I heart band

Whenever I see a marching band in a parade I always cry. Always. Even if the band stinks, I love it. It feels like something so wholesome and good and it warms my heart every time. I realize that most of the time they are playing Eye of the Tiger or Louie Louie, but nonetheless it feels so American to me, and I hope that marching bands live on forever. Today Molly saw her first marching band and I am proud to say that she loved it. We even ran down the parade route to see it twice and she still cried for more marching band all the way home. It made me double cry to see her love it too. Yeah for band nerds everywhere!

Reality Star

Sometimes I wish I could go on a reality tv show, not because I actually want to participate in the show, but because I am curious how the producers would portray me. Would I be the villian that everyone hates? Not likely, I tend to be mean only in my head. The girl that stirs up drama by crying all the time? Perhaps, I could see myself getting flustered and weeping openly. My money is on the girl that no one really remembers because they are just kind of there and get voted off early. This train of thought has led me to wonder what reality show I would choose if given the chance. Definitely not Survivor (I could never lie that well) or Amazing Race (Adam and I agreed that if we were ever on this show we would self destruct and end up getting divorced). I think I can safely rule out America's Next Top Model and Bachelor, so I think I would choose the Biggest Loser (minus the weighing in with only a sports bra and spandex biking shorts on.) Working out nonstop, nutrition advice and a makeover? I'll take it!

Life's Mystery

Today I solved one of life's greatest mysteries, I figured out the password to my blog! So no I've not been off watching Gilmore Girls reruns for the past year (ok I have, I think I'll watch them till the day I die) I have merely fallen prey to a terrible memory. So if any of you still care, I'm back!

TV addiction: A mother's confession

As a new mom I have lost the joys of sleep, leisure, and soon food. In fact I mentioned to Adam the other night that it may be time for me to stop pretending that I can eat whatever I want because I am pregnant/nursing, to which he thoughtfully replied, "Its been a good run..." With this impending additional loss I find I have only one real indulgence left in my life: Television. When Molly was born we didn't even have cable. I was sustained by the news and re-watching seasons of Gilmore Girls on DVD and I was fine with that. During the first week of her life I was an emotional mess, I could not cope with this tiny fragile creature, the loss of freedom, and the trauma of healing after childbirth. One day, in a particularly horrible moment, I was uncontrollably bawling and Adam came walking in the door from work on the phone with the cable company. He announced that he was ordering me cable WITH a DVR and I have never loved him more than in that moment! Since then we have also added netflix to our repertoire and I am now frequently disturbed by the amount of TV I watch on a daily basis. I really need to get control, but I find that it really gets me through the day. I'm not always watching it, sometimes I have it on as background noise or just to feel like I am not alone. Am I the only one? Those of you without TV, how do you do it?

New post, REALLY!

Dear blogging world, its been so long! The thought of catching up on all the details of the last 6 months makes me want to faint, so I will just hit the highlights. First and foremost I FINALLY finished my stinking degree hooray!!! Thats right blogging folk, I am officially a doctor now so if anyone ever yells, "Is there a doctor in the house?" I am now obligated to stand up and offer my fluting skills.
Mostly this degree makes me happy because I never have to pay tuition to ASU ever again EVER!!! Hip Hip Hooray!!! Did I mention that this means NEVER EVER??!!! Other than that, my doctorhood doesn't really have any bearing on our daily lives. I like to think that Molly appreciates my newfound smartiness, but I think she loves me mostly because I feed her.

