Chocolate Phoenix

I just got back from getting my hair cut. It was wonderful. My very long, straight, boring hair is now very short, bouncy, still straight, and really fun. It’s really light, and easy to manage. I love it!! Pictures on their way (once Ches gets home and can take a picture of me).

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One of the questions Ches was asked in an interview last week went like this: “I see you have a ring on your finger. Are you sure you can handle this job and be here from 6:30 am to 4 pm?”

I find the question highly offensive! I can’t believe he was actually asked that! To top it off… that is an illegal question.

How would you have answered that question?

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Song of the day: Wonderwall by Oasis. Another song I haven’t heard about in awhile, but I heard it on the radio and it made me happy to hear it. I love Oasis. I really love their “What’s the Story (Morning glory)” album. Good stuff. It reminds me of my sophomore year of college. My roommates and I listened to that album all the time.

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Still no word on when and where we are moving. We should have some answers by the end of next week on the interviews. We are still planning on moving to the greater Phoenix area, but we aren’t sure of exactly where yet. I’m hoping for Mesa (I love Mesa!!), but I will be happy just on that side of the valley: Mesa, Tempe, Chandler, or Gilbert.

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I am currently reading The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory. It’s about Mary Boleyn, who was the sister of Ann, Henry VIII’s second wife. It’s really well written, and I’m enjoying it a lot. I have some sort of weird fascination with the royal history of England, but don’t ask me a lot of questions because I actually don’t know all that much. I’m just so interested in it. Anyrate, this book is really good, but historically inaccurate, so if you read it, don’t take it as “gospel truth” or anything.

Another really good book I have is called Kings, Queens, Bones, and Bastards by David Hilliam. The subtitle of this book is “Who’s Who in the English Monarchy from Egbert to Elizabeth II”. It’s also a really interesting reference book. Easy to read with just enough information about each monarch, their consorts, their children (illegetimate or not), and where certain people are buried. I highly recommend it. I got this book as a gift from my stepdad several years ago, and I have read it cover to cover several times, as well as referred to it when I had a question about someone.

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Three more months and I should be done with this pregnancy. Yay! Actually less, since I’m due September 26th, and since my first two were born early I’m fully expecting this one to come early, too. All I know it I feel like I have been pregnant for the past two years (which, really, is kind of accurate, since we moved to Reno, got pregnant with Dallin almost right away, had Dallin, and got pregnant when he was what? Eight months old?). I hate pregnancy, so I’m excited to get this over with.

Besides, I get to have another little baby! How exciting is that? Yup, I’ve sure changed my view on this, haven’t I? I still wish I had more time in between Dallin and this baby, but I’m not resentful at all anymore. I’m excited for this little boy to join our family.

Oh, still no names yet, so quit asking, people! We’re a little busy with everything else and worried about that. We have plenty of time before he’s born, so I’m not worried about a name. Besides, we do have a little list going, and we’ll pick something out eventually. He won’t be named Baby Boy Sharp.

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Quote of the day (In honor of tomorrow being Canada Day):
Canada is an interesting place – the rest of the world thinks so, even if Canadians don’t.
–Terence Green

I have the cutest kids. Dallin has decided that Blue’s Clues is his favorite show. This morning he was a little cranky, so I asked, “Would you like to watch Blue’s Clues?” Dallin immediately got a huge grin, raised his hands up and down, and said, “Blue’s clues! Blue’s Clues!” over and over until he was well into watching the show. Of course, when he says it, it sounds more like “Boo Coos! Boo Coos!” than anything else. He also loves to say “A clue! A clue!” (which comes out “Acoo! Acoo!”).

This from the kid who still won’t say “mom”.

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Ches is having a lot of success in Arizona. He has several interviews set up, has talked to several people on the phone, and has had a lot of interest shown in him. We’re very excited. I took something like FIVE phone calls for him yesterday from people in Arizona. FIVE!!! On his first day there! He’s hoping to find some time to apartment shop while he’s down there, too. I’m really hoping he does. I just want to get packed and move now.

