Sins of the Parents

Every year when I was growing up, my dad would take me out to dinner for a birthday present. It was a special time which I loved. You see, having grown up at the bottom of a family of nine children, we rarely had the resources to go out to eat. But not only would my dad take me out, he would take me to a sit-down restaurant, not just a fast food. It was a momentous occasion to look forward to. I always carefully planned where we would go out to eat, and, being a growing girl who loved food and lots of it, I usually decided on an all-you-can-eat place like Golden Corral or Sizzler.
As much as I cherished this one-on-one time with my dad, there was one small part of the experience I didn't particularly relish. I would go out and come back with my plate heaping full of all my favorite delights and he'd take one look at my plate and say: "Why are you eating all the cheapest things?! This is an all-you-can-eat restaurant and you are going to fill up on rolls, mashed potatoes, corn and cookies?!" Then an argument would ensue. "Dad, I LIKE these foods!" "But you should fill up on the more expensive things like meat!" "But I don't like any of the meat!" "Well, how are we going to get our money's worth when you are filling up on fluffy rolls!?" "Why don't YOU eat our money's worth, dad?" So he would try, and I'd feel bad, so I'd try to make up for my cheap meal by putting lots of sunflower seeds on my salad. Sunflower seeds are expensive, right?
Anyway, through the years, I learned more and more how to eat my "Money's worth." But sadly now I don't enjoy going to all-you-can-eat restaurants anymore, because even though I have married and left my parents, whenever I'm in those joints, I can feel this little daddy-devil sitting on my shoulder yanking on my ear lobe and shouting: "HAVE ANOTHER HELPING OF SHRIMP, PAM!" And I obey, even though I don't even like shrimp that much.
Today, for instance, My mother-in-law and I went out to lunch to Pier 49 and ordered the all-you-can-eat meal. I wasn't too worried because it was Pier 49 and I love Pier 49. But as soon as my stomach began to feel like it was ready to quit, that little daddy devil showed up and said: "You only ate four pieces of pizza! For that price you could have ordered a whole pizza and saved leftovers for lunch!" So reluctantly I went back for more. I ended up eating six very large pieces of sourdough pizza smothered in toppings and fattiness. So my daddy may rest assured that he instilled in his daughter the trait of eating her money's worth. But really all he gave me was a legacy of heartburn.

Musicsick (I mean like that homesick)

I was a music major once upon a time. I am going CRAZY right now because I haven't sung in a while. It's even September and my ward hasn't started up choir practices for the Christmas program! Don't they know that you're SUPPOSED to sing Christmas songs in September?!
Anyway, the following links are songs I sang from the concert "Prelude to Glory" written by Russell Wilson.
http://www.preludepress.com/Audio/10womanch.MP3
http://www.preludepress.com/Audio/08johnnych.MP3
http://www.preludepress.com/Audio/13bringch.MP3
I like the way I said "Butter" in Johnny's gone for a soldier. It made me feel like Barbara Streisand. I dare you to say it better. :D

It's Finished!!!

I finally finished the quilting project I've been working on for 2 years! Just in time for Fall, too!

And yes: I am comfortable enough with myself to admit that I cleaned off and decorated the table with the sole purpose of taking this picture. (Hey, this blog has added benefits of making me clean my house!)

World's Meanest Mom

Poor, poor Evelyn. On Saturday I picked up her last intact bottle and found the nipple had a huge hole bitten into it. So Evelyn is getting weaned from the bottle. It really hasn't been such a horrible experience as I thought it would be. You see, I tried to wean Evelyn from her bottle once before with disastrous consequences. Evelyn screamed for her bottle the whole day-and when I say scream, I mean it, for Evelyn has inherited my...Lungs.

Anyway, I really didn't want to go through that again. So I decided to give in a little to the devil on my shoulder and I put buttermilk in her bottle. She can have her bottle whenever she wants it. But when she tastes what's inside, she gives it the world-famous snub. It's working like a charm.

Above is Evelyn glaring at her traitorous bottle.

For Posterity

This was painfully similar to trying to teach my Sunbeam Class.

