Eight Random Things About Me

I've been tagged by my cute friend, Clairissa (who also happens to be a FAB photographer. For those of you in the Atlanta area, I strongly encourage you to check out her work!) to list eight random things about myself. This has been a tad more difficult than I thought it would be, especially since I don't want to repeat anything from my 100 Things list. But, I'm never one to back down from a challenge, so here we go:

1) I am a HUGE, closet early 90's Jon Secada fan. I wouldn't be surprised if most of you have never heard of him. He's Latin (Cuban American) and most of his older stuff can be found on your local easy listening station. My favorites include: "Just Another Day," "Angel," "I'm Free," and "Do You Believe in Us?"

If in the car, and all alone (or with Everett), and a Jon Secada song comes on, I will turn the volume up WAAAY loud and sing along to every word. Once, I even tried to win tickets to his concert by calling in to a radio station. That's the one and only time I've ever tried to win anything off the radio. Yeah, I didn't win.

2) I love love. Anything that's even remotely romantic, especially in movies or literature, and I love it. Sometimes, when I have time to kill, I'll put in my favorite movies and fast forward to the romantic parts. I'll end up watching 10 minutes of a 3 hour movie and still walk away completely satisfied. When I'm reading, if I come across a particularly romantic moment, I'll re-read that part two or three times before moving on. And then I'll pick up the book a few days later just to re-read that specific part. And even more weird, if I'm having trouble falling asleep, sometimes I'll imagine my favorite parts of romantic movies and replay in my mind the best parts. It's scary how much of the dialogue I actually have memorized.

3) I love getting pedicures. I think it's so relaxing and wonderful. Plus, those gals really paint my toes a million and one times better than I ever could. This is not to say that I've had a ton of pedicures in my day, but it is the one splurge I keep telling Will I'd like to indulge in when we have money. I don't care to get my nails done or my hair highlighted, but a pedicure once a month would be absolute heaven!

4) Sometimes I can be anal-retentive about grammar, spelling, captialization and puncuation. I blame this on the fact that I was an editor for a few years. Among my particular pet peeves are mispellings of any of the following words: definitely (it's not defiantely or any other way with an A), their, there or they're, your or yours and any unnecessary apostrophe s's. As in lot's, go's or sometime's. I also cringe when I hear people say "Supposively" or "Anyways". It doesn't bother me enough that I would dare correct someone, but it just hurts my eyes and/or ears.

5) I used to LOVE to watch "The Price is Right". I remember watching it before pre-school. And I thought bidding one dollar was the coolest thing ever and used to yell at the contestants, "One dollar! One dollar!". In my four-year-old mind, whenever someone bid one dollar, they always seemed to win. I couldn't figure out why everyone didn't always bid one dollar. It took me years (yes, years) to understand what bidding one dollar meant. But even now, I always root for the person who bids one dollar.

6) I never, ever, ever pick up a penny off the ground unless it's heads up. I couldn't tell you why I'm so superstitious about this, but I am.

7) I love even numbers. To the point that I either want four kids or six. My anniversary is 02/06/04. When I hang pictures on the way, I want the entire "arrangment" to be symmetrical. When I'm eating candy like Skittles, Starbursts or M&M's, I divide up the colors and then eat the excess ones until I have the same number of each color/flavor. I then eat one from each section so that each group is equal. I always enjoy being an even numbered age rather than an odd one (One of the reasons I'm looking forward to turning 28 this year). I like months will 30 days better than months with 31. Weird, I know.

8) I had the hugest crush on Dean Cain from "Superman: The Adventures of Lois and Clark" when I was in 7th and 8th grade. I remember watching episodes with my best friend, Rachel. We would go ga-ga anytime Dean Cain was on the screen (which was a lot). A friend of mine who was a few years older than I was actually got to meet him and get a picture with him and I remember being soooo incredibly jealous. The show got old after awhile though and the only stuff I've seen Dean Cain in since is as host of"Ripley's Believe It Or Not" and a couple of cheesy Lifetime movies. What a waste!

Ok, so that really was difficult! I now tag: Jessica, Heidi, Emily, Paula, Lachelle, Shanna, Jeanine and Mindy.

(I'm not going to leave you guys a message on your individual blogs. I have faith that you'll all check this sometime in the next few days!)

The Rules

-Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.

-People who are tagged write their own blog post about their eight things and include these rules.

