brett and me. This means they will hang out with us and not be nervous (as long as they can still see their Mom and Dad). Also, I finally caught Lizzy on film doing her theatrics. I have witnessed both she and Belle doing this several times. One minute they are happy and playing around, but if they see they can gain an advantage by bringing out the tears, they have no problem doing that. Here is Lizzy posing for the camera.
Just after that, I told her to do a sad face for me. And she totally started crying (for one second, then she was back to smiling.) I love it! I remember doing that so many times when I was small. There is much power in the tears of a cute little girl.

We also went to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. This was another first for me. The Canyon was amazing. Brett and I want to go again soon, so that we can do some of the hikes down into the Canyon.
I took a lot of pictures with people in them, but they were all lame, so I'm not posting any of them.
And finally, we went to Out of Africa, a safari themed park. This was a really cool park, with a lot of emphasis on interaction (when it was safe) with the animals. On the bus tour, we were given carrots to feed to the giraffe. Lizzy fed hers by hand.
But Brett put his in his mouth, so he could get a giraffe kiss. Brett is not getting any kisses from me for 6 months after this, just to guarantee he is clean again after that little wildlife encounter.
The park had baby zebras, too. If I remember right, the little one on the right is 8 weeks old (or 10 weeks) and the one just to the left of that baby is 14 weeks old or so.
We got to hold an (unfertilized) ostrich egg, which was really gross to me. The egg was all warm from being in the sun and I could feel all the liquid moving around inside. I don't think I'll be able to eat eggs for a while.

There was a beautiful puma at the park, one that had been born in the wild, but her mom was killed when she was 6 weeks old or something. So the park got permission to take care of her and her sister. The trainers said that her sister died a while ago (after 14 years living in the park) and since then this puma has gotten super affectionate with her keepers. Since pumas are the biggest purring cat (in contrast to roaring cats like tigers), you can hear her purr in the video at some points.



She reminded me a lot of Cordelia when she wants attention. The puma totally sat down on the guys lap and started suckling his shirt and kneading on his shoulder. It looked a lot more painful to him than when Cordelia does the same things to us.The park also did this super awesome tiger show where trainers got in the pen with the tigers and allowed themselves to get mauled and chased by the huge frightening tigers. Yikes! After the show, they let people go up and feed the tigers through a fence. I would think they should feed them before the show, so they are less likely to eat the trainers, but they obviously know something about tigers that I don't. Brett got to feed this one (that's his hand).
At the end of the day, we got on another tour bus and followed the trainers around while they fed all the animals. Here's one trainer carrying a large carcass over to the lion for dinner. I think I'm not going to eat steaks for a while, either.
All in all, another great trip. We had a great time staying in that beautiful place with our family. Brett is completely burned out on traveling already (I honestly can't see how), but I'm secretly trying to convince him that he wants to take one more trip this summer out to NYC to visit my super awesome brother and his incredibly cool wife, and our stylishly wonderful friend.

the bakery

We recently went with our friends, Ryan and Megan, to experience Gourmandise The Bakery. It was wonderful. I can't believe how many aspects of this city that we have yet to discover. I'm glad we have Ryan and Megan to show us all of the most important ones!

We each got a treat and then shared them all. Megan got the top left; I think it was a pear-almond tart thingy. I got the top right, the strawberry tart. Brett got the chocolate porcupine; it was raspberry mousse inside. And Ryan got the one that looks like a rear end. Hee hee. It was actually a peach, and it had sugary leaves and a stem, but we ate them before I remembered to take pictures. The leaves helped it look less like a backside. But his was peachy syrupy goodness. Anyone who comes to visit us now, unless you're crazy and don't want to, we'll go try a few more delights at The Bakery.

sappiness ad nauseam

I am officially dumber than I was three hours ago. Brett and I just watched "The Lake House". Now, this may come as a shock to some of you, but...it just about made me throw up. That movie is the perfect example of why I hate romance movies--and romance in real life, too.

We rented the movie because it had a little twist to it, I thought it might be kind of like that one where the girl is in a coma (which I liked only slightly more than this one). But officially, that movie is the last romantic comedy I will ever watch. And we are definitely going to watch one of the more extreme blow-em-up-and-kick-them-in-the-face movies next, so that I can get the bad taste out of my mouth.

I literally gagged when the leading lady, Sandra Bullock, told her man, Keanu Reeves, "Ha Ha. Very funny. What...did you eat a clown for breakfast?" And just when I thought no one could be a worse actor than Keanu, they found his equal to play "the brother". This guy looked like he was on the verge of vomiting throughout the entire film. He probably couldn't believe he was in such an awful film.

Oh well. Now that I'm writing this, I feel silly that I stayed and watched the whole movie. No, I stayed so that I could send a truly informed warning out to all of you. Don't even be tempted by the chance to view Sandra's excellent wardrobe. It's not worth it.

eating moose droppings in class?

My dad is a professor at the BYU. He loves teaching and loves his students. He's a very good teacher and makes sure that he is often very silly so that his students feel at home in his class. Up until now, he hasn't earned any accolades for his pranks, but recently word of one got leaked to the press. Check out the 4th paragraph down in the article.

