Meet George

When I was in Dallas for a week visiting my family, Eric got lonely. He was in his parents' yard helping them out when he found several praying mantises living their praying mantis lives. He decided to capture one and keep it as a pet.

And thus we have George. He lives in one of my vases with some twigs. He likes to eat grasshoppers, crickets and moths. When we were in Jackson Hole, my nephews helped Eric catch a whole bunch of crickets for George to eat. When Eric finds bugs in the apartment, he catches them and feeds them to George.

Eric wasn't sure how crazy I would be about George, and he anticipated that he'd have to get rid of George when I got home. But I like George.

I do not have to feed George. George does not shed. George does not demand any of my attention. George does not mess or barf on the carpet. George eats free and very cheap foods. We can leave George for a couple of days without worrying about him. George stays in his vase. George does not make any noise. George keeps Eric incredibly entertained, and I enjoy watching him catch his food too. I am a fan of George, the praying mantis.

Another trip to Jackson Hole

We went to Jackson Hole the second weekend of September to visit my brother and his family. For some crazy reason we hadn't been up to visit them in over a year. That's pretty ridiculous considering that they really aren't far away from us at all. We'll have to make sure not to be so lazy this coming year.

Every year Jackson Hole hosts a 5k charity race called Old Bill's. There is no fee to enter, but they do ask for a donation to a local charity. My oldest nephew started running about a year ago and has become quite a good runner. My brother had mentioned bringing his older boys down and all of us running a race together, but that was before I got pregnant. (Let's be honest, though: even if I weren't pregnant I wouldn't be able to run a 5k.) It just worked out for Eric and me to go up the weekend of Old Bill's. Eric ran with the older two boys and my brother. I walked around with my sister-in-law and her mom, and then we turned around and waited at the finish line to take pictures of the runners as they came in.

After the race, we went on a hike to Phelps Lake in the Tetons. It was a nice hike, and one I could handle considering my previously-better bum hip had flared up again for the special occasion (naturally).

We were really glad we had the chance to go up and visit. Each of the kids (except the oldest one) got to feel the baby kick, which was pretty fun. We ate great food, as usual, including mushroom and cheese-stuffed burgers (todiefor) and smoked pulled pork tacos (also todiefor).

Plus my brother gave me the cradle that two of my cousins, four of the kids in my family and all four of my brother's kids slept in. I will post a picture one of these days when the cradle is put together and has bedding. Right now it's in a box in our little apartment storage unit. When my sister-in-law was pregnant with my oldest nephew, my brother and my sister's husband worked together to restore the cradle, and it is a really beautiful little piece of furniture. It is exciting to know that our kid is going to sleep in something with so much history.

Clever title here

I've been meaning to post for days, but the camera is never in the apartment. Plus, I'm busy.

Tomorrow I am having my gestational diabetes test. Plus an iron test. Plus a shot in the hip so my kid doesn't get hemolytic disease of the newborn, or HDN. Plus I have a regular appointment. Also big deadlines for work.

And it's Eric's birthday.

So, for this gestational diabetes test. You get this little soda drink. You chug it in five minutes and get your blood drawn exactly one hour after drinking it. You can't have eaten anything two hours prior to the drink, and you (obviously) can't eat or drink anything besides water between drinking the substance and getting your blood drawn. My midwife gave me the drink at my last appointment, like four weeks ago. It has been in my fridge since then.

Tonight I was telling Eric that I had to drink that orange drink first thing tomorrow morning and that I wouldn't be having breakfast until after I got my blood drawn. He then said, "Oh, I'm glad I didn't drink it. I've been wanting it for a while." It made me laugh. Because I don't think it's a particularly yummy drink. And because I DID tell him when I brought it home from my appointment a month ago that it was for my gestational diabetes test.

I think if he had drunk it I would have made him go get his blood drawn just to top off the experience.

Book Burning and Personal Revelation

I'm sure you've all heard about the pastor calling for the burning of Korans. I could write a diatribe against this pastor and his hate-mongering, but I won't. Partly because the issue seems to have mostly blown over now, but also because there are probably plenty of people who have said what I want to say in far better words than I would be able to use. Instead, I want to focus on the fact that this man claimed that if he got a sign from God we would not burn the books.

