Keep on the Sunny Side

Lately I have been spectacularly good at finding the negative in life.  I've turned into one of those annoying people who isn't really rude, but doesn't ever have anything positive to say.   It's getting to the point where I don't even recognize the positive any more.

I have so many great ideas about what I want my life to be like, yet all I really want to do is crawl into bed and sleep.  Forever.  Just sleep.  That sounds heavenly.  It is obvious that I am depressed, at least to some degree.  I'm not sad and unable to function; I'm just negative and 'blah'.  I continue going to work.  I occasionally get the kids something to eat.  I occasionally do a few dishes or sweep the floor.  I vacuum nearly every day and I put all the clean clothes away every week.  So see, I'm not completely non-functional.

Even my husband has mentioned this recently.  He has NEVER been the type of husband to tell me I'm depressed and do it in a jerky manner.  I'm not sure how to describe what I'm thinking of, but I've heard of husbands who do this.  So anyway, he's not like that, but he has gently suggested recently that I might consider maybe possibly going to a doctor to look into anti-depressants.  I was like "Why would I go to a doctor to 'look into' them?  They'll just prescribe them?!"  And he answered "yeah".  Oh.

I'm too deeply entrenched into the world of natural health to go to anti-depressants just yet.  I know what I need to do.  Exercise and eating better would make a world of difference for me.  I know this.  I've always known this.  Yet I still don't do it.  So will I start on my own?  Or is mine a situation where pharmaceuticals would help me get enough motivation to start, and then I could continue on my own?  It's something to think about for now.   

Also, apparently I'm supposed to be looking for the positive in things.  I have been practically bombarded by messages from every side about looking for the positive in life and being happy.  I'm reading a book called "Wake Up to a Happier Life."  Based on the title alone, it's obvious what kind of messages I'm getting from there.  Lessons at church are often about being grateful for what we do have and looking on the bright side of things.  A good friend gave me a Christmas card about me being a happy person.  I wondered where she got that idea, but it made me think about what my life would be like if I was really like that on the inside and the outside.  To seal the deal, today I got this quote by Bob Proctor in my inbox:

"Everything that happens in your life today will either appear negative or positive. Keep in mind whatever happens must have a positive side to it.

A large majority of the population seems to be mentally programmed to pay attention to the negative side of life and unfortunately, ignore the positive.

Make a decision right now that, regardless of what happens today, you are going to look for the positive aspect of what's happening. Remember... every cloud has a silver lining. Do this again tomorrow and the next day until it becomes a habit to see the positive in everything. You will feel better, you will be more productive, and you will have more friends."

So apparently I'm supposed to be positive and find joy.  I mentioned that last month, before NaBloPoMo.  Clearly I'm still not doing it, but I'm a little closer now.

Too Country? Nope, Too Practical.

I really regret not going to Brad Paisley's concert last year, and it looks like practicality may win out again this year.   You know how women are supposed to be offended if their husband buys them a cleaning implement or kitchen appliance for their anniversary?  Not me - that's the kind of stuff I specifically ask for.  The best gift I can ever remember receiving was my Bosch mixer, although it was from my mom when I graduated from BYU.  So when I look at the long list of things I want, I typically prioritize by practicality.  Brad Paisley tickets are on the low end of "practical".  Here's my unedited list of Things I Want or Think I Need, exactly as it is written on my secret scrap of paper [I'll save my editorial comments and explanations for a future post]:

Natural/mineral makeup and/or makeover
Spa stuff - massage, manicure, etc.
Chiropractic care
Contacts and/or glasses
Henna
Flexi-8's
Ficcares
hairsticks
Nursing bra
Clothes
Shoes
Food processor attachment for Bosch
Dillard's or similar gift certificates
Engineering scale
BRAD PAISLEY CONCERT tickets
Photoshop Elements
Digital scrapbooking instructional DVDs
silk sleeping cap or pillowcase
AV re:coil
robe

When I look at that long list of much more practical things, how can I even consider concert tickets?  Not to mention the other challenges of going to this concert, namely:
1 - It's an hour away, on a weeknight
2 - My husband would have to skip most of his sleeping time to go, and then he'd have to go to work right afterwards.  We might even have to leave early so he can get to work.
3 - I'd have to go to work the next day (but maybe this isn't really a big deal since I always stay up half the night wasting time on the internet)
4 - We'd have to get a babysitter who could take the kids until very late at night (but maybe we could get noise-reducing ear muffs and take the baby with us)
5 - I discussed the cost with my husband, and we agreed that we'd forego expensive Christmas presents (like concert tickets) and get a portable dishwasher instead.  We HATE washing dishes by hand.  I'm all for the old days, but not when it comes to dishwashers.  I love modern appliances.

