Happy Birthday to me!

On Sunday we went to church--I'm sure half the congregation was made up of tourists. We saw another family from Orem there. Sarah went to Guatemala with one of the girls in that family. We spent a good 10 minutes introducing visitors in Relief Society. Probably half the women there were visitors.

But the ward was a decent size. The primary got up to sing for Father's Day since they had had Stake Conference last week. I'm sure they more than doubled our primary back home. And they even had enough deacons (with a few teachers and priests helping out, I'm sure) to pass the sacrament.

Sometimes it's strange to be living in Utah and having our stake be so...interesting. We, of course, have a huge ward. It's just a newly wed/nearly dead ward so we have few primary-aged children and even fewer youth. We also have two branches in our stake--one has a primary of 2. And then we get out in the mission field and attend all these perfect wards, demographically speaking.

Rachel was a very good baby during church. She never wanted to sit down of course, but she was still good. We went into the mother's lounge to nurse and my jaw dropped open. The mother's lounge at this building was amazing! It was nothing like the little hole-in-the-wall we have at our stake buildings back home. It was huge! They had two rocking chairs, several folding chairs and sunbeam-sized chairs, an exersaucer, three diaper pails, a changing pad, a few puzzles and board books galore. Oh, a mirror, a picture of baby Jesus, a table, a lamp, a sink, shelves...need I go on? I'm probably making all my friends back home jealous, so I'll stop.

After church we went home and had a wonderful lunch, and then went for a walk on the beach. Josie joined us. She was planning on spending the afternoon at my cousin Jenna's house but her sewerline burst this morning so they found themselves a little busier than they had planned to be.

Sarah made a cake for me, complete with 4 candles. Andrew made me pose like I was blowing out candles while he took a few pictures. For some odd reason, I held my breath the entire time. When his family finished singing to me and I went to blow out the candles for real, I had no breath left...and blew out only one candle. And then because I was laughing so hard, I had to blow out each candle one at a time. It was kind of embarrassing.


We left to go see the temple after the cake. I love the San Diego temple. It's so beautiful! The only problem is that it doesn't seem so fond of me. Everytime I've come down here, the temple has been closed for cleaning. This trip was no different. Luckily they still let us on the grounds on Sunday. Had we saved the temple trip for later in the week the grounds would have been closed as well.





After the temple we split up. Andrew's family went to the La Jolla beach while Andrew, Josie and I went to Auntie Arlene's house for dinner. She planned a beautiful salmon BBQ for us, but we don't really like fish, so she got some chicken, but Andrew doesn't really like chicken, so Jenna brought some steak. Andrew had steak, Josie, Savannah and I had chicken, and everyone else had salmon. Dinner was delicious.


Rachel and Vance had a great time getting acquainted. Rachel dominated over Vance--she's almost twice his size even though they're only two days apart in age--and was using him like a drum, poking him, pushing him. It was all in a loving-manner. She's just not very good at expressing her love gently yet. He was taking it like a man, though. He has two older sisters to toughen him up.



Toward the end of our visit, though, the tables turned and Vance started to stick up from himself. Rachel was quite taken aback by his fighting skills.


Josie really wanted to go swimming since we dropped her off at Auntie Arlene's before going to the beach on Saturday and she hadn't gotten the chance to go swimming yet. She and Lexi were quietly whispering away about the possibility of the grown-ups letting them take a dip on the Sabbath day. Neither of them wanted to ask Arlene. Lexi finally got the courage to ask her mom.

"It's alright with me," said Jenna, "But you'll have to ask Grammy."

Lexi still didn't want to ask, and Josie was too chicken, so instead they asked me to ask for them.

Auntie Arlene left it up to Josie, even though they don't normally go swimming on Sunday, since Josie was on vacation. After much debate, Andrew told her just to go swimming. So all the little girls got their bathing suits on and got into the pool. Rachel was very jealous.

She must take after me because we took off her dress and she ran straight for the pool! She would have just jumped right in!

Savannah, Josie, and Lexi in the pool

After swimming, Auntie Arlene brought out a lovely strawberry shortcake. She put all 23 candles on them and I blew them all out in one breath. How ironic that I could blow out all 23 candles on one cake and only 1 at a time on the other. It was a very happy birthday.

