Day 1: recent picture and 15 things

I haven't been very good at blogging lately. I guess I've lost my interest for the most part; however, I've seen some variations of this on a couple of blogs and I thought I'd try it out:

day 1- recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself
day 2- the meaning behind your blog name
day 3- a picture of you and your friends
day 4- a habit that you wish you didn’t have
day 5- a picture of somewhere you've been to
day 6- favorite super hero and why
day 7- a picture of someone/something that has the biggest impact on you
day 8- short term goals for this month and why
day 9- something you're proud of in the past few days
day 10- songs you listen to when you are happy, sad, bored, hyped, mad
day 11- another picture of you and your friends
day 12- how you found out about blogger and why you have one
day 13- a letter to someone
day 14- a picture of you and your family
day 15- put your ipod on shuffle: first 10 songs that play
day 16- another picture of yourself
day 17- someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why
day 18- plans/dreams/goals you have
day 19- nicknames you have and why you have them
day 20- someone you love
day 21- a picture of something that makes you happy
day 22- what makes you different from everyone else
day 23- favorite tv shows
day 24- something you crave for a lot
day 25- your last five facebook statuses
day 26- favorite movies
day 27- what I would find in your bag
day 28- what do you think about your friends
day 29- why are you doing this 30 day challenge
day 30- a picture of you from last year and now, how have you changed since then?

{Day1}
(Picture taken from the point of view of Hannah who wanted to play with Mommy's camera so I was helping her out)

1) I've lived in two different countries and three different states
2) I often set goals way beyond my ability to achieve--my husband always rolls his eyes at me
3) I love listening to classical music and I love art history
4) I cry at almost any movie and tv show I watch and I cry in EVERY book I read
5) I have been in one car accident (and I sort of caused it)
6) Adam says that I am morbid because I have a fascination with true crime stories--He also thinks I'm getting "tips" for how to do away with his body when I kill him hahaha
7) I wish I could paint and play the piano but I've tried and failed at both
8) The first CD I ever bought was Titanic
9) I am obsessed with books and bookstores. I always have to go into them when I am near them but it is rare that I will buy books from bookstores and not Amazon or my Library in the Used section. On a similar note, I frequently go to great lengths to discover what books people are reading (without actually asking them).
10) I am a phone talker. I love to talk on the phone--which helps when you live far away from someone. I can talk to Caitlin Fowler, Rosalie Mastaler, Megan and Margie Marsden for well over an hour a day--each, although it is rare I will talk to all four of them in one day.
11) I want to get my Masters degree but I have no idea what field of study to pursue.
12) I 'Dear John-ed' not one but TWO missionaries in the same month--The month before I got engaged.
13) I own seven pairs of jeans--among them are Lucky Jeans, True Religion, and Joes but I am most often found in my OLD NAVY jeans. Why I chose the 20 dollar jeans over the 400 I don't know... (don't worry, the expensive ones were gifts).
14) Speaking of OLD NAVY I love Old Navy and could buy all my clothes from that one store. Forever.
15) My husband and I went on our first date because of a major comedy of errors and hit it off so well we started spending all our time together, even though I was never supposed to be the one on that date.

Reflections of Motherhood

Conversations with my sister

Megan: did you know there are unicorns in the Book of Mormon?
Me: What?
Megan: Well I think I actually just made that up.
Me: hahaha
Megan: Well something reminded me of a unicorn in the book of Mormon. I think they were talking about horses with horns
Me: ?
Megan: Oh maybe I'm thinking of Satan.

I love my sister.

Lucky # 13

Tomorrow Hannah will go on her 13th plane ride in 8 months.

Tomorrow will be my 13th plane ride with Hannah.

Out of those 13 flights, 9 of them will have been without Adam.

First of all, I want to say how GRATEFUL I am that I've been able to do it. That we've had the money, time, and opportunity to have such fast travel access to our families in Utah and California. The best word to describe the way I feel about Hannah growing up away from her extended family is grief. I feel like she will miss out on so much growing up around people who love and adore her(luckily we have FABULOUS friends here that we love and that treat us like family).

I was talking to my mom about flying with a Hannah. It gave me a headache just thinking about it. For those of you who feel "inconvenienced" when you hear a crying baby on the plane, let me tell you what it is like to fly with a toddler by yourself in 2010.

Check in is not so bad. Standing in line with Hannah in a stroller, she stands up (still strapped in) fusses a bit (because she sees all the new people and bags with shiny buttons) but for the most part she is fine. The biggest hassle is lugging your luggage, your baby, and making sure you have all the necessary accessories. Then you get up to the counter with your drivers license, birth certificate, and sometimes eticket or whatever. You say bye bye to one of your bags and you are off. You are heading to the elevator wielding the stroller with one hand, the carry on with another, and trying not to hit people while your backpack sways back and forth (cause lets be honest, you are not going in a straight line at this point).

