35 Things: June Update

Well, here we are. The end of our month of seeing each other daily. Who knows when you're going to hear from me again?

I'll be honest: I don't. Hopefully within the next few days.

So hey, let's update you on how I'm did with my 35 things list in June, shall we?

I've done my meal plan, and my monthly cookie, and my act of service.

I've also *almost* finished one measly book this month. Seriously, self? One?! And only *almost?* I am ashamed.

The book I've *almost* read is The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I really, really like this book. I won't give it a final rating yet, since I'm not quite done, but I'm thinking it's in the 4 1/2 star range. I'll probably finish it tomorrow. I love the writing style. It's very unique and full of character without being super weird or modern. And the story is moving and powerful. I kinda love it.

I also completed:

21. Throw a party. Flag Day party! It was epic.

28. Write one blog post every day for a month. If you haven't realized yet that I've done this...uh, where have you been?

I know, I wanted to finish the nursery this month too, but it just didn't happen. I'm making progress on it, but not quite done. Maybe next month.

Well, I guess that's it. Thanks for sticking with me this month. You guys rock, as if you didn't already know.

Today

Did you like my wonderful spouse's wonderful post yesterday? I think my second favorite part was the flashing red title. It proves that he's a computer nerd, which, as we all know is super cool. My first favorite part was the sweet stuff he said, of course. Most of it was undeserved, but I guess that proves that I've fooled him into thinking I'm actually worth praising. My third favorite part was simply the fact that he wrote my post for yesterday. It was nice to have a little break (no offense, blog).

Don't ask me why I listed my top 3 favorite things in that odd order. I dance to the beat of my own drum, or whatever that overused expression is.



Anyway, today, I discovered a few things. Allow me to share:


1. I don't want Dallin's riding of motorcycles to become a hobby. Does this require more explanation? I guess what you need to know is that:

a. Dallin rides a motorcycle to and from work nowadays.

b. This was allowed because a motorcycle was a cheap and convenient alternative to a second car

c. Today, Dallin and his Dad rented Harley's and went "cruising."

d. I don't like "c" because it makes motorcycle riding seem like a hobby rather than a convenient, temporary alternative to a second car

e. The end.


2. I don't like turkeys. I like to eat turkey, but I don't like actual turkeys. They are ugly and always look grumpy and seem generally twitchy, which freaks me out.




3. If I pull my hair into a tight enough bun, it will make my head hurt even after I take out said bun.


4. I need to have good chocolate constantly available to me, in the form of Milky Ways, Mounds, or Chips Ahoy. Why I haven't internalized this lesson yet is beyond me.


5. I'm going to be pushing it to read ONE book this month. ONE. That's so sad. Especially since I've been on vacation for the past almost week. What kind of vacation doesn't allow time for leisure reading? Mine, I guess.


6. I'm not very good at Pinterest. I forget to pin things, and I forget to look back at what I've pinned. This makes using Pinterest completely pointless for me. Note to self: use PInterest correctly. It has a high potential for greatness.


7. I've been generally disappointed with my blogging performance during this month of daily blogging. It definitely hasn't been how I imagined and planned it. Oh well, you're still reading, right?



Wow, 7 lessons in one day. If I keep this up, I'll know everything in no time.

(p.s. This post was definitely written on the right day (Wednesday), I promise you. But Blogger was being silly and refused to let me publish it. I put it on Facebook, if you want proof, but really, you should just trust me. Trust is important for relationships.)

Hi everyone,

It's Dallin. It's 10:40 at night and Katie has had a very long day of lugging our now 5 pound baby around with her petite little backbone, so I'm picking up the blogging duties. That still counts towards her goal, right??

HOW TO BE A WIFE WHO WINS

IN 10 NOT-SO-EASY STEPS

-Inspired by Katie Harris

1. Never ever complain -- not even when you are 34 weeks pregnant and suffering near constant, intense sciatic back pain. And that's before you start lugging around an 18 month old daughter who is going through a "mommy" phase



2. Have so much love for everyone and everything else that you actually start giving names and personalities to inanimate objects. You even feel bad for computer game characters who get killed in battle.



3. Curl your hair and wear a levi jacket when you want to look extra sexy



4. Go to literally any length to make sure your child is happy. ANY length.



5. Same as #4, but for your husband.



6. Support your husband in his crazy entrepreneurial adventures, never losing faith that the whole thing might just pan out some day



7. Be insanely good with money. Like, to the extent that your husband actually laughs at the thought of you having the family credit card because he knows your hands are the safest place it could be.



8. Help your husband learn the attributes he needs to learn not by telling him but by showing him a living example until he gets the hint



9. Learn to juggle, then juggle family, home, work, school and church work like you were born at the circus



10. Spend a lot of time thinking and listening so you can be maximally informed and confident in your opinions and advice

That should pretty much do it. Thanks, Katie, for all you do for our family!

