Happy Halloween!

Our dryer sadly stopped working this morning. It was given to us for free, and we were very grateful for it, but it's dead now. So, I brought all my laundry to my mom's house today.

And it smelled so good when I came in! My mom made Halloween cupcakes and let me frost and sprinkle them. How festive I felt today!

Here's some eye candy for you.

Baby Wilson: Coming April 2010

OK, here it goes: We are expecting a baby!! Due to my crazy sisters, I think the whole world may already know, but I thought I'd better make the official announcement anyway.

I had my second doctor's appointment today, and was able to hear the fetus'/unborn child's/baby's ( I highly prefer to call it "baby;" that sounds the least alien-like) heart beat! I can't believe how excited it made me feel to hear the heart beat! It had 150 beats per minute, which the nurse said is normal.

Ben and I are very happy and grateful for the experience we have had so far! I have to admit, though, that sometimes I get so nervous!! I worry about EVERYTHING and then some. I really am my grandma Stapley's granddaughter. (When she was growing up, she was known by all her friends as "Nervous Norma.")

Ben has his suspicions about the gender, and I refuse to say anything about it. We find that out in a month!

No more tonsil talk, please

I had to post something so that the nasty "tonsil" entry would not show up at the top of my blog anymore.

Ben has really gotten to know the LDS Conference Center grounds in Salt Lake City very well as he has been working there this summer. His grounds crew started putting up the famous Temple Square Christmas lights in August, and recently got to start using lifts to put up the lights in the tall trees.


It's a different point of view from 40 feet up in the lifts, he says. Here is a picture he snapped while in a lift:

He's seen some real characters while working downtown, too. Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve frequently walks from his apartment north of the Conference Center to attend his meetings at the Temple. One time, he had to help Ben's crew, as they got locked outside of the building. Of course, Elder Perry's keys can open pretty much all the doors around there.

Then there was the "mentally challenged" man who stood on the corner of Temple Square wearing the sacred Temple clothing, that church members are urged not to display in public. He just stood there; he didn't say anything or try to start any fights. Apparently, according to a Temple Square security guard, during this time, he was not taking his medication. He finally started taking it again, and has not been seen on the corner since.

It's been quite the job for Ben.

I have a diseased what??

For the past month and a half, I've been telling myself, "I don't have anything to blog about," and have therefore not been blogging, but wondering how everyone else has so much to write in thier blogs.

I figured out that I'm just lazy and don't want to use my brain. So, I've been thinking (gasp!), and have come to the realization that things have actually been happening since my last post!

Like little white patches growing on my tonsils. And they are nastier than you can imagine. Let me start at the beginning. Well, that would probably be my birth, but I'm going to fast-forward a bit.

A couple years ago, I started randomly breaking out with a small white patch on my left tonsil. It didn't hurt or even bother me. I only noticed it because when I would brush my teeth, the back of my tongue would rub against it. Of course I freaked out, and called the doctor and talked to a nurse about it. She said it's fine, that some people just have things like that happen to them, and to gargle with salt water a couple times a day. I also saw a throat specialist about it, and he called it a "Mucas retention cyst," and that's about it. Whatever.

So, every now and then, I would get a little white patch on my tonsil, and after a day or two it would disappear. It was really no big deal.

Until a couple of weeks ago. The white patch came back on my left tonsil, but this time it was accompanied with many many bigger white patches. On both of my tonsils. Both tonsils were almost completely covered with white patches, and they were swollen. My tongue constantly rubbed against them. And the worst part was, they gave me a GROSS NASTY YUCKY taste in my mouth every time I swallowed. Eww ewww ewww ewww ewww. And my breath smelled terrible too. (Poor Ben.) It made me lose my appetite. I didn't know what to do, so I just gargled with salt water, chewed a lot of gum and waited. After about 5 days, they started clearing up, and I was so relieved.

Until about four weeks after that. The patches came back!! But not quite as bad. I know this is disgusting, but it's quite therapuedic writing about it. There was one very circular patch on my right tonsil. The nasty taste was there. So I went to bed the night the patches came back, and I felt something wierd going on in my throat. I knew exactly what it was. The circular patch was dislodging itself from my tonsil. This has happened before, and I have always swallowed them as they fell off and then always totally freaked out because I swallowed them.

But this time, I stuck my hand in my mouth, and grabbed the circular patch before I could swallow it!! I pulled it out, and immediately wished I wouldn't have. It was about the size of a small tooth, and it had the strongest, grossest-infected smell I've ever smelt. (That explains the nasty taste and bad breath.) I went and put it down the drain and continued to have a nervous breakdown.

After that little incident, I decided to go see the doctor. He took one look at my throat and said, "You have chronic tonsilitis. Your tonsils are diseased." Eww.

And the cure? The only way to fix this is to have my tonsils removed. OK, no big deal. Until I walk out of the doctor's office and scream, "Aaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!" I don't want to do it! I'm a scaredy cat!

But I've got to face that facts. It's got to be better than living with two diseased organs in the back of my throat, right?

"Footloose" at Tuacahn is hot, steamy fun

But not hot and steamy in that way. Tuacahn Amphitheatre is in St. George, where it was over 100 degrees on Tuesday when I had a little break from the merciless job hunt, and went to see "Footloose" with my sisters, Stapley grandparents, and cousin Sarah.

