It's a Girl!

...according to this website. I just entered my birthdate and some other, uh, personal information, and it predicted a girl! As did my ultrasounds (which are probably more reliable)! To fill some people in: I'm 17 weeks pregnant with child number three, which sounds like and excessive number of kids when I think about it, but it's only my second pregnancy. The first thing I had the radiologist check was the number of babies; there's only one. So if anyone says, "Maybe you'll have twins again!" I can tell them I'm certain I won't. Everything looked good on the ultrasound, except the doc saw some cyst-something-or-others on the brain. He said they're fairly common and don't cause any cognitive problems, and usually go away. So I guess I'm not going to get too worried, but it seems kind of weird to me.

So now David and I have to agree on a name. That's probably going to be tricky. We don't have ESPN Sports Center like we did with the boys. There aren't a lot of girls featured on ESPN. I do like the name Torah, after the 2006 Burton U.S. Open of Snowboarding champion (and I think Torah is an awesome girl), but David always cringes when I mention that name. The only name we sort of agree on so far is Mikelle, but I'm not crazy about it yet. So we'll keep thinking. We've got 'til September 24.

Here's a picture of my baby, 'cause I know everyone loves to see other peoples' ultrasounds:

I Stink.

...Or so I've been told. I was sitting in nursery yesterday, pouring water for the little ones at snack time, when this little girl named Emma starts yelling, "It stinks in here!" She comes over to me, sniffs my backside and says, "Ohhh, you're poopy!" I was slightly taken aback, but managed to pull myself together enough to say, "No, it can't be me. I've been potty trained." So Emma moved on to sniffing everyone else. Aren't kids cute...

I wish I had something else to write about today. Well, I do, but I'll save it for later. Right now, I'm going to get a snack: Easter candy and sushi (no raw fish for me, just the rice and seaweed rolls with fake crab and real cucumbers. Yum).

Adventures in Grocery Shopping

It's always been somewhat of a challenge to go grocery shopping with Drew and Owen in tow. When they were just babies, I had to put their car seats in the grocery cart, living little to no room for groceries. Now that they can sit up on their own, I put one kid in the seat of the cart and the other kid in the basket part with the groceries. I know this is dangerous, but there aren't really any other practical options. So I just try to watch them like a hawk so they don't fall.

I feel, however, that I am not watching them as closely as I should. This oversight was brought to my attention last week when I found a bottle of septic system cleaner in my cart. I sure didn't put it there. And when I went back to the cleaners aisle to put it back, there on the shelf from whence it came was my new tropical scent deodorant that I had picked up on a different aisle, twenty minutes earlier. Somebody apparently thought that tropical scent wouldn't cut it, and I needed something stronger.

During this week's shopping trip, Owen was sitting in the basket part of the cart, and for every two or three items I put in the cart, he apathetically threw one or two out of the cart. When we got to the check stand, the cashier asked if I would like a box of cream cheese that wasn't all smashed up. Well, I would have, but since my kid was the one who did the smashing, I figured we'd have to keep it, so I had to tell her no.

Oh, and it's not just Drew and Owen that make shopping "fun." We went for our annual Easter Candy Round Up on Monday. The candy is all half price the day after Easter, and it has long been David's tradition to stock up on things like Cadbury Eggs and other seasonal favorites. So there we are in the store and David finds a box of Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Eggs. This box is probably about 11 x 17 inches, and about 2 inches deep. Practically over-flowing with candy eggs. He casually puts it in the cart. I less-than-casually ask him, "You're not buying that whole box, are you?" To which he sheepishly replies, "No..." and puts the box back on the shelf, resigning himself to just a few handfuls of eggs. I later overheard him telling one of his buddies about the shopping trip, saying, "I actually was planning on buying that whole box." Whew. Good thing I stopped him. I don't need all that temptation in the house.

