A windy afternoon at the park

April 14, 2008

Done, but left wanting

I finally finished books 2 and 3 in the Twilight series. Apparently I'm a slow reader because so many of you said you finished the books in one long marathon session. It took me about a week for each book. At first I didn't want to rush through them, I wanted to savor each chapter and I was really enjoying this new indulgence. But after Dan threatened to take them away from me more than once and Lily raised her voice in exasperation, "Mommy, I'm trying to show you something! Stop reading!" I decided that I better finish them as quickly as possible. So on Thursday night I vowed to stay up into the night and finish Eclipse.

No matter how much I like a book it usually takes me several days to finish because every time I sit back to read I get sleepy. I love a good nap more than just about anything, so I didn't get too much daytime reading done. At night I would read awhile and though I was dying to know what happened next, I had to put the book down for the sake of my family the next morning. If any of you have been around me when I don't get enough sleep, you'll respect why I gave up at about midnight each night.

Now that it's done, I'm sad that I rushed through, especially the last part of Eclipse. Oh that was good stuff! I've been musing about why I loved these books so much. For one thing, have you ever read anything so sexy that didn't have any sex or real hanky-panky at all? It reminded me of pre-marriage days, when I would get all twitterpated about some boy. The excitement and anticipation was so intoxicating. Sure, you get the good stuff in marriage, but when was the last time you really got butterflies in your stomach?

Additionally, I think what really appealed to me was the slow development and evolution of the relationships. One thing that really annoys me about movies is there's rarely any relationship development. It's just not believable and it leaves me rolling my eyes. Now, a girl falling in love with a vegetarian vampire isn't exactly high on the reality scale, but at least the author made it intriguing to watch the relationship unfold.

I also liked the non-traditional view of vampires. The ability to coexist with humans in the daytime, the special "Cullen" diet, the sparkling skin in the sunshine (I can't wait to see how they depict that in the movie). I was also intrigued by all the Cullen's histories. It left me wondering what I would do with my time if I knew I would live indefinitely. I loved the theme of self-control and self-mastery throughout the books.

I have always loved "coming-of-age" books and this fit the bill perfectly. At times I worry that when my girls are teenagers it will be hard to remember and empathize with how it feels to be young, still growing in your understanding of the world and your maturity. Reading these books brought back the sharp feeling of angst that comes with that age, particularly of unrequited love. Maybe I'm alone on this, I know Jenn loathes Jacob Black, but I found myself identifying with him and wanting so much for him to find joy. I had a few one sided love affairs in my day (Lori & Sam, remember Jon Keller?) and I can still remember how I longed to have my feelings returned. One of the things that drew me to Dan was the fact that he adored me openly, and I just basked in his affection.

So now, let's speculate how Stephenie Meyer is going to wrap up the story in the 4th book. I predict that once Edward and Bella consummate their relationship, something about that act will make Edward human. I just can't see Bella really becoming a vampire and mortal enemy to Jacob. My sister Becky has some great ideas on her blog. Read her book review here. While I can't quite accept the idea of Bella leaving her human existence behind, I also can't imagine Edward becoming human and separating himself from the rest of the Cullens. They are so tightly bound, and Bella has become such an intricate part of the Cullen family that I can only picture them being a package deal. As for Jacob, the easy solution would be for him to imprint with someone, but I don't see Stephenie Meyer taking the easy way out to resolve Jacob's problems. I just hope he gets something great in the end.

Oh, how will we make it until August?! I've already scoured Stephenie Meyer's website and read the chapter written from Edward's point of view: Midnight Sun. And while I was pretty skeptical about the movie being any good because we all have such strong, individual ideas about what the characters look like and how the scenes played out, I have to admit that I'll be going on opening night after I saw this video. Who's with me?

Consumed

I have been sucked into the vortex of the Cullen family.

It's all Sam's fault, really. I had heard of the Twilight series of books; my cousins Katy and Jenn P. are big fans. I never really got interested, though, I thought, "Eh, vampires...not really my thing." But then Sam issued a challenge on her blog. For those of you who don't know anything about this book, or this movie, I'm sorry. Google Stephenie Meyer, get yourself to a bookstore, and get with it!

She was essentially saying, "Anybody whose anybody has read this book."

I couldn't back down from a challenge like that. So next time I was at the library, as luck would have it, there was actually a copy on the shelf. I spent the next four days reading every chance I got, staying up ridiculously late and generally finding ways to make the girls entertain themselves so I could selfishly indulge in a little vampire fantasy.

It's one of those books where you don't want to read it too fast because then it'll be over, but you just can't contain yourself! I allowed myself to rush through it only because I knew there were two more books after Twilight. Now I'm going to have to start rationing myself.

This is my feeble justification for being MIA on the blog. I can't get enough of Edward and Bella! After a panicked morning of finding no copies of New Moon at the library, calling Katy and Jenn, who I thought for sure would have one, I finally found a copy to borrow from my friend Brooks. It was ridiculous how excited I was to have found a copy I can start reading today.

