Carving a Pumpkin while Carrying a Leetle Punkin

So now you want to know allll the details of the pregnancy, right? Well, it all started ...
... And now I'm 13 weeks along, looking at a May 2 due date, same as the lovely Miriam, my BFF from high school. What are the odds? I've been feeling great, no morning sickness, just a loss of appetite. Sometimes it comes back, and sometimes, when Adam has the wonderful idea of going to Weinerschnitzel, I want to throw up. So maybe that's morning sickness. But wanting to throw up and feeling like throwing up are probably two very different things. I'm sure you who know the difference would be happy to tell me about it. So that's it. We're having a baby. Woohoooo! Never thought I'd see the day but now that I do, it's very exciting. It's kind of like just jumping on a fast moving train, one in which you have no idea where it's headed but you've heard it's a combination of good, scary, pretty, ugly, bad weather, good weather and everything in between. How can one prepare for a journey such as this? I say you don't. You just do it. And that's what we're doing. Smart, right?



In other news, I had a pumpkin carving party the other night. Adam had to go on a Boy Scout's campout so he missed it, but to make him proud, I carved this wonder (without a stencil - unbelievable, I know):


Everyone else did something really elaborate - a cat, a castle, a pirate ship. Show offs.

What we were REALLY up to this summer...

Whiffle Ball & a Wedding

These past few weekends and the week in between have been bizz-ay, what with the annual whiffle ball tournament, Prop. 8 phone calls (VOTE YES FOR THE LOVE), Lights on Broadway dress rehearsals, Adam getting laid off (thank you non-existant economy), and driving to Arizona for a wedding - wooweeeee, where do I begin? Let's just skip all the boring real life stuff and enjoy some pictures.

Conference weekend we stayed with some friends in San Diego for the annual Whiffle Ball tournament. You should be very intimidated by these two. They make up Team Annabolic Annihilation.

This is me for six hours. Woefully underplanned on the reading material. BHG for six hours? Try it some time.

This weekend was wedding time for some friends who finally made it final, thanks, we think, in part to us.

It was really a dude's weekend. I was just photog.

A trip to the DQ.

Us with Curtis & Candace. Adam and Curtis were roommates at this place in Provo we called Housemont. (A little house trying to be as cool as Belmont.) I met Adam when he lived at Housemont, so Curtis was our superfan. When he'd see me walking up the step he'd yell to Adam, "Adam, all of our dreams are coming true!" Meaning, he was excited I was dating Adam. We returned the favor when he brought Candace to our house several years ago in San Diego. We've always been big Candace fans and after breaking up about four times, Curtis finally pulled his head out and made the right decision. So, so happy about that.

They drove off in a Dune Buggy

Politics Meets Relief Society

I finally put my finger on why the mere sound of Sarah Palin's voice sends me running to the store for earplugs. She has combined one thing that I hold dear, Relief Society Voice, with one thing that makes me crazy, politics. If I had thought about this before, I would have thought, yeah, a Relief Society president WOULD make a good leader of our country. Endless compassion, clean and sensible living, discipline, fidelity, and pie baking would solve the world's problems in the areas of humanitarian, environment and energy, education, rascally behavior, and world hunger, respectively. But now that it's a reality, the exploitive use of the The Voice, and not even by one of Our Own, is offensive. She can't take Relief Society Voice from us. She can't do it! To get your polling fingers warmed up for what's to come in exactly one month, please answer me one question:

And while we're on the undesirable subject, I am still undecided as to which candidate to vote for and just thinking about deciding makes me decide I don't want to decide and I'm usually a very decision-oriented person, also known as, decisive. Send me the websites (besides the candidates') you've used to decide because this is where my Internet search capabilities fail me, and I ain't asking Matt Lauer anymore on the subject.

Sure do preciate 'cha!

