4:30 am Ramblings

I woke up at 4:30 this morning and it wasn't because of my bladder. I tossed and turned trying not to disturb Corey. Finally an hour later I just rolled out of bed and decided I might as well get up. There is no point of lounging around in bed if your mind is totally on the GO. In the hopes of possibly relaxing enough to fall back to sleep, I put on the movie "Persuasion". Although I have watched it about 5 times in the last month, It is still one of my favorites.

If you have ever seen the cover picture of this movie it looks like it would be a bit promiscuous. One of my friends, who had borrowed it, was carrying it around for a couple of weeks in hopes of returning it to me. She had many people ask her what movie it was and instead of saying a Jane Austin movie, she left it pretty vague and just said the movie was mine. Leaving to the imagination of all those friends that I watch "certain types of movies"...... Gotta love it.

Last night we were watching the March Madness final game. It was a bit of a disappointing tournament for the Bjarnsons. By the end of the final four round our brackets were completely determined. It doesn't add to the excitement of the final game when you know who has already won the bracket pool. Anyway.....they were showing a flashback from an old win where the team was cutting down the hoop. In all my sports ingnorance, I asked Corey if they always cut down the hoop when they win the tournament, to which he replied that they cut it down and the whole team gets a piece of it. I thought about that and wondered what would you do with a small piece of Hoop? It is not llike it is a medal or trophy to display. It would look like a piece of junk just sitting on a shelf. Do people have it framed or put it in a jar? Then I thought it is pretty comparable to me receiving a piece of thread (not a spool of thread) for winning a quilting or sewing contest. I thought that was pretty silly to say the least and was laughing about it. Corey just rolled his eyes and decided that I wasn't as far along as he had thought in my appreciation and knowledge of sports. What can I say.....Silly traditions call for additional silly thoughts and exagerations.

Some current projects

While i was in utah i also got to use my mom's embroidery machine and made the cutest little dinosaurs for a quilt for our lil' one. I finished the front of it the other day and decided to make the back a bit more interesting than just a plain green background. I am also quilting circles all over it which actually looks really adorable. i am excited to see it done. I will have to get corey to hold it up when it is done so the pics will come out better.

Also for christmas this year i made these incredibly adorable aprons for my sister's in law. Well for my Mother-in-Law's b-day i made one and i got some pictures of it before i sent it off. It is a reversible apron and it is sooooo cute it could be the front of a dress. I love it, I just need to make me one now.......well after the baby gets here cause i can't fit into it without making some adjustments for my ever growing baby bump.

a quick synopsis of my last few months

This blog is in much need of an update. I have been meaning to write what has been happening lately, but my few attempts have been very futile. Since I wrote last, I spent a couple of weeks in Utah visiting my family. It was my last big travel before the baby arrives. It was nice to see the family although because of some sudden plans to see my ailing grandfather in cali and then not going and then planning for the next weeek and actually going, i was unable to get together with friends. It was wonderful to be able to go to Cali and visit with family i haven't seen in many years. We were able to visit almost everyone that still lives in N. Cali, and to boot we were able to have a good ol' weenie roast. For those of you who have never done a weenie roast, they are fun. Not to say i am a fan of hot dogs (which on most occasions i am not) a weenie roast is definatly the exception. We went to my Uncle's house, where he has some property and he built a bonfire using old dried up christmas trees and other kindling, and we proceeded to roast our hot dogs and afterward marshmallows, while sitting around the blaze reminiscing and chatting. It can't get better than that!!

I also got to spend some good quality time with my sister and her kids. Here is a picture of my Nephew Myles munching on an Oreo. He is the funniest thing and he really liked me!. He was always coming over to me to play and sit on my lap and stuff. It was adorable. I didn't get a picture of his sister who is 4 and has quite a personality.

You can't go wrong with a smile like that!!

