Wallowing

I suppose clean could be a subjective term.  I think that sometimes I am not the most immaculate person in the world, but I do like things tidy.  Kevin has informed me that since he got married, he has forgotten how to pick-up after himself, do laundry, or any other homemaking task.   To his credit, he does the dishes and takes out the trash, so I won't complain too much.  He has however, created his own definition of clean.  I am not sure I completely understand it, but I will give a few examples of some of the things that have made me wonder what goes on in his head.

Kevin has a habit of putting shirts, shorts, or anything he has worn, but doesn't deem "dirty" in a corner of the bed. Socks that he has decided are not "dirty" get placed in the middle of the bedroom floor. (if they go on your foot, in my opinion, they are dirty) One day, as I was gathering laundry, I asked my usual question"Is there anything here that you would like me to wash?", but this time I may have added "-or would you like to continue wallowing in your own filth?"  I thought I was funny.  Apparently I struck a chord.  I offended him.  This is not unusual I think I do this on a regular basis.  He of course opted to wallow for a bit longer.  Now any time I asked about anything, he likes to mention that he is enjoying wallowing.

Shoes are another area that confuses me.  I think that shoes in the middle of the floor are an obstacle, an object that possesses impending doom for the clumsy such as myself.  Not to mention that they look sloppy and out of place.  To Kevin, this makes them accessible and easy to find.  When I am cleaning, I enjoy putting them back into his closet on his shoe rack.  This, of course, makes me feel like I have tidied my house and it looks neat.  Each time I do this I know that I am about to get reprimanded for it.

Finally, the last thing is the cup.  If your mouth touches it, bacteria are breeding and growing.  This is a problem to me.  Kevin would keep the same cup on the counter for him to keep re-using for weeks at a time if I would let him.  If I put it in the dishwasher, I am in trouble because he didn't get good enough use from it. We have plenty of cups.  There are enough replacements.  Recently, I will replace it without  his knowledge and put the dirty one in the dishwasher.  I love him too much to allow him to get sick.

If you do not believe me about the shoes and socks.  Here is photographic proof.

My Mom

I love my mother.  She is pretty fantastic.  I admire so many things about her. Someday when I grow up I would be doing a pretty stellar job if I could be more like her.   I could go on all day about all the wonderful things that she does for everyone all the time, but I think i will just mention a few.

  I don't know if anyone has a better disposition.  She is so positive, upbeat, and FUN all the time.  I can only remember a couple of times when she was actually angry.   Like the time they changed the flavor of Diet Coke back when I was elementary school.  She got so upset she ACTUALLY wrote a letter.  Usually when she is upset about something she just threatens to compose those nasty-grams. 

She goes out of her way to be friendly with everyone.  unless you are a stranger.  Then you are automatically Chester and evil.  (yes, I learned it from somewhere).  She would always wave to everyone in town.  I used to have kids come up to me in school and tell me "you're mom waved at me today.  Does she even know who I am?"  C'mon this is Raymond, she knows EVERYTHING about everyone.  One of her best friends is Barb Depew. Talk about omniscience.

She is always up for a good time.  She has this addictive and inspiring zest for life.  I cannot tell you the number of times she stays up late to watch chick flicks with us, she gets giddy when she hears the Dr. Mario music, she hikes/snowshoes/cross country skis with her mountain mama's every week, her and Lloyd have taken up kayaking and go religiously at least once a week.  Kevin always tells me that I just want Jackie's life. I think I just want her stamina. 

This woman raised 6 kids who are all 2 years apart.  That in itself should be grounds for sainthood.   I think most of us turned out OK too.  Not only did she raise us, but with my dad's work schedule SHE moved us somewhere around 15 times, and no child was ever older than 8. I cannot even imagine all the times she wanted to strangle all of us, but she was always so kind. I am not sure how she had the patience and the ability to stay so collected all the time, but I think I need lessons.

 She had this amazing ability to balance life.  She had 6 extremely active children.  We were always involved in basketball, volleyball, football, soccer, swimming, baseball, figure skating, hockey, riding horses, and any other imaginable activity.  With 6 kids.... that is just crazy.  I can only remember a couple of times when my "stalker" (as my friends coined her) was not at my games cheering me on.  She was so supportive and wonderful, but she was not just at my events, but all my siblings stuff.  She was all our our #1 fan.

So besides her innumerable neuroses and her inability to cook, she is perfect.  I think that those things make her even more perfect.  I have learned to be more careful; ie wearing hoodies in movie theaters to avoid lice and not letting anyone sit behind me on a bus that could possibly decapitate me.  I learned that there is always something more fun to do than worrying about cooking or other menial things, so just go with it.  We didn't starve.

