my excuses

Today I took advantage of the wonderful fake spring weather and began a little spring cleaning. I took all the piles of papers and accumulated junk from the various surfaces in my bedroom and put them all on the bed for sorting and putting away. With so many now open surfaces I realized that a serious dusting was in order and so spent some time cleaning off the surfaces that haven't seen the sun since, oh, last summer sometime. I am something of a pack-rat. Once the room was dusted I turned my attention back to the pile on the bed, but was soon distracted by an invitation to help wash the cars.

To be fair, I was the one who originally extended the car washing invitation to my dad because I knew how filthy our cars were and wanted his help. I offered to help him with his cars if he would help with mine. Done. I'm not sure how long I expected it to take to wash four semi-large vehicles, but I certainly didn't expect it to take two hours. As soon as we finished I had to take a lie-down break to rest these old, aching bones, and then got busy making dinner.

When dinner was in the oven I had to rush to take a shower and get ready to pick Somebody up from the airport (he has been in San Antonio this week for a work conference) and so never did find the time to return to the pile of junk on the bed. On our way home from the airport I told Somebody that the pile was still there (I had talked to him earlier in the day and he knew I was planning to clean the room) and that we were going to have to sleep in the guest room or on the couch tonight because there was no way I was going to get it cleaned before we needed to go to bed. He said, "Oh, I never expected you to finish."

What? Am I not a finisher? Has my reputation proceeded me? Do I leave piles of things that I'm "cleaning" sitting around for weeks? Oh, yes, I do. Huh. Maybe I'll work on that. As soon as I finish the pile in the bedroom...

Saturday, February 24, 2007

doing what i can with what i've got

So, you know my little problem? The embarrassment that currently is my scalp and hair? The grossness that makes it painful for me to leave the house? The abomination of yuck that I will never get used to? Yeah. Okay, let's not really talk about it. Let's talk about what I'm trying to do to fix this problem. After scouring the stores for some clarifying/build-up reducing/miracle shampoo, this was the best I could find. Correction: the was the ONLY thing in the store that even mentioned the words cleaning or build-up. The. Only. One. Because this only happens to men? Because they use more product? Because they suffer from pregnancy hormones? Whatever. An any case, it seems to be helping. Not curing, sadly, but helping. The best feature about this shampoo? It "Has A Fresh Clean Masculine Scent." I have no where to go but up.


February 23, 2007

wasting away again

I have nothing to say today except that I hate when on tv shows the characters go to a bar or a club or a party and then for five minutes they show the band playing. I don't care about the stupid band! Advance the plot! I hate that.

February 22, 2007
My Chinese Wedding Dinner

prosperity through hard work

Our conversation on Saturday night:
Somebody: I think I am only going to go to sacrament meeting tomorrow.
Me: What? Why?
S: Well, it's a holiday.
M: Uh, only kind of. It's not really a holiday here.
S: It's a holiday for me. If it was Christmas, would you go to all three hours of church, or would you only have sacrament meeting?
M: We would only have sacrament meeting. But it's not Christmas.
S: What if it was Christmas and Thanksgiving and New Years all rolled in to one?
M: But it's not. It's just the Chinese New Year.
S: I don't even know you.
M: Whatever. If you feel good about it...
S: Oh, I feel good about it.

We celebrated the Chinese New Year with a fancy-pants Chinese dinner that Somebody spent a week preparing for and a full day cooking. It was spectacular. Besides the six dishes below, we also had dumplings, a mushroom/tofu dish, and noodles (I don't know how I missed getting pictures of those.) Oh, and below you see oranges, steamed tilapia, bok choy, squid, shrimp, and pork all cooked and sauced to perfection.Amazing. The boy knows how to cook. He said that it never felt quite like it was New Year's Eve, and that somehow something was missing (possibly his Chinese family?), but at least he could drown his sorrows in good food.

Two years ago, as part of a last honeymoon, Somebody and I, along with my parents, traveled to Taiwan during the two weeks of the Chinese New Year. The main purpose of the trip was to have a wedding dinner with Somebody's family and to give me and my parents a little exposure to a culture completely foreign to us. I have been my typical lazy self and never really finished my postings of that trip. The laziness ends now. Starting today, and for the remainder of the New Year, I'll post what we were doing on this day two years ago. Prepare to be blown away by my gripping stories and my very blond hair. You can catch the first days of the New Year by following the links below.

