sweetbitter

Sweet: this GORGEOUSLY warm weather (for the past three days) that has allowed Slice and I to do yardwork in our own yard for the first time .... ever.

 Bitter: knowing that we are doing this yardwork not so we can enjoy it, but so we can sell the house that we've been in for less than six months.

Sweet: finding a gourmet chocolate bar in our cupboard left by the previous owners.

Bitter: finding the six-year-old expiration date.

Sweet: living within walking distance of TWO redboxes.

Bitter: wafting McDonald's smells, day and night.

Sweet: watching my baby grow up.

Bitter: watching my baby grow up . . .

something like 400

Blogger says this is my 400th post, but I have quite a few sitting in drafts.  So yeah.  If you count them out you won't come up with that number.
(I wouldn't really recommend that anyway.)

Winter around here -and by "around here," I mean "at my house"- means certain things.  Like, it's so cold outside I don't leave my house for days at a time, even to take out the trash or get the mail.  (Slice does.)
It means I stare at my walls and windows and furniture, trying to decide what to do with it all.  It means I am thankful for the Internets which bring me news and entertainment and decorating advice (and jobs), so I don't go stir crazy with these three boys under my roof.
Oh, I haven't mentioned that yet?
Yep, you read right - three boys.  My younger brother Al moved in with us a week ago.  We are still adjusting.

Anyway,
Winter also means that Slice is home at least as much as I am, and just in case you're wondering, this is what he does with his time:

1. Duct tape all tools, etc. (and his CELL PHONE) with digital camo duct tape
2. Play Modern Warfare on his Xbox

3. Practice putting with Liam

and ... that's pretty much it.

Stir crazy, anyone?

the pressure, the pressure

Slice wants me to post a post right now, so here I am.  Gosh he is demanding.  Did you know that?

For example: for my birthday in August he bought me a bunch of workout clothes - and proceeded to pressure me to go "work out" all the time.  That was after three months of asking things like "So...do you want a jogging stroller?" and signing me up for a year's membership at a gym.
I don't even believe in gyms.
(Really, you pay money to go sweat?  Can't you find more useful ways to do that at home/work/the neighbor widow's house? If not, your life must be lacking.)

Anyway.

Now for Christmas Slice bought me a real water bottle and an iPod nano with a workout mix already on it.  You see why I'm feeling it?

(And lest you think I am just delighting in postpartum fatness, let me tell you that I lost most of my baby weight within six weeks of childbirth.  There were a couple extra pounds -namely, three- which multiplied during the stress of October/November, but they're going away now.  So it's not a weight issue.)

Demanding, I tell you.
There's your post.

slacking on blogging - CHECK

3 days of yard sale (after gutting the house and going through all earthly possessions) - CHECK

home inspection - CHECK

home loan application - CHECK

funeral musical number - CHECK

finally figuring out that "Majestic rises on the world" is just part of a longer phrase in this hymn - CHECK
(yes, this should have happened a long time ago...)

watching all eight hours of weekend goodness - CHECK

looking for new music students (piano and voice) - CHECK

selling old car - CHECK

enjoying every minute with my most delicious baby - CHECK CHECK CHECK

So sad to see the car go

Just trying to keep up

- with my growing baby, who is now rolling and playing with his toes and giggling and drinking rice cereal in a bottle at night (it fills him up; he sleeps twelve hours with one feeding!)

- with my house, which has been gutted and neglected with all this yard sale business going on

- with my husband, who has ideas (and energy) enough to fill a warehouse and then some

- with my laundry, which is never done, if you've ever had a 3-month old you know what I'm saying

and

- with my brain, which I'm having a hard time reining in during the wee hours of morning.  It's taxing.
(More on that later.)

You may say I'm a dreamer

Things I've been dreaming about this week, in no particular order:

• dishwasher - the machine kind
• guest room
• driveway - a garage would be icing on the cake
• a garden
• bedroom for Liam
• music studio - well, any room that would fit my piano would do
• a bathtub
• ok, ok, and this house

But I'm not the only one...