Aside from my graduation, all our other milestones revolve around our sweet little baby girl. Molly is about to turn 8 months old and she continues to be pure joy in little girl form. She has two little teeth, she sits up by herself, rolls over and recently has started to scoot around on her belly. She smiles and laughs all the time and LOVES to snuggle. I spend most of my day trying to not to squeeze her too hard, she is SO cute to me! So far I think she is going to be a chatterbox and a little social butterfly. Her favorite thing to do is be around other kids. She basically freaks out with excitement when she sees other babies, and I actually think she said her first word last week: mama. I wouldn't really count it, but I was teaching a flute lesson and my student, her mother and sister all agreed that she was definitely saying to me. I may be stretching that one a bit...She is still trying to learn how to sleep through the night. She has good days and bad days. In fact any sleep advice from seasoned mothers would be greatly appreciated...
I could talk about Molly all day long, but for the sake of the blogging world I will wrap it up. I love love love her!!!!

warning: a downer

Tonight after putting Molly down, I started looking at old pictures on the computer. I came across our engagement pictures and I was actually shocked by how young I look. Adam and I have only been married for about 2 1/2 years, however it might as well have been my senior portraits considering the difference between then and now. I remember my sister-in-law once remarked that she couldn't wait to turn 30 because then she would be as old as she really felt. She has 3 children. I couldn't understand it at the time, but now I totally get it. Its not just the new added work and responsibility of my little bebe, it is just life. I have come to the sad realization that the further I get into my life, the more work it becomes and the thought frankly depresses me. I suppose the paybacks get better too, Molly smiles etc. but man I do I feel old...

p.s. Aside from my elderly status, motherhood is getting better and better. I confess I kiss my baby's cheeks about a thousand times a day. I cannot stop, they are so soft and sweet smelling! I love love love that baby, it literally makes my heart hurt aaahhhh!!!

p.p.s. Adam thinks I am furiously typing my dissertation...

Molly

In honor of Molly turning one month old today, I thought I would briefly share my birth story. I was due on July 11th, however that date came and went with no action. When I went in for an appointment on July 12th, I was dilated to a 2 and effaced 80 percent. My doctor scheduled an inducement for the 15th, but she also said she thought I would go into labor before then. Nope.
On the 15th at 6pm I checked into the hospital for my inducement. I hadn't dilated any more so they gave me a pill to help me efface completely. The plan was to start petocin 4 hours later. That was at 7 and by 8 I started having very strong regular contractions about 3 minutes apart. After another hour they checked me again and I was at a 4 and ready to blow my brains out. At this point they ordered my epidural, and by the time it was administered (45 minutes later) I had dilated to a 7. Oh how I love epidurals! I have no desire to ever give birth naturally, and at some point I even told Adam I was going to bare my testimony about epidurals at church. My doctor broke my water at this point and I read magazines until a few hours later when I was dilated to a 10 and ready to push. I pushed for an hour and a half until all of a sudden little Molly came out. It was the best feeling in the world when she came out and they put her on my chest! She was so sweet with all her dark hair, I thought I was going to explode with love and relief!
Unfortunately she was soon showing signs of respiratory distress so they quickly whisked her off to the NICU. It turns out she had inhaled amniotic fluid on her way out and had a large amount of fluid in her right lung. They were able to dry out her lung with a C-pap machine and she was able to leave the hospital the next day. The birth experience was absolutely amazing, but her breathing issues were completely terrifying. I think I cried for 2 days straight, I was so emotional.
Molly's lungs are perfect now and she is a sweet and peaceful baby. Being a mother is so much harder than I ever thought, but I love having my beautiful girl. She is such a joy and we love her so much!

baby

Well, the crib is up, the stroller is assembled, all the clothes are washed and folded and I think I may be almost ready for this little cowgirl to get here. Tomorrow I am 38 weeks and will be facing a meager 2 weeks until B-day. When I started this pregnancy it seemed like it would last forever, and now it feels like its gone by way too fast. In fact, I secretly wish that she would just stay nice and tucked in her little home where she doesn't cry, get sick and spit-up. I am enjoying our little girls only club, where I am the only one who knows when she has the hiccups or when she is going crazy because I fed her licorice (it feels like she is playing soccer after a good dose of red vines). And sadly enough in addition to worrying about her general health, I already worry that she is growing up too fast.