Earlier in the week when I started this post, I was waffling.  The biggest thing is the dishwasher.  I could buy the tickets and have one fun night.  Or I could put that money towards the dishwasher and be 80% free from dishes from here on out.  We were thinking that we'd be spending $300+ for the dishwasher.  But yesterday I found a NEVER BEEN USED nearly-new portable dishwasher on KSL.com for $75!!  Of course it was gone by the time I found it, but if one popped up, another will come along eventually.  (I hope). 

Oh and by the way, I've made my choice.  I'm throwing caution to the wind and ignoring the consequences - I'm buying the tickets.  Tomorrow morning, 10 am sharp.

Is It Raining At Your House?

I went outside to go to work and it's raining!  Glorious rain!  I love rain.  I think rain is the biggest thing I miss about Houston.  Houston gets an average of 44" of RAIN per year.  And it's usually warm rain - wonderful for going outside and getting soaked in.  My area of Utah gets 15-20" per year, but that includes the rain-equivalent of snow, so really, not much rain :-( 

There's one big downside to this rain.  It's all going to turn to ice.  A solid sheet of ice under several inches of snow.  That will be fun. 

It Never Woulda Worked Out Anyway

To the person who stumbled upon this blog by Googling "defrizzer": You are at the wrong place ---->

Oh My (Stinkin' Heck) and a Side Note

OMSH is hosting a funny face contest. I had absolutely no intention of participating, because I figure that the fewer pictures of me there are on this blog, the better. But then my 3-year old went crazy with the camera, and I ended up with a funny face picture. So here it is:



I was messing around with the special effects that came with the camera software, and I thought this one was especially fetching:



Side Note: I found out today that based on my page views, I could make 75 cents per month if I added BlogHer ads to this blog!!

Side Note 2: I have got to get up to date on photo uploading and handling. I think I am doing it a very old fashioned way. I open the picture in my free software program and save it once in a relatively large size and once in a smaller size. Then I upload both to Photobucket. Then I add the small image to my post using HTML, and point the href tag to the larger picture. I'm doing it totally weird, huh?

Let me try the Blogger "add image" button:
Whoa! It added 5 lines of nasty looking code to this post. Yuck. I don't like it because I don't know what the code is doing, exactly. I do like how it allows the picture to be in line with the text. But I'm sure I could learn that fairly easily. Or not. I just checked a couple blogs, and they don't do that in-line thing. They maximize the picture width to cover the full width of the text column on their blog.

I just remembered that the reason I got on to the computer in the first place was to upload some pictures of some stuff I'm selling on KSL.com. Oops.

Which famous person are you?

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Hope for America

I have added two new banners to this page. I urge you to check out Ron Paul and see for yourself what kind of candidate he is. Check out the library as well as the main campaign site.

I heard third-hand that the State Department has said that Ron Paul supporters are threats to national security. That actually makes a lot of sense. The stronghold the federal government has on our nation would be destroyed if Ron Paul was elected president. I can see how they would feel that their power is threatened by Ron Paul and his supporters :) So count me in as a threat to national security.

NaBloPoOops

A few weeks ago, I said there was NO WAY I was doing NaBloPoMo. On Thursday I changed my mind, and figured I'd at least give it a go for a few days. But then yesterday I forgot to post! I guess at least that takes the pressure off, so now I only have to post if I really want to.

Three Rants, One Resolved (kind of)

1) Our easy listening station is playing Christmas music already! If I'm not mistaken, I wrote about this last year. This year, it totally took me by surprise. It can't be November already! I remember when I was a kid, time went s o o o o s l o w l y y y y y . Now it ZIPS by.

2) Why do big huge SUVs slow down to a crawl to go over speed bumps and through dips? What is the point of having an SUV if you can't barrel through bumps and dips at full speed? Surely if your Hummer suspension can handle off-roading, it can handle a little dip at 25 mph.

