New Moon

i am a firm believer that everyone needs to do something fanatical every once in a while. i LOVE

seeing "harry potter people", or "star wars people" and yes especially "twilight people" because it is so fun to be with people who are so excited. it reminds me what a good life this is and how amazing the human mind and imagination is. last night i went to the midnight showing of new moon with one of the girls i visit teach and it was a total blast! i wouldn't have gone if she didn't really want to go, but it was awesome to go to the theater with 2000 screaming teenage girls and watch this movie. it was so much better than twilight! i liked twilight but there were so many things about it that bugged me (the makeup, some of the special effects, the acting in general to name a few) but many of these problems were no longer an issue and so i was able to fully enjoy the experience of forgetting myself for two hours in a dark theater, which is one of my favorite things to do. taylor lautner (jacob black) was phenonmenal in both body and performance considering all he had to do to prepare. seriously he is the best cast character. him and charlie the dad. and both edward and bella improved drastically. partly it was just the screenplay, but they also grew as actors into their characters and being true to the book, which isn't always necessary but it is nice in this case. overall it was incredibly true to the book which is refreshing in a film. anyway, i highly recommend it and hope to see it again with kent! june 30th and eclipse here we come! =o]

1. good movies

2. staying up until 3 am once in a while

3. taylor lautner (what an amazing and dedicated 17 year old kid!)

17lbs

okay so this is pretty personal but i just have to post about it to get some moral support. today i went to the doctor for my seven month checkup and glucose test (with natalie, good times let me tell you) and i have gained a total of 17lbs so far. wow. now my goal was to only gain 30lbs with this pregnancy because i gained like 45 with natalie and even though i lost it all back plus more i just don't want to do that to my body again. so i have come up with three stratagies to help me. i am already exercising mostly everyday (5 times a week, and having braxton hix sp? contractions almost everytime!) and i don't eat sweets alone, but appearently this is not enough. halloween candy is the main culpret i'm sure. i don't even really love candy i just eat it because it is there, you know? anyway so i have decided to not eat candy for the rest of my pregnancy. i'm really not sad about this at all. i have done this several times in my life and it wasn't bad. next i am not going to drink juice. kent and natalie both love juice so we have it around, but it is just empty calories and something i can do without since i love water anyway (i already never drink soda- thank you mom and high school x-country). and finally i am going to recommit to my goal to not eat after 9pm. this was already something that i have done, but i have slacked off a bit especially when i was sick because i had to eat when i felt like it even if it was 11pm. anyway, these three things, when combined with what i am already doing will be the ticket-- i hope! i am still looking forward to pie and ice cream at thnksgiving don't get me wrong, i just think this things are totally within reach. lets hope i don't have to resort to drastic measures! anyone have any other ideas for easy ways to cut the calories? oh i just thought of one! condiments. i always allow these back into my diet while pregnant and nursing (i love miracle whip!) but that is an easy one that can go too. anything else? especially with the holidays around the corner i need to watch it. help!

1. modern day medicine

2. supportive friends and family who put me in check when i over-react about dumb things

3. the ability to make a little person

mommy words

okay so i am a huge advocate for using the correct words with children. (and believe me that has been put to the test this past month potty training natalie! successfully too!!!!) but there is one mommy word that i have adopted that came out again this season that i now have an argument for. the word is "coldie". i got this from a family i babysat for in college. but it makes sense to me because tons of other weather words do this: wind; windy/ sun; sunny/ rain; rainy/ cloud; cloudy, etc, etc. so i say coldie. sue me.

another three +

1. being a visiting teacher (if you don't know what this is please email me and i'll tell you all about it!)

2. disneyland passes and seeing natalie's joy at everything there

3. warm california weather that allows me to wear the maturnity clothes i already own instead of having to buy a completely new wardrobe this time around since it is the exact opposite seasons as last time

and a bonus round: finding the PERFECT gift for someone, literally losing it in the store, and then finding it again with the help of a friendly clerk. he totally made my day and i think i made his too by being so happy and grateful for his help!

just three "thankful-for" things

1. the smell of freshly baked bread in my home (thanks for the inspiration monica!)