Labor day

I forgot my camera. How I could do such a thing was beyond me. So my apologies for the lack of pictures this post. Maybe I can beg some off of my relatives at a later date.
Anyway, for Labor Day this year, Michael's dad took us to the aquarium. Evelyn was in heaven! She loved the octopus, the frogs (Evelyn, what does a frog say? "Oh Yeah!") and the star fish. But most especially she ADORED the sting rays. In the aquarium we went to they have a big pool where you can reach out and pet the sting rays. I thought it was a bit creepy, but Evelyn wanted to RIDE them! A Sting ray would swim past and flap Evelyn's hand and she would giggle, giggle, giggle and then try and dive in the water. Later in the gift shop, she found a soft purple sting ray stuffed animal that she fell in love with. It was an ordeal trying to get that thing away from her. Who falls in love with a Sting Ray stuffed animal, for crying out loud?!
Then in the evening, Evelyn got to have a giant inflatable slippery slide all to herself. That's the sweet life!
Evelyn loves Michael's family. Each one has a special place in her heart. Her Grandma Adams she calls "Nana" that is occasionally followed with an affectionate sign of "banana." Grandpa is definitely a favorite. If we tell Evelyn we're going to visit Grandpa, she runs to her shoes and screams "PAPA!" and demands to leave right at that second. Then we inevitably endure a whole car ride of "papa. Papa! PAAAAPAAAAAA!!!" And her uncles, both of whom she harbors secret crushes for, are Uncle Yaya (Carl), and Uncle Cookie (Cory). We couldn't even get her to try to say Cory for a while. She just persisted in signing "Cookie."
Evelyn happens to be the first grandbaby on Michael's side of the family. On my side of the family she's merely the first baby Adams, and she falls as my parents' 26th grandkid. Of course, they treat her special too. I guess I'm just not used to the wonderful perks that belong to being a first. After all, I was like the 45th grandkid on my mom's side or something. But I did have the luxury of being the spoiled last child.

Explanation

Some of you might be wondering where I got the title of my blog. I know it sounds philosophical and intelligent, but it's not. Sorry. And some of you had such high hopes for me.

No, actually it dates back long ago back to when Michael and I were dating (Almost six years ago now, can you believe it?!). Michael and I had been dating for about 2 and 1/2 weeks, and I decided to introduce him to my family. As many of you know, that's quite a task considering that I have eight brothers and sisters older than me; most who were married and had multiple children. I thought I'd get it all over with at once and give Michael a bit of a trial by fire. So I invited him to Thanksgiving Dinner.

While we were waiting for Michael to arrive, my mom starting teasing me about how serious I was getting with him so fast. (She gave me so many marriage prep talks that weekend it wasn't even funny. I think I was getting serious with him so quickly because she kept making me think seriously about the relationship.) At one point of the conversation, she told me she was going to pull Michael aside sometime during the night and interview him to make sure he was worthy to marry me. I laughed and thought she was joking.

She wasn't joking.

As soon as Michael showed up, Mom gave me a job in the kitchen and disappeared somewhere with Michael. You can imagine that I was somewhat worried about this. I asked my sisters what they thought Mom was saying to him.

One of my sisters laughed and said, "Oh, she's probably giving him the sex talk a little early." I thought she was teasing, but just in case, I asked her what she meant by "a little early."

"Mom gives all the guys the sex talk after they propose." She stated matter-of-fact.

No way! I thought. Even if my mom really did give out the sex talk, which I couldn't really put past her, she wouldn't corner someone I was dating only a couple weeks.....would she?! My concerns deepened.

Michael and my mom eventually showed back up and I asked Michael what she told him.

"I'll tell you when you're older."

Famous last words. "No really," I pleaded.

"I can't tell you. She swore me to secrecy."

Blast. That really didn't soothe my nerves.

Michael didn't end up telling me what was going on for over a month! But on Christmas Eve, just before we parted, he whispered in my ear:

"Tomorrow You'll Be Older," and refused to say anything else. I got butterflies in my stomach so bad imagining all the things it might mean, and I didn't sleep particularly the greatest that night. But who does on Christmas Eve?

As it turns out, for Christmas that year (after much teasing about losing our Christmas to the Grinch) we found out that we were going to Disneyland. The "interview" that Mom gave to Michael the first time they met was to let him know so he wouldn't plan anything that week with me.

Just as an interesting fact: After my mom met Michael that weekend for Thanksgiving, she told me that he was "Too good to be true" and warned me to be careful. Now she is the first to admit he really is a gem. In fact, sometimes I think she only claims me as a daughter because I married him.

A special thanks to Jessie for the picture!