28.5 Things you may (or may not) know about me

4/29/08

Well, I've been tagged. I hope this doesn't come off sounding too crazy or boastful. I've been sitting here all day trying to come up with all of this. In return, I want to tag Monica, Kev and Lori, and my mom.

1. I have a knack for proofreading and spelling. You might catch me browsing through a dictionary, thesaurus, or encyclopedia from time to time. I just think it's interesting. Mark has benefitted from me basically rewriting all of his papers throughout his college career. Next up is his Master's thesis. I'm actually not looking forward to that one, because it's going to be something like 20-30 pages of technical writing to slog through. Oh, well. At least it will signify the end of his schooling.

2. I am a smell person. I like to stroll down the laundry and baby aisles in the grocery store just to smell things. I also like the smell of corn tortillas, new ballet shoes and erasers. I'm very choosy about the scent of my fabric softener. I have 14 different body sprays from Bath and Body Works. One for every mood!

3. I love to look through baby name books. Ever since I've been married, I've been making up lists for potential first and middle names (some have been moved to the pet name list, because Mark has vetoed them for our children). Next up for a girl is Miranda (or Téa, I can't decide), and for a boy it will be Samuel. I actually had no say in that. Mark decided that on his mission. So I'm thinking of some unusual middle names. Any suggestions?

4. I can't go anywhere without Lip Smackers. It's a serious crisis if I am found without.

5. I learned how to develop pictures in a darkroom when I was just a kid (thanks, dad), and then spent 8-12th grade as a photographer on the yearbook staff. Still love to take pictures!

6. I love to do weddings. I practically beg to be allowed to do the flowers or pictures or decorations when a family member gets engaged.

7. Speaking of weddings, when Mark got home from his mission (I waited for him), I had already bought a wedding dress and bridesmaid dresses, unbeknownst to him. Then, after waiting patiently for 3 1/2 weeks, I cornered him and asked when we were going to get married. (He proposed at that point. We were at the county fair watching barrell racing)

8. Then, when I found the engagement ring I wanted ( 3 princess cut diamonds--1 carat total weight and gorgeous), I paid for half of it because I was making lots of moolah at the time and was too stubborn to get something Mark could afford on his own. But I still think it was worth it.

9. I am always running late.

10. I buy presents for birthdays and stuff an average of 3-6 months in advance (sometimes up to a year). If I see something I think is perfect that's on sale, I'll get it and then it sits in a closet until the occasion finally rolls around.

11. (If you haven't already figured this out) I am a little obsessive/compulsive. The first person to really clue me in to this was my college roommate Vanessa, who pointed out that most people don't take 5 pages of notes for every class and then get home and re-write them in a color-coordinated fashion.

12. Every time I go to a dentist, they remark on my "pretty teeth". I can thank my mom, who has nice teeth, too. And the 5 years of orthodonic work.

13. I am kind of a clean freak, but Mark will tell you that when I'm cooking or doing something crafty, I will make an absolute mess. You should see my craft room right now. You can hardly walk in the door.

14. Speaking of crafts, I like to scrapbook, take pictures, make jewelry, tole paint, sew, make cards, decorate and quilt. I have a whole drawer dedicated to my spools of ribbon.

15. I have a weakness for school supplies, even though I am not in school anymore. Every time August rolls around, I practically salivate at the sight of all the new pencils, folders, pens and notebooks. When that stuff isn't out, I hit the notecard and stationery aisle. I have quite the stash of new thank-you notes sitting in my drawer. (My stationery drawer. Not to be confused with the ribbon drawer, the fabric drawers, the paint drawer, or the floral/beading drawer.)

16. Even though I got my degree in nutrition, occasionally we just have a fresh pan of brownies for dinner. Really. You should come over. We get the Ghirardelli Double Chocolate mix and add walnuts. YUM!

17. I never like to go anywhere without makeup because I have this 3 inch long chevron-shaped birthmark right in the middle of my forehead. And lots of freckles. And I just look beastly without makeup.

18. I have bad luck with cars. Seriously. Mark has had like, one car pretty much the whole 6 1/2 years we've been married, and I've cycled through 4 or 5. I'm just waiting for my current one to die on me at any moment. It was acting up when I was in Utah a few weeks ago, but it has been fine since I've gotten back home. Mysterious...and ominous....

19. Some things from my past: my family and I were in the 6.7 magnitude Northridge earthquake in California in 1994. It was the most frightening thing to be jolted awake at 4:30 in the morning like that. You've never heard anything so loud or scary. And then there were aftershocks continuously all day. We're lucky we all made it through in one piece.