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Dallin had tooth #6 coming in… finally. However, because of the teething, he got a huge fever yesterday (was up to 102 by afternoon), and was just miserable. He ended up sleeping with me because I was so worried about him. His temperature at about 2 am was 104!! I almost took him to the emergency room, but couldn’t sort out in my head what exactly to do. I couldn’t find the bottle of Tylenol in the middle of the night, so I just rubbed his back and thought and thought. He temperature did start to go down, and when he woke up this morning (6 am), it was down to 100. I have to get my own prescription refilled today, so I will pick up more Tylenol for him. He’s feeling a lot better, but it sure isn’t fun.

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Song of the day:
“Right Here, Right Now” by Jesus Jones
Remember the video to this song? I used to love it. How it would say things like “Right now, someone is eating french fries without salt” or whatever. At one point in the video, there would be so much to read, and it’d go by so quickly. Even as a fast reader, I don’t think I ever quite made it through. I was always a little disappointed in myself for that. Anyrate, I heard this song on the radio yesterday, and it was another one of those that I hadn’t thought about in a long time, but I liked it. Especially the line “Right here, right now/ There is no other place I want to be”. Even as hard as things are, I love where I am: married to a wonderful man, with two awesome boys and one more on the way, living the Gospel as best as we can, just trying to be a happy family. I like where I am… right here, right now.

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We rented a couple of movies last weekend to watch: Fun With Dick and Jane, and Doogal. The first was fun. We liked it a lot. Could have done without some of the language (we are horrible parents who let our kids watch all sorts of movies with us), but otherwise was a pretty entertaining movie. Oh, and watch the outtakes (I mean, come one! It’s Jim Carrey! You gotta watch him!) and the deleted scenes. We liked the dleted scenes and wish they had stayed in the movie.

Doogal, on the other hand, sucked. Big time. There are lots of big names in this movie (Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Whoopi Goldberg, and William H. Macey,just to name a few), but it was horrible. It sounded more like they were doing a half hearted read-through than a movie. The plot was weak, and the script was not well written. It had a lot of funny one-liners… but that seemed to make up most of the movie! One-liners from other movies! Hmpf. When the movie ended, Ches looked at me and said, “I would have been so pissed if we wasted money to see this one in the movie theatre.” I totally agreed.

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My brother-in-law, Kenyon, has a blog now. Check it out. He talks about cool music a lot, and has this neat player on there to listen to music that he has set up. Oh, and in case you are wondering about the relationship, here is how it works. In their family, there are three boys in this order: Ches, Alyson’s Mr. Wonderful, then Kenyon. That should be easy enough to figure out.

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It seems that a lot of you have nicknamed your husbands something for your blog-writing so you don’t have to use their actual names. We’ve got Sultry Husband (April), HHH (Julia), Mr. Big (Kris) and Mr. Wonderful (Karen), just because it goes with them. Then we have the names for husbands that go with the blog: Mr. Wonderful (Alyson), and Mr. Angel (Texangel). I was thinking about it, and what do you think? Should we all now call Ches “Mr. Universe”? Heh. Wonder what that would do to his ego. Of course, he is a trumpet player… even if he is the most humble trumpet player you will ever meet (and that is saying something).

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We have some friends here in Reno that are coming up on their first anniversary. He just called and said, “I need a little help getting A. her present, and I think you might be able to help.” She was raised LDS, and he is not religious. (She doesn’t attend any churches anymore). She has used the LDS Primary songbook in the classroom over the years (she is an elementary music teacher), and I guess her copy is pretty worn down. Or she doesn’t have it anymore. So he is going to get her a new Primary songbook and possibly a new hymnbook. The Primary songbook is really great for elementary school. All the non-religious songs are perfect to use, and the arrangements are just for that age. I’m glad she is able to use the songbook. I love some of the songs, myself (like “In the leafy treetops” or “Oh what do you do in the summertime?”). I mentioned you can even get them engraved with her name, and he liked that. The husband said he thinks she’s been missing these songbooks the last couple of years, so he wants to be able to replace them. I thought to myself, “What a thoughtful husband. He thought of this all on his own.” So I gave him directions to the nearest LDS bookstore, and he is headed there this afternoon. Awwwww, sweet.

