A few things I love about Breanne right now...

1. If I ask her to blow her nose, she does! No more trying to sneak up on her and wipe her nose... she does it all on her own. So wonderful.

2. If she falls and gets "hurt," all it takes is a kiss to make it all better. Even if it probably did hurt, a kiss makes everything better. It's so easy, it feels like cheating.

3. She says "cheese" when anyone points a camera in her direction. A few examples of this:





And then just a few other funny shots from the same sitting--Breanne thought she fit in her new baby doll seat that she got for Christmas, so I let her try it out...



She seemed to like it when I told her she looked like a turtle with a shell on its back...


And then we noticed the tag on the back, so we found something else to do. :) Fun, fun girl.

Our First Fire

So last year Cory's family moved out to Utah from New Hampshire, and they built a house out here. Their old house had a wood burning fireplace, but their new one is gas, so they didn't need their pokers and things anymore. Which was great for us, because we bought a house with a wood burning fireplace.

So yesterday we drove up to Cory's parents house, and picked up the pokers and things. We left pretty early, because the weather looked a little bit threatening, but decided to stop at Smith's on the way home to get some firewood so we could light our first fire. We'd already bought a Creosote Sweeping Log (which basically cleans out your chimney and helps prevent unwanted fires), but you were supposed to burn a real fire first, then the CSL, so we needed wood.

When we went in to Smith's, it was just cold outside, and a little overcast. When we came out maybe 8 minutes later, however, there was probably an inch of hailish-snow-rain on the roads. We got home as quickly as we safely could, and proceeded to start our fire. We were able to burn our first fire, and then we started the CSL. I kid you not--not 5 minutes after we read the instructions for and started the CSL, our power went out, for 3 hours. Normally we would've been stuck in a cold house with just some candle light, and one tiny flashlight (which, thank heavens, we had also needed in the fire starting process (to look up the chimney) so I had already found down in the basement where Jake left it...). Instead of that rather miserable and boring scenario, however, we had a happy warm little house (or at least front room) with a cosy fire to provide both light and warmth. Way to go, Cory! Good call on the fire.

This was my first wood fire ever (besides at camp and stuff) so I took a few pics for you--sorry they're a little blurry, but they were taken without a flash by firelight, so the exposure took a few seconds...


If you're wondering about the weird way the fire seems to be shooting out to the sides, it's because of the CSL, we think--the fire burned really big and bright while that was going. It calmed down some when we were using normal logs.


Doesn't our house look warm and cosy? I love it! I also took a picture of this scene with the flash on, and you would not believe the mess it was. I much prefer this picture.

New Bad Dream

So this morning when I woke up, it was in the middle of an awful dream. I was in a college level (I think) English course with my 8th grade English teacher, and we were taking a timed reading comprehension test. Now, normally, I aced reading comprehension--those were always my best on the SAT's and stuff. To make it even easier, we were using these books either used by fourth graders, or four year olds--I can't remember. In this dream, however, everyone else in the class finished, while I was only 1/4 of the way through. I FAILED! After the test was over, I learned that I hadn't listened to all of Mrs. Hunter's instructions, and she had actually given us a way to look up the answers in a different book at the back of the book I was using... imagine my embarrassment. We went on to have a retest for myself and one other girl in the class, but still I couldn't find the answers--I could hardly read, and I just didn't understand what I was supposed to be doing.

It all felt strangely like a MacHeist I didn't understand.

Anyway, this is the stuff (sort of...) my nightmares are usually composed of--I graduated in English over 2 1/2 years ago, but I still dream about signing up for classes that I then forget to attend, and miss tests, or get lost in. And now add to that list fail tests that are way below the level of comprehension I should be at. Sometimes I joke that my husband is my worst nightmare, because he does fail classes or miss tests occasionally on accident... the idea of failing terrifies me, I guess. It's probably good that we ended up together so that he can help me break that fear down a little. Or something like that.