34 Weeks

I know this picture isn't the best, but you know, I'm on a couch right now, and getting up to take a picture that is the best doesn't sound entirely appealing. So you can just trust that my belly is pretty big and stick out-ish.

At 34 weeks:

• Ah, my back. There are days when it's my sciatic nerve, and it hurts to walk. Then there are days when it's more in my upper back, and it hurts to sit down. And then there are days when it's both. So yeah, I hope you're not too sick of listening to me complain about my back, because I have a feeling I'm gonna keep doing it.
• Baby girl attacks my ribs. Often.
• I've officially gained more weight than I did my whole pregnancy with Maddy. Sigh. Let's hope breastfeeding kicks it to the curb quickly again.
  
• I have quite a few contractions, some of which are fairly painfulish. Not regular or so painful I can't walk or anything like that, but still annoying.
• I'm pretty scared of the fact that I would be considered "full term" in 2-3 weeks. That is not a lot of time.
• I'm pretty anxious to meet this baby girl. I actually still really love being pregnant and all (yes, despite all my complaining, I really do love it), but I can't wait to see her! What is she going to look like? What is she going to be like? And is the name we like right now (still the same one) going to stick? Only time will tell.
• I'm in full-on nesting mode. And it's doubly annoying because we are out of town and there's absolutely nothing I can do about it. I guess I could plan out specific things I need to do once we get home...but won't that just make me more frustrated that I can't do them? Unfortunatissimo.
  

Tidbits

I thought I'd take today to throw out some random, possibly fun facts about our family into the void of the Internet. You know, so you can know the "real" us. Or something.

Dallin

Dallin is the strangest mix of "picky eater" and "eater of anything" I've ever met. If you ask him if he likes tomatoes, he'll say no. But if he gets something at a restaurant and he forgets to ask that the tomatoes be left out (and I forget to remind him) he'll just eat them. He's also willing to try lots of different things (e.g. calamari the other night...gag me). It's nice because he'll eat pretty much whatever I put on the table...with a few exceptions (cough...PEAS...cough).

Katie

Sticking with the food/drink theme, I'm so, so picky about what I drink - especially the temperature of it. If it is a drink that is supposed to be cold (which to me basically means any drink that isn't supposed to be hot) then it has to be REALLY cold. REALLY cold. Kinda cool is not okay. I mean, I'll drink it, sure...but I can't promise I'll like it. I probably won't. A little ridiculous, I know...but that's me.

Madelyn

Moving completely away from the food/drink theme, Maddy girl is so into bubbles (bo-bos) right now. She seriously loves them. We got her a little bubble machine for her bathtub and it's pretty much the only thing that gets her into the bathtub nowadays. She used to love the bath, but not so much anymore. Anyway, we filmed a little movie of her playing with her bubbles in the bathtub, and watching it has become her favorite thing to do on the iPad.


So hey, there's some lil tidbits about us. Fun, right? Right.

Love is a beautiful thing

So I pretty much love this song.

I couldn't exactly tell you why, but it kinda makes me a little teary eyed every time I hear it. And if the conditions are right, I full out cry.

There's nothing especially tear-jerky about it, but my tears don't need a whole lotta jerking, if you know what I'm saying.

Anyway, my sister-in-law got married today, and it was lovely! It made me think of this song.

I'm so happy for her and my new bro-in-law. They are a wonderful couple, and it was a wonderful day! I'll put pictures up when I get some.

And now I'm tired. Really tired. Sleep needs to happen soonish...or just soon.

That one time I almost forgot to blog

In my defense, I haven't had 2 empty minutes for blogging in my whole day.

This is probably why I laid down at 11:30 to go to sleep.

Lucky for all of us, I remembered that I'm supposed to blog every day this month or something.

And this lame blog post is just adding on to what has been a lame day.

I'm really tired. And I'm pretty...down. Maybe I'm just not feeling well (because I'm really not), but I've just had a rough day and tomorrow is most likely going to be rough as well.

I honestly can't think of anything else to say, my friends. Thanks for reading my blog. You all are crazy cool. :)

"The" chocolate chip cookies

It probably doesn't surprise you that I've craved chocolate chip cookies a lot this pregnancy.

Like, a lot.

Like, I've bought more packages of Chips Ahoy than Oreos in the past few months. MORE CHIPS AHOY THAN OREOS, PEOPLE. It's a big deal.

And the reason it probably doesn't surprise you is that I've mentioned it quite a bit.

Thank you for putting up with me.

Anyway, the cookie I made for June was "the" chocolate chip cookie. Unless you are new to blogland or read very few blogs, I'm sure you've heard about the New York Times guy that went on the quest to find the perfect chocolate chip cookie.

