Random: Witty, Wistful, Downright Hilarious, and Completely Brilliant

• Talking about the Polygamous Mormons shortly after the Pioneers went west, when Brother Brigham was still at the head of the Church, Mark Twain said, "in Utah, most of the women marry Young."

• I was talking to my friend about budgeting and she said that James and I are able to budget because we are a two-income family. Huh? If only those two incomes came from either of us working more than half-time, her logic might check out. On the contrary, I think having two rather modest incomes, like ours, force us into far more creative budgeting than we might otherwise need.

• Scout is learning to play peek-a-boo. She has enjoyed me covering and then uncovering her face for months now. And she adores lift-the-flap books. This week, however, she has begun to pick up whatever piece of cloth she can find (usually a burp cloth), and after checking to see whether I'm watching, she covers her face and quickly whisks it away with a smile. A few weeks ago the Doctor gave me a checklist of developmental milestones Scout is supposed to reach before twelve months, so I've started trying them out. One of them is that she should play games like patty-cake and peek-a-boo with no visual clues (that is, I just tell her to play peek-a-boo and she does it). As of yesterday, she's pretty good at this one. So, of course, I wanted to show James. When she finished her bottle this afternoon, I handed her the burp cloth and said "peek-a-boo!" She dutifully picked up the cloth and covered her face and head. Perfect, now we waited with baited breath for her to remove the cloth and flash that gummy smile. I said my line, "Where's Scout?" And we waited. And we waited. There she sat, for about forty-five seconds, dutifully holding the burp cloth up to her face, waiting happily. I think she forgot what she was supposed to do next. I finally started saying "peek-a-boo" in an attempt to trigger her memory. And down came the burp cloth. She properly repeated the game about ten more times, but James and I were laughing too hard to be a very good audience.

• I am probably the last person on the internet to discover this, but in case I'm not, here my most recent discovery of why the internet is great: My friend's husband told me about Pandora, which is free radio on the internet. What's so great about that? You tell it a song or artist you like, and it plays more stuff like it. And you can give it all the songs and artists you want. And you can create your own stations for different musical moods you may be in. And the very best part is, if it plays something you don't like, you just tell it and it will never play that song again. Never. How many times did I NEED this function the summer "Yellow" was on the radio at least three million times and I wondered whether pushing a q-tip into my ear really would pop the ear drum and make me go deaf? I would probably pay money for this, but I don't even have to. It's great.
  

Book Baby

From the (very small) part of me that wishes I had become an artist

When I was a little girl, scientists still believed that every snowflake was unique, no two the same. They've since proven that wrong. But I'm still amazed that it took so long to find two that were identical. I used to be in awe of each flake.

After it snowed I would get in all of my gear (boots, snowpants, coat, hat, gloves, hood) and stay outside as long as my parents would allow. Sometimes I would lay in the field near our house and just watch the snow fall from the sky, enjoying each beautiful flake.

Now, snow is something to be brushed from the car, shoveled from the walk and derided until it crusts over, turns grey and eventually concedes to melt away. How can it be so obstinate as to fall anew at the end of February? Shouldn't we be making our way to Spring by now? Even I, who am always excited for the first snowfall, have had enough by now. I've started planning my garden and am ready to stop worrying about slipping on the ice.

But today, as I walked through the snow, I looked down at my scarf and noticed the delicate, intricate flakes collecting in its fibers. And when my car's heater melted the flakes into mere droplets of water, I was sad to see them go.

Today, once again, I was a little girl watching beautiful, tiny pieces of creation drift from the sky. Today, I remembered the miracle of snow.

The Other Reason I Like Collages

The other day Scout was looking particularly cute. So, I took some photos. Okay, I took 120 photos. I looked through them and picked out the ones that had promise. Then I carefully went through and got rid of everything I thought I could live without. And at the end of all that winnowing down, I had narrowed it down to these few favorites:

Yes, I have a problem. But I made some more cuts, got James involved in the decision making, and we finally arrived at the following manageable group.
Too bad I've got to pick just one for my wallpaper. I'm really liking this one...
...and this one;......this one's cute too, but it's vertical so fortunately it just won't work.

Family Time?

One day I was at Panera and saw a family of four having lunch "together." Dad was on his cell phone, Mom and daughter each had laptops in which they were fully engrossed. The son had earbuds in and was listening to his ipod. Few things can isolate you quite like personal electronics. Maybe they were in the midst of a cross-country road trip and desperately needed some time away from each other. At any rate, they were only spending time together in the most technical sense of the term.

And yet, tonight when Virgina decided to have some very awake time from 10:30 until after midnight, this was our activity of choice:

No, hers doesn't work. It died a few months ago. And James only has a laptop because his employer lets him use it for free. I really think Virginia only enjoys the laptop so much because the keys click and she can see herself reflected in the screen (and my wallpaper is a larger than life picture of her).