On the rocks

After Karen and Reid came home from shopping and we'd made dinner, we realized that we had no salt or pepper. The corn on the cob was a little bland.

Since we'll have several other meals here we decided that we needed to get some salt and pepper. And ice. The water tastes different than we're used to and we can't quite get the tap to get very cold.

We drew straws, so to speak, to see who would run down to the corner store to buy the forgotten groceries. Andrew and I won, so we got some pocket money from Karen and left Rachel in her care while we took a sunset walk down the street.

The area we are in reminds us a lot of Italy. The houses are Italian-esque, the streets have Italian names, and the corner store was run by a man who looks and sounds suspiciously Italian. There are also a few pizzerias around that we want to check out.

The store was small and crowded with aisles. The food was labeled in multiple languages, including Arabic, Italian, English, and Spanish. We really felt like we should have been speaking a foreign language in some strange country.

After wandering around and noticing that half the store was stocked with alcohol--quite the shock for us Utahans!--we stuck to the other half of the store. We eventually found those cute little cardboard salt and pepper shakers, and then grabbed some ice and got in line.

Everyone else seemed to be buying alcohol.

We put our salt, pepper, and ice on the counter.

The lady in line behind us, who we were sure was pretty well hammered already and was buying more alcohol, said, "Salt, pepper, and ice? Does that even work?"

"Uh, yeah..." said Andrew, "We're hungry."

"You guys are pretty hard core," she said.

"Yeah, we're branching out," I said.

She laughed at us, as did half the store. That's okay. We enjoyed our virgin salt and pepper on the rocks.

First day on the beach

Soon after arriving at the condo and dropping off all our stuff, Reid and Karen went to do some grocery shopping and the rest of us got ready to head to the beach. Rachel loved it!

I'll be honest and say that I loved it, too! The sand was so smooth, nothing compared to the sand at the playground back home! And the water was much, much warmer than we expected. It was warmer than the swimming pool. Rachel kept trying to run deeper and deeper into the water and was having a great time until a wave came an knocked her off her feet. She landed flat on her back and started quiet. The minute we had her up on her feet again she headed off for the towels and put her sad face on.

Emily and I went back to the condo to dry her off and every followed us just a few minutes later. I still hadn't gotten in the ocean yet, so we left Rachel in the care of her aunts and uncle and Andrew and I headed back to the beach with some boogie boards.

The kids hadn't been able to really ride any waves. I wasn't sure that I would be able to, either, but I caught the first wave really well and rode it all the way to the beach. Andrew was impressed. I was, too. I'm not usually one to show prowess in any sport, so I thought it was a fluke at first until I caught wave after wave after wave. I'm looking forward to going again. Good thing we're here for a week!

Anyway, I'm being pestered to play Fluxx, so I guess I should get off the computer and be social...but first, here are some pictures of Rachel's first beach experience.

We made it!

Josie got home from YW camp late, late, late last night. She didn't get to our house until around 1:30 AM or 2:00 AM. I stayed up to wait for her and Andrew went to bed so that he would be rested well enough to drive. When she got there she asked if she could use my computer. She didn't want to go to bed because she didn't see the point in going to bed for only a few hours.

"Whatever," I said, "I'm going to bed."

As much as I wanted to sleep I didn't sleep very well. I never sleep well when I know I have to get up earlier than usual. When I woke up at 3:00 AM I noticed that the house was very dark. I went to go check on Josie and she was fast asleep on our couch. So much for staying awake all night!

I went back to bed, only to wake up about a half hour later. We ate breakfast and loaded the cars and were out of Orem by 4:45 AM.

Rachel, amazingly enough, stayed wide awake until we stopped, at around 6:00 AM. She was convinced that we were going to do something exciting. We weren't. So instead we stopped and I nursed her while everyone else got out and played frisbee in the gas station parking lot. Then we were on our way again.

