The Anasco Four

A Moment...with Meagan

2012-01-06T14:42:00.000-08:00

I haven't done this in a while and maybe because it feels like every moment I have is flying by because life seems so busy. But I feel like I'm having an off day, well, maybe an off week. Olivia isn't sleeping through the night and waking up at 6:00 am and doesn't really want to nap anymore and as I type this, she's throwing her bracelets onto the ground and yelling until I pick them up. Ellie had discovered her "sass," meaning that when I ask her to do something, her reply is often, "sorry mom, I don't want to." Hey, at least she prefaced it with a sorry, right? And although we love our house, it feels like it's getting smaller and smaller everyday and what we thought might be an opportunity to move into a bigger home presented itself, it might be off the table. There are other things, but there is no need to type them right now. But as I sit here wallowing in my self-loathing, wishing for a bigger house, Olivia to sleep, Ellie to be more cooperative, more money so that Hubert can go back to school to get his Masters, and to have Heidi Klum's body, it is unbelievable how much I have in my life that's good. My husband has an incredible job which has not been affected by this down economy, we are both very healthy, my "baboon's heart," as my brother Jake likes to refer to it as, is, according to my cardiologist, "healthier than most healthy hearts," my daughters and are healthy, happy, silly, girly, loving, giving, beautiful, unique, and wonderful. My house is in the best neighborhood anyone could ever ask for. I have amazing friends and a more amazing family. We have an incredible support system that is so undeserving sometimes. So even though some of those other things aren't going so great, sometimes I just need to take a moment and realize that I have a pretty wonderful life. Now, I am done complaining. And anyway, how can I be mad at this face?

If you're interested...

2011-11-25T11:13:00.000-08:00

When I was a kid, I always wanted to be a photographer. I was intrigued with pictures in Time Magazine and National Geographic and wanted to be the person behind the camera. This dream of mine has never gone away. I took photography classes in high school and when I first started college, photography was my major. Unfortunately, I soon found out that as a photog major, I was required to take other classes, such as drawing and painting and unlike my artistic brothers before me, that was not something I was at all skilled in. So, needless to say, I dropped that major and finished with English, which is something I really loved. But, the love for the camera never went away and about a year ago, Hubert bought me a very nice camera and I decided that instead of paying someone to take pictures of my girls, I will take them myself. And then I decided to take pictures of my friends kids and then it went on from there. So I am going to post some pictures that I have taken of friends and family. Here they are:

If you don't know, this is my brother, Jake's, family. His beautiful wife and dear friend, Ashley, and their awesome boys, Milo and Eli. This was a fun shoot not only because they all did so well, but because I love them so much.

This is the family of Matt and Jenny Meese. Matt was our neighbor when we moved to Utah and he has been like a brother to me ever since. And his beautiful wife, Jenny, is someone I consider to be one of my best friends. And their very handsome twin boys, Graham and Harrison, are two of the sweetest boys you will ever meet.

This is the Ogden family. Clay, Valerie, and their beautiful little girl, Charlotte, are in our Branch and have become extremely good friends of ours and Valerie asked if I would take her family's pictures. This is the first time I have been asked by someone who is not a member of my family to take their pictures, so I was both flattered and TERRIFIED! But they are a terrific family and all of them are so photogenic that it was so easy.

So there you go! That's what I have been up to and I have absolutely loved doing it. And, if anyone is interested, I am pretty cheap! So if you need any pictures and you like what you see, either e-mail me or call me. If anything, you are just indulging me.

And a year later....

2011-10-26T14:19:00.001-07:00

I know, I know, it's been almost an entire year since I did my last post and I kept thinking about all of the things that have happened in the last year and as I was thinking, all of my thoughts and memories came back to my girls. So, instead of posting things that aren't that important, I am going to post some of my favorite pictures of the ladies. Here they are in the summer when everything was so green because of all of the rain.

And here they are in the fall, because nothing is more beautiful that Utah in the fall.

Hubert and I lost something, but please don't help us find it.

2010-11-22T12:55:00.000-08:00

The strangest thing has happened. Well, maybe not as strange as it is life-changing. You see, at the beginning of the year, Hubert's work began a contest for changing your life for the better which included drinking a certain amount of water a day, eating a certain amount of fruits and veggies a day, exercising for a certain amount a time a day, and not eating candy. And, if you do these things enough each month for an entire year, you will be entered into a contest to win a cruise. Well, Hubert and I did these things and we did them so much, we have been entered in twice. So, we recently had family pictures taken and I thought I would brag a little bit because we've lost a little weight. So here we are one year ago.

And, with a combined total weight lost of 100 pounds, here we are one year later.

Now, if only we can win that cruise.

Bear Lake in November?

2010-11-10T13:13:00.001-08:00

Last weekend, we took a mini vacation to Bear Lake and even though it was the beginning of November and Bear Lake is freezing most of the time, we had a great time. We were so lucky with the weather being clear and the temperature being in the low 60's. No, we didn't go swimming because that would be ridiculous, but we spent a lot of time down at the beach and loved the watching the girls play in the sand, collect shells, and explore. Let me just say it was a much needed time away and we loved every minute of it!

I had to post a picture of this metal, rusty slide which I'm sure will give you a multitude of diseases as it cuts you if and when you foolishly decide to slide down it.

I had to post this picture of these screaming teenage girls who thought it would be funny to go swimming, in Bear Lake, in November. They soon realized how unfunny it was.

Family+Fall+Utah=Perfection

2010-10-20T13:53:00.000-07:00

There is a trail behind Lagoon that not too many people know about and it is a place that, during the fall, is stunning. So last week we decided to take the kids and enjoy the beautiful colors that Utah has to offer during the fall and take a few pictures of the kids as well because we think they're pretty cute, too.

The kidlets

2010-10-18T12:33:00.000-07:00

Last Christmas, Hubert bought me a wonderful camera and unfortunately, it has taken me almost a year to learn how to really use it! But, I love it and I have loved taking pictures not only of my girls, but also of our good friends and my nephews. Sure, I'm no Ansel Adams, or any other famous photographer whose name I don't know, but it's been really fun to take pictures of so many of the people that I love. So here are some recent ones I took of Ash and the boys, Katie and Boston, and my beautiful girls. Enjoy!

The girls

2010-08-17T12:16:00.000-07:00

Lately, Ellie has been a little obsessed with waterfalls and there is a very pretty waterfall in Ogden Canyon, so sometimes I'll pack the girlies in the car, get myself and diet coke, and take a little drive to her favorite waterfall. And when she is done watching the water we, of course, continue to drive through the canyon because, seriously, it is one of the most beautiful places in the world. And because it is so beautiful, Hubert and I decided that we should take pictures of the girls in such a beautiful setting, so here they are. But let me first say that Ellie is in almost all of them because Miss Olivia Jane wasn't being too cooperative.

Camping, anyone?

2010-05-24T14:10:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, Hubert and I thought it would be a great idea to take both the girls down to Arches National Park and do a little camping. Sure, we haven't been camping for about 7 years, Olivia is 7 months old, and the nearest town is about 45 minutes away, but we figured we would give it a try. Luckily, we went went our good friend, Cara Baldwin, and her fabulous kids, which made watching Ellie much easier, but even though we had Cara, her kids, a beautiful campground, warm weather and blue skies, what really put a damper on the trip was the 80 mile an hour hurricane-like winds that were hitting us at every angle. It was truly horrible. But even though the conditions weren't great, we still had a great time. Here are some pictures.

Olivia had this look on her face every time we made a stop. She didn't love being in the car for 4 hours

A view from our campground. It was beautiful.

Ellie loved being there, even though it was so windy, as you can tell by her hair blowing.

Olivia and me after we spent the night with Ellie in the back of Cara's car. Sadly, Hubert slept in the tent which almost blew away and woke up covered in sand. Yes, it was horrible, but as you can see I couldn't have been happier for the sun to come up. Olivia, on the other hand, was not a "happy camper"

Hubert and Cara trying to put away the tents. It was so windy that we couldn't stop laughing.

After the tents were put away and everything was packed, we decided to forgo the second night we had planned to stay and go home. But even though the wind was horrible and it was hard to even stand, we couldn't resist the beauty of Arches, so we stopped. Hubert and Ellie hiked around a little bit while I stayed at the car while Olivia slept. But it didn't matter where I was because I was in awe of the rocks around me. Hopefully we'll go back soon.

6 Months Old!

2010-04-15T20:11:00.001-07:00

Today Olivia is 6 months old and after an entire day of whining about how I need to blog about her big day, at least I'm pretty sure that's why she was fussy, I decided to let the world know that she has survived thus far. But really, these past 6 months have been wonderful with this little girl. Sure, sometimes she doesn't sleep great and she goes from 1 to 10 in about half a second, but I can't get enough of her coo's, her laugh that sounds like she's in some sort of pain, and her constant, huge smile. She is a wonderful baby and it makes me sad that she is already 6 months old, but I can't wait to see what the next 6 months will bring. Oh, and I have to credit the picture idea to my good friend, Amber.

Also, Ellie and I made cookies today for the occasion and this was her idea of "helping" me.

The Aquarium, and then some

2010-02-11T12:59:00.000-08:00

This week, Ashley and I, along with the help of Patty, took the kiddies to the Living Aquarium and although Ellie has been asking to see the "fishies" for quite some time, you would have thought that when we walked in, we were walking into her worst nightmare. But, after a few minutes, and getting as far away from the octopus as possible, she was fine and we all had a great time. So here are some pictures of our fun day, as well as a few extras I thought we would all enjoy.

I had to put this one on because she FINALLY wore her apron!

Olivia's blessing

2010-01-06T13:48:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday, we had the opportunity to bless Olivia and it was such a special day for us and the blessing the Hubert gave her was beautiful, even though she cried through the entire thing. But we were able to spend the day with family and close friends and I thought I would post some of those pictures of Olivia's special day.

The ladies

2009-12-17T15:28:00.001-08:00

Here are some fun pictures we have taken of the girls over the last month.

Where did the time go?

2009-12-07T15:00:00.001-08:00

We are about to get Olivia's newborn pictures taken and I was looking through Ellie's newborn pictures and I forgot just how small and cute and beautiful she was and still is and cannot believe how much she has grown. It's so true what they say about time flying by.

A moment...with Meagan

2009-12-02T14:15:00.000-08:00

So there I was, standing on my Dad's front porch holding my screaming 2-year old and covered in her throw-up while my 6 week old is screaming from her car seat in the car. Patty came rushing out the door to help and I looked at her and said as seriously as I possibly could, "I don't know what to do." This utterance of mine brought on so many moments from the past 6 weeks and at that moment, standing there covered in throw-up, they all came to me at once. I don't know what to do...when Ellie throws her yogurt all over the carpet while I'm feeding the baby; when Olivia stopped taking naps; when Ellie throws herself on the floor of Target and screams bloody murder; when Olivia refuses to be put down so that I can eat lunch; when Ellie repeats the same thing that she wants over and over again until I say yes because I can no longer stand it; when both the girls start crying in the car the minute I pull out of the garage on our way to Salt Lake; when I'm in the middle of taking a shower with shampoo in my hair and Olivia starts screaming; when Ellie won't go to sleep at night and instead asks for a "sip of water" until one of us brings her some; when both girls decide that sleep isn't an option for their parents and keep us up all night. Now, although these moments make it sound like it has been really hard, there have been some truly great moments like when I get Ellie in the morning and she says to me, "Hi, mommy. Get baby livvy?; when Olivia has started to smile at us and shows us her adorable dimples; when Ellie gives me big hugs and tells me she loves me; when Olivia tries to eat my face which I am pretending that she is kissing me; when Ellie and Hubert dance; when Olivia goes to sleep at 7:00 and doesn't wake up until 2:00; when Ellie eats the dinner I made her and tells me it's delicious; and when Olivia cuddles right up to me and puts her chubby little arms around my neck. There are really so many more things that are great instead of hard, but I know that if there weren't any hard ones, I wouldn't appreciate the great ones as much and besides, how can it be hard to not love these two little girls.