He talked to all these experts to find out what made the best cookies, taking into account things like size, chocolate amount and type, etc.

I followed the recipe very closely, though not perfectly (totally forgot the sea salt before baking. Darn it because I bought sea salt for this very recipe. Curse you, pregnancy brain!). I'm also not entirely sure I did the whole "chill overnight" thing correctly, because I took the dough out of the bowl and wrapped it all in plastic wrap, instead of just pressing plastic wrap over the top of the dough in the bowl. I didn't think this would make a big difference, but maybe...

Anyway, final product:



(Please ignore the insanely odd coloring in this photo. Thanks.)

So, were they good?

Short answer - yes. Very yes.

Am I not going to be able to eat another chocolate chip cookie ever again? No. No, I'll be fine. In fact, I'm not sure I would even say this is my most favorite chocolate chip cookie I've ever had. (Yeah, I just went there.) They were delicious, don't get me wrong. But I wasn't totally sold on the bittersweet chocolate. There was a little too much of it, and it kind of overwhelmed the rest of the cookie. Plus, hello, they have to rest overnight, and my goodness, I don't think I'd be able to handle it if I had to wait a whole night to get chocolate chip cookie deliciousness.

Maybe the sea salt would throw them over the top? Maybe the dough chilling thing was totally important? No clue.

All I know is that I'm probably still going to make my way through a whole lotta Chips Ahoy packages before this baby comes.

And I'm totally cool with that.

(p.s. Do you have a chocolate chip recipe you love? We have a "family" recipe that I really like, but I'm always looking for others to try. Or do you have any other cookie recipe that you love? This has been one of my favorite things to do this year and I want to keep things going well.)

Impatience

I consider myself a pretty patient person. And I'm not saying that to make you think I'm awesome or anything (because face it, you couldn't think I'm more awesome, right?), I'm just saying it because I really think it's true.

But there are some times when my patience is tested.

And then there are some times when I am just not patient at all.

As I've thought about it, I've thought of 2 examples of when I'm consistently impatient. For no reason other than this is my blog and it's where I write down things I think about, I'll share them with you.

The first is bedtime. I love going to bed (who doesn't, really?) but I do not like getting ready for bed. Nope nope nope.

The sad thing about this is that it doesn't really take very long to get ready for bed. PJs, contacts, brush teeth, wash face, say prayers. Less than 10 minutes, for sure. Especially since I use those face towelette things to wash my face at night. Those things are bomb.

And yet, I still hate the process and find myself wanting to skip it every night and just jump right into bed and fall asleep.

Impatience.

Also, coming home from trips. I'm cool with taking my time to pack before I leave for a trip, and I'm fine with however long it takes to get there. But once I'm on my way home, I want to be home, unpacked, and back to "normal." Trips home, unpacking, the laundry that necessarily comes with unpacking...I just want it to all be over as quickly as possible.

Impatience.

What makes you impatient?

On my mind

In no particular order... except the order in which I think of them, which I guess technically is an order, but maybe not a particular one:

-Maddy's sleeping in her "big girl" bed for the second night.

-My back hurts badly today plus I have a weird (probably nerve-related) foot pain that's come and gone several times over the past few days. Major ouch.

-I really need to get my nails done for Dallin's sister's wedding on Saturday. And also probably a pedicure. But not a labor inducing one.

-I have to have to have to get my homework done before Friday. I've been late turning in pretty much all of my previous assignments and it is no bueno.

-Essie nail polish sucks. Stunning colors, sucky polish. Anyone agree?

-JP is my fave on The Bachelorette. Not that I watch it...oh, who am I kidding? You know I do. You know you do, too. I haven't watched the most recent episode though. So if JP goes home, don't tell me. Also if he goes home, the show sucks. Also even if he doesn't go home, the show still actually sucks.

-It's so hard to imagine having 2 kids. I honestly can't wrap my head around it. Does this happen with every child?

-The dishes aren't done.

-I'm making the supposedly awesome NY Times chocolate chip cookies for my cookie of the month. The dough is resting in the fridge as we speak, "fully incorporating the egg" or some nonsense like that. I have a feeling the excitement is going to keep me up tonight.

-Maddy currently really loves Photo Booth on my computer and the iPad, but she really only loves the "thermal camera" and the "pop art" effects. Anything else and she'll get mad at you until you change it.



And that's all she (aka I) wrote.

Get smart.

{You are about to be warned}
Warning: This post has a lot of words.
{You have been warned.}

Today, I want to share something I learned in school.

I hear you gasping.

I've been in grad school for two years now, and I've never ever shared something I've learned (not that I can remember, anyway.)

But I learned about something today that I thought was really interesting, and applies just as much to parenting as it does to teaching (which, actually, a lot of my degree work has). So I thought I'd share, just in case anyone is interested.

