Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Boring.

An obsession of mine is going to the convenience store alone to get a drink.

It's pretty simple really. Heading out on my own in my car, playing whatever music I'm loving at the moment, parking the car and getting out without opening additional car doors, grabbing a cup and filling it to the brim with cold ice and Dr. Pepper (and a shot of vanilla, whenever available) soothes my soul. It makes me feel like me.

I might not even drink any before I get home. A sip here or there, but only a little. It usually takes a few hours to get through the rest of the drink. I sip on it while I rest between moppings of the kitchen floor and while I move between tub and sink in cleaning the bathrooms. I leave it in random places; the sweaty moisture leaking down the cup to make rings on the counters and furniture.

It's pretty sad that I am choosing to blog about my Dr. Pepper consumption. But I like it. I miss it. I'm not currently drinking it, but I continue to like it and miss it. At certain times of the day, my mind automatically turns to the obtaining of a drink and the hours spent drinking. For me, part of what I like about it is in the getting. It's just what we did in our family.

I remember my sisters running down to the Maverick or the Circle C to get a Pepsi. Sunday dinner was often prefaced with Amy and I driving to the Harts up the road to fill up a few mugs. I remember she would always take the long way home through the fields; it used to drive me bonkers, because I like to get from point A to point B in the shortest amount of time possible. My mom would take Amy and I and our carpool friends to the convenience store to get sodas after gymnastics (yes, at 8:30 in the evening. I wonder why we never slept!).

Getting older, I'd drive take a drive with friends "to get a coke." It's a social thing, in a way. It's a private thing, in a way. It's a Utah-mormon, word-of-wisdom equivalent of taking a smoke break. And even one you can admit to your bishop.

Sigh. My hiatus from Dr. Pepper lives on. I fought the urge to run to the 7-11 yesterday; I resisted picking up a bottle from the pop machine today.

But it isn't fun. I don't feel any different or better or happier or less caffienated. I know it sounds pathetic.

But life is boring without Dr. Pepper.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Randomalities again

I think that it's interesting that when I get too far behind on my blog, I feel like I have to catch everyone up on what we have been doing. Last week was a total loss as far as blogging went. But a lot has happened in the past few weeks despite my lack of blogging. So here we go!

  • Catching up with friends. I was able to hook up in real life with my friend Lucy a few weeks ago. It was awesome to see her and her sweet boys. One of my favorite things about Lucy is we share the all-boy-family thing. This is a picture of me with Lucy and my good friend Melanie. I love having pictures with my friends.

  • I also hooked up with my friend Janna through the internet. It's amazing to me that I can find people on the internet that I can't find in real life. I was so glad to hear from her and I hope I don't lose track of her again. I was remembering Janna just the other day when I was picking up lunch for a work party at a local sandwich shop. The shop used to be a coffee shop, and I think it was there that I first met Janna. Janna ended up being my roommate for a while when I lived with Cindy. She is integral in my memories of my life in Salt Lake before I went to Virginia. Here is a horrible, pre-digital picture of me and my group of friends from that time period, circa 1997.

(Top row: Janna, me, Rebecca. Bottom row: Cindy, Rebecca's son Darian, and Angie. We had just had a Christmas gift exchange and were all holding up our presents.)

  • Over conference weekend, we had a dinner at my mom's house. It was the first gathering we have had there since Easter, and since my dad stopped living at home. It was a great time. After eating, we went through the closet in my old bedroom. I found a lot of my old dolls that I played with from the time I was in kindergarten on. There were also tons of old books that my sisters and I all read and wrote our names in. We divied them up and brought them home. My mom has plans to move eventually, so every trip home now, I feel like I have to document everything. Here is a picture I took of my mom's house. I think that the 5 on her house has been sideways since before I graduated from high school.
  • We will be spending Thanksgiving with Shane's family again. We've never done a big family one with his grandparents and uncles and cousins before, so it will be fun. His grandparents are both in their 80's, and their health is declining, so it was a good year to spend time with them while they are still here. I love when my kids make memories with their great-grandparents; it's something I never had.
  • Yesterday I went to stake conference (a general meeting of several local LDS congregations). It was the 2nd time in my life that I can remember going. It was a wonderful meeting; Elder Collister of the 70's spoke, as well as mission president and the temple president. I guess I picked a good one to attend. I ended up going by myself, so in some ways I really enjoyed myself (I could actually take notes! Who knew?), but I missed my sweet family a lot.
  • Thomas started throwing up last night at 11pm. Then Ben threw up in my bed at 2am. Fun night was had by all. But, as recompence, I'm still in my jammies at noon, and my kids are starting to feel better. They must be - they are fighting upstairs. That's a sure sign of improving health, right?
  • I am on week two of a hiatus from Dr. Pepper. Well, okay, so I had one on Thursday and one on Saturday night, but I've seriously cut down consumption in the past week. It had been almost 2 years since I'd gone a day at work without soda. That's pretty bad, huh?