It was a pretty smooth trip, really. Very encouraging for the plane ride that we have ahead of us. Rachel was a very good girl, crying very infrequently (mostly when we went to put her back in her car seat after a rest stop), taking long naps, and in general being a very cheerful girl. She drew on her little cheap-o magnadoodle, finger puppets, dinosaurs, and her many, many library books.

Our longest stop was to take a thrilling ride on Buffalo Bill's Desperado. This ride is one of those rides that I think I will only go on once in my life. Free falling 225 feet going 80 MPH was terrifying. I began to wonder why we didn't write a will before we left Rachel with Andrew's parents.

When we slowed down, I managed to ask Andrew, "Is it over?"

He patted my hand. "It's over."

My eyes were watering, my mouth was cotton dry, my head was spinning. So was everyone else's.

Andrew was nominated to drive just a few minutes after we got off the roller coaster and I was in the navigator's seat. We were both so disoriented from being whipped around so much that we got a little turned around, but we ended up making it alright in the end.

13 hours later and we're here in sunny California!

MIA

I suppose I should mention that we're off for a bit of a vacation...I don't know that we'll have internet access, so if I don't post for a while, don't worry. I'm probably still alive.

The Forgotten Sheets

I had to wash Rachel's favorite blankey yesterday. My mom took her for a walk in the stroller and the blankey ended up trailing on the ground a bit. I can't tell you how many times I've done that!

She went to bed with it that night because I wasn't home to take it away from her. She's rather difficult to get to go to bed without the blankey, and since Andrew was putting her to bed it was worth it to let her keep the blankey, however soiled it was.

I took it away from her first thing in the morning, though, right after her wake-up cuddles.

Having just finished my laundry run for the week a few days before, I was wondering what else to wash. I couldn't rationalize washing only her blanket, but was having trouble thinking of enough dirty items to constitute a full load.

I settled on the bed sheets. They hadn't been washed in over a week, so it was probably about time. I threw in our swimsuits and towels, started the load, and called it good.

Then the day caught up with me. We had the optometrist appointment, and then the library picnic, and then I had a primary meeting. Before we left, I gave Rachel her damp blanket so that it could dry in the car. She was happy to have it during the car rides between appointments.

I didn't get home from my primary meeting until around 9 PM, and then I started working right away. I worked until midnight. And then it was time for bed.

Andrew and I stumbled, sleepy-eyed, into the bathroom. I noticed our bed all torn apart on our way there.

"Oh, dear!" I said, "I forgot about the sheets!"

"Huh?" said Andrew groggily.

"They're still in the washing machine!"

It was too late to put them in the dryer, and we were too tired to hunt around for our other set of sheets.

"We could just sleep on the bed how it is," suggested Andrew.

As gross as that sounds, that's what we did. We slept on our mattress cover under our quilt cover. I hadn't washed the pillow cases, so those were at least still on.

It was acutally the best night's sleep I've had in a long time!

When we woke up in the morning, I immediately went to the washer to put the sheets in the dryer, but the washing machine was empty. I opened the dryer and found the sheets, the towels, and everything else completely dry.

"Did you get up and put the sheets in the dryer before I got up?" I asked Andrew.

"No," he answered, "You mean the sheets were dry the whole time?"

The sheets were dry the whole time, waiting patiently to be put back on the bed and we chose to sleep on a sheetless bed. Oh, the irony!

Raising Rachel

My mom watched Rachel for us on Wednesday night for about three hours. We sneaked out the front door while my mom fed Rachel humus in the kitchen. Rachel loves humus and eats it plain, by the spoonful. So while my mom was coaxing her out of sight, Andrew and I made a break for the door.

We didn't hear any screaming while we were walking out to the car, which is always a good sign. Rachel can scream so loud that you can hear her all the way by the mailbox, which is across the street.

Rachel had a fun time running my mom ragged.

I had to be dropped off on the way home to visit with Amanda for a while, but when Andrew got home, he found Rachel and my mom had become the best of friends. They were singing songs when he walked in the door, and evidence of play was everywhere.

She cried when my mom left. Both grandmas like that a lot--that Rachel cries when they leave.

We saw my mom yesterday at the library picnic and she commented that she was so tired after having watched Rachel for just a few hours. Karen always says that she can never get anything done when she watches Rachel.

