Chocolate Phoenix

18 weeks down, only 22 to go. But who’s counting??

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A popular toy for older infants and young toddlers these days is the Leap Frog AlphaPal. It looks like a big caterpiller, and on every foot is a letter of the alphabet. There are several settings: Saying the letter, giving the letter sound, giving the color of the foot, or playing a short little tune.

A friend of mine told me yesterday that her brother discovered something interesting about the letter sound feature. His son happened to push the letter “f”, then the letter “k”. This toy is programed somehow to recognize that these two sounds would make a very bad word, so after hearing the “ffff” sound, you don’t get to hear the “k” sound. Instead the toy giggles and says “That tickles!”. Apparantly they programed it for any swear word you could possibly do. Isn’t that clever?

I also think this can go in the category “Weird Things Mormons Do When They Are Bored”.

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Dallin turns one on Tuesday. I can’t believe it’s already been a year! It went by so quickly. Also weird to think that I am pregnant now, and I was a year ago at this time, too. Yuck.

Anyrate… I have to get Dallin a present still. Not sure what I want to get him. I love buying things for my boys, but I can easily go overboard. Ches said he ordered something online for Dallin. When I asked what, he just said it’s a onesie. “What’s on the onesie?” I asked. Of course he won’t tell me. It doesn’t seem to matter to him that it’s not MY birthday!

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I am currently reading The Divine Ryans by Wayne Johnston. It’s pretty good. I like it so far, but it wouldn’t do for the church reading groups (I know there are several out there in one of those… like me… who are constantly looking for books to read in the group).

Aiden’s favorite book right now is Go Away, Big Green Monster! by Ed Emberley. He discovered it at the library not long after we moved here (almost two years ago now!), and we check it out about twice a month. I really need to just buy him his own copy.

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I think I watch too much CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. I realized that a few years ago when I had a dream that someone had broken into my car, and I started to process the “scene”. I even found a hair, picked it up with my tweezers, and put it in a small, yellow envelope. Of course, I was wering the fancy rubber gloves that they are always wearing!

Last night I had another CSI dream. This time I was an actual CSI, and there was a real crime (a murder or something. It’s been long enough that it’s starting to get murkey in my mind. And besides, I had another strange dream right after the CSI dream, and it had nothing to do with the first dream). I’m wondering if it is because I am watching too much CSI (although I only watch the original now!), or because that is what was on last night and was the last thing we watched before going to bed?

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Flames lost last night in overtime. We are sad, but still hopeful. The series is now tied 2-2. We’re thinking of going to a local sports bar to watch the game one night. They have a gajillion TVs and will let you watch whatever game you want. And they have good food. It will be up to me to find the sitter, I’m sure, but maybe I’ll get a date with my husband out of the hockey tournament! Woot!

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Ches is almost done with school! It’s hard to believe. He is trying to finish up his research project, which is what he is doing instead of a Master’s thesis. If all goes well with the research project, he has already had an offer to help him format it right to be published in The Instrumentalist.

That would be so cool! MY husband… published!! Of course, I would be a little jealous, too, because of the two of us I have always had the desire and goal to be a published writer. It would be okay, though. I think my pride in him would definitely outweigh the jealousy!

Anyrate… Ches’ topic is something like Quality Literature for the Small Band. He found it very difficult to find quality band literature for his kids to play at festival when he was teaching in a small band program. He had less than the ideal instrumentation, and often odd combinations. The kids were very talented, so to pick out music that would accomodate smaller instrumentation was often way too easy. Besides being insulting, it’s just not challenging, and how can they learn anything new? While we were in college studying things like band literature, we were pretty much always taught for the “ideal” group, but in small programs and small, rural towns, you just don’t get those kinds of groups. So Ches is trying to make a good resource for these band directors as well as find out what kinds of things some directors do. He has surveyed band directors from around the country, and some of the results are really quite interesting so far. It’s a good project. And I don’t think I’m being biased at all (even if I really am!).