Chinese New Year's Eve (Saturday, February 17, 2007)
New Year's Day
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday

a year in review

I feel fully justified in posting this now because half of my family is Chinese and the Chinese rang in the New Year just this past weekend. Here are a few pictoral highlights from this past year:


January: We bought a bamboo steamer and (sort of) perfected the steamed bun.

February: I had what was both the best trip and the worst trip to Arizona. The worst because I stubbed my toe, lost a toenail, and got strep throat. The best because I got to see the lovely Housewife and her family, AND I got to have the yummiest fresh oranges ever.

March: We started our indoor plantings for our square foot gardens. It became clear that Somebody has a serious green thumb because all his starters sprung to life too early to go into the ground and (I think) became the beginning of the end of our gardens. April: The highlight for sure was our trip to Utah where we got to spend time with some good friends and have raclette for the first time.
May: Family, family, and more family, which we were so excited about that we jumped off the boat. Also, this month I stopped wearing eyeliner. No one noticed.June: I ventured back to Canada and had the best two-hour cab ride that ended with these yummy burgers.July: I won a "guess how many m&ms are in this jar" competition and won all 8,000 of them. That's a lot of m&ms.

August: Somebody started working full-time (at a job he continues to love), we bought a new car (which I continue to love), oh, and we found out about the little guy. No biggie.September: I branched out from just cherry and peach and perfected the blueberry pie. October: I went to Houston and wore this wig for a work party. Sadly, I have never had more compliments on my hair in my life.
November: The highlight of the month (and quite possibly the year) was the weekend we spent in Boston, Albany, and New York City. We got to see places we love and friends we love even more.

December: Christmas in Utah with family and 18 inches of snow in 24 hours. And a pool. And a really steep hill. Also some skiing for Somebody.
2008: This year has completely kicked my trash. It has been challenging in ways that I didn't know were possible, and more than once I have felt beaten and spent. Luckily there is a light at the end of this tunnel--a small but bright light who is kicking me right now. It also helps that when I have steep hills to climb Somebody will always be there.

a letter to my belly

Dear Pregnancy,

It’s been a rocky road from the beginning, hasn’t it? We haven’t always seen eye to eye, and yet I’ve consistently bent to your will. I keep telling myself how it’s all worth it and there isn’t anything you can throw at me that I can’t take. Extreme exhaustion? Subconjunctival hemorrhages? Inability to eat a full meal? Bleeding? Done. Nausea and vomiting? Meh. Everyone’s doing it. Granted, they aren’t doing it well into month FIVE, but, hey, you want to make this a real challenge? Go ahead. Oh, you want me to actually wake up in the middle of the night with the nausea? Fine. Bring it. But then, Pregnancy, you started in on the blemishes. I thought we had talked about this. The face was off-limits, remember? I do realize you are sticking to one very specific area of the face, but that doesn’t make this any easier for me. Still, I’ve stuck with you. I’ve made excuses for you to my ever-patient husband and have done my best to not cry in front of you. I have waited months and months for all the wonderful things that I heard in pregnancy fairy tales—energy, full and healthy hair, maternal glow, the second trimester of wonderfulness, and the nesting. Those stories about this being the best and most wonderful and seriously most blessed time of my life? Lies. Also, if one more person tells me about how when they were pregnant they "felt more like a woman than any other time in their life" or how "they loved loved loved being pregnant" or how "pregnancy was the easiest and most wonderful thing that ever happened to them" I will very likely smack them.

However, whatever truce we had has now come to an abrupt end. As I’m sure you’re well aware, the happenings on the top of my head are just about pushing me over the edge. Dandruff? Are you even kidding me? And the greasy build-up of seven weeks of camping? What gives, Pregnancy? This in no way resembles the healthy and luxurious locks I was promised in Laurel class. I’ve tried to be patient, I really have. I’ve taken your beatings and waddled on with a smile. But now? Well, if you were an actual person I’d give you the stink-eye and a powerful uppercut. I have no idea why people agree to do this more than once, except, I totally do because I know I would. Consider this a challenge, you mischievous mixed blessing, you. You can’t beat me. I will triumph. Do your worst. I’m totally going to rock these final 99 days. Or at least wear headbands and hats.

(Wait, you’ve already done your worst, right? We’re past the hard part, aren’t we? Hello? Pregnancy? Call me!)

Jennifer