Today's Funny

From xkcd.com:
Took me a second, but I think it's hilarious. If you don't get it, don't worry, it's nerd humor.

Random Pictures

So, occasionally I actually just sit down and browse through our vast library of pictures. I often find random pictures that show off what we're up to that I've not blogged yet. So here's a small collection for everyone.

Here's Adie with her friend Ethan before we left Provo. Ahh, those were the good old days.


IKEA furniture. Build it yourself. Adie loved being dad's helper on this one.


This was our move to Arizona. I don't know how well you can see (you might have to click on this picture) but the back seat of the car is full (just enough room for the car seat), and the trunk is full. The rear of our car is riding 2-3 inches lower than the front.


Adie, just chillin.

What Does Your Child's Behavior Say About You?

Should I be concerned that almost every time Adie plays with her dolls these days she's reprimanding them and telling them no in a stern voice? Furthermore, whenever I am getting all uppity about something I am passionate about (usually some sort of current event or political situation), she'll start babbling in a really excited, yet serious voice, and waving her hands all over the place. I think she's doing an impression of me, and probably a pretty good job of it. What does this behavior of her's tell me about myself?

Arachnophobia

I just went outside to our backyard to measure the dimensions so we could start a little landscape planning. I had Adie come out with a few toys so she could get some play time in while I worked. I began measuring the patio and the measuring tape seemed to have awoken a sleeping black widow that was hiding just underneath a small lip near the base of our house. I immediately shooed Adie back inside and called for our first pest control service. They are coming tomorrow at 3 pm. I am so arachnophobic. I can't get the creepy crawly feeling out of me. I keep thinking I am going to see black widows pop out all over our house. Ahhhh! We found out just after we moved out of Provo that the new tenants in our apartment found a black widow the day they moved in. We had never seen one, or I think all our neighbors would have heard me scream bloody murder. They are so disturbing to me. I was even going to post a picture of a black widow with this post to make it a little more interesting, but I couldn't bring myself to put it up. The image kept creeping me out too much. That is one of the main down sides to little to no snow - more nasty creepy crawlies living around you (although I do realize black widows live in colder climates too, but lots of other things, like scorpions don't).

A Breakthrough Day

Today was such an awesome day. We had multiple breakthroughs. First, I have felt as normal as ever today. I actually felt pretty good all weekend, but today, I really felt good, after only 7.5 hours of sleep. Usually, with this pregnancy, less than 8 or 9 hours is killer for me. I think it's almost safe to say I am on to the feel good phase of pregnancy. Hallelujah!

The next breakthrough is probably my favorite. Adie only had one incident the whole day where she didn't use the potty to go to the bathroom. I said in a previous post that I am being as laid back as I can about the potty training thing. Well, last week, whenever I asked Adie if she wanted / needed to use the potty she almost always said no. However, while we were on vacation over the weekend, it's like something clicked. I would go to the bathroom, or she'd see a toilet, and ask to go to the bathroom. I wasn't even going to attempt any training over the weekend, but she took the lead. I think that's maybe what she wanted all along. Anyway, today, she kept indicating she needed to use the potty, or she'd use it any time it was offered to her. The only time she had a miss is after I had put her down for her nap. She had gone before I put her down, so I didn't worry about it, but I put on a pull-up just in case. I left her to fall asleep, and then the dirty deed was done. However, I am thoroughly convinced that had I been around she would have told me she needed to go and she could have gone the entire day without any soiled under garments. I have no idea how permanent this is so I am not going to declare her fully potty trained by a long shot, but wow, this is a huge step in the right direction and a lot sooner than I expected it. Yay!

My final breakthrough was actually something I realized a few weeks ago, but I am now seeing the results and am going to officially call it a breakthrough. As many of you readers know, I struggled with acne for a while, and it didn't respond to any treatment I tried. It became especially severe right after Adie was born. After weaning her, I took some fairly potent medication that really helped and I discontinued it last summer to start using milder medication in preparation for hopefully welcoming another child into the world. Upon becoming pregnant, I continued mild medication and it seemed to be keeping everything under control, until a few weeks ago. All of the sudden some acne started coming on, more than I had since I weaned Adie. I wondered why it decided to pop up all the sudden, and I decided to see if anything had changed that could have caused it. That's when I figured it out. I had been a slacker about taking my prenatal vitamins and only a few weeks before had been taking them regularly. I did a quick internet search to see if prenatal vitamins were the cause of anyone else's acne. As it turns out, I found a lot of people attributing them to acne. I decided to stop taking them and see if it would help clear up my acne. Sure as shootin', here I am a few weeks later with my skin clear again and the only change I made was stopping the prenatals. I am pretty much 100% certain that is what caused my horrible acne from my last pregnancy and post pregnancy. I do admit, I didn't have the clearest face before I got pregnant with Adie, but part of that I think was untreated problems that arose from living in Puerto Rico. My skin didn't react well to the humidity. (I never struggled with acne as an adolescent. It basically appeared on my mission). I never got it fully treated after my mission because I got married so soon after returning and didn't want to take any serious medications because of the complications that can happen if you do become pregnant. Anyway, really long story short, I think a major factor in my acne problems is prenatal vitamins, so I don't take them and I try to eat lots of fruits and veggies, and foods high in folic acid, iron and calcium. It turns out there are a lot of fortified cereals that help out with that.

