From all of us...

...to all of you:


And some inspiring words from Lemony Snicket:

"It is a miracle if you can find true friends, and it is a miracle if you have enough food to eat, and it is a miracle if you get to spend your days and evenings doing whatever it is you like to do, and the holiday season - like all the other seasons - is a good time not only to tell stories of miracles, but to think about the miracles in your own life, and to be grateful for them." ~The Lump of Coal

We're grateful for the true friends you all are - have a great Christmas and wonderful New Year!

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I have to say, I have the best husband ever. This will probably ruin his rough reputation (um...yeah), but I had to share. Last night while I was getting ready for bed, he grabbed my flash drive and put a song on it. He told me I had to wait until I got to work to listen to it. This is the one he chose:



What a sweetheart! Either that, or he's buttering me up for something he knows I'll say no to. But for now, I'll just enjoy it. :)

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Note to self...

Don't mess with a perfectly good recipe and don't procrastinate homemade Christmas presents until the last minute. (If you're buying the present at the last minute, that's perfectly acceptable.)

Ok...so I'm going to be a little vain for just a second and say that I think I usually come up with some great gifts for the people I work with. In fact, I keep my eye open all year for something that would be fantastic and the start working on them months before hand. One year, I decoupaged boxes (apparently I like to decoupage :-D) and filled them to the brim with a flurry of homemade Christmas cookies. One year, I cross-stitched snowflake ornaments complete with beading. I've made little candy dishes and another round of cookies, etc., etc., etc. It's entirely possible my office mates don't think these gifts are a wonderful as I do, but I always have a good time doing it and it gives me an excuse for a fairly large project that keeps me busy for a while and, sometimes, a chance to try a project I probably wouldn't have attempted just for myself.

This year, not so much...mostly since I have a project named "Lillian" who keeps me busier than I could have ever hoped for. I had a great idea for these cute bags made out of t-shirts, but I couldn't decide what I could put in them so it wasn't just a lame bag. I thought of doing some lotion/body wash stuff in a basket made out of a towel and wash cloth, but you never know what scent people like, so I scrapped that one, too. As Thanksgiving approached, I realized I still didn't have an idea for my office gifts, and I was running out of time.

Then, my Kraft Food and Family magazine came. Inside was a recipe for Simply Sensational Truffles. With two ingredients and only three steps, I decided I could handle that. I put the recipe on the fridge so I could find it later and moved on. About a week later, I remembered I needed to find something to put the truffles in. Through my digial scrapbooking sources, I found some templates for gift bags and boxes. I printed a couple off to get a better idea for size and decided on one. Once again, I moved on.

Then, on Monday, I realized this was the last week everyone would be in the office when I would be and I needed to get their gifts to them. I grabbed the ingredients on Tuesday night and got Step One done and in the fridge to firm up. I figured I could finish them up Wednesday, along with putting the bags together (which I'll talk about next), and take them in on Thursday.

Even though I knew I had a couple hours of work ahead of me Wednesday night, I agreed to go to the gym with Erik. We got home around 8:30 and I got started. My first batch was a disaster!! The recipe was only for regular, semi-sweet chocolate. But I like white chocolate truffles better and I like them flavored with something. So I'd made two varieties of regular - one plain, one mint - and two varieties of white - one raspberry, one lemon. I started rolling the raspberry, and they were so soft. When I tried to dip them, they melted enough that they were no longer balls. And they weren't very well covered. I put them back in the fridge hoping I could dip them a second time and be ok, but I wasn't very optimistic. I pulled out the plain chocolate next. Hard as a rock, as it should have been. They turned out great. My first thought was maybe the flavorings had caused firming issues and I was going to have three horrible varieties and only one that worked. But the mint ones turned out great, too. So apparently, the mistake was using white chocolate. I would think chocolate is chocolate and they should have set up equally as firm, but I thought wrong, I guess.

Now the bags. I decided to print them at work on our fabulous color printer. But after the first one came out, the color was all wrong. I did a quick cleaning adjustment and tried again. Better, but still awful. They printed great at home, but this fancy printer didn't like the colors used, I guess. Luckily, I have photoshop at work, so I quickly download some new "papers" and changed the design completely. It wasn't nearly as fancy or detailed, but hey...I was on a time crunch! It printed fine, and I thought I was home free.

That was until I was sitting at my kitchen table Wednesday night at 11:00 still cutting out cardstock bags and taping them together. What was I thinking? It was not nearly the quick project I thought it would be.

I was able to dip the raspberry ones again and they worked well enough that I put them in the bags. The lemon ones were rolled in powdered sugar, so they're still really soft and almost squishy. But at least the sugar keeps them from being sticky! And they all tasted delicious, so that's all that matters, I suppose.

