Sunday, November 30, 2008

My first skiing experience

Homeschool Ski. That's what they called it. If you homeschooled, you could sign up for three days of skiing at Bogus Basin, which included a lift ticket, ski rentals and a ski lesson, for a very low price. I think the local schools had a similar opportunity. So me and my three younger brothers, plus some of their friends, all signed up. Boy was I excited! We arrived about an hour and a half before the lessons would start, so we decided to try the bunny hill. I first waited for my brothers to go down. I watched them and they seemed to have no problem, so I went up the lift, and started down the hill full of optimism and hope. I immediately had an out of control crash, and wrote the following...

Jan. 13, 2002

It amazingly didn’t hurt physically. My pride, however, was bruised. It took me about an hour to get down the hill. I fell so many times, and it is so hard to stand up. I also spent about 10 minutes trying to get a ski back on. When I was nearing the bottom, I took a nasty spill right into the tow rope. My arm hooked something that you hold on to anh it nearly turned me around. I was in a lot of pain. I was so mad, I was ready to cry. Embarresment, pain and frusteration aren’t a good mix. So, I just took off my ski’s and walked the rest of the way down.

Then I mentioned how it was almost time for the lessons.

However, at this point, I despised skiing. I never wanted to return to the evil place. I wanted to leave right then. All the boys had no problems with the sport. They zoomed past me like 3 times when I was trying to figure out how the brakes worked.

So, I explain how Jason managed to get us into the wrong class. We wanted Beginner, but we instead went into level 1. Oops. The instructors immediately knew that I didn't belong there and got me into the right place. However, all of my brothers and their friends stayed in the Level 1 class since they were already skilled enough for it. Oh the humiliation. But wait, is that a silver lining I see?

My instructor is Joseph. He’s really cute and nice.

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving. Aaron's family came to our house for the feast. We actually hosted! Does that mean we are officially adults yet? However, we sent out food assignments so it's not like we did everything by ourselves. We had the three from our household, plus Aaron's parents and sister Arielle. They stayed with us a couple nights, which was great fun. Thanks for coming down! We also had Aaron's grandparents come as well as his cousin Brian.

Here is our Thanksgiving as told by pictures.









Monday, November 24, 2008

Bathtime fun

Here are some cute pictures of Morgan. I think his expression is very cute in both the pictures.


Sunday, November 23, 2008

Journal Time!

Stephanie, you should be thanking me right now for the major editing I've done. I was tempted to put a lot more in, but since it isn't about me, (not necessarily all about you either) I will exercise discretion. But let me just say I used very descriptive language. Oh the adjectives and exclamation marks! I won't even add the back story.
January 2, 2002
But the next words that came out of her mouth were like a blow that shattered any of my hopes that I had a sane sister.

Still, I would have rathered to be left alone and unassociated with their group.

He’s a gross, disgusting, vile creature.


January 11, 2002
The other day Dad tried to teach me to drive a stick shift. It was scary. We only went around the block three times. . . Jason was in the pick up bed the first time around. He got a little banged up. I don’t like stick shift.

It is an unfortunate truth that I have been to the Boise cruise on numerous occasions with Laurie. She always drove, which was frightening. Though we did adhere to my mom's rules of never getting out of the car or getting into anyone elses car.
Last week I went to the Cruise with Laurie. That was one of the funner times that I’ve been. Even though it wasn’t too crowded, the guys were cute and they didn’t all say, “You’re friend is hot.” “I like your friend.” This time only one person flipped us off. Laurie’s not the best driver. She doesn’t see well at night and cuts people off a lot. Scary.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Oh the pain!

So this morning around 7:00 I was laying in bed, as I usually am at that time, (Morgan doesn't wake up until around 8:00 so neither do I. :) Anyway, I half-way woke up and had me a nice stretch. Well, it was nice until, CRACK! Then, Pain! Pain! Pain! Pain! Something happened to my neck and now I can't move it. Pretty much. There is only one position where it is comfortable, and I use that term loosely. By comfortable, I mean less painful than everywhere else. I have a little bit of room to rotate it to the right, but there is absolutely no bending.
So now what? Do I just take the maximum amount of pain killers allowed and hope it gets better on its own, or should I seek a chiropractor soon? Ugh! Go away, pain!

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Go Jazz!

