In honor of New Moon

I think the whole "Twilight" phenomenon is a little funny. Why are all these adult women obsessed with a make-believe, overly-dramatic relationship between some clumsy, needy girl and a vampire? That being said, I couldn't put the books down and read all of them within a month...but I'm not obsessed. I just need to clarify that.

Nothing like a good SNL parody.



Even though I'm not really one to stand in a line for an hour waiting to watch the movie, I am looking forward to seeing "New Moon." (I hear it is a lot better than Twilight which I wasn't completely impressed with.) I have had lots of friends who have seen it already and have told me about the inevitable girly screaming that happens whenever Jacob takes his shirt off. I completely understand. I mean, look at him... But I thought it was funny when my sister-in-law brought up the idea of adult men whistling at a 17 year old girl coming onto the screen in a bikini. A little disturbing......But what's wrong with a complete double standard anyway?

Here's a hot picture of Jacob, in case you don't know what I'm talking about.
I feel kinda naughty for even posting a picture of a guy without a shirt. That's why I made it small. Somehow, it is less naughty this way.

99.9 FM

Yeah, 99.9 has become one of our favorite radio stations. Don't bother turning it on to see what great music it has because it hasn't any. It is just static. But strange enough, Parker loves it. This is a fairly common situation: Matt and I are driving down to Bluffdale and Parker is crying because he HATES his carseat and the only thing he hates more than being put in his carseat is being put in his carseat with no one to play with. So we tune the radio to 99.9 FM and it is like a mute button for Parker. Silence...well except for the annoying static in the background. I've started to get used to it though. I imagine it being the sound that comes for a large beautiful waterfall on a tropical island. I have a good imagination.

I got the idea for the static from reading the book The Happiest Baby on the Block. It teaches about how babies love white noise. Supposedly my uterus sounds like a TV with poor reception. I guess all the liquids floating around them make a loud whooshing sound. This explains why all cultures use this sort of sound to quiet their babies. In the good ol' USA we say 'sh' but other places say 'ts' or 'ch' all with the same effect. Interesting, no? So that's why you know when the librarian puts her finger to her lips and whispers "shhh" you should be quiet.

We try not to use this magic trick with Parker too often. We don't want him to become reliant upon the static in order to fall asleep. But is nice during those emergency occasions to settle him down. Parker loves his static.

Oh, and 99.9 has a slightly better quality of static than other stations.

Love Affair

It seems I haven't been able to sit down with a good book for a long time. It's not that I have been soooo busy in my life that I just couldn't make time for it. It is more that I forgot how much I enjoyed it, so reading got pushed to the back of my to do list. Well, this summer while I was bored out of my mind I finally got to the end of that to do list and picked up a book.

I started with Harry Potter 6. I thought it was a timely read since the movie is coming out this year. That quick and easy read got me back into the swing of things and I've been reading ever since. Next I read Twilight because I had too. EVERYBODY is doing it. That was also a quick and easy one. (don't hate me for saying this, but I was a little disappointed. Maybe my expectations were too high.) And then I discovered the library in West Valley. I feel bad for the library. I took their entire stock of pregnancy and childbirth books. And the surprising thing is that I've almost read them all. Needless to say, I feel a lot better about having a baby. I know a lot more about what is going to happen to me and what signs I need to look for. In fact, I probably know enough to deliver my own baby...but let's not get crazy. The last couple of nights I've been dreaming about having my baby. I should clarify. The last couple of nights about 5 times a night I have had a dream about giving birth. Each time being a little different then the time before. After all of that I decided to cut down on my labor and delivery reading and move on to something else. I started to read Ender's Game which is a book I have heard a lot of good things about. Also it is written by Orson Scott Card. He has a column once a week in the Deseret News that I love to read. It is in the Mormon Times section and since he doesn't live in Utah, he has a clear perspective on "mormon culture." I find his perspective refreshing.

Well, all that being said, I have a love affair with books now. If you have any good books to recommend, please let me know. Thanks!