There is a trend out there that I simply do not understand, and that is the practice of comparing the size of a baby growing in the womb to various fruits and vegetables. As the growth of your fetus progresses, you are cheerfully told - it's now the size of a lentil! Ooh, now it's as big as a pineapple (quite the growth spurt there)!
Now, I feel there are several flaws in this system. First, it may just be me, but it seems that comparing your growing child to something you ingest just seems wrong. The baby is already inside of you, do you have to start thinking of it as if it were something you ate? "Oops, I ate a poppy seed and over the course of forty weeks it has gone from poppy seed to blueberry to lime to squash to oh my gosh it's a baby!" Weird. But maybe that's just me.
On a more universal area of complaint, any one who has ever been through the produce section of their grocery store, regardless of whether or not they consume fruits and vegetables, knows that the size of produce varies. Sometimes greatly. There are farmers out there growing strawberries the size of your hand, and there are those little tiny wild strawberries you find that are the size of your pinky nail. I mean, we're not really talking about a standard system of measurement here.
On top of that, they have chosen some rather obscure fruits and vegetables for you to compare your fetus to. Your child is now the size of a kumquat. Who in the heck has seen a kumquat, much less eaten one? I for one don't have a clue how big or small a kumquat is? Others making the list of obscure fruits and vegetables: fig (I mean, we've all had the newtons, but have you ever actually eaten a fig?), turnip (you hear about them, but they are sort of mystical), rutabaga, jicama (I doubt I ever would have seen a jicama if it weren't for dear Shelly and the vegetable experimentations of '04), and crenshaw melon. Yes, at 36 weeks, the baby is the size of a crenshaw melon.
I talked to a friend at work about this, and he suggested that they set up this system because women have a hard time getting a visual when they hear something like "two inches" or "almost an ounce." I found that vaguely insulting, but he may be right. I suppose it's nice to get a visual, but still... could they not have chosen something a bit more appropriate, consistent, and - heck - at least commonly known to give women an idea of the size of the little person inside them? Anyone have any suggestions? We could revolutionize the whole industry of baby-measurement-comparisons.
In any case, ours is the size of a lime.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Geocache: Take 2
So, we went out for another geocache adventure on Monday. After realizing that the cache we had chosen was actually placed in someone's front yard and deciding that we didn't want to go digging through the snow with people watching from their front window, we decided to do a reprise of our first cache and see if we could actually find it this time. The coordinates were still in the GPS so off we went up the mountain again. The snow had melted quite a bit since the last time we were up there, so the trip was significantly faster and once we reached the designated spot, the cache was practically in plain sight. How could we have missed it? Oh yeah, it was covered in snow. Turns out snow is better camo than camo is.
So we found the cache, wrote in the log, replaced a keychain with a whistle, and felt extremely more satisfied than we did after finding the rusted out steel drum. Yay for geocaching during the day!
Filling out the log.
The keychain we took from the cache.
So "in plain sight" may have been a bit of an exaggeration. Can you find it?
How bout now?
So we found the cache, wrote in the log, replaced a keychain with a whistle, and felt extremely more satisfied than we did after finding the rusted out steel drum. Yay for geocaching during the day!
Filling out the log.
The keychain we took from the cache.
So "in plain sight" may have been a bit of an exaggeration. Can you find it?
How bout now?
Afterwards, we went for some ice cream on center street and walked to another cache, which wasn't so much a cache as a "Hey, find this cool tree using your gps." It's behind the courthouse and is apparently some sort of crazy crossbreed tree made from the parts of three different trees. Pretty cool looking huh?
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Our New Hobby
My awesome parents got us a GPS unit for Christmas (Ok, technically, it was James's present, but heck I am going to get almost as much enjoyment out of that thing, I tell you). Not only was it particularly useful when we needed to find our way around the unfamiliar city of Denver -
- quick story. So we were out and about shopping and Mom really wanted to stop at a Burger King, since there aren't any in Greece. So James whipped out the GPS and hastily found what we were looking for. The GPS guided us masterfully there in its lovely, male, Britishly accented voice, right about until we hit the last turn. It pronounced the street that the Burger King was on in an extremely unfathomable way, and while we were still laughing at that, it proudly announced "Arriving at Bur-jer King, on left." Anyone up for a cheese burjer? Ok, now back to our regularly scheduled program -
So, not only was it useful finding our way around Denver, it has also provided us with an entertaining hobby now that we have arrived at home. We have discovered the adventure that is geocaching. Basically, people go out and hide small trinkets and treasures in interesting, beautiful, or historical places then record the GPS coordinates on an official geocaching website. We, the brave explorers, then acquire said coordinates and go on our search for the hidden treasures, with the GPS system as our guide. Once we locate the treasure, we can take something out of it and replace it with a treasure of our own. There's also usually a logbook to record your information in, any comments you'd like to make, and what you took and replaced it with. I think it has to be the neatest thing since popsicles. We've even created our own logbook in which to record our adventures, keep photos, and perhaps collect some of the smaller treasures we find.