What are YOU dreaming about?

help me please

I am driving Slice crazy.
He knows it, I know it - and for the record, I am driving myself crazy too.
Call it "nesting" or whatever you want ... but all that I can think about now (day and night!) is what to buy, how to organize and rearrange and decorate our living room/storage room/bedroom before the baby comes. I've been shopping online and in stores and in my dreams, going over our options again and again.
In the last four days I've spent over 4 hours looking at car seats and strollers alone.
(The options are endless, you know?)

As I said before, we've been given a lot of things for the baby - for which I am eternally grateful. Not only because we didn't have to pay for them, but because I didn't have to decide on them.
See, remember a long time ago I told you that Slice has been hooked up with more free stuff than anyone you know? Well, what I didn't realize until last week was that, aside from the IKEA filing cabinet we bought over Christmas break, WE HAVE NEVER BOUGHT A PIECE OF FURNITURE. Everything we own was given to us by someone else: bed, couches (5!), TVs, table & chairs, dresser, bookshelves, desks. You name it, we haven't bought it.

What this means is that we have never had to decide what colors, themes, or styles we like. Even with all the HGTV we've watched together. I should be able to buy a dang bookshelf - or even a curtain - but WHAT IF I DON'T LIKE IT IN THREE YEARS??

Such anxiety!

Also, does anyone have recommendations/warnings about car seat travel systems before I make my final decision?

From One Adventure to the Next

I don't know about you, but I didn't believe Dooce when she got excited about sleeping with a criminal. Not that I would know - haven't slept with one, myself - but I just don't think it would be that great.

Actually, seems like it would be one pain after another.

Having to worry about leaving your rings by the sink, or your quarters on your dresser, or your iPod in your backpack. Petty annoyances like suffocating cologne, an alarm-clock radio blaring all hours of the day/night, having to look decent just for the trip to the bathroom. And what about cig smoke and repeated phone calls from creditors and loaded guns?

Not my idea of fun!

Anyway.

You know what IS my idea of fun?

Before and After pictures!

(It's a universal thing. You love them too.)

Last Friday, Slice and I embarked on our first-ever remodeling project. We are fixing up our bedroom. And since I want you to get more than just BEFORE and AFTER (how do you know what's gone on in between? Sweat, blood, tears; bickering, laughing, decision-making!), I will be posting The Journey.

At the Beginning

Exhibit A: Dark wood paneling (hi, 1970s!) attached straight to the sheetrock. AWESOME. Now we can repair the drywall before doing anything else. I wanted to just paint the paneling, but I got overruled.

B: Paint on top of wallpaper, on top of (thankfully!) paint. At least we don't have to fix the whole wall.

(P.S. That's not me, it's my sister. She was very kind to help us rip down wallpaper.)
C: Lily finds the camera and I show her how cool it is, that you can turn the screen around and see yourself while you take a self-portrait. She likes.
D: Hole in the wall that we found. Caused, obviously, by a large and very heavy object. (Boxing glove, maybe? Jordan?)

E: The current state of our living room.
Just keepin' it real here, folks.

I'll keep you posted.

Taking it Easy

I'll tell you what.
This self-imposed, semi-bedrest lifestyle is presenting problems on all different kinds of levels.Self: I want to do things that normal people do, like walking/jogging or grocery shopping or, hey, making cookies. That sounds fun.
Shoulder Angel 1: But you'll have contractions! And you know that when you stand for even minutes at a time, you get light-headed and weak and sick to your stomach. You hate that heart pounding.
Shoulder Angel 2: You are such a pansy.
SA 1: Am not! It's the baby! I'm protecting the baby!
SA 2: Sure, sure. Who knows if anything you do is even going to matter. You've been contracting for weeks and HELLO, not dilating at all. You're just going to be all geared up for the real labor when it comes. Actually, wouldn't you be in better shape (like, more prepared for childbirth) if you were exercising and stuff?
SA 1: I don't know ... seems like too big of a risk. You REALLY don't want to be shipped out to Salt Lake for early labor/preemie care. Especially since you wanted to work as long as possible before the baby comes!
SA 2: GAH. Fine. Just sit there then.

Three hours later ...

