50 Percent Awesome, 50 Percent Hilarious.

I don't know if both of you blog readers remember when I posted about literal videos? Here's the link back to that (it's at the bottom of the rambling). A few days after I wrote about the "Total Eclipse of the Heart" literal video, it was taken off YouTube for copyright infringement. That really sucked, since I think parodies only make the originals more popular, so are a good thing for the recording company in question. I was delighted to see that they put it back a few days later, but with a shadow link at the bottom of the screen, so viewers can buy the MP3 of the song at Amazon or Itunes.

So, to reward the company in the only way I know, I bought the song, and put it on our MP3 player. We listened to it a few times on the way to Utah and back, and it's come up more in our driving around here at home. I always liked this song, but it is growing on me quickly. The music video plays itself in my head and I sit there with a huge goofy grin the whole time. Toby and I discussed how this song was probably the makeout song in it's day at the high school dances. We also decided it is equal parts awesome and hilarious. It straddles the line so perfectly between being a classic 80's ballad and reminding me of of the funniest thing I've seen in weeks.

Where am I going with all this?

1) It's really easy to buy MP3 music online. I can do it while feeding the baby and using the mouse left-handed. It is nearly instantaneous, so care is in order....

2) Sometimes I like things because they make me laugh.

3) Happy late birthday post to Toby. You are 100 percent awesome and 100 percent hilarious. Thanks for making me laugh for the last fifteen years or so, and thanks for the unmentionable stuff, which is also awesome.

A Blessing and a Curse.

We blessed Lochlan this morning at church. We had to actually be there ON TIME, and we made it, and it wasn't majorly stressful. Ivy clung to Toby's leg while he blessed the baby, because when he blessed Ivy, Maggie screeched and Ivy cried and no one heard the blessing at all. So we took the path of least resistance this time.

The Dooleys blessed their adorable little baby girl, too. She looked so nice in a frilly white long dress and bonnet. I realized when Toby held Loch up for congregational approval that I forgot to put his little Aunt-Sherrel-knitted booties on. Instead, he was barefooted. By the way, I always love the pleased sigh that everyone gives the new babies. I wonder how many people were wondering if his feet were cold? I could assure them that as a legitimate McDonald baby, he was toasty warm.

I always invite my family to come for baby blessings, and I was glad they came. I would have liked to bear my testimony, but was too busy juggling Lochlan's feeding needs and Maggie's urination needs. Liv did, though. She is blessed with self-confidence that I envy. Livvie even bore her testimony in Utah at Tyler and Michelle's Fast Sunday service. Way to be!

I could have used some of that confidence in Primary, where it was my turn to give the lesson for junior and senior primaries. Lots of workers were absent due to a new baby that unites two large clans. The lesson itself went well, but then I had to conduct some songs, since there was NO ONE ELSE. I know lots of the primary songs now, but they all fled my memory, leaving me gripping the podium and sweating while blushing fiercely and trying to read the songbook.

My mother and grandmother and sister all have beautiful singing voices. I was in band every year in high school and played trap-set drums, so I'm not completely rhythmically uncoordinated. I can sing, but not well, and not in public, and apparently NOT while trying to count time. I remember squawking out the wrong lines to the song while flapping my hand in the air demonically. I could only be more embarrassed if I had peed myself, or profaned.

Babies.

I love it when we go somewhere with just Lochlan, and some nice stranger thinks he's our first baby. That means we still look young, right? Then they start talking about how before we know it, he'll be walking and talking and we'll wonder where the time went. I always smile and nod, like I've never heard all this before.

Then the person always has to ruin it by asking if he's our first. So when we tell him or her that Loch is our fifth, they always look stunned. Yeah, people do have that many kids. Yeah, it's still a miracle every time a baby grows up into a toddler, then a pre-schooler, then goes off to school. But we've been there, done that a few times now.

Maybe they expect all big family parents to look...what? More frazzled? Older? Fatter (that would be a trick for me!)? Wear a denim jumper and look like Michelle Duggar? Hey, I'm not knocking her, by the way. That family is amazing, so kudos to them.

I am trying hard to enjoy every minute, even the ones where I'm cleaning up Ivy's latest poo-tacular mess. Picture it: Hollis' new Hot Wheels track, a lot of poo, and some very "muddy" cars. It was off-roading of the worst kind. And when the Hens were here, we found a nice dump, taken into an open book, then the book was closed and left in an out-of-the-way corner. By the way, the book was a Thomas the Train one called "Percy's Chocolate Crunch." I'm not making this up, it's too disgusting.

