Growing

This past week or so has not felt like February. It has felt like Spring!!! The snow is mostly melted, and it rains often enough to leave a fresh, damp smell in the air. One crocus near my front door has already bloomed, and all over my yard, little bulbs are starting to come up.
Shameless plug: If this sounds like your ideal yard/garden/cottage home, we are moving in June. Let me know if you'd like to live there!
One of my favorite parts about my yard is that I have space to grow a garden. Most years my staple crops are tomatoes and zucchini, but this year I am moving before summer hits, so I won't be around long enough to grow them.
HOWEVER
I have all these seeds that say on the packet, "Plant as soon as soil is workable." Usually I don't plant these early enough, and they struggle to grow as the weather turns hot. Just Tuesday, though, I went out and planted a row of snow peas, carrots (keeping my fingers crossed... haven't had ANY luck with those for the last 2 years), spinach, onions, lettuce, and beets. If my timing works out, we should be able to have fresh vegetables for at least a month before we move. If there are still leftovers, those will be left to the next family that rents our beautiful cottage.
One fun story: Instead of just burying seeds in the dirt, I shoveled (using my legs, not my back) some compost and worked it into the soil. Then I knelt down to plant seeds, unwittingly smearing a rotten tomato down the leg of my pants from the knee to the ankle. And they are my only pair of maternity pants that fit.
Let's hear it for dresses!

Recommendation

A few weeks ago we went to visit Heidi and her family (happy birthday, Heidi, btw). While we were there, since it was snowing and the roads were icy, a neighbor of theirs backed into our car. It wasn't life-threatening damage, just a dent that went across both driver's side doors.
Now, 3 weeks later, we finally got it fixed. I'm really happy about it, though, because not only did the collision repair place fix those doors, but they also fixed our bumper (which was somehow slowly coming off), AND cleaned and detailed the entire car. In the summer, I'll occasionally take the vacuum outside and go to town on the inside of my car. And occasionally I'll take the hose to it and wash the outside. But in the winter this never happens, so you can imagine what it was starting to look-- and smell-- like.
Well, the repair guys gave it back spotless! Even a streak of sap that I'd tried 3 or 4 times to wash off-- it's gone too! There's no dust anywhere on the inside, much less a pile of sand under the gas pedal. There are no crumbs, no spills, and no toe prints on the windshield.
I highly recommend having someone dent your car occasionally.

Wordle

Thanks to my friend D'Nell, I have made this lovely wordle on www.wordle.net. I tried to post it yesterday but wasn't able (or motivated) to make it work.
The bigger the word is, the more often it appears on your blog. Apparently I write a lot about books. :)
This just made me happy, and I thought I'd share.

For real this time

Ok, so today after work I flopped down onto my bed to relax and unwind, when bonk! I feel a little kick in my belly! I was pretty sure of what I felt, but I put my hand on it just to check, and bonk again! It was like someone had tried to poke me with their knuckle through my belly. I was so excited!!
I've actually felt something moving in there since Saturday, but this was the first VERY distinct kick that I actually felt from the outside.
I still have these constant fears that I'll just start bleeding one day and miscarry yet again. And maybe for that reason I haven't really felt that excited and haven't let it sink in that there's actually a baby in there. But today I was really happy and really excited. Maybe this one will actually make it!