One Month Down...

2009-11-14T18:45:00.001-08:00

Today, Olivia, or Elia (as I keep accidentally calling her) is 1 month old and I can't believe how time has flown and how much she has changed since her first day with us. I mean, it's not like she's reciting Shakespeare because that usually happens in the third or fourth month, but she is doing some fun stuff like smiling in her sleep, which shows her adorable dimples, grabbing at our faces when we are really close to hers, and when her sister is being fun and crazy around her, she can't keep her eyes off of her. But she is a great little baby girl and we all adore her, even when she poops while I'm in the middle of changing her and it shoots across the room. Maybe that was a 1 month present to me. I can't wait to see what she what tricks she does on her second month anniversary.

The past three weeks

2009-11-09T07:20:00.000-08:00

The past three weeks have been a little bit of a blur for us with Olivia's birth, family visiting, and Halloween, so I thought I would post some fun pictures so that it is a little less blurry for me.

And doesn't there always have to be a spaghetti shot?

Baby #2, Electric Boogaloo

2009-10-22T09:42:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday the 15th, Hubert, Ellie, and I welcomed little miss Olivia Jane into our family and I thought it was time to introduce her into the world. That, and many people aren't feeling well and can't come and see her in person and I would like to thank all of those people and their consideration for our little newborn. If only the entire world would just stay home when they are sick, but that's a whole other post all together. But anyway, here are some of our favorite pictures so far.

And this is a picture of Hubert feeding Ellie a bottle while laying her down on the boppie. Let's just say she's reverting back a snidge.

It can't all be good, right?

2009-09-18T14:18:00.000-07:00

As I'm sitting here at the computer looking at friends' blogs and reading about how wonderful life is and funny kids are and all that kind of bloggy stuff, I started to think, hey, why doesn't anyone ever write about how crappy their day is going? Well, folks, you've come to the right place. Let me just give you a time-line with a brief synopsis of each time I post.

1:25 am-Got up to pee

2:30 am-Got up to pee

3:30 am-Got up to pee

4:30 am-Got up to pee

5:30 am-Got up to pee, Hubert woke up to get ready for work

6:30 am-Ellie woke and and decided she needed a "warm babba" and Hubert was wonderful enough to take care of that for me and put her back in bed. Oh, and I got up to pee.

7:30 am-Ellie and I are both up and eating breakfast, hers consisting of yogurt, mine a tall glass of ice water because I feel like there isn't enough water in the ocean for me to drink.

7:35 am-Ellie decides that she "don't want it" and "it" being her yogurt anymore, therefore throwing her bowl onto my carpeted ground. I'm sure I looked awesome cleaning that up with my gigantic belly and nothing feels better than kneeling on the ground for 15 minutes and then trying to stand up with knees that you are sure are breaking.

9:30 am-Ellie watched her new favorite cartoon, "Dinosaur Train," but screamed when it was over and could not understand that it was PBS that controlled the programming and not, in fact, her mother.

11:30 am-We drive to Toys'r'us to get Ellie some play food for her kitchen when we got stuck in traffic. Again, she screamed at me and could not understand that it wasn't me controlling the cars, it's the construction.

12:00 pm-Arrive at toy store, pick out toy, she demands I open it right away. I try to explain that I can't and we have to pay. She then throws herself on the ground and screams at the top of her lungs, "NO NO NO NO" while others stared at me.

12:30 pm-I guess the screaming for 30 minutes wore her out because she fell asleep in the car. It was wonderful.

1:00 pm-Ellie is napping and I am eating lunch when Hubert e-mails me and lets me know how much grad school is going to cost. I throw-up in my mouth a little and have no idea how we are going to pay for it. Why, oh why, is school so expensive?

1:30 pm-Shooting pain in my left hand. Awesome.

2:00 pm-Hubert comes home from work early, which I love, but has since passed out on the bed because he is so tired.

3:30 pm-Ellie is finally waking up. Oh, but the day is still young. Who knows what the rest of it holds?!

My baby is 2!

2009-08-31T13:34:00.000-07:00

It's hard for me to believe that my little baby girl is 2, but I guess I should have seen it coming six months ago since that's when her "terrible 2's" started. But really, she is just so sweet, happy, energetic, smart, curious, beautiful, loved, and so many other things. I can't believe how lucky Hubert and I got to have such a blessing in our lives, but we appreciate and cherish her every day even when she is can be stinker. For example, her new favorite thing to do is touch my extremely swollen foot and say "ew" and then laugh. Good times. But here are some pictures of her special day and I would like to thank everyone who came to her party and for their wonderful gifts and also for her grandparents and great-grandparents who live out of state but sent such wonderful gifts. She loves all of them.

These cakes are so funny because I had literally been up since 6:30 making them and they could not have looked worse, but at least they tasted good and the kids loved their individual cakes.

Jumping with her cousins Addy and Sadee

The great gift that her Grandma and Grandpa Anasco got her which we foolishly opened first and should have waited for last because she didn't want to get off.

Thank you Greatgrandpa and Greatgrandma Day!

Thank you Grandma Kami and Michele!

The apron I spent two weeks sewing with the help of my wonderful friend Cara and sadly, Ellie could not have been less interested.

About to eat cake with her cousins

Her new room unveiled to her when she got home from her party. The kitchen was our present to her, hence the apron. I guess that was lost on her.

And knowing is half the battle

2009-08-26T10:45:00.000-07:00

After a fun day at the doctor's office where I gained an undisclosed amount of weight which was due to what my nurse referred to as "puffiness," literally running after Ellie the entire time we were in IKEA buying things for her, mind you, waking up to my ring finger being purple and in phenomenal pain, and lastly, taking Ellie to her 2 year Dr. appt. where she screamed the whole time and then got her shots, where she screamed even more, Ellie's Pediatrician recommended that I get my ring cut off and to do it today. Awesome! So here are pictures of what my finger looks like as well as the ring for any and all who think they can make it to the end of their pregnancy without taking it off. Oh, and one last thing, it was surprisingly painful.

Luckily, my jeweler can sauder (sp) my ring back together when my finger gets down to it's normal size and it will look as good as new, but I had a bit of a break down when I got into my car, only to be reassured by Hubert that yes, we are still married, but I will, for the next few months, look like an un-wed pregnant woman.

Ellie, Lagoon, and a sea of fanny packs

2009-08-14T07:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Hubert, Ellie, and I had the opportunity to go to Lagoon with Patty, Ashley, Milo, and my neice and nephews and it was surprisingly a very good time. First, let me just say that people let their freak flags fly at Lagoon which provided me with endless entertainment because being in my pregnant state I am unable to ride rides which left me sitting on many benches while Hubert went on rides with Ellie. Seriously, it's as if they thought that the dirty Motley Crue t-shirt with the cut-off sleeves they found balled up on the floor this morning was a great fashion choice. But besides people watching, the most enjoyable thing was watching my little girl go on every ride she could and loving every minute of it and asking for "another one" as soon as the ride was done. So here are some pictures to document our fun day.

Here FAVORITE ride of the day, Bulgy the Whale

Milo went on a total of three rides. He wasn't a huge fan as you can tell by his facial expression while driving the boat.

So long, farewell, and you know the rest

2009-07-29T08:02:00.000-07:00

Well, we have made the decision to cancel our cable. I know, I know, it seems like no big deal, but when you are pregnant and the baby goes down at night, there is nothing better than lying on the couch watching meaningless television. Now, the good thing is that we can get all of the shows we love on Hulu like Rescue Me, Damages, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The Colbert Report, and so on, but I'm not so sure about my guilty pleasures. So I have decided that in order for me to get over my sadness and inevitable withdrawal, I must make a list of what I will miss most because I think it will therapeutic. Please keep your judgments to a minimum.

1. The Real Housewives of Atlanta (and basically every other show on Bravo)

2. The Hills (mostly for Spencer and his flesh colored beard)

3. The Soup (Because Joel McHale is heeeelarious)

4. Ghost Adventures (The main guy is a complete dork, but I can't get enough of this stupid show)

5. HGTV (Because I love everything that has to do with home buying, selling, and improvement)

I'm starting to feel better.

Apparently, they're always watching

2009-07-23T09:07:00.001-07:00

As Ellie approaches two, we have started talking to her about using her own potty because as I like to tell her, "It's Fun!" So far, she's not too receptive, but that doesn't mean she doesn't watch us like a hawk. Case and point, I caught her sitting on her potty and pretending to read a book. Now, I wish I could say that this is Hubert's doing, but sadly, it's my book she's reading. What does that tell you?

Every two years

2009-07-10T09:09:00.000-07:00

About once every two years all of my brothers and I are able to spend about a week together and it is always so much fun. Last time Ellie was about two weeks old, Milo was 6 months old, and Lindsay was still pregnant with Jackie Day, so it was really great to see these little babies so grown and playing together. But I love being with my brothers and laughing, making fun of each other, reminiscing, and watching them physically abuse each other after throwing a ball as hard as they can at each other because someone dropped the ball in their made-up game "banana hammock." But Josh, Lindsay, and the boys were off today and Tucker left on Wednesday, so now I thought I would post some pictures of our week together, which include the 4th of July in Oakley at our Aunt Margaret's "cabin."

A pleasant surprise

2009-07-08T07:42:00.000-07:00

As I was walking home from the park with all of my brothers, nephews, and nieces (pictures I will post later) I saw that the Young Women from my old ward had decorated my door and left cookies on my door step and it was such a great surprise. I miss those girls and the other leaders so much, even though we are still in the same neighborhood, but it was nice to see that they might miss me, too. Either that, or they couldn't think of a mutual activity and someone had leftover cutout hearts from Valentine's Day and wanted to vandalize me. Either way, it was a really nice surprise. And don't get used to pictures of me pregnant because as you can see, I'm slowly becoming an orca whale.

2009-06-10T13:28:00.000-07:00

As I'm sitting on my couch on this rainy day in Utah while little Ellie sleeps, I received a call from Hubert who tells me that Mark-Paul Gosselaar was on the Jimmy Fallon show, but not as Mark-Paul Gosselaar. So I Youtube the episode and out on the stage walks Zack Morris from the timeless Saturday morning show, "Saved By The Bell," and don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about. Now, not only was he dressed like him with his fabulously hairsprayed hair, pegged pants, and white high-tops, he was actually Zack Morris and I have to say that it made me laugh pretty hard. So to all of you hardcore "Saved By The Bell" fans, here you go.

A one-sided conversation

2009-06-04T18:46:00.001-07:00

Last week, Ellie and I ventured out and visited the Layton Park where there is often an eclectic bunch of people most of which we like, but on this particular day there seemed to be a field trip from a nearby junior high and me over-hearing their conversations and praying I wasn't that dumb as a kid. But besides that, it's a good park. But the best part are the ducks and geese and at this time of year they have all of their little babies that Ellie loves to see so we decided it would be a good day to go and feed them. And after walking around for a while, Ellie eating the bread instead of giving it to the birds, and that incident where two ducks seemed to be violently mating which was sufficiently awkward for every watching, the fun began. You see, Ellie has quite a large vocabulary for a 21 month old and loves to talk and talk, so you can imagine how excited she was when right in front of us there were two geese just standing there. I found this to be so funny because she was chasing after these poor ducks, while yell/talking to them, and trying to feed them. And this was her conversation with accompanying pictures.

Ellie: "ducks, Ducks, DUCKS!"

Ducks: (looking up at her)

Ellie: "Ducks. What are you doing, ducks?"

Ducks: (Slowly waddling away)

Ellie: "Ducks. DUCKS! Where are you going, ducks?"

Ducks: (More quickly waddling away)

Ellie: "Ducks, momma say bread for ducks. Ducks, eats bread, ducks."

Ducks: (One of them stops and slowly walks toward her to actually get the bread Ellie is holding out)

Meagan: (starting to panic)

Ellie: "No ducks, bread for Ellie, not ducks." (Walking away)

Ducks: (Confused)

It was a good moment.