It's called growth mindset, and it has to do with how we praise our kids and how that praise can affect them.

(If you're totally bored already, go away. Seriously, I'm not going to force you to read this and I'll never know if you choose to or not. No harm, no foul. Come back tomorrow. Bye!)

So here's the scenario (based on an actual study): you're in a classroom. You break the kids up into two groups. You give each group the same task to complete. It's fairly easy and they all perform well on it.

To Group 1, you say something like: "Wow! You did really great on this! You must be really smart!"

To Group 2, you say something like: "Wow! You did really great on this! You must have worked really hard!"

Not a huge difference, right? Well....let's talk about each group individually.

Group 1 thinks they're really smart. When asked about the task, they say that they really enjoyed it and want to take more work home and show their parents.

THEN they are given a new task that isn't super easy. They struggle with it quite a bit more than they did with the first task and get more problems wrong. When asked about this task, they say they didn't like it at all, they don't want to take more work home to practice, and that they don't think they're smart anymore.

They are also asked to write about this second, hard task (including their actual "score" on it), so that this write-up can be sent to another anonymous student. More than 40% of Group 1 flat out lies about their score, saying it was much higher than it actually was.

THEN they're given a new task on the same level of difficulty as the first task (easy). They do not do nearly as well on this one as they did on the first easy task.


Group 2 thinks they performed well on the task because they worked hard on it. When asked about the task, they also say that they really enjoyed it and want to take more work home and show their parents.

THEN Group 2 gets the harder task. They too find it much more challenging and perform much worse on it. However, when they are asked about this task, they say they still liked it and are still eager to take more work home, practice, and show their parents. Unlike the first group, they don't think they're dumb after "failing" at the second task, and think that they could learn to do the second task well with some practice. Only a few Group 2 students exaggerate their scores when asked to share them with someone else.

THEN Group 2 gets the third task (the easy stuff). They perform better than they did the first time.

The point here is to praise the process, not the ability.

If you praise a kid's intelligence, they'll accept your praise. They'll believe that they're "smart." It'll be great...until there's something they can't do (which, hello, is going to happen). It'll lead to them being anxious and stressed, frequently worried about proving that they are "smart." And when they can't do something, they'll think they're not smart anymore. They won't like learning, they'll like "being smart." They also think intelligence is an innate ability that cannot be built or enhanced - no matter what they do. AND they are more likely to cheat or lie to try to make sure that are always seen as smart.

If, on the other hand, you praise the kid's process - how hard he/she worked and the effort he/she put into the work - they will learn that you can work hard to make something happen. They will be more willing to try new tasks. They will develop the idea that intelligence can be developed and enhanced through effort. Ultimately, this is more likely to create a happy child (and a successful one) because that child will be motivated to work hard and to love learning.

This is the theory, anyway.

It makes a lot of sense to me, although I'd also say you have to make sure that you stay focused on teaching what needs to be taught as well. You wouldn't say "Hey, you put that 2+2=5! I like the hard work you put into figuring that out." So I guess I should say that when praise is appropriate, you should praise effort and not intelligence.

So what do you think of this, since you've made it this far? Good for you, by the way, for making it all the way through. I give you a cyber-pat on the back.

The Father of My Children

The day Maddy was born, I woke up from a nap and caught the two of them like this. I think Dallin still thought I was asleep, because he was all misty eyed. I slyly pulled out my camera phone and thus one of my favorite pictures of forever was created.

The father of my children is:

-devoted to every role he has-

-committed to constantly improving himself-

-the hardest worker you'll ever meet-

-capable of making anything happen, especially if it will make someone he loves happy-

-spiritually minded-

-smarter than he thinks-

-sometimes too helpful-

-disappointed in himself when he feels like he hasn't done enough (even though he always has)-

-freaking adorable with his daughter-

-the perfect balance to everything that is wrong with me-

-dang sexy-


Happy Father's Day to the father of my children, who, on top of being a generally exceptional human being, also happens to be the love of my life.


And of course, Happy Father's Day to my own wonderful dad - who never, ever made us kids feel like anything less than the most important thing in the world to him. Love you, Dad.

Saturday Breakfast

I've really never been much of a breakfast person.

I really like breakfast foods, but I'm usually just not hungry in the morning (exception = pregnancy).

But, my breakfast loving hubby suggested that we have a big breakfast together every Saturday, so now it's a nice lil family tradition that we've all grown to love.

A lot of times we end up just making a more special breakfast at home. FYI, "more special" pretty much means more than cereal or yogurt. You know, like stuff you actually have to cook.

But sometimes, when we're feeling particularly cool or lazy or rich or something, we go to IHOP. We love IHOP. Especially Dallin.

