Literary Shout-outs

I've been thinking a lot about reading and the effect it has made in my life. And then I thought about different people that I associate with different books. So, here are a few shout-outs to some of those people.

Emma Patterson (Farnsworth) first suggested Pride and Prejudice to me in high school, the start of a life-long passion. To know Darcy is to love Darcy.












Laura Farnsworth (Hansen) and I used to lie on her bed and talk about the Anne of Green Gables books. We really liked Gilbert. (We also watched The Scarlet Pimpernel over and over but I don't think we ever read the books.)











My little brother only read 1 book growing up: Where the Red Fern Grows. I also used to read him Edgar Allen Poe stories on the way to my grandma's on Sunday. His favorite was "The Cask of Amontillado".











My sister Michelle read Fury and the White Mare to me when I was little. I loved it.










My little sister Heather got me to read the Harry Potter books. She was in high school when they came out.











I never would have read Justice League of America, Volume 1 without my super husband John.










My mom named me Tara and her favorite book is Gone With the Wind. She denies any connection but I've always had my doubts.












I'll never see Junie B. Jones books without thinking of our old family password, "When ponies attack!" or the revealing confession that Kate made during the reading of Junie B Jones is a Beauty Shop Guy.










I'll never forget hiking Mt. Timpanogos with my college roommates after reading Woman Warrior for my Asian Literature class.










That's just a few and I'm sure I'll remember more later. But I'm grateful for all the books in my life that remind me of people I love.

Mary's Blog

Mary has a new blog. Over spring break Kate was updating hers and Mary wouldn't leave me alone until I made one for her. (We skipped the no TV week thing.) It was funny because she was very meticulous about the color scheme and design. It was a fun activity. Mary and Kate spent about 2 hours one day working on their blogs, so that was good. There's a link on John's blog (I'm link illiterate). It mostly has books she's read, like Kate's, but her first entry is hilarious. You should go there just for that.

Thank you!!

I would just like to thank everyone who has done kind things for our family in the last couple of weeks. Thanks for all the prayers and thoughtful words. Thanks for the dinners, flowers and cards. We've appreciated it all and it has helped a lot. Thanks again!!

Good News, Bad News, Good News

The good news is that we have a beautiful baby boy named John Able Payne.

The bad news we found out Tuesday at the ultrasound was that sometime before, our baby's heart had stopped beating. Then we were told that because I was so far along I would have to go deliver the baby just like he was full-term. It was a surreal experience to go and deliver our tiny little boy that had passed away in the same labor/delivery rooms where I have delivered all six of our other children, strange to go through the same process only to lose our little guy.

But the good news is two-fold. The first is that every one around us in a very bad situation was wonderful, angelic even. Starting at the ultrasound lady, to my doctor, to our stake president that we counseled with, to the nurses, grieving counselor, anesthesiologist all at the hospital, and lastly, our extended family and ward members. We felt loved, cared for and cushioned from the fall.

Secondly, the good news is the "Good News" of the gospel. We are an eternal family. We will have our baby John in the eternities. We will come to know the personality behind that sweet little face, fingers and toes. We will hold his living body someday and it will be sweet indeed. All will be restored through the atonement of Jesus Christ as we strive to keep our covenants.

Tomorrow we are laying our little one in the ground. I never thought I would have a baby in the cemetery. Who does? But I know through the strength of the Spirit that we will get through. The Lord will heal our broken hearts and we will see baby John again. Until then, I will appreciate my other six children a bit more and be grateful that I have such a loving, supportive husband. Good news will win out, even if the bad news seems to dominate for a little while.

Goal Update

Here's my first goal update for the year:
Read 100 books this year -- So far I've only read 4 books which really isn't on pace to make 102 so I've got to step it up. I've been watching a lot of online TV, too much. I'll have to work on that.
Index 10,000 names--So far I've indexed 2700 names for the year. I think I'm right on track to finish for the year. I love indexing and get a lot of TV watching done with this which is fun.
Finish my 200 projects by Sept. 1 of next year--I'm at about 65 so far but I've only done about 1 project since the beginning of the year. I've had a really hard time getting myself motivated because I'm so tired at night. That is the one drawback for me of being pregnant, I have no energy at all.
Complete the $200 DMBA health challenge--Successfully completed the first challenge and am well into the second. I got a Swiss Army Knife for the first challenge. Not sure what I'm going to do with it, but now I have one. I love this goal because it motivates me to be healthy and exercise. It is so fun.
Post on my blog once a week--I think I've done this one so far. I love writing in my blog and have started adding any ideas that I have for blog posts on my google task list in gmail so I don't forget. It has worked well.
Write in my journal at least 5 days a week--I actually have been doing really well on this one the last week or so. I finally found a time that works for me and I have started just doing 5 things I'm grateful for each day. That format provides a good structure for me to remember things each day, but also be short so that I have time to finish.
Read the Book of Mormon and the Old Testament reading for the year: I have been reading most days and am doing OK I think. I love reading the Pearl of Great Price. There is such good, enlightening stuff in it.
Try to be nice to my kids and have fun with them--Tuesday nights are still going strong and I really enjoy those. I haven't been going to my mom's really since the beginning of the year but the girls have been begging for it so I hope to get back to it soon. I have also been trying to do a few more things with the little girls during the day, and focus more on helping the older girls with their homework. I hope it is working out OK.
And one last goal: Successfully survive having my seventh child in the beginning of August: We go tomorrow to find out if we're having a boy or a girl. John is convinced it will be a girl, I'm not so sure, but we'll see. The girls seem to unanimously want another girl, I'm not sure why and Adam has not voiced his vote. Who knows? We'll see. Other than a few bouts of migraine, the pregnancy has gone ok. I just have no energy and have trouble sleeping but I'm sure I'll make it.
So, all is going well but there's plenty of room for improvement.

