on my mind

I don't normally post thoughtful or wordy posts, mostly because I take a very long time to get my thoughts into writing.  I feel like I'm writing an essay.  Because I'm a grammar/spelling nazi, essays ought to be perfect to be worth reading, so I don't write them since perfection takes a long time.  And this momma doesn't have a case of bottled time just laying around.

A few things have struck me lately, though, and I thought I should share.  I have thoroughly enjoyed reading the Ensign magazine each month.  Emerson and I are usually on one of our morning walks when the mail comes.  I read the Ensign the remainder of the walk and devour it whenever I get chances throughout the rest of the month.  It seems that each article has something especially for me.  My heart is touched at least once in each article, and there have been more than a few times when I sit on the couch and just tear up from the spirit I feel. 

One particular article this month is the reason for my post.  It didn't strike me in a sobbing-on-the-couch sort of way, but more like a this-needs-shared-with-everybody-and-that-starts-with-me sort of way.  Now I know that only four people read this blog, but that's no reason not to start sharing, right?  I suggest reading the article yourself to get the full message, but I want to share a few snippets.

Elder Holland gave an address to a group of national Christian leaders in 2011.  He calls for their help as leaders in the Christian world to stand together for the cause of Christ. 

"Friends, you know what I know—that there is in the modern world so much sin and moral decay affecting everyone, especially the young, and it seems to be getting worse by the day. You and I share so many concerns about the spread of pornography and poverty, abuse and abortion, illicit sexual transgression (both heterosexual and homosexual), violence, crudity, cruelty, and temptation, all glaring as close as your daughter’s cell phone or your son’s iPad.  Surely there is a way for people of goodwill who love God and have taken upon themselves the name of Christ to stand together for the cause of Christ and against the forces of sin. In this we have every right to be bold and believing, for “if God be for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31)."

Elder Holland goes on to describe the Christ we revere in the LDS church.  He testifies of His divinity and majesty.  He also states that the Latter-day Saints "would be eager to join hands with our evangelical friends in a united Christian effort to strengthen families and marriages, to demand more morality in media, to provide humane relief effort in times of natural disasters, to address the ever-present plight of the poor, and to guarantee the freedom of religion that will allow all of us to speak out on matters of Christian conscience regarding the social issues of our time. In this latter regard the day must never come that you or I or any other responsible cleric in this nation is forbidden to preach from his or her pulpit the doctrine one holds to be true. But in light of recent sociopolitical events and current legal challenges stemming from them, particularly regarding the sanctity of marriage, that day could come unless we act decisively in preventing it."

That's quite the list to tackle, but if we each take a little, maybe we can overcome the evil that is so prevalent.  I know Satan is real and he is fighting hard to make evil seem good and good seem evil (see Isa 5:20).  I could go on and on if I really got going, but Elder Holland sums up his (and my) thoughts nicely: "Few things are more needed in this tense and confused world than Christian conviction, Christian compassion, and Christian understanding."

Now that I've waxed eloquent enough for one day, I should go find some cute baby pictures to post, although in the future I do want to try getting more thoughtful posts down for my own sake.  Stand by for who-knows-what kind of posts.

Roach Coach

The first time I heard the terms 'roach coach' and 'maggot wagon' was in training at Dish Network in Arizona.  The trainer of my technical support class was telling us we had 30 minutes for lunch and that the roach coach would be at our location at this and that time throughout the day.  Just the nickname made me sure that I would never buy food from the vendor of the roach coach.

Three years later, my own house can be called a roach coach of sorts.  For a few months now, we have been dealing with cockroaches in our kitchen.  We bought traps and tried to be patient while we waited for the traps to do their job.  No such luck, though.  The problem was only getting worse. 

So finally I called maintenance and asked what was an acceptable amount of bugs because I'm not from here and I don't know.  I've never had bug problems like I've experienced here (try googling 'termite swarming season' - you're in for a real treat).  Anyway, we were told we may see the big cockroaches outside after a rain, but the little ones should never be seen indoors.

Oh dear.  You mean to tell me that I should've called when I saw the first demon bug but instead have living with them for months now?! 

Pest control came and fogged our place and found the nest under our fridge and hopefully took care of the problem.  He said they're attracted to heat (which is why they're under the fridge and in my electrical sockets) and their own poop, which puts off strong pheromones.  They eat their own dead as well.  Here are some nice pics for ya:

We have donned the gloves and are enjoying a long weekend together cleaning up roach poop and trying to avoid thinking about our living conditions these past few months.  Counting down until we leave this subtropical climate and get back to the dry heat of the west. 