For you, wendy:)

New Embarrassing Moment

Last night I went to Target to look for a couple of nursing bras. Unfortunately while trying the bras on, the door lock to my room proved faulty. This wouldn't have been a giant problem except my back was to the door and I didn't notice it had swung wide open. I had also chosen the first stall in the dressing rooms so it was situated right by the entrance and visible to all the shoppers in the store. As I turned around, fully exposed, I was able to see that I had been putting on quite the show for all of Target...

annoyed

I have a new pregnancy pet peeve. It has nothing to do with heart burn or swollen ankles, I am starting to get a little annoyed by people publicly congratulating themselves on deciding to forego pain medication and give birth naturally. They brag about all the benefits and how their babies will be more alert, latch on better, stronger, basically possess super human traits, and in every way start out life already totally kicking other babies' cute little bums. For some, their pride at taking on natural childbirth makes them feel like they are somehow better than those of us weaklings who are realistic about their pain thresholds and want to rely on modern medicine to help the birthing process. I have no problem with people who actually have given birth naturally or plan to, kudos to them in fact, however I don't think this empowers people to be so condescending about others' birth choices. Millions of babies have been born with epidurals and somehow manage to embrace life just fine. So for me, bring on the meds, I prefer to give birth without begging people to kill me and put me out of my misery. Maybe someday I will feel differently, however for now I strongly stand beside my decision to be a wimp.

dissertation

Things I would rather be doing than writing my dissertation:

1) Watching basketball because WHO DOESN'T LOVE MARCH MADNESS!!!!!?????? I LOVE it! I don't watch basketball throughout the year, but somehow when march comes around, I am obsessed! The games are most always nail-biters, I have personal stock in every game because I want to have bracket success, and 2 words: cinderella story! Also college basketball really highlights the pep band. You gotta love the ubiquitous trumpet player in the pep band who is blowing his guts out during "The Final Countdown" and "Eye of the Tiger". You can practically see his lips coming out of the bell, and his tomato red face about to explode on the forced high notes. The only sporting event better than NCAA's is of course the blessed olympics.

2)Watching the olympics. The olympics is the closest we will ever get to world peace in my opinion.

3)Playing outside in the sun, we have planted our garden and I want to go out and tend it with my spade.

4)Anything, because I hate my degree!

Here goes nothing...

So they say a picture is worth a thousand words and since for some reason its embarrassing for me to say it out loud, here you go...




I don't know if you can see, but this is baby's profile, you can see its little nose and upper lip:)

Here are some facts about baby:

*He/She is due 7/11/10 which I like because for some reason I love July and slurpees from 711

*I have been very morning sick and dying to complain via blog, but have restrained. I think it is mean and ironic that you aren't supposed to tell anyone you are pregnant in the 1st trimester and yet that is when you would really like some sympathy. I finally told my students at BYUI because I wanted them to know why I looked pale with a greenish hue and was porking down bagels and cream cheese during their lessons.

*It has a brain. My uncle told me about a baby that was born without a brain and of course I have been fixated on that possibility until I saw its little brain on the ultrasound

*I have had, and continue to have, severe anxiety about baby's health. Right now I am worried that baby's legs are fused together because at the ultrasound it wouldn't uncross its legs to show us the gender. In fact I secretly think I am jinxing baby's health by announcing its existence to the blog world. I am out of control.

*I felt baby's first kick the other day. I was introducing it to John Mayer on the radio and after listening for a bit baby bumped me to let me know he/she would like me to buy some concert tickets for us.