You had me at mango salsa

2009-05-23T15:14:00.000-07:00

For so many years of my life my television viewing has been interrupted by meaningless commercials at the most important times in my favorite shows. Will Dylan and Kelly finally get together even though Brenda disapproves on 90210? Commercial. Will Billy and Allison work through their differences and make their relationship work with the evil Amanda living right below them on Melrose Place? Commercial. Will the underdogs, Lisa and Screech, beat Slater and Kelly at the dance-off at the Max on Saved By the Bell? Commercial. But finally, the dreaded commercials became a thing of the past thanks to the Cavemen of Geico. From the very first time my eyes met yours sitting angrily at that restaurant with one of you ordering the "roast duck with the mango salsa," while the other vindictively said, "I've lost my appetite," you had me.

When I saw you casually standing on the floor mover in the airport enjoying your upcoming tennis match only to have your enjoyment rudely interrupted by a poster showing a caveman in stereotypical caveman clothing and holding a large stick, you had me.

And finally, when you could take it no more that you had to see a psychiatrist and had your session interrupted by a phone call and your response to your therapist was, "I need to take this, my mothers calling," you had me.

Cavemen, thank you for making the times between episodes of LOST bearable. Thank you for not making me throw a pillow across the room every time Jim and Pam were interrupted when they were about to say something meaningful to each other on The Office. And thank you for helping me to stop biting my nails when Tony was about to kill a relative on the Soprano's, but was delayed. You have given me back more than you know and all I can say is, again, thank you.

Oh, and I know these commercials aren't new, but they are recently coming out with new ones and it brought back my love for the cavemen, so I felt I needed to express my feelings.

Why Men's Synchronized Swimming Should be an Olympic Sport

2009-05-19T16:12:00.000-07:00

The other day NBC played all of Saturday Night Live's shorts, both old and new. And although most were funny, this one had me in tears, and it's not the first time. It came out in 1984, so I was only 4 years old, but I remember my parents watching this and my mother laughing so hard she cried. Also, I think that they actually recorded it on a, now stick with me, video cassette. And as I have seen this throughout the vast years of my life, it only gets funnier. From Martin Short's inability to swim and ridiculous hairline to Christopher Guests' off the shoulder sweatshirt and spandex pants, it is by far one of the funniest things I have ever seen and only hope that others out there will appreciate this as much as I do. Also, I have to apologize that it's not the whole skit, but this was all I could find. Please enjoy.

Houston, we have a ...

2009-05-11T12:21:00.000-07:00

GIRL!

For Mother's Day my dad thought it would be a nice gift to take me to Fetal Foto to find out what species of child I will be birthing in 5 months and he said that he had never seen a baby ultrasound, so he was pretty excited about that, too. Well, it wasn't too hard to see, as it seems my unborn isn't the most modest child, but we are lucky enough to have another little girl and Hubert and I couldn't be happier. Now, all we have to do is figure out a name. Any suggestions?

Monkeycat

2009-04-28T13:18:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday was Hubert's birthday and as per his request and the fact that he is threatening me from the other side of the room, I will not reveal his age. But, because it was his birthday and it was such a beautiful day, he took the day off to be with Ellie and me and we had a chance to go to the world-renowned Hogle Zoo and by world-renowned I mean more animals have died there than in the actual Serengeti during hunting season. But, we knew she would love it and she did and she even re-named a Lemur, which looks like this

to "Monkeycat" and I would appreciate all who see this animal around her to refer to it as such seeing as we want to encourage her with her creativity and imagination. But anyway, I thought I would post some pictures of our fun day, so here we go.

I only post the giraffe picture because he was totally staring at me and creeping me out, as you can see by the look in his crazy eye.

A Moment...with Meagan

2009-04-16T09:03:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted a moment, but honestly, none have deemed worthy enough for posting, that is, until last night. You see, when a couple has a child it seems that their ability to go out alone decreases quite a bit, as I'm sure most know, so when an opportunity comes up where we can go out on a date, we snatch it up as fast as Ellie climbs up the stairs naked.

Anyway, the date we went on was to go get a delicious burger and fries at B&D Burgers up by the U, a place where we used to go all the time before we had our bundle of joy, and then we were off to the Lupe Fiasco concert that the U was putting on. Now, just to let you know, it had been snowing all day and the temperature was in the 30's and it was an outside concert, but we decided to take a chance and go anyway, oh, and Hubert's brother bought us the tickets, so it would have been rude not to. So after eating our meal, we were off. Of course, we somehow found the furthest parking spot away from the where the concert was, which is typical of us, so we added about a 10 minute walk in the freezing cold, but we finally got there and this is where my moment comes in. As we walked into the Student Union building of our Alma Mater, I have never felt so out of place. The kids, yes, kids, that were there were dressed in their hip, designer skinny jeans, many of them wearing a mini skirt over them, which I will never get, and what looked like home-made crotched caps that weren't quite covering their entire heads, but hey, they were stylish. And then there was me with my pea coat I have had for 7 years, American Eagle jeans that I have had for 2, a scarf that Hubert had from the GAP, and a beanie that I don't even know how long, but it's warm. Anyway, it felt like all eyes were on us when we walked in, like how dare we enter their "cool" lair of style and i-phones. So, to say the least, we exited the building quickly in order to hear the first band play, and this was Hubert's expression because they weren't great.

My expression at the second band, which was actually one guy who was a DJ and had mixed a bunch of cool songs on his laptop and had the entire front of the concert come on stage with him.

I mean, it was fun to watch, but these people were acting like it was the mid-80's and Michael Jackson had just requested they join him.

OK, so up until now, it's been pretty tame, meaning the kids had not quite gone crazy yet, but as soon as Lupe Fiasco came on stage, that was all out the window. People were throwing plastic bottles, jumping on each other, dancing very strangely, and smoking 2 types of things, one of which being a cigarette. Can you guess the other? Anyway, Hubert and I decided to move to a more calm area with people who seemed more like us, you know, old, and we really enjoyed what we saw. Now, I know we aren't old. But compared to these other people, I felt like I was 50 and they were 10. But after waiting for 2 hours in the cold and rain, stepping in mud, being ran into by idiots, we finally saw what we came to see and it was worth it.

It's always refreshing to see someone perform really well live, and he did, but even though we had a great time watching, after the concert was over, well, I guess I should say after we left early to beat the traffic, we noticed something about ourselves. I had a headache, my neck hurt, my shins were killing me, and my feet could hardly move because it felt like my shoes weighed 30 pounds each. Hubert's symptoms were also a sore neck, headache, but he couldn't even feel his feet. And we both agreed that we needed to use the bathroom. Oh, and when we both got into the car, we simultaneously made the old man noise. You know what noise I mean. So I guess what we learned from our experience is that even though we love concerts and other such similar events, it's just not for us anymore. We're just getting too old for this.

Are they twins?

2009-04-03T09:58:00.000-07:00

Sure, we might look nothing alike, but you can't deny the obvious similarity we have in our love for hiding in cupboards and "surprising" our mothers.

The Mexi-fry Incident

2009-03-30T13:10:00.000-07:00

So there we were, my family and I, sitting at Taco Time eating a delicious and deep-fried fattening meal of Mexican food when it happened. First, let me begin by thanking two people: First, the person that invented the crisp bean burrito and second, the person that invented Ranch dressing. Moving on. In the midst of our meal and conversation about what Ellie did today, how work was for Hubert, am I going to finally shower when I get home, I overheard a most stimulating exchange between a man, probably in his 30's and who had obviously never visited this eating establishment, and the 16 year old cashier behind the counter. Now, it's not him ordering the food that was interesting, it was what happened afterwards. Unfortunately, when this happened either Ellie has spilled something and Hubert was busy cleaning it up or he had stepped away for a minute getting more salsa. Who knows, really? But what he missed was priceless and this was what happened. Let me preface this conversation between this man and boy by saying that mexi-fries are tater tots. And this is what happened:

Cashier: (Handing bag of food to man) "Here is your food, sir."

Man: (Taking bag) "Thank you." (Looking in bag) "Wait, what are these?"

Cashier: "Those are mexi-fries".

Man: "No, these are tater tots."

Cashier: "Well, yes, but they are called mexi-fries."

Man: "These are tater tots and I didn't order tater tots."

Cashier: "Um, ok, do you want me to give you your money back?"

Man: "No, I want what I ordered and I ordered mexi-fries, not tater tots."

Cashier: "Well, the tater tots here are called mexi-fries."

Man: "Well, that's ridiculous. You need to tell people that they aren't ordering mexi-fries, they are ordering tater tots."

Cashier: "But the mexi-fries are tater tots."

After the poor kid said this, the man stormed off and he stood there with the most confused look on his face and I noticed that I had been staring and finally looked away and could not believe the ridiculousness of what just happened. It was hysterical.

And I thought I was just getting fat

2009-03-25T13:34:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been confirmed. Hubert's seed found purchase and we will have another little peanut running around in about 7 months. I always have a fear, as if I have had 15 kids, that there really isn't a baby in there and my gut is just expanding because McDonald's cheeseburgers are delicious, but not in this case. Luckily, there is a baby in there, thank goodness it's only one, and it has a strong heartbeat of 175 and looks like an alien, but my alien. So far everything has gone well. Unlike with Ellie, I have only thrown up a handful of times, whereas with her I would throw up a handful of times in the span of one hour, which makes me think I'm having a boy, but who knows? But we are very excited and will keep you loyal followers updated as the months progress and I expand into a person that once resembled Meagan, but now resembles a large, slightly swollen version of Meagan in a fat suit. Isn't pregnancy great?

My list of things that must go

2009-03-23T07:32:00.000-07:00

Every week, X96, a local radio station does a segment called "Our list of things that must go." I haven't heard it since I stopped working, but every time I did hear it I would have my own little list of things that I think should go and I was reminded yesterday of my little list, which always changes, when I was driving home from church. Please understand that if you do something on my list, it doesn't mean I don't like you, I just don't like what you do and judge you constantly. So here is my top ten list.

1. People that don't clean up after their dogs

It's disgusting and don't think that just because it's winter and there's snow that no one will notice because, genius, the snow melts. And also, just because you have a small dog doesn't mean that their poop doesn't need to be picked up because it's smaller. Be a decent neighbor, nay, human being and clean up after your dog.

2. Metal license plate covers that have the name of the car engraved on the bottom.

As if I don't know that you are driving a BMW or the always "cool" Corvette, you have chosen to seek out a cover that shows the world behind you exactly what you are driving and made the assumption that the American public has never seen the likes of that exotic car that you have painstakingly chosen to show off while wearing your Polo shirt collar turned up.

3. Luxury SUV's

I understand that some people have a lot of money and would like to not only live in luxury, but would like to also drive in it, but I have to say that whenever I see a luxury SUV like, say, a Mercedes, BMW, or Lexus, the only word that comes to mind is "pretentious." I mean, do you really plan on taking your $60,000 car off-roading any time soon only to immediately take it to a car wash where you will tip the poor 16 year old who just cleaned your car for an hour $1? No, the reason that car was purchased was to show that you can afford a car like that. And what's wrong with a nice Toyota Four-Runner or Honda Pilot? Not expensive enough?

4. Backing into parking spaces

Let's think about this, guy in giant diesel truck doing a 50-point turn trying back into the smallest parking stall at the mall and causing a mile-long line of waiting cars. Sure, when you leave you'll be able to pull right out, but has it really saved you time when it takes 15 minutes to actually park your car? No, it hasn't.

5. When people say " 'We' need to do something" when they actually mean " 'You' need to do something."

Don't get me wrong, I love my old boss and still try to stop by and see her when I can, but nothing would drive me more crazy then when I would have to reschedule an entire clinic, but was told to by saying, "We need to call all these patients and not only reschedule their clinic times, but also the CT's, MRI's, Ultrasounds, Angios, and X-rays that I know took you a very long time to coordinate on the same day to another day." Believe me, there was never any "We" involved.