Next year, though, I think I'll go for something much simpler. The people I work with always give great gifts, too, and I'm sure they don't agonize over them quite like I do. We all end up eating so much crap over the holidays, so I think I'll go back to the non-food gifts like decorations or yummy smelling candles. Maybe I can even get them something useful...like a set of screwdrivers... :-D Yep...that's my plan for next year.

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Ring Around the Rosies

The other day, Lillian tells me, "I'm ready!" Since we weren't really doing anything to be ready for at the time, I asked what she was ready for. She proceeded to spin and fall down.

Umm...ok.

I thought about it for a second and thought maybe she was doing Ring-around-the-Rosies, even though I've never done it with her. But she has a whole life at daycare I'm not really involved in, so I figured it was entirely possible. So I started singing, and she starts spinning. After about 10 minutes, I realized I should start filming it. So here she is...not the best example since I think she was starting to get bored. She was much better at falling down when we first started, but it's still pretty cute anyway.

And I ask you to please ignore my messy floor...a hazard of a two-year-old. Oh...and ignore the spot where I whack her in the head with the camera. I'm not the best cinematographer.

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Latest Project

Here's my latest project for Lillian's room. Decoupage is a wonderful thing!

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Accident

"I was in a head-on collision." That's how Erik started our conversation Friday night at 7:02. I think my stomach audibly sank to my toes. A million thoughts and questions raced through my head at once, but I manged to eek out, "Are you ok?" His response: "I didn't get hit." I wish he'd started with that, but I was thankful to hear it at all. But he stuck around to help with the aftermath.

Here's the article KSL has up, complete with pictures: http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=5001101

Erik was in the right lane; the Jeep was in the left. When the Jeep swerved to avoid the pickup, he had to slam on his brakes and narrowly missed being part of the wreckage. The debris from the Jeep actually hit the car. He helped locate a fire extinguisher since the Jeep was on fire and helped break the window to get the crying 18-month-old out of the car. When they did, they saw the 9-year-old in the cargo area. I don't know how he kept himself composed enough to help the two other men who were also doing what they could. He also spent some time with the driver of the pick-up, even holding the back board since there weren't enough medical personnel to go around at once. You can see him in picture 9 doing just that.

We don't know how he missed being more involved. If he'd done anything different as he left work, who knows what the outcome may have been. If the gas station hadn't been quite as crowded, this post may have had a very different outcome.

Really, divine intervention is the only explanation we have that Erik was able to make it home to us on Friday night - although I'm sure that doesn't make the families of those involved feel any better. I'm truly, truly sorry for those families; what an awful ordeal to go through. But I have to be a bit self-centered and say I'm so thankful my husband and best friend is safe and in one piece.

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Innate Sense of Fashion

Lillian picked out her entire outfit today:

Notice the adorable puppy shirt (not her first choice, but the one she wanted was dirty from yesterday) and her daring mix of patterns with her choice of green polka-dot pajama bottoms. The crowning touch was the addition of some fashionable yet practical pink tights to keep her legs warm.

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Lillian Quote of the Day

First, a little background: For months now, Erik has been trying to get Lillian to answer the question, "What does a snowmobile say?" The correct answer is...Brapp. I'm not really sure how you'd spell it, but you get the idea. She gives the right answer sporadically depending on her mood...and of course, never when he wants to show off her vast snowmobiling knowledge to someone else.

So this morning, while we were picking out what to wear (she opted for the puppy shirt...big surprise), she noticed the little jewelry box where her cute little bracelets live and wanted to put one on. I picked one out that spells her name with alphabet beads and put it on her wrist. Here's the resulting conversation:

Lillian: Pretty!

Me: It's very pretty! Do you know what it says?

Lillian: Yep.

Me: What does it say?

Lillian: Brapp!!

I don't think she's quite grasped the concept of snowmobile noises.

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Hard to Say Goodbye?

While doing some laundry tonight, I wondered: Does anyone else have the problem of not being able to get rid of their old, tired clothes.

I just can't seem to do it. I have shirts in my closet that haven't been worn for ages for various reasons. Some don't fit quite how I'd like them to anymore, and I still have this pipe dream of regaining my pre-baby body. Getting rid of those shirts would admit defeat...something I've never been good at. Some aren't quite in style anymore. Remember just a few years ago when shirt hems hit the top of your jeans? Now that shirts are (thankfully) growing, it just doesn't seem right to wear them. I put them on and wonder how I ever did it and throw a cami underneath so it doesn't seem quite so short. I think some have shrunk, despite my former obsession with not drying anything...although some could probably be blamed on Erik who tries his best at my laundry. I don't have time for that anymore, though. Toss them in the dryer and get on with it...

Despite all those perfectly good reasons for getting rid of them, there they sit - slowly moving farther and farther back into the depths of the closet - until one day, I actually look in the back and go, "I forgot all about this one!" and make another attempt, once again realizing why it was moving to the back in the first place.