3) Last year I didn't buy tickets to the Brad Paisley concert because we were kind of low on cash. I figured I would just go this year. In retrospect, that was kind of dumb, because last year I should've realized that I'd have a newborn by concert time this year. A few months ago I started looking at tour dates, and it seemed that Brad Paisley wasn't coming to Utah this year. I was QUITE annoyed (that is the rant part). However, he apparently IS coming, on January 24th-ish - at least that's what I remember from the radio - there's nothing about it on his website yet. That doesn't quite solve the newborn problem though. Baby will be 5 months old by then, and I leave him every day for work, so in theory, I should be able to leave him long enough for a concert. But ideally I'd go to the concert with Husband, and he's the one who stays with Baby while I'm at work. My mom is probably afraid to tend him while he's that young (are you, Mom?), but maybe I can find someone else. We'll see.

Edited to add:
I've got to get more creative! I'm totally recycling posts from last year. See, I wrote about Brad Paisley here, and I wrote about the Christmas music (and Brad Paisley) here. Blogging appears to bring out the teenage girl in me - I really don't gush about Brad Paisley in real life, at all (seriously).

?

Well, I've successfully managed to not post for nearly 9 months! The good news is that in that time, there has been progress on the problems I mentioned in my last post. Namely, two Chipotle restaurants have opened up less than an hour from here! I guess I wasn't craving it all that much though, because I haven't gone yet. I'd still rather have Texadelphia cheesesteaks and Don Carlos queso.

In order to tell how far away Chipotle is from me, I had to put it into Google Maps. I figured I'd be lazy and leave off the city/state and just use the zip code. So I put my address in the 'from' field and 6924 South Park Centre Drive, 84121 in the 'to' field. What did Google do? It gave me a location in HOUSTON. Of all the places in the entire country/world, it chose Houston. Interesting.

I'm thinking of doing NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month or something) again this November. But I still feel extremely inhibited when writing about important or personal things, so I'd be posting a month's worth of drivel. I could write about my hair for a month. That would be fun for the guys who read this. I could do hair growth progress, a history of my hair, hair routines, hair products, and hair styles. The possibilities boggle the mind.

Holding On to You

When we left Houston, I regretted that I had not tried many of the thousands of restaurants in the area. However, I am grateful now, because I'd have probably found lots of good ones that I'd really be missing now.

There are several restaurants and foods that I am missing the most:
1) Texadelphia cheesesteaks, particularly the Mustard Blend sauce
2) Chipotle burritos (1450 calories each!)
3) Ninfa's and/or Don Carlos' queso and fajitas

None of these restaurants exist in Utah.

I have located two Utah restaurants that are known for their cheesesteaks*. One is in the Piper Down Irish pub in Salt Lake City, and the other is Philadelphia Sub Shop in Clearfield. I will most likely be disappointed if I try them, because I am craving Texadelphia's taste, and nothing else. I can also guarantee that neither will have Mustard Blend sauce, which is the most important part of a Texadelphia cheesesteak. I have found a couple sources on the internet claiming that the ingredients for the sauce are mayonnaise, yellow mustard, Gulden's spicy mustard, Kikkoman Teriyaki sauce, honey, and water. I'm going to experiment with the mustard blend sauce and then maybe I'll take some with me to the cheesesteak place in Clearfield someday. I knew before I left Houston that I needed to buy at least two jars of Mustard Blend from Texadelphia, but I forgot about it :-P If my experiment doesn't work out, I'll order some or have my Houston co-workers send me some.
* I understand that places like Subway and Quizno's have cheesesteaks, but they seem to have pretty consistent bad reviews.

I've tried New York Burrito, which seemed to be similar to Chipotle, but it wasn't even close. The basic idea was the same, but the burritos were small, and the ingredients were tasteless. The guacamole tasted like it was made from a powder.

I tried the fajitas at Bajio Mexican Grill. They were OK, but they weren't anything like Ninfa's/Don Carlos. Ninfa's/Don Carlos fajitas are simple Tex-Mex fajitas - flour tortillas, steak or chicken, onions/peppers, pico de gallo, guacamole, and sour cream, with beans and rice on the side. Everything is fresh (the key) and flavorful, but none of the flavors are overwhelming. Bajio Grill's fajitas had a bunch of strong flavors all competing for attention, which made everything kind of gross.

