Happy Friggin New Year

This is how I feel about celebrating New Year's

Sacrifice and Obligation

In church today I took the time to list all the scripture/publishings that we are told to study daily.

Book of Mormon 30-60 mins/day
Bible
D&C
Pearl of Great Price
Preach My Gospel
Current Ensign
most recent Conference talks
Sunday School Lesson

Not only do "they" say we should read each of these individually but as a family as well.

WHAT?!

Add to this additional admonitions to do genealogy, temple work, service, VT and HT and fulfill callings.

It's almost enough to make you give up eh?


When I showed my list to Ben, he wrote the following
"In order to be saved you need to do this every day, for at least 31 hours."
and I wrote "and go to the temple and understand it"
he continued, "and baptize 14 friends/week"

Juno - The Cautionary Whale

Ben took me to see "Juno" to celebrate my good report card. I've been wanting to see it for awhile and it just came out here on Christmas.

I really liked it, it's a little Napoleon Dynamite but way more believable characters. The writing and music are very hip. I'm not sure if it glorifies or criticizes teen pregnancy, but she doesn't get an abortion, which was nice and pretty intense.

Anyway, if you're looking for some really indie music and George Michael (from Arrested Development) in really short shorts, you should see this movie.

Also I cried.

Boastful Buckets

I could only think of a few things to blog. I hope I don't sound snooty. That's not what we're here for.
My wedding rings no longer fit on my fingers. This is sad for several reasons, a) my hands are swelling up and Anna is preparing to take over the world. b) I'm horribly afraid that I'm going to lose them, forget where I put them, accidentally throw them away etc... That would be sad. Ben might forget that he's married to me.

I got a 4.0! I think that has only happened one other time - in high school. But I took 15 credits in this my senior year and got A's up and down! Ben says I can have a party. I'd rather have a baby...A really smart baby.

Merry Christmas to all, Ben and I are in town so don't hesitate to call us, we like you all.

Christmas Bells are Ringing

There are only 8 days until Christmas. This is alarming, I feel like I haven't even been living it up! Soon the day will be past and gone and I'll have to listen to regular music and take down the tree and have nothing definitive to look forward to for the next few months.
It's upsetting.

The end of Enlightenment

Since school and work has ended (for me) this week, I've begun reading all those novels that I've never had time for.
First on the list was some short stories by Tolstoy. "The Happy Life" is beautifully written, I don't want to spoil anything so if you've read it recently, I'd love to discuss it. I just have a new found love for Tolstoy.
After a few more Tolstoy's I'll be moving on to reread "The House of Seven Gables" having recently been to Salem and touring the house.
Then, the perennial favorite, "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" and I don't want to hear anything from those of you proposing we burn the gothic novel.

Husben of the Year

This weekend we took a much anticipated trip to Salt Lake, we stayed 2 nights at the Hilton and lived it up in SL. We got there Friday night and went to dinner with a friend who is in her 3rd year of med school at the U. Unfortunately about 4 inches of snow fell while we were in the restaurant and there were no plows in sight, it was quite a hairy situation we found ourselves in. In our efforts to return our friend safely in the hilly concourses of the Avenues we hit the curb half a dozen times, and unfortunately caused significant damage to the car, at least our alignment if not more.
Keeping in mind the conditions we endured on the roads the night before, Saturday we found ourselves afoot. We took trax up to Trolley Square (Ben's new favorite mall). We also found a cute bakery/deli called Paradise Bakery right on 4th south (Ben's new favorite bakery/deli) and did a walk through at Wild Oats across the street (Ben's new favorite health food store). All of this adventuring had Ben quite convinced that we would be moving up to Salt Lake within the month.
Possibly my favorite moment was when we decided to buy trax tickets even though we were only one stop outside the free ride zone, the only cash I had was a $20, so I got $16.30 back entirely in change.
Back in mid-town we stopped at the German food/restaurant Siegfrieds where Ben excitedly ordered Bratwurst mit Rotkohl und Spaetzle. It was really good, we then proceeded to spend much moneys on European chocolate.
Saturday night was the big work party extravaganza, we arrived 40 minutes before most everyone else. I was wearing 3-inch hooker boots (they hurt a lot) with my maternity dress and a red scarf, I looked pretty retro I think, but nice. Dinner was fun, I met a lot of people who think quite a lot of myben and we ate some interesting food.

The BIGGEST news of the night however is that MyBen was awarded the Employee of the Year for his department. It was really exciting and he totally deserved it. This included not only a clever little trophy but a $500 bonus. So now we can fix the car.

A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes

The most common dreams I have about the baby are disastrous. So we have this baby but I neglect it severely, feed it once a day then go to school for the rest of the day. Change diapers occasionally but we never give it any attention. and I wake up very sad and realize that I'm not making the sacrifices in that dream that I probably will have to make.


But Matilda had the same problem and she turned out telekinetic. So maybe it's okay.