Dear Stephanie Meyer; I Love You

I know that many of you have already decided that you love Stephanie
Meyer, especially those of you who went to see her. You are probably
wondering what brought on this expression of love. Well, I just
finished reading The Host. I was skeptical about reading the book
because I enjoyed the Twilight books so much. I was worried that it
wasn't going to be as fantastic as the other books. Matt bought it for
me before the semester was over and I didn't pick it up until three
days ago. I Loved It. It was better than the Twilight books. I cried
several times. It was moving and beautiful. I can't wait to read it
again, so I repeat, Stephanie Meyer I love you. I think she is my new
favorite author (or a close second. Stephen King still is number one).

Road games

Did you know that the letters J, Q, and Z are the most difficult
letters to find on signs while on a road trip? On the way to Omaha,
Matt, Suzzanne, Nd I played the ABC game. I had never even heard of
it, much less played it. For those like me who don't know the game,
you find anything outside the car with the letter A and say "A in
hail" if you see the letter in the word hail. Everyone starts at A and
goes through Z and you can't use a letter that someone else has used.
The first person to Z wins. I never won, bit came in second at least
once. It is actually pretty fun. You can use letters in license plates
also. Next time you embark on a road trip, I suggest trying this game,
it is fun.

Man vs. Goat

We were at the Omaha Zoo today and went to the petting zoo area first.
Will has a cute zoo hat we bought in KC to keep the sun out of his
face and we had it on when we went to pet the goat. It was on a rock
and I put Will on a lower rock right next to the goat, waiting till
the other family took a picture. The goat, however, seemed more
interested in Will's hat. It stepped towards Will, sniffed his hat,
and tried to eat the hat. I didn't realize the hat was what the goat
was going for or I would have moved Will before the goat got the hat
in its mouth. As soon as it got the hat I smacked the goat on the
nose, like you would a misbehaving cat. I move Will because it let go
of the hat, and warned surrounding families the goat eats hats. No one
was hurt and the hat was fine, but Will wouldn't pet the goats after
that. He started to cry if you got him too close to a goat. I'm
surprised how quickly I smacked the goat and that it actually worked
(and I don't want to hear any animal lovers complain about smackin
goats or cats on the nose for bad behavior).

Will's New Experience

Will was being quite the upset baby while at the Kanesville Tabernacle
during a video and the gummy bears were MIA. Matt got Will a piece of
gum because it's allcwe had. Will chewed it for at least three minutes
before swallowing it (or spitting it out-we hope he swallowed it). I
thought he would swallow it right away, but he didn't. Another baby
milestone. Our kid is a genious.

Will

This is a picture of Will at dinner last night. We were at Red Robin.
I ordered a fish platter that came with coctail sauce. Will eat some
fish and then was eating coctail sauce with a French fry. He dipped
the fry into the sauce and then sucked it off. He then went from a fry
to a lemon. This picture is Will dipping the lemon in coctail sauce.
My son has some strange tastes.

Getting Ready For Vacation

Why is it that getting ready for vacation is so stressful? All year
long I have been ok with living in a not totally neat house and now
that we are leaving for four days I have to clean. I even moved
furniture to vacuum.

And we all know I am going to need a vacation from vacation when I get
home. We are going to spend so much time trying to do everything that
we are going to be exhausted when we get home. Why do we do that to
ourselves? We get freaked about going on vacation and cleaning our
homes and then over exert ourselves on the actual vacation. Maybe it's
just me.

I Made This

Every Wednsday night we have family dinner at Matt's family's house.
They usually make dinner and I make dessert. This is my lemon cream
cake for this week. It is two cakes with four layers of lemon pie
filling between the layers with cool whip and lemon pie filling mixed
for the icing. It is a heavy cake and it is either gonna totally rock
or really suck! We will see.

The Neighbors

I would like to think I am a nice person, but today my neighbors have
made me see maybe that isn't true. I need to learn to be patient and
tolerant. Our new neighbor has a couple of kids and she is excited to
own her first house (her mom told me). Today they are having a
birthday party for one of the kids and there are lots of people, lots
of cars, and lots of kids. I was having an after church nap when I
heard lots of kids and woke up to several kids in my side yard. I
politely told them to get out of my yard and then took Will for a
walk. When I got back from my walk there were two cars in front of my
house. I got upset and then thought, where are they supposed to park?
There were cars all over both sides of the street. Last year for my
30th birthday guests were everywhere. I hate that the first thing that
pops into my head is "that is my property, you can't park there". What
is my problem. All I want to do is get along with my neighbor but
instead I think hateful things whenever she or her friends get close
to my house. I think I need peofessiinal help.

New Shoes

This is a picture of my new sandals. Matt blogged about our shopping
experience and you can check out his blog for all that information. I
ended up with a pair of Wolky sandals. They have a small arch support
for my flat feet. They also have a cork insert that is covered with a
soft material that makes it soft (duh) while the cork molds to your
foot. Matt spent $80 on two pairs of shoes and I spent almost double
that on my new sandals. We have decided that sometimes you have to
spend money to get a good pair of shoes. I am so tired of having tired
feet because of bad shoes and no support. I love my new sandals and am
looking forward to getting a new pair of Wolky's in the fall.

My Husband as Darth Vader

When Matt told me about the CPAP, he said he could paint it black and
be Darth Vader. Then he had his sleep study and said he wouldn't have
a full mask and I was sad. He got his CPAP today, and to my
excitement, he looks like Darth Vader. He even sounds a bit like him.
All my dreams have come true.