Question for the void

Since I am now a woman of leisure, I have become increasingly more curious about the tasks of other housewives/homemakers, specifically food shopping. I've always been too busy working to really try and stick within a food budget, use coupons, or drive to cheaper supermarkets, but now I find myself fascinated with the prospect of trying to spend as little as possible on food. Its kind of like my own personal game show where I'm given $25 dollars and I need to purchase a weeks worth of food without going over. Sometimes I am victorious, but most of the time I go a little over.
I went to the grocer's today and spent way more than I intended because in my zealousness to save money I've basically had to sacrifice fruits and vegetables. I realized we were in trouble when after church yesterday Adam and I found ourselves wolfing down a vegetable tray that was left over from an RS activity. We finally pulled ourselves away, however when I got caught up talking to someone, Adam wandered off and I found him again at the vegetable tray scarfing all the carrots. It was then that I knew my food games had gone too far. So today I spent a small fortune on groceries and I feel like a total homemaking failure. Is food really more expensive than I think, or am I just a really bad shopper? My question for all of you is, how much should I expect to spend on food each month realistically? I need a pace car, a reality check, a guiding voice of reason, a candle on the water...

Postmark: Garage

Dear Pile of Boxes in the Garage-
If you have time left over after your busy schedule of gathering dust, attracting mice and ants, and making it impossible for me to reach the freezer could you please unearth the following things and place them nicely on the garage steps:
1) Mrs. Butterworth's syrup, as I painstakingly made buttermilk pancakes from scratch this morning only to find that the syrup is still packed somewhere in you.
2) Krusteaz pancake mix, so I never have to make pancakes from scratch again.
3) The 3 Netflix movies that I received before our move and never watched.
4) My contact lenses, as I have broken my glasses and they are now held together attractively by super glue.
5) My will to get out of bed in the morning now that I don't have a job.
6) A magical diploma that says that somehow I finished my stupid doctorate during my sleep and that I will never have to think about it again.
That is all.
Respectively yours,
Lazy Girl with Glued Glasses

News!

So I am going to gingerly avoid the topic of my long bout of silence and get right to the good stuff- we are moving! Adam got a new job in Oregon that enables me to live a life of leisure, so we are bidding a lukewarm farewell to Idaho! As of now I am still planning on teaching at the university next semester by traveling back and forth. Its not ideal, but will have to do for now. I will miss my students, however I really don't think I will miss Rexburg at all. I know it can be a place of nostalgia for those who went to school here, but honestly its not that cool for a regular non-student person. Thats it for now! Go Ducks!

Gilmore Girls: Thoughts

Warning: This post is for those of you who love Gilmore Girls like me, all you other people need to start watching STAT!

As most of you know, we (sniff) recently canceled our cable. My hands have grown weak from sadness after typing that last sentence. Unfortunately this new life change happened to coincide with my break from school, the only time all year that I could really dedicate to watching a ton of TV.
Yes I could have been productive, however I chose the road less traveled and watched all 7 seasons of the Gilmore Girls again. After this total immersion, I have a few thoughts regarding ol' Stars Hollow and would love some input from you other GG fans (GG stands for Gilmore Girls, not GG as in Georgia from season 4-7).

Here is the list:

1) I am in constant turmoil about who I like best for Lorelei: Luke, Chris, Jason, or Max. I used to like Chris the best, but after watching everything over again I pick Max. My last pick is Luke for many reasons, he has a serious nose-breathing problem, he is always grouchy, and his hair needs some serious work (it is fluffy and in disarray every time the hat comes off).

2) Is anyone else bothered by Luke's loud nostril/back of the throat breathing? Did I mention he is a loud breather? Deviated septum perhaps???? HELP!

3) I don't like the way Rory's character develops throughout the seasons. For the last two seasons I am totally shocked by the company she keeps. She hangs out with Logan's rich, entitled and annoying friends, people she would have found revolting in previous years.

4) In contrast I LOVE Paris, she gets funnier and funnier as the years roll on.

5) I don't like Logan, I know weird, but I can't help it.

6) When I watch Gilmore Girls I somehow believe that I have the same metabolism as Rory and Lorelei and I too can eat garbage and still remain stick skinny (hah like I am stick skinny in the first place!)

All right discuss...

