Not sure how to feel about this one...

We got a portable DVD player for the van a couple of years ago. It was pretty cheap and pooped out, so we've been debating whether or not to buy a new one. Anders never stops talking- really- especially in the car, so we've been particularly interested in one as of late. It's just another expense and one that's hard to justify, so we've been trying to find a decent one for not much money.

About 20 minutes ago I was sitting here at the computer doing the old budget while Nils was trying to find power in the basement bathroom. He started yelling something about "Holy cow! I just found a DVD player!" I had no clue what he was talking about, but he kept yelling, shouting praises of joy about finding a portable DVD player. I went to see what he was talking about and then he said, "Ohhhhh, Brother (former owner of our house) had a problem."

Take a wild guess what he found next to the DVD player. Yes, DVD's. Hidden in the basement. Naughty ones. Isn't that incredibly sad? I'm not even happy that we just scored a free DVD player. It's a really nice one, too.

Nils says to make sure to clarify that the DVD player was very dusty.

I've Been Tagged

Alrighty, Lindsey- here ya go. But only 'cause I love ya so darn much!

What I was doing 10 years ago:

I actually remember quite well- Nils had just left Utah to go home to Connecticut so he could prepare for the ol' mission. I was completely devastated. I was sobbing my eyes out exactly ten years ago. I was SO sad. I had never been so sad, nor have I since. I think I cried for two consecutive weeks. It was pathetic.

What I was doing 1 year ago:

Just checked the old blog archive, and one year ago Nils started working a second job so he was gone all day every day. I was trying not to beat the children.

5 Snacks I enjoy:
(This list is subject to frequent change)

1. Cottage cheese with fruit
2. Chips and salsa
3. Double fudge cookie dough Blizzard. Holy crap, that's good eatin'.
4. Snap peas
5. Junior Mints

5 Songs I know the words to:

1. Pretty much anything off Counting Crows' August and Everything After album. Wipe away those tears, Courtney. I know you're proud.
2. Most U2 songs
3. Alien- Bush
4. I'll Be- Edwin McCain
5. Straight Up- Paula Abdul (My very first cassette!)

What I would do if I were a millionaire:

1. Get the brakes fixed by a professional. They've been squeaking for over a year.
2. Contract out the basement, although that would make Nils sad.
3. Go on a Hawaiian cruise tomorrow
4. Buy and flip a house
5. Get a fence

5 Bad Habits:

1. Thinking about cake too much
2. Reading the obituaries. I guess it's more of a guilty pleasure, but I'm weird about it.
3. Too much time checking all these blogs!
4. Falling asleep before reading my scriptures
5. Sleeping cold. The rest of the family suffers so I can be comfortable.

5 Things I like Doing:

1. Reading
2. Cooking/Baking
3. Watching "The King of Queens"
4. Being with friends. This is actually a requirement for my sanity.
5. Exercising/Running. Just not at the moment.

5 Things I'll Never Wear Again:

1. Overalls
2. Anything with sequins
3. Socks with sandals
4. Socks with pumps- although it is extremely sexy.
5. Sweater vests, or anything with appliqué

5 Fave Toys:

1. The computer
2. Our heated towel rack
3. All of my Pampered Chef gadgetry
4. My George Foreman grill
5. My gym membership

THE END

Captain Claw- My First Graphics Package

One of the gazillion things I do at work is to design graphics for the machines that we manufacture. I was recently asked to redesign a crane that we make (you know, the machines with the claw that you position over a toy in hopes of retrieving it). The previous version was pretty lame so anything I did would have been an improvement. So I came up with Captain Claw and took off with it. Thanks to my handy dandy Wacom Tablet (a must have for all Adobe addicts) I was able to draw this all out by hand. How cool is my job? I sit at work and draw pirates and then go home. OK, so it's not quite that simple but that is part of my job. I also get cursed by Bosnian refugees and I'm surrounded by people who ought to be subjects of fascinating yet tragic documentaries. But I like my job. Anyway, here it is. Captain Claw. If you ever see one of these at a store just let me know. I'd be so proud me wee little self. Eearrrgh, Matey.

A Day to Remember

DISCLAIMER: This post is not exciting and probably not interesting to you. However, since this is my "journal" (well, other than the fuzzy pink diary where I write all of my deep, dark secrets, ha ha) I feel the need to document my weekend of illness. So stop reading if you don't care. Seriously. You'll be bored.

Saturday I woke up with a headache. I took some medicine in hopes that it would nip it in the bud. At 1:00 I got a migraine aura, stopped my "save the marigolds" project (to be written about later) and went inside to lay down. (Okay, I say "Lay" because I'm from Utah; Nils says "Lie" because he's an Easterner and was educated properly. I know I'm wrong grammatically, but to me "lie" means to not tell the truth. I just can't get past it. Sorry- Can you tell I've been hopped up on narcotics all weekend?)

My headache did not go away. Oh no, it did not go away. It got worse. Sleep was elusive and not helping, medicine wasn't helping, time wasn't helping. I went to bed Saturday night, would doze for a few minutes, but the pain literally kept me up all night. This was the worst headache I have ever had in my life. Ever. I'm a headache connoisseur, I'll have you know. I thought I was having a stroke. I finally woke Nils up Sunday at 4:30 a.m. for a blessing, and all I could think was to call the doctor as soon as the hour was no longer ungodly. I hate calling doctors after hours. I'm sure they get all kinds of psychos that just want attention, so I try my best not to be one of those.