Home Tour

Do you ever wonder what I would see if I just stood up from this desk and did a twirl? I thought so. Here's the front room/kitchen of the apartment as it looks right this instant. You may remember this is the one we accidentally scored after moving to save a couple hundred bucks per month on rent. We were supposed to get a much, much crappier place, like our previous place, but our leasing agent has no brain. Sweet.

There's Adam in the back working on his first customer. Oh, you think that's a bike? Well, ok, it is. He's started this little side business to fund his bike addiction that involves touching and handling a lot of bikes and then selling them again. He loves his customers, oh yes. Oh my.

This is the blogging zone. Other interesting things happen here, as well, including sitting on the world's most uncomfortable chair, printing, telling time, and watching TV. Yep, the computer doubles as a TV. How? I don't know. Our leasing agent didn't know for about two weeks either. Did I mention...brain....yeah....

Here's the kitchen: where things get saucy. It's where I made PW's pasta primavera yesterday.

It's where ants sometimes march. It's where Adam cleans up after me. And a most important consensus in our marriage occured here: no nothing on the fridge (except 3 cute, old magnets). It was a landmark decision and we couldn't be happier. Do I want to stare at your getting married mug every time I go for the orange juice? Well, maybe. But then I just open my cupboard where I have you taped, and there we are.

We like to call this our nook. We had the table in the middle there for about a year. And then, the lightbulb turned on. We moved it left a few feet. Unbelievable. So, it's not balanced. But at least we have room to twirl.

How to Parent

The weekend of Grandma's funeral was basically Hullinger Family Reunion Part Deux (Part Un being carried out annually in July). Some relatives you can count on always being at the reunions, namely this shrewd pair: brother Roger and wife Karie Ann. And from them you learn some of life's greatest secrets. Like the weirdest YouTubes, the best biking playlists, and sometimes they guess your secrets using this creepy sixth sense they both possess. Shuuuunnnn...n..n.



Well, this trip, they shared with us a technique sure to help us all be better parents, now and in the future. Unfortunately I missed it, having taken a trip to the kitchen to get a 2nd piece of chocolate cake. Adam relayed it to me as 'the funniest part of the whole weekend' and here's how it happened.



Hunter, their firstborn, was taunting Isabelle, their secondborn, for a bite of her bread with honeybutter, the one food both of them subsist on. Hunter, of course, already had about four breads with honeybutter on his own plate, but that is beside the point. He wanted a big juicy bite of Izzy's. And the way to start this transaction was by taunting. Izzy flat out refused so he feigned indifference and walked by with a "Fine!" and a GREAT BIG BITE stolen off her plate. She sat flailed in disgust and sat heavy in her chair in a mini-tantrum. The parents were right there ready for the teaching moment.



Karie Ann: "So, what, Izzy? You afraid now you're going to get cooties?"



Roger: "Polio?"



Karie Ann: "Mononucleosis?"



Roger: "Mad Cow Disease?"



Karie Ann: "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome?"



Roger: "Tuberculosis?"



Karie Ann: "Cystic Fibrosis?"



Roger: "AIDS?"



Izzy: "STOOOOOPPPPPP IIIITTTTTTTT!" and runs away.



Parents: Back to eating.



And moments later, all is well with the children. Hunter has his usual 'you better not even dare look at me' face and Izzy is like the camera's best friend. She has, after all, just conquered cooties.

Grandma Grace

My Grandma Grace passed away last week and we stole away on a quick road trip to attend her funeral this weekend in Utah. My brother just emailed me these pictures of Grandma Grace and Grandpa Hollis. They were taken about a year ago when Grandma first entered the care center. A lady from the community volunteers at the care center taking pictures of the tenants, getting them all dressed up for their 'photo-shoot.' What a sweet service! I just love these pictures.

Books Were Read

I think I was pretty much the last Bush supporter on the planet before I read this book. Now he has zero supporters. Sad. I trust Scott McClellan for some reason although I think I was living out of the country when he was press secretary and I didn't follow him much. But I trust press people and press liasons in general, so I guess that's why. Anyway, this book shed some light on the Valerie Plame scandal (something I also hadn't followed) and its part in starting the war, as well as other reasons for going to war. Bottom line: all reasons were pretty weak. BIG OOPS.