-At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged and they should read your blog.

The Little Man

For all you Harry Potter fans out there, I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the final installment. Man, did it answer quite a few questions! I didn't say much (to Will or outloud) while I was reading it because I was on pins and needles the whole time, hoping that my favorite characters didn't die. I thought it was a great ending and I'm getting excited thinking about starting the series over from book 1. I'd seriously (or siriusly, ha, ha) like to discuss any plot points with anyone. Just leave a comment and let the analysis begin!

This past week went well. Everett and I ventured to the pool a couple of times. Boy, oh boy, does that little man enjoy the water and the pool! I've neglected to take a picture of him in the pool, but will hopefully snag one sometime this week.

In the meantime, here's a little bit of what Everett's been up to: making mean faces and trying to talk on the phone. I swear I'm not on the phone that much, but Everett's taken to pretending that everything is a phone! Here he is just moments after he stealthily (is that a word?) stole a cookie that had blue writing all over it.

And here's the little man desperately trying to figure out how to use Grandma's cell phone.

I love this last picture when he decided one phone just wasn't enough.

When did my little child become such a little man? I'm excited to have Juliana and see Everett fulfill his role as big brother.

So, other than going to the pool, playing outside and reading Harry Potter, it really hasn't been a very eventful week. I mostly just posted because I was tired of the other post. Oh, and for those that care, my new facewash really seems to be working! Yippee for small blessings!

A General Update

The move went well and we are now pretty settled into my parents' house. We had lots of help from our old ward and our new one, so the entire thing was over and done with by 12:30 Saturday afternoon. Although this is our fifth move since we've been married, this is the first with a baby and all that goes along with a little one. We just have a lot of stuff, so we've decided that the next time we move, we're hiring professionals! (Much to the relief our our families, I'm sure).

The pre-move packing job. Not bad for three women and a toddler!

In Everett news, he just turned 20 months last week. He is pretty funny most of the time, but totally entrenched in "The Terrible Twos". He can go from super happy and smiling to on the floor throwing a tantrum in literally two seconds. According to all my books, he's "asserting his independence" and "testing boundaries". Great, just great!He's really enjoying this stay at the Casa de Kilgore for several reasons.

1) He LOVES to play with the family dog, Bailey. I'm pretty sure Bailey doesn't return Everett's affections, but Everett can chase that poor dog around for hours, squealing the entire time.

2) He LOVES to play outside. My parents have a good-sized front and back yard and Everett has quickly learned the word, "outside". I think he'd stay out there all day, except that his other true love is inside.

3) Everett has now moved on (or backwards, however you want to look at it) to his new favorite movie, "Shrek". He usually watches it, in small spurts, a couple of times a day. He particularly enjoys simply standing in front of the TV, leaving his Elmo chair quite alone.

4) There's simply so much more for him to mess up. Things neither I, nor my parents, would have ever thought he'd touch, he touches. He loves going up and down the stairs and running all over the downstairs. I'm glad he has more room to burn off some of his energy.

In Will news, he is working hard! He has reached some new highs professionally and things are starting to fall into place. I know I've said this before on here, but he really loves what he does. And I get the added benefit of feeling smarter about all things financial. One of the perks of this job is that we get to take a little overnighter at the end of August. Of course, I'll be about 37 weeks pregnant by then, so I hope Juliana doesn't come early and spoil my day at the spa!

This is his headshot he had taken for work. Thanks to Eric and Janet for your help!

As for me, I'm now 30 weeks pregnant. I had an appointment last week where I found out that 1) I don't have gestational diabetes and 2) My iron is low. Both of which came as absolutely no surprise. When I was pregnant with Everett the nurse called me, concerned about how low my iron count was. "I can't believe you can even get out of bed in the morning, " was her comment. As a remedy, they had me add two slow-release iron pills to my daily routine of one prenatal pill. For a normal person, I'm sure that would've made their iron count increase, but not me. I seriously wonder if I'm iron immune or something ridiculous. So, here I am, one pregnancy and almost two years later, back on the same "iron building" routine. I'll let you know if it's more successful the second time around.