Wings

My parents were big Paul and Linda McCartney fans, and the album we had was called Wings Across America. But that is not what I'm talking about here.
But it's a great album.
Ahem, what I'm talking about is the book, Wings.
One day a couple years ago, Kevin came home from school and told me that the wife of one of his friends had just published a book. I thought that was really awesome, since I have decided that writing a book is on my list of Things I Want To Do Before I Die. I'm always impressed when people write, finish, edit, and then actually publish books. My dad wrote a couple books when I was little, which he self-published. A neighbor in our ward at home published a book through like Deseret Book or Covenant press or something. I eventually found out that Aprilynne's book is being published through Harper Teen-- in New York City!
I am quite impressed.
We've had dinner with the Pikes a few times, and they are both brilliant, funny, fascinating people. I'm really excited to read her book that actually got published, especially after hearing about all the fun stuff she's gotten to do (like book tours and meeting the editing/publishing/marketing team who's working on her book) as her book gets published.
I guess that "having your book published" doesn't instantly equate to "seeing your book on the shelf." I guess it's more like giving birth to an elephant: you find out you're expecting a book, and then you get to edit and finalize stuff for a year or so. Eventually they give you a look at your cover, which is probably exciting like finding out if your elephant is a baby boy or a baby girl elephant.
Another exciting milestone is when they release your ARCs (Advanced Reader's Copies). Those are paperback early-release versions they give out... well, early.
And the reason I'm bringing this up today is that Aprilynne is having a give-away on her blog. A give-away of a few of her ARCs!!
So go enter the contest!
It's a book I've been looking forward to for a long time, and while I feel selfish entering the contest solely to win, I would feel better if you all entered it too! Then when you win it, you can let me read it after you....
And I also just wanted to share the exciting news that my friend's book is published! Yay!

25 Things

Woo hoo! I know I'm probably the last one in the entire world, but I JUST GOT TAGGED for this 25 random things about you, from Facebook. Thanks Sarah!
And since you all know the deal, and since I love writing about myself, I'll just write the silly things without copying the "instructions."
1. I have an incredible memory. I remember people's names, clear details from events long past, and directions on how to get places. And once they're in my brain, they're pretty much there for good. However, I can rewatch shows and reread books ad infinum, because somehow I never remember how they end. And tell me an amount or a number, and you might have well just shouted out Sebastian's mother's name from the Neverending Story-- I won't comprehend or remember it at all.
2. I don't like ice cream.
3. In high school I wore tapered jeans and oversized T-shirts basically every single day. And I still had friends.
4. I used to think my only talent was playing the piano. Then I learned Chinese. Now I can do that too!
5. I've been pregnant 5 times. Apparently it's also one of my talents.
6. I make really really good chicken enchiladas, chocolate chip cookies, brownie trifle (a.k.a. the Yumminess), and Chinese dumplings. When I cook, it's usually pretty good.
7. I'm about as white as they come. However, nowadays about half my family is Chinese.
8. In high school, the jazz band would put on a "Senior Senior Prom" for the elderly folks in town. After a couple years of this, the Senior Center decided to offer dance classes to the teenagers in town. So I spent usually an evening per week (2 in the summers) dancing the foxtrot, swing, tango, waltz, etc, with my friends' grandparents. It was so much fun!
9. In high school, Heidi McLean and I looked exactly the same. We both were in colorguard together, had the same piano teacher, went to the senior center dance classes, and went to church activities together. I'm surprised there was anyone who COULD tell us apart!
10. I broke my leg in China. I was supposed to be teaching English songs to my students, but instead we decided to go play basketball as a class. Oops. I landed on my ankle wrong and broke my fibula (fei gu in Chinese). There was no ice, so my friends bought me some popsicles to put on my leg. I went to the doctor, who put a huge plaster cast on it, squeezed my bones back into place, and sent me home. A week later my friends found me some crutches and I could get out of bed.
11. I met my husband in Nanjing, China, on study abroad. He gave me mono. :)
12. I've lived in China 3 times. Therefore I've eaten squid, donkey, camel's foot, dog, little birdies, jellyfish, sharkfin, frog stomachs.... pretty much the whole zoo.
13. I really like dog. But I hate dogs. Go ahead, judge me. :)
14. I have this current obsession with Disneyland. For the last year or so, I've just had this urgent desire to go, but there hasn't been a good time. I've had dreams about it on more than one occasion.
15. I made a blanket for my brother-in-law and his wife for Christmas. It wasn't done, so I didn't give it to them. It still isn't done. It's not like I can give it to them in the summer, so I need to get cracking.
16. Last week I cut my own hair. I just took the sewing scissors and started chopping. Good thing choppy layers are kind of in style these days....
17. It is against my personal religion/system of beliefs to buy ANYTHING in the movie theatre snack bar. There's a special circle of Hell reserved for charging that much of a markup. However, I have no qualms about sneaking stuff in. I'm not sure how that fits into my actual religious beliefs that include honesty.... Usually I just eat before going in, and that's perfectly honest.
18. My jacket pocket is coated in BBQ sauce from sneaking a BBQ sandwich into the movie theatre last week. That wasn't (exactly) dishonesty, though. That was just plans and timing gone wrong. We would have finished them before the movie... but we didn't.
19. I really like editing. For a while I did it as a job, but it's not so fun when you're editing 40-page technical reports on planning urban transportation systems or some new genetic abnormality found in zebrafish. Blah! But at my job now, I get to grade essays and then conference with the student about what they did well or what could make it better. I love it!
20. One of my more embarassing moments: I substituted for the early-morning seminary teacher when I lived in Beijing. On my first day, it was spirit week at their high school, and many of the students had dressed up for nerd day, some of them really getting into it! One of the girls had gone all-out, and I pointed out for everyone to notice, "Look, Chelsea did a great job! She even brought her sewing! What a nerd! Hee hee hee." The class just kind of looked at me, then someone told me, "No, she just likes to sew during seminary."
21. Sewing is my nerdy hobby. I love it!
22. Actually, I have several nerdy hobbies, including watching Star Trek The Next Generation (which I own on DVD).
23. I don't like potatoes, especially when they still have their potato-ey texture. I can't stand it when you go to events where they serve dinner and it turns out to be a potato bar. Blechhh!!! But I do like French Fries and tater tots.
24. I know all the words to Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen.
25. We have this painting on our wall of a Chinese poem written in beautiful calligraphy. We got it for our wedding, and Kevin explained to me how the guy who made it is one of the few people that can still do that type of calligraphy. It's all squiggly and stylized. Oh, a few months later, Kevin was pointing it out to a neighbor and told him how each stroke of each character is a small bird. Um... it had been on our wall for months, and I had never noticed!

