Nosotros que profesamos el culto de los libros

I had a crazy weekend. I cam home Friday night, spent some time with the girls and with Shaunie and after Evelyn went to bed and Shaunie was rocking Jillian to sleep I hopped in the car and went to my office. I stayed from 9pm to 3am. The funniest part about it, I wasn't the only one there. I went in Saturday at about noon and Shaunie and the girls picked me up at abut 8pm. After they all went to bed, I was up until 5am. Reading, grading papers, writing outlines for my term papers. Strange is the life we lead, nosotros que profesamos el culto de los libros. Here are some pictures to document the weekend that was lost forever in the pages of fiction...


This is the top of my desk, a lot of these books will be used in my thesis. I'll be reading many of them this spring. The papers are tests and writing assignments that need to be graded. And of course, there is my mate (pronounced mah-tay), it's a beautiful thing.
I share a desk with my friend Jared. He's sane though so he was at home when I took this picture. Jared filled his candy jar with M&M's on Thursday and they were gone on Saturday. He used to have Atomic Fireballs but those lasted longer because nobody likes them.
Here is my picture of Shaunie, I need to get a picture of the girls up there too. When I'm at school the real Shaunie can't be there so I have to settle for a simulacrum.
Here is the full view. In the lower left-hand corner you can see part of blanket because I thought about sleeping there that night. The two gentlemen in black and white would like to remain anonymous but if you can figure out who they are you can earn a gold star!
This is the community electrical hot water kettle (We all use it for our mate) that will disappear in the spring, then I'll have to heat my water up at home
This is my friend Cody talking with his fiancé Karina (she's in Chile) on Skype. On top of the desk is the community pillow, Mr. Penguin. Whenever someone takes a nap, Mr. Penguin helps them soften the harsh reality of sleeping on a hard desk/floor. I guess you can call him the office mascot, and Cody is kind of like the office little brother, everyone either teases him or gives him hugs...also, Cody is one of the few people Jillian likes more than Daddy. Whenever he comes over for dinner or movie night, both Evelyn and Jillian will let Cody hold them, he's like an uncle.
This is my buddy Chris who I met in the MTC many years back. Destiny has brought us together in the same field of study, one year apart. We hope to one day have offices right next to each other at Harvard...or wherever we get hired.
This is someone's desk. I thought the mess was exemplary, it's always a work in progress. This person told me today that in a "good" month, a good month for books that is, he will drop about $200 on books. Sometimes I'm jealous of that, but I don't read as quickly, and I get to come home to this every night...
In the mind of a two year old this makes sense, Mr. Potatohead ears go in the holes on the side of his head, so they should also go in the holes in the side of my head. AWESOME!!! I love my girls!!!

Ben's Birthday Present

So my birthday isn't until August but I thought I'd take a cue from Mom and take advantage of a good deal when I see it. If only I could get down the part where I buy stuff for other people. This was 70% off the list price though and it's been on my Amazon wish list for two or three years, so I couldn't pass it up.They are a really cool edition of Tolkien's books with illustrations by Alan Lee. Peter Jackson used his drawings a lot when making the films, in fact, Alan Lee was one of the art designers that worked on the films.

This is Helms Deep, they used this drawing to design the set in the film.

When I showed them to my friend Jared who just got accepted to PhD school he said, "Cool. I won't be able to read anything like that for about six years." That is sad but true. I think the summer between the masters and PhD school I'll read a lot of stuff like this just for fun. If I'm smart though, I will start on my reading list.

It's been a little while

It seems I go through blogging "feast" and "famine." Nicole told me I should update on her blog, so here I go. I've been meaning to for the last week, but just never got around to it. I've been waiting for the late-winter blahs to end, and after last week's really nice weather, it's really blah this week. I just want spring to be here! I am very glad we get Daylight's Savings Time this weekend. It will make spring seem closer. With the weather here in Utah though, you never know what Mother Nature may have up her sleeve.
We've been busy, but when I'm sitting here typing about the last two weeks' happenings, I can't think of much. I guess it's just been cleaning up one mess after another, shopping, etc. The day-to-day stuff that takes up time. Evelyn and Jilly are becoming expert partners in crime, with Jilly becoming the instigator about half the time with Evelyn gleefully following. Today's spotlight mess was squirting a quarter tube of my Bath and Body Works lotion into the sink. That stuff ain't the cheapest. I was able to salvage some of it, fortunately. Yesterday Evelyn shut Jilly's foot in the hinge of the door, LUCKILY, she only has a bruise today. I was only about 3 feet away when that happened, and could hear her little foot being crushed. I was afraid something was really wrong when Jilly kept crying for a while, but she wasn't bothered by it at all later or today. Ev got a BIG timeout for that one. Here are some random pictures:

