My hero.

Here to restore our family honor, Charles has an announcement. He can take 28 five year olds! That's more than any of you! Thank goodness for his lack of moral scruples. I'm a little too squeamish about morals, but Charles thought it was a brilliant idea to use one kid as a weapon against the other 27. I love this man!
28

I'm that good.

I could take 12 five-year-olds in a fight. I saw Natalie's post with her survey results. I think we all know that I'm at least 100% addicted to blogging, so I skipped that survey and took a funner one. 12 Yeah, I'm that good.

Today's Booty

I did pretty well today. I got my wedding ring back from Wilson's, where it was being rhodium plated. It's so nice and shiny now. I love my engagement ring, and I love wearing it, but it's become a right hand ring, and I feel naked without my wedding ring. Charles designed it, and he did such a nice job! I always thought I didn't want a big diamond, and I would have been happy with a cubic zirconium even a quarter of the size of my diamond now. But I love love love my ring! I'm so vain about it. I'm always staring at it and seeing if I can get it to sparkle different colors and I know how silly that sounds. When people see me doing that, they probably assume I got engaged the night before or something. But I'll be doing that when I'm ninety. Charles is always saying that if I want, I can get a different setting someday. He is under the impression that I can ever get sick of my ring. Silly boy.

In addition to my ring, I got fudge and a Jamba and 72 hour kit supplies! Charles went to Cabela's with his brother to see if he could find something to beef up our 72 hour kits with his gift card, and while he was there he picked up all kinds of fudge! He knows what he's getting into when he does that. But nobody warned him about it before our first date, for which he brought me raspberry fudge. It was all over for him at that point, unbeknownst to him. I've since confessed to him that the fudge was the first reason I fell for him. The second reason was that he took me to a Christian Bale movie. The third reason was that after I told him what my favorite books were, he went and read them. But the first reason was the fudge, and it makes me happy that even though he knows he's stuck with me forever, he still wants to bring me fudge! He got some "afternoon delight" fudge, which is chocolate, divinity, and caramel. He got orange cream, raspberry swirl (like the kind from our first date), and cookies and cream cheesecake. I love that boy. And his taste in fudge.

And then he called on the way home to tell me he would be home soon, and when I asked him what he wanted for dinner so I could get it started, and he offered to bring me home a peach p-word Jamba instead. Am I spoiled or what?

Kodak Moments

We don't have Kodak moments anymore. Charles still has film from his mission that he has yet to get developed, because he hasn't finished the roll. Digital cameras are the best.
I've decided to start taking my camera with me everywhere I go. I have it in my purse right now, and it's ready to go to school with me in the morning. I've caught quite a few fun moments with it, such as the St. Parakeet's Day picture from my previous post.
While I've vowed not to miss Kodak moments anymore, this decision, I'm afraid, has come far too late in my life to catch some of my most beloved Kodak moments. For example, in the spring of 2006, while I was on my daily mail route for OIT, in a light and chilly drizzling rain, I noticed what looked like a tiny studio apartment set up between the library and the HRCB. There was a bed, neatly made, with a small wooden nightstand, and a lamp with a crooked shade. There was an armchair that looked like it came from DI, and a closet. Actually, the closet was just a makeshift bar from which hangers were hung with all black and white clothes. The studio apartment was outdoors, in the rain. It was uninhabited. I stared at it for awhile, trying to figure out if there was some geurilla theater going on or something that I was missing, until I realized I needed to get back to work. On the way back from my route, the entire studio was gone. I never saw it again, and to this day I have no idea what it was about. I just wish I had a picture of it.

Here are a few of the Kodak moments I have been able to catch since my decision to carry a camera with me at all times.

The flowers Charles sent me at work when I was having a rough day.

And how I looked after trying to transport them home on my lap.

And how I finally resorted to transporting them home.

And how Charles looked upon seeing me arrive home with his flowers.

And my nephew dressed as Napoleon Dynamite. Random, but so worth having a picture of. Thanks to me and my camera, he will have this picture in the slide show at his wedding. That's a promise.