In other more happy and colorful (literally) news, I have added a bit of teal to my life.  I debated even doing it for a week, but I figured I won't be young enough to have teal hair ever again, so now or never.  It'll be gone in a few weeks, but it's a fun step into the world of hair fashion.

What do you think?  Crazy lame or cool blue?

Splish splash

I take Emerson to a splash pad about weekly.  I love it and I want him to love it, too.  He's warming up to it, but it's taken him some time to feel comfortable getting wet.  The toys are his comfort zone and get him playing with the water better than anything.

Keepin' it cool

My parents sent me a fantastic gift for my birthday this year.  I'm sure they listened to us talk about Bluebell ice cream each week and how amazing it was and figured we should probably save some money already and just make our own.  So I was given an ice cream maker.  It came in perfect time because I had just barely gotten a recipe from Ina Garten's show a few days before.

Behold, the yumminess that is Salted Caramel Ice Cream:

It is delicious and has almost three cups of cream in it.  It's delicious because it has almost three cups of cream in it :)  Basically it's a bunch of cream and sugar prepared one way and then some more cream and sugar prepared another way and then I combined them together, threw in a smidge of sea salt, and topped it with more freshly whipped cream and sugar.  It's great, but it's so rich that I can only handle a few bites in a sitting.  That's probably for the best so each serving is a miniscule amount.  My arteries can only handle so much I'm sure.

Thanks to my family for giving me such a great gift-that-keeps-on-giving gift.  So far, it's wonderful.

smaller projects

Over the past few weeks, I have worked on two small projects with some extra paint I had laying around.  The first was an Easter tree.  I found this tree at the local Goodwill for $2.99. 

My mom had one when I was young and, while I don't remember especially loving it then, seeing this one reminded me of fun childhood times and made me want my own.  Emerson is already glad I made the purchase.  He is in love with the tiny eggs and more than a few tears were shed when I wouldn't let him play with them all the time.  I painted it all some bright colors and can't wait to display it when Easter comes around again.

Another project I did came from some inspiration found on Pinterest.  I found a cute idea and made it my own by taking an old pair of heels and giving them some new life.

I forgot to take a 'before' picture but I'm sure you can imagine the bottom of a shoe, right?  I painted them yellow, then applied some lime green over the top and wiped it off before it completely dried.  I love the splash of color that's barely visible when walking or sitting.

What do ya think?  Like the grellow color or should I have gone with another?

It's that time again

...for my quarterly goal update.

Remember this?

Here's a quick list of the goals along with the update for each one:

1. Get prego. Nada. Don't even get your hopes up because I'm trying not to either.
2. Update personal history. I still need to find it (I have it saved on a cd) before I can update it. But I'm getting less and less optimistic that it's even in the same state as I so maybe I'll just write it out now, then piece it together when I find it later.
3. Food storage. This one never ends, and we're still working on it.  As of this week I can check off 'sesame oil,' though, so I'd say that's a plus.  Bring on the goodness that is Chinese chicken salad. 
4. Compile Emerson's 1st year. Still deciding the method for which this will get done.  Most of the time I find myself thinking about this, I try to avoid thinking about it.  That's the main reason this is on the goal list: so it'll get done even though I'm not quite gung-ho to do it.
5. Read the 4 books listed.  The King's Cavalier: check.  The Name of the Rose: check.  Approaching Zion is reserved for 4th quarter because I need to wrap my mind around reading it (and it'll take a while anyway so I should probably finish the other book first).  I have a copy of Jesus the Christ, but I believe I left it in Utah by accident and the local Goodwill doesn't have a copy.  Neither do any of the libraries in the county or even the Unclaimed Baggage Center in Alabama (yes, I checked).  I'm not too keen on the idea of buying another copy for more than a couple dollars which eliminates Amazon and Ebay (I've price-checked those, too) so I've decided to do a swap.  I'm swapping out Jesus the Christ for Increase in Learning: Spiritual patterns for obtaining your own answers by David A. Bednar.  I'm excited to start during naptime tomorrow. 
6. 72 hour kits. No change since the last update.  This is high on my list of priorities right now.
7. Blog weekly. I think I may have missed last week's post.  I had good reason to, though.  My mom and Jenna surprise-visited me for my birthday (happy quarter-of-a-century to me) and we just played and splashed and lost sleep and ate all sorts of unhealthy food together.  I'm pretty much over missing a post.
8. Workout 3 times/week for 20 min. WalMart is amazing for many reasons, but in this instance because they had a sidewalk clearance sale where I obtained a few workout dvds for a few bucks each.  This solves all the problems previously discussed, and now I'm doing a lot better with this goal. 
9. Go to the temple. Ward temple night is coming up and we're trying to figure out a way to make it work.  If ward temple night doesn't work out, a plan to go will still be formed.
10. Finish Ensign conference issues. Continuing strong, but need to get my rear in gear if I'm going to finish before I get the next conference issue.  There is just so much to study!
Still doing well after half the year is over, but still plenty to do before it's complete.  Back to work.