I will say that we all played and had a grand time when she pulled the same trick last night. But, tonight when we're all sick and nobody got anywhere near enough sleep last night, this is what our family portrait looks like:

January 10 - Three Pairs of Red Shoes (Part II)

Today I went to church in Madison, wearing my red shoes. Every time I looked at my feet and thought of my mom and my sister, I wondered whether they were wearing their red shoes as well? And whether they are or whether they're not, it made them feel a little less far away.

December 30 - Three Pairs of Red Shoes

Today, my mom, my sister and I went shopping. Among our many stops was Famous Footwear, where we almost always acquire more shoes than we really need. Our quest: brown shoes for Mom, black flats for me. Mom knew exactly what she needed (she always buys essentially the same pair) and quickly found them. And I found some cute black shoes, but they didn't have my size. They did, however, have a red version of the same shoes in my size. I love red shoes, so of course I tried them on. Mom agreed that they were cute, but they also weren't what I needed. I looked around, but I couldn't find any black shoes I liked enough to own. And I kept wearing the red ones.

Eventually, Mom admired them so much that I got her to try some on as well. They had her size in red, and while she preferred black, she was stuck with red because there were no black pairs in her size either. She said she didn't know what to wear with them, but we talked through some ideas, and soon I had her convinced that she needed to buy them. Of course, I wasn't going to part with mine either.

The only problem now was that, given Famous Footwear's eternal buy-one-get-one-half-off sale and Mom's other pair of shoes (remember the predictable brown ones?), we needed one more pair of shoes. It should be noted that at this point in the shopping day, we'd completely abandoned the mantra that even if you buy it on sale, you're still not saving money, you're spending it.

So, I asked Becca whether she'd like some red shoes and went back to the shelf. And there they were! Red came in her size too. She put them on, I kept up my lawyerly persuasivenss, and we left with matching shoes.

It should be noted that ten years ago I'd never have gone for this scheme. I did NOT do matching. A decade and several hundred miles between us have changed my opinion. It's not like we completely match anyway. The red shoes mean something different to each of us. Mom is thinking they may take her wardrobe accessorizing in new and exciting directions (thought you'll note that she still wore them with a red dress), Becca is thinking these are the shoes she was searching for last year when she found the perfect dress that only needed red shoes to complete the outfit (and so, since she still has it, she promptly wore them with that dress), and as for me, I figure I can just wear them instead of black shoes with whatever I feel like (and I have been doing so ever since).

As for Scout, she wants to know why the red shoes didn't come in her size too?

December 29 - Sleep

Sleep is a wonderful thing. I am amazed by the body's power to renew itself. Think about it. If your computer gets a virus and you shut it down, it's likely to be just as bad off, or worse, after a few days of rest. Your body, on the other hand, if given a little rest will heal itself of most things that ail it. It will even patch a hole in itself. That certainly can't be said for a pair of pants. And a car only recharges its battery when it's running. But if you put a dent in the hood, that dent is there to stay. Rest is a wonderful thing for regenerating the body.

Isn't it amazing that the world can seem to be at an end, but a little sleep will make it all better? Today, as is sometimes my privilege, I got to enjoy the difference between eight hours of sleep and two hours of sleep. Let me just say that I, and everyone who has to talk to me on the following day, prefer the former.

December 28 - Beautiful Vistas

Catching the 6:50 a.m. flight isn't all bad....

December 27 - Perseverance

During church today, Virginia was tired, cranky and loud. We were only in Sacrament Meeting a few minutes before I had to get up and take her out. I was hoping she'd go to sleep before long. She had other plans. While she did not sleep, she did make plenty of noise. In the end, I didn't get to take the sacrament, I didn't hear any of the talks. In short, I missed everything but the opening song. Thankfully, it was one of my favorites, so that portion at least was uplifting.

As the final talk began (it was given by my father-in-law and I'd really have liked to hear it), I thought about forgetting the last two hours and heading home to try and get a decent nap for the baby. I reasoned that it couldn't be that beneficial, particularly if I were going to spend the whole time in the hall. But, I decided to give Sunday School a try and see how things went.

Scout did pretty well. More importantly, about halfway through the lesson, I looked to the other side of the room where someone was making a comment and saw a familiar face. A good friend who moved away from Madison several months ago was sitting near the back of the room with her husband. I waved at her and after the lesson we were able to catch up. We sat together in Relief Society and she was finally able to meet Scout (Becky, my friend, moved away just after her birth). Seeing Becky brightened my mood considerably and absolutely made my day. And Scout even gave in and slept through most of Relief Society.

I'm thankful that my perseverance was rewarded with a completely random and wonderful reunion.