TV's, Music, and Dancing

So I have come to the conclusion that Gabe and I might be some of the cheapest people in the world, ever. Of course with certain things we do invest in order to ensure a quality product, but for others we are happy to take what we can get at the lowest price possible... preferably free. Thanks to craigslist, and a circle of generous friends we have been able to fill our house with such things as furniture and various baby items in order to make a wonderful home.

On Tuesday some friends of ours called up Gabe and asked if we would like to take their old tv away because they had just bought a new flat screen and their old one was significantly bigger than ours. Now why do you think they knew we would happily take it off of their hands? Well, probably because Gabe hinted many times that we would love to have it if they no longer had a need for it. Oh Gabe... so tactful.

I do love our old TV. I bought it at a garage sale for $20 a week before we were married and it has been very trusty ever since. Here is a picture of our old sidekick when it was still in it's cozy little spot.

Now here is our fancy new at least slightly larger tv, you can tell a difference right? Note that you can also see our beautiful set of mismatching rabbit ears that some of our other dear friends happily gave up when they signed up with Comcast digital cable.

We don't watch a lot of tv, but there are two shows we just don't miss. American Idol, and the Office. Since the American Idol season is in full swing we've been watching every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday night. Luckily this week we got the new TV just in time for the show and were delighted when we found out we get much better reception with the new tv, woohoo! Which brings me to my next subject. American Idol!

There are a lot of people I enjoy this season, but I think my favorite is the absolutely adorable LDS boy David Archuleta, he's got an amazing voice! If you don't watch the show you'll have to at least check out his rendition of John Lennon's "Imagine" which is one of my all time favorite songs.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ovborwDaooQ

On to my last subject, dancing. Some other generous friends of ours in our ward called us up on Monday asking if we would like some free tickets to see the BYU International Folk Dance Ensemble in Everett this past Wednesday. Of course we jumped on the opportunity and had some other friends watch Preston while we went. Gabe doesn't get home from work until after 5:00 on Wednesdays because the class he's taking for his master's degree doesn't end until 4:30. When he got home we had enough time for Gabe to feed Preston dinner while I finished getting ready.

Of course we still hadn't eaten any dinner so we made a quick stop at Burger King on the way to the babysitters. Doesn't Gabe look so excited for our dollar menu meal?

This night was especially special to us because it was the first actual date we've been on, alone, since Preston was born. When we were visiting family we were able to go to a few movies and a play with the Group. We have also been able to go to the Temple a handful of times. But It was fun to be out "courting" again. I had to capture this momentous occasion on camera. Of course we didn't want to interrupt anyone to ask them to take the picture so Gabe used his mad photography skills and managed to cut off part of his head. Oh well, at least we know where we were when this picture was taken.

The concert was wonderful by the way. The dancers and musicians were extremely talented (which was expected of course) and overall it was a wonderful evening, especially since it cost us next to nothing. :)

My Baby's Getting Old

We got Preston's six month pictures back. I thought they were all really cute and had to restrain myself when it came to picking which ones to purchase. I thought I did pretty good because I spent under $20! We had a few cute naked pictures too, but I decided to respect Preston's privacy. Hope you enjoy!

Feeding Time

We have found that Preston does much better at eating solid foods when Gabe is feeding them to him, and it helps when we don't mix his cereal with baby food, he hates pureed fruits and vegetables but loves his cereal plain. I've decided he's just not normal because he even rejects applesauce and other sweet things.


One day I found a cheerio that a friend of mine and her 9 month old son left on on the seat of our highchair after having dinner with us the previous night. I know this is not sanitary at all, but I decided to try an experiment and give the cheerio to Preston because he was refusing my feeble attempts at feeding him his breakfast. He opened his mouth willingly and within a few minutes had eaten the entire thing and was ready for more. From that day on I've been feeding him only baby cereal and the rest of his food is quite solid. I find this to be funny because he completely skipped the baby food stage but I guess that his seven teeth could be part of it. He even tries to chew his cereal, I can hear his teeth clicking together whenever he eats it. Some of his favorite foods are peas (which I find repulsive), bananas, apples (yes he eats them raw), sweet potatoes, squash and cheerios. He also loves drinking water from his sippy cup. He thinks he's older than he is. By the way, today is his 7-month birthday. Happy birthday Preston!


Okay, so all of this was just leading up to my funny story for the day, at least Gabe and I found it entertaining. Preston has been accustomed to falling asleep as I nurse him and lately I have gotten him to stop as I mentioned in my last post. Maybe he's trying to make up for his lack of sleeping while eating time. The other night as Gabe was feeding him, and he was willingly eating rice cereal and bits of apples Gabe mentioned to me that Preston was looking a little sleepy. It was not nap time and bedtime was still an hour and a half away, but sure enough mid-bite this is what happened.

He just grabbed onto the tray and started snoring.

The poor kid didn't even have time to get his face wiped.

Eventually his head began to droop and 30 min. later he woke up ready to finish his meal.

I don't know if this is normal behavior for a baby or not. I guess we'll have to keep working on his sleep schedule. I hope he doesn't turn out to be narcoleptic or something. It is a possibility, right?