This is about the scandalous affair between Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamuh Borthwick. It was a lovely story, but I didn't support what they did AT ALL. Yes, they were in love. Yes, they were forward thinking artists. Yes, he was a master architect and she a strong, feminist thinker. But that doesn't mean you go and wreck both of your families so you can live in love and harmony with the world. They never regretted their decision but they paid dearly for it. If you're needing some let-your-hair-down, steamy, tragic romance in your life, pick up this book. I don't regret reading it, but I'm still mad at both of them.

This book was the result of an LDS/Evangelical forum that two of my Christian co-workers and I attended at one of the megachurches around here. Two BYU professors and two Evangelical pastors squared off on two subjects: who is Jesus Christ and what are the essentials of salvation? Pretty good overall, but I didn't learn much that I already didn't know, and they didn't highlight too many differences to really spark anyone's interest (at least not mine). Maybe my co-worker felt the same because she suggested we go in on their book, which they were selling outside. We're going to take turns reading it and then discuss it when we're all finished. I read it first and now I'm waiting for the other two (and Adam, who may or may not join us for discussion). I did learn some things I didn't know, but I think it will be more beneficial for my co-workers because Mormonism is basically Christianity ... and then some.

I'm only 75 pages into this one but I'm already slightly disappointed. I guess I was expecting an "Under the Tuscan Sun" - ish, aka sensuous and very all-5-senses-oriented adventure through food, but it's more like a stern lecture from my mother on eating my leafy greens but worse because every lecture is followed by a "and do you know where that arugula CAME FROM?! Young lady?? Huh? Well, I'm about to tell you and it ain't gonna be pretty." I could see someone having a totally different experience with the book, but this is just mine so far. After this I will stick to Barbara's fiction ... although I don't know how she's going to best The Poisonwood Bible. Any recommendations on her other books?

Some Other Crizzap That Was Done By Us

{early morning July 4th - waiting for the triathlon to start}

*We moved. Lucky for us our leasing agent has the brain of a no-brainer and accidentally gave us the sweetest, most upgradedness apartment in the building.

*We got upgraded cable and then couldn't enjoy it. The same leasing brainiac (his first name literally rhymns with 'no-brain' and it totally fits) could NOT figure out how to turn back on our cable and Internet in our new apartment for TWO WEEKS. So we paid for Tour de France level cable and missed the ENTIRE Tour de France. I was madder than Adam and I don't even care about the Tour de France. The whole mess was finally solved by some angry, regrettable phone messages left by me. Embarrassing, but all worth it in the end.

*Finished my book binding class. If you liked kindergarten above all other grades, this class is for you. It's folding paper, the teacher using phrases like, "Okay, fold it hamburger first, and then hot dog second. Hamburger, hot dog, that's right." Whaaaa? And all your dreams of being a book abuser are realized. You cut books. You rip out pages. You sew things in the books. You hide little treasures in the book where you cut holes. It is SO bizarre but apparently a 'true art form' as all impassioned artists say about their artforms. Yeah, and so is snorting spaghetti up one nostril and shooting it out the other. Artists. Pssh.

*We completed our first triathalon. It was a stake one, sprint distance, and all for fun, but boy did we train our little booties off. Adam got 2nd out of the 17 dudes in his category; I got 3rd out of the 8 chicks in my category. If we ever do it again, we'll probably combine forces - Adam can't run and I can't bike or swim. Highlight of the race: Adam tossing his cookies not once, but twice during the race. I see him during the run and I'm all waving like crazy and cheering him on (cuz he's about a mile ahead of me) and he just has this blank, despondent kind of stare. I knew something had happened.

