Team Jacob

No, I'm not talking about my brother-in-law. I'm talking about Twilight.
A couple days ago Jessica got me started and now it's consuming my life. At 11:30 last night I should have been sleeping (that made my morning mantra of "get your fat, lazy butt out of bed and go running" a little tougher), but instead I was looking for possible answers and conclusions that might occur in the 4th book.

This is going to sound like I didn't like the books, but I loved them and have read them several times. But there are some things that really bug me. Edward is fascinated by Bella because he can't hear what she's thinking, so he assumes that she has an original mind. She's actually not all that interesting all she thinks about is how much she loves him, how inadequate she is for him, and she wants to be a vampire. Then there's all Bella has to change to be with Edward, but I'll let Jess comment on that because it's all her crafty little mind which I totally agree with. And no matter how gorgeous Edward is (in my world he is unbelievably attractive), if all he had to do everyday was spend time with me I'd go nuts. His music doesn't appear to take enough time away from Bella. His lack of other interests is his major character flaw that makes him more unrealistic to me than being a vampire. I was also really bugged by Bella's "oh, poor me, there's a hole in me" nonsense. It lasted way too long and made me want to hurl. If I ever met someone like that I'd probably slap them.

Jacob has hobbies, like fixing cars, hanging out with the pack. His every second doesn't revolve around Bella no matter how much he loves her. So when they do spend time together it's quality time. With Jacob she doesn't have to change anything. She can continue to see her parents, grow up, have a family. They love each other with a love that seems more lasting.

After Bella's changed into a vampire who knows if she'll be the same person. She won't smell as good. She won't blush or look the same. While she and Edward will have all the time they can dream of, what if he decides he doesn't like babysitting her to keep her from eating people all the time. Half of their relationship is him being over-protective and she won't need him to be anymore because she won't be so breakable.

Anyway, I think she's be better off with Jacob in my practical mind which usually rules my heart. Really I'd rather be kissed by Edward, I really do enjoy the intensity of their relationship. Let me know if you're on Team Edward or Team Jacob and why. I'm sincerely interested since I'll be out of town over the 4th book being released.

Calling all triathletes

I found a triathalon that everyone would probably be able to do, and it's close, and it's on a Saturday. So anyone who wants to join, let me know. It would be really fun to get a group to do this.

Date:Saturday, October 18, 2008

Time:09:00 AM

Venue:Summit Athletic Club

Address:1532 E 1450 S St. George, UT 84790

Brief Description:There is a Sprint, Beginner and Kid's Triathlon.

Prices:
Sprint Triathlon - $45.00
Beginner Triathlon - $35.00
Kid's Triathlon - $25.00

Online Registration Closes:10/16/08 11:59 PM

Website:http://mysummitathleticclub.com/

Sprint: 400 meter swim, 12 mile bike, 5K run
Beginner: 200 meter swim, 6 mile bike, 1.6 mile run
Kids: 50-Meter Swim; 1.5-Mile Bike Ride and 0.5-Mile Run

CharityChildren's Justice Center

No workin', Just fishin'

The ranch was super fun this year. Wes' Auntie Cindy and her family came all the way from Georgia to complete the party. And we partied until we wanted to drop. We stayed up super late playing games every night, then everyone got up early to fish in the morning. There was lots of food and laughing. After the first day there, I was so exhausted that I couldn't even stay up to worry about field mice coming in and attacking Dylan.

We played fear factor and had the amazing stamp race. We went on a pioneer walk where we all had different characters and at first it was really fun. Then the walk got a lot harder than anyone expected. I ended up walking in the river fully clothed with Dylan in the backpack and Mela running around on the shore. I fell in twice up to my chest and Dylan got wet, but never complained even though it was past time to eat. Wes' cousin Chelsea got super upset about her clothes being ruined, but she looked like a beauty queen the rest of the time and smelled loads better then the rest of us. We all went coyote hunting and I was told that I wasn't going to get to go this year because all I do is laugh and scare away the coyotes. (which is totally not true) There were like 16 of us that went hunting and after we saw a couple we all just howled just for the fun of it. And there was tons of laughing that I did participate in and only instigated some of it. They floated the river the day Wes and I left so that was kind of a bummer because it's higher than I've ever seen it. We played murder mystery, night games, and cards and OJ swore. It was pretty funny because Toni was getting mad at him when he did. I went on my first ever Girl's Day Out. Where we leave all the boys at the ranch with the kids, and go into Walden. We had lunch and ice cream and walked around, but I think the town mostly closes by 4 in the afternoon. It was go, go, go to cram all the fun possible into the 4 days we were there.

