Dear JNAC

Dear Alana,
I commented on your why blog post. Movie night please... will it include our run-of-the meal afraid of change pre-movie salad and cup cake?

Dear Ciara,
I miss you. It has been much too long. How on earth do you have kids that old... and I've been thinking of you taking care of your mom and wondering if there is something I can do to lighten your load.

Dear Paul,
Did you fall off the face of the earth?

Dear Quinn,
I hope it took. I still do. Even now. And you're hot and let's quit work and live in Europe selling paintings or poems or something.

Better Now

Thanks. I feel better. Just had the "we should be further along" glooms for a while. Thank heavens for Netflix! It's a better pick-me-up than prozac!
Currently in the middle of Vanity Fair.
How does it know what movies I am going to love?!?!

Big Brother and all that rot I suppose...

Why Blog?

My first assignment: Write a blog post about why you have a blog.

From here.
Posted by: Alana


I recently asked my brother-in-law why he didn't just beat me over the head with the thing. The Tivo, that is. He and my sister had been trying to gift me their old Tivo for a year. It even came to my house, got hooked up, and I was given the remote tutorial. Still. I was resistant to change. We have a satellite dish now and my dual-tuner DVR and I couldn't be happier or more in love. I continually thank my brother-in-law for doing what he had to do. I thank him for his tough love, for slapping me until I swallowed my medicine.

Similarly, my friends and I used to publish the JNAC Chronicles. Everyone had a month assigned to create the newsletter. Yes, we typed, printed, folded, stamped and mailed! What a chore! Nicole (the N) mentioned for years she had a blog that I should visit. I didn't really know what a blog was or want to make the effort to find out. Finally, she shoved it all down our throats by turning or out-of-gas newsletter into a group blog, the JNAC Chronicles. We all post on this blog and I couldn't be happier or more in love with it. That's us up top. Also note the visual addendum, Paul. We'll get to him later.

I blog because I like the audience. This audience of best friends, in particular, is nice. (They are unshockable, I think, allowing me to drop phrases like "naked and howling at the moon.") But just knowing anyone is reading compels me to write.

Consider: When was the last time you talked out loud to yourself?

I talk to myself when I am alone in the desert. Perhaps tripping on a rock I'll shout, "Son of a (bite tongue)... motherless goat!" I talked to myself last week while trying to take a scratchy tag out of a shirt with a seam ripper... "Mother (bite tongue)... may I!" When talking to myself, I don't expound. I keep it short and... sweet? I'm already in here, in my head.

I hate writing in a journal. I utterly refuse to do it! If I'm giong to write about my life or my day or brag about my child, I have just got to have an audience. I cherish my time alive on earth; it's short and precious. If I am going to take ten whole minutes to expound anything, it better damn well serve my vanity.

OK- one hour ago I was flying high- things under my belt- smiling at will...

Now I'm in the deepest LONGEST darkest depression. I want to run away and never come back. I feel like jumping out of my own skin- like I'm in my own personal Prison D'if.

Let me explain: IT ALL STARTED WITH YOUNG WOMENS.

I got called to YM as Laural adviser- not really bumbed about, but then again I haven't had to do anything yet until our first meeting tonight. It's not even YW that has me shoveling in the cookie dough right now...
We just got back from SLC and made a stop at IKEA. SO fun- I was thinking of all sorts of ways I could use IKEA to spruce up some crapy apartment and make it livable for the next few years until we could aford a house. I was actually getting excited- like it was a challenge I couyld gain some real satisfaction in tackeling.
I was OK having gone to 10 years of school and working by fingers to the bone at school and making/having no money. I was fine thinking $$$ does not matter to me and I don't need it, and my husband is really hot and I'm happy no matter what we don't have...
Then I went to this young womens meeting and saw them all.
The other advisors and leaders.
They were coming from houses and had keys to SUV's.
They were complaining of dirty dishes and unmade beds.
They were taking notes on where they lived in comparison to eachother.

They belonged.
They were settled.
They new so and so
and what's her name
and, didn't she teach my daughter in miamaids ten years ago?

They knew where they were going to be living next month.
They had been pulling sweaters out of their basements every Fall for the last 7 Falls.
They had been pulling underwear out of the same drawers every morning for the last forever mornings.
They were going to refill soaps next week
and buy a costco card next month.
They were going to drive home to their home tonight, and tomorrow, and next year(s).