***Side note: We do not love the IHOP at Val Vista and Baseline. Stay away from that IHOP at all costs, friends. Side note over***

Today was an IHOP day. And we're pretty glad it was.

In an attempt to be an all-around cooler person, I made sure to take our camera to IHOP. Now, I don't know if it's because our camera isn't especially awesome or what (p.s. it isn't)...but this is the only decent picture I have:



It might also have something to do with the fact that once our food arrived, I was very much in "get in my belly" mode.

Which the food promptly did. Which was very kind of it.

What's your sign?

When Maddy was about 9 months old, we got her started on "Baby Signing Time."

Oh. My. Awesome.

For a while, it was all she would really want to do. She would sway her arms back and forth (to sign "baby") and...well, not stop until we turned the dang thing on.

Of course, she's expanded her list of acceptable viewing material. This is mostly due to Netflix, since Netflix is very convenient yet does not offer Baby Signing Time for instant watch (grumble grumble I expect the world to be at my fingertips...grumble).

But anyway, she's learned a lot of signs and uses them regularly, although there are a few things now that she prefers to say rather than sign.

I made a list a while ago of everything she could sign. She's probably forgotten some of them by now, but there were about 40.

Here are some that she still uses regularly:

food/drink: food, water, milk, juice, banana, apple, candy, grapes, cheese, cracker, cookie

animals: dog, cat, bird

vehicles: car, bus (lately used to tell us that she wants to read the book "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus," which is her current favorite), train

other words: Dad, more, please, thank you, bath, out, up, hot, cold, bubbles, brush teeth, red (random, I know), tree

I would have loved to get a video of all of this to include on here...but seriously, you try getting an 18 month old in front of a camera to do just what you want her to do. Not especially simple.

Anyway, I'm a total sign language for babies advocate. Hopefully Maddy's lil sis likes it, too!

32

Happy 32 weeks to me!

It's pretty crazy to think our little family will be growing in just 8 weeks (hopefully no sooner...). I am having serious trouble wrapping my head around the 2 kid concept, and I think I've given up on trying to do so until she actually comes.

She still moves a ton. A ton. And she's getting strong, too.

I'm having pretty frequent contractions. Dr. says this is normal, especially for a second baby. I guess I'll have to take his word for it.

So you know, I'm pregnant. Aches, pains, roller coaster emotions, exhaustion...pretty par for the course. And honestly, I will probably always make it sound worse than it is. I know I have it so much easier than some other mommas.

Oh and here's a picture:



The "good" and "bad" are in reference to my posture. It makes a huge difference in my comfort level, so I thought I'd take some pictures to figure out why. Now it all makes sense. (Check out the "farthest out" point of my belly in reference to the stairs...which Maddy is climbing while I take belly shots. I really am a good mom.) I guess I need to figure out a way to constantly remind myself to have good posture.

Good luck with that, self.

That one time we built a computer in our kitchen

If you want a media center built right, you have to do it yourself.

By "media center," I mean home for all things media related in the Harris household - music, movies, TV, etc.

Apparently, this basically just takes a computer that is built and set up in the right way.

Thankfully, my hubby's brilliance extends to building and setting up such things in the right way.

Which is how it happened that we found ourselves in our kitchen last night, building a computer.

This is probably where I should mention that it took me all of about 30 seconds to hurt myself.



And this was one of those cuts that sliced under my skin. Kind of like a hard core paper cut, you know? Anyway, it hurt. And it happened while we were pulling the first piece - literally, the first one - out of the box.

So I pretty much spent the rest of the time taking pictures. Using my middle finger, since my index one was the injured one.



I also handled a screwdriver a few times, and unwrapped some things. It was actually a big deal that I unwrapped things because *apparently* static electricity is a big deal with computer parts and even a little amount that is too small for you to notice can ruin a part for good. Dallin told me this, and then expected me to touch anything. Silly boy.

So, we're cool? Right? Right?! I mean, have you built a computer in your kitchen?

Mm hmm.

It's Flag Day, Flag Day...

Gotta get down on Flag Day...

And now I've made a Rebecca Black joke. I'm becoming a real blogger, here.

But seriously...

IT'S FLAG DAY!

Don't ask me why I love Flag Day. I really couldn't tell you. I kind of just decided to like it one day. So let it be written. So let it be done.

You could probably guess what Flag Day is about, but in case you don't feel like guessing, it commemorates the adoption of the U.S. Flag, which happened on June 14, 1777.

Since Tuesday nights are not very conducive to celebrating (even on Flag Day), we had a little Flag Day shindig at our house this past weekend.

Since I decided that this was going to be "the" party that I was going to throw to cross #21 off of my "Things to do" list for the year, I wanted to go all out. As it turns out, "all out" included:

-nifty invitations that I do not currently have a picture of...