Sleepless Nights

Ever since I became pregnant with Preston I realized that I would go many many nights without a good night sleep after I was awakened every night having to go to the bathroom. This progressively got worse as he continued to grow and my bladder continued to compress. On top of that were the common discomforts such as back pain, and as it got closer to and eventually past my due date the braxton hicks contractions just added to it all. But, that was a time that I only have memories of... when I could still sleep for ten hours a night because I had no one but myself to take care of. I would sleep until I felt I had an adequate amount and then get up and ready for the day. Now it's a different story.

The first night after Preston was born he slept through everything even with all those people poking at him. He even slept through his shots believe it or not.

You think after just having a baby I would have been able to rest well for the first time in 9 months, especially since he was sleeping through the night. But no, the nurses were waking me up every few hours either to take my blood pressure or to tell me to wake him up and feed him. Unfortunately he refused to wake up every time and I was just losing more of my precious sleep.

Then we got home and the first night he was up every hour which was not fun, but after that we put him in his own room and I got up with him maybe four or five times at the most.

Amazingly at five weeks old my little angel had returned and began going 7 to 8 hours at a time without getting up in the night so I only had to feed him once and then get back to my own dreamland.

Unfortunately for me that didn't last long. At three months he was cutting two teeth and once again was getting up at least three times in the night. Luckily by the end of the month he was once again going at least 7 hours in the night and a once even went 12 which was probably the best day of my life. Why all the details you ask? I'm just trying to prove a point I guess, no other reason really, so I guess I'll continue with more details, just what you wanted I'm sure.

At five months he cut four more teeth and hasn't slept well since, even though his teeth are definately not bothering him anymore. At the same time he was getting those teeth he started eating solids and started crawling soonafter. Could these developmental milestones have anything to do with it?

Here he is now. My happy go lucky almost 7 month old boy with a toothy grin. (this picture is actually a month or so old) He's always smiling and of course always getting into trouble and I'm loving every minute of my day with him, but the nights are a little bit harder. :)

However, we are making progress with his schedule I think. He's never been a good nap taker, but right when he did start to take long naps my loving pediatrition suggested that I stop nursing him to sleep so he could learn how to sleep on his own, at the same time she said that I should not be feeding him at night.

I have successfully gotten Preston on the eat, wake, sleep routine, but there are a few downsides. He is still getting up at night, and now just screams if I don't feed him. I think he's still hungry because he isn't getting enough to eat during the day when he would rather be playing. A few nights he went almost ten hours and got my hopes up but hasn't done it since. At least I know he can do it. The other downside is that he is taking short naps once again, so I can't even get a nap when he naps.

I'm trying to cut his naps down to two and day and feed him more often during the day as well. Then hopefully he won't be hungry at night. My hope is that one day, hopefully soon, I'll be able to sleep uninterupted. At least until I have another one... so is the life of a mom. :)

From the Beginning

I was reading through some of my old journals and came across some rather interesting entries. Here are two that had a great deal of significance for me... somewhere near the end. :)

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

The new semester has been a great change of pace from working forty hours a week and being bored every weekday. Now I only work twenty hours a week and get to go to class half of the day which is very refreshing, until I get to the homework part. Now instead of having tons of spare time I have none at all which is rather a pain, I think I have negative time now which is a weird concept, I know, but I just don't have enough time to do everything and I'm not going to compromise my sleep for homework, that would be dumb. I enjoy the classes I'm taking although I don't enjoy the tests. I'm taking Nutrition, Home and Family Living, Intro to Interiors, ballet and pointe, and a New Testament Class. I've also recently decided that I'm changing my major to Social Work although I haven't done it officially yet not because I'm a slacker that just goes back to the problem of negative time. I'm really excited about my new major and am planning on getting a masters so that I can do clinical social work and be a counselor, pretty cool, huh? (that never happened...)

One of the reasons I haven't had much free time lately is because I keep getting asked out on dates. Dom and I have discussed this and we have come up with a theory that freshman girls just don't get asked out much because freshman guys still have to go on missions so they don't date (or they're just too immature) and return missionaries don't exist in the dorms except for really strange ones. But, the people I have encountered lately are a little strange themselves. To wrap it up in one phrase all of the guys that have taken me on dates since school started out of about ten or twelve guys are either short, bald, or boring, there's nothing more to it, that's that. I either can't be attracted to them or am and then as soon as they talk the interest is gone in a split second. Why can't I just find a cute guy that I like and likes me back.... if only life were that simple. (maybe it is, I just had to wait for the right one)

Monday, November 07, 2005
"Okay, today started out as a crazy day. I had to register myself and my brother Tyler for classes (he gets back on the 22 that's in two weeks!) at six a.m. and I don't have a computer or the internet at my house so I drove up to work the entire time thinking that I should probably go get gas but I didn't and boy was that retarded. I got all the way there but when I tried to come home my car wouldn't start and I had to walk home at six-thirty in the morning in the cold in my pajamas and slippers, I was a sorry sight! Oh well, it really wasn't that bad.