Aaron won two tickets to the Jazz game yesterday, and he choose me to go with him. Aww, I'm so lucky. Apparently the company that Aaron works for bought season tickets so that they could give them out to employees.
I used to be a pretty big Jazz fan. My brothers always have been, and while I was younger I watched the games on tv with them. Back in the days when they went to the finals up against the Bulls, I was huge into it. I knew which players started, their names, numbers and positions, and I even knew all the people on the bench and their jersey numbers. I was even pretty familiar with the athletes on teams OTHER than the Jazz. But that was back in the days of Stockton, Malone and Hornecek. (spell?) These days I don't follow them at all. But it was still fun, and now I know three names. Boozer, (the worst name ever!) Kirlinko, or some such Scandinavian name, and CJ Miller.

Proof that we were indeed there.


The halftime stuff was entertaining as well. They brought out the trampoline and a big pad and the mascot did flips and dunks and fun stuff.

It's kinda hard to see. The camera was zoomed in all the way, but we were pretty high up, so this is as good as I could get.

During this time, Morgan was at my relatives home being babysat. He really likes my Aunt and Uncle and cousins and he did well there. I sure do appreciate their kindness and help! It's nice living so close to some family.
When we went to pick him up, around 10:30, we were told that he just barely fell asleep. But this is how we found him.

Not asleep at all! I was hoping he would sleep in this morning since he didn't end up going to sleep until after eleven o'clock, but no such luck. :(

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Living through your best friend is sometimes necessary

From now on I'm going to put my journal writings in italics rather than put them in quotations.

Oct. 25 2001
Dear Journal, yesterday was good. Chris left for Australia yesterday
Tee hee! It sounds mean, but it's actually nice. I go on to say that since he was at the airport leaving for the mission he was able to call us. So it was a good day because Chris called. Aww, how nice of me!

Dec. 2, 2001
My best friend Laurie was a flirt. She always flirted with my crushes too. Then they liked her and hung around her, and since she made me go everywhere and do everything with her, (third wheel or not) I got to spend time with my crushes and watch as they made moon eyes at my best friend.
Then she mentioned inviting Craig. (Remember? He is the cute RM from the last entry.) I didn’t want that because he’s either 21 or 22, and I’m only 17…
Boy that was weird sitting there playing cards in Lauries bacement with a cute RM that would have probably evolved into a crush from me. It was probably weirder for him to play with two teenage girls he hardly knew. Laurie sometimes doesn’t think of that stuff. But he’s pretty nice. Kind of shy. Still cute. Old.
Boy did I have a confusing, poorly structured sentence in there. But I think I got the gist across. For the record, this did develop into a pretty big crush. Also for the record, Laurie led on this poor guy, Craig, until someone else came along.

Dec. 15, 2001
Back story. Laurie and I were at Wal-Mart and we ran into a male acquaintance of hers. He walked us to the car and he and Laurie stood outside and flirted and teased, (and I think had their first kiss) for at LEAST a half hour, while I sat in the car, waiting.
During this time, a car parked next to Lauries with 2 or 3 guys. One looked at me a couple of times, then they came back with their things (one was a 24 pack of beer. Stupid.) and the one looked and smiled at me, and when they were pulling away, he waved. So of coarse I returned the wave and smiled. Also, a cute guy getting carts in the parking lot smiled at me a couple of times. ☺That was cool.
Ah, tender mercies. :)

Dec. 30, 2001
From the minute we walked in Laurie was flirting with the waiter. He’s Mexican, and kind of cute. But he looks kind of old. Anyway, when we finished he said, “some guy named Javier bought your meal for you.” That is what his name tag said, so I new it was him. But Laurie forgot about the “J” making an “H” sound, and didn’t realize. She said, “does he think that we’re just so cute, is that why he paid for it?” or something . And he said, “Only the one in purple.” That would be Laurie. So it happened again. He ended up getting her phone #. Then he said to me on the way out “I didn’t mean to be rude when I said only the girl in purple.” At least this one apologized. I wish I were pretty.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Glimpse

It's finished! The novel which I have been writing for oh so long, is finally finished. Well, the story is all down. I still need to work on editing and proof-reading, but that seems comparatively easy. It seems to me that I am a strictly one-draft kind of person though, so I don't know how much editing I will actually do. Every paper I've ever written for school and college was pretty much done when I finished writing it. Meaning, my rough draft doubled as my final draft, excepting minor changes with spelling or grammar. My grades were pretty good, but it's not like any of the papers were published. I want my book to be published, so maybe I should just buckle down and do a second draft. :(
I shall call it Glimpse.
I have 286 pages, though we estimate that in real book language it would be a little less than that. Maybe. However, I haven't added in my chapter breaks, so it will maybe be more than that. Especially if I make the chapters short, like I like them.
Anyway, I'm pretty excited to be finished with the bulk of the writing and my mind is already thinking of what I will write next. I have many ideas.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Tagged!

