Einstein's Riddle

My manager sent this to me right before the holiday break. Reminded me of being in Mr. Herbert's AIA class, although I don't think we ever attempted one of these logic problems that was quite so difficult. For me, this kind of stuff is fun. It was good exercise for my brain, too. Check it out.

http://www.manbottle.com/trivia/einstein_s_riddle

Now That I'm Here, Now That You're Near . . .

Last night, I went roller skating. My husband's cousins and their kids came to town for the day and there were like 5 million kids at my in-laws' house. The kids were going crazy, someone brave came up with the idea for the 14 of us to go to the roller rink and off we went. Alek had never been on skates and I hadn't been for I don't know how many years, so we were brilliant, naturally.

Alek and I share the unenviable trait of giving up easily. Something doesn't come to us naturally? Not worth doing. Move on. Alek fell down a lot last night. After about one full minute of roller skating, he was near tears and said he didn't want to do it anymore. I thought he was going to sit on a bench all night. But after a little rest, he came back out onto the rink. He used the wall a lot, then he would try skating on his own, then he would fall down. He kept this up for two hours.

He improved over the course of the evening, although I am not sure we can call what he was doing skating. He would run on his skates for several steps and then roll for a while, waving his arms like a crazy person trying to stay balanced. It was one of the most awkward looking things I have ever seen. But he stuck with it. At the end of the evening, he declared the evening "awesome", was anxious to go again and was feeling proud of himself for being such a fast learner. It was fairly adorable. I was proud of him for sticking with it and glad he had a good time.

I had a great time and I'll tell you why -- I love roller skating. I can't do any fancy tricks; I can't even skate backwards, for goodness sake, so you might wonder WHY, why do I love to roll around in a circle for hours on end.

You all know that I'm uncoordinated and can't play any kind of sport worth a darn, right? Roller skating is the only semi-athletic thing I can do. I can balance myself on skates and then propel myself forward. This is an enormous feat for one such as I. It makes me feel like less of a loser that I can do this very simple thing.

Also, I get to listen to music while I skate. Always a plus, although I knew a total of two songs they played last night -- over the course of two hours, two songs. I would have felt old, except I thought that for the most part the music they were playing was overwhelmingly terrible, so I just felt that I have good taste. However, I did get to skate to the rhythm a little bit and that was fun.

Last but not least, there is the Xanadu factor. Xanadu, as you may know, is a classic film starring Olivia Newton-John as a roller skating muse who inspires Sonny (Michael Beck) to give up his steady paycheck painting album cover reproductions and open a roller skating night club with Danny (Gene Kelly -- yes, really). They name the roller skating night club Xanadu, in reference to the poem "Kubla Khan" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, which is just one of the many ways in which this movie takes itself way too seriously. As an adult, I can tell you that this movie is just awful. Josh and I watch it occasionally on one of our "bad movie nights." However, I loved this movie as a little girl and (don't tell Josh this) I love it still. And I have to say that I think the music truly is good. I have the entire soundtrack on my MP3 player. Stop laughing.

Whenever I roller skate, I think of Olivia Newton-John in this movie. She looked so graceful when she skated, moving her arms fluidly, every move in perfect harmony with the music. I try to be her when I skate. After my years-long roller skating break, I was a little rusty when the evening started, but after the first hour or so, I was starting to get the hang of it. Eventually, I started swaying my arms, unconsciously mimicking my roller skating idol.

Totally pathetic. :)

On the up side, it turns out roller skating is great exercise. I earned like 12 activity points (it's a Weight Watchers thing) last night.

The other interesting part of the roller skating excursion was when this guy proposed to his girlfriend in the middle of the rink. Had set it all up before hand with the DJ. I don't want to comment too much on this except to say: ooooo-kay.

Digital cameras were being, IMO, overused last night, but that means that eventually I will have pictures of me and Alek in all our roller skating glory to post here. Stay tuned!

Gigantic Baby

This kid

is 29 inches long (90th percentile) and 20 pounds (75th percentile). Doctor predicts he will top out at 6'2".

My Kids are Just So Darn Cute

See?

Life is Just a Cereal

Re: the title of this post, Alek is eating Life cereal this morning for breakfast. This led me to making the above comment in total non-seriousness and then saying, "that would make a great title for a book." I don't write books.