Red Hair

Mandi asked about Breanne's red hair--no, Cory's is definitely not red, and though people like Cory's mom will tell you otherwise, neither is mine. (She claims it has a red tint to it...I'm just not so sure, though). Breanne does, however, have 5 aunts on Cory's side, 4 of whom have red(ish) hair. They all grew up as red heads, and as they've gotten older, some of it has faded to a more brunette look, while others have kept it:



It's said that it has to come from both sides, though, which is pretty much beyond me... Stu grows some red in his beard, I guess, and my dad has some cousins with red hair, but that is about as close as it gets to me.

I have to be honest, though, I have loved having a red-head--she gets so much attention everywhere we go, which has been so fun. I worry, though, about all the red-head stereotypes... there's always someone to tell us how much trouble we're going to have on our hands in a few years... She's already pretty darn stubborn, but hopefully she'll just stay as sweet as she is (most of the time) now.

Breanne doing some of her other favorite things. That include clothing. Sheesh.

Showing me what the chicken does...notice the chicken in her hand.


Sticking out her tongue.


Saying Cheese!


Singing along with "Old McDonald."


Lining up the monkeys on the bar...obviously they don't belong in the barrel.

A Picture of our House

So Stu won't have any trouble figuring out which one it is when he finally comes to visit me...

30% Less Plastic

So we've been buying bottled water to drink for a while now (something about the combination of having 80 year old pipes running through our house and the construction going on downstairs), which has been nice. I really enjoy just being able to grab a bottle when I'm running out of the house, or doing whatever, and not having to worry about leaving a cup lying around the house. I usually just buy what's on sale, and have generally liked the water just fine. This last time I bought it, though, I got the Arrowhead brand. I didn't expect anything different of them-cheap water bottles are cheap water bottles, in my mind. Turns out, though, that their "bottle looks and feels different because it is purposely designed with an average of 30% less plastic to be easier on the environment."


Cool, right? I'm all for saving the environment. Except that what this really means is that the bottles are way thinner than other bottles, so every time I go to open a new one, I end up squishing out some of the contents, usually all over myself, or my bed, or the stroller, or the car...or whatever.

Not that it's a terrible thing, I mean, it's just water. But still--they should at least have one part of the bottle sturdier than the rest so I can hold onto it there while I'm opening it. I'm ok with 25% less plastic, if it means not spilling all over myself.

Cory will tell you that they're fine, by the way. He's magic.

Because I figured out how to post pictures...

So Breanne loves bathtime...especially with a washcloth. Ahh, the simple pleasures.





She'd stay in the tub all night if she could, I think.

Update to "Why I Was Awake..."

Well, things are looking up...ish. To respond in the order of my original post--

Cory found a stray unisom pill sitting on the counter, so I was finally able to sleep, and I got more pills, so I'm feeling much better. Even with all the puking, though, pregnancy is worth it. I'm so excited to have another little girl! Now if only we could figure out what to name her...

The car is fixed and running better than it did before the incident (it should be, because we replaced the bearing that we knew was going bad before). And the fix wasn't outlandishly expensive, either. Not cheap by any means, but not unbearable. We can handle it, at least.

I haven't had any nightmares since the Christmas tree fire ones (not to say that I won't have more weird dreams in the near future, as Brandon said, "pregnancy is weird," and it does weird things to all parts of your body, including your mind. But that's entirely ok with me. Again, it's worth it.)

And Cory is a really great husband who tries really hard not to take up the whole bed--it only happens occasionally. And I certainly would prefer to sleep curled up in a corner if it meant sleeping next to him over not being by him.

Yes, I'd say things are looking a little bit better in my mind.

Blogging Question

So sometimes I want to respond to the comments left on my blog--what is the protocol for that? I mean, do I just leave comments on my own blog? Or do I respond to the person more directly? Especially if it isn't extremely pertinent to the post--I'm just not sure if I should post them on here, or what. Still learning the space that is my blog, I guess.

