We made cookies tonight! It was really fun. We went to the store looking for candy corn and I was very disappointed to learn that the evening of Halloween is not the time to expect any to be in stock! We made do without them though, and even though we only had the energy to frost a few cookies, I deem the efforts a success. Because it was fun. And Trevor made cookies with me. I like that :)

We had a contest for best decorating. We decided that we each won once :) The top is Trevor’s prize cookie, because the ghost has an awesome smile. The bottom one is my prize cookie. I realized we had leaf sprinkles, and I’d started frosting a world cookie but turned it into Connecticut in the fall!

All the rest of the pictures are here!

And there’d better not be any more than six left!! I am so ready to be done with growing a person!

Sorry the shelf kind of got in the way there. But you get the point - he’s in there!

That’s for any and all fellow lovers of The Office! We missed it last Thursday so I just watched it yesterday online. After discovering it was missing from iTunes! I must say I am quite frustrated with whatever out-of-touch manager at NBC decided to cancel their contract with Apple in favor of streaming the shows from the network site. It was definitely worth the $2 to download commercial-free episodes for permanent keeping, and by the looks of the comment boards, most people feel the same. Oh well. At least there’s a place online to watch it, which ever since Google bought YouTube is more than I can say for Gilmore Girls!

Warning, I am a little link-happy today. But they are all worthwhile!

Anyway that reminds me of two cool things. One, this week’s fancy feast/food love at our house has been Neapolitan ice cream - of the admittedly very satisfactory Blue Bell variety (the Texas equivalent to quality Friendly’s ice cream, without the restaurant attached). We’ve remembered how it can be really wonderful to have plain flavors to savor! And without that ice-y aftertaste of cheap ice creams. It’s been a long time, what with all the Double Fudge Brownie and Mint Chocolate Explosion and other sorts of busy ice creams floating around out there. Vanilla is a beautiful thing! I recommend it.

And the second thing, speaking of commercial-free, is that while it really is preferable to watch shows uninterrupted, you can’t deny that good ads - not your local car dealership ones, but good ones - shape our culture and would be missed if they went missing. I like them when I’m in the mood for them, just not during my shows! This week I stumbled across a very entertaining collection of random stuff that could keep me occupied for hours if I felt justified in devoting that kind of time to the pursuit. And I just wanted to share these Lego ads (scroll down a bit). Well-done campaigns like that make me happy and remind me why I chose this field despite its hardcore drawbacks.

Other interestings for today:

A great photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cloughridge/1800131176

A great quote (Just because I slept through every class does not mean I didn’t learn to enjoy reading Shakespeare!):

“Silence is the perfectest herald of joy:
I were but little happy, if I could say how much.”
William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing

A great idea: http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/10/29/peppers.pain.ap/index.html

Ladies and gentlemen, I married a man who cheerfully rubs my feet approximately three times a week. I have been and will remain forever convinced that it just doesn’t get any better than that. Thanks, husband!

And now from this perfect man of mine, I present you this week’s quotes:

“It’s Texas, Baby!”
In response to my inquiry regarding the large group of people riding down the highway in the back of a pickup truck. I commented on how in other states, it’s illegal to ride in a car without your seatbelt on but in Texas of course you can just ride in the back of a truck at 75 mph. He says don’t worry, it IS illegal to ride without a seatbelt in Texas, just like in all the other states. Here, it just happens to also be legal to ride without one if you feel like doing it out in the wind. I’d spend more time being baffled by this, except that it’s Texas, and I guess that’s just all there is to it.

“I’m pretty sure we can handle it. It’s a baby… What could it possibly do?”
I think this one requires no explanation.

Now a small anecdote. I think I am losing my mind.

Yesterday I had the car. I went to my OB appointment, left feeling huge (for my own well-being I don’t keep a scale at home so it is always a surprise) and then in a rare attempt at venturing out into this blasted crime-ridden city alone (okay it is not nearly that bad, but sometimes I need hyperbole) I thought I’d go get my hair cut and do the grocery shopping so that when Trevor got home he’d be so glad I’d already taken care of those things. So I drive to the store, park the car in a sweet-action spot right near the front door, and then remember I have to get my hair cut first so the food doesn’t go bad. So I decide to just walk in the rain all the way to Supercuts at the other end of the plaza. Don’t want to lose my good parking spot! I get my hair cut. I really like it and ask the lady for her name so that next time I can request she cut my hair again because Supercuts is always a guessing game. I give her a good tip and walk all the way back to the store. Get a cart and start picking out produce. Call Trevor because I miss him and to tell him about the awesome rain. He says that if I want to wait, he’ll go to Walmart with me tonight to get groceries because it’s cheaper there, and he’ll show me how to get there. They also have better produce. I sneakily find an aisle to leave my cart on and walk out of the store (does that make me a bad person? It only had three things in it!). On my way out I comb through my purse and realize I have no keys. Oh no! I never lock myself out. (WAIT you think you know what happens but it’s not true!) I’m way too organized for that. What could have possibly happened?

