Random Giggles | Page 40

Groundhog Day, Observed

30 January 2014, 8:06 am by Giggles

Categories: Featured, Life

Back when we were dating we started a list of the movies we wanted to see to help keep us from forgetting to watch them. We had a list of ones we both wanted to see and ones we wanted to see separately (we have slightly different tastes in movies). We also listed movies we thought the other needed to see. Brett’s list for me says:

Movies Brett thinks Lisa should see over and over and over
– Groundhog Day

Since I think Groundhog Day is one of those holidays that should be celebrated by more than just weathermen and second graders, I acquiesced. Each year we watch Groundhog Day and I make groundhogs in a blanket (hot dogs wrapped in dinner rolls) for dinner (because I like having specific foods for different holidays).

This year Groundhog Day is the same day as the Super Bowl. And we have a LOT of foods we celebrate the best commercials of the year with. So we decided to move Groundhog Day to today. Tomorrow is Chinese New Year so that dinner is covered already.

It wasn’t my favorite movie before, it still isn’t. But I’ve referenced it a lot lately. Brett asks me how I’m feeling and I tell him I feel like I’m living in Groundhog Day.

I go to bed.
I wake up in the middle of the night and nurse Iddo.
I wake up in the early morning and nurse Iddo.
I shower.
I nurse Iddo.
I play with Iddo.
I get Iddo to take a nap.
I nurse Iddo.
I play with Iddo.
I get Iddo to take a nap.
I nurse Iddo.
Brett plays with Iddo.
I get Iddo’s bath ready.
I nurse Iddo.
I put Iddo to bed.
I go to bed.
I wake up in the middle of the night…

Wait a second. Didn’t I just do that?

At least I can take comfort that it feels more like I’m learning to play the piano and changing the tires on old ladies’ cars rather than driving off a cliff with a stolen groundhog riding shot gun.

And I understand that before I know it, before I can blink, I’m going to wake up and it’ll be February 3rd.

Then put your little hand in mine.
There ain’t no hill or mountain we can’t climb.
I got you babe.

3 Shared thoughts

Only an arm’s length away

27 January 2014, 4:02 pm by Giggles

Categories: Family, Life

Because I am old and decidedly not hip (see my post about being above the generation gap), I didn’t realize “selfie” was a thing until recently. I knew taking photos of yourself in the bathroom mirror produced a dorky picture. And I didn’t get why everyone had to post their dorky pictures, particularly if they were making duck faces (I’m told it’s supposed to look like lips pursed together for a kiss, but it makes them look like a duck), all over the internet.

When went on our honeymoon we passed the camera back and forth to take pictures of each other. But if we wanted a picture of us together we either had to find someone to take it for us, which wasn’t always possible, or we had to take it ourselves by holding the camera out at arm’s length. Which is how we ended up with this beauty of us on the Dumbo ride at Disneyland (can you photo bomb a photo if you were supposed to be in it to begin with?):

Over the course of the week we got a lot better at it. (It was our honeymoon and we were at the happiest place on earth, of course we were going to kiss.)

And now it’s a thing we do whenever we go somewhere. Only because we aren’t hip, we’ve been calling them “arm’s length” photos (because that’s how far away the camera is) and not “selfies.”

Saying you are holding something at arm’s length means you want to keep your distance from it. You don’t want to become emotionally involved. You don’t want to have it connected with you. You are avoiding getting friendly with the person or idea.

Our arm’s length photos are the exact opposite.

You can make out what’s going on in the background in our photos. We’ve seen our relationship from an arm’s length away at the Grand Canyon, at home, at the hospital, at races, at football games, at funerals, at bookstores, at air shows, at museums.

But the focus, the tight focus, is us, our relationship, our closeness. We have to be real close together physically to both be in the picture. We have to hold each other in our arms to take a photo from an arm’s length away. At that distance, if we also weren’t close together emotionally, it would show.

Keeping the camera at arm’s length is one way we keep our relationship even closer. We keep each other within arms’ reach no matter what is happening in the background.

Random Giggles: Only an arm's length away

4 Shared thoughts

No touchy!

21 January 2014, 1:06 pm by Giggles

Categories: Featured, Life, Random

Saturday we all went to the Tucson quilt show. Iddo was a big hit with all the old ladies. I purposefully left her sunhat on her while we were there so nobody would touch her head. I told Brett this when we got back to the car and he laughed it off.

Then we went out to our favorite deli for lunch. While Brett went to place our order at the counter I found a table and Iddo and I sat down. The old lady at the table next to us reached across the space between our tables, across our table, and touched Iddo on the head. Brett stopped laughing at my prediction that old ladies would touch her head.

It’s rude to reach across a table for the salt. Why is it not even more rude to reach across the table, a table that is not even yours, to touch someone on the head? If she had reached across the table and touched my head it would have been considered completely inappropriate, equally so if I had reached across and touched her head. It would be rude for the person behind us in line at the store to reach out and touch my stomach, pregnant or not, why is it not equally rude for them to reach out and touch Iddo’s stomach?

I remember in kindergarten being taught about “good touch” and “bad touch.” We were taught to not let people touch us anywhere our swimming suit covered. I remember wondering why it was okay to touch little boys on the chest but not little girls.