Cafe John

Three posts in a row about food . . . I must be pregnant.

Anyway, when I was pregnant with Kate, I was teaching at a middle school. John used to make me lunches to take every day. I worked with a lot of guy teachers and they used to make fun of me and say, "He's just being nice because this is your first pregnancy and you're newly married. Wait until your fourth or fifth pregnancy. He'll just wonder what you're complaining about."

Well, this is my seventh pregnancy and I have to say that John is great still. When I'm pregnant, I'm always hungry, but not a lot sounds good. And I really am not good at cooking or thinking of meals when I'm pregnant. So, John asks me just about every night, "What do you want for dinner?" And most often I answer, "Good food." Usually John delivers.

But occasionally he goes above and beyond. The other day I noticed that we had all the ingredients for the chicken salad with grapes, celery, and nuts. So that night when John asked me what I wanted, I laughingly said I wanted the chicken salad. Now I know that John doesn't like that stuff and can't eat several of the ingredients in it. But he asked what was in it and started working on it right away. I looked up a recipe on the internet that had the secret ingredient as Worcestershire sauce (weird I know). John used his new chopper and chopped all the ingredients really fine. It was one of the best chicken salads I've ever had. Good work!!

I just wanted to go one the record saying that I've really enjoyed living at Cafe John all these years.

Rabbit Food otherwise known as Lean Cuisine

A month or so ago I bought a pack of Lean Cuisine meals at Costco for pretty cheap. I eat a lot of frozen meals for lunch and I like the lean option because there's not as much fat and they're not as greasy. Before I've tried Healthy Choice steamers and Michelina's Lean Gourmet meals. I think they are both really good and the Michelina's ones are really cheap so that's a bonus. But because of the deal, I decided to try the Lean Cuisine.

However, I have to say the Lean Cuisine meals (Spa Choices) were NASTY!!!! They were probably the worst things I've eaten in a very long time. I kept eating them because I hoped a different flavor would be better, but every one of them was terrible. They had some kind of whole wheat orzo and it tasted like wet paper, mud, or what I imagine our pet rabbit's food pellets taste like. Soooo gross. The meat was good and the sauces were ok, but they just couldn't make up for the horrible texture and taste of that other stuff. I'm all for fiber and I usually love whole wheat options, but this just wasn't worth it. Maybe it was just the ones I had; I've never tried any of their other meals, but I'm not encouraged.

So if you have the choice and you want to go healthy, go for the cheap Michelina's or the tasty Healthy Choice, but skip the rabbit food.

International Hamburger and Pickle Month

(Not John's actual hamburger but close to looking as good)

I just read today that March is International Hamburger and Pickle month. Little did I know that our family was celebrating last night when we had hamburgers, Cheetos and corn for dinner. John made these great burgers that I wish I had taken a picture of. We had beautiful bakery buns from Maceys, with gourmet burgers with a little onion mix mixed in, provolone cheese, large slices of tomatos, ketchup, mustard and pickles of course. They were very tasty, so much so that Adam ate some leftovers out of the garbage later. He seems to have survived and was really mad when I made him stop. So Happy International Hamburger and Pickle Month. Enjoy, just don't get so enthusiastic that you eat them out of the garbage. There are better ways of celebrating.

"I'm a Big Girl Now!!"

I'm declaring Lily officially potty trained. She's declared herself "a big girl!"

She's almost been potty trained a few times before, but it just didn't take. My philosophy of potty-training is anti-mess. I believe in pull-ups. I told Lily that she couldn't wear underwear until she could show me that she could consistantly not go in her pull-ups. About a month ago I was at Maceys and they had their generic pull-ups on sale for $5.99 (a package that is typically about $10-15 at Wal-mart). I couldn't pass it up so I bought a few. Now the real problem with pull-ups is that they are way more expensive than diapers. This removed my problem. Every time I went and they were still on sale, I bought a few more. Then I started letting Lily wear pull-ups all the time.

Now Lily's big dream is to wear these cute pink and flowery underwear that I bought her last summer. But I have been firm that she can't wear them until she can show me she is ready. When she first started wearing the pull-ups, she did pretty good, but she was still having accidents every once in a while. I tried to remember to remind her to go potty before naps, bedtime, and bottle refills.

One day while I was changing her, Lily asked if she could wear underwear like Ruth. I told her that big girls like Ruth didn't just go potty in the potty sometimes. They went potty in the potty all the time. I guess she understood because she went about 4 days without going potty in her pull-up. So I gave in and let her wear her underwear. That was about 3 days ago and she's been doing great.

So, 5 down and 2 to go. Hurray!!! That's pretty good. And only 1 kid in diapers. That hasn't happened in years. I think I'll enjoy it while I can. By the look on his face I don't think he's ready to talk about potty training yet.

Quilt Block of the Month # 1

My mom and I found another quilt block of the month class to go to. Her ward is having one once a month. It's $5 a month (after the initial $10 I think). The lady who runs it provides the material for the block each month and even cuts out all the pieces. The cutting itself is worth the $5. Most of the ladies stay at the class each month and sew their block there. But my mom and I would rather do the sewing at home so we just color the pattern and then make sure we know what is going on. It is a fun thing to do once a month and it gets me to do at least one block a month. I also get to learn a few new techniques here and there. Plus it is fun to see some of the ladies that I grew up with. They were shocked that I had 6 kids and was pregnant with my 7th. I think it made them feel old, because they were all my young women leaders and stuff. Plus I get to do a little quilting with my mom which is always fun. So here's my January block. I sewed it while watching Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, a classic. I like how the block turned out.