Self: I have to clean my room! Declutter, reorganize, redecorate! This cramped space is driving me crazy! If I just shifted the bed a little, I could replace my nightstand with the bookshelf--
SA 1: --WHAT DID I JUST TELL YOU?
SA 2: Well, the dishes do need to be done. Slice cooked dinner, so you could at least clean up. And while you're at it, why don't you just pick up the bedroom a little? Fold some laundry?
SA 1: Because she'll have to bend over 20 times.
SA 2: Oh, hush. It will make her feel better.

Thirty minutes later ...

Self: (groaning) I don't feel good. I'm gonna lie down now. I'm tired.
SA 1: I told you. Also, you won't be able to sleep no matter how tired you are. No position is comfortable; you know that.
SA 2: Yeah. It's a waste of time, unless you read or write missionary letters or do something productive.
Self: So? I don't feel like doing anything. Not even reading. I just want to lie here and feel my baby move. He's still there, you know, still growing. It makes me feel like it's all worth it.
SA 1 & 2: WELL.

Today I'm wishing (a photoessay)

Today I'm wishing I was in Milan with Angie

visiting the magnificent Duomo.

Shopping at the ultra-fashionable stores,

Begging the guy at the market to pose for a picture,
walking through the 15th-century castle and napping in the park behind it.

I would love to see Da Vinci's Last Supper again,

listen to Mozart's Requiem in a cathedral (where there aren't enough seats to accomodate everyone),

and eat the best pizza you could ever imagine.

'Course, only an hour's train ride away, there is a beautiful little town built around a beautiful lake.

In that town there's a McDonald's (like everywhere else in Europe) with free bathrooms. There's also a little chocolate shop where you can get Italian hot chocolate - which is just what it sounds like, melted chocolate in a parfait glass served with biscuits- and warm up for an hour or so. It is so decadent.

Back at the hotel, I'd dye my hair.

RED.

Because years later, that hair is all going to be gone.



But the memories won't.

Some things I've been wanting to tell you

1. I live in a house with 5-6 adult men. Did you know that? I said 5-6 because I don't know exactly how many; it seems to fluctuate. I do think it makes Slice a little nervous though.

2. I quit a job for the first time last week. (The library one.) Sent a letter of resignation even. But they really wanted me to stay ... So now I will (hopefully) be doing, in half the time, what I used to be doing in full-the-time at both jobs. Basically, I'm a sucker.

Tangent here: It's like college all over again. My coworkers used to laugh at me while I registered for the next semester's classes. "Oooh! The Legend of King Arthur! And History on Film! And History of American Christianity! American Women's History! Joseph Smith lectures! How can I choose between them??? Can't I just take them all?!" And then I would register for 17 credits, despite my job, and try to audit 3 more - until the point in the semester when I realized that I might actually die from brain overload and lack of sleep. The both. End tangent.

3. Slice and I are going to Japan. Japan. And for three and a half weeks, no less. I found killer flights (Travelzoo of course), called Slice and said WE ARE GOING. So we are.
At first we thought about staying for a few months, but we didn't want to deal with work visas and, um, I don't speak a lick of Japanese, so living there would be a bit more terrifying than going to school in Vienna when I HAD three years of German under my belt and everything planned out for me by BYU.
Anyway - WE ARE SUPER EXCITED! Right now, all we have are flights, which say that we are leaving October 29 and coming back November 23. Beyond that ... planning still needing to be done.

4. Slice didn't want me to tell you we are going to Japan. He thought it would be more fun to just say "we're leaving!" and then start blogging from Japan, but hello, I cannot keep a secret like that. Especially when everyone in my physical personal life already knows. Physical personal life meaning, people I see on a regular basis. Or who check my Facebook page often.

5. Slice is awesome and I love him.

6. I watched him play at the Utah Open last weekend, which was very swanky and sweltry and emulous. (I looked that last word up.) Some pretty famous people were there, including Jazz players that are decent golfers, marketing directors of Siegfried & Jensen (whom Slice played with), etc. etc. I had a good time soaking it all in. Except for the heat, which was just about record-breaking. And humid. Ugh.
Anyway, Slice did all right. Day 1 and 2 were great, Day 3 was the downfall. I think it was because I wasn't there the first half of that last round. I am practically his good-luck charm.