I love you mom!

Riddle Me This....

What do bananas, mucus, Y's, and Indian Polygamists have in common?  The key to unlocking one of Kevin's biggest goals in life. To have 100 boys. 


This may seem strange to most of you, but I have been humoring this man for several years now with his claims that he wants 100 spawn, and ALL must be male.  I have informed him that biologically, it's his job to determine the sex of our children. No pressure on me right? He thinks if we don't produce a professional athlete, our marriage is a failure (and that must be a male professional athlete by-the-way). I am not even going to get started on his name selection.  That deserves a post of its own. 


So what spurred these talks?  NO, I am not expecting, and not planning on it for a while. { I am waiting for your Angie.}   His sister is however, and we couldn't be more thrilled for them!  And, we have a ward FULL of babies and pregnant women.  So at church, I get to have my dose of baby time which brings up these random and bizarre conversations that we have.


It originally started when I sent Kevin this link  to an article about an Indian man who had 39 wives and 100 children. I, of course, had a normal reaction and was disgusted.  Kevin, however, thought this was a fantastic way to ensure a strong posterity.  This was several years ago.  He continues to mention that he will need several wives to complete this goal. I have in my most polite voice, told him I am not in that celestial mindset yet.  It ain't gonna happen on my watch!


Occasionally, Kevin sends me these articles he reads online, just to ensure I am preparing myself properly to have boys. I couldn't figure out why, for the longest time he has been force feeding me bananas.  Every day he asks "have you had your banana yet?"  "I don't think you ate a banana.  Let me watch."  I feel like a little kid, I don't mind the occasional banana, as long as they are green, otherwise they are too strong and soft. Yick!  I was going through and deleting a bunch of emails, when I came across one with a link in it.  I am not sure I ever read the article, but now I can see where his insistence that I eat more bananas comes from.  My consumption of bananas directly improves my chances of conceiving males in the future and BONUS: not dieting increases those chances too.  I think I will stop thinking about a diet now.


I think the final straw was a couple weeks ago he sent me a this link.   It is an article with tips on how to conceive a boy.  Now, I want to keep my PG rating on my blog, so for details you can read the link.  Its nothing graphic, but I know that bodily fluids repulse people.  The most appalling part for me is that it comes complete with a Mucus Tracker in Excel or PDF form. 


For now, I will eat bananas, but that's about where I draw the line.  We revisit mucus talk once he has 6 girls in a row, or when we finally decide its time for Klaus Nicholas Hill to join us here (I told you it deserves a post of its own).  If I need advice, I think I will just call up my brother Todd and his wife Jenny.  They seem to  have it figured out with their 3 darling boys.

Men, Cars, and Friends

You know what they say-Men are like parking lots, all the good ones are taken, the rest are too small or handicapped....well, I got the last good one. I swooped in and got prime parking. I love my Kevy. So, we have now made it 2 years! Happy anniversary to us yesterday. We have really got to spend much more than time together than just that. We have been together for almost 5 years now and have had so much fun. Some of you know, but I am not sure ALL of you have our 1st meeting story. I get to tell the whole story since I have sole power of the blog.

It was a dark, but not so stormy night... my good friend Alicia decided that I needed a good man in my life. She didn't like any of the guys I had gone out with and thought I needed a good man to distract me. She decided she would doll me up and take me out for a night on the town.

If any of you know me, this might not be the best tactic. I am deathly afraid of strangers "stranger danger" and would rather die before looking desperate in front of a male. I tried to explain this to her, but she ignored me. Thank goodness too eh.

We searched high and low. We went all over Provo in search of a tall-dark and handsome man. After hours of torture, I finally convinced her that we should give up our search. It was still early enough, we could get a movie and then go back to my place and relax. So, we headed over to Blockbuster (this dates the story now that they are obsolete). We walked in. and the background music started, there he was. Alicia saw him and started in on me immediately. She was a woman on a mission. She kept urging "go talk to him". I of course refused. I even tried the excuse that I thought I was taller (it usually works). After arguing or a couple minutes, i had to satisfy her, I walked by him. He WAS taller! Unfortunately, he had his hood up, so I couldn't get a good look at him. He had nice shoulders, but if she thought I was going to talk to him she was kidding herself.

She told me that if I did not give him my number she would not give me a ride home. (empty threat, I lived a block and a half from blockbuster...I could walk!) So, after arguing for about 5 min. she let me into the car. She sat down, fiddled with her keys, grabbed a piece of paper, and bolted back inside. I felt the blood rushing to my cheeks (I blush pretty easily) I was mortified. I slunk down in my seat hoping that she was not doing what I knew that she was. She did. She gave him my number. She told him I was too shy.

