Comments that crack me up

Okay, we all get those ridiculous spam comments, or strange search terms that somehow lead people to our blogs. Lately it seems that people attempt to flatter their way through a comment to try to convince you to visit their site (which I never do – never know what you will find – *shudder*), etc.

From time to time I go through my spam comments to make sure one of my friends didn’t accidently fall into the spambox. As long as the comments aren’t indecent this can provide some great entertainment – especially considering what post they are commenting on. See, the comments rarely have anything to do with the post itself, but assume that all people are writing about their political viewpoints and such. It becomes quite hilarious, for example, when the following comment is located on my post about sniffing books (in which Betsy and I go out and smell books):

“I was reading something else about this on another blog. Interesting. Your linear perspective on it is diametrically opposed to what I read before. I am still contemplating over the diverse points of view, but I’m inclined to a great extent toward yours. And no matter, that’s what is so super about modern-day democracy and the marketplace of ideas on-line.”

HaHaHaHaHa! I have a linear perspective on the proper way to sniff books which is diametrically opposed to some other method of smelling books? It seems the author of this comment is ready to go out and have a good sniff. lol!

So, how about this next one, also on my Sniffing Books post – this reader has been researching how to sniff a book correctly:

“The information presented is top notch. I’ve been doing some research on the topic and this post answered several questions.”

I glad that I at least was able to answer their questions on this dilemma of book sniffing. And someone else said I was an expert on the topic!

“Just want to say your article is striking. The clarity in your post is simply striking and i can take for granted you are an expert on this subject.”

Someone else found my blog post: Ruminations on Eating Olives in an Upscale Restaurant informative – I suppose now they can avoid the pitfalls of restaurant olive eating (*snort*). Or maybe he just wanted to know how to knock off an obnoxious waiter with an olive.

“Hello! I have been reading some of your posts and am happy to see that your articles are actually informtive.”

He then goes on a rant of 228 words of how his comment isn’t spam and how he wouldn’t want to bombard my website with links and blah blah blah blah as he tries to convince me to go check out his link. lol!

And another commenter complimented me on my About Me page (which is a list of 100 things about me) about how well I know my topic – ummmmm… well I should hope I know THAT topic well! apparently this commenter gets irked when people don’t talk about themselves plainly enough:

“Definitely agree with what you stated. Your explanation was certainly the easiest to understand. I tell you, I usually get irked when folks discuss issues that they plainly do not know about. You managed to hit the nail right on the head and explained out everything without complication. Maybe, people can take a signal.”

lol!

Okay, maybe I am just warped and the only person these comments made laugh insanely is me. Of course, they’re only funny when related to the post their supposed to be commenting on.

I am going to go continue snorting with laughter now…

Random Friday Post (of prenatals, Jacobisms, and such)

Yesterday I had my first prenatal appt. I had an ultrasound done a couple weeks ago to figure out my due date, but this was the first prenatal. We had hoped to get some heart tones, but baby was hiding, so next time for sure. I am going to the same midwife (whom I love) that I have with the last four pregnancies, so this will be baby number five in our family with her. Elizabeth was the only one not born with her – we were living in Utah when she was born.

We are planning on going to her birth center again – Andaluz. Though we loved having a homebirth, we decided that with lots of kids its easier to call someone to come to the house to watch them while we got to the birth center than it is to farm all the kids out. We love the birth center – its beautiful and homey. I’ll do a waterbirth again – I do so love waterbirths.

I don’t have the same worries I did when I was expecting James – now having a healthy child after our heart child, the paranoia and worry is lessened some, though we will still definitely do the 20 week ultrasound clear doubts.

So far things are going well – I am 11 weeks on Sat and finally starting to feel more human – though today I was hit with a lovely migraine which brought on the queasiness and exhaustion again.

***
I mentioned on Facebook that Paul and I joined a community band. We are having so much fun. We met first the first time in band at Ricks College in January of 1996 – so it is fun playing together again. My old highschool band director is our conductor now which makes it extra fun. The band is really quite good, especially for a community band, and we are playing some really cool music. Our first concert is next Sat. where we are playing in an adult community band festival hosted in Hillsboro. It feels so good to be playing the horn again. Man, I love that instrument!