I also got to spend some time a couple of weeks ago at the UN for the Conference on the Status of Women. We were there to lobby for family and pro-life issues, in regards to the document they were negotiating. The Documents being negotiated aren't binding laws but once there is a concensus on them, lobbyists push for the countries around the world to honor what is in them. With all the controversy on Women's rights (gender roles and the equality of women, abortion rights, HIV/Aids, etc) the extreme left factions that are pro-choice or the extreme lesbian feminists hide their intentions within the document under seemingly harmless wording. Which means that other countries that are reading the translations are misinterpreting the true meaning of what is being put in there. So our job was to inform them and hope that they will stand up for wording that will keep the structure of the family intact. It was interesting as i was the only one in the whole building that was pregnant. The planned parenthood groups and other left groups just stared at me like i was some kind of alien for choosing to have a baby. I also had people approach me and touch my stomach and "bless me" for being there and having a baby. I definately knew who was pro-life and who wasn't. It was all very interesting. Luckily we did see some success at the end of the conference. Unfortunatly for us the U.S didn't help our cause. They were instructed to push their pro-choice, women's equality (we were pushing for Women's Equitability), and gay rights (marriage) agenda in the conference. Luckily they were not as successful as they wanted to be.

updating soon

OK, I will be updating soon. I haven't had much time and have been writing a litttle here and there when i have a moment and just saving it. But i will update this soon.

What I learned in 2008

Last night I went to a fun party themed "what I learned in 2008". We each had to bring a couple of things. 1. A list of 10 things we learned in 2008. 2. A recipe we found in 2008 and if possible bring the food item to share with the group. 3. A basket (or for us New Yorkers a Bag) of 3 or 4 things or places that we found in 2008. We then drew names and we each took home a different basket of Finds. We had a good turnout, even though it was the coldest night we have had in the last couple of years. It was wonderful to hear what everyone learned over the last year. Many people got really personal and it made me wonder if perhaps I am so reserved that I cannot share with friends things I have learned that have made me a better person. I kept my list pretty empty of all those things and it was more a list of things I learned how to do. However I thought I would share with everyone a few things I learned in 2008.

I learned:

• To sew an "Original Hem". This was a very exciting thing to learn because it is hemming your pants while keeping the original hem that came with the pants. This is great for most jeans nowadays with the slightly worn hem or for designer jeans that have very specific looking hems. You really can't tell at all that the pants were hemmed. Totally Fabulous
• About Natural and Home Birth. Seeing as I am pregnant we jumped on the "let's learn all we can" bandwagon early. We have completed our Bradley childbirth classes (I think they are a wonderful childbirth educators. They are very thorough in teaching you what you need to know whether you birth in a hospital naturally or with medication and the implications for you and your baby or whether you choose to birth in a birthing center or at home.) and we made some important decisions to have a home birth with a midwife. Corey was a little skeptical but supportive at first and is now a very strong advocate for a natural drug free birth. He is really excited as he learns more of how to coach me through the birth and support me and not just be a bystander waiting anxiously. The more we learn how my body is going to labor and birth and how I can most effectively help it along with being relaxed and without fear the more confident we are that we are going to have a wonderful experience. I have been reading some pretty amazing books that have really assisted me in having a positive attitude about childbirth and becoming a mother. I am very excited.
• Much to my husband's delight, I have been learning football rules and jargon. I now know what an interception, an incomplete pass, roughing the kicker, and holding are, what happens in a touchback, and sometimes I can even follow the ball through a pass and a tackle. Yes, I am getting the hang of it. I am practicing because I know my son will follow in the footsteps of his father and I am going to need to keep up.
• I have learned some new things about nutrition. I have eliminated from my kitchen any vegetable, corn, canola, or really processed way overused cheap oils. I now use only coconut oil for my main cooking, and depending on the food I'm making I will use sesame oil, peanut oil, walnut oil or other gourmet oils which are much healthier for you. And they don't leave a yucky horrible film on my pans anymore. I also learned that I can substitute most white processed flour with oat flour in most anything, and have had fabulous results. With my new coffee grinder I am able to make small quantities of different grain flours to use in making our food healthier and more nutritious, and with no noticable difference in texture or taste.
• I have learned some very personal things as well, such as how to have hope and faith in the face of challenges. I was laid off earlier this year and had applied for some jobs here in the city, to no avail. We had decided before the layoff to add on to our family and after much talking decided that even without a job it was still the right thing to do. So in August we found out we were expecting. With Corey's art business not quite booming as we would like and me without a job we have much to be stressed about. However, we had prepared ourselves as best as we could over the last couple of years financially and having learned how to trade the stock market we felt confident that we could make things work. We had just signed another lease before all this happened so we knew we would continue to stay in NY. It can be such a stressful thing to not know where the money will come from in the next 6 months and with the financial market crashing here in NY and seeing so many people move away because of lost jobs, and many people losing their retirement in the market it was definately a conscious effort on our part to not get suckered into worrying about the future or worrying if we could make our trading support us. However, we continued to see wonderful blessing come into our lives and knew that we are in the right place. All this just promoted the feeling that if we are in the right place and doing all we could to follow the commandment and help those in need, that the Lord would not let us fall into ruin, and so what need is there of despairing and worring about the whole situation. We still don't know what the future holds for us but we are consciously being grateful for the wonderful things we have and letting the rest take care of itself. Sometimes I wonder why I haven't done this my whole life. It is much more pleasant than always worrying and freaking out when things change in life or became unstable or uncertain. I keep thinking about a letter my dad sent me on my mission reminding me that the Lord will remember us in our time of need, refering to Mathew 6:28-34.

