Tag - You're It!

Ok, so I've been tagged...a couple of times. When it first happened I thought, "How fun! I'll do it later." Now it's happened again and I like the version where you write about certain things - I don't think I could come up with 6 or 7 things that you don't already know about me or that I could even think to write about. So here it goes...

Jobs I have had:

1. "The Can Man" - 6th grade. Yes, my mom made an aluminum can costume for me to wear to go into elementary school classrooms and encourage the kids to bring canned food in for donations. No one knew it was me until someone in my class asked me to give them a thumbs up - they noticed my thumb bent back unusually far - same as "The Can Man"! (It probably didn't help that I always left class when "The Can Man" showed up.) The costume was quite ingenious. Silver, shimmery fabric was draped around two hula-hoops with a piece of cardboard for the top. I could see out, but no one could see in. My mom always got me roped into things like that - look out Emery! It will probably happen to you too!

2. To list the less exciting: Dairy Queen, Smoothie Shop, Hoffman Cleaners, Tanner Clinic, Western Watts Research, Colonial House RA, Dentist office reception, Substitute Teacher, Cleaning lady, Department of Mechanical Engineering Secretary, Missionary, 4th Grade Teacher and most recently and most loved, MOM!

Jobs I'd like to have someday:

1. I already got/get to do my two favorite - Teaching and being a Mom
2. I have a secret desire to be a waitress...

Movies I've watched over and over:

1. Lord of the Rings (Kevin and I watch it every year - we're actually in the middle of the series right now.)
2. That Thing You Do
3. Elmo's World - Babies, Dogs and More
4. Disney's Sing-a-long

Some favorite books as of late:

1. Twilight series
2. Because of Winn Dixie
3. Your Pregnancy Week by Week

Favorite things to do:

1. Be with Kevin
2. Tickle Emery
3. Read with Emery
4. Sleep
5. Talk to friends and family
6. Craft

Places I've lived:

1. Provo, UT
2. Boise, ID
3. Rexburg, ID
4. South Weber, UT
5. West Jordan, UT
6. Los Alamos, NM
7. Northern, CA
8. There are others - I was too young to remember them...

Favorite things to eat:

1. Depends how I feel these days, but we had some awesome chicken salad sandwiches last night
2. Usually I'm down for anything greasy - pizza or fries...hmmm, I think I'm hungry!

Places I'd rater be:

1. Disneyland

Words I like the sound of:

1. Facetious
2. Plethora

Who I'm tagging:
I'll do the favor of not making anyone who doesn't want to do it, do it. If you're dying to be tagged - let this be your invitation! It is pretty fun, and introspective!

Breadsticks

Just wanted to share this fantastic breadstick recipe - I make it almost every week!

Breadsticks

1 TB yeast

1 1/2 C warm water

2 TB sugar

1/2 tsp salt

3 1/2 - 4 C flour

Combine yeast and warm water. Mix in sugar, salt and 3 cups of flour. Mix on medium speed for 2 minutes. Add enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. Knead for 3 minutes. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes. Place dough on greased cookie sheet and press to outer edges. Top with spread:

1/4 C margarine (softened)

1/4 C mayonnaise

1/4 C Parmesan cheese

parsley and garlic salt if desired

Cut down the middle and across - let rise till double.

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes

Yield - about 24 big breadsticks

Reading

Emery is getting more and more independent and demanding. She comes to me and tries to push me where she wants me to go. Often it's to the fridge or the pantry, but a lot of times she wants me to read her a book! I usually give in:) And so does Kevin.

Here I caught her reading the Great Apostasy...good luck with that one Em!

I was doing dishes and heard Kevin reading to her in her bedroom - so cute!

Emery's New Shirt

(Click on this one to see bigger if you can't read her shirt)

It's true! We're expecting again!
Emery's starting to practice!
"What are they going to do with another one of me!?"

We're all really excited!. We saw the doctor for the first time yesterday - everything's on track for a June baby. Hopefuly we'll be settled in a new house by then...could be down to the wire!

Halloween

Our ward didn't end up planning a Halloween party so we thought we'd hold our own at our apartment - not a ward party, we just invited a few friends. We had chili and corn bread and home-made root beer. It was really fun and we thought it was a great success. I was so pre-occupied with serving that I didn't take any pictures! The one here with all of us my friend Shannon took for me! I really have gotten better at taking pictures for important things, but I still need help! Here are some pictures of Emery from the Halloween party Grandma and Grandpa Lundgreen hosted. She had so much fun running around with her cousins and I think every one's costume turned out great! She really didn't like her costume very much - it helped that she was distracted with so many people. She screamed every time I put it on and the hat really didn't last very long. When we took her Trick-or-Treating around the ward she would help knock on the door and when the door opened, she'd just walk right in! It was kind of embarrassing - I think she probably thought it was her house because all the apartments look the same. :)

Emery finally did something very mischievous! We're so proud! And so is she!