Here are the rules:
1. Post the rules on your blog
2Answer the six "8" items.
3. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

8 Favorite TV Shows:
1. The Office
2. LOST
3. Heroes
4. Gilmore Girls
5. 24
6. Arrested Development
By golly, I can't think of anything else.

8 Things I Did Yesterday:
1. Exercised
2. Wrote three pages of my book, (it's almost done!)
3. Read some of Inkheart
4. Finished a puzzle
5. Cleaned my bedroom
6. Watched Get Smart with Aaron
7. Played with Morgan
8. Watched the latest episode of Heroes online

8 Things I Look Forward To:
1. Thanksgiving
2. Christmas
3. Having another baby
4. The weekend
5. Morgan's nap time
6. My bedtime
7. My husband coming home from work
8. Eating

8 Favorite Restaurants:
1. Olive Garden
2. Thai House
3. Oh, a good Chinese place, nothing in particular
4. Applebee's
5. Red Robin
6. Cracker Barrel
7. Macaroni Grill
8. Subway

8 Things On My Wish List:
1. Having another baby
2. Getting my book published
3. World Peace :)
4. Less bills or more money
5. A nice house to live in
6. To go on a Cruise
7. Get my degree
8. To do something important

8 People I Tag:
1. Candice
2. Shelly
3. Paige
4. Jessica
5. Jana
6. Nancy
7. Aaron!
8. Emma

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Me me me

I didn't have anything to post today until I looked at Shelly's blog and stole her thing.
So, the things that I've done are in bold.

1. Started your own blog 2. Slept under the stars 3. Played in a band 4. Visited Hawaii 5. Watched a meteor shower 6. Given more than you can afford to charity 7. Been to Disneyland 8. Climbed a mountain 9. Held a praying mantis 10. Sang a solo 11. Bungee jumped 12. Visited Paris 13. Watched a lightning storm at sea 14. Taught yourself an art from scratch 15. Adopted a child 16. Had food poisoning 17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty 18. Grown your own vegetables 19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France 20. Slept on an overnight train 21. Had a pillow fight 22. Hitch hiked 23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill 24. Built a snow fort 25. Held a lamb 26. Gone skinny dipping 27. Run a Marathon 28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice 29. Seen a total eclipse 30. Watched a sunrise or sunset 31. Hit a home run 32. Been on a cruise 33. Seen Niagara Falls in person 34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors 35. Seen an Amish community 36. Taught yourself a new language 37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied 38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person 39. Gone rock climbing 40. Seen Michelangelo’s David 41. Sung karaoke 42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt 43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant 44. Visited Africa 45. Walked on a beach by moonlight 46. Been transported in an ambulance 47. Had your portrait painted 48. Gone deep sea fishing- 49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person 50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris 51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling 52. Kissed in the rain 53. Played in the mud 54. Gone to a drive-in theater 55. Been in a movie- 56. Visited the Great Wall of China 57. Started a business 58. Taken a martial arts class 59. Visited Russia 60. Served at a soup kitchen 61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies 62. Gone whale watching 63. Got flowers for no reason 64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma 65. Gone sky diving 66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp 67. Bounced a check 68. Flown in a helicopter 69. Saved a favorite childhood toy 70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial 71. Eaten Caviar 72. Pieced a quilt 73. Stood in Times Square 74. Toured the Everglades 75. Been fired from a job 76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London 77. Broken a bone 78. Been on a speeding motorcycle 79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person 80. Published a book 81. Visited the Vatican 82. Bought a brand new car 83. Walked in Jerusalem 84. Had your picture in the newspaper 85. Read the entire Bible 86. Visited the White House 87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating 88. Had chickenpox 89. Saved someone’s life 90. Sat on a jury 91. Met someone famous 92. Joined a book club 93. Lost a loved one 94. Had a baby 95. Seen the Alamo in person 96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake 97. Been involved in a law suit 98. Owned a cell phone 99. Been stung by a bee

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Everyone HATES me!! :)

Sunday, journal day.

