misc. updates

I'm not sure how I went 3 days without posting, but now I'm left with a bunch of miscellaneous updates, not my favorite way to post...

On Saturday Lucas, Eva, and I caught the part of Landon's last soccer game. I haven't been to one of those in ages! It was fun to see Landon play,

Randy coach, and Jill shooting photos and yelling from the sidelines.


Whitney and Eva entertained themselves with sticks and branches. Of course.

As we were leaving, Jill gave Eva a little handful of Jelly Bellies for the ride home. Eva clutched them as I buckled her into her carseat and said, "Jill gave me jella beans! It's my happy birthday!" Who knew she was so easy to please? (Yep, she says jella beans. And gumma bears.)

Marc put a coat of paint on our new bookshelf. He bought it at the BYU surplus sale for $10!! It has sliding glass doors and is 6 feet long. The plan is to have it finished and ready to move into the family room after we finally get our real carpet installed -- whenever that is.

{It's been nearly 4 weeks since the wrong carpet was installed. They found the right carpet and ordered it over a week ago, no word on when it will go in. We thought maybe we would get the kitchen and entryway tiled before the new carpet came, to simplify things. The quote came in tonight for, brace yourselves: $2003! Those of you who know how small our kitchen is and how miniscule our entryway might be reeling now, as I am. Maybe we won't be tiling now after all...}


I put a coat of primer on one of our old bookshelves. Marc had the great idea to paint it and put it in a corner of my studio for an awesome storage addition. Excellent! (Why didn't I think of that?)

On Saturday night, Marc and I left Max to babysit while we went to see Waitress at the dollar theater. The theater has a new owner, who was out talking to people waiting in line to be seated. He was showing the BYU football game on two screens, which I thought was quite a brilliant idea. It looked like there were tons of people there to see it, all decked out in their blue & white, and although they were cheering pretty loudly, it didn't disturb our adjacent theater at all. Anyway, he said he is trying to bring in more films that don't get distributed to our county. So... we'll be able to see movies that we couldn't normally see, and it will only cost a dollar? Count us in!


I really enjoyed the movie. It had plenty of quirky characters, and I laughed a lot. (Although every time the jerk husband was on screen, I was completely tense, I just could not believe that guy.) Sure it had its predictable parts, but the good definitely outweighed the not-so-good. And, come on, anything with pie as a central role is alright by me.

Here's the killer, though: I ended our date by crying, again. I think Marc is somewhat concerned about this disturbing post-date trend. (Our last date, you may remember, was when we went to see a movie I cannot now recall -- shortly after Jessie moved -- and the two sisters in the film made me completely break down on the way home.) I don't know if I was already emotionally keyed up by the movie of what, but when we got up to leave and my knee gave out on me, necessitating a humiliating and painful hobble to the car, the tears welled up. I kept it in check until we got home, but then I couldn't restrain myself and I started crying in earnest while I did the dishes.

Here's the rundown, in short -- last weekend: feeling very optimistic about my knee recovery. Monday: doctor visit, in which I was encouraged to start exercising. Tuesday: worked out on the elliptical machine and felt great. Exhilarated. Wednesday: worked out on the elliptical machine, and knees started hurting. Thursday: decided, on Marc's advice, to maybe give my knees a break and exercise every other day. Friday: knees worse. Saturday: hobbling. Optimism dissipated.

Sunday, on the way home from church, Max informed me that he wanted to make cream puffs. Um... ok. (knowing that this would require help from me, as he has never before made cream puffs, or custard filling) But I am not in the habit of discouraging any burgeoning interests, least of all those that involve cooking or other household duties!

He made chocolate custard from scratch, cream puffs from scratch, and then filled the puffs with custard and topped them with a dark chocolate icing and whipped cream.

The finished product: tasty and attractive!

The best part was that Marc's parents called us in the evening and asked if they could come by for a visit. This was ideal for two reasons: Eva was so excited she was speechless, and Max was able to share his foray into pastry-making with his grandparents.

Today we were all feeling the effects of this lovely September, one of the worst months for allergies here (or so says Marc's allergist). Eva was stuffy and sneezing all day, and every time she sneezed, she would collapse on the floor, cry for a tissue, and say, "Oh no! I need more medicine!" Even with the most minor of illnesses, she becomes very fussy and emotionally volatile (yes, more than usual). She even fell asleep in the car after taking Lucas to school, at 9:00 a.m.! Good grief. Suffice it to say that I did not accomplish much today. A trip to the library and a load of laundry are the only things that come to mind. (Oh, and I caught two more mice. But I don't want to talk too much about that, following on the heels of talk of food and all.)

Speaking of the library, I found it surprisingly difficult to find books for Eva. The board books were too elementary (although she still enjoys a lot of her board books) and the picture books were so verbose. I had to really search to find books that were longer than board books, but didn't have so many words to a page that she lost interest. So if you have any suggestions...

And one final note: as we were reading the library books we got before bed tonight, I noticed a dedication on one of them was, "To Katie, and her hamhocks, with love." What?! I thought I was the only person who called my kids' thighs hamhocks!