Life Lately

Recent thoughts and happenings, in no particular order.

* There is nothing I absolutely have to get done today. Which means there are a lot of things I should be doing with my "open" day. If a day like this would just coincide with a decision about which project to tackle and the motivation to tackle it, I would be set!

* I was looking for a baby picture of Ryan to use in our Primary class last Sunday. As I dug through boxes of photos looking for the right envelope, the burden of 20+ years of unorganized photos just sitting in boxes weighed heavily on me. I tried to get into scrapbooking once, but I have yet to figure out how to take the time out of living life now to catch up on documenting the life I've already lived. Maybe when the kids are grown....

* I had a couple of lousy days last week--life looked kind of blah and I couldn't put my finger on why. Hormones maybe. But I got through those two days and things are looking up again. I can deal with a down day every once in awhile, as long as they don't go on and on. I just feel bad for my family when I'm having one of those days...nobody likes a grumpy mommy, including mommy.

* The day that life started looking better again, I experienced my first ever migraine headache. Lovely. I have no idea what triggered it. I just know I'll be happy if I can avoid any more of those, and I feel bad for anyone who experiences them frequently. My eyes started doing freaky things and then I couldn't think straight, and then my head started pounding right behind my left eye. Advil didn't touch it. I finally called Jeff and he took off from work early to rescue me. I'm so glad he has that kind of flexibility with his job most of the time. He took care of the kids and made dinner while I went to bed. (He's been making dinner often lately. I love having a husband who enjoys cooking!) When I got up a couple hours later, I was fine, so I think I headed off the worst of it. Whew.

* I got a new pair of shoes last week, which I really needed. They weren't cheap, but they were super comfortable and my mom paid for half of them as a birthday present, so I was happy. Then Jeff told me they look like grandma shoes. Grrrr. I thought they were cute enough. Oh well. They are still comfortable, and I'm not taking them back. But I don't know whether I'm more frustrated at him for criticizing my choice, or more annoyed at myself for not knowing what looks good and what doesn't. My fashion sense is right up there with my interior decorating skills--mediocre. Grrrr.

* I've been exercising on a regular basis for the first time since last May. It feels good to get back to the gym. I've been feeling really out of shape--soft and weak and tired. We got a great deal on a family pass to the rec center through Jeff's employer, so I've been lifting weights and doing the elliptical machine on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I have to pay extra to put Jared and Dallin in the childcare room, but they enjoy it and I'm grateful for the option. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I've been doing yoga with Deni Preston on the Total Body Workout program on BYUTV. In January the show was moved to 5 a.m. MT, which does NOT work for me, but I found out I can stream it anytime I want on byu.tv. I've been easing back into it, but looking forward to upping the intensity as I go.

* My little sister went in the MTC last week. I got to go with my parents to put her in. It was neat to be in the MTC again. There's just a spirit about that place that I don't think most missionaries really recognize. I'm more excited for Joy than anything, so I didn't cry much, but when we sang "Called to Serve" for the opening hymn I couldn't hold the tears back for a few minutes. The orientation meeting is about the same as it's been since I was a missionary, just a few different jokes. The movie is getting a little dated though. I think the clothes sister missionaries wear now are both more comfortable and sharper-looking than the ones I wore, and the luggage is tons better--just more convenient and better built. It will be fun to write to a missionary on a regular basis again, and I love hearing my boys pray for "Aunt Joy and Cousin Rex on their missions."

* I should devote a blog to President Hinckley , and maybe I will later, but I was surprised and saddened by his death. I guess it's just that I thought the Energizer bunny would run down before President Hinckley did. But I am glad he didn't have to linger here in bad health. I know he wouldn't have wanted that. I am grateful for his spirit, his wisdom, his humor, his optimism, his encouragement, and his counsel. I will miss him, but I am grateful that Heavenly Father has provided for prophetic succession, so that we will always have a prophet to guide us in these latter-days. What a blessing.

* Because of President Hinckley's death and funeral, my trip to Las Vegas this weekend with my mom and sister and sister-in-law is off. We were going to Timeout for Women, which is now postponed until September. I'm bummed because I was really looking forward to a girls' weekend out of the snow. Oh well. Grandma and Poppa are going to babysit and let Jeff and I have a date night on Friday instead. It doesn't meet quite the same needs that the trip to Vegas would have, but it will still be nice.

Size Inflation?

I've really needed some new shorts or capris since our Texas summer started kicking in. Jeff quickly agreed that I needed some new clothes and kindly volunteered to watch all four kids last Saturday so I could go do some shopping on my own. (About the only thing I dislike more than shopping is shopping with kids.) So I tried Academy Sports & Outdoors first, a store with a surprisingly large selection of nice, cute clothes for a sporting goods store. Now other than when I've been pregnant, I've pretty much worn the same size pants for most of my adult life. Occasionally I've even been able to fit in the next smaller size, depending on the brand and style of pants. So I looked at the racks of shorts and capris, and all of them in "my size" looked huge. So I picked up about five pair in the next smaller size and headed to the fitting rooms. None of them fit! They were all at least an inch too big around the waist, probably two. I went through this process three times, with different brands and styles, all with the same result. About this point I started getting annoyed and frustrated. First of all, shopping is not my favorite thing to do (have I mentioned that before?!), so I wasn't really enjoying myself much to begin with. Secondly, they didn't have any pants in the size two sizes smaller than "my size," or I would have tried them even though I've never worn that size. I was tempted to go look in the juniors department, but I learned that lesson long ago--junior sizes just don't fit the hips of women (especially those who've had a baby or two or more), and they are generally too trendy for my taste anyway--I've long grown out of the need to be in whatever the style is this year that won't still be in next year. So, discouraged, but not ready to give up, I left Academy and went to JCPenney where I know they have "petite" sizes that fit my body style, i.e., short.

Not wanting to waste any more time, I started out with the size smaller than "my size," in petite this time. Again, they didn't have any pants in the size two sizes smaller than "my size." I probably tried on another fifteeen pair of pants in various styles and brands, and, thank goodness, finally found two pair that fit relatively well and, I thought, looked relatively cute. I bought them, and two shirts to go with them. Now JCPenney does have petites, but the selection was pretty poor. Hoping to find something else, I went next door to Old Navy. Agh, more frustration. I guess "Low Waist" and "Ultra Low Waist" are what's in, because that was all they had. Low waist pants either don't fit my body style or they don't fit my wardrobe--I won't do the bare belly thing, for several reasons that probably don't need to be spelled out. At this point, four hours after I started and way past lunch time, I gave up and went home.

Now I admit that it's probably been a couple of years since I last shopped for pants, partially due to being pregnant for a significant length of that time. So have sizes been inflated that much in two years, or am I just imagining things? Do clothing manufacturers/ retailers/marketers really think we are that stupid? That ranks right up there with switching ice cream from half gallons to 1.75 quart containers, charging the same price and thinking we won't notice! I've never been one for conspiracy theories, but I'm beginning to wonder if the clothing establishment is in cahoots with the soft drink companies. They're trying to make us think we can drink 20 more ounces of empty calories because hey, I'm two sizes smaller than I thought I was!

You may have figured out by now what size I am...was...whatever. If so, and you're disgusted, I apologize. I credit my Burton metabolism for that. Thanks for letting me rant anyway. I've been supersized out of pants, for goodness sake!