Evelyn falling asleep before bedtime on the couch. Ben likes to take pictures of them asleep. They always look so peaceful.
Here they are in the apple box again. Check out Evelyn's hair! Isn't she stylin'?

These two love to bake goodies. Mostly becuase they like the dough, as you can tell from these pictures. Evelyn asks almost everyday, "Mom, can make cookies?"

These two love chocolate, just like their mother.

This is the toilet game, and they will play it for 20 minutes at a time, if I let them.

Evelyn unrolls the toilet paper, and they both grab some and throw it in the toilet.

Jilly is the official flusher, and flushes every 15 seconds or so. The toilet never has time to fill back up.
After Jilly has moved from her official flushing position, Evelyn has to clean the toilet. Which I didn't mind so much, except there was still toilet paper in the bowl, and then she tried to carry the brush around the house. Umm, gross? Later she actually got it stuck in her hair. I repeat what I said at that moment, with an air of exasperation, "Gross, gross, and triple gross!!!"

Jilly is looking and acting more and more like a toddler. This picture makes her look a lot older. Who do you think she looks like? She's also getting her top molars in, ugh. Evelyn didn't really get terribly grouchy teething, but Jilly has been a different story. I'm hoping they come in soon, I think we're going on four weeks now with bi-polar Jilly. She's still cute as a button, despite the crankiness.

Here's a request for all of you with little kids. I want to know which children's authors your kids like. I'm trying to venture away from the simple 'identifying' books and Baby Einstein. The only picture/story books I've found that Ev and Jill like are the "No, David!" books by David Shannon, and most Eric Carle picture books. I need to broaden their book horizons.

Alright Nicole, I think that is a pretty good update. Thanks for giving me a little push in the blogging direction.

Gayle, in memoriam

This is a picture of me playing my old trumpet Gayle. She was crushed in a car accident after I played a gig at the Church on the 4th of July in '99. She was a very nice, very expensive horn and I took good care of her. We were going to run away to Boston together until the accident separated us forever. I miss her and the beautiful music we played.

This is my new baby, I don't have a name for her yet. She's australian made and about 1/4 as good a horn as Gayle was. She'll have to do for now. It's been a long time since I played so I'm getting my chops worked up, but it was clear form the first note, she ain't no Gayle. I thought about naming her Grace because I'm going to need a lot of it to get back my old self. But I'm not sure I want to give such a classy name to a horn that is a filler until I can get a new girl. Maybe I'll call her Maude, a good classic name, but not too pretty, kind of like this horn...good, but not too pretty. We'll make music together but it won't jive as well, it will be hard to find the groove and stay in the pocket...Maude. I think I like it, it fits. To Gayle, in memoriam.

-El trompetista de la triste figura

Thinking Inside the Box

The other day Evelyn and Jillian decided that the apple box sitting under the window was a great toy. They sat in it and laughed well past their bed time. After Jilly was taken to bed Evelyn decided that she needed to sleep in the box. So I gave her a blanket and pillow and put the box on her bed. She popped up every now and again and she stayed in there for quite some time. I thought she might even sleep in the box but it became too much of a distraction. Enjoy the pictures!

Ben & Me

This is a tag I took on from our friend Ashley.

What is his name? Ben

How long have you been married? 5 years in October

How long did you date? 9 months, engaged for 3 months

How old is he? 28 (Going on 12)

Who eats more? It depends....I have my days where I just have craving after craving, but I think overall he eats more.