It's been an interesting week. I have come to terms with not going to Arizona for Christmas. The hardest part is going to be not having Alek around, but I think we can still have a good day. We finally decorated the tree and the house this week. I still have to put up the stockings (I have to make Charlie's first), but otherwise the house is decked out. Christmas shopping is almost done, except we haven't gotten anything for Charlie yet. I even wrapped presents last night. So I am feeling more in the spirit of things.

A big part of the reason why is because of the wonderful Enrichment night we had at church this week. The sisters in the ward had a Christmas dinner and filmmaker Kieth Merrill spoke to us. His remarks were touching, and he showed clips from movies about Christ that caused tears all around. I had to sing to close the program and I was terrified. I sang "Breath of Heaven" by Amy Grant, and if anyone knows that song then you know it is definitely written for an alto. I am definitely not an alto, and my practices did not leave me feeling confident about performing. However, my singing ended up being pretty good -- so much better than I had anticipated. When the first notes came out and I heard myself, I actually couldn't believe how good I sounded. Please don't misunderstand me -- I am not bragging. I had the distinct feeling as I sang that I was not alone. I felt that the spirit was with me, that I had heavenly help. It was an uplifting experience. And the whole evening helped to get me into more of a Christmas mood.

In fact, this whole week has served as a testament to me of the reality of the Savior and His Father. I know that they are aware of me, of my family and that they are helping us along our way. Things get scary and difficult at times, but when I turn to God, I receive his help. Things do not usually work out the way I want them to, but they work out and I always come out the other end -- and sometimes I have even learned something.

The kids are all doing well. Alek is enjoying school, but also looking forward to break and his trip to Arizona. There are so many great things about Alek. I love that his imagination and his love of pretend have not diminished at all as time has flown by. He told me recently that when he grows up he wants to make comic books, movies and video games. What I hear when he tells me this: 1) I want to be like my Dad and 2) I am a storyteller, a creator. Even now he is reading over my shoulder and making suggestions on what to write next. He's so funny. I love that he is helpful with his brother and sister. I love that when we ask him to clean his room, he listens to music and sings as he picks up. I love that he is confident in his abilities in so many ways, but still needs and wants my help in others. He wants me to let you know that in addition to making up comics, he also creates inventions.

Katie continues to be, as Josh would say, our red devil. I remember when I had my ultrasound that the technician said we had a "feisty" one on our hands. That has definitely proven to be true. She is a sweet, affectionate girl, but she definitely knows her own mind and loves to be into everything. Some of Kate's most repeated quotes? "I don't want it," "I don't think so," "Stop it/that," and, her new one, "I'm not going!" She loves to read, draw, color, play with Mr. Potatohead, dance and sing. She loves to wear Dad's hats and Mom's shoes. She loves potatoes. Whenever I am on the computer, she asks me to see "shark whale", which really means she wants to see a whale, because if you show her a picture of a shark, she starts whining and saying, "that's scary."

Charlie is getting around pretty well these days, which means he is into everything. The bottom three feet of our Christmas tree are not decorated because Charlie would make a mess of that in two seconds flat. I am looking forward to Charlie growing up more and getting to know him better and seeing what he will become. My guesses? He'll be sweet, easy-going, relatively quiet, unassuming. But I could be completely wrong! Children are such an adventure. You think you know what they'll be like, who they'll be and they have great ways of proving you wrong. I am strapping myself in and getting ready for the ride.

Josh is doing well in school and enjoying it a great deal more than he was early on. He's getting good grades and is preparing for future internship opportunities. I've inserted some of his recent work above, both Corel Painter works. Josh loves being a dad and he's super at it.



That's my family life in a nutshell. Although I worry often, everything really is fine. There are so many wonderful moments in my life and I have so many people to love. I am blessed. If life is just a cereal, then cereal is the greatest gift we've ever been given.

Good News/Bad News

Good news: It was my and Josh's anniversary yesterday; we've made it through four years, if you can believe that. Somehow Josh continues to put up with me. Actually, he does more than that. He loves me. It's pretty crazy, but nice.

Bad news: I'm not going to be able to go home and see my family at Christmas. No one except my Mom has met Charlie yet and Kate has changed a ton since everyone last saw her. All of my nieces and nephews are growing up without me. I don't know when I'll be able to see anyone in my family again. Also, Alek is going to be spending Christmas with his dad, so he won't be around at all that week. I'm pretty much super depressed about it and don't want to even celebrate Christmas at all.