I’m not going to teach Iddo “good touch” and “bad touch.” I’m going to teach her “wanted touch” and “unwanted touch.” I don’t care if her swimming suit doesn’t cover her head. If she doesn’t want people touching her head then she gets a say in that and they don’t get to touch her head. If she doesn’t want to be tickled or have her cheeks pinched, then she can say no, no matter who it is. The one exception will be holding my hand when we cross the street. That I’m going to insist on for several years to come.

4 Shared thoughts

Long night

10 January 2014, 12:35 pm by Giggles

Categories: Education, Family, Happy Things

Someone dropped a box on me. January 9, 2008, was a long night. My mom and I were driving all of my belongings from Utah to Arizona, via California because I missed a turn off, in an effort to arrive in time for me to attend a training meeting on the 10th that I was told would not be offered again and was mandatory. Turns out the mandatory part was right but they offered it two weeks later as well so I really didn’t have to get a substitute for my last day at work and drive all night, but that’s a different issue.

At home in the desert. January 9, 2014, was also a long night. At 4am little Iddo decided she would only sleep if being held in a semi-reclined position and bounced. And that still didn’t keep her from throwing up on the bed we were reclining and bouncing on.

But I’m not going to complain (grumble a little bit, but not complain). Six years ago I had a Uhaul full of things, an empty apartment, and a five year plan to get a PhD.

Iddo004 I got the PhD. Even better, I have a wonderful husband and a beautiful daughter. And in the last year I finally managed to unpack the last of my boxes.

My next five year plan involves teaching Iddo as much as I can, getting at least a first draft of a book written, and finish hand quilting the two king-sized quilts I’ve started. I’ll probably throw in at least one marathon as well, depending on how the rest of our medical goals go.

Here’s to a good night’s sleep on the 10th, complete with more blessings than I imagined when I arrived in Arizona six years ago.

5 Shared thoughts

Goals and Resolutions

6 January 2014, 3:00 pm by Giggles

Categories: Life

I don’t set New Year’s resolutions. I set goals. In my mind the difference is in how specific they are. Resolutions are vague things like “eat better,” or even more vague “be healthier” whereas goals are specific things like “eat two fresh vegetables a day.” I haven’t met all my goals every year, but I’ve made progress, and that’s the important thing. And the goals I haven’t met were generally because I either failed to make a plan or I had surgery or my pelvis fell apart making the exercise goals a bit hard. Moral of the story – make a plan. And then don’t get upset if your pelvis falls apart.

My plan often involves my grown-up sticker chart in the form of a spread sheet. I set it up so I can check it off every time I do one of my goals. When I wanted to start taking a daily vitamin I put it next to the cereal so I grabbed it at breakfast, and then gave myself a “1” on the spread sheet every day I did it.

My spread sheet looks a bit like this with the goal column increasing each week:

	Actual	Goal	Jan 1	Jan 2	Jan 3	…
Health goal	3	3	1	1	1	…
Mental goal	3	3	1	1	1	…
Intellectual goal	3	3	1	1	1	…
Emotional goal	3	3	1	1	1	…
Spiritual goal	3	3	1	1	1	…
Creative goal	3	3	1	1	1	…

Every day I pull up my spread sheet and make sure I’ve marked off all my goals by the end of the day.

Scientific American has had a few good articles about setting goals and successfully accomplishing them this past week: “Set SMART Resolutions in 2014!” “Should you tell Facebook about your resolutions?” and “Practical Tips for your 2014 Goals.”

While we generally tend to think about goals at the beginning of a new year, either the calendar year or a year in our lives at our birthdays, that doesn’t have to be the case. We can set goals at any time. I add rows to my spreadsheet as the need arises. As President Uchtdorf has said, “You don’t need to wait for permission to become the person you were designed to be” (“The Best Time to Plant a Tree,” Ensign, January 2014).

How do you measure your progress on your goals?

5 Shared thoughts

Summary of 2013 on the blog

5 January 2014, 6:58 pm by Giggles

Categories: Science & Tech

In 2013 I wrote 120 posts and there were 571 shared thoughts. Here is how it all broke down by month, day, and hour.

The number of posts and shared thoughts in each month:

Month	Posts	Thoughts
January:	11	61
February:	7	36
March:	13	69
April:	16	79
May:	9	54
June:	8	36
July:	4	20
August:	9	50
September:	2	14
October:	8	27
November:	30	94
December:	8	31

The number of posts on each day of week and the days people thought about them:

Day	Posts	Thoughts
Sunday:	8	27
Monday:	24	109
Tuesday:	20	99
Wednesday:	29	109
Thursday:	18	112
Friday:	16	72
Saturday:	10	43

At what hours I published new posts and when people thought about them:

Hour	Posts	Thoughts
0:00	1	1
1:00
2:00		1
3:00
4:00		2
5:00		6
6:00	5	22
7:00	20	38
8:00	12	36
9:00	7	40
10:00	8	66
11:00	14	35
12:00	8	45
13:00	8	39
14:00	6	41
15:00	13	41
16:00	8	33
17:00	1	23
18:00	5	25
19:00	1	12
20:00		22
21:00	6	26
22:00	2	14
23:00		3