Parachute games at the picnic

I always like it when I hear people tell me those things because it validates my exhaustion. I seem to be tired all the time, but that's probably just from chasing Rachel around all day. I never seem to get anything done, either, but that's probably just from chasing Rachel around all day as well.

It's nice to know that I am not the only one who is exhausted after watching Rachel and that I'm not the only who can't seem to get anything accomplished when she's with me.

She is just such a curious, active, and loud bundle of energy! Always going, all the time.

She's at the stage where she's started tugging on me to get me to follow her. She brings me books to read to her and will thrust them in my face if I don't pay attention soon enough. She brings me toys to play with and insists on making me share the "right" way.

But she's so much fun and is growing up so fast! I guess I need to find a way to enjoy every minute I have her, even though I'm so tired!

I really can't believe how fast time is going. I held my friend's baby at the picnic yesterday--she's about 4 or 5 months old (the baby, not my friend)--and I could hardly remember how to hold a baby that tiny! I'm so used to lugging Rachel around and trying not to drop her while she's desperately trying to wriggle free that I couldn't quite get my arms around the baby right. It was kind of awkward. Hopefully I'll remember how by the time we have another one!

Here's our little rag-a-muffin! She pulled out her ponytail, got her dress all dirty, and spilled watermelon juice all down her face and the front of her dress! Topping off her outfit is the medal that mom won at the picnic for recruiting the most librarians--15 of her students have gone on to be professional librarians! Isn't she adorably messy? I'm glad that this was the way she looked when we got to show her off to all my former and Andrew's present coworkers!

On aging

I'm about to turn 23 and Rachel turns 1 in exactly 1 month. We're both getting old.

We went swimming on Wednesday and a girl, who I think was just a few years younger than me, came up to me and said,

"How old is your baby, ma'am?"

Ma'am? Ma'am? What was she calling me ma'am for?

I immediately began to feel old. Ma'am is for old people.

Lucky for us, we also went to the temple that day where everyone was prone to calling me "sweetie" and other such names that instantly made me feel much younger.

It's kind of strange to be this old and not feel this old. There was a time in my life when I thought that 20 was old and I always thought I would feel old at that age. Not any more. I still feel young. There was also a time in my life when I thought 50 was old, but even that doesn't seem all that old anymore.

We went to the library today to pick out some board books for our trip. Rachel helped by pulling book after book after book off the shelf. We ended up taking home only 20.

There was another family in that area of the library with three kids, probably between the ages of 2 and 6 years old. They kept coming over to see the "baby" and to read to the "baby" and to give the "baby" books. I was pleased that, although they probably thought I was some old momma, they still were calling Rachel a baby.

A few children have called her "little girl" and I really don't like that since she's still my little baby!

I was also glad that those children didn't comment on my age because they weren't too tactful.

When we went to check out our books we were first in line, and then there was that family with three kids behind us, and then there was an elderly woman, who could perhaps be more accurately described as 'ancient' in the back.

"You're so old," said one of the boys, "Are you going to die soon?"

"Not too soon," said the woman.

The boy then went on to pester the woman with a constant stream of questions spewing out of his mouth unchecked, while his mother turned beet red and tried to shush him.

"You're so old! Can you even see? Why are you checking out books if you can't see? Shouldn't you be in a wheelchair? My grandpa has a wheelchair and he isn't even as old as you! Do you have a hearing aid? Is your husband dead? Are your children dead? When are you going to die? Are you going to get even older before you die?"

I was only able to imagine how embarrassed that poor mother must have been. How happy I was that Rachel still lacks the ability to speak, sparing me the duty of empathizing and allowing me to only wonder at her embarrassment.

Stalagmite

I think our fridge is set way too cold! Andrew pulled some meat out of the fridge the other day and found this:


He has a habit of filling up the Brita pitcher too full. Of course, this is probably to counterbalance my equally annoying habit of neglecting to fill the pitcher back up after emptying it.

