Under Construction

I hate it when my blog starts to look like everyone else's blog. So pardon the mess for awhile until I get my code all rewritten.

Thought of the Day

Sometimes I miss BBC because now I have no outlet for random harassment of others.

The Last Lecture

My favorite parts of the Book of Mormon are the last few things a prophet writes before turning the plates over to someone else. These are brilliant men with a lifetime of experience, and I can imagine them sitting and writing for the last time and trying to convey the most valuable pieces of knowledge they've acquired in their lives. I always pay more attention to these words than any others.

On a similar note...

Randy Pausch is a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon. They run a lecture series entitled “The Last Lecture” where a professor imagines what he’d say if he only had one lecture left to give before he died. Randy Pausch was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer not long before giving this lecture. If you haven't listened to it, I highly recommend pulling it up on YouTube and sitting down and watching. He passed away last Friday.

This made me wonder what my last lecture would be. In the 26 1/2 years of my life, the one piece of advice that I would give everyone is this: Live in the moment!!

My favorite book of all time is The Alchemist. Not because the story is particularly good, but because of the message. So that I don't give away the ending, I'll just say that at the end you realize that life is not necessarily about some end goal, but about the journey you take to get there.

When I read this story, Rusty and I were newly married and living in Utah with plans to move to Hawaii at the end of the summer. It was a miserable few months in Utah. I had never wanted to live there, we didn't have any friends, the weather was awful, and I was anxious to get to Hawaii. Well, when we got to Hawaii I realized that life wasn't any better just because we were there. When I realized that, I decided that it was me that needed to change my attitude or I would never be happy and content.

I still get caught up with this, and I hear other people saying the same things..."I can't wait until Austin sleeps through the night." "It'll be great once Rusty starts making more money." "I can't wait until we're done with school...when the baby is born...when we can buy a house...when the kids are in school..." etc. etc. etc.

The fact is, there are always going to be a million reasons not to be happy if you don't really want to be. Instead of longing for another day, another state, another salary, look at what you have and where you're at and appreciate every moment of it! Just don't spend your entire life pining away for something else. (Unless you have a colicky baby, then pine all you want.)

So while I don't want this to turn into some crazy blogging tag, I think it'd be cool for you all to write your "last lecture" on your blog. Maybe you'll inspire someone!

And one last important note: No, I'm not dying.

Confession Time

Dear Dustin and Derek,
*My brothers, not my ex boyrfiends - although maybe they could use a letter, too. :)

Remember when you two used to beat me up all the time? I couldn't ever really fight back either, whenever I tried and would bring out my full fury you would both laugh at my weakness. Well, I have something to tell you both. I used to lick all of our clean plates when no one was looking. There was just such satisfaction at dinner time when I'd see you eating off of them.
From left to right: Tiffany, Dustin (the one strangling Tiffany), Derek and me. 1984

LOVE the couch mom!

In Honor of Pioneer Day

I thought I would quote my friend Candi:

"...Brigham Young did not say 'This is the place', he actually said, 'Pick up the pace'. Just think, another month of travelling and they would have been in Western Washington..."

Newsflash Utahns! If you can climb it in an afternoon and there's not snow on it year round, it's a HILL people!!! A HILL!!!

5 Things that annoy me

It's been a long day and I'm dreading the rest of the week (Rust will be leaving before 8AM and won't be home until 11PM). So here's 5 things that totally annoy me.

1. Virtual hugs. Or anything else sent virtually. ******DILATION DUST******

2. Clerks that can't bag. Seriously, if you want to tick me off make me stand in front of a Wal Mart cashier and have them put my eggs in one bag, my bread in another and then double bag 3 cans of beans while asking me if I want the 10 packs of gum I just bought left out.

3. Geico commercials. Especially those cavemen.

4. People who love Stephanie Meyer (I mean really obsessed with her and Edward). Her writing is subpar and I've never read stuff so cheesy in my life.

5. Decorative wheelbarrows in people's yards. You know, the ones with potted plants in them.

I'm sure I'll be adding more things as the rest of the week continues...

The Kids

The challenge: Getting Austin to sit still long enough for Ashlyn to smile. A task virtually impossible and something that I failed miserably at.

Ashyn: 2 years 8 months
Favorite things to do: Dress up in pretty dresses and dance to the Little Mermaid soundtrack.
Favorite foods: Hot dogs, cheese, and soda pop (she asks for it all the time, but never gets it).
Sleeping schedule: 8PM to 9:30AM
Personality: She's such a sweet little girl. I first noticed this when I was pregnant with Ausitn. I was laying on the floor and she kept bringing me pillows for my head. She's just like that with everytthing. She's also very obedient. If she knows that she's in trouble she'll put herself in timeout.

Austin: 10 months

Favorite Things to Do: Turn off my computer (he's fascinated with the red and blue lights and turns them off multiple times a day). He also loves to go outside. Whenever he sees a door open he races to it and if it shuts before he gets to go outside, he cries the most pitiful cry you'll ever hear.

Favorite foods: Cheese, grapes and Baby mum mums.

Sleeping schedule: 9PM to 8:30AM

Personality: I can barely get him to eat his bottle because he's too busy looking around. This kid wants to explore and taste everything. Lately, I've had to put him in his crib with the lights off just to get him to eat. Otherwise, he'd take a few drinks and then toss it aside when he sees something interesting. And while he crawls after it he's crying because he's so hungry.

Sibling relationship: Whenever Austin gets within two feet of Ashlyn she yells, "HE'S GOING TO EAT ME!!" And takes off running. She's absolutely right, too, he totally will.

A Picture

So I decided since I was bored that I needed to get serious about doing Ashlyn's fairy tale room. So here's the start of it!