2. the gift of one hour of undivided attention to natalie from me on the advice of my aunt kim

3. feeling our little guy move around when i sit still too long (in his opinion)

guavas galore

ever had a pineapple guava? my parents have a guava bush in their front yard and i love this unique fruit! you cut it in half and eat the inside like a kiwi. anyway, on our walking route around the neighborhood there is a guava bush and for the past few months every time i walk by i want to take some because they aren't harvesting them and they are just going to waste. so today i finally couldn't take it anymore and took a plastic bag with us when we went out and just knocked on the person's door to see if we could have some of the ones on the ground. the lady didn't really get it at first, partially because her english wasn't awesome, but eventually she said they weren't good to eat and that if i wanted them i could have them. WOW! so natalie and i happily started putting the guavas in our little bag only to realize that we wouldn't even be able to take like half of the ones on the ground home. it was so fun. the lady came back out and told me again that they weren't good because they never turned pink or got big and i tried to explain that it was a different variety than she was describing but i'm not sure if she ever really got it. anyway, here are the fruits of our labor!

this is a blurry picture, sorry, of what they look like inside.

and what in the world can i do with all these guavas now? i already decided to take some to my visiting teaching sisters to share the wealth, but that still leaves me with more than we could ever eat before they go bad (they had already been on the ground mind you) so i decided to make jam! i looked online but there were only recipes for guavas not pineapple guava jams so i just did freezer jam because the recipe is universal for (almost) all fruit and virtually foolproof. i got the great idea from my mom (who i called on the way home with my exciting treasure news =o]) to put some strawberry jello in so it would be a pretty color. add a pear to balance out the tartness of the guavas and vuwalla!

five little jars of happiness!

1. free things on the side of the road

2. unique gifts to give to friends

3. moms who listen to your outrageous enthusiasm over silly little things

Happy Halloween!

we had a great holiday and hope you did too! here are some highlights from the celebration:


making pumpkin chocolate chip cookies! i had an awesome recipe for these, but it got lost in the moves. i found this one online and it was alright, but not as good as the one i had. if you have a good one send it my way!

preschool halloween party! here are some of the kids decorating oranges. it was a great time for everyone =o]

the costume parade was definately their favorite part. they just kept going around and around and even after we went inside to "trick or treat" they wanted to come back outside and turn back on the music. good times =o]


our ward halloween party. okay so just in case you can't tell, i am kanga, the baby is roo, natalie is obviously winnie the pooh and kent is christopher robin. i forgot to put my hood up for the picture. i had ears sewn on... oh well. it was a fun party and natalie loved playing all the games and seeing all the people dressed up.

i won this spider cake in the cake walk with natalie. it was pretty but i shouldn't have eaten any because it made me feel sick. i gave it to some hungry table neighbors before we left =o]

halloween morning was a saturday and that means pancakes! to keep in the spirit i put our halloween cookie cutters to good use =o] yum!


carving pumpkins! this year we carved pumpkins on halloween which was strange for me but we had been sick and so just hadn't got around to it. (natalie still is! poor girl had a temp of 104 today after her nap! i hope the antibiotics start actually working sometime soon!!)


pumpkin seeds- yum! a favorite tradition! at like 10pm i realized i didn't make any carmel corn this year and was sad because when i made it last year kent loved it and we decided to make it a tradition. oh well there is always next year!

i was going to try that dinner in a pumpkin thing, but while discussing it with kent we realized, much to his relief i might add, that since it was saturday he was incharge of dinner. again, maybe next year. so we went to mcdonalds and used our halloween coupons my mom-in-law sent us. natalie saw a picture of ronald in the play place and said "look mom! there's old mcdonald!" ha ha ha ha ha ha i'm glad she's not a fast food kid. she did eat several bites of her hamburger this time which has never happened before though so maybe she will get used to it someday. playing afterward was, as always, her favorite part.


trick or treating! we lit our jackolanterns right before we left and natalie was in awe. we go on a walk around our neighborhood almost everyday and so natalie was excited to visit certain houses. some of them were too far away without the stroller, but we hit the most important one "the ghostie house" as she has called it since the beginning of the month. everyone of course thought she was adorable despite kent saying that winnie the pooh is a boy costume. =o]


what a great holiday! now on to thanksgiving!! oh which reminds me. one of my friends always puts three things she is thankful for at the end of each post, and if she doesn't mind, i want to copy her for the next month in honor of the upcoming holiday. so...

1. vitamin c

2. composting for a garden in my backyard
3. blogs