Little kicks

So last night I spent most of the evening lying on the couch reading The Mirror Crack'd by Agatha Christie. I actually really like her books (all two of them that I've read). She takes you through all the mystery clues in great depth, and the whole time, I was like, "No, that's too obvious," or, "Well, that's random fluffy details that won't come in handy later." And then I love being proved wrong at the end. The answer was there for me to find all along, but I did not figure it out.
So anyway, it was a beautiful evening. I lay on the couch with Toby on my lap, reading my fun and exciting book. I felt warm, peaceful, and very content. Then all of a sudden, I feel a very distinct nudge in my belly. It was right in the spot where they always hear the baby's heartbeat, so I lay still and put my book down, waiting for it to happen again. And it did! I was so excited!!! I got to feel my baby's first kicks!!!!
I pushed Toby out of the way, only to realize that those distinct kickish nudges were, in fact, Toby's knee nudging my baby, right where they always find the baby's heartbeat.
Oh well.
Maybe the baby was excited to feel a kick from Toby.

Ugh! This shirt makes me look pregnant!

So I'm finally at the point where even my stretchiest normal clothes look a bit strained when I wear them. I've been... growing.
I have maternity clothes. However, when I chose them, I was not very large yet, and I'd usually shove my coat into my clothes while trying them on in the dressing room. This means that once I'm big enough that people are thinking I'm giving birth to a large down parka, I will have plenty of clothes.
However, right now that I'm in the "is she pregnant or just fat in an awkward way?" phase, I'm right in between my normal and maternity clothes.
I've bought a few shirts, but in every store I go to, I find that all the maternity shirts are of the short-sleeved variety. What, do they think my metabolism is running so fast I'm burning up? Not yet, pal. I'm always cold, especially when it is snowing outside and *somebody* (me) refuses to turn the heater up past 67. (Whatever. It's 2 degrees higher than last winter.)
Anyway... after going shopping last night to two stores carrying nothing but short sleeved maternity shirts, I had an epiphany: How many times have I tried clothes on and said, "Ugh! This shirt makes me look pregnant!"
I dug through the clearance section, and ta-daa! I bought one of those!

