Yellow Wallpaper

1. Chocolate shredded wheat 2. Heated seats in my car 3. Watching movies with the kids 4. Costco 5. Connecting with friends and family on social media 6. My credit card company reversing a late fee after realizing their error 7. Natalie Merchant 8. Snowy mountains with a backdrop of blue skies 9. Corduroy pants 10. Reading the Book of Mormon quickly

For the past two years I have done NaBloPoMo , but I just didn't feel up to it this year. The year before that I posted two weeks of 'thankful' posts. Neither of those things is going to happen this year; don't worry, I'm still thankful for the same things I've posted about before. I just wanted to share a few of the good things that have been happening lately. Life still has its little annoyances and I never feel like I have enough patience, time, or sleep; that doesn't mean that there's not good to be found everywhere. We've been in our house for nearly a year and I love being here. I love our home itself; it's just the right size for us and so comfortable. I'm looking forward to hosting Thanksgiving with many of my family members here and I love having a home that gives me space to have family gatherings. During the last few days the older two kids have been playing together really well. A week or so ago we had a scary incident where they ...

Tonight for Family Home Evening we talked about Thanksgiving and made a little 'gratitude turkey' where we wrote on the feathers which things we were thankful for. Little Dude even did his feathers without any help by drawing his fire truck bed, his special rock box, and his family. He also mentioned that he was thankful for the library. Then while we were brushing teeth S-Boogie told us that at school today she wrote that when she grows up she wants to be a librarian because she loves books and she loves the library. I'm sure part of this was prompted by the fact that Monday is library day for the kids, and their dad is a librarian (even though he's not working there full-time right now). But I'm glad my children love the library even though neither of them can read on their own yet. I can't wait until they start picking out their own books to read all by themselves. I can also say that I'm truly grateful for libraries. I've spent countless hours there ...

Beautiful almond orchards Fun Christmas tree farms with free popcorn and fun "sleigh" rides California weather My dad and his excellent photography skills My generous mom who bought me a new nativity set, a bunch of Bath and Body Works soap, and is now taking my daughter out to see The Nutcracker tonight A real Christmas tree--my room smells heavenly Pumpkin cake for dessert (again) tonight

We've had a fun few days here in our house, as evidenced by my tired eyes from late nights and my sore tummy from too much eating. Friday night Mr. Fob graduated for the third, and last, time since I married him. His mother came up to stay with us for a few days and my parents and sister came up on Friday (and left today) as well. Friday night we went to the graduation (the kids had a babysitter and we were all very grateful for it), yesterday we spent the morning cooking and the afternoon picnicking at the park, and today we attended sacrament meeting to see S-Boogie sing for Father's Day. Then this afternoon we ate even more food, including a special cake that S-Boogie decorated at the grocery store yesterday afternoon. It was a quick trip for my parents and sister, but I was glad we could all spend time together. I love the opportunity to see my kids interacting with their relatives and the good times we can have together. I also think that it is serendipitous that graduat...

I'm thankful that dinner turned out beautifully and everything tasted great. It was even ready on time and we only had one semi-major mishap. I tried the Alton Brown recipe for turkey from the Food Network and stuck the turkey in the oven to start at 500 degrees. After 20 minutes smoke started filling the house. It turned out that the old Pyrex pan I was using to cook it in split right down the middle. The grease was spilling out and burning all over the oven. We got the turkey in a new pan and cleared the air and the rest of the dinner went well. It could have been a lot worse. I'm thankful my sister came to visit. We love having her come and she's already been a lot of fun. Plus she brought Williams Sonoma peppermint hot chocolate and a fun Thai martial arts movie that we watched tonight. And she cleaned up the kitchen this evening. I'm thankful to live in a beautiful city with so many opportunities to see nature right by our house. After our meal we drove over to a ...

When I asked Mr. Fob last week if I should plan something for our anniversary, he told me that he was planning a surprise. I figured we'd just be going out to dinner or something. After we drove up to the ferry terminal I really started to wonder how late we were going to be staying out. It turns out that we didn't come home until 9 this morning. We had a lovely overnight stay here in a suite that was almost as big as our apartment, but had the added bonus of no children and a jacuzzi tub for two. It was perfect. Mr. Fob packed some frozen Thai food from Trader Joe's for dinner and we had a lovely breakfast this morning in our room (this inn puts it in the fridge for you the night before so you can warm it up and eat it when you want). We were rushed this morning because we had to get back early for our babysitter, so we didn't get to see much of the island or anything, but it was still a fabulous getaway. I guess today I am thankful for surprises.