Casa de Paige

My other favorite part of my exodus to Arizona this summer was spending a week at the home of my sweet best friend Paige! I still remember the first day that wee Paige came into my life *sigh*. I was visiting my old roommates at the Dew Drop Inn in Provo and in walked next door neighbor Paige, so cute and hilarious I couldn't help but love her! Its been seven years since that day, and in that time Paige has vomited over me, introduced me to my husband, provided thousands of hours of laughter, created hundreds of inside jokes, listened to me through my tears, shopped till we dropped, proved to be an absolute kindred spirit, and so much more. And Sean's not so bad either:)
It was so fun being roomies again! The only downside was my separation anxiety when I had to leave. Oh how I miss my friend!

Paige and Sean on the Ferris Wheel at the Fair


The beautiful couple on their wedding day!


Three roomies and my weirdo hand-it looks like I'm clawing Paige's hair

Thanks Paige and Sean for a fabulous time!

Questions, Thoughts and Rants

Periodically as I am driving around or going about my somewhat mundane life I have random blog thoughts. These thoughts consist of small ideas I have, questions I would like to pose to the world, or some small annoyance that I just need to let out into blogland but don't warrant an entire blog dedication. I usually forget about them, however today I think I will let you into the clutter that is my brain.

1. Is it possible to retrain yourself to be organized? I have always secretly wanted to be healthily neurotic about organization in my life, but alas I not only have multiple junk drawers, but also a junk room, and a junk storage unit. Granted Adam helps in this endeavor by having thousands of small nondescript hunting items, but still I could at least put them in a box marked Hunting Things That I Step On and Spout Curse Words. I am trying to overcome my lack of organization by trying to rewire my brain. My first step was organizing my closet into colors. I have never found this necessary, nor have I ever been irritated by colors all together, but now I am trying to make it annoying. Update coming forthwith....

2. This leads me to another issue I have. In my opinion there are two types of people in this world: Those who get a lot done in the day, and those that don't. I fall strongly into the latter classification. When I organized my closet into color schemes, it took the entire day, I'm not exaggerating, I woke up inspired, and went to bed when I was done. Some of you may be shocked, this will be the indication that you fall into the first classification. I am endlessly jealous of people who can get out of bed early and get things done, is there some secret? Please let me know!

3. I become instantly angry when people can't hear me and I have to repeat myself. It makes me insane, which is dumb because I tend to mumble.

4. I am so tired of living in apartments in a town filled with people who married at an extremely young age. Case in point, my visiting teacher got married during her senior year of high school, not because she had to, lest you think there were extreme circumstances, but because she wanted to. She has miraculously turned out to be normal and I love her immensely. However the problem I have is I am surrounded by people who basically don't know how to interact with each other in a mature way. I liken it to the freshman year of college mindset when you don't know how to live with anyone besides your family. This mindset leads to many immature fights about dishes, hair in the bathroom, and loud noises etc. By the time you've lived with say 50 or at least 5 roommates or so you start to learn how to be tolerant, flexible, and communicative. Here we are surrounded by people who have not had 50 roommates, more like 2 so they are still learning.

Case in point: Our parking spots are micro-machine size and Adam's truck doesn't fit in one spot so he usually will park on the street, but sometimes he parks in two spots if no one is around. The other day he went out to his car and an anonymous girl in our complex had left a scathing note on it telling him to park in one spot. One particularly poignant line went something like this, "How hard is it to park in one spot you idiot?" Although I fully understand that parking in two spots can be extremely annoying, a proper reaction might not have included childlike insults. Perhaps said person could come to our door and request he always park on the street because they don't ever have a spot, or they could find out why Adam parks in two spots etc. Any option would have been better than having a mini temper tantrum and writing a childish note without signing it. Incidentally Adam and I had a good laugh and chose not to observe her request, we decided that when she asked like a normal adult we would gladly always park on the street. This is just one of many instances of dealing with immature neighbors, all of which are like flashbacks to the dorms.