From "The Mirror Crack'd" by Agatha Christie

"Still, in my experience, bossy women seldom get themselves murdered. I can't think why not. When you come to think of it, it's rather a pity."

News

I have been watching the news and reading the newspaper. Apparently MLB player Alex Rodriguez has been using illegal performance-enhancing drugs like steroids.
I. am. SHOCKED.
On to actual news: The cool building in Beijing that was going to be part of the CCTV headquarters burned down. Lame. That was going to be one of the coolest buildings EVER.

In which my cats are again compared to children... of the very cutest sort

Drying sheets in the dryer doesn't work so well. The get tossed and spun so they turn into a clump, and that clump never dries. So I've learned that it's faster and all around better just to hang them up. This way the wrinkles come out, they dry quickly, and I save oodles of electricity.
But it's raining today.
Have no fear, I will just drape them over some chairs in our living room.
Before the first sheet has even settled completely, Howie was underneath it pretending it is his fort.
I can hardly wait to play forts with my kids. :)

If you're a regular, compulsive blog-checker, you may have noticed that I briefly used a blog format from thecutestblogontheblock.com. Then I got this helpful email:

Chelsea,
I went to your blog, and the color scheme looks like the inside of a cow's stomach. That's the good news. The bad news is that with my red-green color problem, I can't read it.
Just thought you might want to know.
Daddy

So I changed it.
Nice to know my parents support me in my endeavors! :)

And I went to see Tale of Despereaux tonight at the dollar theatre. I thought it was pretty mediocre. No, that's not true. I thought Ratatouille was mediocre, and this one was long, random, and boring in comparison. Almost worth the dollar I paid for it.
Also, we met up with Sarah and Dave beforehand to eat dinner. Kevin and I picked up dinner (BBQ sandwiches), and they got the tickets. It was pretty busy, so Dave went in to save seats. This left us with the dilemma of how to get the BBQ sandwiches to the right people. Kevin ate most of his before we went in, so we just waited for him to finish. Sarah put hers and Dave's (along with their sodas) into her mega-large purse, and I shoved mine into my pocket. Just like Napoleon Dynamite.
Hmmm... maybe I should steer clear of stories that end with "Just like Napoleon Dynamite."