Today I am thankful for six years of marriage. Happy anniversary to us! Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

This morning we had our first parent-teacher conference with S-Boogie's preschool teachers. I will admit to being a little nervous--it's hard as a parent to not feel judged when your children are being evaluated. It turned out to be a very positive experience. I'm grateful that she is in such a quality program that focuses on what preschool should be: learning social and cognitive skills and not just rote learning. They use a "core curriculum" with four major focus areas (social, cognitive, motor, and language) that are broken into smaller, specific goals. S-Boogie's teachers first praised her for her adaptability, her friendliness, her enthusiasm for writing and drawing, and her great motor skills. Then we set goals for her to work on. We actually don't have any motor skills goals because she is doing well in all areas there. In the social area we are going to work on her ability to manage her emotions (instead of bursting into tearful drama over every di...

Today I'm glad that I had the opportunity to serve a mission (sorry for the picture--I don't have a better scanner than this). I'm grateful for the gospel learning and growth that happened during that time. I'm very grateful for the fact that my mission stretched me in so many ways and helped learn how to truly love others. I'm still trying to learn how to do that, but it was a good start. I also love the fact that while on my mission I met the wonderful man who is know my husband. I feel a little funny putting up a picture of us as missionaries. I had no idea at the time that we would come home and fall in love with each other. We served together in the same district for eight months, so about half of my entire time in Spain. I knew many elders who were rude, lazy, mean, vulgar, and various other forms of ugly. Mr. Fob was a caring, compassionate missionary who lead humbly and honestly. I was impressed by his lack of pretension and his willingness and enthusiasm f...

Today I am thankful for rain. I love how everything here is so green and how the air always feels nice on my skin, even in the winter. This morning we went for a walk while it was raining, and the smell of rain mixed with coffee, cigarettes, warm pastry, and car fumes always reminds me of Madrid (it rains a lot there in the winter too). I've also realized that I like how the rain breaks up the monotony of clear weather and refreshes the earth. Rainy days can be a good time to stay inside, play with toys, and bake gingersnaps. One of my favorite songs is the following: Dark cloud is coming Headed straight for your heart Might get just a little bit crazy, baby Might try to tear us apart When the storm blows over Only the true love remains If we're ever gonna see a rainbow We have to stand a little rain Everybody wants love to be easy But it's never been that way Each love starts out with blue skies Sometimes those blue skies turn grey When the storm blows over Only the strong...

Tonight we went to a spaghetti dinner over at the community center for family housing. I mostly signed up to go because it meant free food without having to cook (we did have to donate some canned goods for entrance), but I was glad tonight for the chance to spend some time with friends and to be a part of the community. My long-time readers will remember the great trauma we had with moving here last summer. I was a little reluctant to move back into campus housing after several years of living on our own, but after several months of fruitless long-distance apartment shopping and with only days left before homelessness I was happy to get a spot here. And I've really enjoyed this last year. I like our community, both the members of our ward and those who are not. I love the fact that my children have so many friends close by and many opportunities to play with them. I like our apartment too; it's a bit dark and cave-like, but it's still a comfortable home. We're getting ...

Today I am grateful for Dr. Seuss. He's pretty much the best children's book author ever. I remember one time as a kid on our way to the beach my mom pointed out his house and thought it was amazing. When I was four or five we all got Dr. Seuss books from the Santa at the Christmas party at my dad's work. For several years afterwards one of our favorite games was " oobleck ", in which the floor became oobleck and we had to jump on furniture, toys, or books to escape. My mom hated it. Dr. Seuss also wrote the most amazing ABC book ever. I had it memorized as a kid and have read it to both of mine. The interesting thing is, they have both loved it and through it have come to love the alphabet. S-Boogie called her letters " cees " for a long time, and Little Dude has recently started pointing out letters and saying " eee ". It's also one of the few alphabet books to recognize that in the English language the letter X most commonly appears wit...

Tonight I am grateful for sleep. I've always had trouble getting to sleep, but once I'm there it's hard to get me back out of bed. Nothing makes me happier than snuggling up underneath warm blankets in my cozy pajamas. I'm also grateful that my children have both learned to sleep all night in their own beds. Little Dude usually goes to bed quite easily these days and he still takes a nice nap during the middle of the day. I think that small children sleep so much as a defense mechanism--if I didn't get that nap time break during the day we'd both be sick of each other by dinnertime. Tonight I'm exhausted; time to log off and go to bed!