Of course, some never move to the back. Their tired state notwithstanding, there are some that I just love. I may not wear them out of the house (often), but they're my old standbys for fat days or when I just want to be a schlub. Plus, I justify keeping them in case I ever need a shirt to purposely get dirty in, like painting or some such nonsense...but I usually don one of Erik's for those occasions, so who am I kidding?

The really stupid thing is, when I buy new shirts, they sit on their hangers for weeks, sometimes even months, because I just can't bear to insert them into the rotation. I stick with my old favorites for reasons that make no sense until I finally say, "Enough! I'm done with you!" and break down enough to ruin the pristine beauty that is a brand new, perfectly clean shirt (with no jelly, peanut butter, or spaghetti-o stains). I currently have six shirts in this situation. Those two shopping trips yielded eight, but I consiously made myself wear two of them within a week of purchase - trust me...I almost didn't put them on.

I think I may need an intervention.

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Switching it up

Erik and I have actually had that exact conversation (click on it to enlarge if you can't make it out). My OCD comes out and I just can't do it. I need my side of the bed. But Erik had to get up at 3:00 AM to get to work for Black Friday, and the alarm is on my side of the bed. From past experience, we know that if the alarm goes off before 5:30, I turn it off without realizing it and we've been lucky he gets up in time to get to work. Knowing this, I actually offered to switch sides so he would be to blame when the alarm was silenced and he stayed in bed.

Never again. There's just something about that other side of the bed that doesn't feel right. We've decided we will be investing in a second alarm for next year.

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Family Pictures

Last week we did a photo shoot with Meg, and she got some great shots, despite an uncooperative hound dog and antsy toddler. Thanks, Meg!

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How to Spend a Sunday

A how-to from Laddie:

1. Follow your human around with Puss-in-Boots eyes 'cause they got out of bed before you were ready.
2. When they won't go with you, give up and curl up by yourself.
3. Look extremely offended when they transfer you to that bed on the floor they keep calling yours while they mess up your perfectly fluffed covers.
4. Once they finish ruining your covers, ruin their hard work and go back to sleep. You may have to move periodically as you follow the sun across the bed. But the best part of the day is when it's right on top of all those pillows.
   

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Start of a New Era

Last week, Erik calls me from work and tells me he wants to trade in the Passat. He thinks the CVs are going out again and he's suspected the struts have been going for a while, so he wants to trade it in before we start shelling out all sorts of money to get it fixed. And he's already decided what he wants: a Hyundai Sonata. I was a little hesitant. First, I love my Passat. Second, I was skeptical about getting what we needed for the trade in. But we went to the Hyundai dealership anyway, consciously taking the truck rather than the car since we have a bad track record at "just looking."

And we did just look. Erik went back on Friday for a test drive and decided this was the car for us. He talked numbers with a salesman and was told a car with the features we wanted was at one of the other dealerships and would be here Saturday so I could test drive it and we could get everything finalized.

Four hours after they promised it would be here (that's another story I won't go into), I was finally able to test drive a deepwater blue Sonata. Of course there are always things you would change about a new car, like the placement of some of the instruments, and there's always those quirky little things you love about your current car, like the adjustable height of the center console, but I decided it passed my inspection and we sat down to sign the papers. My main concern was the payment. When we bought the Passat, it wasn't a pleasant experience haggling for the price. I think the salesman actually said, "What can I do to get you in this car today?" And then he proceeded to waste our time bringing us a payment that was more than we were willing to do. Maybe it was the fact that this is a brand new car and used car dealers have a bad reputation for a reason. Maybe it was the fact that we were getting a screaming deal through dealer and Hyundai rebates. Maybe it was the fact that we have awesome credit and they probably would have jumped through fiery hoops if we asked them to. Whatever the reason, the payment was actually less than we're paying now. I didn't need to worry at all. Everything just fell into place.

So here it is:

Complete with satellite radio (which, honestly, we won't be renewing after our initial free trial), iPod hook up (a selling feature, definitely), and new NEW car smell.

But I have to admit, I felt a pang of sadness as we pulled away from my cute Passat, its smiley face decal mocking me with its ever-present grin and showing no signs that we were just abandoning it. That car was the closest to luxury we will probably ever get from here on out, and even though it was just a sedan, it was my little version of a sports car with it's turbo (how I'll miss the subtle "weeeee" as it charges and smoking the guy next to me when the light turns green). I almost feel it was a symbol of our care-free 20s with the leather seats and hip German engineering. :) Now we have a car that we chose based on the trash-kicking warranty and for which we actually purchased the extra seat protection in case Lillian spills something on them...a definite sign of growing up.

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Life's not really that bad

After my bad week and ensuing pity party complete with woe-is-me post, I decided to look at the things that are good in my life.