Another version of the activity is called letterboxing, and instead of trading treasures, you create a unique stamp specific to you and when you find the cache you stamp its logbook with your stamp, and stamp your logbook with the stamp kept in the cache. Call me silly, but it just seems like such an awesome adventure. A fun way to connect with other like-minded (some may call us crazy) people, a really great way to get out and spend time outdoors, and the whole treasurehunt aspect just makes it that much more fun. Anyway, I've babbled about this long enough. If you're curious, you can go read the wikipedia articles on geocaching and letterboxing. They are fascinating.
Here are some of the pictures from our first geocaching adventure. Unfortunately, we're not sure if we actually found the cache. Reports online said the cache might be damaged, but what we found was REALLY damaged - so maybe the real cache is still up there somewhere. The snow and the dark wasn't really conducive to a successful adventure. Once this blasted snow stops falling, we might be able to get out and do some more.
Here's what we found: a rotted out steel drum. Dubious, I must say.
- quick story. So we were out and about shopping and Mom really wanted to stop at a Burger King, since there aren't any in Greece. So James whipped out the GPS and hastily found what we were looking for. The GPS guided us masterfully there in its lovely, male, Britishly accented voice, right about until we hit the last turn. It pronounced the street that the Burger King was on in an extremely unfathomable way, and while we were still laughing at that, it proudly announced "Arriving at Bur-jer King, on left." Anyone up for a cheese burjer? Ok, now back to our regularly scheduled program -
So, not only was it useful finding our way around Denver, it has also provided us with an entertaining hobby now that we have arrived at home. We have discovered the adventure that is geocaching. Basically, people go out and hide small trinkets and treasures in interesting, beautiful, or historical places then record the GPS coordinates on an official geocaching website. We, the brave explorers, then acquire said coordinates and go on our search for the hidden treasures, with the GPS system as our guide. Once we locate the treasure, we can take something out of it and replace it with a treasure of our own. There's also usually a logbook to record your information in, any comments you'd like to make, and what you took and replaced it with. I think it has to be the neatest thing since popsicles. We've even created our own logbook in which to record our adventures, keep photos, and perhaps collect some of the smaller treasures we find.
Another version of the activity is called letterboxing, and instead of trading treasures, you create a unique stamp specific to you and when you find the cache you stamp its logbook with your stamp, and stamp your logbook with the stamp kept in the cache. Call me silly, but it just seems like such an awesome adventure. A fun way to connect with other like-minded (some may call us crazy) people, a really great way to get out and spend time outdoors, and the whole treasurehunt aspect just makes it that much more fun. Anyway, I've babbled about this long enough. If you're curious, you can go read the wikipedia articles on geocaching and letterboxing. They are fascinating.
Here are some of the pictures from our first geocaching adventure. Unfortunately, we're not sure if we actually found the cache. Reports online said the cache might be damaged, but what we found was REALLY damaged - so maybe the real cache is still up there somewhere. The snow and the dark wasn't really conducive to a successful adventure. Once this blasted snow stops falling, we might be able to get out and do some more.
Here's what we found: a rotted out steel drum. Dubious, I must say.
Christmas Pics
Here are some of my favorite pictures from our trip to Colorado:
Our gift to Beck and Ainsley this year consisted of a trunk filled with various articles of dress-up clothing. Sadly, I didn't get a picture of the box itself, but I did get these cute shots of the kids playing with the hats, which they decided they needed for their first post-Christmas bike ride. To keep the sun out of their eyes, you know.
Eli got these little froggy slippers and a little stuffed frog from us. And he gets to play with the dress-up box too - when he's up for it.
And here are just some random pictures of the kids, etc., opening up presents.
James got this awesome Giants hat from Cyndi - way to pick em, Cyn. He loves it!
Mom decided it would be fun to curl my hair, so I spent most of Christmas Eve with my hair in curlers. The result was quite poofy, but not entirely uncute. Here's a neat picture of me and Ainsley - her curls are natural.
Grandpa playing toss with Beck.
James made pirate swords for the kids, as well as pirate hats. Oh boy did they love that. They were running around pretending to be pirates all day after that. At one point, Beck hopped on the bed that Grandma and Grandpa were sleeping on and shouted to Ainsley, "Ains! I found us a clever ship!" Oh those clever ships...