6. When Ellie poops in the tub.

Seriously, she needs to stop and now instead of saying "poo-poo in the potty", she says, "poo-poo in the tub." So now when I bathe her I just stare at her face and when she starts making that really hard look of concentration, and you know what I mean, I immediately grab her and get me and the entire bathroom soaking wet. It's driving me crazy!

7. Romantic comedies with Julia Roberts

They meet, the argue, date another person for five seconds while only thinking of the other one they argue with, go to their apartment, profess love, end up together and all this is wrapped up in a stupid song sung by a girl who isn't even old enough to understand what love is. I hate romantic comedies with Julia Roberts.

8. The Jonas Brothers

I'm not really a big fan of any group whose members aren't old enough to drive, but I particularly dislike The Jonas Brothers. Why, you ask? From the syrupy/horrible lyrics to their style, they need to be banned. Is there really ever a need to wear painted on jeans, t-shirt, vest, and scarf all together? No, there isn't and therefore it should never be worn.

9. People that tell me, and I quote, "You need to put a clip in your daughter's hair."

Listen, I know her hair is curly and wild and sometimes looks as if I brushed it with a pork chop, but when she pulls out every clip or bow or anything else I've ever tried the second I put it in, it feels a little pointless. Why don't you focus on other things like the fact that she can sing all of "Twinkle twinkle little star" or that she can count to 15 or maybe that she can point to and say quite clearly all of the animals at the zoo and what sounds they make. It's a superficial society we live in.

10. FOX News

I know I've said this before, but I have to say it again. I think FOX News is the worst news station in America. From Bill O'Reilly to the occasional Satan's spawn that is Ann Colture, there is nothing redeemable about FOX News and their complete and utter one-sidedness when it comes to politics, politicians, or anything else they deem non-conservative. If I'm feeling bad, I know I can watch FOX News and get a good laugh at every ridiculous thing that comes out of all of their mouths.

Fun at the park and on the potty

2009-03-11T14:00:00.000-07:00

Holy Cannoli! I can't believe how bad I have been at posting on my blog. I apologize to my dozen, possibly baker's, readers who follow my interesting life. So instead of talking about everything that has happened in the past two months, let's go back as far as two weeks! First, we went to the exciting Layton park, you know, the park next to my alma mater. GO BLUE AND BLUE! After I stared at my high school in awe for the better part of 3 hours, I realized that I had come to the park not only with my loving husband and daughter, but also with those crazy Meese's. So here are some fun pictures.

Ellie's first experience in a swing and LOVING it!

Graham Meese, apparently bowing

Harrison Meese, too cool for the swing (it's so like him)

Swinging with her momma

And dadda

Second, we have a potty for Ellie, but in no way has it been put to good use, that is, until yesterday. While in her bath, she stood up, looked me directly in the eye and said, "Momma, poo poo in the potty." My excitement was the equivalent of Ed McMahon arriving at my house with a check for 10 million dollars. So I picked her up without even bothering to dry her off, put her on her potty where she sat for about 3 minutes telling me about pooping in the potty, and then after all of my excitement, nothing happened, but hey, it's a good start, right? And because I love taking pictures of my child naked, this was no exception. So here it is.

My Random Life

2009-01-17T13:13:00.000-08:00

My sister-in-law, Lindsay, tagged me with the task of listing my top 6 random things that have either happened to me or that I have done in my life. And after days of thinking, pondering, and sorting, I think I finally have the top 6. So here we go.

1) When I was 9 and living on Altus Air Force Base in Oklahoma, my genius brothers and their friends decided that it would be fun to take the Christmas Tree lights off the bushes and trees and throw them at people's doors. I, of course, followed them because I was always following them around and during this great adventure the military police were driving around and caught me and my brother Isaac, but only because I ran out of the bush that he and I were hiding in. We were put into their police car, taken to the station, and had a report filled out. My poor mother had to come to the station and pick us up. Unfortunately, my poor parents dealt with this kind of thing a lot.

2) Another time in Oklahoma, I was walking in the creek by my house with my friend, Rona. We, of course, had taken our shoes off because why should you wear shoes when walking in an irrigation ditch? Any way, I ended up stepping on a large piece of glass that went into the ball of my foot, walked about a mile to my home with a bloody footprint every step of the way, and finally got home to an angry father because he had told me about a million times not to walk in that ditch because I might step on glass. He took me to the hospital and because he is an oral surgeon, he felt it would be best if he stitched my foot up. Oh, and before he did it, I asked him through terrified and scared sobs if it was going to hurt and he slowly looked up at me with a smile and responded, "don't worry honey, this won't hurt me a bit."

3) Going along with the glass in my foot, after my dad was done stitching me up, he got my medicine, which was pink in a clear bottle, and took me home. He was not too happy with me still and when it was time to take the medicine he called me into the kitchen so I grabbed my crutches and hobbled in. In the kitchen there stood my father with the open door to the fridge and my brother Josh sitting on the counter. My dad reached for my medicine, grabbed a spoon, and started to pour, but little did he know he grabbed the Calamine lotion next to the bottle of my medicine. Both bottles were pink. I knew this and my brother saw what happened and try to tell my dad, but he was too mad and told him to be quiet before he could say anything. So after two spoon fulls of Calamine lotion and the terrified and apologetic look on my brother's face, I was done. And almost immediately I hobbled into the bathroom and threw-up. That was almost 20 years ago and my dad still feels bad.

4) When I was a sophomore in high school, my friend Julie was the only one who had her license so of course, she drove everywhere. Well, one night we all tried to pile into her car, but it was too small and there wasn't enough room. Being the genius I am, I volunteered to lay in the trunk because I thought it would be fun. Well, Julie forgot to turn her headlights on and got pulled over and as the cop was walking to the car my friends were telling me to be quiet, as if I was going to yell "HELLO OFFICER!" to him. Now, everything would have been fine, but Julie put her purse and wallet in the trunk, so of course she had to open it and when she did all I could do was start laughing and say, "how's it going?" Obviously, this didn't go over too well, but fortunately, after about a 30 minute lecture from the cop, we were both given warnings and let go.

5) After dances were over in high school, there was always an activity that you would do afterwards, whether it was to rent out a theater and watch a movie, go swimming, or roast marshmallows over a campfire. Fortunately, my friends were way more creative and I remember one after dance activity in particular that was the most fun and exciting ever. The guys that we went with with worked at the golf course and decided to sneak us all in and take the golf carts out and go for a midnight joy ride. About half way through, all of the sudden we saw lights coming toward us and realized that security had spotted us, so we floored the carts, which went about 15 miles an hour, jumped off when we got close to the entry and somehow I hurdled the 5 foot fence that was standing between freedom and getting arrested by golf course cops. It was awesome.

6) A couple of years ago, Hubert and I went to the Sundance Film Festival with our good friends, Matt and Jenny Meese. We decided that night to instead of going to movies, we wanted to find as many celebrities as we could, and we ended up having one of the most fun nights of my life. Not only did we get denied three times when trying to get into the Entertainment Weekly party, but we saw Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick, Tara Reid, Crispin Gloven, Nick Cannon, and so many more. The best part for me was when Adam Brody put his arm around me and I got a picture, but the funniest part was when Puff Daddy was standing right next to Jenny and she asked for his autograph and he didn't even smile at her and just nodded his head no and got into his car and drove off. I don't know if any of us had ever of have ever since laughed as hard as we did that night.

Off the endangered species list

2009-01-01T15:17:00.000-08:00

If you weren't already aware, and for most of you, you wouldn't be, Ellie is in love with everything panda which is why she has everything panda. And no, we didn't force her to like this docile creature, she came up with her infatuation all on her own. Oh, and just to let you know, she was watching Kung Fu Panda when I took this picture which is why she had no idea I placed a small panda on her head.

A poem, if you will

2008-12-11T09:41:00.000-08:00

'Twas three weeks before Christmas and nighttime was falling,

I hadn't yet showered and Ellie was calling.

Hubert walks through the door, her face lights up with glee,

I hand him the baby, finally a chance to pee.

But something was happening, an evening of fun,

So ready, we got, for Ellie to see "The One."

Our branch Christmas party was finally here, a fun time with friends,

And the most fun at the end.

In walks The man, bag thrown over his shoulder,

The kids all go crazy and I have never felt older.

It's finally her turn and I lower her without error,

Who knew all her smiles would turn into pure terror.

Maybe next year will be better, I guess we'll wait a while,

But hey, at least Santa and I got to smile.

Let the holidays begin

2008-12-09T12:12:00.000-08:00

The day after Thanksgiving, our little family had the opportunity to go with our friends, the Jensens, to Manti for the weekend. I know what you're thinking and I'm sure it's going something like this, "Wow, Manti! If only we were all so lucky." But even though it's a small and quiet town, we had a great time with our friends, but the best part was when we drove up into the mountains, unhooked the four-wheelers, found our Christmas tree, and cut it down. And to prove that Hubert and I did such a thing, I documented our journey.

Sure, it's a little Charlie Brown and Ellie thinks that she is helping me all day by removing all of the ornaments and handing them to me, but I love it and can't wait to do it again next year.

IT BURNS! IT BURNS!

2008-11-20T17:05:00.000-08:00

This was the scene last night when my daughter threw-up all over me and the unexpected burning my skin felt. Why am I smiling, you ask? Two reasons:

1. I wasn't aware that a 21 pound, 15 month old little girl could throw up as much as a 37 year old, 300 pound man. I guess thinking about it made me laugh.

2. The amount of gagging/laughing Hubert did while taking off Ellie's really gross pajamas. I told him that he pulled a Vince Vaughn and you know what I'm talking about if you have seen the previews for his new movie, "Four Christmases."

The radical 80's

2008-11-14T08:14:00.000-08:00

As my daughter sits on my bed playing with my collection of jewelry which consists of one necklace, thank you Hubert, one bracelet, thank you mom, and one toe ring, thank you I don't know who, I decided to post about my five favorite 80's movies and my accompanying favorite lines. Also, the order they are posted in not only reflects how funny I think they are, but also by how often I can watch them.

5. Some Kind of Wonderful

Keith: Well, I like art, I work in a gas station, my best friend is a tomboy. These things don't fly too well in the American high school.

4. Say Anything

Lloyd Dobler: I got a question. If you guys know so much about women, how come you're here at like the Gas 'n' Sip on a Saturday night completely alone drinking beers with no women anywhere?
Joe: By choice, man.

3. Sixteen Candles

Lumberjack: What's your last name?
Long Duk Dong: Dong.
Lumberjack: What's your first name?
Long Duk Dong: Long.
Lumberjack: What's your middle name?
Long Duk Dong: Duk.

2. Real Genius

Kent: You're all a bunch of degenerates.
Chris Knight: *We* are? What about that time I found you naked with that bowl of Jell-O?
Kent: You did not.
Chris Knight: This is true.
Kent: Look, it was hot and I was hungry, okay?

1. Better Off Dead

Roy Stalin: You'd make a fine little helper. What's your name?
Charles De Mar: Charles De Mar.
Roy Stalin: Shut up, geek.

An Historic Night

2008-11-05T12:01:00.000-08:00

Last night, November 4th 2008, Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States. I have to admit that I was emotional watching he and his family walk out onto that stage in Chicago to give his acceptance speech and in some ways I am still emotional and will continue to be. As I saw this young African-American man stand so poised and humbled on that stage, I couldn't help but think of what has happened for him to get there and how many people have struggled and died through the years of slavery, segregation, oppression, and so many other trials in order for him to be able to hold the highest office our government provides, the office of the President of the United States of America. I know that many people didn't vote for him and are probably frustrated by the outcome, but hopefully the significance of what happened last night and how truly important it is in our history will not be lost to them. So today, I decided to find pictures of the long road it has taken for us to have our first and hopefully not the last African-American President.

Vote Early, Vote Often

2008-10-29T08:51:00.000-07:00

After two hours of waiting in this line

This facial expression

Weaving in and out of bookshelves while Hubert wore Ellie's headband

This facial expression because we weren't planning on two hours and therefore left all food at home

And showing me her belly because that is where her food should have been

We voted

Cool Outfit

2008-10-27T09:20:00.000-07:00

This is what happens when she chooses what to wear.