5. I have a few blogs that I follow where I don't know the author, I think it is referred to as blog stalking. Some of these people are so funny that I wish I knew them in real life. I guess its no different than reading a book and wishing you were friends with the author or even the main character i.e. Georgia Nicholson

6. I miss cable, I have no idea what is going on with SYTYCD and Project Runway is coming up. I thought I would watch less TV without cable, which I have somewhat, however now all I do is watch all my seasons of Gilmore Girls over and over. At least now I do housework while they are on since I have seen them so many times. We are saving quite a bit of money at least...

7. It is already getting cold here, bleh.

8. One thing I like about Idaho is EVERYONE has a garden, and they share. We have received SO much free produce that I am in vegetable heaven!

Ok this is getting too long, and I have so much more to share, but will hold back for the time being:)

GCTT 2009!

One of my favorite things about my visit to Arizona was my week long stay with my dear old roommate and best buddy Jill.
Jill and I first became roommates when we both moved to Arizona 6 years ago. We didn't meet until the day we moved into our shared bedroom in the Smoke House on Alma School Road (named thus because of the smoke that came in through the vents from our smoking neighbors). We quickly bonded over our shared depression upon leaving Provo and soon became hilarious pals. Jill and I were room roommates for 4 years and not a day passed that didn't involve some sort of hilarious antic. There is something about Jill that inspires true spazziness in me and our week long reunion was full of spaz in epic proportions...

One of my favorite moments occurred the last night that I was there. Jill's roommate Amanda has within her possession the largest candy collection of all time. She has an entire shelf dedicated to treats, yes we too became fast friends or candy soul mates if you will. She has bins full of candy, fruit snacks, soda, salty treats and much more, it was a candy addict's (i.e. me) dream come true. On the final eve of Jill/Angela Fabfest we were sitting around eating haribo gummi bears and I innocently asked Jill which of the gummi bear flavors was her favorite. Fifteen minutes later, with the help of Amanda and her boyfriend Dave, we had assembled the Great Candy Taste Test 2009. The concept was simple: carefully taste each flavor of candy and then list the order of preference. We tested at least five different candy flavors and the results were astonishing! Flavors that I loved, the others hated and vice versa. I would never have thought that taste buds could vary so much. It really made me rethink the abolishment of yellow starbursts, and the wisdom of eating so much candy. Despite cleansing our palate's with milk between each flavor, we all became very ill and I had to abstain from candy for the next few days...
ok...hours...

Here is the documentation for posterity:)

My score sheet


Dave, Amanda, and Jill displaying the GCTT '09 set up


Thanks Jill and Amanda for a truly fun week!

Essay: On My Summer Vacation I...

Welcome back to me! I haven't blogged lately because I have been dabbling in the land of Java, otherwise known as taking a 3 week summer course in Southeast Asian Music. I had to finish my last music history class for my doctorate so I took a month off of teaching and ran off to Phoenix. Although I missed Adam dreadfully, I had so much fun in Arizona!
My class was hilarious! The only 3 week course that was offered was Southeast Asian Music. At first I was kind of disappointed because I didn't think I would learn anything of worth, but it turned out to be totally awesome. My class was mostly about the music of Central Java, an island in Indonesia, and specifically the gamelan. Ah the gamelan...
If you are anything like me you have no idea what a gamelan is, well it is ensemble that is made up of gongs, sarons, kepuls, ketuks, bonangs, pekings, genders, and many more crazy named instruments. Basically its kettle drums, various-sized gongs, and xylophones that you hit with beaters.
My typical class day consisted of one hour of lecture and another hour of me banging around on funny instruments and laughing my head off. It was a blast!
I've included some pictures to give you an idea of the fun!

This is after class was over one day, my teacher is in the middle. He has just finished yelling at me because I was playing the gong standing up. Apparently you are not allowed to play the gong standing in Java, even if your knees are bleeding from kneeling on the carpet...


Here is the illustrious gong, and my new haircut!