I guess he figures that the fuller he can get the pitcher, the longer it will take for me to empty it. He fills it up and lets it all filter through to the bottom half, and then he will fill it up and let that filter through until the whole bottom part of the pitcher is full. Then he'll fill up the top part again. It gets so heavy that I can hardly lift it and it leaks all over the place.

Whenever I tell him this, though, he insists that it isn't too full. Perhaps now he will believe me the next time I say that it leaks all over the fridge!

The evidence usually drips out and dribbles onto the shelves, which I then have to sop up. This time, however, it dripped onto the meat and froze, forming a lovely stalagmite.

We'll have to check our dials to make sure our fridge is the right temperature, I would like to thank the fridge, however, for being so cold on this occasion in order to help me prove a point. I have won yet another argument. Thank you, thank you, no applause, please!

What's that I hear, Andrew? Oh, I'm always right?

Yes, dear, you're right. I am!

A new look

It was due time for a visit to the optometrist. Well past due time, if I am to be completely honest. Eyewear prescriptions are typically valid for 2 years. I haven't been for quite some time. So long, in fact, that I couldn't really remember when I had been in last.

"Have you been here before?" asked the desk clerk.

"Yes, but it was a while ago, before I was married, so it is under a different name."

I gave him my information. He pulled up my records...from 5 and a half years ago!

"Your glasses haven't given you any problems in 5 and a half years?" asked the optometrist's assistant.

"Not really," I said, "I did have to pop the lenses out and put them into new frames. I got two of the same frames the last time I was here..."

"I see," she said.

My glasses really have held up pretty well. I got a pair of sunglasses for lifeguarding, which I rarely wore because the glass was tinted way too dark for me, and then I got a regular pair as well. I had to replace one of the nose pads, and fix the ear piece once, and then about two years ago I switched the lenses in the frame. Other than that, they're in great condition.

The lenses are scratched, though, the paint is peeling, and the metal on the nose piece is so pliable that it bends much to easily now. And they don't really stay on my face anymore; the slightest bump sends them flying.

It was time for new ones.

The optometrist was impressed that after 5 and a half years my eyes hadn't really changed that much. I'm still blind.

"Take off your glasses and tell me at which line you can no longer read without squinting."

That's easy. I have to squint to see the top letter.

"Well, I know the top letter is an 'E,' but its' blurry. Very blurry. More like a square, actually."

"And now with your left eye."

"Same thing."

Nice. I could read the whole chart with my glasses, though. I'm not sure that's really comforting. But since my eyes haven't changed much, perhaps it's almost time for Lasik. I hope so. It's one of my post-Egypt dreams.

After my prescription was all written out, we went to chose frames. I am a very indecisive person, so Andrew came along to help me choose some new ones. He is a lot more brave than I am and convinced me to try a completely new look. I'm excited to see how I feel about them when I have the real lenses in them.

Rachel, of course, wanted to participate in the hunt for the perfect pair of glasses. She hasn't ever really cared about my glasses until today. They've just been an extension of my face for her--she'd knock them off occasionally, and grabbed them a time or two out of curiosity, but mostly she's just let them be. Today, however, she found them absolutely fascinating.

Andrew and I were grabbing glasses off of the racks and trying them on and she felt terribly left out of the whole process. She grabbed my real glasses and tried to put them on. She grabbed at the glasses Andrew and I were holding and tried to put them on. She grabbed glasses from the stands and tried to put them on.

Mostly she ended up poking herself in the eyes and ears. We helped her into a pair, which she immediately wanted to take off to examine.

Rachel and Mommy trying on glasses

When she started getting a little too rough, Andrew tried distracting her away from the glasses. She threw an amazingly loud temper tantrum, with real tears and lots of screaming. So I picked her up and tried to comfort her, but she went right for my eyes and grabbed my glasses right off my face.

She was still fussing at the counter while we were paying for the visit.

"If you're a very unlucky girl," I told Rachel, "Maybe you'll have Mommy's eyes and need glasses when you're older."

Andrew shook his head, "Don't do it Rachel!"

"Yes," I agreed, "Have Daddy's eyes! Glasses are a pain!"

I don't think I've ever been so happy to leave a store before. But both Rachel and I are anxiously awaiting the arrival of my new glasses!