A Pumpkin Amongst Pumkins

2008-10-24T08:20:00.000-07:00

Last week Ellie and I went to the Black Island Farm with some friends and although the name makes no sense because there was nothing black about this place,except for the gigantic tires, and it was in Syracuse, a land-locked town (like all of Utah), we had a great time. And here are some fun pictures.

The Shower Incident

2008-10-13T12:19:00.000-07:00

Have you ever found yourself in a peculiar situation? One that you really don't know how or why you got there? Well, this such situation happened to me just the other night, or should I say morning. You see, at 1:15 in the am on Saturday, I found myself standing in my shower with no recollection as to how I got there. The only reason I regained consciousness was because I noticed the scalding water that was burning my skin. Luckily, I wasn't standing in my clothes in the shower, but it was still a little jarring. So anyway, there I was, totally confused and at the time I didn't know what time it was. You see, I had to be up at 5:00 so in my mind I was thinking that my body just got up because it knew it was time. Yeah, I know, dumb. But I guess what really threw me off was when I got out of the shower my alarm clock was sitting on the bathroom counter. Now, I'm sure that most people have a small alarm clock, but ours is huge

as seen by it almost being half the size of Ellie and it's also awkwardly plugged in behind my bed and night stand, so pulling the plug isn't easy, as I realized by the huge scrape on my wrist. Now I'm staring at the alarm clock really trying to figure out what's going on and wanting to know the time because I thought I was running late. I walked into our bedroom and grabbed my watch and it read 1:15. I didn't think that could possibly be right, so I went downstairs and the other clocks read the same thing. I think at the exact moment I realized what had happened and laughed really hard and went back into the bedroom. Unfortunately, I have slept-walked before but never to this extreme. Another unfortunate thing is that you need a degree in engineering to figure out how to set the alarm clock, so I had to wake Hubert up to help me and of course explain what just happened. We both got a pretty good laugh.

Off The Wagon

2008-10-07T12:25:00.000-07:00

Wow, where do I begin? I guess it all started about 2 weeks ago. Hubert and I were out to dinner and when the waitress asked if we would like anything to drink I immediately said water. As soon as she started walking away, and after Hubert ordered his Coke, I thought that I had been very good at drinking only water and I deserved a delicious treat and so I yelled after her like like a woman panicly yelling at her child who is about to get hit by a car. After she cautiously returned to our table I ordered my Coke and that was that, I was hooked again. Three delicious Cokes later we were done with our meal, but I wasn't done with Coke. Of course we didn't have any in our home, so I thought about an excuse I could use to get it back into our fridge. I remember that I was grocery shopping the next day and I needed to come up with a list and I had recently learned the recipe for Cafe Rio pork and it required about 6 cans of Coke and just knowing this information and that my next fix was only hours away, I could sleep that night. The next day I awoke with a new sense of purpose, and that purpose was getting that delicious amber-brown nectar that simultaneously burned my throat and tickled my nose with it's delightful fizz to be mine, and only mine. Oh, why only mine? Well, I couldn't possibly let Hubert know my addiction had returned, so I decided I needed to hide my Cokes around the house. Now, I know this looks gross, but really with a little soap and a bucket full of scolding water, it came clean.

Because I am the only one who waters our one and only plant in the house, I knew that Hubert would never suspect I hid one there and besides, don't the colors look great together? I wonder if I could use the unlikely combination of red and green during an upcoming winter month and decorate crafts, lights, and possibly a pine tree which I plan displaying in my living room. It's really amazing how drinking Coke really expands my mind.

If you look away too quickly, you might have missed the Coke amongst my beloved Japanese dolls, but there it is, silently camouflaged. Again, Hubert doesn't pay much attention to my decorating choices and even though these dolls are displayed directly in front of our living room, I don't think he'll notice. It's the perfect cover.

Of course, my cover of being a non-Cokeaholic was blown and I had to face my demons, which I have been doing for the last two days along side the gigantic headache that always accompanies my relapses. So please, if you see me in the neighborhood, don't look away and cross the street in order to avoid me. I'm human, too.

Why I Love Sesame Street

2008-09-30T18:43:00.001-07:00

I love Sesame Street for many reasons, but I have decided to narrow the reasons down to three. So here we go.

1) For one hour a day, Ellie is completely entertained by Elmo, Big Bird, Grover, The Count, and so many other little monsters. And for that one hour, I am able to not really do things that would tickle my fancy, but things that need to be done none the less. So, thank you, PBS, for making the show an hour long. I know so many mothers that are greatly appreciative.

2) Elmo. That's really all I need to say because she loves him and everything about him. From his cute voice, his laugh, his googley eyes, red fur, and the fact that he speaks in the third person, which, OK, I guess I love. But, he makes her happy and when he's doing his "Elmo's World," nothing else matters, as seen in this picture. Oh, and please notice that not only is Elmo on the screen, he is also in the form of a Halloween basket right next to her. Like I said, she loves Elmo.

3) The guests and skits. Sesame Street has had so many guests from Andrea Boccelli and David Beckham to Robert DeNiro and Tina Fey and I have to say that they have never disappointed. And speaking of Tina Fey, Sesame Street did their own little version of "Thirty Rock," but instead titled it "Thirty Rocks." I think the title is pretty self-explanatory, but take a look your self. It's pretty good.

Something's Missing

2008-09-27T18:54:00.000-07:00

I need to remember the diaper goes around her bum, not her neck

And with legs like these, who needs pants?

Ellie's 1 year pictures, with her parents on the side

2008-09-17T16:08:00.000-07:00

We had family pictures and Ellie's 1 year pictures taken about a month ago, so I thought I would post some of my favorite ones.

A Moment...with Meagan

2008-09-10T09:57:00.000-07:00

This past week Ellie and I have had a bit of a cold so instead of being outside playing, we have been inside playing, but the cabin fever finally got to us and we had to leave the house. While still pajama'd, I put her in her car seat, put myself in my car seat, and off we were with endless possibilities. The sky was blue, the weather cool, our sunroof open and wind was blowing through our hair. It wasn't until I turned on the radio that I realized that my day wasn't going to be as good as it could have been. Why? Because I realized after flipping through each channel on the radio multiple times, there was no good music, none, zip, zilch. I'll just be blunt, it was all crap. And that is where this moment begins. As I was sitting in my car, silently swearing because I forgot my i-Pod on this wonderful car ride that would be so complimented with a good song, I started to think about music in this day and age and I realized that I miss good music. Sure, sometimes there is a catchy song that I find myself moving along to, but do I want to know anything about the artist? No. Do I feel the need to buy the CD? No. Do I forget the song as soon as I hear it? Yes. So what happened to good music? I guess I have to clear the cobwebs of my mind and return to when I consider music to be good. When my brothers played Depeche Mode in our little home on Altus Air Force Base and I happened to over hear it and be hypnotized with their dark lyrics and synthetic sound. When hearing any song by Erasure would then, and even now, make me sing out loud with their melodies. Or what about when the alternative era emerged?

Nirvana played music that no one had ever hear before and it was dark, depressing, solemn, and so good. To this day, they are still Hubert's favorite and as I'm typing this I'm looking into the face of the deceased Kurt Cobain on my desk from a disc set that we recently purchased. But what about other bands from that era? There's Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, Sonic Youth, Pearl Jam. And let's not forget that fashion that was born. I mean, who wasn't wearing flannel shirts tied around their torn jeans? But not only do I love alternative and synthesized music, I also love hip-hop and even rap. When was the last time a De La Soul song was played on the radio? Or what about Jurassic 5? Sometimes I hear A Tribe Called Quest,

but only late at night when the DJ's bosses have gone home and they have free range. Now, I'm not saying that all "new" music is bad, because it's not. There are a few who have broken through the lame sounds of Britney Spears, Jonas Brothers, and every whiny Emo group that is out there. For example, when Coldplay came out I thought they were awesome and have only gotten better. And what about Feist?

If you've never listened to her, give her a try. And, of course, there are so many more bands that I love like the Beastie Boys, Indigo Girls, Sara McLaughin, Weezer, Death Cab For Cutie, and this list could go on and on. Now, with all of the generic music and "artists" that are being manufactured as fast as American Idol has seasons, how do we teach our children what, in fact, is good music? Well, I have been experimenting with ways to sway Ellie from lame music by artists such as Fergie or Miley Cyrus and showing her they are no good by doing various hideous facial expressions and hand gestures, and then we play a Beck or Frou Frou song which we happily, if not badly, dance to, therefore letting her know this is good music. So far, it seems to work, as you can see by this picture showing Ellie dancing to Coldplay's Viva la Vida.

So in closing, I know that if we all work together, we can stop the likes of Christina Aguilara, Justin Timberlake, the cast of "High School Musical," all of rap's "Lil's," and so many more. And if we are able to wipe out all of the bad music out there, then maybe we could wipe out everything bad, like poverty, malnourished children, FOX News, and everything else detrimental to our society.

Perpetual bed head

2008-09-04T15:09:00.000-07:00

I always feared bearing a female version of a baby, not because I wouldn't love, adore, dote, stare at, or kiss her every chance I had, but because of the fashion aspect. For myself, I have never been much of a girly-girl. I guess growing up with four older brothers sort of takes away that feeling of needing to wear make-up, put dresses on, and learn how to do my hair. Instead, I cared about keeping up with them when we played "Man Hunt," or "kick the can" to those who grew up in Utah, learning how to throw and kick a ball correctly, and figuring out that a backhand swing in tennis gives you a lot more power than a forehand. Only a few years ago did I start to wear make-up, not because I wanted to fit in, but because it was kind of fun, and I still only wear the minimum amount. So what chance does Ellie have? Luckily for her, she has the skin, eyes, lips, and eye lashes that will never require make-up. That's right, I'm jealous of my one year old daughter, I'll admit it. But what about her hair? I think I'm doomed. And as I was going through pictures the other day, I noticed a theme about her hair. Now, it doesn't always look like this, thank goodness, but after her naps (and sometimes, many times, before her naps) it is out of control and nothing I do will tame that beast. Any suggestions?

Happy Birthday, Ellie!

2008-08-31T18:14:00.000-07:00

It happened. She made it. She survived. She's one and I can't believe it! It's strange how quickly it came and also how long it seemed to get here. When she was first born I would get up five, maybe six times a night and because I was becoming delirious with my lack of sleep, I started to think that this was my life and I would be doing this for the next 18 years. Slowly but surely, she started progressing by sleeping through the night, rolling over, then crawling, and now walking. She's also become quite talkative in her young age. She says the usual dadda and momma, but she also says bigger words like cheese and juice and can kind of count to five. I love to hear her talk. I guess there are so many things that I can say about her and I'm sure no one has four hours to read a blog post, so instead I will post some fun pictures from her party, and also the 12 pictures I love most that represent the 12 months we have had her so far. But I would like to thank all of our family and friends who have not only supported Hubert and me so much, but have also loved Ellie. We appreciate it more than we can say.

Party Pictures

The birthday girl

Ellie and Guy

Jake and Milo Baxter

The Meese twins, Graham and Harrison

Ellie and Aunt Ashley

Daintily demolishing her cake

Confusingly opening presents

Again, the birthday girl

Her life, so far

Meeting each other for the first time

Taking a nap with dad at the hospital

Her first day home, finally

Being with Grandma Kami

Being with Grandma Natasha and Grandpa Gonzalo, while Isaac slept

Smiling with Grandpa Steele

Conquering the boppy

Relaxing

Laughing at her crazy mom

Loving the camera

Posing

Smiling with her momma

I turn my back for one second

2008-08-29T09:10:00.001-07:00

WARNING: SOMEWHAT GRAPHIC IMAGE

I walked out of the bathroom for one second and this is what I returned to find.