You could almost see the shivery lines of steam coming off of people's bodies down there. Even after dark, when the play takes place, there is no easing of the temperature. The only thing the dark brings at Tuacahn are the bats! They live in the red rock cliffs that make up the awesome amphitheatre.

I have always wanted to go to a play at Tuacahn, and this was my first time! And I think I lucked out on the play I got to see! Footloose is full of dancing, singing, hicks and one misfit city boy.

But the best part was that I got to take a road trip with my sisters and spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa Stapley in Summit, Utah! Oh, and I guess I also got to know Phineus, (however you spell it) the kind of creepy sock monkey that my sisters are obsessed with.


In St. George, just outside of the Pizza Factory, by the Life is Good store.

I had no idea the play would be as awesome as it was! The characters came out on stage dancing, singing, and full of energy -- you immediately start bouncing in your chair and clapping your hands.

Here we are: Ariel/Emily and Ren/Maddie.

So, we all fell in love with Ren, because he was played by Thayne Jasperson, who appeared on "So You Think You Can Dance." And, boy, could he dance! And sing, too! My favorite song was "Almost Paradise" sung by Ren and Ariel.

And after the show, we got to meet the actors! My sisters were gushing over Ren, so I told them they needed to say something to him that he would remember. I told Natalie to say "You TOTALLY kicked Kevin Bacon's butt" to him and she did! He kind of blushed, laughed out loud and said, "Thanks." It was definitely a shocker for him to hear that!

Here's Natalie (and, of course, the monkey that smells like chlorine) meeting the heartthrob!

Oh my goodness!!! He put his arms around Natalie and Lauren!! Sorry, Emily, you got cut out of this picture!

It's OK, though, because here you are front and center!

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa! This was SO much fun and a wonderfully distracting little break!

No work, no home, no other things = uuuuuugggggghhhhhh

I had a really great job, for the most part. Earlier this summer, I was offered a job that related to what I studied in college, paid well, had benefits, and was in a great work environment with nice people to work with. The work was challenging, and I was handling the training very well. Everything was perfect, and things were looking like we were going to be able to move out of the in-laws’ house and be on our own again.

There was just one little thing. Actually, it ended up being a big thing that I hated. I was scheduled to work Saturday through Wednesday 4 p.m to 1 a.m. That meant working the weekends into the wee hours of the night. At first I thought, OK, that’s not exactly what I would prefer, but there was no way to change the schedule. I asked. So, I thought again, It will be fine. I’ll just need to get used to working the swing shift.

After the first shift, something became apparent. “How come I haven’t seen Ben for a while? I don’t like that,” I said. Oh, gee. Ben leaves for work at 6:30 in the morning and comes home at 4:30 in the afternoon. I’m at work by 4, and come home at 2 a.m., to find Ben fast asleep so he can be up early. And when he gets up to leave for work, I’m unconscious, because I just went to bed three hours ago. Whew. Can’t wait for the weekend. Wait, I have to work on the weekend. I’ll see Ben for half the day on Saturday and Sunday, though. That’s good. And when my “weekend” comes on Thursday and Friday, I’ll see Ben for half the day then, also. We will just never have a full day together.

Crap. By the third and fourth shifts, after crossing through the dark alley way in the city to the empty dark parking garage after work, I cried the entire drive home. Good thing there aren’t people on the road at 1:30 in the morning, because I couldn’t see a thing through my blurry eyes.

This was not going to work. So, I quit. Even though Ben only has a temporary job. Even though we would have been able to buy our own house with me working that job. Even though it was a great opportunity for me to work in a related field to what I studied and worked hard for in college. Even though in this economy, I was extremely lucky and blessed to have even been offered a job. Even though we would have felt a lot more comfortable with starting our family with me working that job.

It felt wrong for both of us. I have never felt so stressed out in my whole life. I wasn’t sleeping, and, according to Ben, I wasn’t smiling. It was so hard to quit, but relieving at the same time. It hacks away at me everyday. I had a job, and gave it away. I know it was the right thing to do, but every day I go through the same thought process: “I’m a baby. I’m a wimp. I can’t handle hard things, can I? I’m lazy. I’m a loser. I’m not doing anything to help our situation.” And Ben kindly reassures me every time. But I always relapse.

So now I’m back to the job search. At first I was good, spending hours every day researching, filling out applications, writing cover letters, sending out resumes. But after a couple weeks of that, you start seeing the same things over and over again. And it gets a little old. And I let myself get distracted a lot more, with things like writing ridiculously long blog posts.

Surprisingly, though, it has been very relieving to put all this crap down on paper. (Or the computer screen.)

I’ve just got to force myself to keep plugging along, force myself not to become a total couch potato, force myself to stay positive. Force myself to not be such a wimp. If I can at least do that, I think I’ll be doing some good. Hopefully!

"Utahn's hearing disability no handicap"

Matt Huff, who I went to high school with, is going to compete in the Deaflympics in Taipei, Taiwan, next month as the men's water polo goalie!

I had the opportunity to interview him and write an article that appeared in the Deseret News yesterday. It can also be found online at mormontimes.com.

Good luck Matt!