Website

Its finally happened! Clark was gone over the weekend, so I used all that free time to neglect Booker and make a website. I really appreciate my mom's offers to help and even Spencer's offer to actually do for me, but I wanted to learn myself so I'll know how to update it in the future. It wasn't easy, but it also wasn't impossible like I was expecting.

Anyways, here's the site. Check it out:
www.tinytaledesign.com

I feel like somewhat of an impostor, acting like I know what I'm doing. But I promise that if you tell your friends and family about me, I'll try my hardest to do a good job!

In other news, isn't that baby to the left nasty looking? Ick. I seriously hope that isn't what it looks like inside me.

Julia's Wedding

Here's my report on Julia's wedding- it was awesome! She was a beautiful bride, he was a handsome groom...
The sealing was wonderful and I felt really lucky to be there. I think Elder Bednar was originally slated to perform the sealing. I must have been the only one who didn't know about the change and didn't immediately recognize Elder Scott when he walked into the room. I had to run through the names of the quorum of the twelve before I realized who he was. How embarrassing. Here are the gal pals and my ONLY picture with Jen in it. I'm so mad at myself for not getting a photo of the two of us. Grrrr.
Here are all the pals and a better view of Julia's dress. Not pictured: the other bride who was sealed that day, who wore a hooded, fur-trimmed CAPE. It was awesome.Carly, Mel, Jules and I at the luncheon. Not pictured: Jen. I'll forgive her though since she was behind the scenes making sure everything went smoothly. Julia and David cutting THE COOLEST cake I've ever seen. Seriously, take a close look. Those are calla lilies running down the middle. I loved it. I thought it was a shame to cut it... that is, until I tasted it. It was so delicious- key lime with a marzipan fondant. YUM! Carly and I, sans our husbands for the weekend.

Don't get me wrong, I love Clark & Booker but I really enjoyed hanging out as one of the girls again. I felt like I was back in high school. I ran into tons of old friends, teachers, bishops, etc. from Belmont. It was really fun to see the Clark family again. Honestly, I don't think I'd be where I am today if it weren't for their friendship. I'm so glad they've found such wonderful men to marry!

HAND OUT

Booker has a problem. He can't keep his hand out of his pants and its DRIVING ME NUTS. It started off out of habit, but now he does it just to bug me. I'm serious. When I catch him doing it and scream "HAND OUT," he pulls it out only to look me straight in the eye and pose his little hand at the edge of his diaper, threatening to plunge it back in. It is so infuriating. Now, he's even doing it in his sleep. Unbelievable.

I've tried dressing him in onesies, but I only have so many (two to be exact). I try yelling at him and smacking his hand, but it just makes him want to do it even more. We're this close to coating his hand in curry powder. Any suggestions?

Happy Valentine's Day

I decided to keep Valentine's Day simple this year. We aren't exactly rolling in cash at this point in our married life, but we are, however, quite rich in food stamps (yes, folks, we're that poor).

So instead of giving Clark a gift, I wanted to give him something he hasn't had in a long time (well, two things he hasn't had in a long time but we'll keep this blog PG rated): A DELICIOUS HOME-COOKED MEAL!

I can count on my hand the times I've cooked dinner since I've been pregnant. The past few months have marked a very selfish period in my life and I've had the terrible attitude of "if I can't eat, then no one else should either." Clark has been a trooper and subsided on cold cereal and fast food without any complaints.

But recently something miraculous has happened and I've been hesitant to admit it for fear of jinxing myself. So here goes nothing... I've been feeling much better. Yes, its true. I haven't thrown up in days. Perhaps its a combination of Zofran/Phenergan or just my entry into the second trimester. Whatever it is, I'm grateful and a little hopeful that perhaps the difference between this pregnancy and the last could be the sex of the baby ;)

So this Valentine's Day is special because I finally feel like I can return to being the spouse and mother that Clark and Booker truly deserve. And I'll prove it with this wonderful menu:

- Lemon, garlic and rosemary chicken
- Taboule salad
- Asparagus and butternut squash with mango/chile dressing
- Garlic Bread
- Macaroni salad
- Cantelope

And for dessert:
- Martenelli's & chocolate covered strawberries
(I considered for a brief moment, chocolate-coating a hotdog for Booker but instead, decided to make him some chocolate-covered Nilla wafers so he can also partake of the yumminess).

I know this seems like a lot of food, and it is. I'm hoping that the left-overs will provide for Clark and Booker while I'm in Utah this weekend for Jules' wedding!

** This meal was made possible by Fresh & Easy. If you live in Arizona, California or Nevada you ought to check it out. They're popping up like weeds here in the valley. Its like Trader Joe's- fresh food, a great variety of food, and cheap food. I'm a huge fan!

Buckley

I'm not really a dog person. They're smelly and drooly and hairy and sheddy and all over yucky-filled. I actually kinda hate all dogs... all dogs except my own.

Brody has been gone for one week, and I missed him so much. When Booker dropped his hot dogs on the floor, they just remained there... uneaten. When I vacuumed, I didn't have to worry about Brody whining. At night, I had trouble falling asleep without the sound of Brody breathing. Every little thing reminded me of Brody's absence. It was so lonesome without him.

So I spent the week scouring pets classifieds and Craigslist for the perfect puppy. Our criteria- big, cheap and young. Which was hard to fulfill, it turns out. People ask for a ton of money for their dogs. Finally a listing came up that was promising...



So here's Buckley, half Akita and half Golden Retriever. The last to be picked from a litter of ten. He's 9 weeks and already as big and heavy as Booker. He's gonna be huge. So far, he's really mellow and affectionate. He's young enough that we hope to train him to act like a dog, and not like a human.

He's named for Ari & Uzi's ill-fated beagle in The Royal Tenenbaums, which was (according to Wikipedia) Wes Anderson's tribute to singer/songwriter, Jeff Buckley. So in closing, I'll encourage you all to go listen to Jeff Buckley as he sings Hallelujah because, well, to be honest, it made me cry really hard.

In Need of an Actual Website

I need to thank my sister-in-law, Cassie (and her sister-in-law, Kim) for generating some more business for me. Thanks guys!

Blech

Clark and I usually take turns getting up with Booker on the weekends, so at least one of us can sleep in. This morning, however, was a two-parent kind of morning.

When I walked into Booker's room, I didn't have to see him to know that something was terribly wrong. The SMELL coming out of that kid's crib was so disgusting it kicked my morning sickness into full gear. Sometime during the night (I'm thinking immediately after he went down at 7 PM) Booker had thrown up an entire day's worth of food... and then, quite contently, he slept in it.

When I picked him up and walked him to the shower, he left a trail of partially digested pasta, hot dogs and raisins along the way. He cried because I had to pry chunks of dried food out of his hair. It was so fowl... why, oh why did I ever decide to have children?

Later on, Booker threw up again while sitting in a shopping cart at Costco. He did it discreetly and before I knew it, he had smeared it all over his shirt and jeans. Needless to say, he wasn't allowed to have any more samples.

Anyways, I hope his little bug doesn't last any longer than today. If it does, I'll need to find some chewable phenergan because I just can't deal with vomit that is not my own.