Funny story.  A few days ago, I was standing next to Jacob.  He was sitting on his computer chair.  I turned to walk away, and hit him with my belly.  I wonder if I will get used to this belly sticking out so far.  And if I do, I wonder how long it will take to get used to not having such a big belly after Copyright is born.  Time will tell.

Today was a productive sewing day.  I was able to sew a dress, I had already cut it out.  And I was able to turn a t-shirt into a half-shirt (someone makes and sells them as half-tees, I think).  I have heard great reviews on them, and so I decided to make one and see what I think.  I think it will work well for layering.

A friend and I walk in the mornings at the *high school track.  Diana is my fifth (and longest enduring) walking partner in the three-ish years I have been doing this early morning practice.  I have not always had a walking partner, but I find that while I do not like to be in a big group for exercise, it does help to have one other person that keeps mee going.  Sometimes I can handle having a second person, any more than that, and I start to get a wee bit uncomfortable.

Back on topic, we get to the track fairly early, and over the years I have seen many people come and go.  I see most people for less than two months.  This summer however there are two ladies that have been on and off through the summer.  We always greet each other.  I have a story from this Wednesday morning.  In this story I will refer to them as **OSL and ISL, standing for Out of Shape Lady and In-Shape Lady.

Well, Diana and I were walking and we were just past the middle of our second lap, and we heard a voice yell something at us, we did not understand the words, and we both asked, “What?” as I placed my hand up to cup my ear.
OSL:  Could you let us have the inside lane!
Diana:  There is no jogging on the inside lanes.  There is a big sign posted.
OSL:  We are just timing sprints!

I know she felt entitled to request this on Wednesday because they actually arrived a few minutes earlier than we did. ***Normally we are the first people on the track.  Also, OSL and ISL had not been coming for the last three weeks.  When they would go to the track, it was sporadic.  Each time though they would give us dirty looks like they could not believe  we wouldn’t move when we should know to get out of their way.  OSL would grunt at us each time she passed by us and get as close to us as she could, and half of her dirty looks were the stink-eye.  About five weeks ago (two before they took a three week break) ISL arrived after us, but still about five minutes before OSL.  She did some stretches and then decided she would go over and read the posted track rules.  She no longer gave us dirty looks or tried to make us uncomfortable with her body language.  In fact, she would even politely greet us. It is amazing what knowing the rules can do. Here is a picture of the sign posted:

Back to the story:  if it were up to mee alone, we would have stayed put and continued walking in the inside lanes.  However, Diana is a good person.  She suggested to mee that we go ahead and allow them to jog (or sprint jog) in the inside lane.  I didn’t want to.  Because I am stubborn and it is a posted rule.  Diana however, saw a potential lesson in it for OSL if we gave her the lanes after pointing out the rule.  So we moved to a couple outer lanes.

The next time our paths crossed (we were walking the opposite direction from the one they were jogging) OSL yelled out “Thank you!”  We chose not to respond, for a couple reasons. First being that by that point I was ****starting to feel a bit snarky, and my reply would not have been very polite.  Second, I was not about to allow her to think I in any way approved of her actions.  Thirdly, I did not want to give her the validation.  This seemed to bother her, because the following time we crossed paths, she tried to thank us with more explanation as to why she was entitled to do what she wants.

If the rules were not posted (and if it was not common knowledge that joggers/runners leave the inside lanes for walkers on a track), and if she had not been giving us the stink-eye through out each encounter thus far in the summer…maybe, just maybe it would not bug mee so much.  I think it would still bug mee, just not as much.

The other part of her *****sense of entitlement that really gets to mee is that she totally seems to think that she is so much more important and that it is okay for her to break the rules.  And that she thinks nothing of requesting us (not a “please” escaped her mouth) to allow her to break the rules.  And did she even consider our wanting to keep track of how far we walk?  Why does she think we use the track, and everyday the same lanes?  Does it not occur to her that we want to walk a certain distance, and by making us switch lanes mid walk, we no longer have an accurate measuring of the distance?

No, it does not matter to her (or any one else who lives in entitlement-land) what the needs or wants of other individuals may be.

I guess that is why I like/appreciate rules.  They are just what they claim to be.  Following rules keeps us in check, and helps us not step on others’ toes.  What a less thoughtless world this would be (or at least appear to be) if we would all follow the rules out there, and stop looking for ways that they apply to everyone but ourselves.