And as for the html stuff--really what I want to do is change the background color of my blog--I like the green on top, and the white under the writing is fine, but I'd like to do something with the grey background underneath it all, but there isn't a way to do that with the theme I picked. Maybe I'm just stuck. (Cue for Stu to tell me to use WordPress or something.)

HTML

I'm beginning to think I should relearn some basic HTML so I can make this look like I want it to. Or maybe someone should just teach me how to use Blogspot better. That would also work.

Why I was awake from 2:53-sometime after 5:00 this morning

So I finished writing this post sometime around 3:39 this morning, right as my internet weirdly went down. It wasn't just the server, like usual, or just Cory's computer having some issue--it was actually the internet. Not very common with iProvo. So here's the post anyways.

1. Because my body is adjusting to not taking sleeping pills...part of my anti-nausea stuff (don't worry, it's recommended by my drs.). I ran out two nights ago, and have been trying to go without them to see if I'm done being sick yet. I'm not. I puked again 4 hours ago, and will probably do so again soon, now that I'm not asleep anymore. Just have to wait it out and get some more tomorrow, and hope for the best for before I can take them. No, I'm not just addicted--my body just goes crazy when I get pregnant. Maybe someday I'll have a boy and it won't be so bad, I don't know. I guess we'll see when I get there.

2. My car needs to go into the shop, and it's stressing me out. The two top stressers in my life are money and car troubles. This pretty much involves both. While out Christmas Tree shopping on Saturday, we managed to slide into a curb going about 20mph going around a curve in the road. What I was hoping was just a broken wheel (a mere 450.00-500.00 fix...) has turned out to be more than that, but we don't know how much more, and won't until the morning, when we can take the car into a shop. Not the shop we normally go into, mind you. They're booked until Monday. So no, now we're stuck trying out a new guy, which makes me even more tense. And to be honest with you--we have no money for this right now. Cory's getting a massive auto reimbursement check NEXT week, of course, but that won't be helping us this week. And I can't just hope that the repairs take a week, because:
1. That would be sick and just wrong
2. We can't borrow Cory's parent's Corolla forever
3. That would probably mean that the fix is going to cost more than Cory's reimbursement check anyway, and then we still wouldn't be able to afford the fix.

3. I am having nightmares about things as ridiculous as our tree being out of water and catching on fire. I think there's something wrong with me. :)

4. I'm not really complaining, but Cory is taking up the whole bed tonight. He pulled an all-nighter last night, so he's pretty out of it, and fell asleep right in the middle of the bed. Normally I'm fine with just a corner, but I'm getting pretty big (I almost have an outie belly-button already!, and I'm only a pound or two off of my delivery weight with Breanne already... and we still have to make it through Christmas dinners and 3 more months! UGH!) and our house is just too hot at night for me anyway. Sure, the thermostat says 71, but it certainly doesn't feel that way to me.

So this is why I'm losing sleep tonight. I haven't even really begun Christmas shopping, either. I mean, Breanne is pretty much taken care of, but poor Cory will get nothing, at this rate. He probably doesn't care, but I do. I really like to do nice things for the people I love who love me. And presents are ridiculously important to me. (Just ask my mom about the time I cried when they gave me money to go shopping with my friends for my birthday, instead of buying me presents. I was like 14. That's just ridiculous. Seriously.) Something about knowing people care about me, or something, I don't know. At any rate, I'm feeling a little bit crappy about the whole thing. Probably more than a little bit, but I'll blame some of that on my lack of anti-nausea meds.

I'm going to try to go back to sleep now that some of that is out of my head and on the computer.

Realization

So today while Breanne and I were doodling in her notebook, I realized that her initials, if you leave out her middle name, are BK. Burger King. That's unfortunate. I just hope she doesn't realize it for a while. Just like I didn't realize that JW in the non-Utah world (or at least the non-Jessie world) stand for Jehovah's Witness. Hmm...

