A more positive book review

The terrible twos are upon us and although I swore she would potty train early, Lily is refusing to use the toilet this week. We have, however, found a meeting of the minds with this outstanding book about potties. There are a lot of potty training books. Most I have read are decent but not for the everyday read. This one, however, is my favorite and I recommend it to all whether you have kids or not.
My favorite part are the tricks that played by and to the potty.



I will post more personal pictures (and posts) soon. My computer is completely full and my external hard drive I use to transfer downloads, tv shows, pictures (space suckers in general) is on the slow boat with the rest of our earthly possessions. We were told that one of our cars has arrived. I took that as bad news as I thought all of our stuff was shipped together.

Go ahead and hate me.

I realize that by writing this post I am opening myself up for a stoning. I know this and yet that is part of the very reason why I want to write this. Maybe the traumatic move has made me crave misery, it liking company and all. Maybe I just want to get it off my chest. Maybe I just want to see how many people will respond. So here it is:

I don't like Twilight.

I read the book. Every teenaged girl in my ward was aflutter about it and talked of nothing else. My sister, Tori, said it changed her life and she (self admittedly) doesn't like to read!
I. Was. Bored.
How many times can you compare skin to marble? How many times can you try to make stalker-like behavior seem romantic? How can you possibly think about a 400+ year old man (we are going to let it slide that he is a vampire, which is a whole other issue) pursuing a 17-year-old girl and not be creeped out?
I saw no reason for Bella and Edward to be in love. Bella is so painfully desperate and self patronizing it made me ill. Edward is not nice. And it was boring! I admit, the last third of the book was easier to digest. I actually wanted to finish reading it. The getting to that point, though, was painful. I did start the second book while we were house-sitting (they owned two copies). I haven't felt any rush to finish it although I did like it better than the first. At least Edward was gone for most of it and there was some plot right from the start.
I guess what I don't understand is the outright infatuation of this book by people like me: Stay at home moms in their late twenties and thirties! I can understand high school girls swooning over a perfect "bad boy" and falling head over heels for no reason. That is what people who have never been in real relationships think that love is. Or should be. Or could be. But really? It is really that popular with us older gals?
Maybe I just had my hopes up. I guess I heard how good it was and how much better than Harry Potter (gasp!) it was and that it was the most well written, edge of your seat, page turning novel ever. And it wasn't. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't great.
On a somewhat unrelated note: Isn't the basis for the entirety of Bella and Edward's relationship is that E is so hot he is painful to look at? Then why, oh why, is he so ugly here?

Cedric was cute, so what happened?

Marie-Therese Gown GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

Marie-Therese Gown GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

I know I have sung her praises before but you all need to check this out, especially you, Angi. This dress is amazing. This is the standard for our next swap. Just kidding. Oh if I could sew like this! It makes me miss my boat bound sewing machine.

Lily's Hawaiian Party

Lily had a great birthday party/We Will Miss Our Friends in Hawaii party. Before I had kids I was convinced that my kids would not wear clothes with characters (everybody says that, I think) and Chris actually said "There will be no Elmo in our house". I don't really know how it happened, but Lily loves it all. First Elmo and Hello Kitty and more recently Cinderella and her other princess pals. This party was all Elmo and she loved it. Thanks to all of our awesome friends that we love so much and miss for bringing yummy food!

I can't upload any more pictures right now, but I will try tomorrow.

Happy Happy Birthday Lily!

Little Emmie-do. Lily's idol.

Tay-Tay. This girl is so darling. She could sing Twinkle Twinkle before she was 2! We will miss her.

The birthday girl.

Hello?

We are officially moved into our new apartment. It is only a one bedroom but bigger than our place in Maui. The last two weeks have been mayhem of garage sales, furniture buying, ksl.com (utah's own craig's list) and survival. It still hasn't sunk in. It feels like we are on vacation. Maybe not. It doesn't actually feel like anything right now. I am a little numb. I am excited to get into a routine of life. I can't wait to meet some people around our new home and to find out all the cool things about Utah that I never knew. This place has changed a lot since I was in high school.
Today we had gorgeous (75 degree!) weather. We went on a hike with my parents and David in the fall colored canyon. It was so beautiful. Just beautiful. I hope this weather sticks around for a few more days so we can enjoy the outdoors before winter.
I realize this is a pathetic post. My other one was so sad sounding, I had to post something new. Now that I am typing, however, I don't really know what to write.

I do have an important announcement: My phone does NOT like Utah. It doesn't ring 95% of the time. It doesn't tell me when I have messages. I checked last night and I had almost 20 messages that the phone did not even have listed on the little 'you have this many messages' thingy. If you are one of the dear, dear people who have called me in the past 2 weeks, thank you. I am not ignoring you. I have a phone manufactured somewhere near the River Styx. It is trying to further isolate me in this lonely world to which I have come after being cast out of the garden of Maui. I will try to call you back (oh yeah, my phone only lets me call out if I am actually on I-15 and then it is really hard to hear) but maybe we could reconnect through email? Facebook? Smoke signals? Our contract only has 1 more month. Maybe then I can get a big girl phone. One with a screen on the front. That makes and receives calls.

Moved

Moving is hard. Change is hard. Living at my parents is easy. Perhaps too easy.
The last two weeks in Maui were crazy, busy, tearful, sad and sleepless. There is so much I could write, I don't know where to start. Maybe later my mind will find clarity. For now, we are in Utah. We have an apartment in Sandy that we haven't moved into. We miss our friends. I miss Maui. I am excited to have new adventures here, in Utah. We did take a drive up the canyon on Sunday and walked in the fall foliage. It was stunning. That was comforting. Then Lily threw a fit about putting clothes over her swimming suit to go to the pool and I got sad again. I think once we get settled, get a routine, make some friends, and get our stuff off the boat, I will be able to muster some positivity. But right now, I am still sad.

"I would rather get a beating than move"
~Kenneth Beesley (my grandfather)