As a Mormon, I believe in personal revelation. I believe that God can and does communicate with people still. I have had too many experiences to count when I have received some sort of personal revelation. Sometimes this revelation has been small, sometimes large. Revelation has come to me in a variety of ways - by small thoughts in my head (maybe what one would call an epiphany), by feelings, by reading something that answers a question I've had, by conversations with people, and even in dreams. While I certainly cannot say that I have ever had a one-on-one conversation with my Heavenly Father, I can state with certainty that He has communicated to me throughout my life through various means.

With that said, I wondered what this pastor would consider to be a "message from God." Was he looking particularly for a personal visitation? Did he expect to hear a voice calling him by name? Or was he looking for something a little more subtle? Because I would think that a personal request from numerous political and national leaders including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and General Petraeus could perhaps be viewed as a message from God. I think God often communicates to us through other people. Sometimes that communication is a word of comfort offered by a person that speaks directly to your soul. Sometimes other people offer a voice of warning (e.g. If you do this you will be putting thousands of American troops at risk!), that could be viewed as a direct message to you or I from our Heavenly Father.

I guess that's my question - what kind of communication was this guy looking for?

Navigation - without a GPS

This is a portion of a map of the Salt Lake City area. This is the place where I've done most of my driving. There are not too many highways. It is not hard to navigate.
Contrast that with the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. (Yes, that is what it is called. I did not make that up, and I didn't even know it wasn't a word used to describe all metropolises until I was in college and people raised their eyebrows at me when I used the word "metroplex." It was only then that I learned it specifically refers to the Dallas/Fort Worth area.) The DFW highway system is fairly complicated. There are a lot of highways. Many of the highways have multiple names. In some places these highways merge together for a few miles and then separate again. There are exits on the LEFT SIDE of the highway.
It is a pretty big, sprawling place. And despite the fact that I lived in the Dallas area until I went off to college, I had virtually no concept of how this highway system worked. Besides the fact that it was big and sprawling, I did not get my driver's license until the summer after my freshman year at BYU, which means that I only spent a few months driving, and I only went to the same handful of places when I did go places.

For my trip to visit my family, I rented a car. I had an event to attend and a few people I wanted to visit, so I wanted the flexibility of having my own vehicle. I was rather terrified to know that I would be navigating the freeway system on my own. BUT! I've managed! The night I arrived I managed to get from Dallas Love Field to my parents' house in southeast Dallas County ALL BY MYSELF. The next day I managed to get from my parents' house to my sister's work in downtown Dallas ALL BY MYSELF! The next day I made it to the Dallas Temple (which, admittedly is VERY easy to get to) ALL BY MYSELF. Then, after that, I went out to Arlington and visited a friend, and I got there ALL BY MYSELF. On Monday I went all the way up to visit a good friend in Plano, and I got there and back ALL BY MYSELF.

You can probably tell that I'm fairly proud of myself. I've mentioned before that I don't like driving, and I especially don't like driving in unfamiliar terrain, so this week has been a huge accomplishment for me. I don't have a good sense of direction. I rely very heavily on maps, and it takes a lot of effort for me to have a sense of where I am. There were times when I took wrong exits, merged onto wrong highways or missed exits altogether, but despite this, I was able to figure things out and get myself back on track. I feel so much more grown up than I did a week ago.

Granted, I still have to get myself to the car rental return place tomorrow, but I'm feeling pretty good about that.

Delayed Photos

At the end of July we took a trip to Northern California to attend a friend's wedding and also to meet my cousin for the very first time. Unfortunately, we "lost" our camera (technically, it was stolen by one of Eric's clients) just before the trip, so we only had Priscilla's camera. That means when we split up and she headed to Southern California, and we headed to Even More Northern California, we stopped being able to capture our journey.

Anyway, here's a brief run-down of mine and Eric's first ever trip to Northern California:

We crossed the Salt Flats. I had never seen them before. Eric, apparently had never tasted salt before.

The wedding was in the Oakland Temple. It's a beautiful temple, and we were glad we got to add it to our list of temples we've been to.

We then drove to San Francisco. Priscilla bought sourdough bread that was impossible to tear.

And we rented bikes and rode them up to and across the Golden Gate Bridge. I was so exhausted just getting to the bridge that I seriously contemplated quitting and letting Priscilla and Eric go without me. In the end, I was glad I went.

I may look happy here, but that is only because I knew the way back to the bike shop would be mostly downhill.

When we got back to our car in Oakland and were heading to Stockton for the reception, I commented that I was a big weenie. Priscilla agreed. I told her to shut her piehole. She just laughed. Seriously, though. This was a really easy bike ride that was incredibly difficult for me. Bike riding is not one of my best things.