Ten minutes later you find yourself at airport security. This is the BIGGEST hassle. Here is how it goes.
1) Step up to the counter
2) Breathe
3) Place your backpack and carry on on the counter
4) Unzip everything, take out any liquids, electronics etc.
5) Try to comfort baby who just saw all her milk/food brandished and now wants it
6) Scoot forward a couple of feet on the counter by pushing your bags with your arms and your stroller with your legs
7) Try to ignore disgruntled comments (because what makes me think I have the right to be so slow)
8) Get passed up by lots of people who invariable move my stuff
9) Take off my shoes, take off Hannah's shoes (because every responsible mother hides their tiny bombs in their tiny child's tiny shoes)
10) Fold the stroller up (this is where it gets hard) and place it on the counter.
11) Chase child (Excuse me miss, you can't leave your luggage unattended)
12) Hold squirming child in one arm, push stroller, bags, shoe bucket, electronic bucket, with other arm (more disgruntled comments)
13) Get scanned (What? You mean I wasn't carrying a bomb)and hope you remembered to get everything out lest they take you over to a separate place to test your liquids (yep, this happened to me)
14) Get stroller out, try to carry bags and shoes to an out of the way spot (dropping much of it along the way "Excuse me miss, you cannot leave your shoes unattended)
15) At this point I am sweating, Hannah is ready to run, I need to get everything back in bags, zipped up, situated so we can go to the tram.

It takes about ten minutes from this point to walk to the tram to take us to our gates. Hannah, me, carry on, and backpack try to squeeze ourselves into a tiny spot while people push and trip over us.

At this point dirty looks and jerky comments are up to about 110 while people who have stepped forward to help = Z-E-R-O. Welcome to fabulous Las Vegas.

I make it to the gate. But if you think Hannah wants to sit strapped in her car seat for the next 30 minutes then think again. She's pooped in her diaper and wants to read all the books she passed on the way to the gait. Desperate to keep her happy we walk around with all our stuff for 30 minutes (knowing that Hannah will be forced to sit on my lap).

Boarding is a blur.

We sit on the plane for a good 20 minutes assuming there are no delays (out of 12 flights we've had 2 delays that we were sitting on the plane for over an hour beyond what we should) Hannah gets bored in about a second. I have books, a few toys, I try to feed her, I try to distract her with the safety pamphlets...Hannah is not a sitter, she is a mover. She is not content. Our first 8 flights were a lot better because she was under a year but honestly--it gets worse every flight.

On the plane is where you usually find nice people because they've made their flight so now they give the nice looks to Hannah and for the most part they are pretty patient. Plus, it is only an hour so it really isn't a big deal. She is usually pretty good on the actual flight and has only had one code red meltdown in which she gave me a pretty good scratch and bite.

By the time I've arrived I get a surge of energy and after getting my luggage (which is always waiting for me by the time I make it down to baggage) I usually am greeted by a happy, familiar face. At which point, I unload all my burdens and BREATHE.

Photo courtesy of Fail Blog. It is actually a picture of a friend of a friend. That is how I feel. Imagine when I have TWO kids *shudder*

All in all I'm psyched to be heading to Utah tomorrow for Thanksgiving AND there are no plane rides on the way home! Adam is driving up to meet us on Wednesday after school.

Marsden Family Mother's Day Gift 2010

Speaking of "As Sisters in Zion/We'll bring the world his truth" This is a video I made for my mom for Mother's Day.

Probably shouldn't be watched by those moms who will be getting a large white envelope in the mail this week ahem*AUNT LILIAN*

My friend Bree recently wrote about songs that made her cry and it reminded me of my playlist on my Ipod called "Songs that make me Cry." I add songs every now and again when I hear one that gets me. So in no particular order: Songs that make me cry

Keep Holding On: Glee Cast version

The storyline of this episode made me cry anyway but when they all got together to sing to Quinn at the end I was feeling extra sensitive. It was a sweet moment and I felt for Quinn.

And I'm Telling You (I'm not Going): Dreamgirls version

You can just hear the sadness and desperation in Jennifer Hudson as she sings this song. Once again, I was caught up in the storyline.

Wally: Aslyn

You listen to it and tell me it doesn't make you cry.

If you're not the one: Daniel Bedingfield

This song came out in 2003 and actually reminds me of three different guys. Brian, Justin, and Drew. It was just a great time of life and I loved this song and thought about it or listened to it when I said goodbye to each of them when I left for college or when Drew left to go home before his mission.

The Reason: Hoobastank

The same time of life. It actually makes me think of my friends Jessica and Lyle who were dating at the time. Lyle bought the CD for Jessica and shortly after they broke up and Jessica kept listening to the song over and over. For me, it was the death of a perfect relationship, and I was sad for my friends. Side note--worst music video ever as far as relevance.

Shine: Plain White T's

This also reminds me of Jessica. We are no longer friends but I still have good feelings towards her. She went through a really tough time and when I hear the lyrics "I wish you saw how great you were, I wish you saw what life was worth..." it gets me everytime.

Gravity: Sara Bareilles

This song I love. I first heard it in 2007 or 2008 when Sara Bareilles opened for James Blunt and I thought "man, this song is about me. This song was written for me, just 5 or 6 years too late." This song is how my high school boyfriend always made me feel.