Who said I love you first? Ben did. I think I felt it first though. I was scared to get too mushy too fast. Shaunie, tell them how you chased me to Utah and tried to put the moves on me in the conference center! Not to worry anyone, there was absolutely no making out in General Conference. This part of our dating story is too long to put into a blog.

Who is smarter? It depends on what you're talking about. Health/Science stuff and kid/parenting stuff are my strengths. Music/Literature/Cultural/Movie stuff are Ben's strengths. I think I'm the more scatterbrained of us both. After I've stayed up late though or all night, and fall asleep after work because I'm exhausted, and Shaunie tries to wake me up, I always have to ask what day and time it is before I can function. He really does not know what is going on in situations like these. He usually doesn't even remember the conversation. We have hilarious stories because of this.

Whose temper is worse? As I type this, Ben says, "well, that's easy." I wouldn't call it a temper here, he just gets frustrated when things, especially technology, are not working like they should. We both used to get really frustrated with Evelyn, which only happened when she was being Capt. Whiny-pants, but we've been working on being more patient with both girls and are making some good progress. It just doesn't work to be mad in most situations. And how can you get mad at a face like this?!

Who does the laundry? Usually me. Once in a while he'll start a load, and help me sort and fold. But where he's so busy with school, I do it most of the time. I don't mind it. I kind of like doing laundry. I like doing laundry too, our washer/dryer are just real loud so daytime is best to run them. I really like dryers for some reason.

Who does the dishes? We both hate doing dishes. But Ben hates it a little more than I do, which is why I usually do them. Once again, he's got lots of homework. Now that we have a dishwasher, it's not such a big deal to do them. Before dishwasher days, we would do them together. After they had piled up for 3 days and we had no utensils, bowls or plates left. Pretty sad. I must admit he is really good at rinsing his dishes after a meal. I'm terrible in that department.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Right now, Ben does. We've switched sides more times than I can count. The deciding factor is whichever side is closest to the door, so I can get to the baby faster in the middle of the night. Which side is the right side? Why do we think North is up, it's not, North America could very well be on the bottom of the map, it doesn't matter. Derrida would say that this is another binary opposition where our culture has ingrained the superiority of our position blah blah blah blah... Ben is a bit of a philosopher and thinker, if you can't tell.

Who pays the bills? I think it's about half and half. If I haven't been able to catch Quicken up that week and bills, Ben will do them on the weekend. Thankfully, or else we'd be financially sunk. Shaunie made a nifty budget and bless her heart, I have an allowance!!!!! BOOKS BOOKS AND MOOOOOORE BOOKS!

Who cooks dinner? I do. Ben cooked dinners when we were dating, but I'm the better cook, so I do it. He says he wants to learn though. (I cross my fingers when I say that. Food is good, but I'd rather be reading).

Who drives when you are together? Ben drives when we're together, if I'm not taking him to BYU. Then I drive. I trust his instincts and reaction time more in all this crazy Utah traffic. I like to drive like a Californian sometimes. I can out drive any of these Utards any day of the week...armatures. (Sorry Ashley, this doesn't apply to any of our friends/family, but your fellow states-people don't know how to drive).

Who is more stubborn? We both are, but we're not stubborn about a lot of things. So it doesn't come up much. Our first argument was about whether or not the BYU-I modern dance troupe was dancing correctly. After that we realized how dumb it is to argue and it hasn't happened much since.

Who proposed? Ben did, twice. Once in his apartment at Rexburg, when we were having a nice leisurely conversation about the future. He says he doesn't remember it, but I do. We went ring shopping a few weeks later. The official proposal was in California at Laguna Bay, the same place Howard W. Hunter proposed to his wife. It was the 4th of July, so Independence Day has a little double meaning for us. Ahh, nostalgia, I used to go there all the time as a kid and watch the waves and the sunsets.

Who has more friends? I think Ben does. He's got a lot of grad student friends he sees everyday that are like a little family. I'm more limited to the blogging world, e-mail and telephone. Which help people stay in contact, but I've still lost contact with a lot of people. And I still have a slight bit of shyness hanging around from my childhood. My friends all use me as an excuse to visit Shaunie and the girls, I don't blame them.

Who has more siblings? I do. He's got 2, I have 5.