20. My ballet class got to be in Universal Ballet of Korea's production of Swan Lake when they came to St. George. We were just extra corps dancers for the ballroom scene, but it was exciting. I got to wear this big old Renaissance costume and sit on stage watching the pros.

21. When I was 15, me and 3 other girls from my high school were asked to model for Del Parson. (He paints for the church) The painting that was commissioned was Christ and Young Women. Del wanted to know where I'd want to be sitting if Jesus was really there. I said I wanted to be where I could see His face. So even though you just see the back of my head in the painting, all of Jesus' attention is on ME. Hee hee! I'm so lucky. http://deseretbook.com/store/reviews?sku=3669681

22. When I had Madelyn, I only pushed for 3 minutes before she was born. Beat that!!! OK, the labor was 12 hours, and when it was finally time to push, she was very small (5 lbs. 4 oz.) and under distress, so the doctor was pulling at the same time. But still.

23. I am incredibly slow at getting ready in the morning. You are probably aware that I prefer to stay up late and then sleep in. In reality, I get a lot done in the mornings (once I'm up), but I just don't get dressed and ready until 11:00. LAZY, I know.

24. OK, so I was working as a massage therapist at Red Mountain Resort and Spa from 2001-2003. This one night, I ended up giving a massage to this guy who was the spitting image of Bono from U2. I am not kidding when I tell you that I could hardly breathe the whole time because I was so freaked out. I love Bono!!! Too bad it wasn't really him. Or was it?....

25. A lot of times when I'm stressed out, I go shopping. It's been a problem. Especially since I have two different Target stores within a 10 minute drive. Not to mention a huge mall and all sorts of fun bead and craft shops.

26. I never get split ends. I haven't had a haircut since last July and still don't have any.

27. My best friend Jaki and I were really into the Beatles in middle school. So much so that we took on the pen names of Ringo and George's wives, Maureen and Pattie, when we'd write notes to each other. (We had two neighbor friends who were assigned to Paul and John, but it didn't last too long with them. They probably thought we were nuts.) To this day, we refer to each other as Pat and Mo.

28. My feet are always cold.

28.5. Mark is the only boy I've ever kissed.

So there you have it! Sorry about the novel. Now you know about me and my life.

Nougatocity

"Nougatocity /nu-gat-a-si-tE/(noun). A heightened yet fleeting state of accomplishment that makes you realize how unbelievably unmotivated you normally are."

I found that definition inside of my Snickers wrapper today. I think I experienced that this week when I realized that I had planted my flowerbed, patched a hole in the wall, balanced my checkbooks, ran umpteen errands, done about 12 loads of laundry, took Madelyn to the doctor, and have also cleaned vomit off my sheets, runny poo off the carpet, couch and everyone's clothes, cut Mark's hair, and also managed to sit down to watch 3 hours of U2 concerts on DVD. It's not every week you get to do all that.

Oh, yeah. And I did my visiting teaching, hosted a playdate, and wrangled 13 kids in nursery. I think next week, I'll kick back and do nothing. (ooh, except that I have to call my insurance company to dispute a claim, turn in financial aid paperwork, do a pile of mending, go to the post office, and feed the missionaries. And we're expecting 3 more new nursery kids. So never mind...)


I found Madelyn absorbed in looking at the latest National Geographic issue on China the other day. Her great-grandpa Choy emigrated from China to San Fransisco. She was just reading up on her heritage, I guess. I love that she is interested in magazines like that. She is a girl after my own heart.

Now, I have about 6 more hours of U2 to watch, so I'd best be going.

Ode to Spring

Thank heavens it's finally spring. The winter always makes me a little crabby. The other day it was 70 degrees out and Madelyn and I spent about 3 hours at the park with our friends. It was so nice!! Now we're starting to work on our yard and putting new flowers in. Since we got home from church today, Madelyn has been playing in the backyard. I LOVE our back yard! It is so grassy and shady and she can roam around there safely (the problem is getting her to come inside). So I took some photos of her having fun, still in her dress. She really takes after her dad in that she loves to be outside.

That birdbath is such a Madelyn-magnet.
Luckily, we never see any birds actually using it.