Dan is full of mockery about my "teenage books." Sometime over the last few days we got on the subject of vampires and in a tone of mockery he said, "Yeah, I hear they make really good boyfriends."

Bite me.

My heart is all a-flutter

READ HERE NOW!

Lori emailed these photos to me a couple days ago and then my cousin Jen emailed this morning saying that she'd just finished watching New Kids on the Block on the Today Show. "Still as yummy as ever" she said. Amen, sister!

I still remember running home from school to watch their videos and I still have the VHS tapes stored with my high school scrapbooks and memorabilia.

I was shocked when I saw this picture. Did they really look that ridiculous?


Oh, but ladies, let's admit, they grew up reeeeeal nice.

Sookie, sookie, sookie, sookie, UH!

Hey Dan, if you get one of those cool white hats and striped leather jackets, you might get lucky tonight...

Nudey-Toody-Run-Around

Apparently, we're raising a couple of nudists. (See here.) Amelia has taken a new interest in her bike helmet. The other night she got out of the bathtub, found her helmet and insisted on wearing it before she got dressed.

She was so proud of herself!

I guess we can be glad that at least she'll wear the thing now and it fits her a lot better than when she was 9 months old.

Our girls may be training up for their futures at the nudist colony, but at least they know how to accessorize!

Boredom

This is what happens at our house when none of your friends can play and your mom won't let you watch a movie.

Yay Us!

Dan and I have completed Baby Step 1 in our Total Money Makeover! We've saved our $1000.00 emergency fund. It's the most savings we've had in our twelve years of marriage, so I'm feeling pretty proud of us! We have also paid off the first 5 items on our debt snowball and now we're really going to start knocking stuff out! Just today I made the final payment on Amelia's birth expenses (now that she's 18 months old). It's an awesome feeling to have that monkey off my back!

Because Dan and I are both self-employed and don't have set paydays, we have relied on our emergency fund to cover us between paychecks, when necessary. But each time we've gotten paid we've replenished the emergency fund and added more when we could till now we're at $1000.00. We plan to continue to build that to $2000.00 as soon as possible because of our somewhat unique employment situation (we really are gluttons for punishment, both being self-employed.)

I told my friend's mom today that we had our emergency fund and she was horrified to hear that a mere $1000.00 was the most money we had ever saved. But I fear that most people are like us, living paycheck to paycheck. Having that emergency fund has cut the stress in my life tremendously because now I don't have to worry about overdraft fees or having to use the credit card if something comes up. Dan had to get his wisdom teeth pulled this month and we paid cash for it. I have to get some dental work done (a gum graft) and we're going to pay cash for that with our tax relief check. And it's true what Dave Ramsey says, that paying with cash saves you money. Not only in finance charges, but the oral surgeon gave us a discount for paying cash at the time of service. Sweet!

If you didn't read my post about Dave Ramsey's book The Total Money Makeover, you can read it here. We just checked his book out at the library and started applying his principles, no cost involved. It took us 4 months to save the emergency fund. And we haven't used our credit cards in 6 months. And we can pay our bills every month. When I told Dan today that we'd reached our $1000.00 emergency fund goal, he kind of bah-humbugged about how far we have to go. But if you consider that we have an emergency fund, we are no longer accumulating debt, and we're paying our bills every month, we're much farther than $1000.00 ahead of where we were just 6 months ago.

So I say, "Yay Us!"

Cutting the Apron Strings, the irreverent version

I took family photos for my good friend Kris last month. She and I served in the Young Women's presidency together when I lived in Midvale. Well, Kris is a riot. And she thinks she's 17. So this makes for a very fun portrait session!

We did these pictures just before her only child, Alex, left for his mission. There were lots of great shots and I put several up on my photoblog. You can view the "nice" pictures here. But there were just too many funny ones, I couldn't resist posting them. Since viewers of my photoblog might not know me well enough to appreciate my sense of humor, I thought I'd better post these here.

So, here is the gag reel:

Can I get a little Blue Steel?

Oh, yeah, Magnum baby!

The Brock Dalgleish. You hafta know him to appreciate how accurate this is!

Kenyon: Sucker...as soon as he's gone I'm taking over his room and putting in my Star Trek collection.

Don't be hatin' boys, just cause you can't work the wind machine quite like Kris.

Whatcha doin' with that hand, Kris? Kenyon's smiling awfully big.

Sue: Ok, guys, gimme "Bad A@@".
Kenyon: I learned all my moves from Michael.

Kris: Don't make me laugh. I gotta pee!

Kris: Al, show us again how you're gonna kiss Lu the night before you go? (Must enlarge to appreciate this one.)

Alex: Nice rack, Kenyon
Kenyon: That's the most action I've seen in a month.

Alex: Do you think my companion will like me, Mom? I'm really a very nice fellow.

