30 Posts: Day 3

Day 3: A picture of the cast of your favorite TV show.

I LOVE this show! It makes me laugh out loud every time. It's just so fun to watch. It's a sad Thursday for me if something interferes and I don't get to watch it.

30 Posts: Day 2

Day 2: A picture of the person you have been close to the longest.


Well, I've very literally been closest to her the longest, because it's my mom! I've known her for a good, long time. ;)


I love spending time with my mom. When she came out to help us while I was on bed rest and after Rylen was born, it was so fun to get to spend that much time with her! Definitely a compensation for the misery of bed rest.


We don't talk very often. Both of us hate to talk on the phone, so neither of us ever picks up the phone to call. Luckily we have facebook and blogs to let us keep in touch. :)


Love you, Mom!

30 Posts in 30 Days: Day 1

A friend challenged me to do this list of posts - it's 30 posts that you're supposed to write over the next 30 days, each with a specific subject. I enjoyed reading hers, so I'll give it a shot!




Day 1: A picture of yourself with 15 facts about you

1. I don't even know why I bother to pretend that I'll actually do 30 posts in 30 days. I don't have a chance to blog every day! I'll get the 30 posts done eventually, but I'm sure it will take more than 30 days. :)
2. The basics: I'm 36 and have a husband and 4 kids.
3. My 10th anniversary is coming up on Saturday.
4. I met Aaron in college, but we never dated until we both moved to Colorado a few years later.
5. I went to college in Logan, UT and would still live there if I'd been able to find a job there after college.
6. I have a Masters degree in Instructional Design & Technology.
7. No one ever knows what that is or what I do for a living. :)
8. I'm afraid of the dark, spiders, and vampires.
9. I love reality TV shows, but not the trashy ones. (Top Chef, yes! Jersey Shore, no.)
10. I love to blog stalk - there are several blogs I read regularly of people I've never even met in real life.
11. Some of my best friends are people I've never met in person or met only once in person. I have a group of friends I made online when we were all pregnant in 2003 - 8 years later and we're still in touch and I consider them some of my besties.
12. I adore my parents. I never went through that phase as a teenager where you don't like/are embarrassed by your parents.
13. I wish I had time to cook more. I love to cook and come up with or try new dishes, but rarely have the time/energy to do as much as I would like.
14. I love pizza and could seriously eat it 4 or 5 times a week if I had my way.
15. I talk in my sleep. Not just mumbled words here and there, but entire conversations. I have had conversations with Aaron that go on for a long time and I never even knew it. Most notably a long conversation during a college road trip that was apparently a great conversation, but which I slept through and remember nothing. At one point on our last road trip he asked, "Are you asleep or are you actually talking to me?" I told him I was awake (and I was!) but wouldn't I have answered the same thing if I was actually talking in my sleep? I don't know... I never remember those conversations.

Date Night!

We've been trying to plan a night out with our friends Rich and Cara for a couple of months now. Both of us have large families and a lot going on, so it takes quite a while to find a night that works for both of us! When we finally did have a night pinned down a few weeks back, Rylen got sick and we had to reschedule. But we managed to reschedule and actually made it through the day without any crises arising. :)

My kids were thrilled as always that Sarah was coming to babysit. It's nice that my kids adore our usual babysitter so much - we never have to worry about clingy, sad goodbyes as we try to get out the door. In fact, it's more like they are pushing us out the door so that they can have more time with their beloved Sarah!

Aaron and I were running a little late as we headed out the door, but figured we could make up the time on the drive... until we got stuck behind a S-L-O-W tractor on a 2-lane road. And then there was the train that we had to wait for. So we were about 20 minutes late to meet our friends, but they generously forgave us.

We went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant and then headed to a movie. Cara & Rich had generously brought movie snacks, which Cara smuggled in under her coat. It made a lovely "baby" bump. LOL

We saw The Adjustment Bureau, which I didn't know much about, but sounded interesting. As it turned out, it was fantastic! Exciting, interesting plot twists, a great romance... it was a lot of fun. I always think a mark of a good movie is when you keep talking about it afterwards, and Aaron and I discussed it all the way home. If you get a chance to see it, you should definitely do it!

It was so nice to have a night out and have a chance to spend time with friends. It seems like we so rarely get a chance to just hang out and be with grown-up friends... I forget between times how much I really enjoy it! It will probably be another 6 months before we manage to coordinate another night out, but it's worth it. :)

Tara D Shields: Ward Employment Specialist

The title was inspired by a book Haley was reading yesterday - Junie B. Jones: First Grader. And like Junie B., I'm feeling both excited and apprehensive about this new opportunity.

I've certainly done my share of job searching! Since I finished grad school 13 years ago, I've had 8 jobs. I've been laid off 4 times, but never been out of work for too long. I've actually helped friends with resumes and job searching and the like several times and always enjoyed that. I take credit for Aaron's current job, since I'm the one who found the ad and encouraged him to apply. So since I've done this sort of thing before and enjoyed it, I'm looking forward to getting more and better tools to help people look for employment.