So, I have a question: what is the deal with the face-eating style of sunglasses that is popular right now? Since my sunglasses were stolen along with my CD's the other day, I spent half my afternoon at Target yesterday and simply could not find a pair that didn't make me look like Bono as "The Fly", circa 1991. (coincidentally, "Achtung Baby" was my only U2 album as that was not stolen...) I know I'm probably just not fashion conscious, but I really think my face is too small to compete with those goggle sized lenses. Bono, yes, me, no. http://search.music.yahoo.com/search/?m=all&p=The+Fly

(This is a pretty good techno song of theirs, if you want to check out the video)

Miffed!

Well,
I got a nasty surprise today when I got into my car. Someone had come in and stolen all of my CD's and sunglasses! I live in (what I thought was) a safe neighborhood, and having grown up in a place where no one locks their cars, I guess I just never thought that would happen to me. When I'm out around Albuquerque, I usually do lock up. I drive an ancient Oldsmobile which has no real alluring qualities on its own and it is a royal pain to have to rummage for the special key for the car door and then manually unlock all the doors from the inside, whilst holding a squirming 3-year-old, but I guess I'll be doing it from now on.

I am just bummed that I lost most of my collection that I've been building these last 10 years (40-50 CD's at least), and it's going to take a looong time to replace them all. Sniff! U2! Beatles! Tchaikovsky! How will I do without you??

On another note, here are some cute pictures of Madelyn, who demanded to put on her Snow White costume that she wore last Halloween but is still huge on her:

Note the matching high heels:
She even has a high-pitched voice like the Snow White on the movie, although not quite as warble-y. But she's absolutely no help around the house, chore or cooking-wise. In fact, in that respect, she's more like a dwarf. We can call her "Bossy". Or maybe "Buzzy", because most of the time it's like she's got a caffeine buzz. You've seriously never met a more energetic child, especially when it's like, 10:00 and you're trying to get ready for bed. Speaking of...yawn!
Good night.

What a Sweetie

My parents get a kick out of the fact that Madelyn is nice to them now. She didn't used to go to them much, but something in the last few months has changed and she greeted them both with a delighted squeal and a big hug when we came to their house a couple weeks ago. I have never seen my dad look so shocked. He said, "Is this the same Madelyn?" Here he is with Madelyn and her cousin Nathan.

One excited kid

Madelyn gets excited about everything. Day before yesterday, it rained like crazy, and so of course she had to get on her hot pink galoshes and her polka dot umbrella and go outside. I used to think rain was the coolest thing ever when I was growing up, too. It only rains once a month or so where I'm from. It was pretty cold out there the other day, but Madelyn had a great time.




My mom is in town right now, so she and my Grandma Nora came over today and we went to the Albuquerque Aquarium and Botanical Gardens.


(She was really blown away by the moon jellies)

We were walking around the gardens when she spotted these two ducks. She started chasing after them, wanting to get a closer look, and they just quacked and waddled as fast as they could away from her until they finally flew off to the safety of their pond. She looked at me and my mom with a very concerned look and said "They're gwon" (She says that with a Boston accent.) It was so hilarious.



















Later on today, me, my mom and Grandma Nora went to go see Noelia Peterson, my two-week-old first cousin once removed (?). She is darling! Good job, Jason and Jessica!! She was born on the same day as my niece Hattie. They are both the cutest things you've ever seen.

Check out my Slide Show!

Check out my Slide Show!

Check out my Slide Show!

Sooo...
I decided that instead of unpacking and cleaning the house today, I would finally set up my blog. I have been meaning to do this for a long time. We just got back from Utah and had so many exciting things happen that this was the perfect time to start. I have a ton of pictures to share, so bear with all my slide shows.

First, was my birthday. Madelyn always gets excited for birthdays, and so she helped me open presents and blow out the candles. We had yummy chocolate cake and ice cream, and it was fun to spend time with my family.

The very next day, my brother Kevin and his wife Lori had their baby girl, Hattie Elizabeth! We snuck Madelyn into the hospital and she got to see her new cousin. It is so cute to see Kev as a new dad. And she is the most beautiful baby!

The next week, Mark's youngest brother Paul got married to Nikki Zimmer on April 4th in the St. George temple. I'm showing you the bouquet, centerpieces and cake, because they let me design and make them all. It was busy, but a lot of fun. All the portraits of them you see on the slide show were taken by my dad Rich and I a week before the wedding. Aren't they a gorgeous couple?











The day after the wedding, we got Tyler, Monica, Nathan, Kev, Lori with 9-day-old Hattie and Madelyn to take some pictures. There were so many nice ones that it was hard to narrow it down to just the ones on the slide show.

So, this was the longest first post in the world, I'm sure, but I hope you'll still come back. It's only a few times a year that I have that many pictures all at once. It was just an exciting two weeks!