Will

This is William during nursery. I checked on him and stayed to help
because there were 11 crazy kids and only two workers. William was
pushing around the doll stroller, a little girl sat in it, and he
continued to push. It was very cute until he dumped her out. That was
just funny.

I will never volunteer to help out in nursery again because Will
became a tyrant. He was very well behaved the first hour but then he
threw a tantrum, pushed kids, hit kids, and pulled hair. I know he was
tired and hungry but I also think he was showing off for mom. Happy
Mother's Day to me.

This Is What I Should Be Doing

This is the book I have been using to study for my nursing research
final on Monday. No wonder I am blogging right now rather than
studying. Who knew research would even be a class in nursing school? I
didn't. That is what I get for doing my bachelors (the second time) in
nursing. If I had just gotten an associates in nursing I wouldn't have
to take research. However, when going for my masters later, I would
have to get my bachelors in nursing first. So, when someone asks you
the difference between a BSN and an ADN, the answer is a research class
(and critical thinking skills, but that one could potentially be more
offensive).

I Love My Car...

Yesterday I was informed by a member of my family that they hate my
car. Stacie shall remain anonymous (crap. Oh well). She, at my
request, listed the things she hates about my car:
1. It is a manual transmission (why does my family hate the manual?)
2. Everything inside is manual-locks, windows, etc (its all I could
afford at the time).
3. It has a dent in the back, a huge dent/scrape on the passenger
door, the front bumper is falling off, and the roof is dented where a
deer I didn't hit landed on the roof of my car. Only two of those are
my fault and one involved snow.
4. It's yellow. I love the color of my car.
5. (Man this is a long list) It has a funny shape-I can't remember
what she said it looked like. Matt will know and comment, I'm sure.

I chose my car in December 2001 because it screamed Emily from the
color to the shape to the manual transmission. By the way, I looked
for that car in that color and manual transmission and got the run
around for two weeks before somebody got the car for me. I worked hard
for that car. My car is an extension of my personality so when Stacie
said all that it made me angry (even if it is true its still mean).
The moral is, don't insult someones car, even if you hate it, because
you could be insulting the person. The End.

I love...

I love being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day
Saints. Today was fast and testimony Sunday and I got up and bore my
testimony. As I sat down I felt very inadequate. I was not happy with
the testimony I shared and felt like a failure as a wife and mother
too (not sure how they related, but its how I felt). Then Brother
Mansfield got up and bore his testimony. I don't remember what he said
but the thought came to me about how much I love the gospel. I may not
be so great at reading my scriptures or remembering to pray twice a
day, but I love the gospel. I can work on the other things and they
will help me be a better wife and mother, but I find joy in the gospel
and know it is true.

Sometimes in this busy age of tv and junk thrown at us from all sides
I think we forget how simple the gospel is and what joy it brings.
Thank goodness Heavenly Father is patient and Christ is so
understanding.

The ZOO

The whole family went to the KC Zoo on Wednesday. My mother-in-law keeps Will over night on Sunday and then watches him most of Monday - I ususally come get him about 7:30pm. She took him to the zoo Monday, but we had already planned the Wednesday trip, so Will went twice in one week. Matt and I had a great time. It wasn't very crowded and there was a nice cool breeze. Will enjoyed it also, although he was a bit upset that he was strapped into a stroller. We let him out of the stroller, but he didn't want to hold any hands. He wanted to run wherever he wanted. That wasn't really ok with us, so Matt carried him for a while. Will enjoyed looking at the animals. He kept pointing and making Will talking noises which don't translate well in writing. We went to get something to eat (don't ever pay for zoo food - it's super expensive and not good) and by the time we got our food ordered, Will was asleep. He didn't miss out on some gourmet cuisine or anything though. Actually, we saved him some, but he didn't want it later. I guess even the baby thought it was nasty.

We went into this building that hat macaw's in it. If you have never been into a small building where there were kids screaming (there were several school groups at the zoo that day) and macaw's screaming, count yourself lucky. I thought I was going to die. Will enjoyed it though. He ran around and had a good time. Then we left and walked right by some goats. He wanted to play with the goats and kept running around, so he was put back into his stroller after a baby melt down. That kid sure can throw a fit (wonder where he gets that from).

All in all, our trip to the zoo was fun. We bought a Friends of the Zoo pass for $65. It is good until March 2009 and gets all of us into the zoo anytime we want. It also gets us into other zoos around the country for half price I think (not sure on the exact details of this). Since we are going to Omaha in a few short weeks and we are planning to go to Dallas after Christmas and both of those zoos are ones we can get into for half price, we made a good investment. We also plan on going to the zoo here like once a week. Matt says it will be good exercise and good family time. I think it sounds ok. I'm not sure how excited I will be in the heat of July and August. Maybe the pounds will just fall off.

Delimma Solved

Tuesday at school we had some previous graduates that came to talk
about transitioning from student to nurse. They scared me. They talked
about how some days they questioned why they even wanted to be a nurse
because it was so difficult. They talked abiit hiw the older nurses
are mean and don't help-they have a sink or swim mentality. That makes
me so nervous. I sometimes wake up worried about graduating and where
to work. Today, while at clinical, I decided I want to work here - St.
Luke's East in Lees Summit. It is a new hospital with young nurses who
are so nice. And my clinical instructor now is in charge of helping
new graduates transition. I'm sold and I feel much better about
graduating now. Maybe I will be able to sleep better now.