And here's a blurry but still adorable pic of little Ains and her blue blue eyes.
Upon arriving home, I realized I did not take enough pictures of the adults or of the baby. I've got to get better about that. Doesn't help that no one wants their picture taken, though. Sigh. Well, it was a very merry Christmas.
Our gift to Beck and Ainsley this year consisted of a trunk filled with various articles of dress-up clothing. Sadly, I didn't get a picture of the box itself, but I did get these cute shots of the kids playing with the hats, which they decided they needed for their first post-Christmas bike ride. To keep the sun out of their eyes, you know.
Eli got these little froggy slippers and a little stuffed frog from us. And he gets to play with the dress-up box too - when he's up for it.
And here are just some random pictures of the kids, etc., opening up presents.
James got this awesome Giants hat from Cyndi - way to pick em, Cyn. He loves it!
Mom decided it would be fun to curl my hair, so I spent most of Christmas Eve with my hair in curlers. The result was quite poofy, but not entirely uncute. Here's a neat picture of me and Ainsley - her curls are natural.
Grandpa playing toss with Beck.
James made pirate swords for the kids, as well as pirate hats. Oh boy did they love that. They were running around pretending to be pirates all day after that. At one point, Beck hopped on the bed that Grandma and Grandpa were sleeping on and shouted to Ainsley, "Ains! I found us a clever ship!" Oh those clever ships...
And here's a blurry but still adorable pic of little Ains and her blue blue eyes.
Upon arriving home, I realized I did not take enough pictures of the adults or of the baby. I've got to get better about that. Doesn't help that no one wants their picture taken, though. Sigh. Well, it was a very merry Christmas.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Merry Christmas to All
Dear Friends,
We are currently enjoying a week of relaxation and fun in Colorado with my family, but I wanted to take a moment to wish you all a Merry Christmas. We have had a lot to be grateful for this year and many blessings that have come our way. We are glad to be healthy, happy, and employed. We're so grateful for the gospel in our lives and the knowledge of our Savior and what He did for us that makes this time of year so very special. May you all have a wonderful Christmas.
Love,
The Wests
We are currently enjoying a week of relaxation and fun in Colorado with my family, but I wanted to take a moment to wish you all a Merry Christmas. We have had a lot to be grateful for this year and many blessings that have come our way. We are glad to be healthy, happy, and employed. We're so grateful for the gospel in our lives and the knowledge of our Savior and what He did for us that makes this time of year so very special. May you all have a wonderful Christmas.
Love,
The Wests
Friday, December 12, 2008
Another Crack-Up by James
So, Wednesday night we took a trip to Borders with Jake and Wendy to check out books and drink hot chocolate. I seriously have to recommend the cocoa trio to everyone everywhere. Go to Borders and get one. Now. It is the most remarkably delicious thing I have had in a long time. So many thanks to Wendy for turning me on to it.
Anyway, while we were there, this guy I passed in the music aisle turned and saw me and said Hi. Now, I know I know this person somehow, but for the life of me I could not remember what the connection was. He turned back to the cd he was perusing and I walked on toward the cafe to get that cocoa trio. But now I was disturbed. Who was that guy? I couldn't really go back and ask him... awkward. So... it just continued to bug me.
Later, James and I went to Macey's and it was still bugging me - who was that guy? I couldn't figure it out, so in frustration I said to James, "Don't you hate it when you see someone you know but then you can't remember who they are or how you know them?" James didn't miss a beat, he just said "Well, honey, if it helps - I'm your husband. We got married about a year ago?"
Oh James.
Anyway, while we were there, this guy I passed in the music aisle turned and saw me and said Hi. Now, I know I know this person somehow, but for the life of me I could not remember what the connection was. He turned back to the cd he was perusing and I walked on toward the cafe to get that cocoa trio. But now I was disturbed. Who was that guy? I couldn't really go back and ask him... awkward. So... it just continued to bug me.
Later, James and I went to Macey's and it was still bugging me - who was that guy? I couldn't figure it out, so in frustration I said to James, "Don't you hate it when you see someone you know but then you can't remember who they are or how you know them?" James didn't miss a beat, he just said "Well, honey, if it helps - I'm your husband. We got married about a year ago?"
Oh James.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Monday, December 8, 2008
Funny James
Last night, James did something incredible and actually offered to play a game with Allison and me. True, he tried to rescind his offer, but it was too late. So we settled down at the kitchen table to play Pictionary. How do you play Pictionary with three people, you ask? Well, everyone is on everyone's team. Trust me, it's the best way to play.