Cats and Kids

I've been (reasonably) thinking about what life changes having children will entail. I watch people with children, I listen to my friends, I occasionally babysit, and I try to learn what I can from these experiences. However, one of the most constant reminders of what kind of surprises I can expect is from having my kitty cats.
*Note: I know having kids will be WAY different from having cats. You cannot, for instance, heap a pile of food into a dish and then leave your children for the weekend. You cannot assume your children get adequate hydration from letting them drink out of the bathtub. I KNOW. However, I also know it would be foolish to learn nothing from my cats. So this blog entry is simply a few things I HAVE learned from my cats.
Howie and Toby are very different.
Toby is smart and well-behaved. Ever since he was young, we strictly enforced the rules. You may not be on the table or the counters. You may not scratch the couch. That's about it. We don't have a lot of rules. But whenever Toby thinks about breaking one of them, we can clap or yell "Toby" and he'll return to good behavior. Part of this is because we were more diligent when we just had the one cat. It is also because of Toby's personality and intellectual capacity.
Howie is either pretty stupid or smart enough that he knows he is above the system. He likes to get on the table. When we clap, yell at him, or punish him, he doesn't care at all. He'll hop right back onto the table once we've turned our backs. If I walk into the kitchen to find him on the table, he doesn't even care. Once I turn to him as if I'll grab him, he "hides" (which is hard to do on a kitchen table). Unfortunately, it is usually just out of reach, and if I'm sitting and eating, he knows I'm unlikely to get up to move him off the table. See, either really smart or really stupid. Either way, he doesn't follow the rules.
Cats ruin stuff-- and not the things you expect.
Howie occasionally scratches the couch. This worries me, as it is not our couch but the landlord's. However, it has done remarkably little damage.
The other day, though, Howie comes prancing into the living room (Howie prances when he goes most places) with something in his mouth. Kevin got him to spit it out, and it was one of my earrings! It's a gold teardrop hoop thingie, and now it is a gold teardrop hoop thingie with little holes indented in cat-tooth patterns. Grr! Who thought a cat would chew up my earring?!
Cleaning up barf is no fun.
Toby has been kind of sick lately (like for the last 4 days). We're treating him for hairball problems, and if he's not better by Monday, we will probably take him to the vet. It's just been a whole lot of fun cleaning up after him all this time. Thankfully we have several throw rugs around the house, and many times Toby has decided to puke on these. Fine! We wipe them off then throw them in the wash. They probably needed it anyway! My favorite so far has been when my whole family was over at my house to eat Chinese dumplings, and Toby was sleeping on top of the cat scratching tower. Then as we're sitting around the coffee table eating our dinners, Toby wakes up and projectile-vomits like a fountain from the top of his tower. It got all over everything, and it was super, super, super gross.
Anyway... doing all that laundry reminded me of all the laundry I'm going to have to do when I have kids. I just hope we get an apartment with a washer/dryer at least in our building.
Most of all, though, is that I love my kitty cats. They are sweet, soft, and cuddly.

Family wonderfulness

Confession: Sometimes I am late for work.
Translation: Occasionally I am on time for work.
Clarification: I have been on time twice in the last 3 months. There are reasons for this.
I have always hated getting up in the morning. I push snooze several times (which Kevin loves... or something), telling myself the whole time that I could just take a really fast shower and I'd be on time. And I convince myself that I'm not just laying in bed going back to sleep-- I'm actually planning my outfit for the day as I lay there.
Ok, so that's a lie, and eventually I get up and fly through the house. I have everything timed down to the second, so if something happens (which inevitably it does... losing shoes, losing keys, having an occupied bathroom during the minute and a half I set aside for doing my hair, etc), I freak out and holler that I'm going to be late. And then I am late.
This has been especially fun now that I'm pregnant. I lay in bed wondering if I'll live or die, then hurrying into the kitchen to shovel food down myself before I start gagging. Occasionally my timing gets up, and I spend most of the morning trying not to gag-- not getting much done in the "getting ready" area. Those days are fun.
This morning I woke up with a headache and decided, since I can't take any medicine for it, I'd just try to sleep it off. Nothing at work is vital for me until 10:00, and figured I'd get up when I felt better.
I laid in bed, and Toby came to snuggle on my shoulder. My headache slowly but surely started to subside.
My family is staying at my house this week. Alex will be going to the MTC on Wednesday, so my parents and Daniel came to see him off. This morning apparently they had plans to go to Salt Lake, so they were up early. I stayed in bed and told my mom she could go ahead and take a shower, because I'd be getting up later. I figured I'd call in and tell them I'd be late.
However, at 8:30, I had the brainwave that reminded me that I actually had to cover the lab this morning. Kelly, the other Social Studies teacher who usually covers the lab for me when I'm late, is in charge of the state standardized testing that starts today.
Crap!
So I jumped out of bed and ran to the kitchen. My dad was making French toast, and he had a fruit salad he made last night. Perfect!
My mom was still in the shower, so I just washed my face in the sink and threw clothes on. I feel like I'm stinky and greasy, but I have cute new clothes, so I'm pretending I look great.
Anyway, sometimes it's hard having 5 people need to use the same bathroom, but I'm glad my family is staying with me. French toast is awesome!