Happy St. Parakeet's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all of you! Charles had class until seven, so we didn't do too much celebrating, but we did get a corned beef rueben from Arby's so Charles could get his Irish food fix. And since we couldn't find any apple beer, we got some ginger ale and root beer instead. Probably not the most festive St. Patrick's Day Charles has ever seen, but he did wear his bright green shirt and a green tie with his jeans when he went to school. Lest anyone doubt he's Irish. I love my handsome leprechaun!

Our niece Mckenzie was told in kindergarten that leprechauns had red hair, and she came to believe that all redheads were leprechauns. Inlcuding her Uncle Ryan, much to everyone's amusement. She became shy around him, and just stared until finally she asked if he had a pot of gold.

Kenzie's a senior this year, and we just got back from her dance showcase. She's on her school's drill team, and they won first place at nationals this year. We got to see her regional solo performance, too, and she's about the coolest dancer there is! I loved seeing her perform. It was really sad to think this was her last time, because she's graduating, but she says she's a little relieved. Dance has pretty much been her whole life these past three years, so I think she's excited for the next phase, which is UVU! She'll be moving down her in August, and we can't wait! Maybe we'll actually make some friends, finally!

Here are a few pictures of her showcase! Charles took these, so they're not my fault!

Also, here's a picture of the sign outside the asian market we go to. It's right next door to our favorite Thai restaurant ever. In case you can't see, it's trying to wish you a happy St. Patrick's Day. But it's more of a happy St. Parakeet's Day or something. We were touched, nonetheless.

Zum Geburtstag viel Gluck!

Happy Birthday, Little brother! Cam is 11 years old today, everyone! He's a great little brother. I just wanted to post a few pictures of him so you could all see what a handsome guy he is. I love you, Dude!

Is it a food baby?

So we went and saw "Juno." Not that great, although very funny in spots. Pretty innapropriate, actually, which is sometimes half the fun. Anyway, at the point that the main character calls her best friend to announce that she's pregnant, the friend asks, "Are you sure? It might just be a food baby." I thought that was hilarious. I'd never heard the term before, but it's now a favorite part of my vocabulary, much to my husband's dismay. I'm like the kid that you can't take to PG-13 movies because I repeat everything I hear. Food baby.

Anyway, for enrichment today, we made baby slings. I figured there'd be more people there, because everyone in my ward is pregnant, planning on getting pregnant, or has at least five pregnant friends who could use a free baby sling. I went, and it turns out I was the only one there without a baby in a stroller or in my belly. They were all having to reach way over their bellies to get to the sewing machines. So when I picked up my pink fabric to measure it, someone called out, "Oh! someone's having a girl, huh?" Great. I'm glad I look pregnant to you. Charles' professor actually asked him the other day if I was pregnant, too. I could understand at an enrichment activity where we are making slings for actual babies, but I just think it's way out of line to ask a student if their wife is pregnant. Pink just happened to be my favorite color on the day I voted for what color fabric I wanted. So I told the girl I would probably just give the sling to someone or keep until I did have a girl.

So I came home and showed Charles our new toy, and since we didn't have a real baby to put in it, we decided to see how much it could actually carry, using regular household items. Actually, we raided the pantry. This is me and our food baby.

This is what our food baby consists of. Wheat bread. Cornmeal.

bananas.

pumpkin.

If we were ever terribly strapped for food, I suppose we could just resort to cannibalism and eat our baby. That's a great comfort to us.

ThisOneGuyThatILove

So, I got an email from Xanga today, saying they missed me! That made me happy. I love to be missed, even by random form-letter-sending blogging sites. So I signed in and read some of my old posts, and it was very entertaining to me. Like reading an old journal and laughing about how all my plans fail and how it's a good thing they do. All my wedding plans were funny to read about. That was the only thing on my mind back then. I've noticed, by reading old blogs and journals of mine that I tend to be a somewhat obsessive person. I get stuck on one idea, and stay there for a looooooong time. Last year it was puppies. I wanted a puppy so badly that I couldn't think of anything else. I was constantly scheming to sneak a puppy into our no-pets-allowed apartment, and teach it to be mute, and only walk it at night so the neighbors wouldn't see, and stuff. The year before that it was the wedding. Before that it was African anthropology. In high school I had my sights set on one boy, who was completely out of my reach and also completely wrong for me. Looking back, I'm really glad that I didn't marry that kid, and that I'm not an anthropologist in Africa (although I still want to live there) and that we don't have a puppy, because if we did we wouldn't be able to go to Russia this summer.
I'm not going to tell you what my current obsession is this year, but I will give you a link to my old blog, in case you need a laugh. It's always good for a laugh.
http://www.xanga.com/moosewithabignose

gentle reprimand.