The Pictionary game that we own is one that I found at D.I. It has all the cards and the gameboard and even a timer-- but no game pieces. So, being the incredibly clever person that I am, I found a quick solution by grabbing the three kings from our nativity set to act as game pieces. During game play, James demonstrated significant prowess at drawing and eliciting guesses from Allison and myself, which quickly got him several blocks ahead of the two of us.
At one point he took his little king, turned it around to face our pieces and said in a taunting voice, "Ha, ha, I'm going to see the baby Jesus before you!"
There it is folks, the spirit of the season! :) Only 18 days to go!
*edit: James reminded me that I neglected to mention that he did in fact win. So, I guess technically, his king had the honor of seeing the baby Jesus first. A whole new way of looking at the nativity.
The Pictionary game that we own is one that I found at D.I. It has all the cards and the gameboard and even a timer-- but no game pieces. So, being the incredibly clever person that I am, I found a quick solution by grabbing the three kings from our nativity set to act as game pieces. During game play, James demonstrated significant prowess at drawing and eliciting guesses from Allison and myself, which quickly got him several blocks ahead of the two of us.
At one point he took his little king, turned it around to face our pieces and said in a taunting voice, "Ha, ha, I'm going to see the baby Jesus before you!"
There it is folks, the spirit of the season! :) Only 18 days to go!
*edit: James reminded me that I neglected to mention that he did in fact win. So, I guess technically, his king had the honor of seeing the baby Jesus first. A whole new way of looking at the nativity.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
The Pictures!
The Family Talent Show:
Heidi decided she'd like to have a luncheon and talent show instead of a reception (she was going to do the reception as a joint-venture in December with her brother and his fiancee) but then they decided to go ahead and do the reception in November anyway, but they still kept the talent show! I, sadly, did not get pictures of everyone's amazing talents, as I was busy enjoying them, but I did make sure to snap a few shots.
Just enjoying the lasagna and oh-my-gosh-that-was-amazing-give-me-some-more cheesecake. No, seriously, give me some more.
Melanie and the beautiful Bella
James's talent was making balloon sculptures. He called for three volunteers to give him their orders. He got like 12! Poor guy's cheeks were so sore!
George and Anthony performed three of their amazing compositions - ditties mostly featuring delicious food - that they created while on family trips throughout their young lives.
Allison and Buffy put on a display of hand-clapping artistry that was enjoyed by all.
My talent was extremely gifted baby-hogging.
James other talent was being incredibly dashing.
The Wedding
The wedding itself was just beautiful. The Winter Quarters temple is absolutely gorgeous, and it was just so fun to see Anthony and Heidi finally tie the knot.
I didn't get any really good pictures of them coming out of the temple because my camera chose that particular moment to stop working (I think it was cold). But here's one that turned out half-way decent.
The happy couple with all the brothers. Someone tell James he looks great in that red tie. I'm hoping he will wear it again someday.
The happy couple and the girls.
Cute Kate. Is it awful that I'm jealous of a 2-year-old's coat?
Just the girls. And in case you were wondering, no it wasn't cold. It was FREEZING.
Heidi decided she'd like to have a luncheon and talent show instead of a reception (she was going to do the reception as a joint-venture in December with her brother and his fiancee) but then they decided to go ahead and do the reception in November anyway, but they still kept the talent show! I, sadly, did not get pictures of everyone's amazing talents, as I was busy enjoying them, but I did make sure to snap a few shots.
Just enjoying the lasagna and oh-my-gosh-that-was-amazing-give-me-some-more cheesecake. No, seriously, give me some more.
Melanie and the beautiful Bella
James's talent was making balloon sculptures. He called for three volunteers to give him their orders. He got like 12! Poor guy's cheeks were so sore!
George and Anthony performed three of their amazing compositions - ditties mostly featuring delicious food - that they created while on family trips throughout their young lives.
Allison and Buffy put on a display of hand-clapping artistry that was enjoyed by all.
My talent was extremely gifted baby-hogging.
James other talent was being incredibly dashing.The Wedding
The wedding itself was just beautiful. The Winter Quarters temple is absolutely gorgeous, and it was just so fun to see Anthony and Heidi finally tie the knot.
I didn't get any really good pictures of them coming out of the temple because my camera chose that particular moment to stop working (I think it was cold). But here's one that turned out half-way decent.
The happy couple with all the brothers. Someone tell James he looks great in that red tie. I'm hoping he will wear it again someday.
The happy couple and the girls.
Cute Kate. Is it awful that I'm jealous of a 2-year-old's coat?