But there's also a bit of nervousness... what if someone REALLY needs a job and I can't help them find one? Here I am being billed as a "specialist" - it's right there in the name of the calling. It sort of implies that I'll know what I'm doing and be able to help. I've referred people to the ward employment specialist before, confidently telling them that the WES would be able to help. After all, that's the job!

And since I haven't had any training and orientation to the calling yet, I'm a bit nervous about the time committments. My time is already pretty full! All I know about that is that it involves Tuesday nights... which are already a busy day of the week. I drive to work on Tuesdays so that I can go pick up Haley from daycare early and then hurry over to Sounds of Joy choir practice (for the kids) and hang out there for an hour with the 3 boys while Haley is in her practice. (Preston has his practice before I arrive - Michelle takes the boys to that rehersal.) So then to add WES duties could make things a little crazy.

I guess we'll see how it all works once I know more. While I can't feel really happy that Aaron's work hours have been cut again, I can feel glad that they were cut on Tuesday afternoons, so he'll be there to help with these things!

On a total side note... after I was set apart yesterday, the Bishop commented, "You have nice hair." I laughed a little and said thanks, but I think we (Brother Hagen, Aaron, and I) must have been looking at him a little oddly because he explained more. "Well, you know, I lay my hands on a lot of heads. So I notice when someone has nice-feeling hair." LOL

Brave Man

Aaron did something today that I have not yet dared to do. He ventured out on a Target trip (and a big, restocking kind of trip, not a quick grab and go kind of trip) with all three of the boys. It was going okay, apparently, until Rylen suddenly decided to have a meltdown in the middle of the aisle. The only way to soothe him was to hold him. So there's Aaron, holding the baby in one arm, pushing the loaded cart with the other hand, and still keeping track of the other two boys - who were playing some sort of silly, let's-slap-each-other game all through the store.

He managed to finish the shopping and headed for checkout. Where he was confronted with the question of how to hang on to the baby, keep track of the older boys, and somehow unload the cart.

Proving that there are still nice people in the world, someone came to the rescue. A man had seen Aaron back in the aisle when Rylen decided that it was time to be held. And now he was coincidentally in a check-out line when Aaron was checking out. He left his wife to unload their cart and came over to Aaron's line, where he was kind enough to unload the cart onto the conveyor belt for Aaron. He even hung around as the groceries were rung up and reloaded things into the cart.

How awesome is that? I'm so grateful that there are good people out there willing to jump in and help. I need to remember to look for moments to help others like that. I'm afraid if I had been in this man's situation, I would have just watched. I would have felt bad for the poor man, but it probably wouldn't have occurred to me to jump in and do something about it. But look how much his kindness has made my day better - and I wasn't even there! I hope I can remember this incident and use it as encouragement to jump in and help when I can.

As a side note... as Aaron and I were finishing up our conversation, he commented that from now on he would go to King Soopers, because they unload the cart for you. Huge *facepalm* moment! Why on Earth didn't we just place a delivery order with King Soopers in the first place so NO ONE had to drag all the boys to the store? D'oh!

Trichotillomania: or Why I Have Eyebrows Like a Rapper

Trichotillomania - noun, a compulsion to pull out one's hair

Okay, so it's not like I have an official diagnosis or anything, but I definitately pull out my hair. A lot. And I can't seem to stop myself.

One of the reasons that I keep my hair pulled back in a ponytail or bun most of the time is that if it's down and reachable, I start combing my fingers through it and pulling out any hairs that are loose. Or have a split end. Or just feel different than the other hairs. {Oh, that one has a weird texture. It's got to go.} I do it without even thinking about it. I just find myself doing it.

In the last few months, this strange quirk has me obsessing over my eyebrows, too. Not to have a perfectly plucked and groomed arch like a cover model - no, that would be too normal. Instead, I find myself stroking my eyebrows, feeling for that one hair that's a little too long. Or curls funny. Or sticks out. And I have to pull it.

But then I find another one that's bothering me, too. And I have to pull it.

I didn't think much about it until I looked a little closer in the mirror one day and realized I had a lovely bald patch in one eyebrow. And the other had a couple of spots that were a bit - shall we say - thinned out. Seriously, it looked like I'd been shaving lines through my eyebrows like Vanilla Ice {does that reference date me or what?} or or Soulja Boy. I've never before been grateful for my light blonde, barely visible eyebrows. But once I saw the bald patches, I was pretty happy that my eyebrows are not all that noticeable! LOL

So since then, I've been trying to stop myself from plucking obsessively at my eyebrows. And the bald patches are mostly filling in again. But if you see me, don't stare at the eyebrows. :D

So surely I'm not the only one with a strange habit... what's yours?