As soon as I took this picture, my phone rang and I left for another second, only to discover this when I came back

I thought I had a few more years

So long, old friend

2008-08-21T20:52:00.000-07:00

Today I say goodbye to Coke, my loyal and trusted friend. You never left me in my times of need and never disappointed. I have loved every minute we have spent together, especially when I would take that first sip. I didn't matter if you were in a bottle or cup, it was always satisfying, welcoming, and even warm, as if I was a child nestling in your plastic bosom. You never criticized me when I would drink one, possibly two, or regularly three of you during the day. Do you remember those moments, Coke, when we would laugh together? When after the morning of my wedding day, there you were sitting on my kitchen counter, congratulating me on my recent nuptials? Or how about that time when Hubert and I were out eating Chinese food and when he said a funny joke I laughed and then took a sip from your frosty glass? Or what about all those times when I would sneak next door during one of the many weekend Logan trips Jake and Ashley would take and steal a can of you? Memories. Will you miss me, Coke? Will you miss our morning drives to the local Chevron station that had the drive-thru because I was too embarrassed to get out of the car in my pajamas? Or what about the others that will be hurt by our break-up? There's Heather, the girl at the gas station. I know she'll miss our morning, afternoon, and sometimes evening encounters. Do you remember that hysterical conversation we had that one time when she said, "That will be $1.30," and I replied, "Oh, you're prices have gone up?" And she then ended this humorous exchange with, "Yes, it used to be $1.20 and now it's $1.30." Just thinking about it makes me laugh. Oh, why are we breaking up, you ask? Well, Coke, there are a few reasons. First, we have been together for so long, I feel like I know nothing else. I often see people drinking a see-through liquid they describe as "water." I find that fascinating because I only thought water was for bathing or the liquid that falls from the sky during a storm. The second reason is when you are over a dollar a pop (pun intended) it really adds up. And third, I have so many times heard doctors, health reports, and news stories talk about how you can add weight onto the human body. Add weight? All this time I thought because the label said that there was no fat that it would actually help me lose weight. Who would have thought that calories are the real culprit? So, so long, Coke. I'll miss you, but I'm sure that one day we will meet again. We always do.

The Ferocious Baby

2008-08-21T08:49:00.000-07:00

As the ability to move around grows stronger for Ellie, so, it seems, do other "powers." Sure, she's cute with all that hair, those eyes, chubby cheeks, etc., etc., but do we really know the real Eliana Steele Anasco? I thought I did, that is, until the other night.

Exhibit A:

At first glance, she looks sweet, doesn't she? But if you take a closer look, there's something going on behind those eyes, something not quite right.

Exhibit B:

And then she attacks! Hubert is useless against her and her ferocious licking of his face. As you can see, he seems to be passed out. That must be from the cheddar cheese crunchies she ate only moments before. Even the strongest man is powerless against that breath. But even throughout this attack, she never takes her eyes off of me. It's as if she's sizing me up.

Exhibit C:

And before I know it she's on top of me and I'm down for the count. Who would have known that those chubby thighs could wrap so tightly around me? Hopefully next time, I'll be better prepared.

Exhibit D:

And finally, she takes over the camera only to show her sinister smile. She knows that if she can defeat her parents, she can defeat anyone. So beware, friends, family, and even strangers. If she's strong enough to take down her own loving parents, who knows what she's capable of?

10 Years Come and Gone

2008-08-17T09:11:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I had the opportunity to attend my 10 year high school reunion and I have to be honest, I was a little skeptical. So skeptical that I bought my ticket the last day you could buy them because I just wasn't sure about the whole thing, but I was proven wrong and was so glad that I went. Sure, the $25 I paid for the "dinner" that was provided made me a little bit angry when I realized I could have gotten the same amount of food at Taco Bell for $4 and it probably would have been better and the location of the place it was held could not have been further away, but at least they served ice cold water, oh, and lemonade. Delicious. But despite all of that, I caught up with great friends that I have missed over the years and got some really great pictures.

This is my good friend, Bonnie Yarbrough Wangsgard. I was so happy to see her and catch up with she and her husband, who we also went high school with us and is currently in medical school on Las Vegas.

And this is her husband, Mark, who was the chair for my other friend, Tyler King. Things never change.

Cheryl, Becca, Me, Bonnie, and Alysia. Aren't we a good-looking bunch of broads?

And finally, the motley crew. I love these girls but I have to say that Annie, the cute girl to my right, said the funniest thing. She said, and I quote, "When I was dating Tom, I 'nutted' a cow." I'm still not sure what that means, but it almost had me on the floor laughing.

So, hopefully I will see you guys during the next ten years, but if not, I'll see you in 2018! Oh, and to Cheryl and Becca, you can't get rid of me and I'm sure I'll see you next week.

Happy Birthdays!

2008-08-15T14:23:00.001-07:00

This week, both my mom and oldest brother, Josh, have a birthday so I thought I would do a little post with some fun pictures of my mom with her favorite (and only) daughter and my brother with his favorite (and only) sister. So Happy Birthday! I hope that this birthday is a good one.

This picture was taken in Buffalo, NY where I went to spend a couple of weeks with my mom the summer before my senior year of high school. We had a really great time and I'm so glad I went.

Even though Josh and I are nine years apart, he was always playing with me and was such a great big brother.

Before my mom and dad had kids, my mother was a beautiful ballerina. Fortunately, my mother is still beautiful, unfortunately, while in college, she suffered from an injury and was unable to continue to dance. Do you want to know what else in unfortunate? A daughter with two left feet. But she didn't care and offered to choreograph the Nut Cracker play that I was in in elementary school. This picture was actually in the paper. Yeah, you know it's a small town when the elementary school in Altus, Oklahoma gets their picture in the paper.

Because my ballet skills were questionable, I decided to try sports because that was what my brothers did and I faired much better. And even though all of my brothers played with me, Josh would always help me when I asked, especially when it came to softball. I remember he would hardly ever miss a game that I played and it meant so much to look into those stands and see his bleached, feathered hair.

Ah yes, my high school graduation. All I can really say about that is it was a questionable day considering how many U's I had to make up in order to graduate. But it was so great to have my mom there cheering for me.

And finally, this is my favorite picture of Josh and me and not because it was in the paper and not because we were in Japan, but because it reminds me of how much fun we had when we were little and how much I miss it.

Happy birthday, you two. I hope that these few pictures brought back some fun memories and put a smile on your faces. I love you both and hope you each have a fun and happy day.

Why do I keep doing this to myself?

2008-08-10T16:17:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, I ran the Provo Canyon 1/2 Marathon and I have to say that it was not the easiest thing I have ever done, but after 2 1/2 hours of running (and sometimes walking), sore hips, knees, and calves, I finished and the best part was that I wasn't last! Luckily, I was able to run with my really good friend, Amber Eggett, who is an amazing runner, and she was so nice to stay with me for the first few miles, but I knew that she could go so much faster without me, so I let her go and didn't see her again until the finish line, which was 30 minutes after she finished.

Funny story, I had to take my glasses off during the race because they slide off my face when I sweat and because of that, everything was blurry. As I got closer to the finish line I could see families lined up and I could hear people cheering, so I thought I was almost there and I looked up and saw who I thought was my dad. Because of that, I started waving my arms wildly, running really fast towards him with a gigantic smile, and when I got there I realized this man was in fact, not my father and I had just made a fool of myself while wasting valuable energy. And the cherry on top of that fabulous story came when the finish line was a half mile away. Stupid bad vision.

But anyway, I was so happy to see my family at the finish line cheering for me, but what really made the race all worth it was this awesome t-shirt.

A Great Visit #2

2008-08-07T20:23:00.000-07:00

This week, we had the opportunity to have my Grandparents, Ellie's Great-Grandparents, come and visit and I have to say that I love it when they come to see us. They have served several missions around the world, but we were fortunate enough to have them close to us during their last mission because it was at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. Unfortunately, since they were released, which was a few years ago, we haven't had the chance to see them as much as we would like to because they live in California, so when we do we really cherish those moments. Also, I have to brag because I think my Grandparents are the coolest people in the world. For their 80th birthdays, which are days apart, they went skydiving and put it on their Christmas cards and I can't think of a cooler Christmas card.

We love you, Grandma and Grandpa Day!

A Great Visit

2008-08-04T19:39:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, we had the wonderful opportunity to have my mom and Michele visit us and it was so much fun. It was only the second time my mom had seen Ellie since she was born because she lives in Kansas and it was the first time for Michele, but that didn't matter to Ellie. She went right to them like she had been seeing them every day since the day she was born and I have to say that it made me so happy because Ellie doesn't do that with a lot of people and I really wanted them to have a nice visit. But I just wanted to thank both of them for coming and spending time with us because it was so great and we missed them so much when they left. And also, we took a three generation picture with my mom that was a little surreal at the moment because I couldn't believe that I was part of a picture that included my mother, me, and my daughter instead of how it has been my whole life which is my grandmother, mother, and me. But it was a great time and I hope they can come back soon, and so does Ellie. We Love You!

This is no good

2008-07-30T20:21:00.001-07:00

Like so many others in this vast universe, I have read, and um, re-read the Twilight books. I have lived vicariously through the lives of these teenagers and their angst, sour dispositions, and finally, forbidden vampire love. I have enjoyed talking to many people about the books, people I would have never spoken to before like that strange woman I saw in my dermatologist's office with a patch over her eye. Hey, she was reading the book and I had to say something. And because I have become so familiar with these characters I expected more from the picture above. Unlike many people, mostly women, I think the casting of this movie was correct. Edward, being played by Robert Pattinson, is someone I think would do a good job mainly because I saw him in the fourth Harry Potter movie and liked him...even though he was a teenager. Is that weird because I'm 27? I won't think about it. And Bella, being played by Kristen Stewart, is just pretty enough, but not quite drop-dead gorgeous. And in the books, their descriptions are simple. Edward is good-looking and Bella is somewhat plain. So let's go back to the picture. Does it represent these two in the right light? I think not. It's as if they got to the photo shoot and the photographer had no idea who they were, had never even heard of the books, and just found out he was a vampire. I can only imagine the conversation he had with the actors when they arrived and I'm sure it went something like this:

"Oh, you are supposed to be a vampire? Interesting. And you, you are his girlfriend? How does that work? Oh, no I haven't read the books. Now let's see. (Photographer to hairdresser) You know, Michael, I don't think we will be needing you today. I think I know the perfect people who would get this done perfectly and they're cheap. All they need is a round brush and aquanet."

(Photographer to make-up artist) "You know, Mariel, you can also take the day off. My friend, Robert, is in town and frankly, he doesn't have a whole lot to do. I just hope he brings the right shade of red."

And finally, (photographer to stylist) "And Jacques, take an early lunch. I'm going to go back in time to fetch my good friend, Steff. He's the best at fashions that require button-up shirts to expose bare chests. I wonder if he will suggest a pastel suit with white loafers and no socks. If only I knew the state that "John Hughes Town" was in."

Cost to make good-looking guy look like a girl, $3000 dollars. Cost to make good-looking girl look like a 1940's harlot, $4000 dollars. The agonizing screams that millions of women made at the sight of this picture, priceless.

A Moment...with Meagan

2008-07-23T12:52:00.000-07:00

This moment comes courtesy from a walk I make often to the Smith's grocery store that is near my house. This walk began like any other. I needed to pick up a prescription so I lathered Ellie in sun block, loaded her into her stroller, and off we were. While on our walk, we passed many people, mainly construction workers because there is so much building going on around my house, and as usual I see everyone around me, but never notice anything that catches my eye, that is, until today. But this person that I noticed wasn't a construction worker, he was a teenager, either a high school graduate or a senior. He was at the gas station in the Smith's parking lot and the reason he caught my eye was because he was wearing swim trunks. It was the swim trunks that threw me into my moment. As soon as I saw them, I began to day dream about the life I had at his age when a hot summer day provided so many opportunities. When waking up at 11:00 was the norm and calling your friends after lunch/breakfast was the daily routine. When you could throw on your swim suit without a thought to how you looked because you hadn't yet gained 50 pounds when you were pregnant and no matter how many miles you run or how much water you drink it still hasn't gone away. When it was so hot that the only thing to quench the heat was cliff jumping at Causey Reservoir. When you looked so forward to the drive to the cliffs because somehow eight of you fit into my '91 Mazda Protege that has been through more accidents than Evil Kinevil has broken bones and nothing is better than that drive with the windows down, the wind blowing through my hair, a 32 oz. Mountain Dew in my cup holder, and Weezer's "Buddy Holly" playing in my CD player. When you work your 15-20 hour a week job at $5.25 an hour so that after 2 weeks you receive the fortune that is about $150 dollars in your paycheck. When thinking about the future meant if you were going to Taco Bell that night or roasting hots dogs over a campfire. And finally, when the words mortgage, income, and health insurance weren't a part of your vocabulary.