-festive banners



-quite the yummy food spread



-cheap (yet spectacular) favors for our guests to "spangle" themselves with



-swimming

-chatting

-general reveling in the Flag Day spirit


Good times, in my humble opinion. And yes, I feel as though enough effort went into this party to allow me to cross #21 off my list. Can I get an "Amen?!"

And so, until next year, Flag Day. Thanks for giving me a way to be unique.

Songs I'm sick of

I'm sure you have them, too.

Those songs that seem to play every single time you turn on anything that plays music.

Those songs that you could sing (or at least mumble the words to, if you can't tell what those newfangled rock stars are saying) in your sleep.

Those songs that you've heard so much that you just want to wring their non-existent necks.

Yeah. Those songs.

Well, I currently have more than a few of them. Anyone else totally and utterly sick of these songs?

"Breakeven" (apparently it is one word) by The Script
"I'm still alive but I'm barely breathin..."
(I know the feeling.)

"Hey Soul Sister" by Train
"Heeeey! Heeeeeeeeeeey! Heeeeeeeeey! Your lipstick stains...."
(Possibly the worst one on the list. I'm sososo sick of this song. So.sick.of.it.)

"I'm Not Crazy" by Matchbox 20
"I'm not crazy, I'm just a little unwell. I know right now you can't tell."
(Thoughts: Overplayed. I hear this one all the time. Very over it.)

"I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz
"Well, you done done me and you bet I felt it. I tried to be chill but you're so hot that I melted..."
(I still like the scatting in it. Other than that...turn it off.)

"Her Diamonds" by Rob Thomas
"Ooh, I can't take no more. Her tears like diamonds on the floor."
(Ugh. Just making this list is annoying me.)

"Uprising" by Muse
"Theeeey will not foooooorce us. They - will - stop - degraaaaaaading us"
(Do I need to tell you how many times I've heard this song? Ok, I will: 2 million times.)

So, yeah. If you're in the car next to me and you see me start pulling my hair out, it's because one of these songs came on the radio. Probably for the second time that day, if I'm already at the hair pulling stage.

And these are just the pop/rock/alternative/whatever the heck it is style songs. I listen to country, too. It's not as bad...

but still, don't get me started.

I want...

A vacation with Dallin...possibly Maddy-less. Yep, brutal honesty, people. Couldn't tell you why this is appealing to me so strongly right now...but seriously, a little getaway would be so fabulous.

To know for sure when baby will come. Seriously. I would kill for this. If I could be sure that she wouldn't come during my student teaching, well, a lot of stress would go away. I'm the kind of person that stresses over things I have no control over. It's pretty cool.

For blob to go away. Blob=cyst. Nuff said.

Chips Ahoy. No longer a want. Currently eating.

To be able to read all day long. So much I want to read. So many other things to worry about. Boo.

To be done with school. So close, yet so far.

To know for sure if I did actually leave my phone at church today. I can't find it, and don't remember having it since church. So it's gotta be there, on the piano in the primary room. But it would be nice to know so I could just stop looking.

This necklace to commemorate baby 2's birth (the one on the right, of course):

{Hint, hint.}

A backrub before bed. I've been promised this, so yay!


Hope you've all had a great day and weekend! And that you're getting ready for FLAG DAY, which is Tuesday. Happy, happy day.

New Addition

We weren't expecting this so soon, but we sure are happy it came a few weeks early.



Our iPad! (What did you think I was talking about?)

***Side note: Can we talk real quick about how you can see my computer screen reflected in the iPad screen in this picture? It's kind of creepy in the coolest possible way. Don't think about it too much, though; it will blow your mind. Side note over.***

I was back and forth about whether or not I was going to let Dallin get one, because let's be honest - was the iPad really needed in our house? No. But in a moment of weakness, I relented. And since the one we wanted was nowhere to be found in stores, we ended up just ordering it online. And it came a few weeks early! Sweet, no?

So let's talk about its awesomeness. Is the iPad awesome in every way possible? Very yes. It's especially useful for keeping Maddy entertained. She can find "her shows" on the Netflix app, and we have a few different kid friendly apps for her that she just loves.

When we can tear it away from Maddy, I play games and read and stuff and Dallin has another way to check his email (I kid...sort of). It's basically a great toy that appeals to all of us...which is pretty amazing, if you think about it.

Have you taken the iPad plunge? I highly recommend it. Put some pennies away and you'll save up enough just in time to buy one before a new one comes out. That would be funny if it wasn't so true.

10 minutes to midnight. Lovely.

Well, here we are again.

I should tell you that I am currently in a car, enjoying the last part of my date night with Dallin.

At least, we're enjoying it as much as we can, stuck on a freeway that they're making everyone get off of. Holy canoli, this takes forever.