To those of you who have seen me pregnant, one thing is clear: I'm not a tiny pregnant woman. Tiny is not a word to describe me period, least of all while pregnant. And so it should come as no surprise to me that words like "huge", "pop", and "enormous" have been used to describe my current condition. I understand people think they're being cute/funny, but folks, I still have 10 weeks to go. And no, telling me, "You know, I was always huge with my babies too", is not a compliment, nor does it make me feel one iota better. I don't think I'll ever understand other people's propensity to remark about weight and size to pregnant women. At a time when hormones are raging and sensitivity is at an all-time high, comments about weight and "how many do you have in there?" and "you're never going to make it to September" somehow seem slightly inappropriate. Anyone else agree?Me, in all my 30-week hugeness. Yes, I know I'm huge and no I really haven't gained that much weight (18 pounds). Keep in mind Everett was over 9 pounds and 21 inches long. My theory is he really stretched out the living space in there and that Juliana is reaping all the spatial benefits. My other theory is Juliana's going to be one big gal!

Also on the topic of pregnancy (wow, I'm really on a roll today), my skin does some wild and crazy things when I'm pregnant. No, I do not get the "pregnant glow". Mine is more of what you could call the "pregnant facial explosion". I get the worst case of acne while pregnant. It really stinks and according to Will, it's "not that bad". But of course, it seems worse to me, since I have to look at myself in the mirror. Taking Heidi's advice, I tried the no-name brand of Pro-Active.I got it at Target and have used it for about three or four months now. While it helped initally, it dried out my face in certain places and I still had acne problems. So this past weekend, I picked up something new. Neutrogena's Advance Solutions Complete Acne Therapy System. I'll keep you posted on how it's working for me. Has anyone else tried it?

And lastly, I've been on a reading kick lately and since everyone and their mom has raved about "Twilight" and since I have a lovely, kind, dear, wonderful friend who sent me a copy, I took to reading it. While I can easily admit that it's a good read and that Meyer really draws you in, I wasn't the biggest fan. That being said, I immediately checked out "New Moon" from the local library and read it just as quickly as "Twilight", but still, wasn't a huge fan. I think it's the whole vampire thing (not really my style) or maybe the fact that Bella is only 17/18 and seems too young to me to really know true love, love-worth-dying-for kind of love. I don't know. Just curious as to what you guys like or dislike about the series.

Lessons Learned From Harry Potter

Well, to be more accurate, lessons learned from going to the 11:59 pm viewing of Harry Potter on the opening day:

1) We're not as young as we once were. A midnight showing and going to bed at 3 am make for a very tired Mom and Dad.



2) Some Harry Potter fans are freaks. We saw folks in full out Gryffindor Quidditch costumes, lots of wizard hats, a gal with a "Weasley is our King" t-shirt and loads of girls in the Hogwarts' school uniforms, minus the capes.



3) Harry Potter really does appeal to everyone. We saw every race and just about every age of people there. Lots and lots of adults. Some alone, some with kids.


The review? AWESOME! We really loved it. Definitely go and see it - you will not be disappointed!!

*And many thanks to Will who helped me keep my "Opening Day/Night Viewing of Harry Potter movies" streak alive and well. I was content to see it sometime soon, but he insisted we keep the streak going.

Ch-ch-changes

I do realize that by putting two or three weeks between posts that I'm losing a vast majority of my blog readers (not that I'm entirely sure I had that many to begin with!). My excuse? We've simply had a lot going on in our household during the past couple of weeks. Our biggest piece of news is that we're moving!! It's not a permanent move, but we're excited nonetheless. We're actually moving in with my parents until we figure out where we want to live next. Seeing as how we pretty much live in the ghetto now, and our lease is up, Will preferred for his wife, son and daughter to live in a place with less of a chance of the following:

* A break-in

* A shooting

* A death (Seriously, they found a dead guy about a mile from our apartment)

* General "shady" people wandering about at all hours of the day and night

My parents are gracious enough to let us stay with them, which is a huge blessing and means we don't have to sign another lease here. So now, we're in the throws of packing and getting ready to move. With Will working full-time now and sometimes into the evenings (It's after 7 and he's not home yet), this move has fallen basically to me, the 27-week pregnant woman. And I, of course, enlisted the help of my mom and Paula (the 30-week pregnant woman). Needless to say, we're an amazing team. We take breaks often and there's lots of grunting when one of us has done too much bending over. Plus, add in the Everett factor and I hope I've painted a pretty accurate picture for you. My goal is for us to be completely packed by Friday morning, with moving day being Saturday. Here's a look at our progress/diaster area (whichever way you want to look at it):

Everett finding a creative use for the as-yet-unused boxes.