Comfortable: John Mayer

This song makes me want to cry because the relationship that Mayer describes reminds me of Adam and I. Also, Adam is always telling me that he fell in love with me because I made him feel comfortable so the title alone is enough to get me going.

Bring Him Home: Les Miserables

Ok, anything from Les Miserables makes me cry. Heck, I cried just SITTING in the Queens Theater in London in ANTICIPATION of the show that I'd been dying to see my entire life. This song however, really gets me when I think about my brother. This version is Colm Wilkinson who is the ULTIMATE Valjean.

As Sisters in Zion/We'll Bring the World His Truth

Four years of EFY and a lifetime of youth sacrament meetings and it still gets me every time.

My Weakness :/

If there is one weakness I have (and believe me, there is only one ;) it would be purchasing books. We have added about 200 new books this year to our library thanks to Amazon.com and the fact that the library sells barely used books from .25-1.00. If we paid full price for our books we'd have spent between 2,000-3,000 dollars this year...but luckily we didn't we probably spent about 200 dollars.

Today Adam called me and said "There are hundreds of books up for grabs at Tanaka, they are giving them away for free." What did I do with news like this? I dropped everything I was doing, strapped Hannah and the boy we were babysitting up in carseats, and made a mad dash to Adam's school. Adam was underestimating. There were THOUSANDS of books, many repeats. I picked out probably another 200 books (at least) from Little Golden Books to Boxcar children sets, to Newberry award winners. I made out with two boxes FULL of books for Hannah (ok and me too).

It. Was. Heaven.

Even now, even though I spent an hour browsing books, even though it was difficult to do with two kids, I have regrets that I didn't take more.

Painted Mountain Ward

I really think I have an awesome ward. I've never written about my ward and I think it is about time.

I am a Senior Primary teacher and I teach the 10-12 year olds. They crack me up. I have a kid that tried to argue that the story of Job was incorrect because of the many translations and that our version of the bible AND I QUOTE "favors King James' agenda and beliefs." What 11 year old kid says that. So funny. I have a ton of girls and one boy, with a few boys that show up here and there.

Adam is the chair on the "Perfecting the Saints" committee which means he helps assign people move in and out of the ward and recruits others to help out among other things.

I have recently been placed in charge of book club and I really don't know what I'm supposed to do. All I know is that book club is one of my favorite nights of the month and we can get pretty crazy.

Dinner group is also a great night. One night a month a bunch of ladies go to dinner together. This last time we ended up staying out until past midnight--we are party animals!

We have weekly playgroup on Wednesdays which Hannah loves.

I have a small group of girls I walk with several times a week when we can make it.

We have recipe group about once a quarter.

I have a very young ward but I am the baby of my friends. They tease me sometimes about it but I really look up to their parenting skills and have learned how to be a better mother through them and their experiences. I don't feel like the baby, I feel like we are all the same age but since I'm a little slower on having kids they all have way more experience!

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

After three weeks I've finally finished HP and the Goblet of Fire. This, and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix are the two hardest books for me to get through, and not just because they are 1,600 hundred pages put together.

In these two books, Rowling truly reviles her genius as an author. Here is a woman who has never written a book before, and in her debut novel comes up with Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone, then continues with six more novels that could be studied in a masters program with an emphasis on plot, character development, pacing...I could go on forever. Goblet of Fire is where Harry's world is turned upside down and is forced to face the inevitable, Lord Voldemort has risen again, right before Harry's eyes. The pure emotion in the graveyard scene as Harry witnesses Cedric murdered in the same way as his parents, he sees his parents, faced with nearly the impossible, then has to face the aftermath. I couldn't help but feel the dread right along with Harry, even as it was my 3rd time reading Goblet of Fire.

I wish there was more Nevil in this book. I keep wanting to know back stories of the Death Eaters. Rowling has stated that she hasn't ruled out writing another Harry Potter book and I very much hope that if she does she will write a prequel so we can find out more about the rise of Lord Voldemort and the First Wizarding War.

I'm a nerd for Harry.

Hannah Stuff.

Hannah is so adorable I can't stand it! I wrote a post about the words she can say just a week or so ago and her vocabulary has doubled at least. She is growing up way too fast. This week she has loved saying "Toy Stoy" (Toy Story) "Bus" (Buzz) and "Wooey" (Woody). She quacks like a duck and barks like a dog. She loves pointing to her facial features and ours and telling us what they are. I asked her the other day "Where is daddy's handsome hair?" She looked very confused so I rephrased the question and asked "Where is Daddy's pretty hair?" She knew right where it was.

She is getting into the library story time and loves when we pull up to the park or library, screaming in delight.

She is going to have a complex like her mom when it comes to being clean and organized. The other day she dumped out all the Uno cards and said "uh oh." Then she started to sing the clean up song from Barney (Ceeg uh Ceeg uh repeated over and over) and stuffed them in the box. If her food from one compartment drifts to her food in the other compartment she sorts it all into the right compartment before handing me her plate and saying "done."

She will say "please" if she wants something really bad, like the birds at the pet store.

I just love her so much. I am so blessed to have her.