The final thing I need is queso. I have found a bunch of different recipes for queso, so I'm sure I'll find one that is satisfying. I used to melt Velveeta and add canned jalapenos and thin it with milk, and that worked all right. However, I want to find something that uses real cheese instead of Velveeta.

You'd Better Run!

Have you ever wondered why it's so difficult to get across the street before the "WALK" signal changes to "DON'T WALK"? Well, check out this excerpt from a nationally-recognized traffic manual:

"An average walking speed of 40-ft/s is appropriate for typical groups of pedestrians. . . .At signalized intersections pedestrian crossings must be assigned an amount of effective green time based on average walking speed."

Now, a speed of 40 feet per second is approximately equivalent to 27.3 miles per hour. Do you run across the street at 27 mph? I didn't think so!

OK, OK, it's an error. It's supposed to say 4 feet per second, and the error has been noted by the publisher. But next time I see a fast signal, I'm going to wonder. . .

Already?

I had no idea we were this close to Christmas already!  Back in October I saw some Christmas-themed items on sale.  I started thinking about which items I would buy for the Twelve Days of Christmas (where you leave treats/items on a neighbor's doorstep for 12 days), but I didn't get anything because it was way too early.  Then yesterday, all of a sudden, it was the day to start!  We had to go to the grocery store to get pears :-) 

 

I'm not used to buying a lot of Christmas presents.  Ever since we've been married, money has always been tight around Christmas, even if it was plentiful in July, so other than a few presents for the kids, we haven't really bought much (the kids get PLENTY of presents from the grandparents, so they are not deprived by any stretch of the imagination).  This year we actually have more than $0 in our checking account, so I thought I'd get some presents for the immediate family.  I hadn't even started thinking about what I'd buy, and then yesterday I realized I was almost out of time!  So I drug the kids all over the place and got a few things last night.  I think I'm pretty much done. 

 

After I got home from our shopping marathon (2 hours is a marathon to me), I realized that last night was the Young Women's babysitting service project.  Free babysitting was offered at the church from 6:30 to 8:30.  So instead of dragging the poor starving kids everywhere, they could've been having the time of their lives with all their friends at church.  Oh well - maybe I'll learn to keep an appointment calendar!

Crazy!

Hmm, the second NaBloPoMo was over, I quit posting. It appears that I am motivated by external forces. Anyway.

So I was reading through some old journals last night. I have come to the conclusion that I was insane when I was a teenager, although I suppose that is a common characteristic of all teenagers. Maybe I'll post some interesting excerpts later, although maybe I won't, because it's fine to embarrass myself in front of strangers, but some of my family & real-life friends read this!

One highlight was some of the quotes from my mom in regards to my relationships. When I was 15 - "your reputation is shot" because 3 guy friends drove me around after a piano recital (taking equipment home, picking up stuff, taking people home). "You're throwing all your standards away" - because I went on more than 2 dates in a row with my boyfriend. The horror! Although, I guess my mom was right - my self-imposed standard (also a strong guideline from my church) was no steady dating before the boy goes on his mission. So by going on many dates in a row, and not dating others, I was in fact breaking my standards. But it still sounds so much more dramatic coming from your mom during an hours-long lecture!

Last Day!

Today is the last day of Nablopomo! I made it!



I was pretty much out of things to say, but I finally thought of something. Did you know I'm growing my hair out? My hair has been almost to waist length (when blow-dried straight) before. I really liked how it looked when it was short (not in the next picture, but the one after that), but only on the good days! If you have a bad hair day with short hair, too bad! If you're not working in a "professional" environment, you could use a bandanna or something, but if you are - too bad for you! There are many other reasons I want long hair.

Here's a picture from October 2003:


I was pregnant with Collin here. After this I grew it past my shoulders, and then had a dramatic chop. If I'm not mistaken, I was trying to copy Kerflop's old hairstyle. I neglected to remember that her hair is straight and mine is super-curly. Anyway. I maintained it somewhere close to the length in the next picture for quite a while.