Yesterday I went to my crazy grandma's house (she really is crazy) with my mom to bring her food because she doesn't go grocery shopping ever because there's some kind of a conspiracy at the grocery store or something, I don't really know. I only went to see my mom and eat food that she brought, I got to eat homemade roast beef and mashed potatoes to break my fast, mmmmmm. My grandma's quote of the day was probably "So Alycia, are you going to run off and get married to some rich man?" or maybe when she said randomly "how does it feel to kiss someone, I can't even remember anymore. It was great! I was glad that I didn't have to stay for too long because I had to go to the CES fireside by President Monson, it was amazing of course, he's one of my favorite speakers. The topic was on preparing for the future and he told us a lot of things that made a lot of sense, I'm soooooo glad I went.

That brings us back to today of course. What a great life I have! Okay so other updates, I'm kinda sorda dating someone. He's one of the most amazing, respectful people I've ever met, you'll be happy to know. We've been dating for close to a month and a half and just held hands for the first time on Halloween, YAY! I'm a fan of taking things slow. He's an engineering major and graduates in April but then he'll go on to grad school, (or so he said) so yes he's about four years and five days older than me. For those of you that can't do the math he's 23 and his birthday is on July 13th. He grew up in Japan and his family lives in China now, he's definately white, tall and blonde, not asian but has a lot of cool stories. He served his mission in Australia Japanese speaking and now is taking Mandarin Chinese for fun because he's a freakin' genious."

Well I guess there was a lot that was significant to me. My grandma, although not in her right mind is pretty smart sometimes, she did know I was going to go off and marry someone. :) I also think it's interesting that I listened to President Monson's talk on preparing for the future (which included talk of marriage) right as I was beginnig to date my future husband. Some kind of fun things to think about.

Unfortunately this was my first and last journal entry regarding Gabe because after that I no longer had any time because I was spending it all with him, like when he took me to Big Band Night at BYU, nothing but dancing and eating all night long. This was the day we got our Engagement pictures taken which is why we're all matchy matchy, we don't do that on a regular basis... usually.

Explanation

#1) Okay. So i started this blog forever and a year ago and have yet to make another entry, and more importantly, tell anyone it even exists so I decided to try harder. My goal is to make a blog entry at least once a week, lets see how it goes.

#2) Many of you may wonder what the title of my blog has to do with me. I don't consider myself to be a popular person by any means, even though I do hope that at least some people do genuinely like me (isn't that what most people want?).
There is a small (or maybe kind of long) story about where it came from. I was asking my husband to rack his brain to figure out a name for my blog because I'm entirely not creative enough. As he tried his best to describe me he thought about the color pink which is my absolute favorite, and the song "Popular" from the musical "Wicked."
When I was a freshman living in Deseret Towers at BYU (sadly they no longer exist) I had a roommate that was assigned to me through the computer system. Before we moved in she emailed me to let me know that she was ADD and suffered from bipolar disorder. I was slightly scared about the prospect because I had never had to deal with someone with those challenges on a daily basis but of course appreciated her honesty.
When the day came to move in together we realized that we couldn't be more different. Her bedspread was black, mine was covered in carebears and rainbows. She had a few black and white photographs up and I had many colorful posters including one of the disney princesses (yes I was 18 years old, but a child at heart). As I was hanging up those very posters I tried my best to start up a conversation:

Alycia: I really enjoy bright colors, they keep me going on rough days. My favorite color's pink, what's yours?

Dom(onique): black.

... and that was that. She preceded to tell me that she no longer had a driver's license because she had been in too many car accidents. But to top it all off were the many many medications lined up on her dresser directly underneath a large sign that read:

Don't Forget Your Pills Stupid

We couldn't have been more different.

Throughout the first few months living together we barely said two words to eachother, but as we go to know eachother we realized we weren't so different after all. We ended up spending more time together and eventually became best friends. She came from a rough family situation and at times she just needed a shoulder to cry on and I was there. Sometimes at church I could tell when she forgot to take her medication to control her ADD because she was so fidgety and we would laugh about it. But best of all, she helped me see the reality of life and bring me down from my so called "happy cloud" and I was able to help her see the good in life and begin to enjoy pink to some extent. :) We would even share eachother's clothes and eventually (on my wedding day) I got her to wear a shirt with a bow on the front because it was a must if she wanted to be a bridesmaid.

Now why did I tell you this rather random story? It's all for a purpose. In the musical "Wicked" which is a different take on the "Wizard of Oz" story, a girl named Glinda, and another named Elfaba (the wicked witch) were assigned to room together in school. At first they did not like the arrangement which showed in the song entitled "What is this Feeling" where they talk about loathing eachother. Dom and I would laugh about that song because it described us perfectly. Later on in the show Glinda (the blonde one who represented me) tries her best to help Elfaba become popular so to speak but learns later on that popularity isn't the most important thing. Of course I'm not going to give you any more of the story in case you decide to see it some day. If you do want to listen to the music I do have the cd I'd be happy to let you borrow, it is "most excellent" as my brother Royce would say.

Gabe and I had the opportunity to see the musical together a few months after we were married thanks to my generous brother Tyler.

As you can see, the title of my blog does have meaning, in some twisted sort of way...