So I just noticed...

That my profile said I was an accountant in Afghanistan... who knows how long I've been doing that for... but I quit today. There isn't a place for "stay-at-home-mom," which is honestly one of the toughest jobs there is sometimes, so I had to go with not-specified. Sorry about the confusion.

I'm Back

So I know it's been a while, but I'll try to get back into this again. Lots of things have changed; time for a list!

1. We're having another baby girl, on or around March 13th.
2. We bought a house, but a different one than the one I posted about before. Much nicer, a little pricier, but definitely worth it. We'll be renting out the basement come Dec. 22nd. Hopefully. Assuming everything gets done. :)
3. Cory is working in Salt Lake now with Excel Films, which he's really enjoyed. Nice to be out of the underpaid comp. tech job he had before.
4. I'm selling books with Usborne Books, and actually really enjoying it. I do lots of home shows, and some catalog shows here and there. I've finally found a product that I feel like I can actually support. Literacy is just so important--I'm excited to be a part of helping other people educate their kids.
5. I'm in the primary presidency of our ward, serving as secretary, and really enjoying that, too. Gets a little busy sometimes, but I'm really learning to love the people I serve, and those I serve with.
6. We have a cat! Her name is Hazel, and she's a little crazy (still a kitten, really), but she has been so good with Breanne--we love her.
7. I'm not doing the song title thing anymore. That was a lame idea.
8. I am being kicked in the bellybutton (that is one weird feeling, let me tell you!) so I'm off to do something else, changing positions being necessary.

Funny things Cory has said recently...

So I know that isn't the title of a song, but I had to write this down--Cory is hilarious, and I love him. So here's his latest hilariosity:

"I guess there's this window of acceptable fat..."

Beautiful Mess

So today has been the craziest day. I woke up this morning not realizing that it would be any different from the others, other than that Breanne slept through most of the night without a pacifier (we lost her last one yesterday). However, at 8:34 this morning, my day changed. A change so drastic it has the potential to change my life. Hopefully for the better. At 8:34 this morning, I received an email from a real estate agent we've been talking to about houses. This one was just like all the rest, go to this website, plug in this name and password, and view some great properties. Now, I've been through this probably 20 times, and though I've seen some stuff I thought I liked before, I'd always had some reservation about the home. Today, however, the home was the right size, a more reasonable price, and, the most important thing, in our ward. Since I was called into the Primary presidency two weeks ago, I really feel like we're meant to stay where we are, in the ward (no wonder I didn't like all those other houses! :) So we went to see it, at 12:30.

The house was a beautiful mess. Very well taken care of, lots of character things, like built in shelving and drawers and such, an enclosed porch, and a fantastic backyard. It needs a lot of work, though. The carpet and paint, I'm certain, need to be replaced, and some kitchen and bathroom work also needs to be done. But really, for the asking price, it was an amazing deal. Only problem was, we were definitely not the only people who thought so--there were already 3 offers in, and 2 more on the way. We were told that the seller would be reviewing all offers at 4:00, a mere what, 3 hours away? So we did one of the craziest things we've ever done--made an offer! That's right, we're potential home owners! I'm pretty ecstatic, but scared out of my mind. A small part of me wants them to turn down our offer so I don't have to be scared, and can just continue living in our safe little apartment, in this comfortable stage of life, but the major part of me realizes that I am ready for a change. Or, at least I think I am... I just don't know what to expect. So I'm trying not to expect anything, especially that we'll even have our offer accepted. Though I do think we're pretty competitive, so there is definitely a chance that it could go through. Ack! Will 6:30 tomorrow never come?!? That is when we are supposed to find out.

Here's to hoping...

I Don't Want to Miss a Thing

I believe that I am officially an addict of Facebook, and it's making me crazy. I know that I am supposed to be working, but I would rather look at people's photos, and read the writings on their walls...it's a little bit frustrating. And to be honest, this is why I could never play WOW--I don't have the time to be distracted by one more thing. I've already got Facebook, this blog, my sudokus, and the Hemingway I'm reading. No time for video games. Not that I really think I'd like it, but there's still a chance.