Jacob suggested that perhaps she may be the bumper sticker driver from here.

* School starts this next week, and we don’t want to have to get up as early as we would have to in order to be off the track so as to not be there after the school day has begun (last year we did it), so we will have to move our walking to the university track, or walk laps around the town square.

** This reference is only to her inability to breathe as she runs/jogs.  She is a fairly small person, she just breathes really hard as she goes around the track, and looks as if she will pass out from exhaustion, doubled over at the end of each lap.  She might be able to breathe better if she would just drink some water and get her mouth/throat wet.

***While some days there may be other individuals who arrive earlier than us, we have always been there earlier than these two.

**** Oh we all know I was snarky feeling as soon as she demanded we give her permission to break the rules.

*****Really any person’s sense of entitlement bugs mee.  You don’t get things just because.  You can’t go around demanding things and still have friends (at least not friends that like you).

You can’t really see it in this picture, but I am wearing my rubber chicken earrings.

FAQs

Q:  How are you feeling?

A:  Hungry.  Tired.  Gotta pee.  So mostly good!  (However, not as tired as I once was.)

Q:  How many weeks are you?

A:  Today marks 24 weeks (LMP) however, gestationally 22 weeks.  It is weird, and can be confusing.  LMP stands for last menstrual period.  Ovulation, and therefore conception does not occur for (an average of) two weeks after that.  So while we are told that we are at 24 weeks, Copyright has only been in there for 22 weeks.

Q:  Have you felt the baby move/kick?

A:  Yes, yes I have.  I thought I was feeling something for a while, and then because I have never been through this before, I was doubting what I was feeling.  And then what I felt was more obvious at 21 1/2 weeks.  A few days later I was trying to hear for a heart beat with the stethoscope, and must have been crowding little Copyright, because there was a strong movement that pushed the stethoscope over.  A week later I was able to place Jacob’s hand on my abdomen and He was able to feel baby movements.  There have been stronger and more movements in the short weeks that followed.  When I lay down, we can see movements with our eyes.  We try to use the stethoscope to listen for the heartbeat, but we are not as skilled at that.  We do have a thing-basically an electronic stethoscope-and we heard the “whooshing” that is Copyright’s heart and last night I decided that we should try again, and we heard the heartbeat pretty strongly.  This time it was more like the thumping of my heart, and less like the whooshing from before, however we know it was not mine, because we could still hear my heartbeat as well.  So that was pretty neat.

Q:  Why do you call the baby Copyright 2010?

A:  Well, this baby is uniquely made from us, and so the “copyright” part.  And this baby was started and will be born in 2010.  And we felt that we wanted a “name” so we are not always calling the baby “the baby” or “it” or “he or she.”

Q:  How many are in there?

A:  We are assuming there is only one in there.  We will find out for sure next week.  This is also the appointment that we will learn if we are getting a he or a she.  Also, the dreaded glucose testing appointment.

So here are some pictures, mostly for my own documenting purposes.  And some of you don’t see mee very often, and for those that have been around for the gradual changes, here is a more distinct view.

On 14 April 2010 I decided I would take a few pictures before I started growing my belly very much.  At that time I was only 7 weeks (lmp) along and was not close to showing outwardly what was happening inwardly.

These next two are blurry, I was not really very focused myself when I took them.  I felt kind of silly since there was no progress to record. But the first here is the most side-ways shot I got.  The second I just felt good in that one since I had not really gotten a shot of how I looked after losing all that weight last year.

I had this grand idea to take a picture once a week and then I could compare week to week.  If I had started it four weeks earlier (we knew close to the day that Copyright came to be) I might have really tried to stick to the plan.  But I had not been taking weekly pictures, and life got a little crazy.  And I figured that I would start to take pictures when I started to notice a difference, the next thing I know I was hanging out with some family and one of the nieces was leaning her head into mee and I looked down and did not see her head.  It occurred to mee in that moment, I missed the point when I started showing (I did take a picture of that view, though I have to search through lots of pictures to find it to post).

The next picture shoot I did was this afternoon.  16 weeks later.  What a slacker (in pictures, I have been sewing and doing other stuff like crazy).  The next picture is a side by side of “7 weeks” and “23 weeks” in the same clothes.

Now for more comfortable clothes.

And lest anyone think I am not excited (cause really it is fun to see the belly grow-in this way).