Now the ironic thing is, just that morning I spotted amidst my dejunking piles a spare key that will open the car but not start it. My initial reaction is that I’ll never need it, but then I decide getting stuck somewhere with a baby someday would really not be fun, so I swallow my pride and throw it in my purse. Back to the store: I decide the first thing to try is to just go back to the car and see if I locked the keys inside, and when I didn’t, I’ll go back and check at Supercuts. All the while I am in shock how just that morning I had put the key in my purse, and am internally just praying thanks for it. But outside, I don’t seem to see our car. Then upon closer inspection I realize I had passed over where it was because it was running and I’d assumed it was somebody else. But nope, it’s ours I think? I approach the driver’s side window a little hesitantly… The doors are UNLOCKED and the keys are IN THE IGNITION and the car is RUNNING. And it had been running, just sitting there, for FORTY-FIVE MINUTES all alone while I galavanted around the plaza! I could not believe I had done such an absent-minded thing as get out of the car and just walk away while it is still running!! Who DOES that?! Oh wait, pregnant people whose sanity is seriously in question, that’s who. I get in and sit down trying to make sense of it, and then am internally praying EXTRA gratefully - forget the spare key, I’m just glad I still have a car at all!

So I called my mom because at this point I was kind of scared of myself and needed to talk to somebody (I was happy to wait to tell Trevor because while it was actually kind of funny, he might not have found it so funny when he realized he has a superbly irresponsible wife who very possibly would have had to greet him with news of a stolen car that was entirely my fault. Update, he still loves me.) And on the way home I missed my turn and almost died at the wheels of a fatty Mack truck. And that is the story.

I would, however, just like to point out that the car was unlocked and I still have never locked myself out of a car. The end!

And last but not least, here is home in autumn. I think it’s a pretty cheerful thing, too. Thanks mom!

How come I never noticed that dark brown could be so cool? I mean I loved dark brown wooden things before, like our bookcases, but a comforter? I never woulda thunk. Until I happened upon this page in the Crate & Barrel catalog that comes in our mail for some previous resident named Ross every month, and jumped out of my chair to tell Trevor. Lo and behold there sat a vision of our future master bedroom in 2D!

I’ve been doing the light blue and dark green thing, which is great and all, but this combo just gives me little happy goosebumps. I’m a nerd, what can I say. I want our five-story-loft (which we will of course have built for us when our billions come in!) to be done now so I can decorate in brown! The light blue and cream are essential to keep it bright, so they get to come too. And as long as I’m at it I’ll take those window seats as well…

This past week has been really busy for me - almost like I was a normal person again, ha! It has been so long since I had a schedule of any sort that now any little thing at all causes me to stress. I look back on when I was in school and I wonder how I ever made it through! This needs to change of course, because while my son will most certainly revise any schedule I try to set, he will also most certainly require doctor’s appointments and other such dreadfully scheduled tasks. I love tasks, just not ones with deadlines. Is that too much to ask?!

Now that my huge responsibility for the month is in the past, I can return to what I love the most - dejunking! We finally got our storage unit and I have been busily compacting everything we don’t use regularly into boxes and sending Trevor out to cart it away. I like being able to wear all of the shirts I see in front of me in my closet now, even if they only total seven. I like there being an empty space where the crib will go. I like only seeing items that have a daily purpose for existing. I LOVE that there is no longer a bike in my kitchen! The size of my smile as this event unfolded surprised even me! Here is Trevor humoring me by bringing the bike back for a second departure, since my smile made me realize in a panic that this was a blog-picture-worthy moment!

GOODBYE, Bike!
Don’t miss me too much
Cause I won’t be missing you
I have better things to do.

Like wake up in the morning, make Trevor’s sandwich, and then take a nap without setting an alarm. Like proudly load the dishwasher again because it’s like playing tetris. Like finally post my favorites from general conference. Like love eating baked potatoes just because it gives me a chance to use that cool round part of the peeler that carves sweet little holes where the eyes used to be, so simply like it was meant to be (Trevor just introduced me to this). And like go to bed.

Young Women in Excellence was tonight, which is good because that means it is now over! Being in charge of it was positive I guess, but now I know how much time it really takes to coordinate people! You’d never expect it until you try to do it. I think my skills are well-suited to the coordination, overseeing that all the parts work together, focusing on the goal etc. but not that whole getting people to listen to me part! It can be like talking to a wall (welcome to your future life as a mother of teenagers, Kaylene.) The other leaders did a fabulous job coming through on their assignments and of course were probably patient with me since I have never done this before. I feel like I have trouble reaching the girls though, and while I know that partly the expectations for them here really have been different than what I knew in YW, it makes me wonder how much I just didn’t see when I was in their place and how much stress I probably caused. Thank goodness I was blessed to grow up with the best leaders in the best ward on the planet. As of yet I have no idea how to motivate them to care about their Personal Progress goals or to even pay attention at those activities. I’m having a hard time remembering if I even cared back then… I think maybe I cared more because it was something to check off. It’s funny how fast you can forget. I think now is the best time for me to try to remember because I’m aware of what may or may not be true about how I used to feel. It seems that the farther away from an experience we get, the more likely we are to believe whatever replacement memory our mind has created. Which can cause a whole slew of well-intentioned cross-generational misunderstandings. Otherwise known as parent-teenager communication.