My favorite part was sitting on the dock talking to my sisters-in law; Melissa and Toni. All the boys were fishing and we don't really give a flip about the fishing. We all cast our lines a couple of times for good show, but not with much sincerity. Being married to these fun, but "special" brothers can really bond you. I love and look up to these women so much and I'm so glad we all married into the same family, but mostly that we have each other since we did marry into this family. OJ and Toni have been married for a year and I finally feel like I'm starting to know her. We did a super great bike ride just the 3 of us. I hope it's the start of more things for just the 3 of us. Now when Jacob gets back from a mission I hope he makes a good choice for when it becomes the 4 of us.

Bottom line: I laughed really hard for 4 days straight and it doesn't get any better than that.

June Lake Powell Trip

This was a ground breaking event in that this was the first trip ever where it was just my family, no friends, mine and Layna's husbands didn't even go. Dylan was the only addition to the original 5. At least we had a competent crew that's accustomed to the procedures of boating, skiing, tying up a houseboat, etc.

I really miss my sister living in AZ. She's super funny and gave my brother more crap than I can when operating at full capacity (which I'm not usually.) And now that I've started writing this post I realize that my brother has in fact not copied the pictures for me, but gave me back a blank CD.

Anyway, we surprisingly didn't drive each other nuts. We did more water skiing and wake boarding than we could handle. We lost Wes' surfboard, so I still haven't tried it. But at least he'll get the new one he's been wanting. For all that being a mom has turned me into a wimp, I found some guts to jump off a cliff again.

I weaned Dylan while we were there. Not a great idea if you need to wear a life jacket often, or jump into water, or have your arms across your body getting pulled by a boat, or trying to ride in a tube. Otherwise, it worked out well. My family cheered for whatever mediocre thing Dylan did, and he thought he was some kind of rock star. He got in the lake a couple of times when we were away from the houseboat for a long time and roasting like a toasted cheeser. Usually though, he stayed on the houseboat in the shade and my dad warmed up a little tub of water in the sun, then pulled it into the shade for him to splash in. This way he didn't have to get all of his gear on, and he probably liked it more. My sister took like 5 minutes of video of him splashing. Like I said, he was cheered for blinking.

I'd like to think that I could jump the entire wake, but once I get up in the air I hurry and put my board down before I get close to the other wake. I'm some kind of weird chicken. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the pictures.

Special

Yesterday some of the funniest words I've ever heard spoken across the pulpit, were spoken by the bishop's son. He was referring to EFY and learning pick-up lines. "Hey, are your parents retarded, 'cause you sure are special." I'm still laughing about it.

Now I think it's just got to be a matter of time before someone says that to Dylan. Sometimes Wes and I look at him and say, "what a little weirdo." Like when he decided it would be easier to drink the carrot-oatmeal concoction that Wes was feeding him. Or that we're trying to cut out the binky before we have to reason it away from him. I cut it so there's nothing to suck on, but he still likes it. That kid is seven kinds of special.

I continue to protest the beard

So when I think of geeks with beards a few people come to mind. Peter Jackson, LOTR geek. Not exactly the guy I'd like to be married to. Kevin Smith. He's funny, but still not my type.

This guy could be Wes any day now. Other than I'm pretty sure he hates programming in HTML.
And here's a lovely display of bearded computer programmer. It's not a pretty sight so you should probably just shave to avoid the stereotype.
The beard has not been grown out of laziness, Wes only shaved once/week before this. So it's not like he put a lot of effort into it before hand. I hate it, it's prickly and pokey. And his personality is just not rugged enough to pull it off. Since we're going to the ranch this week, I say he can keep it. Then it must go!

I love the BBC

This is a series that Wes and I got from netflix http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/robinhood/. It's a new Robin Hood and it's made my emotions rise and fall. I cheered. There's romance, poorly edited action. It's fabulous, I highly recommend it. Ok, so Robin Hood is a little scrawny, but he's scrappy so it works. The relationship between Robin and the Sheriff is different, but really amusing.