But suddenly, I was taken out of my daydream because my sweet daughter had dropped her Elmo, her most favorite thing and all I heard was, "Emo, bye bye," which is a sweeter sound than any symphony could ever play. I picked it up and handed it to her, and as she took it from me she had a smile on her face that would melt the coldest man's heart and I thought to myself, nothing is better than this.

I Have To Brag

2008-07-10T13:08:00.001-07:00

My good friend, Cara, who ran the Ragnar with me just let me know that there is a DVD trailer of the race we just ran and you can actually see little old me. I'm in the very first part where they start at the finish line and you see us from behind and I am the girl in the red shirt clapping with her hands in the air and also, about 29 seconds in, you see the guy in the cross-country skis and I am the girl in the red shirt standing right next to him. I know, I think I'm much cooler than I actually am. Oh, and to answer Janel's question, no, he did not have wheels on the bottom of his skis, but he still passed me.

Happy Belated 4th of July!

2008-07-08T11:50:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th of July! Now, I realize it's the 8th of July, but should there be a time limit on when we can celebrate our countries independence? I think not. Therefore, here I go. I had to show the picture above because Grandma Natasha bought she and Ellie matching flag shirts and they looked so cute and I had to put them on display. Moving on. As I think about this past 4th of July, Ellie's first, there were so many things I wanted to do, even though they were things I severely dislike. The first was to go to a parade, something I find a complete waste of time and resources, but I have noticed at past parades that children quite enjoy them, so I thought, why not? We were going to go with our wonderful friends, the Meese's, and their twin boys, but unfortunately one of the boys wasn't feeling well, so it didn't happen. The other thing I wanted to do, for Ellie, was attend a fire works show. Now, not only do I find them insanely boring, is there a need for the city to spend thousands of dollars, which could go to something more useful such as, oh I do know, the schools? Apparently, there is. But, we also missed that because the weather wasn't good. But even though we missed these wonderfully patriotic traditions, we still have the 24th of July, also known as Pioneer Day, but I refer to it as "Mormon Christmas." So, with fingers crossed and hopefully non-sick kids, we will do all those things in 16 days.

I Can't Believe It's Over!

2008-06-23T14:48:00.000-07:00

Well, we did it! We ran the Ragnar and I have to say that it was the funnest time ever. I don't think I have ever laughed so hard, smelled so bad, or been so tired in my whole entire life, but it was so worth it and I would do it again in a heart beat. And to the girls in my van, I love you all so much and thank you for putting up with my crazy antics. You all kicked some serious butt.

These were the awesome girls in my van from left to right: Monica, Kathy, Andrea, Meagan, Amber, and Cara. Oh, and this was before the race began. Don't we look happy, rested, and clean?

I was lucky enough to actually begin the race for our team and it was so much fun to jump off of that starting line. I was so excited and my adrenaline was just pumping. It was a great feeling...until

I was passed, yes passed, by a man wearing cross-country skis. That's right, ski's. When he passed my I actually turned to him and said, while laughing, "You've got to be kidding me." He just looked at me and smiled.

Cara was smart enough to bring her son's super soaker and it was such a great idea because it was so dang HOT. I can't thank her enough for that.

I had to put this picture of Amber up because she looked so cute during the whole race and she was totally fast! Amber, you're awesome.

This was a gorgeous meadow that we drove through while one of our runners was running. So much of the race had scenery like this.

I was just starting me second, and hardest leg right here. It was 8.5 miles down Trapper's Loop, but I loved it. The first part was really uphill, which was very hard, but the last part was all downhill and so much fun. I was lucky enough to have Jake, Ashley, and Milo cheer me on this part of the race.

Me running downhill and somehow I have a smile on my face. I guess I was just so happy the uphill was over with.

Finally, after personally running 18 miles and being awake for over 32 hours, we made it to the finish line. Thanks again to all of my van mates. Because of this experience, I have five wonderful life-long friends and hopefully we'll do this again next year!

wow, really, REALLY!?

2008-06-13T15:27:00.001-07:00

I was looking at my brother-in-law, Charlie's, blog and he posted something that he found to be horrible and after I saw it, I can't agree with him more. A company in West Jordan, called TheSockObama, has come out with a sock puppet that is in support of Barack Obama. And this horrific and racist toy is what they came up with:

It's hard to express how awful I think something like this is and from a company that is in support of Obama. It also saddens me that in 2008, a toy made in effigy of an African American man is made to look like this. When did we revert back to the 50's, or better yet, back to the horrible times of slavery? Charlie and I have personally written e-mails to this company and I hope that others will express their feelings to this company and hopefully this "toy" will stop being made and sold. If you feel inclined to share your feelings with them, please e-mail them at sales@thesockobama.com. Because of things like this, stereotypes never end and racism never ends and when a toy like this is made for a child, it is only perpetuated further. Let's do what we can to stop it.

The Way It Was

2008-06-09T10:00:00.001-07:00

About nine years ago, I had the opportunity to visit New York City for about a week and it was a wonderful experience. We went to the Met, the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art), Time Square, Greenwich Village, Broadway shows, Central Park, but I think the place that was the best that we went to was the Statue of Liberty and I guess going there then means more to me now than ever before. As I look at that picture and see the Twin Towers behind me, there are so many emotions that I have. First, I will never be able to stand at that exact spot, at the base of the Statue of Liberty, with my husband and children and have that beautiful sky line behind us. Second, I think about all of those people who were working in those towers on that day that I was visiting who died 2 years later, who kissed their loved ones goodbye that morning and never kissed them goodnight. And the third emotion brings me to our election season, the most important so far in my lifetime. Now that we have our presumptive nominees, Barack Obama and John McCain, it's important that every issue is discussed, every speech is analyzed, and the character behind these men is looked at closely. I guess what I'm trying to say is that on September 11, 2001, over 3000 innocent people died for a reason that has never been made clear to me. Do we really need to continue to have our troops, men and women, die every day for a cause that no one really understands? To me, that answer is a profound no. I know that everyone has the right and liberty to vote whichever way they feel is best for them and that is one reason that makes our country great, but for me, for my children, their children, and so on, we need a country that is united and a "war" that needs to end.

It's pretty obvious who we are behind and thanks Matt and Jenny for this cute onesie. We think it's important to have our children involved in politics as early as possible. But anyway, I hope that in November we walk into the election booths and vote for who we think is the best person to be the leader of the free world. And when you do vote, don't vote for the person that you think your parents would want you to vote for, who your church thinks is best, or because of what your friends are saying, instead, vote for the best person that is the best for you and for what you believe in.

Glasses, no apologies necessary

2008-05-30T13:17:00.001-07:00

Recently, I was reading my cousin Zach and Ginet's blog when I happened to scroll down to look at picture's of cute Ginet with her gorgeous daughter, Adeline, who is Ellie's age. At the end of that particular post, she used an asterisk and explained her reason behind wearing her glasses because people had been asking. Her reason being that she had an infection in her eye, therefore not allowing her the use of her contacts. This got me thinking about my personal glasses wearing and the trials and tribulations that I have gone through answering the endless questions about why, how long, and my favorite, is it because of your weird eye?

Yes, that weird eye. Sure, it happened because I was in a seemingly harmless "rock fight" in the fourth grade. I know what you're thinking. How could anything such as hurling rocks at other classmates five feet away be harmful? Well, apparently it was only harmful to me. And it's ok to look directly into it. Only once has it put someone into a trance, and that's how I got Hubert to marry me. Ironically, the weird eye has perfect 20/20 vision, whereas the other "normal" eye, the one with, as some might say, the "problem," is the eye that has poor vision. But I haven't always worn glasses. It all started when I began college and couldn't see the board in one of my stadium seated classes. Ever since then, my eye sight has only gotten worse. But let me continue. Why do we glasses wearing people, whom I refer to as "impaired visionites," feel the need to explain or even apologize for our use of our glasses. Do people with canes apologize for their use of their stickly support? Do hearing impaired people apologize for that lima bean shaped hearing aide in their ear even when it's turned up so loud you can hear the whinning sound from down the street? I think not, nor do they feel the need to. So why do we? It got me thinking about glasses and what wearing them means to most people, people who do not wear them. First, I will show a picture

I know that this movie didn't bring on the "nerd" stereotype that comes with wearing glasses, but it sure perpetuated it. But why are we considered nerds? Does having bad vision really place us in a category that allows "jocks" and "cheerleaders" to make fun of us? It shouldn't, but for some reason you will find that it does. Maybe it's because these kids who do wear glasses are picked on by the "cool kids", making them feel not good enough or embarrassed to play sports or other such "cool" activities, therefore making them study harder, making them smarter, and in the end, having successful careers such as professors, doctors, scientists, etc. I'm not saying that everyone that wears glasses is smart. I mean, look at this guy

I'm just saying that the past and present has shown that the smarter people have donned spectacles. For example, we have Ernest Hemingway, the great American novelist,

Allen Ginsberg, the renowned and beautiful poet,

And Tina Fey, the funniest woman in entertainment today

I could go on with the be-spectacled people, but I won't. In the end, I will say this. When someone asks you why you are wearing your glasses, just tell them that you were one of the chosen few who were asked to be smarter, more witty, more clever, and more stylish than then they are. Then, when they are looking at you with a look of bewilderment, take your glasses of, breathe on them, clean them, place them back on your face, and walk away. And remember, no apologies necessary.

Family pictures...of Ellie

2008-05-22T09:32:00.000-07:00

We took our family pictures last month and we finally got them back so I thought I would post a few of my favorites of Ellie because let's be honest, everyone would rather see her. I know I would.

A fun and festive day

2008-05-17T19:27:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, we had the opportunity to attend the wedding of Hubert's cousin, Nancy, in the Salt Lake Temple. Unfortunately, the ceremony was at 9:00 am, therefore putting us right in the middle of rush hour traffic and then leaving us to find parking in downtown Salt Lake, which is atrocious. So, instead of driving, we took advantage of our new train, the Frontrunner, which runs from Ogden to Salt Lake and I have to say that it was WONDERFUL! They have a stop about two minutes from our house and it took about 25 minutes to get into Salt Lake, and then another 15 minutes on TRAX, which is the trolley that runs within Salt Lake. The picture above was taken on the walkway above the tracks. So, in all the trip took 40 minutes and it could have easily taken closer to an hour and half. I encourage everyone to use their public transportation not only because gas prices are insane, but because we all need to work harder to help the environment and using less gas will definitely help. But not only was the train fun to ride, we had a great time with Hubert's family and we got some great pictures at the Temple,

And what would a great reception be without dancing, well, besides my wedding reception

And because Hubert and I wanted to dance, Grandma Natasha got to dance with Ellie

Holy Ragnar, Batman

2008-05-17T18:45:00.000-07:00

Foolishly, stupidly, and I wish I could say without my knowledge, I signed up to run in the "Wasatch Back", also known as the "Ragnar," which I thought was an acronym for "Race Around Greater Northern Area Region." It's not. Apparently, it's the name of the individual who came up with the cruel joke of athletic ability and endurance, two things of which I am lacking. In short, it's a relay marathon that begins in Logan and ends in Park City, which is about 180 miles. The race spans two days, running day and night, and there are twelve people to a team making each person run 3 legs. My team consists of 6 great friends from my branch and also 6 other girls that I don't know well, but I'm sure I will know well enough at the end of the race. We all got together and chose our legs, and I chose the first leg. You can click on "Runner One" and the three numbers under that are the legs I'm running. I'm a little worried about the middle, downhill one, but I think I can do it, although I'm not sure how to train for 8.5 miles of downhill running. Any suggestions? But anyway, when I started training a couple of months ago, I was using running shoes that I have had for about 4 years.
Because of this (and my constant complaining about my feet), my wonderful husband for Mother's Day bought me this

Now, because I have learned my lesson, I have these

Also, a lot of teams dress up for this race and we are having a hard time coming up with something creative and funny to wear. If anyone has any ideas, let me know.