They had garage door openers
and justified addiction to HDTV.

Most of all- they were there as tghey had been there and would be there.

They belonged.

They haven't been living out of suitcases for a year

Their stuff hasn't been in storage more than half of thier mariage.

They haven't forgotten where the Christmas sweaters are or which place you put this or that.

----------------------------------------------

I'm not saying fate has dealt us a raw deal. On the contrary. I still believe we have it great. I don't think we have had bad luck. I don't blame our suitcases on anyone or any market.

I AM NOT A VICTIM OF CIRCUMSTANCE.


...
...
....
I'm just depressed.

(you can tell, because I'm not even going to proof read)

Thanks to the August Visiting Teaching message (yes, I've had a VT dry spell but I'm back in the saddle again- ridin' high, ridin' high!), I am going to take part in this. I could really use a distraction to stave off depression. Maybe you should sign up, too? Anyways, if it's not lame and I decide to really take part, then come tomorrow morning I guess there will be a new post from me every weekday for the next 12 weeks.

Yeah right. We all know me. How many days you think I'll last? Bets? We all know how many times I dropped out of college at the very last hour I could get my tuition refunded. How many semesters did I load up my books and ride my little $99 bike over to Dixie and sell them back? Too many to count. My inner siren says I might quit. It also says this thing could turn out to be super lame. Stay tuned.

Williams - Oaks Park

We took Herbie and Sage to an amusement park last week and got some great pictures.

Just wanted to share!

Herbie hated this ride. It was too fast and scary for him. Sage loved it and went a 2nd time.

Taking after their Dad!

This is my favorite shot. They both look so happy. I can't help but smile when I look at it.

Williams - It's A Girl :)

We found out yesterday that we are having a girl. I was convinced it was a boy but I was wrong. Sage is so excited to have a little sister and we are happy with whatever we get.

Trust me- I'm on JNAC tri-daily.

No fair- I POST ON HERE TO- it's just that school started and you can not possibly imagine how completely and totally wretched it is for about a month and 1/2. Don't I get some sort of "bye" for August and January?

giveaway

check out Janna's blog today, Wish.
allmodern.com offered the blog a giveaway.
sign your sorry self up.

Williams - Mini Golf Adventure

For Family Home Evening on Monday night we took the kids miniature golfing. This was Herbie's first time and it was hilarious to watch him putt putt. He tried to swing the club at the ball like a bat. We steered clear of him. He also kept picking up our balls or running right in front of what would have been a perfect hit:) Sage surprised us all with A HOLE IN ONE on one of the holes. Herb and I didn't even come close. I think I got a 5 on that hole. You can see my little pregnant belly really good in the last photo of us sitting by hole 18. 5 months along and we find out what we are having in 5 days. Remember, if you click on the pics below they should open up larger in a new window so you can see them better.

Williams - Sage the Swimmer

Sage has been taking swimming lessons this summer. We have been going everyday for two weeks straight and it is amazing how much she has improved. She definitely has the best form out of any of the students when it comes to diving. She always has a big grin on her face because she loves it so much even when she does a belly flop she comes up smiling. I love to watch her. Since we live in Oregon, we have class rain or shine. The only difficult part is keeping Herbie at bay. He really wants to get in and constantly throws any toy he can find into the pool.

Williams - Ward Campout

Below are pictures from our ward campout. We camped in downtown Vernonia equivalent to Orderville or some other small town in Utah:) The weather wasn't perfect and its sprinkled a little bit but we had a great time. We brought our bikes and the kids rode their bikes on the bike trail. We even got a free tractor ride by a local farmer. He stopped on this bridge long enough to tell us that this is where they hold the annual lawn mower races. LOL! You'll notice that in one of the pictures Herbie is crying because we made him give up his bike for 5 minutes for another friend to ride it. Good times!

ALANA WHERE ARE YOU?

Since you are the only one that posts to this blog, we need you to come back and grace us with your presence.