Vacation: days 8-10

Days 8-10 of our trip included Nashville, then Memphis, and finally a 6-hour drive home.  In order to save money in Nashville, we found a great deal where we spent $50/adult and got to pick five attractions out of a list of a dozen or so. We chose to ride the city tour trolley as one "attraction" and then visit the Grand Ole Opry, the Ryman Auditorium, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, and the Nashville Parthenon. By doing this we saved over 50%. Ya to the hoo. And now, a Ryman/Hall of Fame compilation followed by a Grand Ole Opry collage:

We loved visiting the best attractions of Music City USA, but unfortunately we aren't big enough country music fans to really appreciate all the history and grandeur of these places.  We got to sing from the wooden circle in the Opry which apparently is pretty awesome.  We sang "You Are My Sunshine."  Go us.
 
The trolley tour and parthenon were more our style.  We loved touring the city while getting information about the history of Nashville, and the parthenon (which is the only full-scale replica of the Greek parthenon in the world) was just amazing.  Emerson fell asleep on the trolley and snoozed through almost the whole visit to the parthenon. 
 

 

From Nashville, we drove to Memphis for the last leg of our trip.  Memphis was a very laid back stop for us.  We didn't have any major plans and most of what we did was just observing. 

A quick stop at the temple with my handsome buff Fanta-man:

We took a trip to Beale Street because you have to if you're in Memphis. We even went to eat at a highly recommended restaurant called Rum Boogie.

Their online menu looked fantastic and we couldn't wait to get some good eats. We walked up to the door and I proceeded to get myself into an embarrassing moment.

{love those}

The kid out front said to me, "It's a 21-and-over restaurant." And I, in all my naivity came right out and said, "Don't I look 21?" and at the same time realized that I had a child with me and he was actually referring to him rather than me.

Whoops.  I hurriedly tried to laugh it off and mumble out something clever while practically pushing Will into the road to cross the street. Don't worry. Now I know that some places don't let kids in. We ended up at Cracker Barrel which is indeed children-friendly. 

Aftwerwards, we got to see the Peabody Ducks.  The Peabody Hotel is a luxury hotel in downtown Memphis. The hotel is very well known for the famous Peabody Ducks that live on the hotel rooftop, but which make a trek each day to the lobby's main fountain.  They have a red carpet to walk on and get photographed as if they were celebrities.

In the afternoon we went to the Mud Island River Park.  This was one of my favorite stops because it was adventurous, relaxing, and free.  Boo-ya.  This park (on a very small island in the Mississippi River between AK and TN) is a smaller replica of the Mississippi River as it flows through the 1000-mile journey to the Gulf of Mexico. The model is a giant jigsaw puzzle made up of slabs of concrete that hold 1,200,000 gallons of water.  State borders and cities are represented on the concrete sculpture where horizontally, 30 inches equals one mile and vertically, one inch equals eight feet.  The whole representation is one half mile.

 Mud Island as it is represented in the model:

Before heading back home the next morning, we all had some good fun with balloons at the hotel.  Our hotel was actually over the river in West Memphis, Arkansas. 

Once we got home, unloaded all our stuff, returned the rental car, and turned on the A/C (our house was 89 degrees when we got home - yuck), we pretty much did nothing .  Luckily we built in an extra day to recoup from the vaca so we could clean up and relax.  Our trip was fantastic and we loved it all.  After calculating all our receipts, we did a lot better than expected.  We spent less than $150/day which includes hotel, food, attractions, rental car, and gas.  We paid for our souvenirs with gift cards I received from work before quitting.  We would definitely attempt our own road trip again since we had such a great time.  Our trip was fantastic and we loved it all.