Better

Thankfully, Emery is doing much better now. It was so sad to have her sick - it reminded me of a time on my mission when my companion was really sick and we had to stay in for the day. I realized I was depressed and wondered why, then Sister Johnson came out and smiled...that made all the difference! It's hard to not see people smile. It took a while for Emery to get back to normal, but she is! Hooray! Here she is getting into the pantry - finally wanting to eat something!

This is Emery and her cousin Will. He is 4 months younger than she and is starting to learn how to walk. Here he is pushing her around on her car - good walking practice!

Saturday BYU played Eastern Washington and Kevin and I went to the game. We started walking home when it started snowing - it was so cold and wet! When we got back, we turned the TV on to finish watching the game and the field was completely white! What will we do next for our team!?

The Flu Shot

So, yes, Emery being sick merits another post. I wouldn't usually write in detail about a "run-of-the-mill" dose of the flu or cold, but this one seems a little weird. Friday afternoon Emery had her 15 month well-baby check-up with a new doctor (our insurance changed). Doctor Farnsworth declared her very healthy (head circumference gladly under 90% this time) and suggested we get her a flu shot. A few minutes later a nurse arrived with the shot and told us because it's the first flu shot she's had she needs to return for another one in a month. I thought, "Well that's going to be rough, but o.k." We left the doctor's office and 24 hours later Emery was sick with a 102.8 degree temperature and was throwing up. The fever at that temp lasted for longer than 24 hours so we called the doctor and went in again. They said, "The fever's a little high for just being from the flu shot, so it could be something else." But, of course they didn't give us anything and told us to wait 3 days and call again if she was still sick. She's still sick, (temperature about a 100) but at least she's eaten a little and slept all day. I guess it's just a bad case of the flu...what the flue shot was supposed to prevent...I don't think I'll go back for that other one.

Have any of you had similar experiences with the Flu shot?

Arrived

So the Lundgreen family has arrived. I enjoy reading and watching so many friends and family blogs, I finally decided to start ours. I thought that because we still live by family that I wouldn't need to do a blog, but so many of our friends have moved away, that I thought we were justified.

There are many times in my seemingly endless day of diapers, bottles and laundry that I find a piece of humor or frustration that I want to share...

For example, today we had to do a load of laundry (Monday's not the usually laundry day) because Emery was sick with the flu all weekend. Thankfully, Kevin didn't have to go to school too early this morning, so he took the load down for me. (For those of you who don't know, we don't have our own washer and dryer. Thank goodness the laundromat is only 15 yards away!) Anyway, I quietly stepped out while Emery was asleep on the couch to switch the laundry to the dryer. At the next chance I could, about 2 hours later, I went down to get the load from the dryer...as I stepped in the door, I noticed a roller laundry cart full of strangely familiar clothing. Ooooo! I hate it when people touch my laundry! And it wasn't even dry! I noticed the dryer I had left my clothes in was full of fluffy, dry looking clothing. I hadn't brought my money with me to put them in again and I didn't want to go through the process of coming to get it again later. What's so ironic is that last week when I was doing my laundry, there were not enough dryers on the bottom bank of dryers to put all my loads in the bottom (the problem with the top is that Kevin or I are not very tall...we often miss socks, onesees, etc. because we simply cannot see into the bottom of the dryer) so I debated for half a second whether I should remove another persons clean laundry and set it aside so that I could use the bottom dryer. I decided "I hate it when people touch my laundry" hoping that later my consideration would pay off...guess not. I understand it is also frustrating when laundry is left far too long, taking up space in the laundry, but what you don't know is that maybe, just maybe, that persons laundry is still there because their 15 month old won't let them leave the apartment without them. Imagine the difficulty of carrying a load of laundry and a toddler 15 yards and up a large set of stairs... So now our load of laundry is drying all over the house, including the master bed.

Anyway, that turned out longer than I thought. If any of you can relate, hopefully it made you laugh and made you grateful that you don't have to use a laudromat anymore. Hopefully, most of you don't. I look forward to reading more of your posts and I hope mine are not too boring or "everyday"!