So, it's really been quite a good day. Let's hope this good streak continues!

Weekend trip

I really dig this every other Friday off thing. This weekend we took off for Yuma and San Diego. Sabrina's grandparents are snowbirds in Yuma. We drove out on Friday and spent some time with them. That night we spent the night at the home of Sabrina's mom's cousin in the largest house I've ever stepped foot inside. It was around 10,000 sq ft. I believe that the kitchen and great room (two story) was bigger than our house. The ceilings on the first floor were all 12 feet high (I think, though they might have been 14) and the second story ceilings were all 10 feet high. They do have 6 kids, each of them having their own large (read at least as large as our new master bedroom) and attached bath. They have a guest room w/ attached bath, master with the most incredible bathroom in the world (Sabrina's words), a third floor gym, a theater, a ... (you get the picture). They were quite generous though and very kind to us.

The next day we packed up and headed into San Diego to visit my aunt and uncle. We spent some time on the beach, ate some excellent food, watched the sunset on the beach, and went to the temple. Neither of us had ever been to the San Diego Temple before, so it was a nice trip. My aunt and uncle took good care of Adie for us. Their grandkids don't live nearby so they took the opportunity to treat Adie like one. Adie loved all the attention she got this weekend including from them and from Sabrina's grandparents.

Sunday we made it to church and ate more excellent food (my aunt is a fabulous cook) and headed home. After a quick (or not so quick) stop in Yuma, we trekked on back, finally arriving home just after midnight. It was worth it though. We did forget to bring any camera besides the one on Sabrina's cell phone. Only two of the beach pictures came out at all, and the quality is definitely that of a cell phone, but it's something. Enjoy.

Couponing - Not My Favorite

Alright, all you couponing readers out there (and I know there are a lot of you), how in the world do you not hate it? What am I doing wrong? I feel like I spent 2 hours this morning ruffling through store ads and signing up for way too many couponing sites and downloading all sorts of coupon printer programs, only to save a few dollars. I was in such an irritable mood by the end of it, I could barely stand being in the grocery store. It drove me absolutely nuts. The whole process was so time consuming and I just know I am going to be bombarded with more spam in my inbox even though I opted out of everything I could.

Don't get me wrong, I am all about saving money and being frugal. I really enjoyed using My Food Storage Deals in Utah because that is how I like to shop - buy a lot of the things that are on a massive sale. I would just look at the best deals for each store and decide which store had the most things I needed at the best prices. Sometimes I'd go to more than one store, but only if there were a large number of items at more than one store. Otherwise, the gas, time and hassle it took to go to multiple stores wasn't worth it to me. I try to employ this technique here as best I can, scanning all the ads and buying bulk of what's on a really good sale because I have a pretty good idea of what a decent price is for most things I buy. In any case, I decided today to not be lazy about the couponing thing. I've clipped coupons out of the paper in the past, but I often forgot to bring them and often, I could buy the generic brand for less than the name brand with the coupon anyway, so it stopped being worth my time. However, I have heard so many people talk about the amazing deals they get with their coupons, especially online, so I thought I'd try it out. All I did was get frustrated, although I was happy with my $2 off Pull-ups coupon. Most of my savings came in the form of just buying all the things that were on for a really good sale, none of which I saw any coupons for. Maybe it's just a quality of life issue for me. Some people get really excited about massive amounts of savings at the grocery store and the makes their quality of life better. For me, I need convenience (am I a child of the I want it now generation or what?) and not spending hours planning meals and shopping. I can handle some of that, because I think it really can save you money, but I have a threshold that is apparently pretty short. Anyway, do any of you do this speedily, or do you just have more patience than me in planning your shopping so as to maximize your use of coupons. Please do share your secrets.

On a completely unrelated note, we had a really wonderful weekend, which I don't feel like posting about right now because it will be really long. Hopefully, it will rise to the top of my priority list soon.