For those of you who were/are interested in doing the online book club thing I've created the blog site, now we just need to fill it with authors. If you are interested in doing this please email me by July 21. I think we'll try to start August/September. If you're not interested, ignore this post.

PS- You can invite anyone you know to be a part of this. Just have them email me as well.

laters
- j

BC and BE

The wedding on Saturday between Julie Marie and Brandon Curtis went off without a hitch. It was a beautiful ceremony and concluded with quite the passionate kiss from which I felt it necessary to avert my eyes. It was only right to give the happy couple some privacy at such a moment. Here are some pictures. Please let me remind all that I am not a great photographer. Julie K., Brandon and Julie M.

I'm practicing, but... I've also decided that the delay of a digital camera is the bane of my picture taking existence.
The Happy Couple

Yesterday I took Hayden to the allergist. For those of you who don't know, H. has had a few fairly serious reactions (hives, swelling of eyes, throat, tongue, wheezing, etc.) to various foods and we were advised by our ped to take him to a specialist. The allergist informed us that he is allergic to milk and peanuts (he ranked pretty high on the peanuts chart), but NOT cinnamon as I had previously thought. He also said that 85% of kids grow out of a milk allergy while only 15%of kids grow of the peanut allergy. LAME-O! We go back in January when they'll test him for tree nut allergies and do some blood work which will let us know if how allergic to peanuts he is (for example, do we need to banish peanuts from the house or just not feed them to H.). For now I take an Epi-Pen Jr. and Benadryl with me everywhere.

I'm kinda' bummed because I LOVE peanut butter. In fact, I would make peanut butter its own food group if I could, and I would be sad if it had to go away (although my hips might thank me).

Swimming Lessons

Hayden hamming it up and Noah wondering, "What the...?"

All smiles for time at the pool.
Noah loved it as well!

The boys finished their last lesson on Thursday and got a certificate to prove it. Go boys!!

sometimes i wonder what life will be like when my house is finished.

i wonder how i got here... motherhood that is. there are some people you just picture as mothers, i am not one of them.

i wonder what i would have been like if i'd kept teaching. would i have continued to love and get a kick out of those crazy middle school kids (although i must admit i could've done without the seventh grade boys--too many hormones they don't know how to handle yet) or would i have become jaded like so many old-school teachers. would i have become a better teacher? i can only hope. sometimes i miss those kids, they were so blasted funny.

i wonder what h. will be like when he grows up. i wonder if he'll actually grow up (yes, all you experienced mothers, i realize that of course he will).

i wonder if my family will ever be together again. speaking of my family. i miss them. i miss my bros who moved their families away from me and i miss that i never was closer to them so that now the only updates i get are through my mother or through their blogs. i wonder why i never took the opportunity to find out who they are and what they're interested in because now i have not much of an idea as to what exactly they are doing in grad school.

i wonder, too, why i rarely leave my protective shell in social (or non) situations. i wonder if i do this as some sort of protection, and if so, from what? what could i possibly be afraid of.

i wonder why children trust adults because we sure as hell don't know what we're doing. at what age did i think it would all come to me? i approached aging as i did driving. when i was younger i just figured that somehow, when you got your license, you would just know how to get places. i used to think that when you got older (whatever "older" is) you just knew how to do things, and get places, and get along with other people, and make phone calls you didn't want to make. sadly, this isn't true. i still don't know the how of most of these things.

i wonder how to end this post. it just started, i guess it can just end. that is the beauty of stream of conciousness, right?

Five Things About Me...

5 things I was doing 10 years ago: 1. Working at Barnes & Noble Cafe in Orem 2. Going on a Roller Coaster Tour 3. Applying to BYU-H 4. Working at Karl Malone Toyota 5. Attending Lillith Fair.
5 things on my to do list: 1. Come up with games for David and Maida's baby shower 2. Get shoes for H. for the wedding 3. Finish all three of my on-going knitting projects 4. Decide on colors for my room, kitchen, H.'s room, and both upstairs bathrooms 5. Take H. to allergist
5 favorite snacks/food:1. Peanut Butter (yup. just peanut buttre) 2. Popcorn (air popped) 3. chocolate (brownies, cakes, combined with peanut butter) 4. fruit (berries mostly) 5. ice cream
5 things I would do if I was a billionaire: 1. buy world peace (and lower gas prices)
5 bad habits: 1. PROCRASTINATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
5 places I have lived:1. Laie, HI 2. West Yellowstone, MT 3. SLC, UT 4. SO JO, UT 5. Rexburg, ID
Pretty exciting stuff, I know. Can I get a what what?

