A. Don’t worry about it…

 

Overdue Pictures!

Hila on the 4th of July

Gabe wearing my glasses

Hannie standing

Pretty Hannie

Asher lost 2 teeth at once.  His first visit from the tooth fairy was very equitable.

Then he lost one on top.

Hila’s first day of school pose.

Asher’s 1st day of school was rainy! (He started on a different day)

 

Something Good=Sarah Palin

Step 1 of the good things that can happen…Check!

Remember when I said this:

The only good thing that can come of this election for me now is for John McCain to pick a solid, healthy running mate who actually represents the Republican party. win the election, and promptly die.

Okay probably not, but it doesn’t matter, because I did. John McCain, that old goat has picked a fantastic running mate.  I had never heard of her before today but along with millions of other people I’ve been Googling her like mad.  Which of her qualifications seals her in my book?  Mom of 5.  That is almost all you have to say.  Her oldest will be serving in Iraq.  McCain has kids who have been there and probably will go there.  I think its safe to say they’ll do right by the military.  Palin is against all the things I’m against and for the things I’m for.  I don’t know if she’ll get Hillary supporters, I mean they had to be crazy in the first place.  But she definitely makes me feel better about this election and seals my vote for McCain.  My first reaction, honestly, was, “Wow, now that is politicing”  I was totally shocked that McCain picked a woman, but once it settled in I realized it was probably the most brilliant move McCain has ever made in politics…I mean aside from somehow securing the nomination when he clearly wasn’t the best candidate.  For the record, I really don’t hope that McCain drops dead and I would never, ever, ever, ever threaten his life.  A NC man was just indicted for threatening to shoot Obama. I think I speak for most North Carolinians in saying I would never hope for anything bad to happen to anyone.  But, lets face it.  McCain is old, might have a heart condition.  Its just physically possible he could pass away of natural causes.  Or he could continue to go strong for another 20 years.  Now I just hope that step 2 happens and McCain/Palin win the election.

 

Boob man

My 2 year old will hate me someday for blogging about this, but it was just too funny.  If you are a mom of young children, you know that there is no such thing as privacy.  I stepped out of the shower the other day to find Gabe playing in my room.  He looked up at me, pointed to my breasts and said, “Mom, I want to squish those.”  with a very puzzled expression on his face.  Luckily his attention span is very short and he bounced out of the room so I could get dressed and laugh away…  Yeah, I’m not really worried about his fascination with having his toenails painted.

 

The truth is plain

BJay is reading the book “Mormon Scientist The Life and Faith of Henry Eyring.” That is Henry Eyring Sr., the father of President Eyring of the first presidency. This book was practically written for BJay. In fact, skimming it there are quite a few points that I know I’ve heard him state on several occasions. Ordinarily I’d be bored by such a book, but my interest was piqued when BJay quoted to me a passage where Eyring is quoting Brigham Young on the subject of creation. Its a brilliant quote, and again backs up just about everything BJay has ever said about creationism, which is why he was so excited about it. But the very end hit me over the head like a brick,

“…If we understood the process of creation there would be no mystery about it, it would all be reasonable and plain, for the is no mystery except to the ignorant.” (Journal of Discourses 14:116)

I guess this proves my ignorance because I am totally blown away. I mean, to take this out of a religious context, a good mystery is only good if the writer is able to disorganize the facts enough so that you are “ignorant” until the writer wants to clue you in. Now for some reason, although I’ve heard this hymn before I was really moved by this poetry just this past Sunday:

#285 God Moves in a Mysterious Way

1. God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform.

He plants his footsteps on the sea And rides upon the storm.

2. Ye fearful saints fresh courage take; the clouds ye so much dread

Are big with mercy and shall break In blessings on your head.

3. His purposes will ripen fast, Unfolding every hour;

The bud my have a bitter taste, But sweet will be the flower.

4. Blind unbelief is sure to err And scan his works in vain;

God is His own interpreter, and He will make it plain.