So Long, St. George

2008-05-02T17:53:00.000-07:00

This past week Hubert, Ellie, and I had a chance to be in St. George for our first ever family vacation and I have to say that I don't ever remember having so much fun. We were lucky enough to have Ashley and Milo Baxter with us (unfortunately Jake had to work), and also Matt and Jenny Meese with their handsome twin boys, Graham and Harrison.

It was so relaxing and the weather was beautiful and we were very sad to leave, mainly because I was horrified of how Ellie was going to act in the car for four hours because driving there wasn't pretty. But, she did great and we got home safely. But although we all had a great time swimming with the babes,

playing tennis (Ashley, I want a re-match!), and relaxing with great conversation, I have to say that the best part was the newly opened In and Out Burger!

When Hubert and I were finally to St. George after the long drive, we both looked to our left and saw the mecca of all burger joints. All I could think of was that cheeseburger animal style. And even though we did go there twice, I wish it could have been thrice. So, so long St. George! Hopefully, we'll be back soon and thank you to our wonderful friends for coming with us.

10 years already?!

2008-04-25T13:14:00.000-07:00

About a week ago, I got an e-mail about my 10 year high school reunion and I couldn't believe it. First of all, I was astonished that we are actually going to have one because the people in charge aren't really what I would call, dependable. Second of all, I thought how much weight I could lose between now and August, and third, I can't believe I've been graduated for 10 years! It's kind of a weird feeling when you look back at the past 10 years and think of the differences between then and now, which are quite a few, such as hairstyles, clothing choices, music, and so much more. Now, I felt I must compose a list of the things that were cool back then and how uncool they are now.

Hairstyles:

1) "The Roman"-This cut was popular among the male crowd because, I think, that was when the movie Gladiator came out. Either that, or they had all just read "Julius Caesar" in their English classes.
2) "The Rachael"-This shaggy haircut was very popular, mostly among the cheerleading crowd who all thought they looked like Rachael Green from "Friends", a crowd that I was not a part of.
3) "The Bob"-This haircut was called "The Bob" but I personally referred to it as the "Helmet" much to the chagrin of my friends who sported the cut.
4) "The Perm"-I know, I know, this style was and still is around but can't we do something to stop it?
5) "The Hippie"-And finally, this was the style I sported, as well as many of my friends. What could have been cooler than really long, straight hair parted down the middle? To me, nothing.

Clothing Choices:

1) Overalls-Yes, I wore overalls and thought they were the coolest thing since sliced bread and I'll be honest, if I could still get away with it, I'd throw them back on. And no, your eyes don't deceive you, two of us were sporting the overalls.
2) "Stussy" shirts-It's interesting how cool these shirts were because EVERYONE wore them. I wonder what Mr. Stussy is doing now that no one is wearing his shirts anymore.
3) Fisherman hats-I hated those blasted things and to all that continue to wear them, and you know who you are, if you aren't actually in a fishing boat or anywhere near a body of water, for the love, take it off.
4) Guy Sandals with Socks-These sandals looked almost like gladiator sandals, which is probably why guys who sported the "Roman" most often wore them, but when the socks, white cotton, were added, they jumped the shark.
5) Doc Martens-I loved these shoes, all of them, including the boots, mary janes, dress shoes, and any other variety they have and to be honest, I still think they're pretty cool.

Music: This category is the one that I will not make fun of because 10 years later, no one has touched how great these bands were, and how great some of them are still today.

1) Rage Against The Machine-From Zach de la Rocha's anti-government lyrics to the amazing guitar playing, this group was not only amazing on their cd's, they were a tremendous live show.
2) Sarah McLachlan-She is still making music, but her "Surfacing" album that came out in '98, I feel, is her most excellent. But even though I felt that was her best, every other cd she has put out is almost as good.
3) U2-I have always liked U2, but not every song on every album. Luckily, '98 brought out "The Best Of" compilation and it has all of the popular and not so popular songs on it. I still play that album all the time.
4) Weezer-I know that Weezer's self-titled came out before '98, but I loved it the most during that year and love it even more now.
5) Lauryn Hill-And finally, "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill" album was not only award winning with 5 grammy's, it was also a great cd where each song was better than the next.

What did I do?

2008-04-25T11:50:00.000-07:00

Lately, instead of Elllie staying on her back, she has decided to defy me and roll onto her stomach. Sure, I'm happy about this in most situations, but unfortunately it's putting a damper on the activities that take place on her changing table. Such rolling has resulted in the infamous "poo foot," which is unpleasant for everyone involved, the old "lotion in the bum crack," which has me putting my finger in places that it never belongs, and other such unpleasant things. But, the jokes on her! I caught her today with my camera and I know one day she will hate me for this, but I can't get over how cute she looks.

Happy Birthday, Hubert!

2008-04-23T13:56:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Hubert's 30th birthday and I'm not quite sure how he feels about turning 30. But, even if he is even a little apprehensive about his new age, I just want to list all of the things he has accomplished so far during his first 30 years:

Graduated from high school
Served a mission
Got married to a wonderful woman (ha ha)
Graduated from college with a degree in Accounting
Has a career in accounting
Purchased a home
Became a wonderful father
Is able to support his family while I stay at home with the baby

I don't know about anyone else, but to me that is pretty wonderful and I know that he will do so much more. So happy birthday and we love you so much!

Robin Sparkles

2008-04-17T09:19:00.001-07:00

If you have never seen "How I met your Mother" take a look at this and maybe you'll start watching it.

A Moment...With Meagan: The Better Bowl

2008-04-16T09:35:00.000-07:00

This installment of my moment comes from a very long time ago, from a land far, far away. It all began with my wedding, or I guess wedding video. Hubert and I were asked to bring baby pictures so that they could be used in the video and only recently have we started putting those photos back in our albums. Yes, I realize it's been over six years, but we've been busy doing things, like watching LOST, moving multiple times looking for cheaper rent (until we bought our home), graduating from college, and watching LOST. So, anyway, I came across a picture of myself as a little girl with a most interesting hair cut. This hair cut intrigued me so I began looking at more pictures and it seemed I had the same cut for the duration of ages 1-5. I can't really blame my mom for this because she had four boys and then I appeared. She had cut all of their hair the same way and the poor woman had no idea what to do with me, so I got the same cut. I'm not saying it was bad because the perfection and symmetry are astonishing and to this day I always smile when I see these pictures. But I guess the reason why I'm writing about this is because on our wedding anniversary, Hubert and I watched the cinematic masterpiece, "Dumb and Dumber." I know, it's really good and also a very romantic movie, well, maybe not romantic, but really funny with such lines as "Excuse me Gunman","Give it me to pumpkin pie haircutted freak", and my all-time favorite, "Tell her I'm rich, good-looking, and I have a rapist wit." If anyone has seen this movie, they have seen the hair cut that Lloyd Christmas (Jim Carrey) had and it is a perfect bowl, but, who had the better bowl? Me or Lloyd Christmas? I guess I'll never know, but I thought I would give others a chance to decide.

I Knew Them When

2008-04-16T09:20:00.000-07:00

Today, my sister-in-law, Ashley Steele, is going to be on the Martha Stewart Show because of her beautiful baby blocks! The picture above is the last picture taken of them before their launch into celebrity and fame. I just have to say that I couldn't be more excited for them and I know that they deserve all of the good things that are happening to them. They have worked so hard these past few weeks trying to get everything ready and done and all of their hard work is paying off. So good luck you guys and we love you so much! But, if you let fame get to your head, I will blackmail Jake with this picture:

If you couldn't tell, Jake is the "smurf" furthest on the left.

Easter Babes

2008-03-25T09:20:00.000-07:00

Like many others around the world, this past Easter we were able to spend the day with family. We had a wonderful time at Hubert's parent's house and we were lucky enough to have Jake, Ashley, and Milo Baxter with us to share the holiday. Here are some fun pictures of the babies.

This is Ellie showing off her new bottom teeth

Milo doing his famous new wave

Ellie with her Grandma Natasha

Milo with his surrogate Grandpa of the day, Gonzalo

Milo after he's put back a few gulps of his mother's finest breast milk

And finally, a picture of Ellie that I think is the cutest picture in the world

A Moment...with Meagan

2008-03-09T13:36:00.000-07:00

On this segment of "A Moment...with Meagan," I will talk about an experience I shared with another individual this past month that really got me thinking. No, it wasn't a deep conversation about such topics as religion, politics, children, or anything that would matter, it actually had nothing to do with any of that. In fact, the other individual which whom I speak of has no idea he had anything to do with any experience I had. So let's begin. As I have talked about before, Hubert got me a wonderful jogging stroller for our anniversary, but because the weather here in Utah has been so cold, I have only been able to use it for short walks, that is, until last week. You see, all of the sudden the days got warmer, the sun was out, and I wanted to take advantage of the weather so I decided to go on a little jog with my daughter in tow. Now, there was a time, long long ago, where I used to be an avid jogger. In no way was I running marathons, but I was up to about five miles a day and loving it. I have never been in better shape nor have I ever felt better. It wasn't until Hubert's seed found purchase that I stopped jogging due to pregnancy sickness and the overall hugeness that became of me. But that was all going to change last wednesday. As I got to the paved jogging path, I was overcome with the sense of health and well being; as if I was the most health conscious and in-shape person that Farmington, UT had ever seen. It's funny what happens when you used to be in shape and want to be in shape again. You seem to forget, or at least I do, that it took months and months to be able to get where I was at, but that wasn't stopping me. I was going to run those five miles my first day back. And so I began, and of course at the beginning you feel great, like you could do this for hours. Two minutes later, I thought I was going to pass out. Even though I had this feeling of doom, I wanted to push myself to at least run a mile, just one mile. So I pushed and I pushed and kept going until I was sweating like a pig at a luau, my gut was hanging out, and my breathing was so loud it seemed as though the neighborhood children were running inside their homes for safety because they thought a werewolf was after them. Along this jogging path, I encountered an elderly gentlemen walking towards me. I didn't miss a beat, kept at the pace I was going at (which was a little bit faster than crawling), looked at him and nodded, and didn't give him a second thought. It wasn't until further down the path when I saw him. He was a young boy, probably 11 or 12, and all of the sudden I was extremely self-conscious of myself. I will also say this, right after I passed the older gentleman, I was going to start walking, but when I saw this kid I made myself still run. As I got closer to him, I found myself sucking in my stomach, breathing through my nose, and even running faster and as I passed him, he made no sign that he knew I existed. So why did I do this? That where this "moment" comes into play. After this incident, I started to think about why this pimpley little kid made me so self-conscious and I came to a conclusion. First, I will show my 7th grade ID.

I know, it's no good. When I moved to Utah, I was 11 years old, chubby, horribly shy, oh, and I had a horrific perm. Because of all of these things, boys and me didn't mix and I was always horrified of what they thought of me. You would think that 16 years later I would have gotten over this, but apparently boys of this age still effect me, BUT NO MORE! I will no longer be uncomfortable around pre-teen boys who have no significance on my life. Instead, I will jog by at a pace slower than when my daughter rolls over, be completely unaware that my loud breathing will wake the dead and finally, be proud of my post-baby stomach and all of the glory it beholds (and it's a lot).

Thank you for sharing my moment.