*Didn't learn to surf. In fact we hardly went to the beach. This was supposed to be the Summer of the Beach, but little did we know, this being our first full summer in OC (last year was mostly San Diego), that the whole universe descends upon these beaches. It really makes getting there, parking there, lugging stuff there, and being around ALL who are there, not worth it half the time. So I guess this will be the Autumn of the Beach.

*We are officially grassroots activists. If you haven't heard of Prop. 8 I can tell you allllll about it. Anywho, we've been out 3 Saturdays going door to door collecting info on how people plan to vote on Prop. 8 come November. We'll be making phone calls this week. Then phase 2 is a full-court press of sorts - getting those undecideds on our side. It has really ignited a new excitement in me not just for this cause but for all others this political season. It's a very exciting time to be involved in something like this.

*New callings all around. We weren't cutting it as ward missionaries, so they shoved us to the youth, aka the Lion's Den. Oh, and tacked on another one for me for good measure: ward organist. OUCH. The pain I feel in that calling makes me not sleep well on Saturday nights. I don't practice hardly EVER. I get up there. I do my darndest and there is always a surprise measure or two that really wakes the congregation up. Ever played the hymn - Praise the Lord, the Almighty? SUCH a beautiful one, and one of Adam's favorites. I get through 3 verses much better than planned and then! 4th verse comes unraveled. I hit the end chord right which is usually my loftiest goal. New goal: make loftier goals.

*I'm tapping on Broadway, now -- Lights on Broadway! Ha! Our stake is at it again. Remember Savior of the World? Well, take that same group of directors, cut their budget, make everyone conjure up their own substandard costume, and you have LOB. This year it's a show of showtunes from almost 20 musicals. I had to drop out of most of the numbers cuz one of our friends decided to get married the first weekend of performances, but I'm sticking with the 42nd street tap number. It's really fun and really hard. Turns out I DON'T know my time steps. Huh.

Some Sadnesses

{one fell off and broke his head}

Along came a few wake up calls this summer that have changed my thinking in many ways.

* I'd venture to say if you read this blog, you read NieNie's blog. I don't know her in real life and probably never will, but I've known her through her blog for a couple years now. I stumbled on the blog from another blog and the first post I saw of hers featured her freshly painted bright green kitchen cabinets. Bright green kitchen cabinets! I knew I had found a style icon that I wanted to follow. I came to check the blog first thing every morning, drinking in her unbelievable true-life style and neverending positive, but real, attitude. So, I was shocked out of my socks to read one mid-August morning about something that happened to her that only happens to people I don't know. But that's the thing! I don't know her! Yet, I couldn't sleep for several nights after I learned about her plane crash. How could this have happened to such a bright light? What is her adorable family to do without her? And, selfishly, how will my experience with blogs ever be the same? Then something happened with blogs that made my experience with blogs never to be the same. The blogosphere rallied together and GAVE BACK to this woman who gave us so much. Silent auctions filled every blog I checked regularly. The NieNie Dialogues fan club is projected to raise $100,000 to go toward her recovery. Her story has made it into NYTimes. It will be on the Today Show tomorrow morning. What is the root of this story? I ask myself, as a PR person always asks ... At the root of the story is HER. The story became news after the blogosphere joined hands in singing her praises, but Stephanie is the reason. Who she IS has ignited the rest of US. It's really changed my perspective on how much one person can do with one blog.

* Another closer to home sadness was realized last month when my second cousin, 2-year-old Sarah, was diagnosed with a brain tumor. A more darling child, there never was. I met her for the first time at her uncle's wedding in Arizona in May and looked forward to watching her grow along with her beautiful siblings. Sarah has a newborn sister as of yesterday, so this time is bittersweet for their family. It reminds me that my cousins mean the world to me and that my cousins' children are precious little extensions of these personalities I grew up with and played on grandpa's farm with and went sledding with and teeter tottered on teeter totters with. We can never celebrate our families and our families' families too much and need to enjoy our time on earth together as long as we can.