The rest of our date night has been good, just to let you know. We ate at Smashburger, which, in case you are unaware, is the epitome of burger deliciousness. Seriously, I loves it. Go. Go now. I'll come, too.

And then we went and saw the new X-Men movie, which was great. Great, yes. Entirely awesome? Meh. But great. Totally worth seeing.

So there you go. Date night report from the car at 11:48 pm. Thank you, technology (i.e. Dallin's iPhone) for making this possible. Also, thanks, Mom, for watching Maddy. We'll be home soon...ish.

4 things that made today magical

One.

Today was National Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Day. True story. We love us some strawberry rhubarb 'round these parts, so I ordered some goodness from Village Inn. We had some friends over to help us eat it...which is good considering the four of us still only made it through half the pie.

Also, I didn't take any pictures. Because I'm non-awesome like that.

Two.

I have been drooling over the Blue and White collection at Target for a while now. Yep, that's how classy I am: I drool over things at Target. Anyway, I have also been going to Target a lot lately in preparation for Flag Day.

Today, I was at a not-my-usual Target looking for Flag Day things, and I saw the Blue and White collection - on clearance. Like, half off clearance. 5 seconds later, my cart and my heart were full. THEN later, I had to go to my usual Target because not-my-usual Target did not have sufficient Flag Day supplies, and lo and behold, the Blue and White stuff was not on clearance. Or even little sale. At all.

I know! Magical, right?!

Three.

I found a swimsuit. I've discovered that many difficult problems that arise in the maternity wardrobe department (e.g. jeans, swimsuits) are best solved by just getting non-maternity type stuff in a size up. That is what my new swimsuit is. And it is grand.

Four.

So many errands. So much driving. Such a hot day. ALL SHADED PARKING SPOTS. No, seriously, I parked in like 5-6 different parking lots today and got shaded spots in all of them. You'd be amazed at the difference the shade makes! It's nice to not feel like I'm putting Maddy in an oven when I put her in her car seat. So nice. Note to self: hold out for the shady spots whenever possible.

And that, ladies and gents, makes for one magical Thursday.

BFFs

Lately, this little group has been pretty much inseparable.



Madelyn, "Bayee-bee" (Baby), "Up-per" (Thumper), and Piglet (Maddy's pronunciation varies) go everywhere together.

Maddy has never really been attached to any "thing" before, so I think it's adorable - especially since it's not the "I won't do anything except scream unless my toys are in my hands" kind of attached.

Yet.

For now it's just cute. We'll enjoy it while it lasts.

Current favorite game

Maddy does this a lot in the car lately.

I thought I'd take advantage of the wait for the drive-thru window at Hungry Howies (btw - best invention ever!) to capture it on video.




In case you really don't want to watch the video, are annoyed that it's sideways, and/or can't hear it...here's the transcript:


Maddy: Mama! Mama! Mama! Mama! Mama!

Me: What?

Maddy: Hi.


It's basically adorable.

T-Minus 9 Weeks

Here is a little pregnancy update, since today marks 31 weeks:

-Two words: back pain. I think I've already complained enough about this.

-Ultrasound tomorrow. We've had a lot a lot of ultrasounds this pregnancy, thanks to a cyst that has made it's home on the placenta. Don't worry - so far, it's just something to "keep an eye on," but not something to be concerned about. Well, not something you should be concerned about, but try explaining that to an expectant mother who you keep sending to a specialist to have level 2 ultrasounds done. Yeah, doesn't work. But every ultrasound has shown that baby is growing normally and that everything looks great...other than that unwelcome blob.

-I'm feeling huge. I swear I was this big when I delivered Maddy. Blegh.

-The third trimester brings a whole new meaning to "morning sickness." It's more of a I-need-to-pee-but-am-also-so-stiff-that-I-feel-like-I'd-fall-apart-if-I-moved kind of morning sickness. It's made for some rough mornings.

-Speaking of needing to pee, do I? Yes. All the time.

-No swelling. Have I ever mentioned that swelling is like, my biggest pregnancy fear? I know it happens to most women, and they just deal with it an move on. And I'm sure I would do that too, if it were to happen to me...but I'm still terrified of it. And as of yet, it hasn't come out to torture me. Knock on wood.

-This little girl can MOVE. Seriously, she's all over the place. Good thing she's coming after Maddy, because if Maddy was second, I probably would have worried that she didn't move enough. This is one active lil chica.

-Also, I think we have a name. Yep, I'm pretty sure. Maybe not ready to announce it on the blog sure...but pretty sure. And as of right now, I totally love it.

So there's a quick update for ya. I'd include a picture but...didn't I just put one up a few days ago? Yeah. So maybe next week. We'll see how huge I'm feeling.

Wow.

I prepared for this.

I was totally ready to write a blog post every day.

I have a list of things to blog about. I swear I do.