Oct. 17, 2001
"Dear Journal, I give up. Okay, no I don’t, but I’m stuck with no where to turn it seems… Want to know what I’m stressed about? Well, I’m pregnant. How should I tell my parents? . . . Okay, you got me. I’m not pregnant. I’ve never even kissed a guy, held ones hand. I don’t think I’ve even been alone with a creature of the male gender other then family members. Or my cat."
I wasn't fooled even for a second when I read this. :) However, this was something that my cousin taught me. When you need to get your parents permission about something, or when you have something unpleasant you have to tell them, start with a little joke. Mom, I'm pregnant....just kidding! Can I have some money to go to the movies? Apparently it worked for him, my cousin, though he never said he was pregnant, but that he got a girl pregnant. :)

Oct. 21, 2001
This is a doozy. And I edited A LOT. This was two pages of self-beratement.
"Dear Journal. I hate being me. I’m so stupid!
I hate me, because I’m a immature chicken. I’m a loner. You’d think you would fit in at church. I don’t. I’m so lame, it’s embarrassing. Today in Sunday School, there was a long row. Everyone that was in our class was in that row. About 12. Everyone was in that row, but me. There was no room for me anyway. I sat behind that row, off to the side all by myself. If any future kids of mine, (if I’m ever mature and brave enouph to marry) your mom is a lame loner. Nobody likes me. You know why? Cause no one knows me enough to decide whether I’m likeable or not. I’m invisible. Once, I was in Sunday School about a year-year ½ ago. Jarvis Swenson was taking role. He came to my name. “Melanie Martin? Who’s Melanie Martin?” I’d been in that class for at least a year, and he didn’t even know who I was.
Who would ever marry me? Sorry hubby, but what were you thinking. Unless I actually got brave enough to change my stupid self into a noticeable human being, what were you thinking?"
Bah, what do you say? Being shy can sometimes really lollie. (Lollie- the word my brothers use as a substitution for the word they mean to say, but would get them in trouble. It starts with S and ends in uck.)

Friday, November 7, 2008

Fun pictures



I spotted Morgan watching a movie like this the other day. Thought it was cute.
We're always having to pull Morgan away from the tv. He gets so close! But he's good about scooting back when we tell him to.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Dum, dum dum dum!

Well, we have ourselves a new president. He gave a pretty speech last night. I watched him speak and had to think "I like him!" Because he's a likable person and a great public speaker and has some serious charisma. And I would find myself getting a little caught up in the excitement. Then I would remember who he was and what he stood for. Then I would frown. :(
Our president elect would direct his remarks to those who didn't vote for him and would say, "I will be your president too!" And I would be like, "Oh, he cares about even me!" Then I would re-evaluate and think, "That kind of sounded like a threat." Then the prez would say go on and on about us all being Americans, black, white, male, female, gay, straight, all together now. All are equals! Yay, united we stand. But then I was like, "It's almost as if he's trying to take away all individuality. Everyone is the same, no one is different. Kind of like communism." There have been lots of good public speakers in the past, who rallied support from their country-men and turned out to be pretty rotten people. (I don't necessarily think he's a bad person, or even purposefully out to ruin the country, but he is wrong in his policies.)
I very much disagree with bigger government. I imagine that soon we will be hearing, "they are taking how much in taxes?" "The government is sticking its hands where now?"
Our liberties will be taken. Our money will be taken. And this is what we asked for. The government, especially the federal government, shouldn't regulate where people put their money. If it's illegal for me to go to one rich neighbor and take a large portion of money and give it to a poorer neighbor, it should also be illegal for the government to do.
Free health care will only be free to people who won't work. Taxes will make up for it for all the working class. Where are the rewards for hard work and ambition?? If everyone is going to be reaping the benefits from that, there won't be any more hard work or ambition. We're losing the right to better ourselves in society.
There is a reason that health care in the united states is so good. Without the free market, there is not that competition, and we get mediocre doctors.
Well, I know this is a jumbled mess of thoughts, so I'm sorry it must be hard to decipher. And I realize that there may be a couple readers who disagree with me, though I do not apologize. These are my opinions and beliefs and I'm not sorry for them.

Morgan's dance

Morgan loves the movie Cars and everytime he watches it he has to be holding his Lightening McQueen toy car. There is a song on it, Life is a Highway, which he always dances and sings along to. So I got it on video. Enjoy!

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Dear Journal

We will now recommence with our regularly scheduled Sunday blog postings.
Names have been changed to protect the poor souls who made it into my journal. Oh, and myself, just in case anyone knows the people I talk about. :) Except the missionaries. They are just who they are.

