Birthday!

Last night we had our good USC friend Steven over for dinner. He's from Houston, but lives far on the other side of town. He's recently been dating a young filly and we wanted to meet her. We told him that they should come to dinner sometime, so a few days ago he texted and asked if they could come Thursday night. I said yes, and then he told me that Thursday was actually his birthday. He also asked if he could bring some candy or a treat, to which I replied that I would make him a cake. I just want to record that he invited himself over to our home for his own birthday dinner. I also asked what kind of Blue Bell ice cream was his favorite and he replied, "Cookies n Cream with chocolate syrup. I'll bring the syrup."

He is such a fun guy and so down-to-earth that this request wasn't at all untoward. It did provide fodder for plenty of jokes, but they were all good-natured, of course. We had a great night and were very happy to meet his very nice lady friend. It was good to see him. He lived the bachelor's life about two blocks from us in Los Angeles so we used to have him over a lot. There is just something so fun about a student ward. Everyone is in a special stage of life and the future is open. Your dreams aren't crushed and you still have naive hope in the student world. Steven was doing his Masters in Music at USC and is a fabulous french horn player. He's still looking for a steady gig (though he has a ton of students) so we commiserated for a moment on unemployment.

On a less pleasant note, yesterday I came across a dead cockroach inside our apartment. We had never had one before and thought that being on the 3rd floor might be a bonus that way. It has been really hot and humid, though, and I wonder if that is driving them inside, or if they are flourishing more...

I wasn't too worried (I was plenty disgusted, but not worried) until this morning when we saw a giant, LIVE cockroach in the same vicinity. Luckily, Ryan was still home and he smashed it to smithereens and got cockroach juice on his fingers. Yuck. Everyone knows that one bug isn't a problem, it could have gotten lost or made a wrong turn. Two bugs means trouble, especially within such a short time span. I'm so disgusted! I pulled out the oven range and cleaned everything behind there. There was a 1/2 inch crack between the drywall and the flooring, so I suspect that is where they came from. I sprayed a bunch of roach spray. Our apartment has pest control but they just came Wednesday and they are skipping next week for the 4th of July. That means two whole weeks until they can come.  In the meantime, I'm counting down until we leave for Utah and even more determined to leave this locust-plagued land.

Girls Camp

The Young Women are at Girls Camp this week. Since the camp is run on a stake level, I just had to convince the Bishop to call a camp director and I was able to get out of attending!!! Actually, I wouldn't have minded going if I had someone (like a grandma) to watch Willa for four days. The girls slept in air conditioned cabins and had a cafeteria and swimming pool. We had a record number of girls attending this year: EIGHT!!! 

The camp is only 30 minutes away, so on the first night, they invited ward YW and RS leaders to meet up for dinner and some fun. It was good to go up and see what everyone was doing.           

Enjoying delicious dinner of cold cut sandwiches and cheetos.

Our ward name was the 'Dream Beams'. There was an Olympic theme and the name was sort of a combination of Sunbeams and Dream Team. Don't think too hard, just enjoy it, it's girls camp. They made me a camp shirt!

We really do have the most adorable first and second year girls. Who else will unashamedly tell you that they "absolutely, one hundred-percent LOVE Taylor Swift!!!!" (insert Justin Bieber, One Direction)

Big Helper

 I'm trying to take advantage of toddler "helpfulness" right now so that I can train it up for slave labor later. The extra effort now will pay off in a few years when I tell Willa to scrub the floor and make my bed while I watch my daytime television stories and eat grapes.

Here is a picture of cute Bridget, the frenemy, at our swimming pool. We have been enjoying swimming a lot lately. I tried to get a picture of the babies together, but you know, frenemies.

Summer seems to be in full swing and we are just trying to stay cool. Most mornings we try to get to a park around 8:30 or 9:00 before it gets too hot. I'm trying to squeeze in as many outside activities as possible while it's still possible. In a few weeks, I'm afraid it will be too hot to do even that. In the afternoons after naptime we go to the children's museum, run errands, swim, go to Lisa's big, toy-filled, air-conditioned house, and often buy snow cones. We're on a diligent search for more splash parks, but sadly there aren't too many close by - and nothing that has the nice padded ground.

I bought a little water table at Walmart for our balcony. It has been a GREAT distraction and Willa spends hours going in and out and playing around with it - with or without water.

I thought I'd do an update on Ryan and me - we're still the same! He has still been blessed to find temporary and contract positions most of the time. He commutes a lot and we miss him. The lack of long-term stability hangs over our heads, but we try to ignore it most of the time. Live in the moment, man! Most of the legal jobs are on the other side of town - over an hour or more of driving each way. We don't want to move down there for just a temporary job that could end anytime, so he commutes. The job search for something long-term with benefits continues. We have had a lot of family and friend support during it all, which has been very very nice.

Young Women is going so-so. I still want to be released about 90% of the time, but there are a few glimmer moments when I get to hang out with the brand new Beehives who are so excited and so fun - and that's when I think, "Oh, this is why people love working with the Young Women!" I wish I could spend all the time with them and send the problem girls to a dungeon or detention or to the principal's office - but sadly there is no principal's office at church! The problem girls are the ones who probably need the most help. I'm tryin', but the odds are looking very good that my stint as YW president will coincide with my admittance into a loony bin. We've gone from four girls to seven (and soon to be nine or ten!) so I need to start preparing a end-of-year speech to plead for a bigger slice of the budget. Any tips?