Anyway, like I said, they are fighting. Gotta go!!

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Hey, Utah runners & walkers


I've posted about Stephanie Nielson before; she's the one who was hurt in the plane crash in August. Here is another way to help if you are so inclined.


Next Saturday in Provo they will be hosting a 5k to help raise funds for Stephanie. It's only $10 for a person to run or $20 for a family. Here is a website you can go to to find out the details http://www.5kfornie.blogspot.com/.


You probably won't get a t-shirt, but think, your walking and running will eventually help Stephanie to run and walk again. What is cooler than that?

Monday, October 6, 2008

October thoughts

I used to hate fall.

The idea of everything dying, the loss of summer and long evenings and carefree days made me sad. I even used to have what I eloquently termed the "fake fall feeling." I'd get it in mid-August on those days when a sudden gust of wind brought the smell of campfire, or on a colder than normal day when I had to don a jacket. The fake fall feeling made me a little anxious, a little sad that things were changing.

And then I got to be pregnant with Ben in the fall.

That was the year that Thomas went to preschool for the first time. After three years of caring for him, I found myself with 2 free hours to kill a week. I looked forward to those hours; some weeks packing in as many tasks and projects as possible, others simply taking a nap in a completely silent house.

The excitement of the seasons changing and being pregnant and having free time and taking a sweet 3 year old (I love 3 so much!) to preschool changed my opinion of fall forever. Suddenly I loved the trees covered in leaves of brightest orange and red. I liked the nip in the air as I drove to my doctor appointments, each one bringing me close to the day I'd hold my new baby.


This fall is a little bittersweet. Ben is going to the same preschool now as Thomas did then. The leaves are all changing, and again I find myself able to pack 20 things into 2 hours that are sacredly my own. But I can't help looking back to that beautiful fall 4 years ago when I was creating life even as the world around me was dying. I feel a little lonely this time around, because I really wasn't alone then; Ben was with me, but completely contained and maintanence-free.

I'm trying to wrap my head around the idea that my years with little ones are numbered. In 3 years, Ben will be in school full time, and my two hours of free time will be multiplied many times over. But he'll also be big and 6 and not 3 anymore. Thomas will be 10 and even bigger and not 7 anymore. That should make me happy, but it doesn't. I like my little people.

I wish they could stay little a little longer.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Update:

DOROTHY IS MINE!

Now my life is complete. Or something like that.

Tagged!

My friend & neighbor Jeanette tagged me with this fun meme. Here are six unspectacular things about moi:
  1. I am picky about Macaroni and Cheese. I mean PICKY. If the noodles are cooked more than a few seconds above 4 minutes, I pretty much refuse to eat it. There is nothing worse than overcooked Kraft dinner, eh?
  2. I haven't taken a math class since I was a junior in high school. Thanks to concurrent enrollment, I got credit for college algebra and trig. In all 7 years of college, I never had anything to do with numbers. It's a good thing. I hate math.
  3. I have to put my glasses or contacts in first thing in the morning; blurry vision makes me feel ugly. Not that I look any cuter, but at least I can see. Weird.
  4. I would always (or more often) be eloquent if I could write everything that needs to be said. I can my thoughts and feeling far better by writing them than I can saying them.
  5. I like to do geneology. I don't do it often, but it fascinates me to know where I came from, and now to know where my kids came from.
  6. I love art and art museums. My favorite is the National Gallery of Art in DC. My friend Angie (who was my roommate when I was at VA Tech) and I plastered our dorm room walls with prints and posters from the NGA. Now that I have some of them framed and hanging in my house, they are like little winks from the past. When my boys are old enough, we WILL take a family trip to DC. It is a place that everyone should visit, I think, and I want them to be there with me.

One of the prints that hung in our room. Ah, the memories!


Thanks, Jeanette; that was fun! I'll tag whoever wants to do it. Just leave a comment so I can check you out!