Just the girls. And in case you were wondering, no it wasn't cold. It was FREEZING.The Reception
The reception was a grand old time of dancing, cake, good food, fun people. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the evening:
James trying to show my how to dance. I'm not so very good at following. Those are cherries on my dress, by the way. Awesome, eh?
George and Allison and Heidi and Anthony are all better dancers than me.
Chauncey, Melanie, and Kate grooving to the music.
James and Anthony - James's tie was a bit too long, hence it's tucked in.
Anthony, by this point, was very very tired.
Anthony and the lovely Heidi.
The West siblings minus Chauncey, who I think at this point had decided it was time to put the kids to bed.
Jamey and his mom.
The ladies at the reception. Isn't Heidi so beautiful?
The cutting of the cake. It was chocolate, which I think was a good choice.
The reception was a grand old time of dancing, cake, good food, fun people. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the evening:
James trying to show my how to dance. I'm not so very good at following. Those are cherries on my dress, by the way. Awesome, eh?
George and Allison and Heidi and Anthony are all better dancers than me.
Chauncey, Melanie, and Kate grooving to the music.
James and Anthony - James's tie was a bit too long, hence it's tucked in.
Anthony, by this point, was very very tired.
Anthony and the lovely Heidi.
The West siblings minus Chauncey, who I think at this point had decided it was time to put the kids to bed.
Jamey and his mom.
The ladies at the reception. Isn't Heidi so beautiful?
The cutting of the cake. It was chocolate, which I think was a good choice.Ok, I am sick of uploading pictures one by one! Those are the best of them, but there are more on facebook for any who are interested.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Thanksgiving
Well, I wanted to post lovely pictures of our wonderful trip to Nebraska for you all, but it seems I am having camera difficulties. I think it needs to be charged... it's tired, so it makes sense that it doesn't want to upload pictures right now, right? So, I am hoping it will be up and running soon, but in the meantime I thought it would be good to post and let you all know how we are.
Thanksgiving was massively wonderful --we even got a Thanksgiving dinner, which I did not expect. We actually made a Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday night and had wonderful Allison over, and our two awesome neighbors Maren and Duane came too. And then, after we pulled in to Nebraska Thursday evening we were offered another Thanksgiving feast by my new sister-in-law Heidi's wonderful family. Can you tell this was just wonderful? Well it was.
Anyway, so we went out to Nebraska to be there for my awesome brother in law (Anthony)'s wedding. He married a lovely girl named Heidi who I just think is great, and it was so fun to be there with them for their big day. Also it was delightful to be with (almost) the whole West clan. We talked a lot, shopped a bit, ate good food, and mostly talked a lot. Did I mention that we talked? I really think my sisters in law are just the awesomest. And I just got another one. Can my life get any better?
Our driving adventures included being lied to constantly by Karen the woman who lives inside the GPS, suicidal sagebrush throwing themselves in front of the car all the way home, a traffic jam, light snow, strong wind, and finally getting to Heber only to take a wrong turn somewhere and end up halfway to Duchesne instead of happily in Provo where we wanted to be. You gotta love it.
Anyway, I know you all just want to see pictures of the pretty dress, and the babies, and my handsome James, and me, but they are not ready yet so you will just have to wait. Suffice it to say, I had a wonderful holiday and I'm glad to be back home safe and sound at the end of it.
Thanksgiving was massively wonderful --we even got a Thanksgiving dinner, which I did not expect. We actually made a Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday night and had wonderful Allison over, and our two awesome neighbors Maren and Duane came too. And then, after we pulled in to Nebraska Thursday evening we were offered another Thanksgiving feast by my new sister-in-law Heidi's wonderful family. Can you tell this was just wonderful? Well it was.
Anyway, so we went out to Nebraska to be there for my awesome brother in law (Anthony)'s wedding. He married a lovely girl named Heidi who I just think is great, and it was so fun to be there with them for their big day. Also it was delightful to be with (almost) the whole West clan. We talked a lot, shopped a bit, ate good food, and mostly talked a lot. Did I mention that we talked? I really think my sisters in law are just the awesomest. And I just got another one. Can my life get any better?
Our driving adventures included being lied to constantly by Karen the woman who lives inside the GPS, suicidal sagebrush throwing themselves in front of the car all the way home, a traffic jam, light snow, strong wind, and finally getting to Heber only to take a wrong turn somewhere and end up halfway to Duchesne instead of happily in Provo where we wanted to be. You gotta love it.
Anyway, I know you all just want to see pictures of the pretty dress, and the babies, and my handsome James, and me, but they are not ready yet so you will just have to wait. Suffice it to say, I had a wonderful holiday and I'm glad to be back home safe and sound at the end of it.
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