Frizzy hair and all-I know many of you think it is because of the humidity, it is not so with my hair.  My hair does well in humidity, my hair gets frizzy when the air is dry-the air-conditioner is on and I had been in that all day.

They arrived and I showed them where to find the toy box in this house, and we had our was-a-stove-box-converted-house ready for them to play in.  G3 said, “We love ours house in yours house, Marcia!”  Yay a successful play-house.

Here is a picture of them playing with the toys from the toy box, the hand-cuffs are from our Halloween costumes when we were prisoners.  (We keep the other set out of reach of children, thank you very much.)  At some point during this playtime, G2 told us, “Daddy smokes.  I like him smoking.”  Her daddy does not smoke.

First item on the schedule was to get in the car and travel to a drum corps show.  G3 fell asleep in the car before we left town.

G2 said, “I am not going to sleep, I want to be awake.”  I told her that was fine.

Then not ten minutes later she did not answer when I asked her a question, and this is what I saw.

It was raining when we got to the show location, and we were hoping that it would have stopped, so while the girls and I sat in the car and ate the food we brought, Jacob went to see if the show was going to be cancelled or moved indoors.  (We had already purchased our tickets.)  The answer was that it looked like the rain would stop soon, and we would wait and the show would just be delayed a bit.  So, we went in and waited under the shelter of the bleachers.  We had to entertain ourselves.  Only when making this post did I notice the sunglasses; I did not see them like that when this was taken.

G3 helped G2 fix her skirt (which is a very cute skirt, btw).

They found drips coming from empty rivet holes.

G3 wanted her picture taken too.  And just so you know, that is not a tear under her eye, it is a water drop.

Here is G3 sitting on Jacob’s lap watching the show.

Here is G2 sitting on my lap watching the show.  After a while, she wanted to switch places with G3 because 1) the guy in front of us was very VERY tall and 2) my lap was/is not as big as it used to be, she had to share with her unborn cousin.

Here is a picture of the first corps that performed.  They won their category/class.  And as a special treat that guy there in the front ensemble is/was one of Jacob’s pitt students.  We are proud of Jason, he played good.

We enjoyed this pretty sunset over the performances. ( I just realized that could mean that we preferred the sunset, that is not what I intended to say.)

We had arrived right as the show was supposed to start, and we could not see the corps busses.  We had brought a lot of fruit with us to donate to Jason’s corps and we did not want to take all that fruit home with us, lest it go to waste.  So when the shows were all done we drove around and found where the corps buses were parked, and Jacob went in search of someone we could give the fruit to.  This was after 10 pm and the girls were tired, but very well behaved.  In fact, all the people that were sitting around us were very complimentary of how well they behaved and were impressed that they watched the shows.  G2 at one point told mee that one of the corps was going too slow and needed to be faster and louder.  Both girls were in awe of the flags (color guard).  If there had been any souvenir flags they would have been able to go home with their very own flags.  Fruit delivered, and we started our two-ish hour drive home.  They fell asleep in the car pretty quickly.

The next morning while I was walking (the girls were still asleep when I left, but insisted that they go walk with mee the next morning) Jacob got pancakes going.  After breakfast, the girls took a BUBBLE BATH in my “tiny tub.”

While they were in the tub, their happy-things took a bath too.  A very much so needed bath.  Don’t tell Ronda that I let them have Happys with them at the drum corps show, but I did and they dropped them a number of times in the rain puddles, and may or may not have dropped them on the floor in the (public) bathroom when they took turns before getting back in the car to head home.  Once it was clean, G3 told mee that she was unable to chew on her happy because it was clean.  She makes me laugh!

After the bath they wanted to watch a movie in “ours house in yours house.” (Jacob thinks it is funny that the first thing they did when they started playing with the house was to find the object that was too big and try to get it in the door!  We all do it at least once with our own homes, right?)

What did they watch?  “Mahana you ugly, get down from that tree!”  “Do you want Johnny Lingo to see what a disobedient daughter you are?”

They watched all but the last 3ish minutes of the movie.  Then on to another activity.

I let them paint their own nails with what ever color(s) they wanted.  They had fun. G3, “Boys can’t paint theirs nails!”

G3 first picture, G2 second picture.  (In case you couldn’t have figured it out by the colors they chose.)  I offered to paint G2’s right thumb nail, but she insisted she did not want that one painted. Well, okay then.

Lunch time, they asked if I would make them oatmeal, because G3 told mee, “Oatmeal is ours favorite food.”