Needing Input

I'm trying to put together a summer playlist. Songs that are about and/or remind you of summer, or just give you a summer feel. I would LOVE your input. What would you put on your summer playlist? I'm pretty much open to any genre. Here are some ideas I have so far. Please add your thoughts and comments.

* I'm Yours- Jason Mraz
* Amber- 311
* Summerlong- Kid Rock
* Summertime-Kenny Chesney
*Make Me Lose Control-Eric Carmen
*Georgia- John Mayer
* What I've Got- Sublime
*Sweet Home Alabama- Lynyrd Skynyrd (I think that's who sings it)
*Happy Together-Turtles
* Summer of '69- Bryan Adams
*Summer in the City- Lovin' Spoonful

This is by no means the order I'd put them in. I'm just throwin' 'em out there.

Just a few random thoughts which have been fluttering around in my head:

1. Brent's brother, Brandon, is getting married on the 21st. Wanna guess what her name is? Julie. That's right. So there is Brent's mom (Julie), myself (Julia), and now my sister-in-law (Julie). Do I hear Freudians laughing it up out there? Oh, but the strangeness doesn't stop there. Brent's sister Melanie's husband's name is Brent and his other sister Michelle's husband is Brandon. Thoroughly confusing. The only one who doesn't "fit" is Megan's husband Luke. Sorry, man. No one can bat a 1000. --is that the right sports analogy? is 1000 good?

2. While reading an old Real Simple mag I came across what I thought was a pretty nifty idea. Writing your kids a letter now for when they are older, the difference is to write it for a specific event. For example: when they get their first job, the first heart- break, first time they wreck the car, etc.

3. Megan and I took Hayden and Noah swimming for the first time yesterday (we're taking a parent/infant swim class--pictures to come I'm sure) and getting there was pretty funny. At least for me. First of all I put H. in his swim diaper and I realized it was a girl's diaper. I had just picked up the package, not paying much attention, little did I realize it was a Dora the Explorer diaper with pink flowers and stuff all over it. How embarrassing. Thankfully Megan had made the same mistake so both N. and H. were sporting the feminine colors (don't tell their fathers). By the time we reached the pool H. had wet through his diaper. This didn't make sense to me. If the purpose of a swim diaper is to keep bodily functions out of the pool then why can't they keep said functions in the diaper? Odd. The boys "learned" to float on their backs, kick their feet, and more. Good times. They liked it, I think.

4. So You Think You Can Dance is on tonight. LOVE that show. By far the most entertaining thing on TV (in the summer, anyway). Four of the top twenty are from SLC. WOO WOO. Watch it, you'll love it like I do.

Stream of Conciousness/H.

to h. because i love you.

you bring out a piece of me i never thought i'd see. i never imagined that because of you i'd coo at other people's children. i never thought that because of you i'd join weight watchers. thanks for that by the way. it never crossed my mind that i would miss your face when i am gone. i can hardly believe how euphoric it is to hear your laugh. i love to listen to you babble to your "friends" and how stunned i am when i realize you think you're actually making sense...as if you are having a real conversation. at ten months old you consume my day, but in a good way. who would've thought that the girl who hates (no. DREADS) to babysit would find so much contentment in someone so small.

i have to go now, because you are hungry and are trying to eat my arm.

i love you, though. never forget that.

Yellowstone '08

A little taste of Big Piney, WY. The Loaf 'n Jug.

Few things are more perfect to me than a good roadtrip. There is something wonderful about watching the landscape slip past your vision as you drive by listening to good tunes or good conversation. This past weekend we took a trip to the good ol' Yellowstone Ntl. Park and a fabulous time was had by all. We saw coyotes, bears (grizzly and black), buffalo galore, elk, antelope and more. Good, good times. Here are some photos of the trip: A chilly picnic

The Fam at Gibbons falls

The black bear we watched come off the mountain and cross the road right in front of us.

Tavis, B, H, and Mac animal watching. "glassing" as they say.