So here's how I started out November 2005:


This is a pretty good hair day. Due to the tightness of the curl, I must have either used a lot of gel, or only diffused it a tiny bit and let it air dry the rest of the way. Remembering how much I liked it at this length, I'm wondering if I made a mistake by growing it. But not really.

Here I am now (I will spare you the hundreds of interim pictures):


This was an experiment. I got out of the shower and let it dry without touching it AT ALL.

I don't like the crunchiness of the aloe vera gel I have been using, so I wanted to see if it was possible for my hair to look decent with no product. As you can see, it looked fairly decent, in terms of not poofing out all over the place, but this picture was taken before it had been touched by human hands. It was a little "stiff" at the hairline, so I wanted to soften it up a bit. As soon as I touched it we were back to the poofiness. But this gives you a good idea of the length.

If I had done anything to speed the drying along (blotting with towel, drying in towel, finger combing), it would look a little longer because the curls would have stretched a bit.

It's going to take me pretty much forever to get to waist length! I have an average growth rate (1/2-inch per month), but a lot of the length is taken up by curl. Measuring from the hairline, over the top of the head, and down to the tips, my hair is 20.5" stretched out (dry) and 16" un-stretched (dry). I'm going for ultra-long hair, which means I can't abuse it any more by blow-frying it straight, or worse, flat ironing it. I may blowfry it on cool/low heat once every few months just to see how long it is straight, but I'm not sure if it's worth the damage I might get from the brush :-P

Engineer in training

I discovered today that I am officially an EIT (engineer-in-training). The requirements to become an EIT are to graduate from an accredited engineering program (which I did in 2003) and pass the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam. The FE is an 8-hour exam testing you on all the classes you should have taken in your college program. Most students take the FE while they're still in school because it's much easier that way. I started to sign up for the test while I was in school, but then I thought "I'm never going to work! I'm just going to be a stay-at-home-mom! Why spend $150 and waste 8 hours of my life?" So I didn't take it. Life changed, and I am working. I finally got around to taking the FE last April, and in June, I found out that I passed. I took it with four other people from my company, and I really want to compare scores with one of them. I'm really competitive about academic stuff :-)

We moved from Texas to Utah soon after that, and I still haven't sent in the forms to become licensed in Texas. Today I decided to find out how I could register in Utah. I couldn't find anything on the State website, and my coworkers confirmed that there is no EIT registration process in Utah. Basically, once you've graduated and passed the FE, you can start calling yourself an EIT. So, in Utah I'm now 'officially' an EIT. Yay, me! I've filled out my papers for Texas (again), so if I ever get around to sending them off, I'll be an EIT in Texas too!

Gingerbread Houses

LittleMan's:

Perhaps LittleMan is disturbed in some way, as you can see that he has depicted a murder scene in front of the house, what with the dead snowman and dead tree. I assume that the snowman was chopping down a tree, and an environmentalist came along and killed him for it.

BigGuy's:


What's left now:


And last year's houses for comparison:
Mine:


BigGuy's:

Lights at Temple Square

We went to see the lights at Temple Square (Salt Lake City) Friday night. I used the night setting on my camera and got some great pictures (great for me).






This one turned out a bit yellow because I used my flash.

I lied

I was going to post BigGuy's birth story, but I can't find it anywhere. It's probably sitting on an old hard drive somewhere. The basic story is 18 hours labor, posterior presentation, 4 hours transition-type labor, manual rotation, 3.5 hours blue-faced pushing, no medication/epidural, tiny tear, healthy mom, healthy baby. The end. Here we are the day after he was born:




Here's BigGuy's cake this year:


He asked for a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. I planned to make a homemade layered round cake with homemade frosting, and then put Lighting McQueen & Mater on the top. But then I decided I didn't have enough time, so I let BigGuy choose one from the store. He chose Batman. He pronounced it "gross", but I think he just got a taste of black frosting or something.

Quiz

NaBloPoMo is going downhill rapidly. I've resorted to posting quiz results.

You Are 60% Republican

You aren't a full fledged Republican yet, but it's probably the party that fits you best. You probably consider yourself an independent Republican. You usually support the party, but you also think for yourself!

How Republican Are You?

You Are 16% Democrat

If you have anything in common with the Democrat party, it's by sheer chance. You're a staunch conservative, and nothing is going to change that!

How Democrat Are You?