I realized that despite Lillian's bedtime stubbornness, she's really a very happy kid and we have a ton of fun together. I love when she steps up on her little step stool and bounces while counting to three before stepping off. I love that spark of excitement in her eyes when she sees something she likes (like Laddie, a favorite book, or her baby). I love her enthusiastic YEAH! when you ask if she wants a banana or some crayons so she can color. I love how her smile wrinkles her nose when she's really happy. I love how she loves to give kisses...to me, to Erik, to Laddie (we always kiss him goodnight), to pictures of herself (is that vain?). I love how she'll just start laughing at nothing that we can see and how she'll go on forever, just giggling away.

I love that Erik likes to spend time with our kid. I love that he does everything he can to cheer me up when I'm grumpy. I love that he takes care of our family in too many ways to name. I love that he continues to try to infuse a love of everything winter despite my frequent protests to the contrary. I love that he thinks he deserves a medal every time he actually cleans up around the house (ok...so I don't LOVE that, but it's still kind of cute). I love that after 10 years, he still wants to keep me around. I love that we can still laugh together and enjoy just being together.

Not to leave Laddie out, I love that he's the biggest moper some days and doesn't want to leave your lap. I love that he's psychotic and has to suck on his security blanket. I love that he'll play with Lillian and is the ever-patient puppy with her.

Finally, I love that we have friends and family we know would be there for us if we ever needed anything, including joining in my wallowing so I feel a little better.

And I really do love the fact that the biggest problem with my life is a bad day at work or an adorable little girl who loves to be with us so much that she'd rather stay up than go to sleep.

Now that's a lot of love, and apparently, life is actually pretty good.

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Want to come to my pity party?

So this week has been kind of crappy.

First, work just plain sucks. If I wanted to become a travel agent, I would have applied for a job as one. But that's all I did this week and most of last week. It wouldn't have been quite so bad if another person's trip hadn't been added every time I thought I was done. I try to keep myself as organized as possible; then someone skews all my work. So I end up making other people work more than necessary and make myself look unorganized.

The next highlight of my week was receiving a statement from IHC showing a balance that amazingly matches the missing October payment...plus interest of course. So much for working itself out. I decided near the end of October I was going to pay off the remaining balance minus the missing payment and hope against hope they got their act together and fixed it. But when I still saw a balance online the first week of November, I called. Yes...I actually called and by the end of the call was pretty bitchy. But I was frustrated and felt justified. I called my bank the same day and faxed all the information they needed the next day. Almost two weeks later, I received a statement and was fit to be tied.

After being cranky all week, the last thing I wanted to do yesterday was go to the gym and be tortured at boot camp. I know it was my idea to submit myself to the torture, but I really just wanted go home and eat some more of the ginormous batch of cookies I made Monday night. (I tend to bake when I'm upset.) Not to mention I haven't seen any real "results" from the torture, so why bother, right? But I went, and I actually felt better after we were done. That's what usually happens: I always feel better after working out, but that's usually the last thing I want to do when it's what I need most. Honestly, if I hadn't had Tina there waiting for me, I probably would have bailed; thank goodness for a workout buddy. But any feel-goods the exercise gave me slowly went away about bed time...

Thanks to Lillian's new stubbornness at bedtime. Well, I guess I should clarify that she's only stubborn with me. She used to go to bed so easily. In fact, when other people would put her to sleep, they were always so amazed at how easily she would go to bed. But since her bout of sickness, she refuses to go to sleep without rocking in the glider for several minutes (several can be upwards of half an hour some nights). And then, even if she's completely out, as soon as she hits the pillow, she's wide awake and protesting (very loudly) about going to sleep. I can go back in a million times and give it another try with the same result. But Erik can go in, and two seconds later, she's asleep.

This was the case yesterday. After an entire day with nothing but a cat nap on the way to Brigham (this is what happens when Daddy is in charge for the day), I tried to put a very sleep-deprived, stubborn toddler to bed. I think I'm now partially deaf with the amount of yelling and crying. How can so much noise be produced by someone so small? Since nothing I did seemed to be helping, I handed her over to Erik, who left her room less than a minute later with no repercussions. Needless to say, I went to bed last night feeling like my daughter hates me and I've already failed as a mother. A mother should be able to get her kid to sleep, right?

So looking back at my week, I'm thankful it's over. I truly think I'm done with travel or at least I shouldn't have any more surprises next week (but if I knew they were coming, they wouldn't be surprises, would they?). When I stepped on the scale this morning, I was actually lighter, so maybe boot camp is making a difference and the soreness is worth it. I just called IHC, again, and was told they received my fax. They have to research it, but I can disregard the statement. Not exactly the answer I wanted, but it's better than some alternatives. And Lillian just went down for a nap without too much of a fuss. So maybe the weekend will be infinitely better than this week was. It has to be.

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As promised. Did you?