I guess I'm just having a hard time getting into the swing of things.

Plus I procrastinated my first homework assignments of the summer until the day they were due...which is today.

So hi, this is my blog post for the day.

I hope you enjoyed it.

For the sake of including something that is not just...nothing...here's a picture of me and Maddy from today:


She thinks those stickers are awesome. Which I think is awesome, and which I probably will continue to think is awesome until she decides that it is awesome to stick them everywhere in the house. Awesome.

And here's a blog post

So, I knew when I set this goal (to have one month when I wrote a blog post every day) that there would be days like this - when it was 11:12 pm and I had yet to post for the day.

But I didn't have much of a choice today...pretty much all of my time has been spoken for, between studying for my test (this morning), Saturday breakfast (tradition!), taking my test (this afternoon) and adult session of Stake Conference (this evening).

Factor in baby discomfort (read: total blegh feeling) and it all adds up to this being your blog post for the day.

Hopefully we won't have too many more like this this month...

Hope you've all had a great Saturday!

I guess...

Now that I have an 8 pack of fun-sized Mounds to keep me company (I am all about Mounds these days)...

...now that Maddy is asleep....

...now that I finished the (super awesome) invitations for my party next weekend...

...now that I got a good chunk of content writing done for Dallin (but not all of it)...

...and now that my certification exam is less than 20 hours away...

...I guess....

I'll start studying for it.

Sciatica

If you've been reading my blog for a while (thanks, by the way) you might remember the post where I complained about my baby torturing my sciatic nerve.

Well gosh darn these babies of mine, they must be siblings.

The only thing is...the pain I'm having right now seems much more characteristic of sciatica than what I had with Madelyn. More "shooting" and down my legs into my feet. So I'm thinking either I just totally forgot what it felt like the first time, or only one of these pains was/is actually sciatic nerve pain and the other was/is something else entirely. Or maybe it just manifests itself in different ways at different times? Who knows?

Either way, I go to bed pretty much every night with some yucky back pains. And sometimes they stick around for some morning fun, too.

I just got an awesome pregnancy pillow called a Snoogle. Snoogle's main purpose is to help me with this back pain. Snoogle does a pretty good job at it. Snoogle's secondary purpose is to allow me to say it's name as many times as possible, since Snoogle is a pretty awesome word.

But really, there's only so much Snoogle can do. So I guess what I'm asking is, does anyone have any helpful hints for sciatic pain? Other than what my doc told me, which was to not stand for long periods of time and to not bend over a lot...but my TODDLER sorta kinda makes both of those things hard. So if something worked for you, let me know.

Pleaseandthankyou.

For your trouble, here's a lil picture of me and baby girl after 30+ weeks together:



She's looking better than I am. Also, the picture is in black and white for a reason. Yikes, skin. Yikes.

35 Things: May Update

Hey, it's your favorite part of the month! The part where I use my blog to keep track of the things I've done on my list.

The problem is...I haven't done anything other than the monthly stuff, with which you all are undoubtedly familiar by now. A meal plan for at least one week (#7), a new cookie every month (#12), and an act of service (#35). I did them all, and I'm proud that I'm keeping up with them!

Before I present you with my June plans, let me just say that the cookies I tried this month were so.good. No really, they were very good. Everyone loved them, with a capital L and probably 6-7 Os. So check out the recipe here. Yummm...

I also made progress on my book reading goal of 30 books (#25). Here's what I read:

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini - Really, really good. I was amazed that a book in which so many depressing things happened could leave me with an overall positive feeling. I guess all the heartbreaking stuff was broken up with enough joyful moments to make everything see more inspiring than depressing. 4 stars.

Delirium by Lauren Oliver - Following the currently popular trend, this book features a female protagonist who slowly comes to realize that the limits of her society are, well, limiting. It's a storyline that I'm getting just a little tired of, which takes off a star by itself, and then I despised the ending, so another half star for that leaves this one at 3 1/2 stars. Pretty good, though.

The Scorch Trials by James Dashner - The sequel to The Maze Runner, which I read last month. I would say it is better than the first one, but maybe only slightly. They are very similar. I like this series, but am kind of starting to feel like I'm reading a reworked version of Lost. It's a lot of questions and not a lot of answers. Which gets kind of frustrating. I'll give it four stars, though.

That takes me up to 15 books. According to Goodreads, that makes me 3 books ahead of my goal. Sweet.

So, June. I really need to get going on some of my one-time-thing stuff. And I've known all along that June was going to be my best chance, since it's in between student teachings and also pre-baby. So look out this month for:

-A blog post every day (#28) - lucky you!
-A party thrown by yours truly (#21)
-Finishing the nursery (#15)

Those are at least the ones I'm committed to. Who knows - maybe I'll have time to do some others, too. Happy June, everyone!