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Quote of the day:
The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.
–Dorothy Parker (1893-1967)

The Reno Rodeo has started, and the HHS band gets to participate in the parade tomorrow. I hate doing parades. Really. BUT doing this one measley parade gets the band $750, so I won’t complain… much.

We had rehearsal this morning, and it was hot out. Actually, it wasn’t too bad, but since I’m so freakin’ pregnant and I was dragging my other two children along with me, I got hot and tired really quickly. It’s supposed to be even hotter tomorrow, but I’m not marching the parade, and the parade is in the morning, so it won’t kill anyone.

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Ches leaves in a week to go to Phoenix and interview for jobs. Looks like a really strong possibility we’re moving back to Phoenix. I’m really excited. I’m also really nervous. It’s going to be difficult to get everything packed and moved and find a new doctor and get Aiden signed up for preschool and get Ches started on a new job… but we’ll make it through. We always have before!!

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Last weekend we made a trip to Boise. My 19 year old brother left for his LDS mission to Tahiti this week, and the family had a little luau Saturday night for him. Sunday, he spoke in church (his “farewell”). We were really happy to get to go and see everyone there. However, there are a couple of things I learned from the trip:

1. When looking at directions on MapQuest, it is best to actually print out the directions, even if you think you know the way. That would have saved us 3 hours of driving time, and we wouldn’t have missed the luau.

2. Apparanly Nevada is much more dry than Idaho. Boise is desert, but we could feel more moisture in the air. And when we got home, my lips cracked for the rest of the week.

3. A stomach bug passes around family faster than gossip. And it hits everyone differently.

4. Always remember how fun the short trip was. There were no fights or annoyances on this trip. It is better to have a short trip and leave wanting more than it is to have a long trip and leave hoping never to see anyone for at least 10 years.

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Dallin is officially a walker!! He’s been working on it for quite a while, but this past week he made it to all walking. He falls down easily, but stands right back up. He’s so cute, too. Dallin keeps his arms stuck up in the air for balance and takes little steps so he won’t fall. Sometimes he gets excited and tries to go fast, and then he tumbles, but he is usually laughing the whole time.

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I saw a little bit of the Britney Spears interview on Dateline with Matt Lauer last night. I still think she is trashy in so many ways (I once heard someone say “You can take the girl out of Louisiana, but you can’t take the Louisiana out of the girl!”), but I can’t help but feel a little sorry for her. Well, for her and all high-profile stars.

You see, we “normal” people get to get married and become parents without this large amount of scrutiny from media and paparazzi. We make mistakes, but those mistakes are made in private. We are able to learn and grow and not think much about it.

Famous people have cameras on them every moment of the day. When they make a childish mistake (getting married in Vegas to an old friend just for kicks), the whole world knows about it. When they make a normal mistake (tripping on the sidewalk while holding the baby and almost dropping baby), they are called bad parents. If I trip on the sidewalk and almost drop my child (and it has happened… many times, and sometimes I do indeed drop my child), I’m just called a klutz.

Apparantly normal people are allowed to make mistakes, but famous people are not. What a strange world we live in.

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As we were going through Aiden’s bedtime checklist last night, he announced, “We need to take off Brush Teeth and put on Play Games With My Dad.” In Aiden language, Play Games With My Dad means Play XBox Games For Several Hours With Dad, Or By Myself.

Yeah, Aiden. That is soooo going to happen.

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALYSON!!

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Quote of the day:
Whatever is begun in anger, ends in shame.
–Benjamin Franklin