* Last week there was a shooting right outside our apartment window. Adam and I were about to fall asleep when we heard what sounded like a super loud firecracker. Police surrounded the neighboring building and stayed until late the next morning. We had little knowledge of what happened until we read the news the next day. Sadly, the firecracker noise was the Irvine SWAT team reacting to a man in the neighboring building pointing a gun at them. It all started because of a domestic dispute, and now the man is dead. The police were doing their job, but we were unnerved by the fact that it happened so close, and wondered how it happened in one of the safest cities in America. We talked to the family members of the family and learned about the man who died. He was loved by his family but deeply troubled and may have pointed the gun because he knew the outcome would be what he really wanted: an end to his life. It's hard not to draw a quick judgement about a man who abuses his wife, and points a gun at policemen. But I learned that day that we almost never know the whole story and thank goodness it's not up to us to judge.

* This one is trite compared to the rest, but it literally rocked my world. It also broke the neck of the smallest giraffe in my measuring spoons set. Pity! August 4th, I was sitting at my desk when there came a rumbling from down deep in the earth. It was the sound of a semi-truck being delivered to my front door by a bulldozer. I was totally bewildered at the deafening sound and looked outside. It wasn't just me that was shaking. It was the BUSH and the SIGN and the ROAD and my CO-WORKERS! I let out a screech and the three of us in the front room (we work in a very old house - scary in and of itself) just looked at each other in panic. After about 10 seconds of that, and someone explaining what it was - I looked online and yep, LAT & NYT already had something posted: A 5.4 earthquake shook Southern California, with an epicenter in Chino Hills. Chino What? I didn't know where that was, but I did know that I have almost no food storage and am ill-prepared for any and all disasters. I went to the store the next day and bought as many gallons of water as my very small storage space could hold. I've got some wheat, some macaroni and some dried banana chips (ok, I don't have that last one, but man the cannery cans some tasty dried banana chips). Just like last October when the fires came w/in 5 miles of our house, I realized there is something I am learning about living in this state: the end is near ... and the end is starting in California.

And...We're Back

Summer lasts forever around here so there's really no way for me to know when to get back to blogging. Especially since it's only gotten HOTTER since September hit. Awesome. Not. We have had a great summer and will continue to have a great summer, oh until ... about next summer, when we'll start having another great summer again. That's right, endless summers around here. Actually, if I didn't write a few things down and take a few pictures here and there I'd say, duuuuuuude, my summer was so laaaaame, all I did this summer was wooooooork. Which is true. But we also managed to have some fun. So, without further ado.......I'm bringing blogging back.

It's apropos to start a very important stream of posts with my first love in life: food. These are some summer eats we enjoyed over the last couple months. Some high points of the summer lip-smacking:

* Living life out of a blender. Strawberry smoothies, blueberry smoothies, mixed berry smoothies, watermelon juice, peach shakes, chocolate shakes, a butter pecan shake which kind of made me gag, and sadly, no papaya milk this year. I had one bad experience with a papaya this summer and I can't go back for the time being. We will make up soon, I hope. Nothing effects you quite like an encounter with an overripe papaya. Oh, and blender salsa. Entirely new concept to me but brought to my mind by a missionary that lives around the corner who brought us some of his own as a house-warming gift - how thoughtful! And how delicious. Chips and salsa were my dinner maaaany times.

* The Grill! I learned how to use the neighborhood grill. I mean, I learned how to turn ON the neighborhood grill. After that I made Adam or the nearest male take care of the actual grilling. We had BBQ chicken, teriyaki chicken ... and then BBQ chicken again. I'm still new to grilling so I'm still kind of timid. A big, juicy steak is next on the list of things-to-grill, but I'm a little intimidated. Once again, somehow I have a feeling someone from the male species will pop up from behind the nearest bush, take the giant fork from my hands, and do what he came to this earth to do: grill a beefsteak.