Anyway, tonight I was spontaneously shoved down a fashion show runway, me and my fat stomach, as a last-minute fill-in for the season of Spring (too many over-eager girls got their seasons mixed up!) which apparently is represented by my blooming stomach. How wonderful. On the plus side the cupcakes with sprinkles I made got eaten up entirely and I have now dared to try V8 Berry Blend juice - 10 calories per serving, and who knew it actually tastes good?? But it’s chock full of artificial sweetener so for anybody pregnant it’s probably not a good thing to get addicted to.

Tonight I got news from two different friends about babies on the way, so that was good to hear! I spent the entire evening feeling like my stomach was going to just fall off at any moment, but received hopefully good advice that if I get more fluids maybe the contractions will stop being such a constant occurrence. This past week of stress has brought them every blasted 15 minutes it seems, and coming home and just relaxing has been quite a relief tonight. I think that’s why I am still awake and rambling this far past my bedtime (it probably helps too that Trevor is out on call and I’m waiting for him to get home). A day of no schedule and no worries will do my body good. Hey, just like milk! Mmm, cereal…

I try not to look too much into it considering this all gets consumed within a short amount of time. Just call it calories for the happiness of your soul, and run with that :)

Breakfast Cake

• 4 cups chopped fruit
• 1 cup water
• 2 T. lemon juice
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1/3 cup cornstarch

In a saucepan, combine choice of fruit and the water. Simmer covered about 5 minutes or until fruit is tender. Stir in lemon juice. Mix the sugar and cornstarch; stir into fruit mixture. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Cool (just mostly - but this is important or else the cake will fall flat on its face!).

• 3 cups flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 T. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 cup butter
• 2 slightly beaten eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla

In a mixing bowl stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Cut in the butter until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Combine eggs, milk, and vanilla. Add to flour mixture, mixing until blended. Spread half of the batter in a greased 9×13x2″ baking pan or two greased 8×8x2″ baking pans.

Spread the cooled fruit mixture over the batter. Spoon the remaining batter in small mounds over the fruit mixture, spreading out as much as possible.

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/4 cup butter

Combine the sugar and flour. Cut in the butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle mixture over batter in pan. Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes (5 minutes less if in two smaller pans).

I highly recommend this cold. It’s nice when it comes out warm and all that, but there’s nothing like eating it straight out of the fridge when you wake up in the morning! And while I like it made with blueberries the best (in fact this is the only way I like blueberries) because it’s a stronger contrast to the batter, using apples is good too. But of course those you have to chop, and blueberries you can just use straight out of the bag!

Mmmmmmmmm!

There are a select few foods which I find entirely irresistible. If they are around, there is simply no thought of eating anything else. I eat them three meals a day until they are gone, and keep one eye glued to the fridge to monitor if anybody else is stealing the leftovers as well. One of these is a certain pasta salad. One of these is my mom’s apple pie. And you have the picture of the other above.

If my life has ever revolved around a food, that food is without a doubt Blueberry Breakfast Cake. Each year on our birthday we got to pick the menu, and I literally cannot remember a time when a birthday breakfast did not include this cake. It is basically a fruit coffee cake but we always called it blueberry breakfast cake; I imagine my mom started calling it that to prevent our little minds from getting confused over why we were eating a coffee cake when we weren’t supposed to have coffee! We still call it this even though I am now quite aware that coffee cake is just called that because it’s good for eating with coffee and even though I definitely consume this delicious masterpiece three meals a day if available - forget just breakfast, that’s for wimps! This stuff is heavenly, to die for, except if they don’t have it in heaven then it might be worth skipping out on that whole eternity thing! (Just kidding Trevor.) I made a pan on Sunday night and I must say I am quite proud of it; it is my best batch yet.

Anyway, there is an additional plus to the current existence of this cake in our house besides that it is just inherently amazing - it is so probably not good for me that it’s really adding to that whole “feeling huge” part of my life! But I view this as positive because it’s made me mentally ready to get with this whole looking pregnant thing. Let’s face it, I’m growing a person. That means my stomach is just going to have to grow too. I have lasted 7 months in normal clothes but now I’m thinking that whole maternity shirt thing isn’t such a bad idea after all. I can say, yes I am having a son. He is made up of chicken fajitas and breakfast cake and he needs more room. Bring it on, world.

So yes that is what I am thinking. This cake finally brought me to the best mindset, in a roundabout sort of way. Now I am ready to get ready for him to get here! We bought a crib yesterday. He has two onesies. I’m going to wear my maternity shirt to church on Sunday. I’m really excited. We are HAVING A BABY! Yay.

1. Being excited every night for the morning to come so I can eat cereal and orange juice again
2. My hair finally curling enough to look cute in a ponytail
3. Comments on my blog posts
4. Gilmore Girls reruns everyday
5. Imagining bringing Baby home to Christmas decorations
6. The high-quality hard kind of gummy bears
7. Maybe being interested in wearing my blue maternity shirt… in one more week, and just for the cute ties in the back
8. Our dark purple vanilla jade candle
9. New England well water
10. GENERAL CONFERENCE this weekend!!