G2 had her apple slices and cheese all lined up-I suspect we are related.

G2 right at the end of lunch told mee, “Marcia, I am tired, I want to lay down.”  I gave her permission, and G3 followed her in and five minutes or so later they were out.  About three and a half hours later they were still sleeping, and this is what we saw.

Somehow G2 turned into Dora.  They slept for about four hours and 15-30 minutes.  I guess we did a good job of keeping them entertained.   When they woke up they stayed in there talking for a few minutes and then came out and asked if they could have another bubble bath!  I would have let them if we weren’t headed out the door.  We went over to Jacob’s parents’ house and they had a lot of fun pillow fighting with the adults.  I wish I had taken pictures of that, or even video would have been great!

They went to bed, and before falling asleep double checked with mee that they can walk with mee in the morning with my friend, right?

They walked a mile with us before sitting on the track playing.

I let them take another bubble bath.  They loved that, maybe for a birthday or something they need bubble bath soap.  While making stacks of toys that I let them use in the tub, I heard G2 say to G3, “G3 do you know I love you, you is my best friend.  Don’t put that on mine!”  They got out of the tub just in time to start playing when Grammy, Ronda, G1, and G4 arrived to pick them up.  We all had lunch and then they went on their way.

We really had fun having the girls here, maybe it can become a sort of tradition?  What think you?

Monday the 14th of June (Miss Emily’s birthday) we closed circa 2:45pm (when all was signed and done).  We walked straight over to the post office to mail out our “address change” cards to many people.  This is why we asked for any addresses if people wanted one….  This is what it looks like:

Okay, so it looked a bit different, because on what we mailed out had our actual address.  However as previously stated, we are not posting our address on here.  If you need/want our address, we can email it to you, but only if you ask, otherwise we don’t know we need to get it to you, and if we do not have your address you are responsible for getting it to us.

And for those who were/are unaware that there is a second page to the card, this is what it contains (unaltered):

So there you have it folks!!!  We are very excited and (as one of us likes to put it ) “a little bit terrified.”

It was kind of a sneaky maneuver to announce our news this way.  Especially since I (Marcia) went camping with our young women for the rest of the week.  We acknowledge that.   We had good reason for it though.  Originally we had set the closing date for when I was going to be camping, as soon as we realized that, we changed it for the day before I left.  We also wanted to be sure that we had everything finished with purchasing the house before we announced the pending arrival of Copyright 2010.  (And just because I want to explain my taking so long in making this post) We have been packing/unpacking/moving/cleaning/etc for the last half of June, and only this morning did we finally get around to setting up my computer.  There, I said it, and I feel justified!  And I am pregnant, so don’t make mee cry.

? ? ? F A Q ? ? ?

We get asked many questions with both of these big events happening in our lives.  We have decided to do an FAQ (frequently asked questions) list:

Q:  When are you going to move?

A:  We have moved all of our belongings out of the house we rented and into our new house.  We had our family help us.  This process was started while I was at camp.  I thought that was good timing, and because I have not been too incredibly useful, I figured it would work out better if I could just pack and have as much ready before hand and let them work while I was out of town.

Q:  Are you all moved in?

A:  That is a tricky question.  All of our stuff is in the house, however much of it is still in boxes.  We have been sleeping here and unpacking.  I would not say we are “moved in” yet, I am not sure what the true definition would be for us to be in that state.  Though because most of the boxes are in Copyright’s room, we have to be un-packed enough by the time December comes around.

Q:  When can I come see your house?

A:  Never, the date is past.  We held an Open “empty” House the evening we closed.  So I am partly kidding about the “never” part.  We will not be holding another “open house” and we do request that if people want to come see it, that they set up an appointment (I hate the Tuesdays), so as to allow us to be home, and hopefully a little more moved in. We are after all living here now.  Be considerate about it.

Q:  How much work do you have to do on the house? (Also stated as:  now you get to have fun fixing up the house)

A:  Actually we don’t have to do any work on the house other than unpacking.  We did have to get a fridge, stove, washer/dryer, and that is about it.  The good people we bought it from gutted the house and made it like new with new cabinets, paint, toilets, roof, plumbing, wiring, everything really!  We did get to pick out the carpet for the living room and flooring for the kitchen and bathroom.

That said, there is a detached garage with apartment space above it that needs quite a bit of work before it’s really useful, so that will be fun, but it isn’t something we have to do before we can live here.