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Quote of the day:
Don’t wreck a sublime chocolate experience by feeling guilty. Chocolate isn’t like premarital sex. It will not make you pregnant. And it always feels good.
–Lora Brody

I love the warm weather. They say it is going to drop about 10 degrees tomorrow, but it will still be 60, so I’m happy. I just wish I had more summer maternity clothes that fit! I’m already quite warm, and capris and t-shirts seem to be quite comfy right now. When it gets really hot out, I think I have enough t-shirts and stuff, but all of those clothes are too big right now. I kinda hate how much my body changes during pregnancy. It’s just so stinkin’ unpredictable. Although I kinda like how I look when I pregnant because I think I’m kinda cute. In some outfits more than others. I may be in tons of pain and discomfort, but darn it, I’m cute!

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Did you know that seahorses have a “body armor” kind of like armadillos? I didn’t. Until I saw the Stanley episode about seahorses. Oh, and seahorses are great dads. I love watching Stanley. Playhouse Disney has some great shows.

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Speaking of great kids shows on Playhouse Disney… Bear in the Big Blue House will have all new episodes all next week! I’m so excited, I’m ready to do the “Bear Cha-cha-cha”! I didn’t think Bear was even on anymore! Of course, here in Nevada it’s on at 6:30 in the morning, and we aren’t up yet. And I’m sure not waking my kids up that early (or myself) just to watch Bear. So today I’m thankful for the wonderful invention of VCRs.

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Tuesday night is Ches’ final Wind Ensemble concert. It is also the debut performance of the Wind Symphony that we are both playing in (the community group that just started back in January or February). I’m really excited for this concert. We are playing some really difficult, but really fun music: Symphonic Dance No. 3 (“Fiesta”) by Clifton Williams, Trauersinfonie by Richard Wagner, Second Suite in F by Gustav Holst, and The Cowboys by popular American composer John Williams.

As we were rehearsing for the final time last night, all I could think of is “I wish my mom could come to my concert.” You see, my parents haven’t been to one of my band concerts since I was in high school because I went to college so far away from home. (Although my mom did get to come to Symphonic Band rehearsal at Ricks during Mother’s Week, and she attended one of my flute lessons with me.) I would like to show my mom and dad that it was worth it to send me away to school, it was worth it to buy me a flute when we had no money, and it was worth it to let me major in something like music. I know that I’m not playing as well now as I used to, but this is still a major thing to me: that I am still playing. When I wanted a new flute, my parents bought me one my junior year of high school with one condition: that I keep playing. I had to play in college. I didn’t have to be a music major, but I did have to play in something. I want my mom to come to my concert so I can show her what I have done with that one simple promise I made back in 1993.

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Where in the world did the “media” get the idea that nicknaming famous couples was a good idea? I mean, I kind of understood the whole “Bennifer” thing, but now we have “Brangelina” and “TomKat”… it’s getting out of hand, and it’s just plain stupid! Ches and I are Ches and Sariah, not “Chesiah” or something equally weird. I just wonder where the entertainment world comes up with some of things and how it catches on so well.

Besides combining a couple’s names, the other phrase I hate is “baby bulge”. Nowhere in real life have I hear of a pregnant belly called a “baby bulge”. It just sounds so ugly to me! I like “pregnant belly”, or “pooch” for when a woman is just showing. That might just be me, though.

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My very first CD that I ever owned was given to me for Valentine’s Day by my boyfriend during my Senior year of high school. It is a two-disc set, actually, of “Les Miserables” with the original London cast (including Colm Wilkinson as Jean Valjean and Patti LuPone as Fantine). I don’t have any fond feelings for the guy who gave this to me anymore, but I still love the CDs. It was something I had wanted for a very long time, so I was very grateful. I guess he did some things right when we were dating!

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Erica made me a “wicked awesome CD mix” (her words!!) for me quite a while ago. I was very excited when I received this CD and couldn’t wait to listen to it. But our stereo is quite old, so it is really picky about what burned discs it will play. No worries, I thought. I’ll just listen to it in the car. However, Aiden has kind of taken over the van’s stereo anytime we’re in there together (and I’m rarely in the van by myself), so I hadn’t had a chance to listen to it. Yesterday afternoon, however, I got my chance! Ches came home to watch the kids while I went to get my blood drawn and run some errands, so I took the CD. Alas, my van stereo kept saying “error” and spitting it back out to me. AAAHHHHH!!!! I will try the CD player on the computer, next. And if that doesn’t work, I’ll find the discman and try that. And if that doesn’t work, well, Erica, you may just have to make me a new CD!

