Old Man Look at My Life....

Happy Birthday Old MAN! I love you, and you're perfect that's why I prod at your age.

I made Brett this quilt out of old T-shirts. This man has a bigger wardrobe than me, so I got him to shed some old clothes and promised to make a quilt out of them. Take a look, maybe you gave him one of these shirts or maybe he borrowed one and never gave it back.... sorry Matt.


Brett turns a wicked 33 today. We went to Tahoe Joe's and treated ourselves to steak and such. For a gift I got him a Cabrera Tiger's jersey. Though I ordered it weeks ago, it won't arrive until the 10th. Hopefully he won't get traded by then.
After dinner we invited friends over to play scrabble. We are so old. But our friends are good sports. I assumed that playing Scrabble would give me a bigger vocabulary, but I find myself spelling the same words over and over: "taxi," "cow," "OZ," and "revived." I'm still not sure if I'm allowed to use the word "Oz."
I think Brett had a good Birthday. I sure do like him.


Another, separate posting:

All I really want for Christmas is baby compliments. That is why I jumped on the chance to take Marie to UC Davis last Monday to do some "Infant Cognition Testing." It was pretty cool. They did two tests, both of which she sat on my lap and looked at a TV screen. I had to have blindfold on because they didn't want me "influencing" her "answers." I don't really understand what they were testing her on, something about patterns and upside-down happy faces. At one point they put a headband loaded with a mini camera on the end of it so they could track her eye movements.

At the end they gave me this cute T-shirt. Of course I couldn't get her to smile unless she was in the tub, hence the picture.

It's like we want her to be a spoiled princess

While Rachel's mom was staying with us after Marie was born she busied herself by whipping up this dress. I think it is so awesome that Marie may have to re-use it as her wedding dress.

It can be kind of hard to get a picture of Marie without her gnawing on something. We've been meaning to get her a dog bone to gnaw on. But we haven't yet, so...
She gnaws on her index finger. A lefty, perhaps?

She gnaws on her whole fist at once. Who is she, foxy Larry from Groundhog Day?

Sometimes she goes with the fist-blanket combo.

And then sometimes she just eyes the camera, wondering how awesome it would be to gnaw on.

Not Complaining

PSYCH! I'm totally complaining. Brett is going back to Alabama... or Blabablama. I just so happen to hate that state. He's going down for a 5 week training in January. Didn't he already do that last year? I think I can go with him, which is better than being without him- even if I am in the "dirty South."

Reasons I hate Alabama:
1. Fried everything. Blah.
2. Tornados
3. Judgmental Christians
4. Racists
5. Boring military base
6. More fried food
7. Southern Accents
8. Nobody I know!


Can't relate? Ok then, think of the worst time you had in all of 2008. Then pretend that you are about to relive that horrible time again! I have one month to mentally prepare for this endevour.

So here's to looking on the bright side...

I can see the Smiths. This should be a bigger deal, but they (my inlaws) live more than 2 hours away so I can only see them on weekends. That leaves 4.5 days of "killing time." And last time we didn't see them every weekend because I was so tired from being pregnant. So hopefully this will be different.

I have my baby goose who will keep me busy. We are just going to miss our friends here! Waa, waa waa...

Also a big huge part of my discontent comes from not having all my "stuff" with me. That means living minimally. This kind of living is refreshing, however, I find that I am buying more "stuff" to keep up with my daily routine (make-up, spices and food condiments, any forgotten clothing, etc).

Waa waaa waa. Wa.
Ok so I need some sympathy here. So please sympathize. Maybe Stockton will write me a poem about Alabama.

Things that are good if I get to go to Alabama with Brett:
1. I get to be with Brett. :)
2. We can see the Smiths
3. The winters are very warm
4. The workers at Subway aren't ever stingy on the "fixings"
5. I will appreciate California more (and that's good after the recent political showdown)
6. I might learn to like Alabama. This is the most important. Brett says I failed the "test" the first time around, so that is why I need to go back. I say to him- "BLAH! I HATE FRIED GREEN TOMATOES!!!"

Oh well at least there is Lek's Railroad Thai. And maybe we can see family on the drive back.

Feel free to share your feelings about the South. Is there something I am missing?

Picture Fest

Today BYU lost to U of U. That is how I will define this day. Brett is sad.

In other news, I took pictures of my baby. I'm getting better at this picture taking thing.

I love the dress here. It was given to Marie by my friend Jen. She's got good taste.

This is pretty much how our days are spent, Marie just putting up with me.

We went on Marie's first hike. She liked it.

Marie is really filling out. Look at the difference 3 months makes!

"How Much You Bet I Can Throw A Football Over Them Mountains?"

The Winner Is..... no one!! The correct answer to my problem was "tell your land-lady to fix it."
And I did. The maintenance guy came by and did some weather stripping. I believe this is what a couple of you were trying to describe to me. I almost risked buying the materials and installing it myself, before I realized I live in an apartment!!!
So I thought the fair thing would be to take all the names of people who responded, put them in a hat and have Marie pick out the winner. She's really good at grabbing things these days. The name she picked was..... Zack! Congratulations Zack you are getting a Milky Way in the mail. Mostly because I want you to report back and tell me if it melts and arrives to you mis-shapen.