Who wears the pants in the family? We make big decisions together, but I do defer to Ben as the patriarch of our family and priesthood holder. But Shaunie does all the stuff that makes our apartment look nice. I decorated once, someone referred to it as a 'bachelor's pad', so I felt bad and let Shaunie do whatever she wants and the place always looks great! She also helps me eat well, exercise, and remember important things because basically I am a space case and I live in the fictional world of books and film right now. If we weren't married Shaunie could probably earn money as my personal manager. But I like things the way they are. My pants are too tight anyway, so I usually put on my pajama pants at home, that have pictures of hamburgers and fries on them.

As you can tell, we really do love each other and have a great relationship with added humor and ridiculousness. Ben is the only reason I'm not as serious as I was 6 years ago. I Hope you all have some love for the Valentine in your life! (yes, that was really cheesy, but I felt like I had to tie Valentine's Day in there somewhere). Alright, someone else out there can do this. I love reading these things on other's blogs!

The last month in pictures

I've been meaning to post pictures for a couple weeks now, but never got around to it. So this lengthy post is the result of my procrastination. I guess we haven't been up to anything really exciting lately, just trying to keep warm and busy until this arctic cold decides to go away. It seems to just keep snowing and snowing here, but we're supposedly supposed to have a break this weekend. At least everything is white and pretty, instead of dead-looking. I've taken the girls out to play in the snow, and they enjoy it more each time they're out playing, until their hands start freezing. Then the whining begins. I look forward to next winter, when they'll both be bigger and better able to get around in the snow.

They just wanted to stand on the sidewalk most of the time and step a little ways into the snow. Evelyn attempted making snowballs, and would then throw them at Jilly. I wouldn't really call them snowballs though. More like snow puffs.
Jill walks around with this face when she's happy. If you click on the picture, you can see her little buck teeth biting her lip.

This is probably their favorite snow activity, eating it.
A cat wanders our complex, I don't know if it's a stray, but he's sure friendly. He lets these two do just about whatever. Evelyn told the cat, "Go to sleep, kitty." And then just pushed him over. He laid there, maybe listening to Boss Evelyn's command. Jilly just likes to follow him and get really close to his face and say, "ne-ow, ne-ow."
Ben likes to make forts of all kinds with the girls. So he brought out our camping tent, which barely fit in the front room. Evelyn thought it was time to go to sleep, so she got a blanket and pretended to sleep with Dad.
Evelyn raided my drawer one day, found my black slip, and pronounced it her dress. I used a hair clip to tighten it, and she put on my black shoes. She's holding my new purse, which I made out of a place mat. It is very cute.
Jilly has a "surprised" face that she likes to make. She likes to do it whenever something is really exciting, or we do it and she imitates.
Evelyn has an obsession with my make-up, and she pulled out my eye shadow and put it on herself. Her entire face was a shade of pale pink. She put some on Jilly too, but not much because Jilly didn't tolerate her eyes almost being poked out by the make-up brush. This picture also looks like one of myself when I was about 4, in Grandpa Gibbons' motor home, using my crayons to 'put make-up on.'
This is crazy to me, Jilly just barely turned 15 months, and she already wants to go potty. She'll go in with her diaper on, and do something. Maybe I'll get lucky and she'll potty train before she's two!
Evelyn decided last week that it was time for Daddy to go to bed, so she brought out her blanket, Pooh bear and baby, gave them to him, and tucked her blanket in around him. He actually did go to sleep for about hour.
Evelyn is going to be my little chef. She always has to be right there with me when I'm cooking. She wants to help chop, mix, stir, and anything else I might be doing. It's scary when I am chopping something up, and I tell her she can't help. So she grabs a butter knife, and takes a piece of whatever it is I am chopping and tries to cut with a butter knife. She's happy doing it, and I know she won't chop a finger off. And the dress she's wearing is Jilly's. This day she decided it was her favorite, put it on and said, "Ohhh, so warm!" It's made out of fleece.
Last picture off all. I got all the toys re-organized, and Jilly couldn't reach something in the bottom of the bin, so she climbed in. And had a mischevious face to go along with it.