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Halloween

Yesterday, Lillian dressed up in her pirate princess costume and we went trick-or-treating at my office. She made a great haul and was happy to see everyone...once she realized they would put something in her bucket.

Then last night, we headed over to the Mullahkhels' house for a great party. Erik wasn't originally going to be able to go, but he worked it so he could be there. Unfortunately, it was so last minute that costumes were scarce, and he didn't want to make an effort to come up with something. Somehow, though, he ended up winning a costume prize - Nerdiest Costume. :)

Everyone looked great. We had Homer and Marge (Greg and Shayla), Barbie and Ken (Karina and Buzzy), and Paris and Nicole (Eric and Tina). Not to mention Jared and Ashely as Almond Joy and Mounds. I'll let you figure out which was which, but remember: Almond Joy's got nuts...

There was tons of food, including three kinds of chili, a chocolate fountain, a cheese fountain, and desserts galore. We also had a donut eating contest, and I'm proud to say I took home the grand prize...a pack of mini donuts.

Thanks, guys, for a fantastic night. Next year, I promise to get Erik into a costume!

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Sunrise

The sunrise was absolutely gorgeous this morning so I snapped a few pictures. Since I try to avoid being up before the sun (or if I am, I'm confined to my bathroom getting ready), it was fun to see...although that red sky doesn't bode well for the rest of the day...

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Like Father, Like Daughter

I guess it's true. Since Lillian entered this world, people have told me she looks like Erik. And this confirms it...

MyHeritage:

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Fully Initiated

I've debated whether or not to post anything about our past week, especially since I'd rather forget the whole thing myself, but I've had a couple hints that the update would be appreciated. And I know there are some people out there who will get a good chuckle at my expense. But I warn you: those with weak stomachs or vivid imaginations should probably stop reading here. I'm serious. It wasn't pleasant. In fact, those of you who have yet to procreate, feel free to use this post as proof of your sanity when dealing with nosy in-laws or ward members. Plus, it's a long one. Ok...here goes:

Thursday night, Lillian kept waking up, which is pretty unusual for her. On the third time, I sent Erik in...for some reason, pulling the Daddy card will usually end the cycle when it does occasionally happen. He'd been out of bed a couple minutes when I hear, "Leonora, come help me. She threw up!" With Erik's weak stomach, I hurried out of bedding hoping to avoid cleaning up two messes. But when I got there and actually turned on the light in her room, nothing. I went to the bathroom, where they were sitting in the dark for some reason, and turned on the light. Nothing on her. It turned out her shirt was a little wet, but there was no smell and no sight of anything that might be something other than excessive drool. So I searched her bed a little more and found...one green bean. One. Uno. All alone. So we changed her shirt and put her back to bed.

She woke up again about half an hour later so I curled up with her on the Siesta Sak hoping it would help her sleep since she obviously wasn't feeling well. Nothing much happened after that. She acted like she was trying to throw up a couple times, but nothing came up, and she finally fell deep asleep and actually slept later than normal, even after I got up.

Once she woke up, she didn't really want anything to eat but was perfectly normal other than that. Except for the the horrendous diaper I had to change. She told me she was poopy and headed to her bedroom to get changed. Not thinking it was a critical thing, I decided to wrap up what I was doing before heading after her. Before I could finish, she came to tell me again and then ran back to her room. Once she turned around, I realized her legs were soaking. The best description I can give is this: Toast up a piece of bread. As soon as it comes out of the toaster, smear a fair amount of peanut butter on it and let it sit a little. That melted pool of peanut butter that normally looks so appetizing isn't so much when it's in a diaper. But we got it cleaned up and headed on with our day.

That night, we ordered pizza. Lillian still wasn't too interested in eating, but she wanted some milk. So while we watched a little tv and ate some delicious Pizza Hut, she sat on my lap and drank milk. (Can you see where this is going? I wish I had.) Then she burped. Then it ALL came out. All over her. All over the futon. All over me. Not so much all over Erik since I've never seen him move that fast, but I guess I can't blame him. I actually had to ask him to get me a towel so I didn't track it all over the house. I'll admit. I'm a pretty prissy girl (if you haven't noticed that, you're not very observant). I don't really care for getting messy. Just ask my mom. She thinks it's hilarious how I carry a dirty wash cloth. And here I was, covered in curdled milk. After Lillian was clean enough that Erik would actually touch her, he gave her a bath while I stripped (the futon and myself) and started some wash. Then she went to bed. Luckily, she completely missed the pizza.

I ended up spending another night sleeping with her next to a puke bucket she had to use twice, but about 2 am, she finally went to sleep and I went back to bed.

Don't you wish that was the end of the story? Me, too.

