Photography by Gummy

Gummy loves taking pictures, here are some of his latest. Don't tell Sean I let him use the camera.

Mummy I can see my feet!

The Vacuum

Say Cheese mummy

Flash. good thing the computer was in the way or this may be a little embarrassing for zackie

Gummy, I'm trying to sleep.

Random Gummy

To drop sean off at school we drive through a poor neighbourhood and everyday Gummy says "oh no! Somebody house" he has done this for months. I usually say "yes, lots of people have houses here" or something like it. I finally realised today that he was talking about a particular house that was boarded up and basically had no roof left. Turns out he was sad for the people that lived there, what a sweet little boy I have and what a horrible listener I am.

When I told Gummy that someone I know is going to have a baby (not me) he said it was going to be his favourite baby and that we should be kind to it.

Since the annoucement of grandparents coming to visit everytime I tell Gummy that we can't do something he always says "my gran-pa take me"

mum: i love you gummy
Gum: I NOT love you too, I'm watching toy story.

School Time

Aves teaching the boys. Who needs dolls when you have HWI.

I believe she was in the middle of show and tell when I interrupted.

Flash Cars

If we are driving and Sean sees a sweet car he'll stop mid-sentence/interrupt to say "oooo look at that...." I didn't mind it so much when we lived in Rexburg because there was only one lotus that drove around and a couple other old white trash* muscle cars. In San Antonio it got a little worse but since moving here and living right by all the richies we see, Ferrari's, Lamborghini's, Bentley's, Porsche's, rolls Royce, Maserati's** daily. So Sean says ooo look at that car a lot more often these days. I am used to it, I used to think it was annoying but now its kinda cool to look at the sweet cars (now that they aren't muscle cars or pimped out Idaho trucks). So the other day I was in the car going to volleyball (yes I played volleyball for the first time in about 15 years, it was not pretty) I almost blurted out "oooo look at that sweet old mini" luckily I didn't however I'm a little scared about next time. I blame Sean. Isn't it funny how we pick up habits from people we spend a lot of time with, I know its only going to get worse as the boys get older, to solve this problem I'm not going to have anymore boys, only girls. Tutu's and Barbies from here on out.

*all muscle cars old or new are seem really white trashy to me. really if you have enough money to buy a car like that you could at least get one with some class. Sean disagrees with me and will probably buy a muscle car sometime in his life, I might have to accidentally crash it.

** Rolls Royce is the only classy car in this lot. All the others are way too flashy. Other flashy cars include BMWs, MBenz and Audi.

Ikea

Dearest Ikea,


I love your fabulous yet functional designs
I love your Meatballs
I love your affordable furniture

Ikea you betrayed me. I brought an awesome red measuring cup set from you a year ago and its just now that I find out your 1 cup is actually 10mls short. Who does that? no wonder Gummy never eats anything I make!

I hate your weirdo designs
Your meatballs make me fat
And affordable is code for don't touch me I'll break.

Williams Sonoma here I come.

The Sea Monster and the Mermaid.

Zackie was being a sea monster while Gummy was singing a mix of I am a child of God and twinkle twinkle.

Books

I just read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. It was a really nice book you should read it. I thought this was the best non-spoilery part of the book....well its a little spoilery so stop reading if you don't know what happens.

"All my life I thought that the story was over when the hero and heroine were safely engaged-after all, what's good enough for Jane Austen ought to be good enough for anyone. But it's a lie. The story is about to begin, and everyday will be a new piece of the plot."

I decided that I'm going to write this in all my Wedding gift cards. Now its saved on this blog so I can safely return the book to the library.

Babysitting

Two other ladies in my ward and I have joined forces and we have worked out how we can have date nights! Its just a simple babysitting swap but with 3 families we get to babysit 5 kids under 3 for one night and have 2 nights off. Thats a sweet deal. Here is a couple of pictures from our night just to prove that it wasn't a nut house and all the kids were very well behaved. Gummy and Zackie must have been following the examples of the other kids or maybe my bribes finally worked.

Sean was on the computer almost the whole night. I am thinking its my turn to choose the movie next time we go since we have planned date nights now. It won't be a total chick flick because he did make the dinner but it will not be an action movie. Sean says that action movies are the only ones worth seeing on the big screen, I should remind him of the time we went and saw ghost rider... even the worst chick flick would have been better.

Mr Darcy Syndrome

When Elizabeth Bennett plays for Mr Darcy at Rosings she teases him in front of his cousin about how he wasn't the life of the party in Hertfordshire he responds "I certainly have not the talent which some people possess, of conversing easily with those I have never seen before. I cannot catch their tone of conversation, or appear interested in their concerns as I often see done." I am thinking of getting this tattooed on my forehead.


I may be the worst first impression giver ever. I know this because people who have stuck around long enough to actually get to know me have told me what they thought of me when we first met, which is usually snobby, stuck-up, quiet, boring, random, shy, awkward, stand off-ish, nice etc. To back it up I have never gotten a job on my own, fabulous friends have always had a hand in it. Also I never ever got hit on at the BYU-Idaho library (even when I was obviously not studying and on the first floor) when all of my room mates had at sometime. Also I once had a girl ask my sister "if I was a very happy person?" So I answer, I am ill-qualified to recommend myself to strangers! Well actually I would have told her that I'm a happy person I just have to give myself a pep talk every time I talk to an acquaintance or stranger.


I have to confess that sometimes I don't want to go to church for this reason. I find it very exhausting to be smiley, (according to Sean if I'm not smiling I'm not happy) small talky, and outgoing (this is why I love my home ward because I don't have to do this). Its not that I'm mean or that I don't want to make new friends I just never talked when I was a kid so I haven't developed the skills needed, I've got sweet computer hacking skills, awesome bow staff skills but no talking skills. You are thinking right Juliet you are a communications major and don't know how to talk. So I say I've never ordered pizza, try not to talk to shop attendants, hate running into people I know at the store and I never comment in any classes. While I can get someone to order the pizza, and its pretty easy to not talk in class or to retail folk and even to avoid someone at the shops but its pretty bad if I want to make some new friends. Honestly I think half the people I meet think I'm a weirdo. Even if I have made a good impression the next time I see them and haven't had my pep talk or have run out of "nice weather, where are you from" questions then I'll still be weirdo it'll just take longer (I just hope they don't get scared off).


When I have nothing to say I just don't talk. I think that's the problem. So a goal for this year is to take Elizabeth's advice and practice. If this doesn't work out then I hope Mr Darcy can one day say to me "you are perfectly right. You have employed your time much better."


By the way I know it was Jane Austen who said those things but Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett are very real people to me as I hope they are to you to0.

So I just re-read this post and it probably seems confusing to you but it makes perfect sense to me and I'm writing this blog so I'll have something to read when I'm 80 and stuck in a nursing home, so you'll just have to figure it out for yourself. :)


*This post only applies to people who I've talked to less than 5 times in my life.

Plan vs Do

I have been thinking about, planning, budgeting and waiting for months to get my haircut. I finally decided on where I was going, what I was going to get done and when. Today I tried to call to make an appointment. The boys never left me alone for long enough to achieve this goal. Bad hair day lives to fight again. Sean however says to me on the ride home today "I need a haircut, I'm starting to get wings" so he left immediately after dinner and now has a rather lovely cut. Punk.

On a side note but totally related... this always happens I plan, plan, plan to do something/get something done yet studying, gummy, zackie, and other things always ruin, ruin, ruin my plans. Yet Sean always seems to be able to decide to do something and do it in the same day. It drives me crazy. Everything I do can always be done tomorrow, that's a problem (and a blessing).