Some things I don't love

-Crumpled newspaper. I always have to fold it back up nicely. JB is quite patient with this behavior of mine.

-Twice now in the last week I've had my windows rolled down in the car to enjoy the cool breeze. Each time I've smacked a mosquito snacking on my arm. Ugh.

-I'm fine with other people wearing socks in the summer. But I can't do it. My feet feel hot, constricted, and confused. So I wear sandals or flats or heels without socks. But now that it's fall, I can with a clear conscience wear socks because I love my boots. It's almost boot weather, yippee!

-Apostrophes. I'm far from perfect at grammar, or at this crazy English language of ours with all its rules. But apostrohpes used incorrectly are a sore spot. I think we just type so fast we don't realize our pinkie has popped it in again when we add an s to things. "Its" and "it's" (it is) can also be confusing for some people. I've done it, and I hate it.

Examples from my everyday life:

Incorrect usage:
The Smith’s live here
Happy Holiday’s
Local Author’s come together for benefit
Go Ute’s
Cd’s and DVD’s for sale
It happened in the 1970’s
Its time for lunch
The cat lost it's tail

Correct usage:
The Smiths live here
Happy Holidays
Local Authors come together for benefit
Go Utes
CDs and DVDs for sale
It happened in the 1970s
It's time for lunch
The cat lost its tail

Anybody else have any weird pet peeves?

Other things my little boys love

My boys love rocks, snails, hammers and strong hard wood.
Benny thought these rocks and dirt were pretty tasty in our backyard.
Max meanwhile used a toy hammer to work on his playset, and had me hand up a spare piece of "strong hard wood" for him to work on.
The term "strong hard wood" comes from a Noah's Ark storybook we have, where Noah built an ark from strong hard wood. Max can no longer separate those terms in his vocabulary.

After his construction project he helped me hunt for snails in our flower beds. By the way, I am not a gardener and really have no idea what plans we have in our beds. I try to maintain what the previous homeowners planted before we bought the house four years ago. Max is fasinated and repulsed by the snails at the same time. As am I.

My boys love young women

I took the young squirts to the Young Women's activity at church with me last night. Max was too excited to eat dinner before hand because he loves coming to these activities. There often are a couple of other kids there too with their moms. He also loves many of the girls because they baby sit him. They also give him treats. Ben loves being wherever I am, and he also likes the attention and cuddles from the girls.

Last night some of the girls were working on quilts. Ben got right up in there.
I should have brought my real camera, and not just the cell phone. The boys really were so funny. Ben just wanted to eat the fabric squares, while Max sorted them and laid them out next to each other.
He took some of the fabric to another corner of the gym to have some privacy. Those girls kept trying to get their quilt squares back!

Poor chubby

Yes we still call Ben chubby, even though he's thinning out as he speed-crawls all over the place and cruises the furniture. Also gigante, Benjamino, Benji-johna and Hana-boy (from Benihana, the restaurant).

But he's been so sad lately with those darn teeth. His top two front teeth popped through last week after a few rough nights. But ever since Sunday he's been feverish and has his fingers in his mouth all the time. Methinks these next teeth coming through are giving him a worse time. Can you get molars at 9 1/2 months?

The upside is our normally wiggly, curious, always on-the-move baby is content to cuddle more these days for comfort from the pain. I don't mind it, even at midnight.

The Zoo

We took our little monkeys to the zoo recently, and had a lot of fun. But Max kept asking "They won't eat me?" when we came to a new animal exhibit. Later, it became more confident: "They won't eat me, momma." Here we are looking at the elephants.
He loved the giraffes. Shout out to his Uncle Michael who also liked giraffes starting probably at this early age.
Here are some monkeys:
You can kind of see Ben in the stroller, relaxing. He wasn't too excited by the animals.
My brothers Joe and James had some Dippin' Dots ice-cream. They got another bowl to give Max some because he kept dipping into their bowls.
By the way, knee-length shorts on girls -- sometimes not so attractive.

Me on TV

Ever wondered what I may look like as a TV reporter? Click here then watch the video. Don't be alarmed by the subject matter -- it was an assignment and I hope I handled it with sensitivity. But it was quite an assignment. I just thought it would be fun for you to see the first TV reporting I've done since college. If you follow the links you should be able to find my two-part series piece I did for the radio. Part one ran this morning, part two runs tomorrow morning.

F is for Football

We have had a lot of fun so far this college football season, mainly because both our teams are 3-0, but also because we've gone to some games. JB and his dad flew to Ann Arbor to watch their Utes take on Michigan in the Big House.
The Utes won, 25-23. A historic win.
Compare that red, with this blue:
Last Saturday I went to Lavell Edwards Stadium to watch my Cougs take on UCLA. If you can see the scoreboard, it says BYU 59 UCLA 0. Also a historic win.

I went with some other BYU fans from my neighborhood. Most of us are married to Utah men, so we stick together. We are sitting on the last row in the north endzone, the only spot for 5 cheap tickets in a row. We got baked, but had fun.

Now here's hoping both our teams do well this season, and that JB and I survive the rivalry game one more year. It's right after our anniversary, which seems to bode well for us.