On Saturday, Erik and I headed down to the snowmobile show in Salt Lake. We left Lillian with Erik's parents in case she decided to be sick again, but even before we left, I could tell my stomach wasn't feeling all that great. Lillian was just fine all day, but I ended up throwing up on the way back from Salt Lake, in the car, on the freeway, into a Wal-mart bag...with a hole. Yep...a hole. We had to stop in Layton to get me a new pair of pants since I didn't think I needed a change of clothes for myself. When we left Roy, Trent sent us off with some gallon Ziploc bags, which I ended up using just before we started up Sardine. They work much better... Luckily, that was the end of my sickness. I felt achy for a couple more days, but that I can deal with.

On Sunday, we stayed home from church since no one was feeling great. Lillian went through every pair of pajamas she owned, and we did a ton of wash. We tried giving her pedialyte and pediasure since she wasn't eating anything, but she chugged them and they'd just come right back up.

She slept all day Monday, but there were no stomach pyrotechnics and we thought we were through the ordeal. She even ate a little and kept down the pedialyte. I decided to work from home on Tuesday just to give her one more day to recover. But 10 minutes after she woke up, she threw up again. This time, she was sitting in my bed. On my white comforter. There are several things in that scenario that make me ask myself what I was thinking.

But since that last episode, she's been fine. The rest of Tuesday, she ran around like her normal self. She still wasn't interested in eating, but otherwise seemed fine. We took shifts with her on Wednesday since I had some stuff for work I needed to be in the office to do. Erik took the morning and I had the rest of the day. She scarfed some spaghetti-o's and crackers and chips and was just fine.

After these last few days, I think I'm fully initiated as a mother. I've had more puke on me than anyone should ever have. But I should be able to handle anything now...right?

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Dessert....ahhhhhh

I love dessert. Pretty much any kind will do. Unfortunately, I also love food, so I'm usually too stuffed by the end of a meal to get dessert (unless it's something I can't resist like creme brulee). So when Erik came home last night and announced we were heading to the Sweet Traditions event at the court house, I was thrilled. Erik's not a big dessert person (except for that creme brulee, again), so it was so sweet of him to decide to go. (Yes...pun definitely intended. :-D)

And it was fabulous! For a dollar each, we were able to try 5 desserts (in real-sized portions - not those puny taste-test portions) from some restaurants around town. It was a little disappointing that 3 of them were a variation on cheesecake, but I'm a fan of cheesecake and didn't complain too loudly. And Hamilton's pumpkin cheesecake was AMAZING! Not to mention their Key Lime Tart, which was by far my favorite. There was also some African banana cake thing that was interesting, different, and yummy.

So even though this wasn't really Erik's thing, it's nice to have a husband who induges my vices periodically and let me bask in the glory that is too much sugar. Plus, Lillian had a great time smearing blueberry topping all over her face and then giving kisses while she danced to the music. They really should do events like this more often. And hopefully next year, more restaurants will get involved...and they'll come up with more options than cheesecake.

Update: Apparently the cheesecake from the Bluebird won the competition. The funny thing is, that was the last stop we made and after a couple bites, I decided it was just ordinary cheesecake and didn't bother to finish it. I guess the judges were purists...definitely not the way my vote would have gone.

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Halloween Activities

Friday night we attended a dance concert called Thriller. While some of it tended to drag on longer than was really necessary, most of it was pretty good. There were tap-dancing skeletons, teddy-bear-loving Jasons, River (of Blood) Dance with Jason Flatley (everyone ended up dead by a machine gun-toting clown), and the Sugarplum's finale, and I do mean finale. (Which would be a great short skit, Len, for your next Nutcracker spoof.)

But I think my favorite was the Frankenstein ballet to Romeo and Juliet. I don't know how she stayed that limp with him dragging and manhandling her around like that. There was also Lorena Bobbit and her "Cuts Like a Knife" medley, which was pretty entertaining. Although, I wonder how most parents explained why it was so funny to their children who've probably never heard of her. I know the little girl in front of us was constantly asking what was so funny. Afterward, we headed out with the girls from work for some ice cream, which was delicious, and some great conversation. We'll have to do it again, ladies.

Nancy stayed with Lillian while we were out, so we had a sleepover with her, Uncle Lars, and cousin Addison so we could head to Boo at the Zoo this morning at Willow Park Zoo. I'd never been there, but it's a cute little zoo. They even have monkeys and a wallabee. They had some game stations set up for the kids, and Addison seemed to really have a great time. Lillian was kind of cranky since she got up at the butt crack of dawn, but once she had her stuffed bear prize, she had a pretty good time, too.
The best part at the zoo, really, was hearing Erik scream like a girl as an anaconda (read: little garter snake) slithered across our path. I'm surprised he stayed in the zoo at all after that...
All in all, a pretty fun weekend.

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Good riddance, trailer trash!