Pacifier?

Anyone need a pacifier?

'Cause I've got plenty!

Play Group

We went to a little playgroup the other day and Lisa brought her husband's REALLY nice camera. Ah, what a difference a nice camera makes. Whenever I get to wanting one too much, I just remind myself that our camera now is still a million times better than what people had 50 years ago - and somehow they all survived!

Jayden proposing to Willa, she's not impressed. They get along really well together, actually. Jayden steamrolls through everything, but he's not aggressive about it so it doesn't bother her. Willa has a frenemy named Bridget. Bridget is one month older and a lot more daring and aggressive. Whenever they get together, they glare at each other. Willa knows that Bridget is going to steal her toy. Bridget knows that she is going to get in trouble for stealing a toy - a lose lose for both of them. The nursery leaders said that whenever a baby cries in the nursery, Bridget immediately runs to the leader and says sorry - not because she has done anything, but because she's so used to making babies cry that whenever she hears it, she assumes that it must be her fault!

Not the greatest picture of me, but Willa, as usual, is adorable.

Utah - March

We don't have a lot of new things going on right now, so I thought I'd post some pictures of our quick trip to Utah back in March. My friend Shalece was getting married, so Willa and I took a quick trip home to see the wedding and visit family. It was a short trip, but very fun and busy!

Baby in the baby stroller

Out to eat at Nordstrom's - I think we paid $7 for a kids meal that ended up being Kraft Mac n Cheese

Reading and playing with Best Cousin Friend Brody, they played outside for FOUR hours!!

The Swing - Willa must have spent half of our visit in this swing. It was heaven and just out the back door!

My mom had everyone over for a pre-Easter dinner and egg hunt while we were there. It was so fun to see everyone and to join in on the party. Here are all the cousins, with Willa trying to make a quick escape. I do also want to note that Uncle Chris's baby whispering is just as effective as usual. After a few well-placed tickles and games, he was able to scoop her up without a cry and she just stayed in his arms!

The highlight of the trip for Willa (and me) was definitely the backyard! She didn't know what to do with herself - it was like having a park just outside the door! The first thing she did in the morning was run to the back door and try to open it. It was also the last thing she tried to do in the evening. I went to get her toothbrush and came back to find Grandpa pushing her in the swing in her pajamas. She wanted to go out ALL.THE.TIME and then she would ride in that swing over and over again. She has always been an easy baby, but she was SO easy on this trip because there was so much space to play and play inside or outside without getting bored. She would just go and go for hours. It made me realize how much easier some things would be in a house with a yard. It was so fun to see everyone. Ryan's brother Robert and his wife even made it out for a visit! We can't wait to go back for a longer trip in July.

Netflix: Must-see Misses

Basically the only television Ryan and I watch is Netflix streaming. The one exception being NBC's Thursday night comedy line-up. As some know, there are a lot of terrible movies that you have to sort through to find something decent to watch. Sometimes, it's just easier to pick a terrible movie and enjoy it for what it is, rather than searching and searching and searching for something better. After a particularly fantastic one last night, I thought maybe I would occasionally share these Netflix "gems" in case anyone  has troubles filling their Instant Queue.

For the weekend, I have two great movies reviews for you.

Last week we watched Roller Boogie. A rich Beverly Hills girl defies her uptight parents by taking rollerskating lessons down in Venice Beach! Skaters band together to keep their roller disco open! If that description doesn't grab your attention, how about this catchphrase from the trailer: "He's the best skate in town, she's the hottest babe in town. Together, they're love on wheels."

The best part of this movie was seeing all the rollerskating on Venice Beach. Where beach cruisers now are, roller skates once were, a little bit of Angeleno history. According to Wikipedia, this was the "height of the quad rollerskating fad" (who knew?). If this trailer doesn't get you, I don't know what will.

The second film is called Blood and Chocolate and is a little more contemporary - filmed in 2007. I don't quite have the words to explain this movie, so I will reprint the Netflix description.


"After moving from America to Bucharest, Romania, a teenage werewolf finds herself torn between loyalty and love when she falls for a human and incurs the ire of the pack leader -- who's planning to make her his mate."


Okay, so that give you an idea about this movie. I was expecting a campy, tweeny-type movie. Maybe something for the Disney channel, starring Selena Gomez or Demi Lovato opposite Justin Bieber in high school. Definitely something with some sugar coating. Oh no, this movie was deadly serious. It was obvious that they had high ideals and wanted to really change the world with all the platitudes they threw in.


Ryan and I were both really grateful that the main love interest (an artist) has a line in the beginning of the movie telling us that his father was an Army Ranger who made sure he (the main love interest) knew how to defend himself. It makes it all the more believable when the artist is able to successfully take on a pack of werewolves with his skinny noodle arms and Bohemian/Hipster style.  (I know there is a split-infinitive in there, but I believe that English allows split infinitives. It is only our forced melding of Latin grammar on this Germanic language that decries it.)


The other highlight for me was watching them transform into werewolves. It was the combination of beautiful swan dive and the Aurora Borealis emanating from the middle of their bodies that makes the whole process wildly beautiful (as only werewolves can be). 


Here is the trailer. You can see that the movie, with its Romanian setting, is deadly serious. It's a bit long, but about 3/4 of the way through you are able to see some of the fantastic morphing which I described above.

I hope you take time to put these movies on your Netflix Queue. They were such gems, it didn't feel right that I shouldn't let others know about them.