Q: Did you buy the house because you are having a baby?

A:  No we are having a baby because we now have a house.  Joking.  We pretty much decided to buy the house before we knew about being pregnant.  This is a house we saw about a year and a half ago when it was in foreclosure, we loved it, we talked to the bank about making an offer.  Then we were told some one else made an offer and that offer was accepted.  Some months later (just over a year ago) we were presented with the opportunity to buy the same house, and it had been “gutted” and was in progress of being fixed up (when it was in foreclosure, the people trashed the house, on top of apparently not taking good care of it at all anyhow).  We thought it over and agonized and had to turn down that offer.  We did not feel like we could live in a “construction zone.”  Earlier this year as Jacob was at the university in his office, he had a visitor and we were again offered the house, this time all the work would be finished and it would be move-in ready.  We verbally expressed interest February, talked over details in March, signed a contract in April, and closed in June.  We knew about the baby in March and test confirmed in April.

Q:  I thought you never wanted to have children. (not really a question, and mostly directed at Jacob)

A:  All bark and no bite.  He claimed that until it happened he reserved the right to say that.  In reality, we are very excited.  And of course there is a bit of anxiety in the unknown.  Will our baby be cute?  Who will the baby look like?  When do they toilet train?  They don’t already know how to tie shoes?  Things like that.  However any person that said that to mee, doesn’t really know mee.

Q:  When is the due date?

A:  December 2010.  Doctor’s office says the 7^th based on LMP. I say the 6^th based on ovulation.

Q:  Is that a really sonogram or is it photoshopped?

A:  It is really a picture from my uterus.  Should it really be called a picture, it is an image created by sound waves aimed at my uterus.

Q:  Are you having a boy or a girl?

A:  We don’t know for sure.  Based on biology and time and the moon and the stars aligning and the atmospheric pressure we suspect it will be a girl.  However we have to wait about ten more weeks before my doctor will check it out.

Q:  What do you want to have? (generally this immediately follows the last question)

A:  A healthy human baby.  I know they mean sex of the baby.  Really though, I will be happy as long as everything goes well.  I would love a son or a daughter. I would definitely be disappointed if it was not human.

Q:  Do you want to find out the sex of the baby? (a number of people say gender, however there is a very important difference in the words, and for some odd reason it falls under my pet peeves category-sex is male or female, gender is masculine or feminine)

A:  I would be okay with either knowing or being surprised, a surprise could be fun, though so could knowing and planning.  Jacob wants to know.  We will find out if we can.  We really are planners and like to be prepared.

Q:  Have you been sick at all? (directed at mee since no one suspected, except in hindsight, and we only told doctors and we were surprised at how people had finally stopped asking when we were going to have a baby)

A:  Jacob responds with, “Have you not been sick at all?”  I have had lots of not feeling well.  I did really well with not vomiting, though there was lots of nausea, still is some, though not as constant.  Then I got a sinus infection, drainage started and the vomiting commenced.  I could probably win a contest for puking on command.  Is there a super hero yet?

Q:  Have you had any cravings?

A:  Hmmm, cravings….  Not too many cravings.  Mostly I have aversions.  Sugar is the biggest offender at this time, unless it is counter balanced with other healthier foods.  I can’t eat lettuce, and the vinegar in most condiments gives me issue.  Yesterday I really wanted garlic bread, it was delicious to mee.  One day I wanted potato chips (I don’t like potato chips, I like corn chips) in three flavors BBQ, Cheddar, French Onion;  I did not get them, but I could taste them in my mind, and I wanted them.  Early on I had a strong craving for Chef  Boyardee canned ravioli;  that stuff is nasty and I refused to listen to that craving.

Q:  Are you (or “you are”) going to have fun shopping for maternity clothes?

A:  If I liked shopping maybe that would be appealing.  However I am short and it has never been fun to shop for clothes, for mee.  Also, last year I lost over 60 pounds, and I did not get rid of those clothes (I know you are never supposed to keep “fat clothes” but I did).  And there were some of those clothes that I like, and frankly I don’t want to spend money on temporary clothes.  And there is the fact that we now have a mortgage to pay, and I don’t think there is a shopping spree in the future of our budget.

If we remember (or any other questions start to come up) other questions we get asked we will answer them.

Karen (Jacob’s mom) had a catering gig for our friend Jennie’s wedding.  She enlisted Jacob and mee to help.  As I was working on part of the dessert selections, the non-stick pan slipped out of my hand and we lost most of that pan, if not all.  We did have fun though.  And next month they will have been married for two whole years!

