My "Mormon Mommy" Blog

No, dears. This is not an announcement.

There is an interesting phenomenon known as the "Mormon Mommy" blog. I am not a participant in this phenomenon, but others are interesting to read. In the semi-anonymous way that blogging allows, women talk about their family, their church callings, their favorite recipes, etc. Basically, it all makes you feel like nothing you're doing in your life is enough. It's a myth, of course, that these women have it all figured out, but doesn't it always look like that to the outsider?

It's garnered such a following that it has even inspired some satire, which I follow much more religiously than any of the original blogs. Lurve you, TAMNers!

I am not at all one of these women, but it occurred to me that I don't really talk about my "home life" very much here. Nor my church life. So, I guess I'll remedy this.

First, home. No children, of course. I like having a clean house, but our apartment rarely fits that bill. We get busy. We may be doing too much, and I don't say this as a call for a badge of courage. I think doing too much is stupid, actually. I wish I had the guts to say "no" more often. I do enjoy cooking and baking, probably more than I should. This is the reason for our burgeoning home bakery business. We make stuff like this:



Yum! Mint chocolate chunk cookies!

We are attending church in a growing Spanish branch. Andy lived in Argentina for two years while on his mission, and I took Spanish in high school . . . that's why. We just like it. I love being able to hear Spanish on a regular basis, and the branch socials are always full of Mexican food and dancing. Yippee!!! Because this branch is small, though, we have our work cut out for us. We serve as Young Single Adult (YSA) advisers, which is a calling we both kind of forget about sometimes, and don't really know what we're supposed to do as such, to be honest. He's also the Elder's Quorum Secretary, and I'm the Primary Chorister (lead music for kids from ages 3-12) as well as the Home-Study Seminary teacher (teaching religious education classes weekly for high school age kids).

I love my callings. The primary kids are so adorable, and they always make me laugh. I'm not so good at keeping their attention or motivation all the time, but I try. I love seminary, too, even though I don't feel like I have the time to plan my lessons like I should. I'll be honest, this is something that usually happens the day-of. I wonder how I seemed to be able to do it so much easier when I was in school. Graduate school, that is. Hrmm. I guess I didn't have a semi-grown-up job then. More disposable time? More flexible schedule? Something to do with that, I suppose.

So, that's about it.

My feet are cold.

Happy Balentimes Day!

Today was one for the books.

Woke up for work. Delayed departure due to adverse driving conditions. Departure further delayed by a car that wouldn't start. Dug the "other" car out from under the snow, took the bumpy, icy back roads to work.

At work, attempted to make two days' worth of visits in one day. Discovered that Bingo chips were missing--had to improvise another solution. Day was made more interesting by a woman who seemed to think we were still in the Cold War, a child who seemed to think that I was her babysitter, a fire drill, and (later in the day) an actual fire. This amounted to me leaving work at about 5:40 instead of 4:00, which is my usual time of departure on a Saturday.

Little did I know that in the midst of all of this, my sweet Andy was outside with a tuba-euphonium ensemble, waiting graciously for me to arrive. He actually managed to surprise me this time, and I started cracking up as soon as I saw the four of them in the driveway, and began crying as they started to play. This was the result of an off-hand comment made a couple years ago-- Andy's a really good listener. Cute, too. :-)

Went grocery shopping, which wouldn't make the blog except for the Blue Bell being on sale for $2.99. Then returned home to eat dinner, bake a cheesecake, and prepare some dough for homemade cinnamon swirl bread. It's now 2:00am and sleep is close around the corner. Thankfully.

ZZZZZZZZ.

Let it Snow x3

We arise this morning to a beautiful, white blanket of snow covering all of the land around our apartment. It is one of those mornings that can only be made more beautiful by the addition of those two little words:

SNOW DAY.

Andy was supposed to have class today, as well as a work meeting on campus, but thanks to the snow, he was relieved of those responsibilities.

This has been the snowiest winter I have ever seen in Texas. We actually had enough snow to make a snowman, without using any snow from the car, or anything that had grass in it, AND we still had plenty leftover. Here's what we made:


Unfortunately, in order to see our awesome snowman, the camera operator had to step wayyyy back, so you can't really tell it's us. I assure you, it is.