Williams - The Heat Wave

Two weeks ago we had the heat wave of the century here. I think one day it reached 112 degrees. My car registered 116 at one point. Yikes! I do love the heat but the bad news is, is that we don't have air conditioning. When I lived in St. George, we were able to cool off in a nice air conditioned home. We broke down and bought a portable unit and it barely keeps the living room cool when we break 100. It is the hottest between 4pm & 9pm. So we would usually leave the house at the time, eat out (because it was too hot to cook), make sandwiches, go to the movies, swimming, anything to get out of the house. Herb and the kids slept on the tramp one night, and then the hottest night of all we blew up our air beds and we all slept on the living room floor with the air conditioner blowing right on us. Below is a pic of our makeshift bedroom and Sage and I hugging our beloved air conditioner.

Adios!

I'm out.

Another year that Brandon can't go on my family vacation with us! What a total bummer. Especially because Anika is old enough to really appreciate the beach and he's going to miss it all... he has to stay and work. Also: our car broke again! With all the car repairs I have charged to a card, I could have bought a new car by now. So my Mom is renting us a big ol' Ford Taurus, baby. This is where I will be for the next 8 days. Cara's Newport place is quite tiny so she rented us this place in San Clemente. And we'll be spending our days on the family plot. No, not that one- our beach plot just down from my Grandma's old house.

AND. If the plan works out, we are going to take the passenger Amtrak down to Sea World one of the days. Anika is going to freak out... excitement, horror, you name it.

AND. I just found out the rental has a crib. When my Mom told me, I literally crumbled to my knees in delight and shouted for joy. It's still going to be a nightmare dealing with the little princess but access to a crib might take the edge off.

Glass Man

Brandon (bless his heart) has been trying to talk me into mirrored backsplash for years now. (Molten glass runs through his veins.) I tell him he is crazy because he wants everything mirrored. And with beveled strips, of course. He also wants a huge, totally-out-of-line fish tank. I try to imagine what our house would look like if I let him go ape crazy on it. I imagine a 1980's party house complete with a mirrored tabletop where we would sort our fashionably-80's coke... Brandon's Bevel-Stripped Palace of Dreams.

But then I saw this and am thinking perhaps he wasn't totally crazy about the mirrored backsplash. I don't think it could work in our house but it sure does in those photos. But then again, I don't really want to see my muffin-top looking back at me while I bake. (umm, while I take the pepperidge farm coconut cake out of the box.)

Who am I to talk about the 1980's anyways? I've embraced them once again. I'm wearing a gold, digital casio these days. You heard me. Digital. And beyond skinny jeans, I pegged the other week. I tell you, I'm all but a breath away from doubling up my jazzercize socks over my stirrup stretch pants.

"i wanna type letters, mom"

This is Anika's new obsession which, thankfully, has replaced jumping on the mixing bowls. Since this video, her new words she practices are 'Janna', 'Mike', and 'Emmet'. (I think she wants them to adopt her!) Also: 'dog', 'bus' and 'frog'. She also requests to learn some strange words... "I wanna type poop, Mom. I wanna type nugget poop." The funniest is that she knows where and what the comma, apostrophe, dash, 'flower' (asterisk), bracket, equal, and the semicolon are.

I'm thinking of hiring her to take care of all my desk work, bills, e-mails. That's assuming I wouldn't be breaking any child labor laws. And I'd have to get her one of those keyboards that prevent carpal tunnel syndrome. And a cushy, swivel office chair... with a booster seat. Perhaps a headset to take calls?

rooster alarm

Ciara, I came across some of your words of wisdom in my Journal of Summer. Dated July 1998:

Usually most normal, boring people set their beeping, obnoxious alarm clocks for an exact time like, for instance 7:00 a.m.- 7:30 a.m. never an uneven number but Alana and I use a rooster alarm clock and set it on all weird #'s 7:02 for example. During those extra 2 minutes of sleep a lot could happen. You could finish a dream or finish the good parts. It's a rule not to set it on the hour.

-Ciara's words of wisdom.
(yes, you even wrote Ciara's words of wisdom.)

As you might expect, I rarely set an alarm because Anika wakes me up bright and early. But sometimes, perhaps leaving early for vacation or other rare events, I set it. And I still set it to random times. I physically can't bring myself to set a clock for 6:00. But 6:07 just feels better. Ciara, do you also still have this disease? Are you still setting alarms for weird times? What about sleeping with a pea underneath your mattress? Tell me you've broken that habit!