Utah, Mormon Moms, and Prozac

**Disclaimer**

Feel free to call me out, call me a hypocrite, or whatever.

First of all my head is a little scrambled because Wes is playing the guitar and singing and won't leave the room.

So I have a friend who frequently worries about whether or not she looks good enough to compete with the other mommies at her kid's activities. I always think she looks fine. She's not trashy, she doesn't have a mullet, she has good dental hygiene...so what's the big deal. She always just says, "Andrea, you have not seen these women. It's like a super model beauty contest at my kid's___". Apparently these women get dressed to the nines in designer fashions, with hair straight from the salon, manicures, pedicures, movie star makeup...but for what? To take their kid to preschool. Are you kidding me?

Last week I told her I was going to the pool for my ward's playgroup, and she told me that last time she was there it was like the swimsuit contest from the Miss America Pageant. I'm embarrassed to say that I actually succumbed to the pressure and put on mascara. This is out of character for me to care what strangers think, and abnormal for any day of the week, especially to got to the pool. How pointless, right? I did draw the line at blow drying my hair.

I say let's stop the insanity and trying to impress each other. This doesn't happen outside of Utah in our close knit Mormon communities. Let's quit trying to one up each other and pretend that our lives are perfect, then behind closed doors suck down our anti-depressants because we can't handle how high the appearance of perfection is set. You know those hot mommies have got to have some kind of serious unhappiness and disappointment that they're trying to cover up by appearing perfect, with the perfect husband, the perfect house and the perfect kids. At the pool, nobody there had a supermodel body that I can see. So let's just stop putting stock into what complete strangers think about us.

Secondly, why should we care what people like that think about us anyway. Are they the kind of people we really want to be friends with? The ones who won't let your kids play with their kids because you don't wear makeup and seven jeans; therefore, you must be inferior.

Referring to another friend's blog about letting your kids do their own art projects for school. That's how kids learn and gain self confidence and pride in a job well done, or learn when they should have put more time and effort into it because they didn't get the grade they expected. This is all part of the appearance of perfection. Let's just chill and accept ourselves and our children for who we are.

The moment you've all been waiting for...

I know you have all been on the edge of your seat waiting for what I would say about Bumble&Bumble Surf Spray.

Since I've spent the last 2 1/2 weeks in and out of the water I finally decided to invest in this product, because blow drying my hair takes an insane amount of time that I'd rather spend doing other things. Mostly it's a practice of futility since I'll just be in the lake or the pool within another 12 hours.

So it's not everything I've ever dreamed of. It doesn't work the best when your hair is sopping wet right out of the shower, and by the time my hair is slightly dry is incredibly frizzy. It does add a little shine, I like the way it smells. It's a small bottle (for $20) and you can't tell how much you have because it's black. I feel like I have to use a lot to get it all over (not because my hair is incredibly thick, just because I have a lot of it) and try to control the frizz. I feel like I would give it a C+ish. It make work better if your hair is straighter.

Let's talk about Summertime Andrea's look. It's no makeup except for mascara on Sundays, that's also the only day I wash and fix my hair usually, otherwise it's shorts, t-shirt and whatever. Wes prefers the low maintenance look of Summertime Andrea to Wintertime Andrea's full makeup, hair, and clothes. What Wes would really prefer is if All-year Andrea cut off all of her hair and threw away all of her makeup. So I have to wonder if Wes' beard that I hate so much is in protest to the hair...

Dylan's favorite styling product for his ever decreasing amount of hair...sunblock. The old faux-hawk used to be all natural.

I'm back (temporarily)

So, I don't have any pictures from Lake Powell yet, but here's a little Dylan update. First this is a picture of him with his cousin Staley at East Canyon.

He has 7 teeth!!! Ridiculous. He's super healthy at his 6 month check up, still 90-95th percentile on everything. As you can see he's doing well with his motor skills. The pediatrician said baby-proof now. He's telling you that he'll be into everything. How right she was. He's starting to say "mama", but he doesn't' really mean it. If you hear it enough you're bound to parrot it, right. He's weaned and starting solids. He loves to eat, and picked it up without any problems. I should say no problems with cereal. You can see his opinion of squash. We just started vegetables thanks to a generous food donation by Ruth.He's really a happy kid pretty much all the time, even when he sleeps.