talk

So, Dan and I have to give talks in church on the 23rd.

Eek! 

I HATE hate talking in front of people

I can write papers and make things sound okay, but actually getting up in front of hundreds of people and reading it?

No thank you. 

Because of my debilitating fear, I am having a hard time getting started.

Any thoughts from my friends out there as to how to make a great talk?

How do you start when preparing a talk?

What kinds of things do you look for?

In case you're interested, the topic is humility and gratitude.

Also, in case you were wondering, Dan is great at giving talks.

Seriously exceptional. 

So I have to get up there and blunder around for a couple of minutes

and then he takes up the rest of the time with something super spiritual and profound

which makes everyone wonder, "what does he see in her?". 

I know I'm just being dramatic, but seriously.

I hate giving talks.

4 day weekend

Dan had Friday and Monday off this weekend and we tried to make the most of it. On Friday we went to old time country market and corn maze, pictured below, on Saturday we mostly just hung around the house watching movies and relaxing. Saturday was also sort of a comedy of errors when it came to making dinner.I was trying this new recipe I found and it was really labor intensive, so I was thinking it was going to be really yummy. BUT, while I was frying the chicken the oil splashed me in the face and I now have several small burns on my face around my eyes, and then the oven caught on fire, and the pasta almost burned, and the meal didn't even taste that great. Sigh. So, on Sunday Dan helped me cook dinner (tacos) by making tortillas. Have you ever had homemade tortillas? Yum. He used to make them all the time on his mission in Russia, so he made them for me and it was a lot of fun.

is he not the most handsome man you've ever seen?

On Monday we went to a pumpkin patch and got ourselves some pumpkins! We've always been really bad about decorating and celebrating holidays, but now that we have Evie we're trying to make more of an effort. Dan picked the biggest pumpkin he could find, Evie was indifferent as usual, and we all had fun. 

Excuse the no make up please

just missed the smile

this is her new thing; sucking on her lower lip

Corn Maze

 On Friday we went to the corn maze here in Chesapeake and it was a lot of fun. It was quite a bit different from other corn mazes I've been to in other places. Basically, they gave you a "map" of the maze and you were supposed to just go through the whole maze and find the five stamp stations. When you found a stamp you stamped on your map where you thought you were. Dan took this very seriously. He immediately switched into eagle scout mode and I thought it was pretty darn funny. We thought at the end of the maze we would get some sort of prize for finding all five stamps. But, sadly we did not. We did, however, get a ride on the wagon afterwards and two free shots on the corn gun. It was a lot of fun.

Brumby's Breadbasket. The best homemade cinnamon rolls and ice cream. Yum

first stamp

playing with the corn

second stamp

Where's Dan?

third stamp

fourth stamp?

all tuckered out

hayride

corn gun

6 months

Guess who's eating rice cereal now!? Yay! She loved it too, after she got over the initial shock of it not being milk that is. She is still just as cute as ever and loves to laugh and smile at everyone. Her new favorite thing to do is squealing in a seriously high pitched voice.

Something needs to change

I went to bed at 9pm last night. Yeah.... Does that make me old and boring? Probably. But Evie Lou and I went on a walk yesterday and in order to get the stroller up and down the stairs outside I had to carry the whole thing with her in it. Needless to say, my back was hurting A LOT by the time Evie went to bed last night, so I took a tylenol PM and hit the hay. She has been waking up around 3 or 4 every night. What is that about? Should I feed her? Let her cry it out? I don't know what to do. She wakes up completely upset with real tears and everything. Last night I let her cry for like half an hour and she still didn't go back to sleep so I just fed her. Good thing I went to bed so early or I wouldn't have gotten any sleep last night. Oy vei.

Also, I'm thinking something needs to be done about all of Evie's things. I would like to take our living room back and not have it constantly overrun with Evelyn's toys and things. Any ideas? I would have it all in her room, but she won't play without someone in the room with her and being in her room all day everyday doesn't sound like fun to me. Thoughts? I just need a change. I'm trying to decorate our home and make it feel like a house instead of a college dorm, but having a baby makes that a tad difficult. So, if you have any organizational ideas I would really appreciate it.

giggles

 

I'm so glad when daddy comes home...

This weekend was general conference (yay!) so we got to be at home all weekend. Can I just say how much I love having Dan home? I got to take a long, hot shower, sleep in until 9am, and cuddle on the couch watching conference. It's so nice having someone else around to take Evie when I need to shower or eat something. Did I mention that I got to eat lunch the last two days? Yes! Anyways, here is some pictures that I took today.

Watching conference together

too dark