* Various items that feature mayonnaise as the main ingredient. For some reason, I was shameless with the mayo this summer. I made several chicken salads, my new favorite involving a combination of mayo AND sour cream. Sheer delight, that combo. Then I made macaroni salad AND my very first potato salad. The latter usually makes me wretch at the sight and smell of it, but for some reason there was a hankering down deep inside. And I was hosting a Labor Day picnic, so I thought it only right that the potato salad have one last honorary showing this season. The macaroni salad was seriously lacking in mayo so I added as much as I could afford but it was still dry. Some recipes on the internet make me lose hope in internet recipes. Back to Betty Crocker for the potato salad. Delicious and anti-nutritious.

* A couple tarts and many cakes. First I went through a tart phase. You have a birthday? You get a giant lemon berry tart! I have a birthday? I get a giant lemon berry tart! Adam has a birthday? Guess what he gets? Wow - the tart had my heart ... and then too much lemon curd got lodged in that same heart and we decided to take a break. Onto the cakes. I can't remember what cakes I made, exactly, but I remember that there was a phase. A phase that had me whipping out frosting concoctions the likes of which I never knew existed. The phase ended, sadly, in something close to tragic, this time an overly taxed stomach resulting from eating just one wedge from this three-layer, lop-sided chocolate, banana, peanut butter masterpiece I created for Adam's brother's birthday. I've regretted that cake ever since. It kind of sent me over the edge. And I've put the cake plate back on hiatus.

* Visits to the outside world. Yes, even to restaurants. We don't eat out much, but when we do, I can think of no two people who relish, enjoy, savor and literally devour it more, than us. TK Burgers - a hole in the wall across the street from Huntington Beach that has a cheap, huge burger and plate of fries that illicited this thinking-out-loud statement from Adam, "I don't want this to EVER end." Dairy Queen next door to TK Burgers - we rarely pass a Dairy Queen without a huge screech on the breaks and a dramatic swerve into the parking lot. This time we only had to walk, phew. The Girl Scout mint blizzard was my summer favorite. Mmmmmm, you get that sneaky I've-got-thin-mints-out-of-season kind of feeling and it somehow makes it alllll the more satisfying. Pat & Oscars. If you live around here, you might frown down upon my judgement. I'll tell you, my first time in a P&O's was to ask for directions and the place made me shudder. But I've been back to that place more times than any other place around here, and I still crave it. It's boring old American food served almost cafeteria style and soooooo cheap. Last night it hit the spot and it will continue to do so many more times, I know. Orange's street fair was also a culinary adventure. They've got Irish Street, Dutch Street, American Street, Australian Street, Germany Street, and the one we chose: Greek Street. We got souvlakis and loufthakes (no idea if that's even close) - so basically flat bread filled with fresh-grilled meat, tomatos, onions and some yogurt sauce, and then little donut holes soaked in honey and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. I nearly threw it all up that night cuz I had preceeded the meal with a bag of Cheetos ... smart ... but I would do it all over again in a second.

It's almost alarming how long I could go on about food, but I'll give it up there. See you soon for more posts...be excited. Be very excited.

Have a Great Summer

I'm taking the summer off from blogging so I'll see you in three (or so) months. Don't be too disppointed because all I'll be doing is going to work and going to the beach. And reading. And learning to surf. And doing a sprint triathalon. And going to a family reunion. Adam may blog. He may not. He's elusive like that. Stay cool, have a great summer and see you in the fall!

Last Pics of Portland (and all of Oregon)

I can just tell you're wiping your brow and sighing with thanksgiving because this is the last of the travelogue. Here are some pictures of Portland's doors, buildings, cars and bikes, which are what Adam and I take pictures of.

We met my brother Mark in Portland while he was there on work. We ate at Salty's on the Columbia River.On the last day of our trip we spent some extra money on books at Powell's, Portland's landmark bookstore that takes up an entire city block, plus three floors up. We each got four. Maybe you'll hear about them on this here blog soon.

We washed down our last dessert of the trip with this bottle of milk. It was a beautiful evening and we finished our last bites just as it started sprinkling and we headed back to the hotel.