Nieces News, a Graduation, Soccer, and the Star Trek Movie

I decided to write one really long post rather than divide it into four posts and risk anyone missing out on something they're interested in ('cause honestly, I have no idea what you all care to know, and what you don't). Feel free to read or skip sections according to your whims!

Baby Update: Summer and Zoe are doing really well! Lindsey was released from the hospital on Thursday, so now she is juggling time with G-unit and time at the hospital. The nurses have a strict schedule for the twins and a bunch of rules. They recommend Lindsey and Adam spend at least an hour a day holding their daughters (not sure if they both need to hold both babies). Both girls lost 10% percent of their body weight pretty quickly -- which meant that Zoe dropped below 3 pounds -- but are thankfully starting to gain again. Summer's lungs are strong enough that she was taken off forced air this morning and is now breathing room air on her own! Both girls are learning to eat from a bottle (their sucking reflex was delayed because they were born so early). I haven't seen the twins since their birth day so I have not been able to confirm Adam's belief that Summer looks like me... but I'm delighted with the idea! No word yet on how soon the twins will be independent enough to come home and flourish under the care of their darling, devoted mother, or when their big brother will get to meet them. Lindsey's mother, Sandy, is in town to help out in any way she can.

Lindsey apologized that she hasn't updated Facebook or sent out announcements yet. The hospital has a Web site where parents of premies still in the hospital can post status updates and photos, and she plans to recruit her brother to get it started in the near future. Meanwhile, I'll continue to make updates, too, and post photos when I get some!

Here is the one photo from last Sunday that I feel comfortable posting -- Adam standing in front of Zoe's isolette and all of the machines she's hooked up to. Summer has her own set of machines watching over her...

Work Schmerk: Thursday one of my co-workers asked for some help updating the page numbers on a file she was working on. This sort of question always makes me nervous. I know I know how to do my job, but I feel like I've said "I don't know" a lot lately. Sometimes if I have no idea I'll say "What if..." hoping to come up with an idea by the time I finish the phrase. It's worked once or twice! This time, I started by asking what the co-worker had been doing. Then I suggested the only other option I know of, which luckily worked! Hooray! Instant professional self-esteem. I needed it, especially as I begin to feel more and more overwhelmed with the upcoming release. More and more, not doing a play has proven to be a smart move...

David's Graduation: Yesterday, my youngest brother, David, graduated from the University of Utah with a Bachelors degree in Civil Engineering. David worked hard not only finished all the Engineering requirements but spent a year taking Art major classes. Total, he completed about 180 credits! I find that amazing -- I am so proud of him! I missed the university-wide ceremony, but attended the college commencement with Dad, Mom, and Peter. It was fun to see David looking so distinguished and gorgeous in his tie, cap and gown; I don't get to see him dressed up very often. Adam, Lindsey, and G-unit joined us for dinner at Mazzo (middle eastern food) and I very much enjoyed my chicken and cauliflower tabseh. It was a good day for my beaming parents. They put five kids through their Bachelors and the rest is up to us. It was nice to celebrate David's accomplishment with so many of my family!

Congratulations, Dave! I am proud of you!

G's Soccer Game: The G-unit is playing soccer this spring and I finally made it to a game this morning! G's team is called The Dark Knights, and they wear all black. Those little kids are awesome running around that field! Adam seems to be doing a great job as the coach. The team members don't really get the nuances of the game, but they all like to crowd around and kick the ball. G stood as a goalie for a minute or two, but it seemed his favorite part was being offsides. He had a lot of enthusiasm playing that first half, but he droopped during the second... at least, he droopped until he got to come hang out with his Grammy, and uncles Russell and Peter who ran drills with him with an extra soccer ball. It was pretty entertaining. The G-unit had quite the cheering section, including my dad, Lindsey, Lindsey's mom Sandy, and Peter's girlfriend Jordyn. I was glad I made it. It was a nice morning to sit in the sun and I love the company!


The Star Trek Movie: I've seen it twice! Last night I went with some friends from my ward, and today I saw it with Adam, Lindsey, Sandy, Russell, and Angela. I think the actors were brilliantly cast, did their homework, and were fantastic in each of the roles. I love the costumes, the special effects were awesome, and I thought the nods to fans were appropriate and tasteful, though I can see why non-Trekkies would be confused when Trekkies would laugh at seemingly random moments. All that said... I didn't love it. I'm not sure why. I liked it a lot. I'll probably see it again next weekend and maybe even buy it when the movie comes to DVD. It was a good movie. But I felt a little unsatisfied with something, perhaps because it conflicted with my limited knowledge of the science behind some of the fiction. My favorite Trek films remain First Contact and The Undiscovered Country. Still, it was genuinely funny and well-thought out, and I got emotional at a couple of moments. It was a lovely prequel, and I'd recommend it to anyone who is looking for a good, fun, action flick!