7. I am reading Jane Eyre, for you Tay, as of last Saturday. Started it at the tournament. Love it already.

8. How awesome is my mom? She wrote a blog post today on the family blog, her very first, and already it's the best one there. I love that lady.

9. I am 22 today. It feels old.

The updates, for those who care

Believe it or not, I have done more than take pictures this summer. I have a new voice student, and I started giving "group voice lessons" to my younger siblings this week. We'll just have to see how that goes.

A couple weeks ago Slice and I took over a business that his parents set up - in his name - about 3 years ago. We decided to run our photography expenses through it, as well as his golf club repair, golf lessons, clinics, etc. I mostly wanted it so we could keep track of what we owe for tithing.... but it's kind of weird though because now when we make purchases, it's like, do we run this through the business or not? How much money should we keep in that account? What about when we need cash for things like a down payment? Because we're gonna need one sometime in the future.
You know, exciting financial/business questions like that.

Speaking of the business....we want to buy a desktop to put Photoshop on, so we can actually edit photos the way we should. But we've had the biggest fiasco EVER trying to buy an HP, and now I'm thinking we should go a different route. Anyone have any suggestions? We keep talking about buying a Mac, and my goodness, I love Macs, but my goodness, they are so expensive. We could get a comparable computer for 1/3 the price. Is it really worth it?

And last Monday our furnace motor went out. The furnace motor also blows for the Air Conditioner. So we had no A/C for a week, learned a bit about furnaces (and their life expectancy), and yesterday some guys came up to put in a new one. While I was in the shower.
(good times)

Oh! Remember how I got my hair highlighted like 5 weeks ago? Well, this is awesome, but I have NO ROOTS yet. Nothing I can see, even on close inspection.
What does that mean? It means my hair Does. Not. Grow.
Yes. A factual confirmation to my lifelong suspicions.

And finally, our future is still up in the air. Very much in the air.

This is what is happening in the DLM household.

for Jane: some other reasons I haven't been blogging

Are we officially professional photogs if we make over $1K by taking pictures for a golf tournament? (Hypothetically speaking, of course...)

"I would love to become a Professional Whistler. I'm pretty amazing at it right now, but I'd like to be, like, even BETTER."

Buying a Home: the Never-Ending Saga. SUCH A PAIN! We asked our mortgage broker if he had ever seen someone as clueless about real estate as our Seller is. His reply:

"Seriously? I never have. Ever."

Sounds like fun doesn't it?

Waiting to be killed....waiting to be killed....

I keep getting questions about our house situation, among other things, so let me tell you what's going on here. If you even care to know.

No word on the house.

It's going through probate right now, we jumped the gun a bit and gave less time to answer our offer than is legally possible. SO. It could be a while before we have a concrete answer.

No word on my job/long-term career.

I've got a few options for jobs, come fall, and I'm also waiting on my dad to see what happens with him before I make a decision. We've talked about me going back to school, in any of its varying forms.
(Slice: "How about you just move away and go to law school, I'll stay here and do my golf stuff." Me: "Yeah right. You couldn't live without me. Even for a week.")
We've talked about moving to Japan. (I am dead serious about that.) We've talked about moving to a trailer in Spanish Fork Canyon, living off the land. (Only slightly serious about that.) We've talked about staying here and fixing up that house and living in rural wedded bliss forever. But no decisions have been - or really can be-made at this point. So we are waiting again.

No word on the new baby.

Heather, do you have some news for us yet???

nine days down, twenty to go

My actual writing on this blog has been shameful lately, I guess because I've been busy reading (finally finished, whew!), New Beginnings-planning, traveling, and waiting for a new nephew, among other things.

Also, because
it's been a week since we gave our landlord notice - we are moving out at the end of the month. We're not sure where to yet, but we both know that it is time to leave. That knowledge makes it only a little easier.

(Eight months is the longest I've lived anywhere in the last four years.)

So in the meantime, I expect we will be quite busy....doing whatever it is that we need to do.

Joy!