Here are some pictures of the boys, with their half-pounder chocolate bunnies David got them (they haven't actually eaten more than a couple nibbles, and I'm sure David and I will end up eating the vast majority of those rabbits, but the pictures are fun anyway).

Left: Drew; Right: Owen

Happy Easter!

I saw a link on msn.com about how the Bible and the Atonement of Christ became connected with bunnies and eggs. Go look at it... Santa Clause at Christmas I can understand because of the kindness and the giving and things, but I never quite made the connection between Jesus and a rabbit who brings candy. The video shed some light on it.
The Easter Bunny didn't bring us any candy today. I think he decided that since Drew and Owen are too young to know any better, he'll just wait until the candy is 50% off and bring some on Monday. Smart Bunny! He knows that the parents are going to eat most of it anyway, and this way they can have twice as much!
On a more Easter-y note, church was really good today. It usually is, but I especially like the holidays where we get to sing the hymns that specifically focus on Jesus and on His life and His sacrifice and His resurrection. I have a lot of favorite hymns, but there is one line that is my absolute favorite out of all the lines of all the hymns: "Thou Son of God who lived for us, Then died on Calvary."* I like it because it reminds me that Jesus lived a perfect life so He could qualify to be our Savior. It had to be a perfect atonement and it was.
Nursery was really good, too. The gal that works in there with me is so great. She prepared an Easter lesson that was so good. It's so hard to get the kids to sit still; they're only two-years-old, on average... But I think they still get something out of the lessons and every so often one of the kids will surprise us with an answer to a question, and they all recognize Jesus when they see a picture of Him. So it's not all for naught.
I hope everyone had a good Easter. It only comes once a year, but like with Christmas, the true meaning should be in our hearts always.

*The hymn is called "As Now We Take the Sacrament." Words by Lee Tom Perry, Music by Daniel Lyman Carter.

Spring Cleaning

I did a bunch of cleaning last night; and by cleaning, I don't mean tidying up--my house was way beyond that... I threw a bunch of junk out and wiped off some shelves with some pretty thick dust on them--the house got a major overhaul. (And right now, my dad is outside fixing my deck! Hooray for handy dads! When he's done, we get to go color shopping and paint it!) As I was organizing and junking things, I discovered a little paper with some story ideas for a college assignment (just a note: it's been 2 years since I took this class and this little paper somehow made it through moving three times and a few other spring cleaning sessions). The class was a mythology class, and the assignment was to write a modern myth or legend. We could use something from our life or we could adapt an old myth and make it fit the times. So on my paper I had some ideas of legends and things from my life that I might adapt. Among them was the following true story:

I grew up with four brothers and one sister. There were a lot of crazy times, a lot of fights, but also a lot of good times and a lot of love. One day, when I was about eight years old, I was feeling particularly love-y and told my sister: "Roz, you're my favorite sister." The sassy six-year-old that she was just snickered and said, "Of course. I'm your only sister."

Well, I felt silly, so I started talking, spinning a tall tale: "No, you're not. We have an older sister who's older than Jeremy [the eldest child]. Her name is Jennifer."

Cleverly, Roz asked, "Why haven't I ever heard about her?"

"Mom doesn't like to talk about it," I replied. "Jennifer got pregnant so mom and dad kicked her out of the house, and she went and lives with her boyfriend, and she's just trouble."

I don't know where I came up with this story. I think I watched too many soap operas with my grandma. My mom would never kick any of her kids out of the house. I vaguely remember telling Roz at a later date or perhaps even that same day that there was no older sister named Jennifer--no older sister at all, in fact. I guess Roz never remembered me telling her, because about eight years later, I was chatting with Jeremy, telling him the little story I'd made up, and saying, "Wasn't that funny when I told Roz we had an older sister?" At this point Roz came into the room totally shocked: "You mean that wasn't true?!"

On the one hand, it was hilarious, but on the other hand, I wonder how much additional* childhood trauma I had caused my poor little favorite sister.

*As in, in addition to the usual sisterly amount.