The summer before my freshman year of high school I decided to try out for the drill team. Even though I was pretty much a nerd, I secretly envied the drill team girls. My tryout experience was pretty much like something out of Beverly Hills 90210. For some reason I decided to try out for "banners"--the girls who marched in front with the metal signs spelling out my high school's name. There weren't very many spots, so this was the most competitive section of the drill team, but I didn't realize that before I got involved. I lasted for only two days in the tryouts; the other girls laughed at me, wouldn't give me a practice banner, and basically made my life miserable. I went home, cried, and decided that I was just a nerd and that was never going to change. Thankfully I soon found a way to use my nerd cred. I'm not even sure how I heard about the Knowledge Bowl team, but it was a perfect fit. I loved Jeopardy! and the only physical skills I needed were fa...

I've been trying to decide what I'm thankful for today; there are so many things. I want to echo my mom in being thankful for veterans. I'm thankful for Mr. Fob for helping me write a better statement of purpose for my applications; it's great to have someone who I can bounce ideas off of. Despite the fact that he envies my intelligence , I envy his articulateness even more because it doesn't matter how smart you are if it never manages to come out of your mouth right. Actually, I think today that I am thankful for clementines . Today we went to the store and I bought a big bag of fresh, new-crop fruit that was tasty and juicy. Plus my kids love them and I feel good that they are getting plenty of vitamin C.

Today I am thankful for church. Despite my post earlier about toddler trauma, I enjoy going every week. There's a reason why I keep showing up, and some weeks that reason is more clear than others. Today was a nice change for me. Mr. Fob came so we could watch S-Boogie in the Primary program. Ours was surprisingly uneventful, but very sweet and spiritual. S-Boogie declared "to be close to Jesus we say family prayer every night" clearly and loudly into the microphone, and I could see her singing almost every song (usually just the first verse, then she'd lose interest). After sacrament meeting Mr. Fob took Little Dude home with him because he was a bit too snotty and tired for nursery. I used that opportunity to stop by the stake offices and finish the interview process for my new recommend. I had a sweet little chat with a member of the stake presidency that I hadn't met before but who managed to provide some comfort and insight into my life. Then in Relief Societ...

I'm thankful for having a washer and dryer in my home. It's a luxury that not many people in the world have. When we were first married we lived in Wymount and didn't have laundry in our apartment. Thankfully we were still childless and could get away with washing our clothes every few weeks. Shortly after S-Boogie was born we moved to a new apartment in Orem. It had washer and dryer hookups. Even better than that, my parents happened to have an extra washer and dryer and were coming out to Utah. They stuck them in the back of the Suburban and drove them across the country for us. We've had them for four years now and they're still working. I'm crossing my fingers on that--the washer's been making a funny noise for about three years. I had someone come look at it and he said that some part was breaking down and not worth replacing. So I'm holding my breath that we can hold on a little longer until next summer when we (hopefully) move to a new home. For n...

Today I am thankful for reading. I'm glad that the printing press was invented; I've probably spent half of my lifetime reading something or other. I have always had this compulsion to investigate and find out about things. I love to learn and to know stuff. Books are my friends. Today S-Boogie folded up a paper, drew a picture and some lines on it, and then "read" me her book. It was a story about a wolf who lived in a castle and who had to fight some bad guys to get out and go to school. I'm glad that she's starting to love books too and that she understands the power of storytelling. Little Dude is also getting into reading and we often spend most of the morning reading books together before we go wait for the bus. Even though I'm not always a gung-ho patriot, I am very grateful to live in a country with freedom of the press and an amazing supply of information. Although I've read some who worry that our country is moving towards totalitarianism, I ...

Today I am thankful for General Conference. I just got my copy of the Ensign in the mail yesterday so I've finally had a chance to start reading through talks. Since having children I pretty much don't get anything out of watching conference, but I still like to try. Getting the Ensign is a good way to catch up on what I missed. I know that some consider General Conference to be a reminder of the centralized hierarchy that rules the church. I've always felt completely opposite; Conference reminds me of the fact that I belong to a global church. On one weekend we are all tuned in together, hearing the same messages and participating in a world-wide communion. I love the pictures in the conference edition of the magazine; I especially like that they have started to introduce some photos from around the world. Some day I would like to attend conference in person. Despite living in Utah for nearly ten years I never took the opportunity. I also realized while reading through t...