For those who may not know: when we sold our trailer, we ended up playing "bank" for the people who bought it. For the last two years, they have been making monthly payments to us. Once we realized they were no longer living in Logan, we decided we didn't want the liability anymore and offered them a bit of a discount if they paid if off two years early. And today, they brought us a check! Yea!

While I'll miss the additional monthly income their payments were bringing in, it will all even out since we can now pay off the snowmobile, which means we also won't have to pay snowmobile insurance this year.

And here's the other fun part: There will be enough left over to pay off Lillian's ICU bill. It would have been paid off by the end of the year anyway since I've upped our payment in hopes of getting it gone as soon as possible, but paying off something earlier than expected is always nice - especially when you've been paying for you're kid who's almost two. I guess they can't repossess her now. :)

The frustrating part in all this good news, however, is IHC's crappy accounting department. Ok...so they probably aren't that crappy, and I know several wonderful people who work or have worked for them. (After Tina's experience with offending people, I don't want anyone to think I don't like IHC or its employees.) But here's the deal (it's kind of a long, boring story to anyone other than us, so feel free to skim):

I guess they changed how they're handling bills that are set up on a long-term payment plan like ours was. Unfortunately, they didn't bother to tell anyone (or at least I never heard anything) that this change would be taking place. Using my wonderful online bill pay, I set up the payment to go automatically on the first of every month. About that time this month, I realized I hadn't received the statement yet but didn't think too much about it since it sometimes comes a little later. When the statement finally made it to our house, I noticed the payment was no longer going to the same department and my account number had changed.

I checked our bill-pay information and saw that the check had cleared our bank the day before I got the statement and two days after they printed it, so I figured they would get everything transferred over soon. Since I could check the balance online now (that wasn't an option before), I decided to keep an eye on it for the next week or two and call if the payment never appeared. I hate when people call in a panic without giving it some time to resolve itself like the lady who called work all freaked out because she got an invoice for a conference in the mail and she'd faxed a PO the day before she received the invoice. How were we supposed to recall a letter sent in the mail just because we received your fax? But I digress...

Anyway, a week later, the payment still hasn't shown up. Now that we have this check in hand to pay the balance off, Erik called to get the payoff amount and get it taken care of. They didn't show a payment was made and transferred him to the people who used to handle our account. They told him they didn't know where the payment was and were surprised to hear that the check cleared our bank last week. "But the person transferring payments is really behind..." Surely they knew this issue would come up when they changed who was handling the payments. Maybe they should have put something in place so payments weren't "lost" in a pile on someone's desk. And how far behind is behind? How long until the payment actually shows up on my account?

Long story short: we have to get a copy of the check from our bank and fax it to them to prove we made the payment; then we can get the payoff amount. But I'm still thrilled to get rid of two bills for good and wash our hands of the trailer that was our home for four years. I almost shed a tear...almost.

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Another try...fees and all

A few years ago, Erik and I had a membership to the local gym. I went faithfully everyday during my lunch hour for probably a year or more; it might have been two - I can't really remember. Then, for some reason that completely escapes me now, my attendance dwindled. Erik's did, too, so we finally decided - after about six months of paying for something we weren't using - to cancel the membership.

After a year of trying to loose "that last 10 pounds" from having a baby (If you're still trying to loose it 2 years after the fact, can you still call it baby weight? Yes? Ok...thanks. That makes me feel better about it.) and not having much success with motivating myself to work out at home, we reinstated our membership last night. To my fellow gym-goers: anyone interested in doing Boot Camp?

What gets me about any sort of "membership" is the initial fees they hit you with. Luckily, working for the University has its perks since we don't have to pay the annual membership fee; we only have to pay a discounted version of the monthly dues. But even with the prorated membership for the rest of October, we ended up paying a full month's membership anyway just from the fees they tacked on.

Sign up fee? Are you serious? They should be paying me for signing up. After all, thanks to my signing up, they will be getting a monthly payment.

Card fee? Can you honestly tell me those cheap plastic cards with a bar code cost $10?

And even though we don't pay it, what's the deal with a separate annual fee and monthly dues? Why not just be blunt and tell me what it's actually costing me a month. I wonder if they think it's easier to swallow if you see it as two separate numbers: Look, your monthly dues is only... and you only have a small annual membership fee of...

But I fully intend to get the most for my money. At least until my attendance, once again, starts to dwindle...

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What have I started?

On Monday, Lillian was being very clingy. If I left her alone for even a second, she came running, wanting to be held or pushing my keyboard tray in and out (an ongoing battle since she realized it moves). As long as I was sitting in the room with her, whether actually interacting or not, she was fine. Since I had some things that needed to be done, I had to find some solution that didn't involve me sitting on the floor watching her move crayons from an empty wipe container to a hollow block and back again or diapering a stuffed frog over and over and over...