I’m not up for a discussion about creation. I mean, that is so small potatoes. This concept is wide-open huge and also very, very obvious. If you are not a Mormon, I don’t imagine you will be reading my blog (unless you are my Grandma, who is practically Mormon by association) but in case there is the odd-straggler let me introduce to you a very important concept. Eternal progression. Very important–its the idea that our purpose in life is to actually progress spiritually, intellectually, emotionally. This means that this life, this world isn’t just a holding tank for prospective heavenly choir boys and girls. We’re here because God actually planned this thing out. Now if you were here before I even started, way to go you’re in the majority of people smarter and more intuitive than me. If not, here you go:

You know that feeling you get when you figure something out, the light bulb, the ah-ha moment? There is nothing under the sun (any sun in the vast expanse of space for that matter) that we don’t have the power or capacity to understand. There are no mysteries so deep and vast that we can’t grasp. Everything can be explained. And when these things are revealed, they will be as plain and logical as basic arithmetic. I normally don’t spell things out like this. Pointing out the obvious has always felt insulting to me. But I think that is why I’m learning, time and again this simple and beautiful message: The truth is plain. Sometimes you have to be made ignorant in order to feel the full effect of the mystery. We don’t have the benefit of remembering who and what we were before this life and the afterlife is pretty much a mystery. Between science and religion God has given us disorganized facts. Our job is to stumble along as best we can, find and piece as many of the pieces as we can and then be prepared to be completely amazed when the truth is made plain to us in the end.

 

Vanilla Pie

I’ve heard someone describe boring people as “vanilla pie”.  I am afraid I’ve become boring people.  Things I’m obsessed with at the moment: real estate websites, HGTV design star, and catching a nap whenever possible.  I’m laying low with the kids.  We have about a month until school starts up again and I’m dreading it.  Things I’ve accomplished the past two weeks… made 8 batches of peach jam, got the laundry done and folded, bought a lot of food.  Sigh.  I guess I should just enjoy the slow pace of summer while I can.

 

creeping things

So its going on a year since we installed our floors and we still don’t have baseboards up. This summer I have noticed some particularly creepy creatures inside our house. I would feel like a failure of a housekeeper if I hadn’t heard from a couple friends that they’ve seen an influx of the same gross, icky bugs. On three separate occasions I’ve seen a different type of cockroach emerge from the crack between the wall and the floor. One winged brown cockroach. Then a large wingless brown cockroach. And then, a special treat–in my closet a huge black cockroach that was weighty enough to make audible clicks on the bamboo floor as it tried to escape my revolted, crazed wrath. Armed with adrenaline and a shoe I’m a pretty fierce warrior. So far bugs 0, Jessica 3. I don’t even have to say how repulsive it is to kill a bug with an exoskeleton. It sends a shiver right through my spine. Yuck. So last night I was up way too late and noticed a brown blur skittling out of the crack between the floor and the wall in the family room. I dropped my carving tools and braced for a fight. The little brown thing was… hopping? A closer look revealed something even more horrifying–the thing was… fuzzy. I was right on top of the creature before I realized that it was a little brown frog, covered in dust and lint. Awwww. I’m not sure why frogs bring out compassion and bugs bring out primal rage. I captured the frog in a cup and immediately brought it to the sink to wash it off. I have no idea how a frog got into an inner wall of my house. Frankly, its rather disturbing. I only hope it was feasting on bugs while it was there. After bathing the little frog who was visibly relieved to have its rubbery little body texture restored I set the mysterious little creature free in my front yard. That frog is lucky I’m an adult now. I found a slug on my bedroom floor when I was a kid and claimed it as my pet. FYI: Slugs go from dead to fuzzy piece of mold remarkably quickly.

 

Kitchen progress

Here is the first fully assembled cabinet.  Already my kitchen has more drawers than it did before.

Here is the new tile floor.  I actually love to sweep it.  So much more inspiring than the nasty vinyl sticky tiles with faded rose-print.

Here is one of our pantries–I’m in love!!!!

There will be 3 pamtries total…I can’t wait!!!

 

Strike that

New highlight of my day– Hila singing a made-up song while playing with her stuffed animals.  Two of them are dogs and while singing, she has one dog smell the other’s bottom.  LOL.  Kids are way better than laundry.

 

Catching up

I am just catching up to a mountain of laundry.  It has been weeks since my husband even looked in his underwear drawer to find clean undies.  The clothes have been haunting me.  I get them cycled through every week, but for the past few weeks they have stayed piled on both chairs in my room.  The whites have been heaped in a basket on the ottoman.  Every time I’d conquer the clothes on my chairs it would be laundry day again and new clothes would pile there waiting for their turn.  Something amazing happened Tuesday night when I got home from shopping though.  The clothes were folded in baskets.  (We have a little basket for each member of the family for clean clothes).  It was more exciting to me than getting my new Wii Fit for my birthday.  My husband actually folded the laundry for me!  Hooray!  The cycle is broken.  I just pulled the last load of towels out of the dryer to fold and something plastic bounced out.  I always set the towels on sanitize so I was so surprised when I found one of Hannah’s bottles had gone through a full sanitize cycle and dryer cycle without me noticing it.  Weird.  I think its cleaner than if I had put it through the dishwasher…  And sadly that is the highlight of my day.