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Saturday 9

I love a good blog meme and I stumbled across this one. 1. Who was the last person who entered your life and was just what you needed? A kind nurse yesterday at the oral surgeon. I was FREAKING out and she was patient with me, and reassured me. 2. What is one of your fondest childhood memories? My dad pushing us kids on this giant swing he had made for us in a big walnut tree in our back yard. I remember going so high that he would have to jump up to push us. Also going for long bike rides in our neighborhood with my dad. He worked extremely long hours when we were kids and any special time we got with him was a treat. 3. What would you like to be doing in 7 years? I would love to be mothering more children. Ideally I would be married and have more of my own biological children, but if not, I would could see myself doing foster care or maybe even adopting one. Who knows? I enjoy being a teacher and that is a huge part of who I am, but I was born to be a mother. 4. Tell us about a blogging pet peeve. The only thing that comes to mind right away is when people have music on their blogs that starts right away. That would be annoying enough by itself but then when the player is hidden somewhere down at the bottom of the blog and you have to search for it to turn the music off. I also dislike patterned backgrounds behind the text. Too hard to read. 5. Tell us about a general pet peeve. Well besides this one I shared the other day.... I would have to say cell phone ettiquette. We are all guilty from time to time of course. But the bottom line is it's rude. Texting during movies in the theater is rude. Texting when you are at the dinner table is rude. Texting on a date is rude. Texting during a meeting is rude (especially when there are parents present, come on unnamed colleagues/supervisors!). There was a pretty extreme example in the local news the other day (after a bullied student in a neighboring school district killed himself, parents attended a school board meeting to voice their concerns and the school board members were texting during people's tearful and outraged comments. Here's a link) 6. For one day, who would you like to trade places with? Hmm, I would like to be a guy for a day I think. Just to get that opposite perspective. (Just for a day though, not for forever. I'm very happy being a girl!) 7. Where is your least favorite place to be? Oh gosh: the DMV, my old dentist where they used this super painful waterpic thingy to clean your teeth, a meeting with an angry parent, the zoo on a hot day, Chuck E Cheese on a rainy Saturday, anywhere where I am forced to breathe cigarette smoke... 8. What do you like about fall? Everything! I love fall wardrobe staples - sweaters, boots, tights, scarves. I love back to school excitement and school supplies. I love decorating my house for fall. I love pumpkins and gourds. I love roadside farm stands, especially the ones near my parents house with little barefoot Amish kids running around. My birthday is in the fall. I love Thanksgiving. I love that I live in a place where I am surrounded with breathtaking beauty as the trees change colors. I love bonfires. I love a cool, crisp feeling in the air. 9. If you or someone you know are chronically late, do you believe it's the result of poor planning or choosing to be late? Oh gosh, I don't think I am chronically late, but I am definitely not chronically on time either. For me it is often the result of poor planning. Even though Isaac is five, I still sometimes underestimate the fact that it can take so long to get out the door. When it is just me going somewhere I can be ready to leave the house in no time, but when we are going together there is (sometimes) a long process of convincing Isaac to go period, locating lost shoes and missing socks, arguing about whether or not a jacket is needed, etc. If I am meeting someone and I am running late, I always call or text them to let them know too. As for others, I don't know. I have a girlfriend who is chronically late (like, almost always showed up a half hour late whenever we were meeting up) and it would make me SO ANGRY. She rarely called to let you know she was running late and it is just known among our circle of friends that if you want this girl to show up on time, you better tell her it begins a half hour earlier than it really does. It really started to affect our friendship because I began to feel that she felt her time was more important than mine was. Anyways, I am off to get ready for some shopping and a nice family dinner. Enjoy your weekend!

Thursday night your stockings needed mending...