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Quote of the day:
“Let it be.”
– Paul McCartney

Note on this quote: I did a bit of complaining in my Random Friday, but I think that there are really better things in life to worry about than what the entertainment media says or thinks! So today’s quote is really just for me as a reminder that something just don’t matter, so just let it be. Or, as Dr. Taylor (one of my professors at Ricks) used to say:
“Get over it.”

We were flipping through the channels the other day, and on (I believe) the E! network was a show titles “The 10 Secrets of Quick Hollywood Slimdowns”. The premise of the show was to give us, as viewers, the chance to see how celebritites are able to get and stay soooooo thin.

Well, I don’t need a show to tell me. And I don’t think there are 10 secrets. Here are my observations:
1. Starve yourself.
2. Cut out all enjoyable foods in the entire world and eat really small portions of the yucky, bland foods, but insist that you love it and you feel great.
3. Smoke. You’ll kill all your tastebuds, so then you won’t notice that all you are eating is yucky, bland food and not enjoying food like a normal person.
4. Have a personal trainer that is at your house every single day and making you workout.
5. Work out at least 4 hours everyday with said personal trainer.
6. Stay out late drinking and partying (helps you to actually be unhealthy and lose weight, I think).
7. Have a personal clothes stylist, hair stylist, and makeup stylist that will always make you look good no matter where you are and where you go.

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I just got off the phone with a friend and she scheduled a Get Together for Creative Memories! I’m so excited!! (For those of you who don’t know, I have recently become a Creative Memories consultant and am trying to get my little business off the ground). This is my first definite yes. Now I’m a little nervous, but that’s okay. Yay for me!

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First quote of the day (yes, today we get two):
If there’s anything that can match the heights of mother-love, it’s the depths of mother-guilt.
–From and essay by Katherine Lee in the collection The Imperfect Mom

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Dallin laughed at something on TV this morning. I think it was the first time he out-right laughed at something on TV. We were watching The Big Big World on PBS and the two little marmasets were hopping around making a lot of funny monkey noises. He just laughed and laughed at that. It was the cutest thing to see.

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Aunt Marisa mentioned recently that I should write a book called “The Wit and Wisdom of Aiden”. Her favorite Aiden quote? “When we are llamas, we will eat grass.”

Talking to a friend of mine this morning I think it’s not just Aiden. It’s three-year-olds. I mean, take FeatherSky’s son, Jaedin. Still loving the whole hippo comment in church. Or ABQ’s son, W. I can’t get over the hot dog comment! So maybe I will write a book with the title Aunt Marisa suggested, but it will actually be a compilation of all the three year olds I know (or have known). Hmmmm. I should think about this some more. I’ve always wanted to write a book. This could be a good start! You know, a sort of “Kids Say the Darndest Things” for the new millenium.

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I had a dream last night that I was on a plane (I don’t know where I was travelling) and some old friends that I haven’t seen in over 10 years were on the plane. We hung out, then some of us drove to New York City (my first time!) and we weren’t there literally five minutes before we ran into some of out other old friends that live in NYC now. So then I got to hang out with them, too.

That would have been cool.

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Tomorrow the replacements come for my BIL’s unit in Iraq. That means only a few more weeks until he is home in the States with my sister and their son. How exciting is THAT??

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One of my favorite songs that I have on my mp3 player is “I Miss You” by Incubus. Except for the one line with the blaring F-Word (no, I don’t have the edited version of this song… obviously), I just love this song. It’s so beautiful. It makes me think of when you are first in love with someone and it’s the first time you spend anytime actually apart.

Ches and I had been married over a year before either of us went away overnight. I spent a weekend in Virginia, visiting my parents. It really wasn’t that long of a time, but I couldn’t believe how much I missed him. I didn’t sleep well at ALL, and it was weird to not hear his snoring. Who would think that I would miss his snoring? But now, anytime he is gone overnight, I can’t sleep because I can’t hear his snoring or at least his loud breathing.

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Second Quote of the Day:
The way to know life is to look at many things.
–Vincent Van Gogh