My IMDB Profile: Last week I was up something like 536 percent. This week, I'm down 45%. My fans are fickle! What I really want to know is whether I'm 45% down from 0, or if I'm 45% down from 536%, because that's still 119% popularity. And if it’s the latter, how in the world do I ever know – forget it. My brain is starting to hurt. (Don't worry, I'm not deluded into thinking being on IMDB means I'm famous. I just find the popularity percentage interesting!)


C'est tout!

Happy Birthday, Baby Girls!

My nieces were born today -- 10 weeks early!

That's right, ten weeks early. How scary is that? The water broke for one of the babies this morning, so Adam and Lindsey went to the hospital and Gunner spent the afternoon with his unckie Pete and grandparents. We waited on pins and needles until Adam called to tell us around that the c-section was successful, and we had two beautiful baby girls to welcome to the family!

Adam came to my mom's house and told us about the delivery and gave us the stats on the girls: Summer Elizabeth and Zoe Cassandra (pronounced ZOH-ee; I hope they forgive me if I've spelled her name wrong). They are both smaller than 4 pounds and so tiny, though they looked bigger than I had expected.

Even though Visiting Hours were technically over, we were allowed to see Lindsey and the twins at the hospital about 8pm. Lindsey was doing well and looked great, if a little tired. We were allowed to see the babies in their incubators. They are hooked up to all kinds of machines and we had to scrub our hands and arms to the elbows for three minutes before we could go in. They seem pretty strong! They both had breathing tubes in their noses, so we couldn't get a great sense of what they look like, but we can tell Summer seems to have lighter hair than Zoe does. Summer was born first and is a little bigger, too. They are perfect, though! Ten fingers, ten toes, one head each. Gunner was really upset when Adam told him he was too young to be allowed in the infant ICU. When he started to cry, Lindsey cried too, and said he could stay with her. She hadn't seen the babies yet, either. I hope she gets to later tonight; the doctors seemed to want her to recover a little before making the trek two flights.

I had received a text message earlier this afternoon telling me another friend had her baby this morning! I didn't know if she was at the same hospital, but while I was there I checked at the front desk anyway -- she was! I surprised her and her husband at nearly 9pm, but they were very gracious and proud to show off their own baby girl. They even let me hold her! Yaaaaay! She is such a beautiful baby. I am very excited for their happy little family!

The world has truely been blessed today. I can't wait until Summer and Zoe are big enough and healthy enough for me to hold them. Of course, their being born so early kind of kills the baby shower I'd had planned for this Saturday, but even if I have to reschedule, maybe we can throw a party for them anyway. What better reason to celebrate?

Fun with Words

Today's post is brought to you by the letter "Q".

Words I like the sound of:
delicious
low
evil
blissfully
precisely
pecan (pronounced pee-CAN)
weather
fancy
necessary
ginormous (a hybrid of "gigantic" and "enormous")
variable
freakishly
cheeky
affectation
superfluous


Words I think are weird in pretty much every way:
fiancé (not to be confused with finance)
lotion
queue
victuals (pronounced "vittles" -- what's up with that?)

A word I just don't like but say anyway 'cause I can't think of an alternative: appropriate

Words I know how to spell but somehow manage to spell incorrectly almost every time I type them:
receive ("i" before "e" words get me every time after "c")
use/using (ends up as "user/usering"; old habits die hard)
from (comes out "form")
thorough (too many variations)
two ("tow")
privilege ("priveledge")

Words and phrases I've used a lot recently:
Seriously?! (mostly while driving)
What the what?
Holy bananas!
Holy granola!
Done and done!
Absomalutely! (thank you, Ned Flanders)
That's hilarious!

I just think words are interesting. I am fascinated to see how people use language to express themselves, and to notice how my choice of words differs based on my method of communication. For example, my journal is a lot more formal than my blog, and none of my writing sounds the way I speak with my friends, which is also different than the words I choose when talking with strangers. Sometimes I go out of my way to use big or unfamiliar words in casual settings, just for fun. However, I try not to do that in situations where it might make people uncomfortable. I just like words.

What are words you like and don't like? How do you use them? Don't make me turn this into a tag -- just respond!

Aviaphobia

It's no secret I'm a fan of Star Trek. Up to now it's mostly been the movies and the later series. I haven't been very familiar with the original series, so the last few months I've been taking advantage of the fact that two channels are rerunning TOS so that I can catch the 50+ episodes I haven't seen.

