What I Know About Barfing

Warning! This blog post is about barfing. If reading about barfing makes you barf, then you better not read it. :)

It has certainly been a long time since my last post; albeit, I have an excellent excuse: my body has been taken over by an alien life form that is sucking not only my physical juices but sapping my mental capacities as well. Ok, ok, so I'm just having a baby, but it's been tough. And it's not really how I thought it would be. I guess I thought I'd be glowing more, or smiling more or something. Maybe that part comes later? I'm only 17 weeks, so maybe I'll get to that part eventually. So what was I expecting? Here's what I thought "morning sickness" was going to be like: you wake up feeling queasy, you munch delicately on some saltine crackers till 11 am and then by lunch time you feel back to normal. Lies! All of it! Here's the truth, at least according to me: you wake up feeling like you want to die. You try every possible morning ritual known to man: eating in bed, eating first thing, waiting an hour and then eating, eating only applesauce, eating a full meal, drinking only orange juice, eating tiny bites with sips in between. You still throw it up. Then you try really hard to convince yourself that you should take a shower. You tell yourself that you're becoming the stinky kid in class and people don't sit by you on the bus anymore. You tell yourself it's been three days, and that it's really getting out of control. You end up deciding just to wipe down with a damp washcloth and put on pretty smelling lotion instead and hope it masks the odor. You then force yourself to put a bra on--it's torturous, but necessary--and squeeze into your jeans. You drive to the school bus stop with the window down trying to breath deeply and not barf in the car. You get on the bus and pray in three different languages that you will not barf on a fellow student. You have a close call, but finally escape. You sit through class with your mouth clamped shut and dive out the door when the teacher stops yakking. You make it to the bathroom. Is it a false alarm? Sometimes. You endure the bus again. You make it home. You barf. You immediately take off your bra. You crawl into bed and cry a little and feel sorry for yourself. You eat a little more applesauce. You barf again. You want to die. Somehow you live through the day till your husband comes home and it gets worse. For some reason you've developed an allergic reaction to him. He wants to hug you and your nausea doubles. It's a sad sad time for both of you. He has to make his own dinner and you try to eat some soup. You lay on the couch watching some animal show on pbs until bedtime and usually barf one last time. You can't cuddle in bed so you just hold hands and talk and wonder if tomorrow will be the same as today. You have this day every day for almost 11 weeks, then it starts to get a little better. You only throw up every now and then. You don't throw up in public anymore. You actually can eat!!! See how much fun it is to have morning sickness?

Here are some fun public bathrooms and other places I've thrown up. Some may ask, "Why on earth would you mortify yourself by barfing in public?" to which I cannot respond without mortally offending said person. If there was any possible way of avoiding it, don't you think I would have?

*Mother in law's rose bushes

*Salt Lake City airport bathroom

*San Diego airport bathroom

*Hertz car rental bathroom

*Various Disneyland bathrooms

*The pine trees by the bus stop

*Various restaurant bathrooms

*On the field outside the Spectrum on campus

So I have this elastic hair band around my wrist that has virtually become a permanent part of me because I realized that long hair and barfing are a bad combination. I'm still keeping it on at all times just in case, and I figure that if I can go a whole week without throwing up I can graduate and take it off. That will be a grand day.

I'm excited!

I have always wanted to learn another language. My language of choice? French. :) My mom learned French when she went on a mission to Quebec, and I loved to hear her speak it when I was little. We had two French foreign exchange students two summers in a row, Phillipe and Karine, and my mom would engage in lightning fast conversation with them while I stared in wide-eyed admiration. Also, if anyone in the ward or neighborhood had someone visiting them who spoke French, they'd send them over to our house and mom would sit them in the living room and they would jabber and laugh. And once, when mom was our ward chorister, she taught the whole congregation to sing a Christmas carol in French as part of the meeting. I remember when she made cakes she would sometimes count in French when she broke the eggshells "Un, deux, trois..." It was a part of her life that made her special and I always told myself I would learn French someday so I could read her missionary journals, letters, and books in French she left behind. I took one quarter of French when I was 13, but I was never able to fit more into my schedule in school as I was trying to take as many college classes as possible, and now that I'm in college it's hard to fork out the dough on classes that don't pertain to my major...

Then yesterday Bodie surprised me by telling me that he wanted to use the bonus he'd gotten from work to buy me the Rosetta Stone software I've been drooling over for months. He told me he wants me to have something I can feel proud of, knowing I have had a goal and can now fulfill it. I have a very selfless husband!

I'm so excited to finally be able to do this! It will come in the mail on Tuesday and I'm reaallllly excited. :D

Jessie's Wedding

Bodie sadly passes his "I'm the tallest in the family" trophy to Jason :)

Phew! Jessie's wedding is all done! While she is soaking up sunshine on her honeymoon, I am snuggling into the covers of my bed recovering, exhaustedly happy that nothing went wrong!