***
Jacob has been so excited that his cousin, John (my oldest nephew on my side of the family), has recently left for his mission. He is headed to Brazil, but for now is in the Missionary Training Center in Provo waiting for his visa and things like that. Jacob constantly talks about “My cousin John on a mission” and prays for him all the time. He also talks about grandma and grandpa on a mission a lot too. A couple weeks ago he walks up to Paul first thing in the morning and says, “You have to tell mom right now that I am going on a mission TOMORROW when I’m all grown up!”

***
The other night we were gathered around the table for dinner. We always say a blessing on the food, and as the head of our home Paul always invites someone to say the prayer. (We work together as equals, but I also believe that Dad has certain special responsibilities just like Mom does, and that’s one of them 😀 ) Paul asked James to pray and Jacob got really upset. At first we thought he was upset because he wanted to pray. We tried to soothe him, saying he could say the family prayer before we went to bed.

He scowled at us. “No. I choose.”

Paul and I exchanged looks and raised eyebrows as we launched into a gentle explanation. “It’s Dad’s responsibility to choose. He is the head of our home and he has the priesthood.”

“I can choose too.”

“Not yet, when you are older and you have the priesthood then you can choose when daddy is not home.”

“No. I choose now. I have priesthood too.”

“Ummm. Honey, no you haven’t recieved it yet. Now, when you turn twelve-”

Jacob crossed his arms across his chest in defiance. “I have too. I go to priestschool!”

Paul and I just about fell out of our chairs laughing. We managed to smooth the laughter away in order to correct him. “No honey, you go to PRE school. You can’t recieve the priesthood from a school.”

He decided to believe us after that, but Paul and I snickered our way through the rest of dinner.

Dancing the Night Away

“Mom, Mom! We want to go!” the girls burst in the door after school and thrust three pink sheets of paper in my face. I gathered the papers and noticed each one advertised a community daddy daughter dance for Valentine’s Day. My first response was, “Of course! What fun!” but then I noticed the price per person – a whopping $23 a piece. There was no way we could send three girls and their dad to the dance at that price, so I conjured up a quick plan.

I explained it was more than we could afford for all of them, but (and I had to sneak it in there as quickly as possible to hold of the moans of dissapointment) how about if we had our own Valentine’s Dance on the Monday after Valentine’s Day? It would give us the day to clean, decorate, and make refreshments. They readily agreed and the plan was put in motion.

Sunday afternoon we took turns writing on giant hearts what we loved about each member of the family and about our family in general. 49 hearts later they were plastered all over our dining area wall (where we would have the dance.) Monday we cleaned and scrubbed, baked and decorated. Everyone pitched in and waited with anticipation for Daddy to get home from work.

For dinner we mingled finger foods in with the refreshments in true dance fashion and even pulled out the glass punch bowl for authenticity. We put lamps near the kitchen and turned out the overhead lights so even the lighting would be perfect and turned on the music.

It was a blast and the kids decided we needed to make it a tradition – have a family dance yearly at Valentine’s Day – we’ll see how they feel about that when they’re teenagers, heh. But for the time being it was wonderful and created lasting memories of special times with Daddy and Mommy.

And, I just had to put this photo in because of Jacob’s and Em’s faces – I thought it was just classic!

On Writing and Rejection

Some people dream of being a published author. They eat, sleep, and breath it. They die a million deaths every time a rejection crosses their paths. Me? Not so much. Oh sure, I’m dissapointed, but then I think I would pass out from shock the moment someone said “Yes.” Low self esteem? Maybe, after all its a little hard to believe that your writing can hold its own among published greats. High dose of reality? Probably. Afraid that if I admit that if I think (or heaven forbid say aloud) my writing is decent, or even (looks around nervously and then continues in a hushed whisper) good I sound conceited and full of myself? Most definitely.

I love to write. I always have, but honestly, I never thought I could actually write a book (let alone nearly 3). Not, that is, until I found out about National Novel Writing Month where you attempt a fifty thousand word book in a month. I had been wanting to try for a long time, I had ideas bouncing about my head for years of what I would do and how I would do it. So I put away my poems, and my never quite finished short stories and began to write. I was rather amazed at how quickly it came together and I loved watching the story be born. When the month was over and I had completed my first ever novel I printed it, took a picture of it, and hid it. I was terrified of how terrible it would be, and editing it was just plain overwhelming. So, I ignored it and continued to write little piddly things to share for writing group while I studied books, blogs, and articles on how to write better.