It's been educational. As with most t.v. shows, some episodes are better than others, and some are downright boring. But, I've noticed that although Kirk hooks up with nearly every female guest star that shows up, he is very sincerely in love with each of them, and it's almost believable. And I confess that my crush on young Leonard Nimoy is not inconsiderable.

But my favorite TOS character has been and always will be Leonard "Bones" McCoy. He just cracks me up. I love his friendship with Kirk and the way he spars with Spock. I love that he hates the transporter. I find it hilarious (as I think was intended) that he hates space flight and yet works on a starship. His southern accent and gentlemanly treatment toward women is highly attractive. He laughs at his own jokes. His professional knowledge, loyalty, and sense of right and wrong are impeccable, and he isn't afraid to stand up for himself in spite of his equally opinionated co-workers. McCoy is awesome.

Which is why I was so thrilled to see this clip from the new Star Trek movie coming out next Friday.

Dead on. Karl Urban, as I suspected, is perfectly cast. This movie is going to rock!

Blink of an Eye

Monday night at Family Home Evening, my ward had a guest speaker. I had never heard of Brother W before that day, but he told us an incredible story:

Two years ago in February, he and his wife recieved a phone call at 1 a.m. It was the police telling Brother W that his son had been driving drunk, had hit a car, and killed a pregnant woman and two of her children. (Click here for more details). This family was in the teenager's stake, and the parents of the woman killed were in Brother W's ward at that time, so they'd known these people fairly well.

Can you imagine how devastated this father would be? He had to watch his son go through all of this, and he felt tremendous guilt toward the grieving family. It was amazing to hear him talk about the trial, his son's regret, and the surviving family members' forgiveness.

As Brother W described the events after the accident, what struck me most was how quickly and easily life changes. I can't take back my bad decisions. I can't change things that the people around me do. All I can do is my best and be supportive of those around me that are doing theirs, whether family, friends, or strangers. No one is perfect. We're living our lives in order to learn and figure things out. And even "bad" news can be kind of fantastic depending on the way you look at it.

I also thought of the Ceran family -- another who suffered through a similar horrible accident. I knew their family well and loved them. I heard about the accident on Christmas Eve and will never forget that phone call or visiting the survivors the next day. The thing they all said was that they were glad the three who died went together, because none of them could have born the deaths of the others. The three who lived felt very blessed they still had each other. They also forgave the other driver. I see them once in awhile and am always struck by how positive and happy they are. They miss their family and their life before, but they choose not to hold onto anger. Instead, they focus on their many blessings. And when it comes down to it, we never know what is coming. We can only hope for the best, accept the worst, and have faith it will all work out.

It was a really emotional meeting. I am glad the co-chairs put me in charge of the event, because if they hadn't I might not have been there. I had needed that message.

Brother W's son is now surving time in prison. His family loves him and is supporting them through the repentance process. I pray that whenever something unexpected comes to me and my loved ones that I'll be able to be as positive and loving as they have been.

Nothing Bundt Cakes

Today, I and some of the girls at work needed some chocolate, so we decided to take a short break and decided to go find some. It was while driving that Michele S, Emily A and I realized we just wanted chocolate and didn't care much about the details -- place, form, or price. Therefore, we couldn't decide if we should go to Tin Roof Grill, Chili's, Kneaders, Paradise Bakery, Cold Stone, Harmons, See's Candies, or Red Mango. There is no group so indecisive as women who want chocolate in whatever form!

We finally decided on a place I'd never heard of: Nothing Bundt Cakes. It's such a cute little shop! The display was geared towards weddings and baby showers. You've got to love a place where the main decorations are bundt cakes with flowers in the center... and the frosting dripping over the sides... mmmm... cream cheese frosting. They even had little onsies with silly "bundt" slogans, frilly aprons, and rubber gloves with fancy gingham cuffs. Everything about the place said "girly". I didn't see a single man while we were there (or a married man either -- high-o!). Quite a few pregnant women and their friends, though.

They had free samples of red velvet cake. It was so perfectly moist and the chocolate chips added just the right touch -- I had to eat two!! (I've mentioned how I don't have any self-control lately, right?) In spite of our earlier indecision and all of the different cake choices, Michele and I settled on sharing a single serving chocolate-chip cake. I tell you what: it was good. Good enough that if that place were closer to work or my apartment I'd probably go once or twice a week. Fortunately, it isn't close to anywhere I go with any regularity. My waistline is greatful.

It sure was what I wanted today! Hooray for chocolate cake on a rainy turned sunny day!