Don't worry. Be happy

So I've decided that from here on out every post title will be a line from a song. Perhaps divided differently here than in the song, as there isn't usually a period between worry and be, but still the lyrics to a song. Just occasionally different punctuation.

Anyway, yes, that title was meant to be split into two sentences--the first section of this post will be reassurance for you, the second part be happy for me. Got it? Ok, here we go.

My comcast acct started working today of its own accord, without my even entering a password. Who created these stupid things, anyway? So don't worry, you can still email me via my comcast account, if you really must. Sometimes I forget to look at the default sending address, and it sends from it, which makes me crazy too, but that's ok. It's my own fault. If only everything else would work like I tell it to, including not working because of user error. Oh well.

On to the be happy part--we're going to Yellowstone over Labor Day weekend! Yay! I know, I know, that is two months away, but I am so excited to have a trip to look forward to! I haven't been out of the state since Cory's family moved here, and I've really missed having trips to plan and go on. So hopefully this one will be fun--I haven't been to Yellowstone since I was like five, and Cory's never been, so hopefully it will be a good trip. Things can sometimes get a little crazy with my family, which is who we're going with, but I'm determined to have a good time.

Ok, I just treated Cory like I would Breanne (turned around and gave him a funny face without meaning to, which I do to entertain Breanne all the time...). I need sleep. So goodnight, goodnight, have a good night.

It drives me crazy! (ooh, ooh ooh...)

When I can't remember my passwords! I only have a few that I use, and always the same one lately, but any of my older stuff--who knows? Ugh! I'm going crazy trying to figure out my comcast acct. password. What a pain! But no email until I figure it out. Sheesh.

And that's all. All you readers out there--have a good night.

The Meaning of Life

So this weekend, my cousin was out four-wheeling with some family and a friend, and in a tragic accident, the friend was killed. My cousin walked away with a broken collar-bone, and some other scrapes and bruises. This comes on top of a lot of other family tragedy for this particular family, with something very difficult happening to each of the children over the last 5 years. It's caused me to reflect, a lot. How is it possible that so much bad can happen to such good people?

Here are my thoughts:

First of all, though some might have their faith in a God diminished by all the bad, I find mine increasing--how on earth can we be expected to get through all this on our own? How could everything just be "bad luck"? I just can't make myself believe there is no one out there who understands our pain and grief. I think life would be very, very hard indeed if we didn't have someone out there who comforts us. And as for why He would allow it all to happen? First of all, a lot of stuff is consequences of our own actions--this was an accident that happened because of choices the two kids involved made. God knew it would happen, but we have our agency, which he very rarely, if ever, interferes with. And the things we don't seem to have control over (like sicknesses and other body ailments)--first of all, they still are probably the consequences of something we did at some point in our life (even if it was just to be exposed to something, or something indirect like that), and second, I think those are the ones that God really gives us to test our strength, but maybe that's just me. Sometimes (maybe most times?) it doesn't make sense, and I certainly don't understand it all, but that is the only reasonable reason I can come up with.

But anyway--how can you believe there is no one out there who understands what is happening to you? someone who believes and knows you can make it through whatever is being dealt your way? I can't.

I'm here!

Things I am:

I am a wife, of a great man. He says he doesn't want a code name, so his name is Cory.

I am a mother, of the most beautiful girl in the world. She isn't talking enough to decide if she wants a codename or not, so she is getting one. We'll just call her "Red," to humor my grandparents who think she actually responds to that name.

I am awesome. Cory says so.

I am a writer. Or at least I keep telling myself that. I'm not poetic, and I'm not very scholarly sounding, but I love to write, and I miss it like crazy, so I must be a writer.

And as Cory says, that pretty much covers it, since I don't want to be a Java programmer.