Um, yep these two photos should give you a pretty darn accurate look at the mess we're dealing with. Honestly though, we made a lot of progress today and I'm hoping tomorrow is even better.

And for a bit of fun, check out the quiz below. I have to give Heidi props for this one, since she put it on her blog first. For all of you Jane Austen fans out there, definitely give it a whirl!

Weee!!!

On our trip to Texas last week, we got to visit Ty in San Antonio. After lunch we walked around the outdoor mall, La Cantera. In the middle of the mall was this great playground that Everett simply LOVED. Check out that grin:

He could not get enough of this slide and, much to my surprise, he enjoyed sliding the traditional way, as well as head first, on his belly.

It was a good trip, even considering the 18-hour car ride both ways. We saw Grandma, who will turn 89 this November, as well as the other big sites of Eldorado (ie, the water tower, the snow cone lady, the library, the gas station, the cemetary AND the big FLDS compound that Warren Jeffs' followers have set up just outside of town. Exciting times, I tell ya!).

In other Giddens family news, Will is really enjoying his job at MassMutual. He's as excited as can be and is super busy following leads and drumming up business. It's actually pretty inspiring to see him so satisfied by his career choice. Of my very brief stint in the working world, I was never half as content and excited about my job as Will is about being a financial professional.

I'm doing great too. I'm 25 weeks pregnant and I feel like September 24th will be here in the blink of an eye. We've officially decided to name our little gal Juliana Brooks (pronounced AWNA, not ANNA). Brooks is actually a family name on my paternal side and on Will's materal side, so we feel good about knocking out just about every limb of the family tree with her name.

And the little guy is too cute. He has so much personality and although he doesn't actually say much (at least not much that's decipherable), he definitely communicates. His latest loves are the movie "Shrek 2" and spaghetti. He's also a sucker for peppermint candies and my old baby blanket. Go figure.

Who Sleeps Like This?

Does this look uncomfortable or what? And for whom do you suppose he's "posing"?

Home Improvement Projects

I began 2007 with a long list of "crafty-type" goals. And although it's already May and I haven't made much of a dent in my list, I am really excited that I can cross off another item. I think vinyl-lettering is the neatest thing! I did a couple of projects in February using 8x10 tiles, but this time I wanted to use wooden boards. Many thanks to Will who sawed one very long piece of wood into manageable pieces and then even routed the edges for me! I primed and painted the board and here's the result:

Gold lettering with black overlay.

In case it's difficult to see, the overlay reads "Families are forever"

Also, a very nice family in our ward gave us their old, antique dining room table. They're a family of eight, so this table includes two leaves (not pictured) to make it even longer. Will and I (mostly Will) sanded the table down (it had been through six kids), re-stained it and then put on a sealant/gloss. It took us a couple of days, but we are so proud of our "new-to-us" table! Plus, now we have a killer game night table! Bring on four couples and one crazy game of "Settlers of Catan" please! Now if only we could find some chairs that match...

And the Verdict is...

We had our 20 week doctor's appointment today. You know, THE super, duper, muy importante appointment when you can find out the sex of the little one. Everything looked great and I was pretty proud of myself since I recognized what it was before being told. That's right folks...

We are just beyond thrilled and so glad that she looks healthy. She was a feisty little thing, literally doing somersaults in there. My only concern is that she's measuring a bit big (already 15 ounces! Yeah, that's a tad on the big side. Normally at this time they should measure about 10 ounces). I had a C-section with Everett and if this gal gets to be too big, they might make me have another one. Yikes!

So, here we go! We're going to have one of each and it's going to be great! I already have visions of all the pink, red, yellow, purple frilly things we can put on our little gal. Plus the bows and ribbons, cute shoes and of course, pierced ears (it's a Latin thing). I would love to hear some name suggestions though. We think we've got one, but I'm curious to see if one of you mentions something else we like. And no worries, I'll definitely let you know what we've decided as soon as we know (Will and I aren't very good about keeping secrets)!

Yea for little girls!

For Hire: One Strawberry Picker

Skills include:

1) Many muscles to lift numerous buckets

2) Agility to navigate even the peskiest of bumpy paths

3) Discerning tastebuds to discard any strawberries that aren't up to snuff

Only request after a hard day's work?

Plenty of time for an afternoon nap

*For more info, contact Everett's mom