The other news from ol' D-town is that Dr. Gretchen Bataille, President of the University of North Texas, is resigning. Suddenly. In the middle of the semester. And no one is saying why--at least anyone who knows anything. All's I know is: somethin' ain't right.

Pleasant Origin Day

Andy and I have spent last week re-discovering the wonder of Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show. It is incomparably silly, unrelentingly formulaic, and side-splittingly hilarious--if you're in the mood. As yesterday was my father's birthday, we decided to share a bit of fun with him:



It should be noted that some episodes of GTCMS are decidedly less innocent. Read the plot synopses before clicking "play" if you're sensitive to that kind of thing.

We also took the opportunity to wax creative. Around the time of the presidential election, my father came up with the idea for Cheerios to market a chocolate Cheerios cereal, and call it the Obama-O (in jest--please don't be offended). So, when we saw a box of chocolate Cheerios at Kroger, we had to show him his dream come to fruition.


He loved it, which made our day. This just goes to show you that sometimes, it really is just the little things in life.

Blogging

Here's the deal about blogging: if you don't update regularly, then people will lose interest in your blog. If you feel like your audience has lost interest, then what's the point of blogging? Andy and I were having this discussion, and he wants to quit. "I don't see what the point is," he says. Well, I have been faithfully blogging since blogging was on xanga and livejournal. And never, EVER, have I had a faithful audience of readers. Does that stop me?! NO!

I blog for my own self-satisfaction. I have always been a writer, since before I could actually write, when I remember narrating my life in my head ("Rachel walked up to the front door and rang the doorbell. She waited for her friend Tami to answer"). Part of the reason blogging is so appealing to me is the mere possibility that my voice might be heard. I keep personal journals, too, and copious notes on random scraps of paper, but unlike those media, a blog has the possibility of publicity. The moment I click "Publish Post," I allow myself a vulnerability that isn't included in my personal journal. This vulnerability causes me to write very differently than I would in my own personal notes--in voice, structure, content, vocabulary, and many other ways. Whether or not my work is actually read is secondary to the fact that it might be.

The challenge comes when one tries to make an exceptional blog about a seemingly unexceptional life. I am CERTAIN none of you care that my Vietnamese noodle salad tonight was a bust (failed nuoc chom), or that my car stalled out five times on the way home from work today, or that my residents were happy to see me today--the first day after my vacation--or any of the other mundane details of my life. That challenge, of trying to make interesting what is inherently uninteresting, is what makes it exciting. If I can draw your attention as a reader while talking about something that in and of itself doesn't merit your attention, I feel accomplished.

Most blogs are just people who are writing about their "boring," daily lives. The events are not at all compelling, but the thoughts and feelings behind them are. So to resign, saying "I just don't have anything to say," is only to say that (a) you don't want to share what's going on inside of you, or (b) there isn't anything going on inside of you.

In conclusion, Andy is wrong. Blogging is AWESOME.

What you've missed

1. We kicked off the Christmas season last Thursday with the tree lighting at the Square here in Denton. The highlight, however, was our town's musical gem, Brave Combo. The following is a clip (albeit not a great one) of the awesomeness that is the Combo.



2. Rachel spent all of this past weekend gigging it up all over DFW. We didn't see each other much, but y'know, rent money has to come from somewhere. By day two, we can see below how the long drives and late nights took their toll. Yes, Rachel ran into a light switch, and sustained a bruise on her arm in the process.



The culprit: Our bathroom light switch



The victim: Rachel's arm

3. Oh, and did we ever mention how we have the most amazing landlords in the world? Well, here's another example. About 10 minutes ago, Clint called just to tell me to look outside my window to see this:



I guess that about does it for highlights...oh, wait, I also got a job today. Not a bad week.

First Snow

It may not seem like much to our friends in the northern regions, but it was thrilling to wake up to this. It only stuck around for a couple of hours, but that was plenty.



View from the balcony



The west balcony



Our cars