My dad said that he never intended for the student to actually eat the droppings. He just placed them nicely in the chocolate covered strawberry box and was carrying them over to the main group to show them what he did. One student saw him carrying the box and said, "Don't take them over there! They'll be gone in a second!", grabbed one and popped it into his mouth. It didn't take him very long to realize they weren't actually strawberries.

Hee hee. I love my dad.

the most wonderful kids in the world

I love my nieces and nephew. It is so fun to be with them, have conversations with them, giggle with them, pretty much do anything with them (although I'm not into the whole changing diapers thing--that's the one exception).

Belle

Belle has become such an interesting young girl, who always has something new to talk about. She tells me about her school, what the neighbor kids are doing, funny things her cat does, quizzes me on random trivia (like information about the white crocodile she saw at the zoo), what happened at her last dance recital, and so on. I love having conversations with her and I am totally enjoying watching her grow up.

We took her to the aquarium last year for her birthday. As soon as we got inside, she asked us what time the place closed. We told her we had about an hour to walk around before they closed. She then rocketed through the aquarium, spending a brief time at each tank--enough time to glance over everything inside--and then moving on to the next one. She made sure that she saw everything there was to see (and with ten minutes to spare)!

She has the pretend voice--that everyone does when they are a kid--down perfectly. "Pretend that I'm the momma cat and you're the baby cat...and pretend that I hurt my leg...and then you said 'What happened to your leg?!'...and then I limped around like this...and then you fell asleep...and when you woke up I was gone..." I love that voice, it totally gives me flashbacks to my own pretend stories.

And I love that she does the same crazy-eyes-picture-face that I do.

Lizzy

Lizzy hardly ever stops moving. She is always bouncing around, cheerfully doing flips and somersaults and dancing. She takes everything as a compliment and always replies with a very sweet, "thank you!" to whatever you said to her.

Because she is so mobile and animated, she often runs over (or into, or bonks heads with, or smashes fingers of) Belle, who, if it hurts enough, starts to cry. Lizzy then tries to repair the damage before her parents can arrive at the scene, "Sorry, sorry sorry! You're okay! You're okay! Sorry, you're okay!", while at the same time smothering Belle with hugs.

I watched Lizzy at a swimming lesson recently. She was terrified to be away from her mother and in the water with the teacher. She cried most of the time, only stopping to close her mouth when she went under the water. As the lesson continued, so did Lizzy's attempts to get out of the water. "I'm so hungry!" "I need to go do the rings on the steps!" (Once on the steps she would run away.) "I'm thirsty!" "I'm freezing!" "I'm getting a sunburn!"

When Brett and I stayed in a timeshare condo with them, we slept in the living room on a couch bed. Every morning Lizzy (and Belle) would wake Brett up with tickles. They would start at his feet, giggling and giggling, and always ended up jumping on the bed and tickling him all over.

Colette

Colette is so amazing to me. She is bull-headed like her dad, and beautiful--with golden angel hair and big blue eyes--like her aunt Amy, and supremely bossy like me.

When she arrives at Gramma's house and realizes that Brett and I are there, she shrieks with delight and runs over to us laughing and saying our names so that you can't separate the giggles from the rest of it.

Nicolle posted a video awhile back of Colette demonstrating how similar we actually are. When things aren't going the way she wants them to, Colette brings her hand up close to her face with her index finger pointing directly at whomever she is bossing. She then proceeds to tell you how things should be. "You be nice to me, Mama." "Don't pull my dress!" "Bring me a cupcake!"

Nicolle arranged some neat animals to come to Colette's 3rd birthday party, including a boa constrictor (and a rabbit, a chinchilla, and a hedgehog). Colette had been talking about her party and the snake since her mama planned it for her, but once the snake arrived she told us she was afraid of it. She kept saying she was afraid of it as she pet the snake and followed the animal trainer around the room. As the trainer was getting ready to leave, she asked Colette which her favorite animal that she saw that day was and she promptly answered, "the snake!"

Johnathan

Johnathan is the sweetest boy I have ever met. The other day at Colette's birthday party, I was holding him and he would sigh and rest his head on my shoulder, and then just giggle. He snuggled his cute, very large head underneath my chin and giggle like it was the best thing in the whole world. And it totally was the best thing.

At a recent family reunion, John fell asleep on Amy's lap while a few different family members sang songs for the rest of us. When they finished a song, and we started clapping for them, Johnathan would startle awake, sit up, and start clapping. And then he would fall right back to sleep, leaning back against Amy. He did it several times over again after the next few songs.

When Rob was playing drums on Rockband at our house recently, Johnathan stood next to him, with his teeth firmly latched onto the red drum pad, keeping his balance by holding on only with his teeth.

I love that John recognizes me when he sees me now. If I come to a place and he sees me, he leans toward me with his chubby arms reaching until I pick him up. (He's even done this when his Dad is holding him!) Plus, he totally walked his very first steps to me!


My nieces and nephew are the greatest kids on the face of the planet. I'll never need to have any of my own!