I'm trying to think of some other good news to end this post on, but I've got nothing.

Mr. Green and Other Updates

Just in case you couldn't tell who I was from the picture I posted earlier, here's a close up.

I'm glad to have discovered that I don't make a very attractive man. That is very reassuring.

I have to get the film developed so I can show you my kids in their Halloween costumes. They were pretty darn cute. I only have pictures from work because there are people there who actually have joined the 21st century and have digital cameras.

News:

In addition to getting his first two teeth and learning to sit up and crawl about two and a half weeks ago, Charlie has also recently decided that he is old enough to pull himself to standing. He also has started clapping. He's only 6 months old, people. Why is he determined to grow up so fast? Even though he is driving me crazy with all this doing stuff early business, he is still the sweetest baby in the entire world. Seriously.

Kate turned two last Saturday. There are no words that can explain how cute and funny she is or how frustrating. She is currently in her high chair, chanting, "mac and cheese! mac and cheese!" My favorite thing she is saying lately? "I don't fink so." If only you could hear how she says it. It's pretty adorable.

Alek made his Christmas list last night. He was reading it out to me and said, "and the last thing on my list is the best thing of all -- love." Is it just me or is this an 8 year old's attempt at getting great presents?

Halloween at Work

Halloween at my job is a BIG deal. Every department decorates their whole area in a theme, everyone wears costumes, some departments show movie or tv clips or make their own videos -- it is crazy town. Yesterday was completely awesome -- a million times more fun than last year. Everyone did an awesome job.

My department's theme was Clue -- we're a small department so that worked well for us. It's our busiest time of year right now so it's amazing that we were even able to do anything.

I don't have pictures of the Clue rooms yet, but hopefully will get some soon. I don't have a digital camera, so I have to depend on other people to send me these things.

Can you guess who I was? I look really sexy. That was sarcastic, btw.

I also don't have pictures of my kids yet -- I have to get the film developed first. I'll try to do that soon.

Answer

The below lines are from The Simpsons, of course. "Dial Z for Zombie" -- a classic.

Great Halloween today at work and my kids looked adorable in their Halloween costumes. Photographic evidence forthcoming.

Best Halloween Lines Ever

Girl: Dad, we did something very bad.

Dad: Did you wreck the car?

Boy: No.

Dad: Did you raise the dead?

Girl: Yes.

Dad: But the car's okay?

Kids: Uh huh.

Dad: Okay.

Name that show.

I'm Baaack

After an extraordinarily long hiatus, I am blogging again. Now the three people who were reading my blog before can begin again.

So many changes since I last posted on here -- we moved into our own place, I got promoted at work, I had another baby (Charlie, the sweetest baby ever), the list goes on.

The reason I went so long without blogging is that I didn't have the internet at home. For 15 months I lived at home without the internet. We've had it for three days and I have spent an inordinate amount of time surfing the web and adding music to my Napster playlists.

Which brings me to my big concern -- how much time will I now waste blogging and being on the internet? Mmmm. I have to figure out a way to limit my usage. I have sooooooo many other things I need to be doing (like exercising -- it's 11:49 p.m. and I haven't gotten my hour in yet!).

Big things in my life right now:

Kate is turning two next Saturday. CRAZY!!!

Which means Charlie is going to be 6 months old. Also CRAZY! He learned to sit up a couple of weeks ago and just tonight he actually started crawling. He can only go a little ways on hands and knees before collapsing and doing an army crawl, but I still think it's pretty amazing.

Work is nuts. It's our busiest time of year and I am way behind. YIKES! Annual meeting is next week and I am not at all ready.

Also at work -- Halloween is around the corner. For most offices, this is no big deal. At my job, it's a major event. Our department's theme is Clue. I only have to figure out how to make a suit of armor and a backdrop for the ballroom and create forms for our colleagues to fill out to guess who killed Mr. Boddy where and with what. No biggie.

I am in charge of Young Women in Excellence in a little less than two weeks. Invites were supposed to go out at the beginning of the week. Oops. None of the details are planned. No assignments have been made. Oops. YW President is probably getting ready to ask the Bishop for a new first counselor.

Right now, I am avoiding all of my real responsibility writing this post and listening to my "Standards" playlist on Napster -- currently listening to "All Through the Night" by the one and only Ella Fitzgerald. Her voice is perfection.

Anyway, that's it. Too tired to make insightful remarks on the world around me. Catch you later.