Now it's no where near being finished, and the two outside pig faces need to be redone, but I thought since I promised that I'd post a picture and I haven't yet that I would post this since it's the only picture I've taken lately.

I'm planning on doing a castle on another wall, Goldilocks on the third wall and Hansel and Gretel on the fourth wall with a few other things here and there...

I think it looks pretty good for my first attempt at painting. :)

My second favorite Office quote

“Wikipedia is the best thing ever. Anyone

in the world, can write anything they want

about any subject. So you know you are

getting the best possible information.”

Rusty and his co-worker Brandon got into an argument today. Brandon is an Idaho state representative and he said he thought Hawai'i was dumb for using an apostrophe in their name. Well, Rusty just turned in his thesis to the University of Hawai'i and part of the requirements for thesis format is to use the correct punctuation in the word Hawai'i. It is not an apostrophe, it is an okina and if he had used an apostrophe, his thesis would have been denied.

So Rusty let Brandon know this. As I mentioned before, Brandon is a politician and politicians are never wrong, so he just changed the truth. That's right. He changed wikipedia. Go right now to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okina and he added in under "Another Problem" this line:

Luckily, nearly all scholars of native Hawaiian agree that the apostrophe is an accurate proxy when available and the okina provides no additional value and thus is unnecessary. Now the standard symbol used to separate the final to i's in Hawaii is an apostrophe. This is also the officially approved symbol according to the AP Style Guide.

Someone needs to teach this corrupt politician a lesson. I'll take that job. Bring it on Durst. Your wikipedia page has just been edited.

Brother Dodge can Misty pleeeease spend the night?

I used to be so good at that. You know, charming the parents, making it seem like we're going to have some innocent fun and that we all need to spend every waking moment together to do it.

Well, I guess there's a negative correlation between the amount of charm someone has and the amount of cellulite they have because I've lost the Brittany-charm. I couldn't convince Kent (brother-in-law) that Stephen and Brandon (nephews) needed to come and see the midnight showing of "The Dark Knight" with me. And while I have enough self-confidence to be able to go see a movie by myself, it's just not as much fun and instead of watching it, I'm at home blogging about it. I'll just wait until the movie comes to the drive-in and hopefully all the young men who wore Batman speedos and capes to tonight's showing will stay home.

Oh, and here's my promise. My next post will contain pictures. My blog is looking a little boring.

So Conflicted

The biggest challenge of motherhood for me has been BOREDOM. I know some moms are just so busy all the time, but I don't how they do it. We go to the free movie every week, we go to story time every week, we've hit every park in Boise, I'm teaching Ashlyn how to read, etc. etc. etc. and yet I still end up with SO much time on my hands. There's only so many times you can play Connect 4 during the day without feeling utterly useless.

Anyways, my point is I've really toyed with the idea of going back to work. The extra money would be great, but my biggest reason for doing this is so I won't be so bored. I've applied at the YMCA and at Golds Gym where I could work in their childcare centers and bring the kids with me. But if those don't work out, I may look elsewhere. Sorry mom, but Albertsons may be my #1 pick.

My problem though is that I hate the idea of putting my kids in daycare. Because everyone knows that only moms who don't love their kids put them in daycare. OK I know that's not true, but I still feel incredibly guilty for considering daycare.

Anyways, for those of you that read my blog and who are SAHMs...WHAT DO YOU DO ALL DAY??? Don't give me ideas on how to waste time, because I can waste time. I'd like some ideas on how to be more productive during the day.

Memory Game!

I'm refusing to call this a tag because I hate tags.

1. As a comment on this post, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you know me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

And if you're just a "lurker" that I don't know very well, please use this as an excuse to comment and say hello! I love reading people's blogs and I'm only creeped out when it's my LaPorte friend that visits.

Note to Self

Next time we buy a house, we need to make sure that our address doesn't contain three 6s and 9s. It's just not worth risking a dyslexic mail man.

May 13, 1996

I just unpacked all my journals and was flipping through some of the pages. I thought I'd post a random entry. FTR, I was 14-years-old.

Monday: Guess who I was talking to 3rd period! Noah! He also wanted me to grade his paper. He is so fine! I mean FINE. I wonder if I'll talk to him tomorrow. I hope so. He sits almost right behind me.

Maybe I'll scan the page in so you can see the diagram that I proceeded to draw of the classroom's seating chart. Nah, that would be embarassing.

And for those of you that wondered, no, I didn't talk to Noah the next day. He didn't even come to school. But it was all okay in the end because Peter was there, and he had a new haircut. And he is WAY FINER than Noah.

More 4th of July Fun

On Friday, we decided to do what everyone else in Boise was going to do, too. We floated down the Boise river. It's a six mile stretch of river that starts at Barber Park and ends at Ann Morrison. Austin and Ashlyn made it about 4 miles and then we bailed out and I walked them back. If I had known at the time that we had 2 miles left I would have stuck it out. LaRene and Kent kept me company though. They hit a rock and their boat capsized.

We had a great barbecue at their house later. Kent makes the best ribs I've ever had.

Ashlyn a little unsure of the "sprinklers".

Rachel, Brandon and Megan having sword fights.

Naomi

Austin a little leery about crawling across the pop it remains.


Ashlyn mid-step with her pop its


Rachel

Whenever we go to their house, Rust and I play this great game. We pick out a really cheesey idiom or make one up, and whoever says it first wins. (And it actually has to apply). The last time we played this, the idiom was "The proof is in the pudding." I lost. I think I owe Rusty $20.

"Rust don't forget to take the trash out in the morning"

I say things like that now because I'm a homeowner. And speaking of owning a home, I haven't posted any pictures of us all moved in. Too bad my camera is broken and my Rebel doesn't have a wide enough angle for good pictures. So we did a video. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday America!

"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and success of liberty." -- John F. Kennedy