Marie was quite the grumpy goose while picking out the name. In fact, she's been pretty grumpy today and yesterday. I think it's one of two things. 1) She could be a little sick or 2) She's becoming more "aware" and needs more attention. When she doesn't get one on one - in your face attention she gets pretty annoyed.


In semi-related news, I do like our apartment complex we live in. One reason is because it is around the corner from all the shopping outlets you could ever imagine, but also next to a little private school and across the street from an empty lot of trees. I always thought it was just that- a bunch of trees and over-grown bushes. However that is not the case. I was walking Marie near there when I realized it was actually an abandoned orange grove (of sorts). There were old roads running through it making it a perfect little place to walk Marie. Even little clementines were growing off the trees! I was examining a clementine while walking and suddenly I realized I had almost just walked into a campsite! A tent was pitched and there were clothes strung about. Underneath an overgrown pine tree which is right next to the road mind you- was a home for ... well ... homeless people. Right next to my house- which is right next to Target and the rest of civilized society. Anyways, I got freaked out and ran me and my baby right out of there. To bad, it seemed like a nice place to get out of the house. I'm sure they are fine people, however I wasn't about to put my Marie in danger to find my own "Uncle Rico." California is a weird place.

Tie Loose Ends- I Knew I was Preachin' to the Choir!

BRACE YOURSELF! It's a prop 8 post! Dun dun dun!!! I know I said they would be over... but I just have to tie up a few loose ends.

For the record if you felt like in the last month that I was trying to convince you (you being any reader of this blog) about Gay Marriage (which from now on I will refer to as Garriage)- you are misled!

Any postings done on this blog were not official "Rachel Campaign" actions. I just used this blog to iron out arguments and facts that were boggling around my head. I was using my readers to give me support and help me understand all the facets of Garriage. In the last 3 months I have been so innundated with information it was hard to know exactly what information to give to the right people.

In the end I think I only really had to convice one person of the realities of Garriage- but even she was not really a California registered voter. Just Mormon gone.. well.. I have no idea where she is or if she will ever really talk to me again. But whatever. I love her and hope she "gets it" someday.

In fact, really none of you are registered California voters.. so i'm sorry but your feelings matter to me.. but not that much.

The real campaigning we did consisted of vote surveying, sign waving, door knob hanging, "Yes Voter" call reminding, and having a good old bumper sticker on the butt of our car.

If you are wondering what basics were talked about in my LDS ward campaign meetings I only came away with two urgent thoughts:

1. The Prophet wants us to warn our fellow man not to be in homosexual relationships- lest God will seriously smite California. So we need to warn them.
(Just a thought: when same sex marriage was legalized in June I recall that the "fire season had never been worse" (I know fire gets bad every year, but still!) and that it took the Goverment over two months to solidify a budget for the state. Alot of government workers lost their jobs, and alot of people who needed government programs (like the mentally handicapped) sufferred.)
We specifically discussed the very last paragraph in the Proclamation.

2. The second (and less important than the first, but still important) was that if Marriage was legalized it would mean a slew of lawsuits for the church. Apparently there were (in July) already a few lawsuits waiting in the shadows- but my bishop did not specify what/when/who/how.
According to Matt M. there are some lawsuits trying to be put against the church for "using their free speech" anyways. I have no idea whatever that means but just goes to show people don't care for the church. My dad always said, "people leave the church, but they will never leave it alone."

Here are some thoughts I shared with my cousin about Garriage:

...A close friend "came out" and that made me question why God would make someone gay. What a hard thing to be judged for! Well I didn't know what to think, but I knew I had to ride on my parent's testimonies and parrot their answers until I did. I had to assume God was right, before He let me know why He was right.
It took no less than a year before I was able to come across all the material and experiences that would help my testimony be as strong as it is today. One thing that always sticks out to me is an article I found on the "Rights of Children." Along with basic things like the right to food, shelter, love, and innocence was the right to a mother and a father. It was years ago that I found this article, but if I run into it again I will make sure to post it.

Anyways, God was gracious and gave me the information I needed as I showed faith.

That first experience was about 5 years ago. I'm happy to say that this newest opportunity to show faith (being on the Yes on 8 campaign) has helped me realize more reasons to encourage a society that supports traditional marriage. The latest one that sticks with me is a realization of what our joy will be in the next life. As I raise Marie I realize that my joy in the next life will be the continued joy of having children. However, what about someone who maintained a same-gender relationship in this life? Sure in the next life they could accept the gospel if they hadn't done so here. But what if they spent 70 years on earth loving someone who couldn't help them complete their joy in the next life? Even in their bodies most perfect form they would not be able to have children (let alone be with each other) and would be denied that ultimate joy.
I would feel horrible if I didn't do everything i could to prevent someone from making that mistake. "


WHEW! Alrighty, I just wanted to clarify that I already knew I was preaching to the choir when I was posting stuff. It probably didn't feel like that to some of you though. It was just a great place for me to contemplate, vent, and vent some more. Also, I came out of the experience with a great poem about a lady who smokes.

Also, the election was two weeks ago- I just got the memo.