Convincing commercials

When I exercise in the morning I often watch I Love Lucy on the Hallmark channel.  This channel also runs a lot of the "As seen on TV" commercials.  Can I tell you, those commercials can be mighty convincing early in the morning?

First there's the Hair Bean, the last brush you'll ever need.  When your hair gets tangled in the wind after you've ridden in a convertible, this brush will transform your hair from a rat's nest to straightened perfection in moments.  And after you've gone swimming without putting your hair in a pony tail, this brush will detangle the soaking disaster.  For someone like me who gets her brush stuck in her hair rather frequently, this sounds like a lifesaver!  And it can be mine for just $9.99!!

Of course, I don't have a convertible OR a pool.

Then there are Eggies.  These will change your life.  You'll go from dull black and white and frizzy hair to bright colors, cute clothes, and a great hairstyle when you quit hard-boiling your eggs the old-fashioned way and begin using Eggies!  Taking the shells off hard-boiled eggs really is labor-intensive I think to myself every time I see this commercial.  How much better would my life be if I bought this product??  Luckily my dad tested this one out for me and proved the old-fashioned method is the time-saver.

I've also found radio commercials to be equally convincing.  How many times have I been convinced to buy a home, get lasik, have laser-free fat removal, or change my insurance?  Pretty much every time I get in the car!

So there you have it.  I am easily swayed by commercials.  If you ever write one, send it to me and I'll probably be first in line to buy your product.  Or at least to think about buying your product.  Nate thanks his lucky stars every day that I'm not an impulse shopper.  Otherwise our house would be full of "As seen on TV" products.

Christmas Project

The last day of finals Nate came home and solemnly said, "I'm going to grow a Christmas beard."

And so he did.

He stuck through the itchy phase just to (reluctantly) shave it off on Monday night before school and his internship started.  It came off in stages which we documented for our posterity and for our loyal blog readers.  (Okay, the blog part was my idea, not his.)

Midnight writing

My little brother is serving a mission in Uruguay for our church.  Every Monday he gets to check his email.  I'm usually pretty good at remembering to send him a message but I forgot last week.  So I really wanted to remember to write him this week.

Last night when I was nursing Porter I remembered I hadn't emailed Tyler yet.  "It's my lucky day!" I thought as I glanced at the clock and saw that it was 1:50 AM.  I could still send him an email and he'd get it!  (Right now there's a 5 hour time difference between us and Uruguay and he checks his email pretty early in the day.)

Later this morning when I read his letter to the family he said a few things that made me think maybe he didn't get my email.  I was positive I sent him a newsy message.  So I checked my "Sent Mail" to make sure I sent the letter to the correct address.

I did send the email to the right place.  But here is the text of my email, copied verbatim (and I want you to know it was typed with one hand, so please forgive the typos):


"Dear Ty,

Merry Christmas!  We're all so excited to talk to you this next week!  

We're doing well.  The semester anf finals ended for Nate last Thursday.  He is enjoying time ff until January.  He quit his Dominos drive but so far they haven't noticed a big uptick in left since he died.

Christmas really snuck up on me this year!  I guess having a baby will do that to you.

love , Katie"

When I was a kid

When I was a kid, gas was under a dollar per gallon.

It was always in the ninety cent range but it was still less than a dollar.  Other things that were a dollar or less: a dozen eggs, apples (even out of season), and movies from Redbox.  (Okay, Redbox wasn't around when I was a kid, but the movies were just $1 when Redbox started.)

The summer between my freshman and sophomore years of college I remember the price of gas increased drastically-it reached the $1.50/gallon range.  I distinctly remember thinking, "Man, gas is getting expensive.  I'll have to cut down on my visits home during the school year!"

Did I?  No.

In fact, I think I started driving MORE.

The summer I bought my car, gas prices reached $4 a gallon.  I took public transit to work for a while until I realized it was still cheaper for me to drive than to pay to ride the train.  Take that for what it's worth, UTA.

Yesterday I bought gas for $2.999 a gallon.  Sure, it rounds to $3 per gallon but I LOVED seeing the 2 in the dollar position.  It felt amazing to buy gas for "less" than $3 a gallon!  I wanted to shout my good fortune from the housetops.  And I wanted to share with Porter that when I was a kid we would have been shocked to pay more than $1 per gallon of gas.  Or at least more than $1.10 per gallon.

So now that I have declared my good fortune, maybe I'll take yesterdays savings and rent some movies from Redbox!

First-timers

When we were preparing to leave the hospital I wanted to make sure Porter would be warm.  So I bundled him up in a warm sleeper and two blankets before we took him out to the car:

Of course I hadn't been outside for 2 days and I didn't know it was unseasonably warm for being the day before Thanksgiving.  I was shedding layers of coats and jackets as I got into the car.  I think Porter was warm enough!