The Stalker makes her debut

OK, I'm outing Lori Gerten, my oldest BFF. She has been stalking many of my family's blogs, the Carlsons blogs, Hilary's blog, and on and on. But she never leaves comments.

Well, she has decided to become legitimate and start her own blog. I am super excited and now I think we should all go comment on her blog and make her feel guilty for not commenting on your blogs! Check her out at More Ramblings of Myself.

This picture goes with "P" in the alphabet tag. It was taken in the Minneapolis airport while she and Grace were waiting to fly out to visit us last July.


Rest assured, it was just a little something to take off the edge...

I'll take a Dozen

Dan and I celebrated our 12th anniversary today. Well, "celebrated" is a gross overstatement since Dan worked all day and into the night. But I'm sure later in the week we'll go crazy and go to dinner and a movie or something.

Here is our engagement picture in 1996.

I loved this photo because we were so snugly and let's be honest...I chose it because it was the one where I thought I looked the best. Dan has always rolled his eyes at this picture, calling it the "crooked neck" picture. Mock me if you must, buddy, you're the one who was wearing lipstick.

This picture was taken in Fall 2007 and don't say anything about Dan's hair (or lack thereof.) You might hurt his fragile ego.

All kidding aside, I have been married for 12 years and I am still amazed at how much I love my husband. I was pretty young and immature when I got married and really had no concept of what deep and abiding love could be.

Here are some things I have learned in the last 12 years:

• I made a very wise choice when I married a man who knows how to fix cars.
• Commitment and loyalty are some of the finest qualities in a spouse.
• Love isn't about always feeling good or feeling like you're getting your needs met. It's about genuinely caring about the happiness of your spouse, above your sense of fairness or equal effort. My very favorite quote about marriage is from President Gordon B. Hinckley: “I have long felt that happiness in marriage is not so much a matter of romance as it is an anxious concern for the comfort and well-being of one’s companion.”
• Whether you want to admit it or not, your sex life is a pretty accurate indicator of the overall quality of your marriage. Not that you need to have the same libido, but you need to have a clear understanding and a healthy respect for what sex means to your spouse.
• Having children increases your love for your spouse exponentially.
• Having children molds your character and brings out your true nature. Sometimes that's good, and sometimes that's scary.
• A sense of humor is essential to making it through life's daily grind.
• Laughter can melt bitterness and resentment.
• You have to respect that your spouse thinks differently than you do; that their mind operates differently. And it's not just the difference between men and women. It's that we are all individual children of God, with distinct personalities and gifts. This is one of the hardest things to embrace. It took me a long time to learn that there was nothing wrong with the way Dan dealt with religion or spiritual things. In my immaturity, I assumed that my way was the "correct" way and since he wasn't like me, he must not have a strong testimony of the gospel. I couldn't have been more wrong.
• Men bear a tremendous burden, especially if you believe in the traditional family setup of father as the main breadwinner. Men deserve a HUGE amount of respect for the fact that their whole lives they will bear the burden of supporting their family. Now that Dan is done with graduate school, working full-time, and starting to bring in a salary to meet our needs, I can't tell you how much less pressure I feel. I still work and I still need to contribute a significant amount, but I feel so much relief and love in sharing the burden. And I feel so much pride in my man. Because Dan is filling this role, I find myself actually liking keeping the house clean, willingly ironing his shirts, feeling like cooking so Dan can have leftovers for his lunch the next day. It's a service I can render to him, the very least I can do to show how much I appreciate his efforts.
• Running a household is a lot of freakin' work and is worthy of society's respect.
• Being on the same page about finances is essential to peace at home. I was reading in the Bible today and came across a verse I loved in Amos 3:3 Can two walk together, except they be agreed? It totally made me think, "now that's some scripture that Dave Ramsey would quote." It is so comforting and gives me a great sense of security to be unified in our financial goals.
• Living on a tight budget isn't as hard as people make it out to be. Going without for a little while is totally worth the blessing of being able sleep at night, of falling asleep without worrying about overdraft fees, and of knowing that if we are persistent we will live a life of financial freedom in the future.
• It's awesome being married to a really intelligent guy. You wanna know something, ask Dan and he's probably read about it extensively. His science background and analytical thinking make many subjects, like religion, very interesting to discuss. And he's teaching Lily that if she's curious about something, just read, read, read. You can educate yourself about anything. Just ask Lily about the taxidermy video.
• A man who worries about being a good father is priceless.
• It's nice being married to a man who is secure enough to be OK with his wife spouting her opinions on the internet.
• Dr. Laura is right. Men are pretty simple. Meet their basic needs for respect and affection and you're pretty much set. One of my favorite quotes from her book The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands is from a man who said, "Men are simple. If I'm not horny, make me a sandwich."
• A good fart joke can rescue an otherwise lousy day.

Love you, Bin!

(I think there must have been a butt pinch involved in this picture.)

2007 photos by Camilynne Photography. 1996 photo by Smokey the Bear (the tripod and self-timer.)