A Story Problem 3 Ways

With John's permission, I post the following:

As most of you know John and I are avid book readers and collectors. We LOVE books! If you have only been reading our blog a short while, I'll catch you up to speed - for John's 28th birthday this last April, he received approximately the same number of books from people, 28, totally unplanned. Get the idea? We're thrilled when we receive a stack of books!

The following post is done from pure amusement at my husband's collection of books. Specifically his collection of books he hasn't yet read. I find the following "story problems" hilarious, and there really is no real "problem," I just think it's funny.

The Story Problems:

1) StorageWhat you are looking at is John's "to be read" shelf and uh, top of shelf and uh, top of closet doors? Yeah. I know. We took the closet doors off the closet to open up our bedroom more and they are wedged between the wall and the bookshelf. One morning I woke up and noticed the top of the closet doors had become a new shelf. Clever. John's books are stacked horizontally to make more efficient space of the shelf and some of the piles are double wide. So, our first story problem is a storage problem.

2) a. If John currently has 200 books on his "to be read" shelf, and for every 10 he reads he gets to buy 1 new book, and he reads 5 books a month, when will he be caught up?
b. If John buys more than his allotted 1 new book for every 10 read and buys, say. 5 instead, when will he really be caught up?

3) If John has 200 books that haven't been read yet, is it really economical to buy 8 new ones a week at the library/thrift town/DI/garage sale even if they only cost $.25 to $.75 each?

Please don't attempt to answer these questions. The answer is: John (and I, for that matter) will never be 100% caught up on our "to be read" shelves because there are always going to be books we'll want to read. I am grateful that John has a knack for finding the books he wants to read used and getting them cheap.

And, if you'd like to know what each of us are reading, scroll down to the very bottom of this blog to see our virtual bookshelves and links to Shelfari where we each have accounts. We'd also invite you all to join Shelfari so we can be on-line reading buddies!

Marshall and the Space Mask

About a month ago I got that little reminder card that it was time for my 6 month check up at the dentist's. I decided to schedule an appointment for Marshall too. Good thing I did! The dentist was great with him and the assistant was male and totally related to Marshall, talking to him about Pixar movies and stuff. Usually Marshall is terrified of any doctor and starts crying the second I tell him where we're going. Luckily I'd brought him with me to my last appointment and the dentist let him feel the spinny thingy on his finger and sprayed water on him and stuff. So, when it was his turn this time, the dentist had him sit on my lap facing me, then the dentist sat on a chair with our knees together and had Marshall lay down so his head was on the dentist's lap so Marshall could still see me. As he was looking at his teeth he picked out this HUGE chunk of something I'd totally missed while brushing. I said something about it and he said, "Oh you couldn't have gotten it, that's a cavity it was stuck in." Crap!!! That's the last thing Marshall needs, is to be terrified of the dentist his whole life like his dad! Anyway, the dentist had me schedule a time the following week so at least his first visit wouldn't be traumatizing.

So, after we got back from Colorado, Marshall went and got his cavity filled. The assistant was great with him again and then the dentist put on the "Space Mask" aka: Laughing Gas. Then, they gave his cheek "Sleepy Juice" aka: The Shot! Marshall did soooo well. I was amazed! He just laid there the whole time off in la la land. He left the office giving high-fives all around and even picked out some playdough from the surprise drawer. Later on he told me he wanted to be a dentist when he grows up! I'm so glad his first experiences were good ones. He doesn't even realize what they really did to him.

Anyway, I saw some dentist-y scrapbook paper the other day when I scrapbooked with my new ward friend (hey Annie, hope you're having fun in Boston!) and thought I would bring my camera with me so I could do a "first cavity" page the next time we crop! These are the pictures I took.

My brave little boy, before they begin

Happy to be off in "space"

And, a little sleepy juice for the gums

Can't you just hear the sound of the dreaded drill?

In the elevator after, a little numb on the left side, but none the wiser

32 Weeks - 8 Months

A couple weeks ago Marshall whispered to me at bedtime, "Mommy, you're getting so big and so brave" because I'd said that earlier in the day to him. At the time I didn't think anything of it, but looking at this picture I'm thinking I have a pretty intuitive child. First of all, just look at me! I AM getting big! And second, I AM brave! I mean, having a second baby, that's pretty brave of me!

Lately I've been making Marshall clean up more of his toys on his own instead of me helping him. Partly because if he's old enough to make the mess, he's old enough to clean it. But mostly because "I'm all made of hinges, yet nothing will bend." (That's a children's song Marshall learned in nursery a while back that I changed the lyrics to, it's supposed to say 'and everything bends'.) It is sooo hard bending lately, holy cow! I told Marshall this a few days ago and his latest excuse is he can't bend over either because baby Cuk-Cuk is in his tummy. Great! (In case you haven't heard, Marshall has a sympathy baby and ALL the accompanying symptoms!)

I'm still doing well. Amazingly I've only gained 18 pounds (as of last week). In case you didn't know me, I gained waaaaaay more than that with Marshall at this point and whopping 47(!) total. So, I'm pretty darn proud of myself. I start to swell every night and that's a little uncomfortable and I'm sure I'll probably put on more water weight with this one than I did with Marshall because of the heat and it being summer. At least it's cooling off nicely. I've even been cold(!) a couple times in the last week or so. Hurray for fall!