I called my Hallmark doctor at 7:45 a.m., told him I was having the worst headache of my life, blah blah blah. He said, "Go to the hospital, and hopefully we won' t have to deliver you." Always comforting. Off we went, but not before I put the roast in the crock pot. Always thinkin', Katrina, always thinkin'.

At the hospital my blood pressure was FABULOUS! 110/78, baby! Does it get any better? I think not- so why would I be having a stroke? The nurse noticed that I was pretty congested, which I have been for a couple weeks. In the back of my mind I suspected I may have a sinus infection, but what a stupid reason to be in LABOR AND DELIVERY. The doctor came in on his WAY TO CHURCH, happily told me we didn't have to deliver, and I told him I had I sinus infection and felt like an idiot. He said, "Oh, no, it's okay, I had to come anyway for some blah blah blah" which I translated to mean, "I'm late for sacrament meeting, but I took a code of ethics in medical school- so I have to be here, CRAZY WOMAN!"

After a nice shot of morphine (ahhhhhh, morphine) and a Z-pack (ahhhhh, Z-pack) I went home, completely stoned and loving it, and went to bed until 3:30. Nils' family came over last night for dinner, and somehow I was able to prepare a big dinner for them. Morphine. I was totally stoned while they were over. I couldn't think of words- like the rice was "sticky", but after trying for 5 minutes to say "sticky", someone had to say it for me.

The moral of this story is: The next time you think you're having a stroke, it's probably just a sinus infection. But don't hesitate to go to Labor and Delivery to have it taken care of; they'll give you morphine.

Addie and Her Towel

A couple months ago Addie spilled water in her crib in the middle of the night. Since I'm a lazy mom, I grabbed the first towel out of the linen closet and covered up the wet spot to get her through until morning. It just happened to be the biggest beach towel ever made, and now she thinks it's her blankie. She must sleep with it, eat with it, be rocked with it...she's even abandoned her old blankie for it. This is serious. It's pretty ghetto- like we don't actually give our daughter a real blanket, so she has to develop an attachment to whatever she can. Poor Addie. She calls it her "Towel Blankie", or in Addie speak, "Wowel Ginkie".

Finishing the Basement: Step 1

To those of you who regularly check in on this blog, sorry for the boringness here but I wanted to start the documentation of my basement finishing project. I went ahead and ordered the studs for framing the basement so they should be here tomorrow. In preparation for the arrival of all that lumber (2oo 8' boards plus 13 of the 16' pressure treated pieces) I decided I had better organize the basement a bit so that I could actually work down there. I moved all of our crap to the middle, ripped all of the temporary insulation down and then hammered down the little metal brackets that were sticking out of the foundation. So now I'm ready to bring in the boards and start nailing. I bought a big ol' box of nails and borrowed the neighbors giganto framing nailer. It scares the pee out of me. If you hold the trigger for more than a split second it fires three nails. Ouch. That'll take some getting used to but hopefully the framing will go quickly. So now it begins. Yeah!

Lessons Learned:

• Don't haul around a bunch of useless crap in boxes that you leave in the boxes for years. It makes for more work when it's time to finish the basement.
• Don't buy lumber at Home Depot. Home Depot 2x4x8' cost: $3.35. Local lumber store cost (Burton Lumber): $2.30. Quantity needed: 200. Savings: $210!
  

New Niece

Many of you know that Nils' youngest sister and I were expecting babies around the same time. Well, she had her baby yesterday- 6 weeks early! Her water broke on Sunday and she had the baby yesterday morning. She weighed 6 lbs. 9 oz.- 6 WEEKS EARLY! If she would have carried her full term, the kid would have been 12 pounds! The baby is in the NICU to help with her breathing, so hopefully she'll be able to start breathing on her own and eating so she can go home soon. Everyone is really glad she's as healthy as she is. Six weeks is pretty significant.

Yesterday I took the kids on a walk through the neighborhood. There's a path that cuts through the entire development. It's probably a mile long, so it's a good walk for a pregnant woman. I walked to the end of it, turned around, and realized I might not make it the mile back. My belly was aching, my back was aching, my pants were falling down and my shirt wouldn't stay down. Then Anders says, "Mommy, can you walk faster? These wheels are NOT moving very fast." I thought I might have to lay down on the sidewalk and have him go knock on a door to beg for a ride home. We made it home eventually, but I think from now on I'll stick to the gym where I won't get stranded on some pathway a mile from home.

Hallmark

I saw my obstetrician at Hallmark last night. I sort of felt like I was in 5th grade again, when I saw my teacher at the grocery store and said to my mom, "Mr. Greer buys groceries, too?"

Obstetricians buy cards at Hallmark, too? Obstetricians aren't supposed to exist outside of their workplace, are they? I like my doctor and everything, but you know...
Anyway, some friendly small talk was exchanged and that was that. I will be more cautious while shopping for birthday cards from now on.

Miraculous

This almost never happens, so when it does we consider it a miracle. It really messed up bedtime, though.

Baby Dreams

So, I'm sure I'm not alone when I talk about psychotic pregnancy dreams. When I was pregnant with Anders, I dreamed that while in labor, Nils and I traded places. After trading places, Nils turned into an Asian man. He then gave birth to our Asian baby.

Last night I dreamed that I had our new baby, but she came out African-American, and had only one eye- in the middle of her head. This troubled me. In my dream I was thinking that Nils must have a recessive gene or something, because I KNOW it's his kid. I was more bothered by the whole cyclops thing, though.