Well, that smart man, made the smartest move he ever could have made. He called! I made the bravest move ever, and actually returned the call (of course with her sitting next to me coaching me). The rest is history. Thanks Leesh. Best friend ever!

Winner!!!

I won....on a technicality, but I will take it!  March Madness is officially over, the Huskies won, and so did I.  I love winning.  I am usually a really good, really humble winner. I am not sure I have ever actually won a tournament challenge, but I can now gloat about it.  Kevin's Mormon club at the law school did a bracket challenge and wives were allowed to enter.  I technically came in second, but the winner had submitted 2 brackets, so I decided he is disqualified.  Sorry Jared. 

To my credit, I had at least UConn in the finals. 

Thawing

Its starting.  On the way home from the gym the other day, I saw a daffodil that wanted to bloom so badly.  Spring wants to start, and we have had a few days where it even felt like we were on our way.  We have taken advantage of a couple of those.  Kevin just finished his spring break, and this quarter looks like it will allow me to see more of my husband than justbthe back of his head as he studies. 

 

One day a couple weeks ago, while Kevin was on break, we were able to go up to the Adler Planetarium.  Kevin and I were not too impressed, but it was nice to get out of the house and walk around outside on a beautiful day here in Chicago.  They were offering a free day, so it was quite busy and Kevin and I were able to spend the day with like 50 school field trips, and every homeless person that wanted to use a clean bathroom and get inside somewhere.

There was not much to see.  This was the largest telescope there and the only picture we took inside.  If you know my Kevin, you know that it must have been REALLY bad.

It is located in the best place to view the city. So we hung out for a minute and enjoyed the sunshine.

Kevin and I were so excited to see the sun and have it be warm enough that we didn't need our winter coats.  This tease lasted for about 2 days before it started snowing again.

This is some astrological thing...

Today, we got to head downt to the Garfield Conservatory.  Kevin's love for taking photos returned and I have over 100 pictures from our 1.5 hour visit

It was the spring blooming event, so you can imagine what a good time he was having taking pictures and planning our future garden.  I think I will have to spend all of my days in the yard if he gets all the things he wants.

The flowers were very pretty and they were certainly blooming

Our next stop was supposed to be for lunch at the Signature Room.  It is at the top of the John Hancock building on the 96th floor.  We got to the bottom of the elevator, but without reservations, it was going to be a long day.

Since I am an SNL "super fan", and love and "Da Bears", so we opted to try a restaurant that involves a lot of SNL skits, and a bit of Chicago black magic and mythology.  Before the Cubs had the Bartman curse, there was a Billy Goat. Click Here to learn more about that. Its a funny story.

The restaurant is in the lower part of Chicago, under the Magnificent Mile.  It is not so magnificent down there. You'll feel like you're on the Batman set.

The Cheezborgers were not impressive, but now I can check it off my list of things to do while I am here.

Just a sunny day outside of  the Water Tower.  It was the only thing that didn't burn during The Great Chicago fire.

We love our city, and I love it even more when Kevin gets to come enjoy it with me.

Life Stinks and Then You Die.

I know, what a terrible title.  I am not really such a pessimist.  My mother used to tell us that whenever we wanted something and she said no. It was quite effective.  I catch myself saying Jackie-isms from time-to-time and  I used this gem recently on 2 separate occasions. Both times, I was informed that I should never say that again.  Kevin told me I was NOT allowed to say that to my future children.  So, I then repeated "Life stinks and then you die".  I am so funny.
Really, I am just sad that it STILL feels like winter here.  I am ready for the sun to peep out and for the daffodils to start blooming.  It is Kevin's spring break this week, but it doesn't feel like spring.  It isn't warm enough to go anywhere on a road-trip.  I know that it is time for spring. It is the middle of March. 
So on Saturday, I went to the gym with my work-out buddy and she convinced me that I needed to go spring shopping with her (if you know me, that was probably not difficult).  So, we took the bus downtown (don't worry, I looked for bedbugs before I sat my bottom anywhere).  Once we started getting near downtown, there was a sea of people wearing green.  It was the St. Paddy's day celebration downtown. I had forgotten.  Here are a couple pics from our girls day out!
Oh, and yes, it was just what I needed.  Thank you Alexandra!

Yes, we are both tall.  Fabulous isn't it!

I love the green river.  Doesn't that look disgusting. 

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY