Where's the Button?

I guess you know you're married to a Physicist when you have this sort of experience. I think I was going back to bed after the midnight feeding (p.s. Camilla now wakes up every 2 hours and WON'T sleep until she's been fed a full feeding) and Mark sat up and leaned toward me. He asked, "What color is the button on your binary digit?"

Um. What? Even though he looked completely awake, I just wasn't sure that he knew what he was talking about. So I finally just said, "What??"

He proceeded to grab my blanket, pull it up and inspect it, and then said, "Oh, okay." And then he laid back down.

At this point I considered just going to sleep and ignoring him. But I needed to know if he was serious. I said, "Mark, are you talking in your sleep?"

Mark responded, "No! You see. . ." and then started trying to figure out how to explain himself. It probably would have been an awesome explanation full of words I didn't understand. So I just told him to go back to sleep. And he did.

Every time I woke up for the rest of the night, I told myself I needed to remember this experience so I could ask him about it and laugh about it. This morning when I saw him I asked him if he remembered asking me a question last night. He remembered, and even tried to defend himself a little bit. "Well I was looking for a button!!"

I think he needs a vacation.

Giraffes

I think I have an obsession. It all started with this:


This pillow got me through pregnancy. I had sciatica starting around 3 months and lasting (on some level) till the end. I was dependent on this thing to get any sleep. Mark hated it. He has since reclaimed the middle third of the bed, and even sneaks a foot or head onto my side if I leave during the night (can we say '3:00 am feeding'?)

Maybe it was all those months cuddled up to a giraffe pillow, but the next thing was the toys. Though most of them were gifts, they were highly influenced by me.


And of course some ridiculously adorable clothes:


When my due date came and went, I spent a lot of time being bored. And shopping online. I found the perfect baby book, and it even managed to arrive before Camilla did. (The ugly black spot on the front was made by said child when we were trying to get her footprints stamped at the hospital.)


And finally, I found a tutorial online to make the cutest mobile for Camilla. I have done all of the sewing; it just needs to be assembled. It will consist of ten birds sitting on branches hanging above Camilla's bed. I found a pack of coordinating fabrics at Joann's one day--can you guess which pattern influenced my purchase the most?


So if you were wondering why I chose the current background for my blog, you can probably guess now.

Random Updates

We've been super busy the past month or so, and I can't even begin to remember everything we've done. So here's a quick summary of some of the highlights:

* Dogsitting for Olive again. We love this little dog, and she even decided she liked Mark this time around because he took her for all of her walks. And let her sniff whatever she wanted. And let her get into a nasty patch of burrs that we then had to carefully dig out of her face for about an hour.

* Mark has been working like crazy so he'll be able to spend more time at home when the baby gets here. I don't see him so much, but am glad that he's been able to stay focused and disciplined. I couldn't do it. :)

* I've been absorbed in The Wheel of Time Series. I feel dorky admitting it, but now it's out there. If you haven't heard of these books, there are currently 12 and each of them around 800 pages. I just finished 11, and started sometime around February. I guess with Mark working so much, I have to fill my time somehow.

* A friend of mine from church threw me a fantastic baby shower with some of the most delicious food ever. I was seriously ill all night because I brought more home with me and wouldn't stop eating it. It was a lot of fun, and we laughed afterward when we realized we had not told one labor story the entire time. Amazing!

* Mark spent a week in Portland at the APS (American Physical Society) Conference. He got to see some friends from the BYU days and even some friends from Ithaca. I stayed home. . . and read. . . Mark even was thoughtful enough to bring me home a gift. I laughed so hard, especially when I imagined him having to walk up to the register to make this purchase:


They are delicious, though, and I would have to say I'd vote for Edward if it was purely based on the chocolates. :)

And finally, my most recently taken pregnancy picture. This would be approximately 35 weeks, so just about 8 months. I'm feeling pretty uncomfortable and huge at times, and other times I sort of forget it's there. People are starting to give me the "Whoa, you're about to pop aren't you?" look. If they only knew I have a whole month left. . .

One funny thing and a question

Mark and I had dentist appointments a few weeks ago, and the dental hygienist gave Mark a hard time about flossing his teeth-- especially behind his permanent retainer (you know, the piece of wire they glue to the back of the bottom teeth to keep 'em from moving again). Every night since then, Mark has complained to me through words, sighs, and groans about how much of a pain it is to floss behind that thing. You have to use a special floss-threader thing to pull the floss through it and it takes forever. But he HAS been flossing faithfully every night.

Last night I was upstairs about to go get ready for bed when I heard Mark shout, "Jenny! We have a SERIOUS problem!" As visions of leaking pipes, overflowing toilets, or bug infestations filled my head, Mark ran up the stairs and said, "I pulled out my retainer with dental floss." Sure enough, after enduring 12+ years of eating, chewing, brushing, etc., he had managed to pull the thing loose at one end with a tug of floss. The more serious problem at hand was that he now had a piece of wire still cemented to his other teeth stabbing his tongue and gums.

Despite his discomfort, Mark opted to wait till we could call the dentist in the morning to see if they could squeeze him in rather than have me try to yank the rest of the thing out with pliers. Which is pretty much what the dentist did this morning, and Mark no longer has a "permanent" retainer. I find this whole thing amusing mostly because I think he blames the dental hygienist for making him floss his teeth.

On another note, we are in the market for a new camera. We don't want to go as expensive and fancy as an SLR (I don't want to be too intimidated to use it) but want something that has a decent zoom, manual controls available, and small enough to easily haul around on trips. If anybody has a camera that they love, I would really like suggestions.

Winners & Answers

Well you all made it really easy for me to pick the winners of the contest-- only 3 of you responded. (I figure I need to have a kid before people really take my blog seriously, but that's okay.) So Nicole, Melanie, and Jessica will all receive something in the mail, and you can all host your own Pay it Forward contest if you like! Here are my answers the the 3 questions:

1) I've thought of lots of places I would like to go in a time machine-- Italy during the Renaissance, Mexico when the Aztecs lived there, BYU in 2000 now that I know how my life will turn out-- but I'm not sure how safe all of those options are and I would probably prefer to fastforward to see where the next turn in life will take us. I would like to know that we'll be settled somewhere permanently where we will be happy and be able to have a healthy, happy family.

2) Vacation stresses me out, so most of them have had ups and downs. Recently it would probably be driving out to New York and visiting nearly all of the church history sites on one trip.

3) Sleeping in late. I feel so bad when Mark gets up to go to school 3+ hours before I get around to getting out of bed, but I love to do it anyway!

Pay it Forward

I'm a winner! And you can be, too. Here's the one I entered. So now it is my turn to host the game. Answer these 3 questions in the comments section of this post.

1. If you had a time machine, where would you go and why?

2. What is the best vacation you have ever been on?

3. What is your favorite guilty pleasure?

I hope this is fun for everyone. Everyone that responds with their own answers will be put into a virtual lotto and I will draw out 4 winners. They will get a prize in the mail! Don't worry, this isn't gambling :) I'll choose the winners in two weeks, on Friday July 11th. So play before then!

ABC Tag

I realize that I rather recently was tagged and went on and on about boring stuff that nobody really cared much about. But I'm so bored and have nothing to blog about, so I'm just going to go ahead and do another one since Shannah was kind enough to tag me again. :)

A- ATTACHED OR SINGLE: Attached at the hip to The Mark
B- BEST FRIEND: I hardly know how to spend time with anybody but Mark-- maybe someday I'll learn to have girlfriends again the way I used to
C- CAKE OR PIE: Pie. I didn't even want cake at my wedding, but nobody would back me up on it
D- DAY OF CHOICE: Friday
E- ESSENTIAL ITEM: right now it's shoes that don't require socks, like Chacos!
F- FAVORITE COLOR: purple
G- GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENT: graduating from BYU
H- HOMETOWN: Ontario, OR
I- INDULGENCES: chocolate, any kind of granola bar-type snack (Clif Bars, Balance Bars, Luna Bars, etc.)
J- JANUARY OR JULY: July
K- KIDS: just Mark (I think it's good practice for the future)
L- LIFE IS INCOMPLETE WITHOUT: the Gospel
M- MARRIAGE DATE: September 16, 2005
N- NUMBER OF SIBLINGS: 2 brothers, 1 sister, 5 sisters-in-law, 1 brother-in-law
O- ORANGES OR APPLES: both are good, but I have to be craving them
P- PHOBIAS OR FEAR: spiders, bugs in general when they are in my house, fishing hooks
Q- QUOTES: "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." -Orson Wilde
R- REASON TO SMILE: summer vacation is almost here!
S- SEASON: Spring - I love every season except Winter, and Spring is just the beginning of 9 beautiful months
T- TAG FIVE FRIENDS: Jessica (aka Fishstick), Mandy, Abbey, Sarah, & Jen
U- UNKNOWN FACT ABOUT ME: I find it devastating that old movie theatres are being shut down and replaced with huge multiplex's. I feel like we're losing our sense of community by replacing Americana with modern 'conveniences'.
V- VERY FAVORITE STORE: either Kohl's or the craft store
W- WORST HABIT: procrastination
X- X-RAY OR ULTRASOUND: Um, that's a dumb question. I haven't necessarily had good experiences with either.
Y- YOUR FAVORITE FOOD: something that involves basil, tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella
Z-YOUR ZODIAC SIGN: Aries

Tag

I think I was tagged. I finally get to play the game. :) We'll see if it's as much fun as it appears.

20 years ago: I lived in Lebanon, Oregon and went to Green Acres School. We walked to school with our next door neighbors and we HATED the safety patrol because they wouldn't let us try to avoid the cracks when we crossed the street. I had morning Kindergarten with Mrs. Noss. I remember learning cheesy songs like, "What's the Weather Like Today?" and having our own bathrooms right in the classroom. I loved Green Acres. Every minute of it.

10 years ago: I was almost old enough to date. I had a crush on a boy that sat behind me in Seminary. I'm pretty sure I was working at Aiken Elementary as a safety patrol monitor. (Whoa, that came back to haunt me!) I played soccer for one year in high school; after that I always had a job and didn't have time for extracurriculars (but I didn't mind). I bought my first car - the white Pontiac Grand Am with the huge rusted circle on top where the paint wore off.

5 years ago: I went back to BYU after taking a year off. I needed a break from Provo and time to decide what I wanted to do with my life. I randomly ended up in an apartment with some amazing girls and inherited all of their friends, including the Richardson brothers. It was by far the best BYU ward I ever lived in. I got a job at the MTC in the dining hall. I washed dishes and served food. It was a gross job sometimes, but we had a lot of fun. Favorite memories from the MTC: getting messages written in cheese from the missionaries who REALLY appreciated us, meeting a co-worker who later became a stalker, waking up earlier than the missionaries so we could serve them their breakfast, going home and getting two more hours of sleep before having to get up for class, eating donuts that were left uneaten on trays (can't let 'em go to waste), and hoping to see a familiar face or two (it WAS good to see Melanie from time to time!).

3 years ago: I was dating a dashing young man named Mark and wondering if I could cope with changing my last name from Walk to Transtrum. I was a Senior at BYU studying Humanities and trying to decide whether to look into grad school or not. I was in my favorite class ever at BYU (Precolumbian Culture - Mark got to learn about Aztecs every day while we walked home from school). A typical evening spent together usually ended in the library when the music over the loud speakers informed us it was time to leave. I was also working at Macey's in Orem as a cashier/bagger/assistant store trainer/front-end supervisor/service desk worker.

1 year ago: Mark and I were living in a basement apartment in Ithaca, New York. Our neighbor above us was a little insane. His mom was the landlord. I don't recommend this setup. I was working at Wegman's as a cashier and pharmacy employee. I hated my job, and we were hopeful that a sorority position would open up. It did.

So far this year: I have survived my first Rush experience. I became the proud owner of a new laptop computer. I better start accomplishing more. . .

Yesterday: It was a bad day. From start to finish. It's in the past.

Today: I got to spend time entertaining a two year old. I learned about condors watching Go, Diego, Go! (they live in the mountains; have excellent eyesight; and are afraid of pumas, not chickens). I did paperwork for the sorority. I went to a funeral for a lady who will be deeply missed.

Tomorrow: I have to go to the post office. If it's not raining or snowing or sleeting, maybe I'll go for a walk. I will research the problems my car thinks it's having (it's a bit of a hypochondriac). I will take a few much needed breaths, and then clean my house.

This year: We will take some trips we've been meaning to take. Maybe Boston, Toronto, Montreal, NYC, Maine (just for lobster), the Thousand Islands again to camp with Janelle, and DC when my parents come out to visit this June. Maybe we'll find cheap tickets and fly to Italy. May as well keep it in the plans. We'll also go to Wyoming for Mark's sister's wedding. We will spend more time outside enjoying Ithaca while it's wonderfully warm and green and inviting. We'll pick lots of berries and find a way to grow tomatoes without the deer infiltrating them.

I will tag: Katie, Alexis B., and Lexi J.

Wildlife vs. Human Life

I have a subscription to the Smithsonian magazine. I feel compelled to support an institution committed to preserving so many facets of history. Last August Mark and I had the chance to visit a handful of their museums in Washington D.C. I could spend a month there and not see everything of interest to me. I'm not always interested in all of the articles in an issue, but there is usually something that sparks my curiosity. Occassionally there's even something that angers me. A few months ago there was an article about antelopes in Wyoming. The approach that the author chose to take was to attack oil drillers for interfering with the natural habitat of the wildlife there. The antelopes' migratory path had been narrowed by the presence of the rigs, and they liked to stay close to the warm drilling sites. Now, I'm all for conserving nature and keeping Yellowstone as natural as possible so people can appreciate it for generations to come. I'm also in favor of preserving the jobs and livelihood of the people who need to support their families and who in some small way are preventing our total reliance on other nations for our energy needs. That being said, I'm sure there is a lot more to the story that I'm not aware of. Despite my initial frustration with the article's slant, I soon forgot about it.

A few days ago I was flipping through my most recent issue of the Smithsonian. I'd just finished a couple of fascinating articles about Egyptian temple excavations and Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise. I turned the page to find a really cool picture of a jaguar and an article entitled, "On the Prowl". Looked interesting, until I read the subtitle. "Long absent from the United States, a few jaguars now roam the wilds along the border with Mexico. How will the crackdown on illegal immigrants affect the big cats?" Okay, so maybe the author is just interested in discussing the cause and effect relationship between the cats and the (future?) wall, but I'm ticked off once again. Maybe I'm a terrible person for thinking that a wild animal pales in importance to the security of our nation. Maybe it doesn't matter what I think since we obviously won't be building that wall anytime in the next four years. It's my opinion that if there is anything we should be conserving for the benefit of our future posterity, it's a free, independent nation that gives them the opportunity to succeed and support a family. And if that nation has a few wild jaguars on the prowl? Well that's just an added perk. I do, after all, like cats. :)