Speaking of two whole years, today Giuliana Marie turns two!! Wow time flies.  I sure do love that little girl.

Second, or is it third, my face is good.  I no longer hurt.  Maybe we did not need to go to the ER afterall, but I am glad we did  go and find out nothing was wrong, because in all seriousness I was scared and I was in a lot of pain at the time.  And I was mailed a survey on how my ER visit was, I will be sure to fill it out.  Overall it was a good experience, my only complaint is that I did not understand the pain ranking system.

Fourth, Girls camp is coming up in a few weeks.  I (we, but not Jacob) have been working like crazy to get all the fun surprises finished.  We like to have surprises for the girls, and so that he does not have to “lie” we often don’t even tell Jacob what we are up to.  We love the week with our Young Women.

Fifth, Jacob is enrolled in a race this afternoon/evening. The race is from Wapello to Burlington (in Iowa, in case anyone wondered).  We go over and he checks in between 2-4 this afternoon, and then I will drive to Burlington and hang out (with people or at Target or both or a park), hopefully find the ending point, and watch my talented husband finish the race.  Kind of short notice, though if any one wants to join mee as I wait, let mee know!

P.S. I am not sure when I will post a new quiz, it seems that there is less and less interest in it.  Rick wins by default since he is the only one that guessed this last time, and it was up for almost 2 months, so rick here is your imaginarey gold star, or if you come hang with mee this afternoon I can give you a real one!  Or maybe he is just hoping for the prize that we are offering to the 1000th commenter on this here website.

P.P.S.  Many of you know we are trying to secure a mortgage for a house we love.  If we happen to secure it, we intend to close on it in the middle of next month.  With said plan, we will have a new address and will want to mail out address changes, as we plan to not to post our address on the internet.  So if you desire said address from us, please make sure I have your address to mail ours to you.  Plus who doesn’t love getting mail. With that said if your kids like to get mail, or you like for your kids to get mail, make sure you have listed who you want it addressed to with your submission.  One entry per household please.  Submissions may be sent to marcia at twodesk dot com

Esta es una parte de la foto grande. Hay que adivinar lo que es. En una semana mas o menos regreso con la respuesta y otra foto. ¡Suerte!

This is from a marching band contest right after I chopped off my hair.  For some reason I put the bandanna on my head.  I thought I looked like a troll.

Esta es una parte de la foto grande. Hay que adivinar lo que es. En una semana mas o menos regreso con la respuesta y otra foto. ¡Suerte!

This is a sweet little boy sharing Happy with his new baby sister.  Wow, it is an “old” picture!

Esta es una parte de la foto grande. Hay que adivinar lo que es. En una semana mas o menos regreso con la respuesta y otra foto. ¡Suerte!

On December 19th, 2008 at almost two in the morning we heard a noise.  It sounded like something had fallen on the house.  We put our coats on, and went outside to see the above.

We were worried that the branch may have been too heavy to leave hanging on the cable that feeds us our internet.  We also did not like the idea that it might fall on the car.

This branch was about the diameter of a healthy cantaloupe, and was very long.  Jacob went up to it to see if he could just push it off to get it away from the wire.

Upon closer inspection, it was really really big.  He gave a few heaves, and decided it would be best to move the car out of the way so as to not allow the chance of the branch falling on the car.  So, he ice-picked his way into the car, kept the door open to see and backed the car up a ways.  He went back to the branch and gave it some good pushes.

Down it came.  You can see where the car had been.  The sound from the branch hitting the ground was loud, and the vibrations from it hit other places where ice had formed, and we heard lots of cracking and popping around us.  The best we can describe it is to say that it sounded like a battle field.  The apartments across the street had lots of ice on the roof, that (we believe) in response to the branch noise, cracked and slid off the roof into the parking lot.  We hope all the cars were ok after that.

The ice storm really was pretty to look at even though it really was not good for the trees (or likely the animal life either).  This is one of the electric lines next to our house that we saw at that time.

This is a picture taken after getting up for the day.

This fall another mouse dared to enter the house.  We set the traps again, and it was caught with-in the hour of setting.

We had one still set along the wall, just waiting in hopes that we would not catch another.

We went out of town for a week, and the trap was empty.

The temperatures dropped, a mouse came in for a snack.  It died.