It feels like a while since I have had a real everyday kinda post. There isn't too much to say. Life keeps plugging along. For the most part, everything is going well, which is a relief, but doesn't make for exciting blog material. Sunday I drove all the way out to the Northeast to hear Elder Cristofferson, a member of the 12, who was doing a special young single adult fireside (which was suspiciously filled with old people, and tons of kids, but whatever). One part of his address which stuck out to me was he spoke about how President Monson has always been an apostle of compassion and how we should in our own ways become apostles of compassion. He said "Don't worry that you can't do it all for everyone, don't hold back on what you can do, do what you can and that is enough." (Except probably not in a run-on sentence like that, but that is what I had in my notes). That remark pierced me because I have been thinking about that kind of stuff so much lately. He also gave a special blessing on the saints in this area which included (among other things) a greater capacity to do good, and a blessing that we would always have food on the table whatever may come, with enough for our needs and some to share to help others. I found both of those promises to be very comforting. Isaac declared the other morning that "I just love kindergarten!". His teacher is very creative and nice and she seems like a singer! Isaac will often burst into an adorable song that he has picked up there. He seems to be doing a little better socially in kindergarten than he did in pre-K. We have conferences just before Thanksgiving break, and I am really looking forward to it. He is starting to recognize sight words and try to sound out and spell words which is so exciting. I was a pretty reserved child and reading was a huge part of my childhood. I hope Isaac loves reading as much as I do. It's almost my birthday. I will 29 years old, which is pretty crazy. As per usual, I will work a 12 plus hour day on my birthday due to parent conferences. Boooo. We are also doing a family dinner and hopefully I will get to do fun stuff with friends too. We'll see. It's my last year in my 20s, so I feel like I should really do it up, although I keep hearing 30 is the new 20. I guess we will see. We both had dentist appointments today. Isaac did very well and had no cavities. The dentist did remark that he has the largest set of baby teeth she has ever seen. The other dentist in the practice (who is actually her husband) said the same thing last time around. Isaac inherited all my super weird physical traits, like freakishly colossal cuspids. It was super cute too when dentist asked his name he said "Isaac: I-S-A-A-C". It's sad that at five he already understands that most people have no clue how to spell his name and that he better just get it out of the way and give people the correct spelling right off the bat. Anyways, my dental prognosis was not so good. The tooth that has been killing me since June was officially declared an absessed tooth worthy of a root canal by a specialist. So I'm totally looking forward to that -- NOT. Anyways, I don't have much more to say. Hope things are well for you. If you are reading this, leave a comment. What's new where you are?

bam

Feeling sorry for yourself, and your present condition, is not only a waste of energy but the worst habit you could possibly have.

--Dale Carnegie

Chilly Saturday

It's not a payday weekend. And Isaac and I found ourselves pretty bored with nothing to do. It's easy to think of free/cheap stuff to do when it's nice out, but it's definitely more of a challenge to keep from going stir-crazy when the temperatures begin to drop. So I got out the bike rack, bundled us up and headed back to our old stomping grounds to do the bike trail. Now that Isaac is a whiz at the two wheeler, I thought it would be fun to take him to an endless paved trail where he wouldn't have to worry about watching for cars. Once we got there I realized it was actually quite a bit colder than I had thought. Isaac was a good sport though and off we went.

Doing pretty well on his two-wheeler.

We took a break on the swings.

Taking a picture of yourself on your cellphone while riding a bicycle is not as easy at you would think.

I sure miss my old neighborhood where we had a variety of bike trails available at our fingertips.

Poor kid had to really keep his little legs pumping to try to keep up. It's hard on a one speed bicycle.

Obligatory Halloween Blog Post

Here's my handsome Buzz Lightyear. My mom bought him a really nice Iron Man costume back in, like, early September, but when Halloween finally rolled around his insisted on wearing this old outgrown Buzz Lightyear costume we had in the toy closet (sorry Mom). It worked though. We stopped by several of my coworkers houses and did about 1/2 of my neighborhood. I left a bowl of candy out on the porch and when I came home it was totally empty. My neighbor said she had 118 kids come by her house. Last year it was pouring rain and we only had a few kids, so I didn't know what to expect. New hair color Highlighting my hair was getting expensive, and boring. I decided to go for a darker do that will hopefully be less maintanence. It's not all the way as dark as my natural color (which is super dark brown and really drab) but it's a step in the right direction.

Started with this one, then realized *DUH* I should take my sunglasses off my head.

Overall much darker but still some sort of lighter coppery highlights to break it up. I'm happy with it, which I feel like never happens when I go darker. I'm also incapable of taking a picture of myself where I am making a normal facial expression. Random Productivity

Today Isaac's school district had an inservice day because they use some of the elementary buildings for polling. I took a sick day and we had a lovely day together. We packed away all of the Halloween things (including some clearance stuff I found at Target for next year that is SUPERCUTE), voted, did some errands that have been hanging around on my to-do list forever, talked to my aunt on the phone, got my flu shot, squeezed in a game of bowling (we had a coupon for a free game and as usual Isaac totally beat me), raked swept the kitchen floor , baked some cupcakes and Zumba'd. I even squeezed in some time for some crafting, which felt very overdue.

I finally finished this little pillow:

I started it about a month ago and I was worried it would be winter by the time I finished it. I just followed this tutorial pretty much exactly. Next time I think I would use a lighter thread and probably a zig-zag stitch but I am happy with how it turned out.

I can't think of much else to write about. Happy November everyone!

"irregardless"

The behavior consultant I work with uses that word all the time and it makes my skin crawl. According to Wikipedia: Irregardless is an informal term commonly used in place of regardless or irrespective, which has caused controversy since it first appeared in the early twentieth century. Most dictionaries list it as "nonstandard" or "incorrect". The pre-fix "ir" is a negative like "irrational" or "irresponsible". Therefore "irregardless" would be a double negative and make no sense. GAH.