Then Christine moved into our town and joined my writing group. We decided to start critiquing more and I timidly brought out my manuscript from hiding. It was rough, it needed a lot of work, but I quickly discovered editing wasn’t quite so overwhelming and chapter by chapter it began to really take shape. I also learned I wasn’t awful like I had feared. She started talking publishing and I simply stared at her in awe. Me? Attempt to publish? Ahhh… go on. How could I possibly write as well as all those names on all those books on my bookshelves?

I mulled over the thoughts for a while. If I was going to write, I may as well try to publish something. Why not? Well, why not indeed. Since then I have completed a second novel, and am mostly through a third. I’m still not published and my stack of rejections is growing happily taller, but I also recently had my first full manuscript request.

So, what do I do to make it through the rejections as they pile up in my email and on my desk? Well, frankly, I don’t expect them to say yes. Oh, I hope someone will, someday, but I don’t expect it. I also remind myself that it isn’t personal and if an agent doesn’t think my book is a good fit, then I am glad they passed on it – I wouldn’t want a half-hearted agent after all. Then there is the matter that all these agents have specific things they are looking for, lists to fill, or maybe they picked up a similar book recently. So, I try not to take the rejections personally and plod ahead anyway. It’s not easy. I’ll admit to crying occasionally, or sighing at my email and wondering, “why am I putting myself through this?” and I have to remind myself, “because someday someone might just say yes.” Then, on those days when I am feeling particularly sorry for myself I sternly scold, “you can’t complain until you hit triple digits.”

There is always a thrill when I see an email sitting in my writing account and I think “Maybe today is the day,” and there is always a little thud when I see that it isn’t. But, I would rather soar and thud then never soar at all, and that is why I continue to send in those queries, and who knows, maybe someday I’ll be on a bookshelf in somebody’s home.

CHD AWARENESS WEEK

In years past I have done numerous different posts during Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week to promote awareness and this year is no different – though I am giving more of a shout out to a fellow mom who has an amazing line-up of guest posters this week as other heart moms guest post and talk about their heart miracles (I’m one of them – on the 11th). I think she even has a survivor slotted to guest post, and a cool give away too – so be sure to check out her 7 Hearts for 7 Days blogging event. Oh, and if you swing by to check out her awesome blog (and I really hope you do) be sure to drop a comment and mention that I referred you – please, please :-D.

We are coming up on our 5 year anniversary! Five years ago I knew nothing about congenital heart defects, I certainly didn’t know they were the number one birth defect. I’ve learned a lot since then and met a lot of amazing people from the wonderful doctors and nurses who helped save Jacob’s life to wonderful parents and children who inspire and uplift me daily.

Since it is awareness week I wanted to post 7 CHD Statistcis followed by a few links to some of my favorite CHD Awareness Week posts from the past:

1. Congenital heart defects are America’s #1 birth defect. Nearly one of every 100 babies is born with a CHD.

2. Congenital heart defects occur frequently and are often life threatening, yet research into them is grossly under funded.

3. More than 50% of all children born with a congenital heart defect will require at least one invasive surgery in their lifetime.

4. Congenital heart defects are the #1 cause of birth defect related deaths.

5. There are 35 different types of congenital heart defects. Little is known about the cause of most them. There is not yet a cure for any of them.

6. This year almost 40,000 babies will be born with a congenital heart defect. 4,000 of them will not live to see their first birthday.

7. In the last decade death rates for congenital heart defects have declined by almost 30% due to advances made through research.

Jacob’s Story (it’s long – the short version will be in my guest post on the 11th)

7 Strangers Who Saved My Son’s Life
7 Ways CHD Has Changed My Life
7 Frequently Asked Questions
7 Ways You Can Help

Auction to Benefit Haiti

Hey everyone – an awesome friend of mine, Lara, has an ebay store – 8pizza where she has tons of awesome stuff – a lot of kids clothes and things. Well, she is having an auction to benefit Haitian earthquake relief. You can check out links and info by going to her site here: 8pizza Aunction. Just go to the link and follow her instructions – the auctions start tomorrow with new items each day through the week. Here is a link to her ebay store to give you an idea of the kinds of things she has to sell regularly if you are interested: 8pizza.

January Spring

Ok – I know it’s February already, but this photo was taken on January 31st. I couldn’t find the card reader until a few days ago to get the photo off the memory stick.

We came home from church Sunday afternoon and noticed our first blooms in our garden – we had early flowers before, but I don’t recall ever having blooms in January.