She's never been into TV. Some kids her age and even younger will sit and watch TV for hours, but until recently, she hasn't even noticed it's there. And I've been fine with that. I figure it means she can entertain herself fairly well, and people (myself included, I'm sure) watch way too much TV anyway. But in an act of desperation for 20 uninterrupted minutes to get some work done, I grabbed Lady and the Tramp, hoping that the puppies would occupy her for a little while.

Now, I've never been an advocate for having a TV babysit your kid, but I think there are times when it may be called for. And it worked better than I ever expected! She didn't watch the entire 1 hour and 16 minutes or anything, but it did entertain her for about 15 minutes. All I had to endure was 15 minutes of her screaming "Puppies!!!" at least once a minute, but that was tolerable. (The funniest part was really when they're trying to get Lady to sleep in the basket and she keeps getting out. When Lady started to whine, Lillian said, "Puppy sad." I had no idea she even knew what sad was...)

What was a lifesaver on Monday is now driving me crazy. As soon as we walk into the room with the TV, even if it's not on, she says, "Puppies" and points to the DVD player, and I can't distract her...she's a very determined young lady. She still only watches about 10-15 minutes at a time, but over the last week, I've probably seen or listened to parts of Lady and the Tramp about 4 full movies' worth. And I don't know if I can take anymore. I guess I created a puppy-loving monster.

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Confession

After Tina's very convincing post about registering to vote (not to mention the GINORMOUS bus Erik threw me under this morning), I figured I better come clean. I, Leonora Schaelling, am not currently registered to vote. GASP!

In all fairness, I did request to be registered when I had my license updated, but apparently, it didn't happen. And I've filled out the form...but don't ask me what I did with it. It certainly wasn't put in the mail. So as you can see, my road to hell is very well paved. I'll leave the handbasket for Erik.

Now, Erik is following things very closely and has been since this marathon election season began. He even voted in the Primaries. I, on the other hand, feel that - as most moderates/independents in Utah must - my vote isn't worth all that much. We all know where Utah's vote will go. I know, I know...if everyone who felt that way voted, maybe the outcome would be different...then again, maybe not. (As a side note, while we both voted in the last election, I would like to point out that I voted in the 2000 election and Erik didn't - so at least I have that to throw in his face.)

I hereby pledge that I will register to vote. I will start paying closer attention to the issues and listen to debaters who always seem to side-step the actual question in order to push part of their platform. I will cling to the promises I like best and hope against hope that some of them come to fruition. I will ignore the fact that I have very little faith in politicians in general and put my faith in the system as a whole (because it really is better than some alternatives out there). But most importantly, I will proudly wear my "I Voted" sticker on November 4. Now please stop nagging!

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Frog Update

No, the frogs aren't dead. And shame on any of you who assumed that's what my update would be. ;-) No...this post is about Erik.

For someone so reluctant to get two tiny little frogs, Erik is suddenly very gung ho on the whole fish ownership thing. We've had fish before - in fact, we had quite a large tank with some beautiful cichlids - but we always end up forgetting to change the filter cartridge, deciding we don't have the time or the desire to clean the tank as often as needed, etc. and choose to go back to being fishless. But after seeing how much Lillian loves to watch these silly frogs, he went out last night and bought a 5-gallon tank for them and will be adding some low-maintenance gold fish in the next couple days.

Now, I was perfectly happy with my little frogs that require a water change every two weeks, no filter/thermometer/light needed...basically, think about them once in a while and they're fine. But now we have a cute little tank with rocks that will need to be "vacuumed," filters that will need to be changed, and water that is quite a bit harder to replace (think 5 gallons vs. the maybe 1/2 gallon the frogs are in now). And who do you suppose will be doing all this work? Ummm, yeah...not Erik.

I guess I can't complain too much, though, since I entered into this willingly and even picked out the rock/plant combination to put in the tank so the poor things have somewhere to play if they get a hankering. But we're definitely going with the cheap gold fish so I don't feel as bad when my $15 fish has to be flushed.

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Herbert and Nigel

Erik was so excited to get the goat video up that he didn't really give me a chance to add anything to the post about the Fall Festival. There wasn't a ton to do, for either us or Lillian. Next year, Lillian will probably have a good time with the little "carnival games" like the fish pond behind the curtain and pony rides.

Other than the goat fiasco, the best part was the addition of Herbert and Nigel to our household. Herbert and Nigel happen to be African Dwarf Frogs, and I just couldn't pass them up. I think Erik thought I was a little out of my mind, but he let me have my way and they came home with us. They don't do much, so we may have to add a couple gold fish to the mix just to keep things interesting. Lillian sure thinks they're fun, though, so it was totally worth it.

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Sucker Thief

Today we went to the Fall Festival 2008 at the American West Heritage Center. Really not as great as we had hoped, but they did have a petting zoo and poor Lillian had a run-in with a goat that stole her yummy sucker. The video says it all.

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