Anyway. Everyone with kids old enough to leave home tells us that when the kids were little was the best time of their lives, they just didn't know it at the time. But the sheer work gets in the way. The kids are adorable and funny and shocking and appalling all at the same time. There is a MOUNTAIN of laundry that must be found, washed, dried, folded and put away at all times. The kids are always hungry. The house is always worse than messy. There are always flies buzzing a sinkful of dirty dishes. I'm always working on about two hours' less sleep than I need. Lochlan is sweet and precious...and he needs to be fed and held for hours every day. I have a relationship to maintain. On top of all this? I have a full-time job, sewing corsets madly and trying to keep up with the fall Renaissance Festival and Halloween rush.

Maybe I do look frazzled.

Netflix for Fun

Sometimes it's worth having a Netflix subscription to see how hard they try to pinpoint your movie preferences. Our suggestions today include:

Suspenseful Adult Comedies

Romantic PBS TV Shows

Witty Movies to Watch Instantly

British Dramas Based on Classic Literature

Feel-Good Animal Movies




For some reason, "Romantic PBS TV Shows" cracks me up. Do I sound like a Jane Austen fan? It's either that or "Nightly Business Report" is suddenly sexy.

There and Back Again.

I've always thought of myself as a Hobbit. You know, happy to be at home, accustomed to well-prepared comfort foods and curling up with a good book by the fire. That part of me is happy to be home. The other side of my nature must be more adventurous, because I do love a road trip, enough to still have a good time on a 24 hour drive with five kids in tow.

It seems like a whirlwind trip in my mind, and it was. Some of my memory highlights:

Both Heber and Springville are gently cradled in a bowl of mountains. I forgot that you have to look UP to see the fractal horizon in most cases. I always wonder what it would be like, to spend all one's days surrounded. The landscape is so dramatic, and I can't imagine being so accustomed to it that I wouldn't notice any more. One night, I was a bit startled to see something huge looming out of the darkness before I remembered where we were...it was a mountain.

Brynn and Maggie, who are four, are cousin frenemies of the best kind. By the way, a frenemy is what it sounds like, a friend who is also sometimes an enemy. Those little girls were so happy to see each other and they held hands for most of the time we were visiting Utah. Sure, each of them had times when she needed some space, but on the way home, Maggie kept asking if there was any way she could stay longer. According to Mag: "I just haven't seen Brynn enough."

We definitely had a working vacation. Michelle wakes up a five every morning, excited to sew another massive pile of bodice for her loving fans. She kindly knocked on our door each morning, and I generally was up within thirty or forty-five minutes, after feeding Loch. We worked almost a full day Monday through Saturday while we were gone. It was lots of fun spending time working with Michelle and Tyler and Megan in their basement sewing room.

Visiting with family is always awesome. We got to spend some (not enough) time with both branches of the family. I am always so jealous of how many cousins my kids have to play with. I was the only baby in the middle of a seven year gap in my family, so I had a cousin four years older, and then two that were Laural's age (three years younger). I hope to see all of you again next summer and actually take a week off to just hang out with everyone. You'll all get sick of us! Thanks to the members of the McDonald clan for waiting to see us before leaving for a hunting trip. Special hello to Renee and Kim, who we missed. (Kim, they said you read this? Blush.)

I seriously cannot express how grateful I am to Michelle and Tyler. They have allowed us (Toby and Jill) to work together every day and start getting out of debt. They let us crash in their playroom, sew on their machines, use their accounts, and most especially, use the good name of their company...Really, guys. I'll help you push your van out of a downhill parking space any day (if I'm not pregnant at the time).

HERE.

One mad-dash day of packing and last-minute orders.

One week's worth of homework collected.

One load of blouses for Michelle from Vea and Sherrell.

One bolt-flattened tire before we even got to Joplin.

One nerve-wracking tire-change on the side of a busy highway.

One nice policeman who parked behind us so cars would move over.

One stop at Sam's Club for snacks.

One bleary-eyed night driving 30 MPH in thick fog.

One nameless restaurant chain breakfast.

One little girl threw up.

One stop to run around at a rest stop.

Another little girl threw up.

Almost ran out of gas in Wyoming.

One little girl had an unspeakable sloppy diaper mess.

And...finally...UTAH. Can I say we're glad to be here?

(It would have been longer, but just insert "Lochlan cried and I fed him and changed him," between each line of the above.)