I'll admit, grudgingly, that there were a few mishaps: I was late to the reception, and Bodie forgot to make the dvd slideshow like we'd promised, and I forgot the words to one of the songs I sang, and, my personal favorite, I got hives on my neck that looked like hickies. Real classy! Everyone else behaved beautifully of course. Jess looked rapturous, Jason's smile dazzled all, and nobody embarrassed themselves as far as I've heard, besides me. ;) Thanks to all my extended family members for coming and giving us your support!

It was so special to be with my entire family in the temple, and to feel close to my mom. After all, a wedding is a family affair, and we kept her chair empty. Jessie's wedding was so sweet, and I cried and cried. And cried. And cried some more. It's been a rather wet weekend. I miss my mom. That's what it boils down to.

After Jess and Jason took off, Bode and I were able to just hang out with my brothers and their families and that was really fun. My nephew Dane said my name once finally, and Portia, my niece, let me hold her and sing her songs before she went to bed. So I felt all Aunt-ishly fulfilled.

So that's a snippet of our wedding extravaganza!

Colorado Adventure!

Bodie and I had so much fun on our road trip to Denver, Colorado this weekend!  We spent 4 days with our awesome and hilarious friends the Quilters.  I have compiled a list of my favorite "things" (for lack of a collectively more expressive word) of the expedition:

*"I'm just being honest!"

*The time I was laughing and snorted REALLY loud in the car when we pulled into Denver.  I guess Wade saying "Lane-ing to the Left-age" was a lot funnier at 4:30 in the morning...

*The surprise I found in the shower at Elitch Gardens

*Brittney and Wade getting locked out of their hotel room and Wade's sweet breaking-in-with-a-credit-card-skills

*Bodie's discourse on Lemons and Melons

*The size of the pool towels

*Bodie saying, "Can we pleeease ride Ghost Blasters one more time??"

*The Mysterious Stomach Pain

*When Brittney's sneaky plan to get Wade wet backfired on her and she got thoroughly soaked

*Wade trying to do handstands on the hotel bed

*Getting piggy back rides at the zoo

*The fact that Brittney and I have blaring obvious talent as synchronized swimmers

*When everywhere we wanted to go eat had been closed for 7 years

*Wade's expertise on flooding when we got hailed-rained-lightninged-on in Fort Collins

*Singing Disney songs in the car

*Bodie's amazingly large strawberry lemonade glass

*"Whoever says it loudest means it the most!"

Thanks you guys for a really fun weekend!  :)

When people start to grow up...

This evening I went with my husband to take engagement photos of my little sister Jess and her fiancee.  I was surprised at how sentimental I felt as I watched her...this turn of events has been somewhat sudden and I am quick to notice the subtle changes that have come to her... something is different in the way she carries herself, a new tenderness is in her eyes, and a kind of gentleness has suddenly turned her from girl to woman.  It is delightful to behold, yet there is a twinge of sadness in it, as I look back over the past.  The truth is, she's always been here with me, so in tune with me and alike in thought, if not manner, that I sometimes forget we're different people. :)   I could fill novel upon novel with her oddities and strengths; I could render people speechless with laughter with her funny mistakes or bring people to tears with tales of true kindness she's performed. 

I'm essentially a selfish person, and I love few people deeply, but when I do, I love them fiercely.  No one can bring me to anger faster than when hurting my family... I remember the very first time I felt true anger--physical, boiling anger--was when a boy much bigger than me on the playground was being mean to Jessica.  I shoved him away from her and shouted at him and ran away with Jess and then cried because I was scared she was hurt.  

Now she has someone new to protect her, and he's quite a bit bigger than me so I think she'll be fine.  :)  I guess I'm just glad for memories.  Jessie's future belongs to someone else now, but I will always have the childhood that belongs to just Jess and me.  

Why I am calling this my Tea Shoppe

When I was a little girl I loved to have tea parties. The young ladies in the books I was reading always seemed to be drinking tea, demurely, sitting up straight and tall and talking quietly. I reveled in the genteel sound my little china cups made as I gently set them down in their china saucers. I peered primly over the edge of my cup as I engaged in lady-like conversation with my little sister. We spoke of our invented sisters, of pretended intrigues, and shook our heads mournfully over domestic troubles with servants. This, of course, was only one part of my childhood--after we had had enough of propriety we often tore out the back door and got thoroughly dirty. But my interest in pretty china things and quiet little conversations has stayed with me through the years and I have kept the love for tea parties. Someday when I am old and rich (ha!) I want to have a little Tea Shoppe/Library (it's my dream, I can combine whatever I want!) where people can come and have a little sip of something sweet and munch crumbs onto the pages of their books. Until then, I collect tea sets and books. :)