Last weekend I woke up and had a total breakdown because I was in the single digit week countdown - 9 more left. I felt totally unprepared and unready for a second baby. John was so good and helped me clean and de-clutter. My mom helped me clean and organize last Monday, too. Then we went and bought a ton of stuff I needed for the baby. After that I felt a ton more prepared. I think I over did it because at the beginning of last week I was having really bad contractions every half hour or so. My back hurt really bad too. Part of it I think is just how far along I am but some of it was just working my pregnant self too hard. But what can I say? That nesting instinct just kicked in full-force at 31 weeks, I couldn't control it! The Braxton-Hicks haven't really stopped though. I get them when I stand up, when I sit down, when I go up stairs, when I bend, when I don't, when I do nothing, when I do too much. I just get them all day now.

Sleeping is interesting. My back hurts off and on and my hips KILL when I lay on them for too long so I have to switch sides repeatedly throughout the night. Also, I wake up to go to the bathroom at least once and sometimes twice a night now. Bummer. It's especially hard going back to sleep at the 5:00 one when I know I have to get up at 6:30.

I'm also having a lot more heartburn now which is no fun because it makes it hard to fall asleep. Also, he's head down now, the doctor checked last Tuesday. Coen kicks me high up in the belly now. His most active time lately has been from about 1 AM to 5 AM. I know, fun huh?

I really think I'll have this baby early from all the Braxton-Hicks I'm having (haha, I hope). So at least I only have 8 weeks of this left and it's been a great pregnancy up until this point. I'm not complaining at all, I'm so blessed to have had it so easy this far. I can deal with a little discomfort for 8 more weeks. It's all worth it. I can't wait!!!

Today Marshall was cuddling my belly and talking to Coen when John called from work. Marshall answered and John must have asked him what he was doing because he said, "I'm hugging Coen." After he got off the phone with John he went on and on about Coen. It was so adorable. Some of the things he said were, "Coen is going to be sweet, sweet, sweet." "I really love Coen." "Is Coen up in Heaven still?" "Coen isn't going to be naughty like Maddie and steal my toys cuz she doesn't know the rules yet." He's going to be the sweetest big brother! Today after lunch he wanted to wipe Maddie's face by himself. He kept her laughing in the highchair while I cleaned up. They are so cute together, I can hardly wait to see him with Coen!

I'm having a party!

I'm having a Piggies & Paws party this Saturday, August 23rd from 3:00-5:00 at my place. If you haven't heard of them, they do your child's hand or foot print and turn it into a frameable piece of art for their room or somewhere. For example, at the party I went to Marshall did his footprint and they turned it into a rocket ship. He thinks it's pretty cool! So, you're all invited. If I have your address you should be getting an invite this week, and if I didn't have your address you're still invited I just ran out of invites and time to get everyone's addresses. So come and check it out! If you don't know where I live email me at scrmbld at hotmail dot com and I'll send you directions! Hope you can come, they're only this age once!!!

EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT!!!

As some of you know I have a toy review blog. Well, it's getting some major publicity on September 8 in the Deseret News!!! Yesterday I did a phone interview for an article about safe, educational toys. A big shout-out to my neighbor (and new best friend) Anna Bergstrom for telling her friend Nicole Warburton at the Deseret News about me! Nicole writes for the Family & Life section and she's the one who interviewed me. I'm totally stoked! I'll post a link to the article when it comes out. Big thanks to Anna, Nicole, and all my toy blog readers!

I'm a really slow person sometimes

Sometimes it just takes me a while, okay? If you've read my previous posts you'll know that I'm a little slow at getting things sometimes. Well, here's one more thing I just "got." I finally figured out how to add a ticker to the top of my posts without making it an actual post, it stays put. If you're like me and wondering how on earth you accomplish this magical feat here it is, really simple: you add it on the right side bar lie you normally would then you drag it over on top of your blog posts. Easy, huh? Yeah, I know. It just occurred to me that this may work while I was looking at a friend's blog. Yes, I'm slow! So slow in fact that they now make narrower tickers so you can actually see the end of it if you do put it on the right sidebar. Sigh...

My siblings really are crazy, I have proof!

I'm not sure if these pictures help explain where my craziness comes from or show that I really am pretty normal in comparison. These guys went crazy for the camera. Between me, Brandon, and Riley, we took over 500 pictures! That in itself is just nuts! I wish I'd inherited some of their energy. I think I had some, back in the day, but it's gone now.

Marshall and I went to visit my step mom and siblings who live near Aspen this last weekend. We had such a fun time, as you can see from the slide show! Marshall loves his aunt and uncles and they showered him with so much attention that he hardly needed mine. It was a busy 5 days but sooo fun!

Marshall spent the morning acting like a kitty

"There was a child went forth every day;

And the first object he look'd upon, that object he became;
And that object became part of him for the day, or a certain part of
the day, or for many years, or stretching cycles of years."
-Walt Whitman

Love this quote, LOVE this boy!