I realized this is getting to be way too long and will end this post. I definately learned many more things but these are some of the really important ones. Corey and I were talking about making a list every year so we can go back and reminisce about how we learned to use a cd player or walkman, or learned to play nintendo's original mario brother and duck hunt. :) It could be quite fun in years to come to see what we have learned in years past.

Here is a beautiful picture of our christmas tree in Kentucky.

And we had a visit from Santa which was fun. Here is Corey telling Santa what he wants for Christmas. (we all did it to show my nephew that Santa isn't scary)

And Here are the stocking I made this year and last year.

They turned out pretty well and were fun to make.

The holidays

The last few weeks have been busy. After an adventurous drive to Kentucky (thanks to my genius I froze the windshield wiper fluid and wipers and we weren't able to clean off the blowing snow, salt, and grime of the highways being splashed on our windshield by the bigger cars for about a half an hour. We literally could barely see out our windshield and had to find a place to pull over and clean it off. I have tried to block that part of the trip from my memory) we spent Christmas with family and enjoyed the adventures of the "Amazing Pace". Corey and I were of course the Champions, and celebrated much!! It was wonderful to see family and enjoy their company, especially our little nephew whose only thought right now is for Thomas the Train. He eats, sleeps, and bathes with his Thomas the Train Toy. Luckily for him he got more of the collection, and to our suprise he knows every single train by name. He even associates the color blue with Tomas. Although he doesnt' call blue "blue" he calls anything blue "Thomas". It is quite adorable actually.
After a grueling 15 hour drive (the last few hours were the worst because we were stuck in the Holland Tunnel, so close yet so far away!) we finally arrived home.
We spent New Years with good friends party hopping just a bit. It was fun eating a very delicious ham, playing games, chatting, and delving into pie.

After much deliberation and debate on if we should do the ultrasound, I finally made a decision, much influenced by Christmas shopping. During Christmas as we wandered through all the stores in the mall we couldn't find a single "Gender Nuetral" outfit. Even the greens and yellows had some embroidery indicating wether it was for a boy or girl. After only finding neutral clothing at Target (Winny the Pooh on all the yellow and some funky green color with generic embroidery) I came home a little more determined to find out what we are having.
Some of you may not know, but because I am having a home birth it is not forced upon me to have all these tests and what not, so the ultrasound is a very elective option for us. Corey and I talked it out, he was still hesitant about getting it done (when we first found out we were pregnant he wanted to know and was determined that we would find out). After we had watched some amazing birth videos("the Business of Being Born" and "Orgasmic Birth") it was so awesome to see the baby come out and to see the joy and suprise on the parent's faces when they looked to see if they had a boy or girl. Well after the eye opening shopping experience we decided to do the ultrasound. I found a clinic in Brooklyn and we went yesterday and found out what we are having. He gave us a very clear shot the moment she put the ultrasound to my belly, before I had time to look at the computer screen, she was announcing that we were having a BOY! I guess he really wanted us to know:). We got a few head shots but he was moving around way to much and his hands were up by his head most of the time so we didn't get clear pictures of his head. In one of the pictures we got he actually looks angry. I don't think he liked the ultrasound much, as it is a very noisy thing in the womb. Sending sound waves into your stomach is totally amplified to them and can be very terrifying. But we survived and now can plan a little better what we need.
However for baby #2 we have said we will not find out. We do want it to be a suprise with the rest of the kids we may have.
Also i'll post pictures a little later of our holidays as soon as I get them off our camera and organized:)