September 19, 2001
"Dear Journal, Elder Sondrup is soo cute. I can’t bear it. He as in my dream last night. ☺"
And that's how I started my conversations and everything. :) He's so darned unbearable!!

Okay, so here I was at a mutual activity. Elder Sondrup showed up with another fellow, (not his normal companion,) and the girls admired.
"When he arrived Courtney was saying how hot he was. Becky agreed and said something about a lot of them lately being cute. I said, 'Yeah, like the last 5.' Maybe it was more. Then I told her that he was at my house a lot. ☺ She said she was jealous. I would be too. But now Becky Jones is jealous of me. Melanie Martin. Wow."
Seriously, I really don't think I sparked much jealousy in anyone during my teens. Or anytime else for that matter. :)

Sept. 24, 2001
Ah, Chris, my bro, was going on his mission to Australia. So bunches of people came from Utah for his farewell, (this was when we still had them.) He had many buddies come up, most of which I thought were cute. My folks have a huge lawn and since aunts and uncles were all sleeping inside, us younger folks just drug our sleeping bags out to the lawn somewhere. Chris and his group where in one corner, and my cousins and I were in the middle.
"We talked and threw crab apples at all of the boys. It was silly and juvenile, but that’s what makes it fun." Ah yes, maybe this crab apple will make him like me!

Then I wrote about the actual farewell at church.
"Mom spoke first. She didn’t cry though…Chris talked next. He did good and didn’t even sound nervous. Mom didn’t cry then either." I just think it's funny that it's noteworthy when my mom DOESN'T cry. Haha!

Oct. 15, 2001
Now it was my turn to speak in church. My talk was on missionary work. Jason, (younger brother) who was a Teacher at the time was an usher and sat by one of the doors. The elders sat on the back side bench right by Jason.
"Jason said that a couple of times during my talk, elder Anderson would say something to elder Sondrup, and they would both laugh. Sad. They probably thought I was a hypocrite up there."
Oh the insecurity!

Same entry, entirely different subject.
"I think James Welch was in my dream last night. I don’t remember it but I woke up really liking him. I always really like him, but this was how I like him after he talks to me or something. I don’t know why I like him so much. I’ve mentioned that before. He has some of the nicest eyes imaginable. I think. Ooh, I like him. He took Annie Davis to home coming." And if he took Annie Davis to Homecoming, that means he DIDN'T take me. Of course, I never thought that would ever be a possibility. *Sigh*

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Halloween

We had a fun night. It started with getting dressed up. Well, getting Morgan dressed up. I wore one of Morgan's new hats, and I tried to get Aaron to wear one, but he only had it on for long enough to take the picture.

First I gave Morgan a bit of scruff. Some five o'clock shadow. But Aaron had a better idea and he ended up with a shnazzy mustache. So cute!





Morgan was adorable and really ended up loving the whole trick or treating thing. We'd go up to a door, I would ring the bell and Morgan would knock until someone answered. :) Then I'd tell him to say Trick-or-treat, and sometimes he would do his best and say "treat". He didn't want any tricks! Though, once he said, "heck!" Where'd that come from?
Oh, and most of the time people would let Morgan choose which piece of candy that he wanted. Mistake! He wanted them all! So he'd try to take handfuls and cram them into his bucket. So then I'd go to put back the candy that he stole while apologizing, but many people would be like, "oh, it's okay." So he'd end up getting more than was originally allowed. Thinking back though, I wonder if they were saying it was okay after I apologized, rather than giving him permission to take all he wanted. Hmmm... But his hands are little, so handfuls never really amounted to more than three pieces.
I often wished they would just give Morgan the candy, rather than let him choose, for another reason too. When he picked them, more often than not he took the dum-dum suckers! Or the tootsie roll suckers. Or Smarties. Those where his candy of choice. Come on Morgan, take the chocolate! The candy bars, Morgan! M&M's! Mommy doesn't want to share with you if all you get are dum-dum's!
Morgan was also scared of decorations. One of the first houses we visited had one of those bowls with the automated hand that moves and makes noises. Morgan screamed. It was hillarious, but from then on he didn't want to get too close to some of the more decorated doors. Sometimes even pumpkins made him wary!
Oh, and the weather. When we started we were thrilled with how warm it was. We brought jackets, but didn't wear them. The best Halloween weather that we could remember. And then it started to rain. It rained off and on all night, but really, it was still warm enough that we didn't need to put on our jackets.

His Elmo bucket was completely filled with candy. He made out pretty good for a two year old.