So, I received a gentle reprimand from my former roommate Noodle to update the blog. All the roommates did. So far only Shannah and Starla have caved, though, and they're extremely busy people, so I thought I should do my part as a not so busy person. I'm busy, but I'm no nursing/grad student! I am a senior, though, as evidenced by all the emails I've been getting telling me to order my cap and gown before the discount runs out. I finally did it. I measured my head to figure out my cap size, which I thought was a little silly, but kind of fun as well. And I decided to use all of my names on my degree. I sound like a law firm, but I kind of like that! All of my names are special to me, so I'm going to flaunt them.

So, I found out that Chris McGriff, my old friend from Lumpkin Road Children's Theatre and Afton Glen Children's Theatre, finally has his own real grown-up dinner theatre. Which is funny to me, because he'll always be sixteen in my head, but there you have it. And his new theatre is doing their first show in about two weeks, in the DC area. I'm so so sad that I won't be there for it! He wrote it himself, and it's called "Prodigal." Of course it's based on the story of the prodigal son. Anyone who can make it to the show, I'm sure it'll be tons of fun, and if you go, say hi to the McGriffs for me! I think everyone but Grace-C will be there. Here's the website to order tickets:http://newhorizonstheater.com/

Our upstairs neighbors just had their little baby girl on Thursday, and they're back home now. You can tell because they've apparently put their new rocking chair right above our bed. Our old upstairs neighbors did the same thing when they had their baby boy. We were really relieved when their baby started sleeping through the night, and we'd forgotten about the sound. I don't know if I can take it for another two months, though! Maybe they can't hear anything, but it creaks like crazy from underneath. I think I'm going to run up there and see if maybe they can put it at least in another corner. Wouldn't it make sense to put it in the baby's room, anyway? They have it in the living room, right above our bedroom. I've slept in the living room for the past week, with a combination of mid-semester insomnia and rocking-chair insomnia. Charles says that if I'm going to become a couch wife, he wants to get a more comfortable couch, and put it in the bedroom, so we don't have to be so far apart. I happen to like this one from Ikea, but I don't see us getting past a week with that couch without a huge stain on it. We're a clumsy couple!

I'm an author!

"Dear Ms. Campbell,Thank you for your excellent submission to our magazine, Garnish. We are excited to be working with you and look forward to publishing an excerpt of your manuscript in our publication. Please find attached a letter from our editorial staff, our Nonexclusive Publication License Agreement, and the edited version of your manuscript. As mentioned in our letter, we would like to include an excerpt of your writing in our A La Carte department, which focuses on experiences with food and meals. Because of this we have chosen merely a short excerpt that best fits our purposes. If it meets with your approval please immediately send an email back to me affirming that we may publish it, and return the contract to Marvin Gardner by Thursday. Thank you and we look forward to hearing from you soon,
Christi Higham
Garnish magazine
The excerpt from your essay is pasted below for your convenience.

Parlez-vous Food?

Molly Campbell

My family speaks the language of food. A cup of hot chocolate can mean anything from "I'm really sorry that your boyfriend broke up with you and you're PMSing and your jeans are too small and you flunked your math test today," to "I'm so glad you're snowed in with me because I have the funniest story to tell you about you-know-what!" Only those who are fluent in the language of food can tell which way to interpret the hot chocolate.

It has gotten to the point that we can walk in from school, sniff the air for smells of delicate simmering sauces or lively and pungent spices, and say, "Mom, you're having another baby!" or "So the report cards came, huh?"

My sister and I often find that these conversations require translation for our husbands. "Curry is hot and spicy, which means someone didn't do too well on their math midterm. Probably Lizzy because she hates curry." In this way, food has become a way for us to relate to each other on a level that only we understand. This is our thing—the thing that makes us who we are. Other families have academics, music, travel, or sports. We have Iron Chef night, tastes-like-toes Tuesday, and gingerbread-house-making contests. For us, food isn't just nourishment—it's conversation.