We went to pick up more traps (because even though it says reusable, let’s be honest here, I am not un-clipping the mouse and using that nasty thing again!) just in case we need them.  The temperature outside keeps dropping, and I don’t want to be outside!

The price of the traps this time was $6.88, I think-once I find the receipt I will know for sure.  This evening we were at the store getting other supplies in that area of the store, and passed the traps display, and this is what I saw:

It is the original price again.  It makes me so stinking mad!!!!!

We figure that because the outside temperatures dropped, many people were having trouble with the mice coming in, and the store (or rather the people who run it) decided that they might as well make extra money off the people who already have enough problems in their lives.  And now that the traps are in less of a demand, the price has dropped back to the original rate.

Now, if I can just think of how to make this work to my advantage….  Any ideas?

Esta es una parte de la foto grande. Hay que adivinar lo que es. En una semana mas o menos regreso con la respuesta y otra foto. ¡Suerte!

On October 12th we had dinner at Jacob’s parents’ house with the missionaries, Elder Pickett and Elder Drake.  Elder Pickett is from Canada and that happens to be Canadian Thanksgiving.  So using our super internet abilities, we found his family.  Jacob called his parents and talked to his brother and his mom and asked about any traditions.  We discovered that Elder Pickett has tried many new foods on his mission. The plate above is his clean plate.

Here he is loading up his plate:

Here he is trying new foods:

He liked it so much, we sent leftovers home with him:

Sitting outside to hand out candy (what was up with only 30 minutes of trick or treating?):

And my tail closer-up (it may very well be my favorite part of the costume):

With out my snout (like when I had to get a drink or eat):

My eyes, simply because I like this picture:

The scary (lunging) monster that made a little girl cry:

It also got a “What the fff…?” by a boy about 12-13 years old, that caught himself, and then I told him he should not know that word.  And I think Loana Deveraux had to go change her drawrs after her encounter with the monster….  Here she is, or was?

Here are cookies I made using the cookie press (for the first time ever) that Jessie gave me because she never used it:

Esta es una parte de la foto grande. Hay que adivinar lo que es. En una semana mas o menos regreso con la respuesta y otra foto. ¡Suerte!

It is a driving quiz.  There are 13 questions/situations.  Feel free to answer, or to describe any other questions that you think ought to be added to this set.  I know there were 2 more, that I had trouble remembering when I was putting this together.

Please select the multiple choice answers in a comment.

(I have edited this so that each question has separate comment spots.  It occurred to me that by having all of it in one post, it makes it harder to answer, especially if you only want to answer some questions, if at all.)

Car 1 arrives at the stop sign before car 2 does:

a-car 1 should proceed after coming to a full stop so that car 2 may do the same
b-car 2 should wave car 1 through the intersection so that car 2 does not have to come to a full stop
c-car 1 should sit and wait for car 2 to go because car 2 is on the right

The protected left (also called the left turn lane, though in this case it is not only a left turn lane) turn is about to not be protected and the eastbound traffic will get a green light in less than a second:

a-the red car turning right from the south side of the intersection should turn now since the eastbound traffic will need to go soon
b-the red car turning right from the south side of the intersection should wait until the eastbound traffic has gone and it is clear to turn with out cutting off any drivers
c-the red car turning right from the south side of the intersection should roll back and forth trying to hit the sensor to turn his light green

Driving along you hear Police sirens or see Flashing lights on a police car:

a-drive faster because they are obviously headed somewhere so they will not come after you
b-hit your brakes so that you are going exactly the speed limit and continue on your merry way
c-slow down, pull over and stop so that you are out of the way of the Police vehicle

Driving along you come upon an accident with emergency vehicles flashing lights:

a-slow down and drive around the wreckage, sometimes this means taking a detour route
b-speed up and drive in the next lane to get away from the accident faster to be out of the way
c-slow down as much as possible so that your passenger can strain his neck trying to see what happened and if anyone is hurt, possibly getting footage of the scene to sell to the local news

Car on the south going straight has arrived at the intersection and a left turning car from the north is approaching:

a-north car should some to a complete stop and after the south car comes to a complete stop and then proceeds through the intersection, then the north car should proceed through the clear intersection
b-north car should speed up a bit so that it can roll through the intersection and turn to get out of the way, allowing the south car to come to a full stop
c-north car should wave his hand motioning to the south car to just roll through the intersection so that the north car does not have to come to a complete stop