We stopped on our way home to get Nate some lunch.  I'd been riding in the back seat with Porter (after being made fun of by the nurse - "You'll have plenty of time to look at him," she said when she helped me into the backseat) but after our stop I decided to ride shotgun where there is more leg room. 

On our hour-long drive home, I started to worry because I hadn't heard anything from the back seat.  Was my baby still alive??  I tried craning my neck to see, but to no avail.  Then I remembered, "Hey!  I have a cell phone!  And it has a camera!" So, being ever resourceful, I decided to snap a picture of him to make sure he could breathe. 

I took the picture and then looked at it.  I was slightly shocked at what I saw:

This isn't exactly what you want to see when you're headed home for the first time with your baby.  

We hadn't taken him out of his car seat when we were getting Nate lunch so I knew he still had to be in there.  After all, I had pictures that proved we'd put him in the seat in the first place (see above).

So I was rather panicked for the rest of the ride home.  We stopped at Walgreens to fill a prescription and I jumped into the back seat where I saw my poor baby with his head flopped down onto his body.  It is amazing how little babies can bend!

I straightened his neck out and then proceeded to watch him.  Nate came back to the car (he'd run the prescription in to get it filled) and he said we had 15 minutes before it would be ready.  So he also climbed into the back seat on the other side of Porter and we stared at Porter for the next 15 minutes.

First-time parents?  Yep.

When the prescription was ready Nate ran back in to get it.  Then we drove the rest of the way home.  

I sat in the back with Porter.  No more head-flopping on my watch!

Dueling Sunbeams

Last Sunday was our ward's primary program.  The chapel was filled with parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, long-lost friends of the family, second cousins thrice removed, etc. all there to listen to the children sing and share what they've learned in church this year.

The program began normal enough.  The stand was filled with children - over 80 kids.  In fact, they didn't all fit up on the stand; there were three rows of kids sitting down in the congregation as well.  The younger children were, of course, squirming, not used to having to sit still for so long. 

The children sang the first two or three songs without incident. 

Then two of the sunbeams got bored.

Sunbeams, for those who don't know, are 3 turning 4 years old.  They are the youngest class that participates in the primary program.  This year, the sunbeams are the little children I taught in nursery last year, so it was fun to watch them participate in their first primary program.

The two children in question were standing next to each other.  At some point they declared battle; each decided to try to out-sing the other.

They didn't quite succeed in outsinging each other. However, they did manage to outsing the other 80+ kids participating in the program. 

Impressivley, they knew every single word to the songs they were singing.  Unfortunately, they didn't know every single note.  They were terribly out of tune.  Eventually they were shouting, "I LOVE TO SEE THE TEMPLE!  I"M GOING THERE SOMEDAY! TO FEEL THE HOLY SPIRIT!  TO LISTEN AND PRAY!"  Lets just say, that's not quite the normal rendition of that usually reverent song! 

The congregation loved it. I've never seen so much laughter during a primary program before.

At one point another one of the sunbeams covered her ears with her hands, turned to the duelers and said loudly, "SHHH!!!  Be quiet!"  This increased the chuckles in the audience.

The fun came to an end when the pianist (and mom of one of the duelers) got up and moved her daughter away from the competition, putting another sunbeam between the two.  Although they both continued to sing loudly, it just wasn't the same.  I think everyone was slightly disappointed.  Except maybe the mom.  This is probably one program she'll never forget!

If a picture says a thousand words...

...then I'm curious what my pictures say about me.

I love having an iPhone.  One of the reasons is because of the built-in camera.  No matter where I am I can take pictures of people and places.

Apparently I also like taking pictures of random things that make me laugh.  Most of the time I take those pictures I think, "This will make a great blog topic."  How many of those pictures have actually made it to my blog before now?  One.  It was the snake.

My little sister was flipping through my pictures one day and she kept looking at me as if I'd gone crazy.

Perhaps it's because I seem to like bugs...

I took a picture of this bug so
I could look up what type of bug
 it was.  Did I? No.

This was just a really cool cricket.

I liked the dragon fly's big blue eyes.
Too bad he was dead.

Or maybe it's because I take pictures of random toilets.  Like the double toilet I found in a local Arby's.  I was glad there was a deadbolt on the bathroom door.  I didn't feel like company.

Then there are pictures I take of signs that make me wonder about what led to the sign being necessary in the first place. 

Check out the note underneath the dog.
I'm glad they clarified to size of the dog.  I was worried.

Maybe she was impressed by the picture I took to prove how amazing my ability is to endure cold temperatures.  This picture was taken on Halloween.

Yes, it says -76 degrees F.

Or she may think I'm crazy because I take pictures of random hand-made bumper stickers:

Who is John Gault?
I still need to finish the book to find out.

Whatever the reason she looked at me like I was crazy, she's probably right.  But I enjoy having the random pictures to give me a laugh from time to time.  I hope you enjoyed them.  If not, you can look at me like I'm crazy the next time you see me.