"you're pregnant?! well, here's the one thing i'll tell you..."

Though other people noticing I'm pregnant and asking about my pregnancy is usually fun, there's always that comment that I just smile and nod at. Here are a few:

Awesome advice:

• Don't sleep during the night at all the week before the baby's born, only during the day
• Put your child in your bed; it's the only way she'll sleep
• Don't ever let your child sleep in your bed; you'll never get her out
• Pretend to have weird cravings even if you don't actually have them because it's the only time in your life you can get away with it
• "The only thing that prevents stretch marks is [vitamin E, cocoa butter, tons of water, massages]"

Comments about the size of my belly:

• "You're so tiny, I didn't even realize you were pregnant!"
• "I knew someone who had twins who was smaller than you."
• "You're finally really pregnant!" (from someone at church, once I started showing)

Assumptions about how I must be feeling:

• "Judging by your size, you must just be getting to that really easy part of pregnancy."
• "...of course, you're so healthy and little, that must be no problem for you." (from someone telling me they felt fat during pregnancy)
• To Sam: "Been making a lot of late-night-craving runs lately?"

Things I'm assumed to know, but really have no clue about:

• Braxton-Hicks contractions
• What happens during the whole labor process
• How and when to breast-feed
• The "first" time I felt the baby move (more like it took a couple weeks to figure out Feeling A is gas, Feeling B is baby moving)

Comments from students where I'm substitute teaching:

• "You've got a little pudge!" --7th grader
  
• "My mom just had a baby. She was huge and mad, all the time." --9th grader
• "You're six months pregnant?! When I had my baby, I was that big at four months. She's almost two now!" --10th grader
• "Are you growing a baby in your tummy?" --1st grader

"we're so in love, it's ridiculous"

This is what Sam told me after I suggested we go to Panera for dinner a few weeks ago and he said he'd been thinking the exact same thing.

Sam and I both really like to eat, but we like it even more when we're eating together. So you shouldn't be surprised that our Valentine's Day this year revolved around food. Sam showed up after work with these:



Aren't they beautiful? (I was having fun with our new camera this morning)

But he also had a baguette, gruyere, havarti, and a long thin box. I eagerly opened my present to find a cheese knife!!! I've been wanting one since we used my sister-in-law, Marcelle's, very nice one. And since cheese is Sam's favorite food (especially the melted variety) we use our not-so-great cheese slicer every day. Needless to say, we immediately broke out the raclette and enjoyed a yummy appetizer of super melty cheese on chewy, crusty bread.

Next it was my turn, and I presented Sam with a box wrapped in a red blanket topped with a few of these:


Not surprising since my favorite food is chocolate.

Inside Sam's box was a fondue pot. We'd been talking about fondue a few weeks earlier, found some recipes, and searched online for good sources of cheese in Katy. Now we can enjoy all the melty cheese and chocolate we want! The first party is already in the works.

So it's true. We are so ridiculously in love with each other that we unknowingly coordinated Valentine's Day gifts and food. Life is good.

month of loves?

Well, clearly I'm not cut out for the daily blog post. I wrote in my journal nearly every day during junior high, and I remember people seemed to be impressed by that. At the time, I didn't see why, but I certainly came to understand. Too bad junior high wasn't more interesting; I've got a very detailed record of it.

Anyway, I gave up on completing the "month of loves" posts formally, but my 3/4 of a month of loves inspired me to post more often and include more memories and thoughts in my blog. I'll try to keep up that habit.

In the mean time, here's a little update since this month of loves started. I'm just over 24 weeks pregnant. I'm feeling great most of the time with just a few achy back moments and the occasional mid-sleep leg cramp. I feel the baby move often and Sam is able to feel her now, too. We've bought a car seat, stroller, and pack n' play, so we'll be allowed to take the baby home from the hospital and we have somewhere for her to sleep. I know it's a little early to have those things, but I like not thinking about them anymore.

I've started substitute teaching. For all the hassle of dealing with students who are trying to take advantage of you, I think the flexibility is very worth it. I also appreciate that our school system lets you arrange your whole schedule online and up to 10 days in advance. No early morning phone calls for me!

Marriage has just gotten better and better and Sam and I love doing things together. We've gone on lots of walks, bike rides, and shopping trips together. Two weekends ago we went to see Lucy at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. It really was amazing to see how complete the skeleton was, and I liked learning how she related to other homonids that have been found. The exhibit also included a large section on the country of Ethiopia, where Lucy was found, and I was especially fascinated to see depth of religious history there. We finished our date with a trip to a newly opened Panera. I forgot how much I love their baguettes.

This last weekend we got to go on the youth temple trip and had an adult Valentine's Day dinner and dance. We had lots of fun talking with other couples from our ward and then dancing to all the slow songs. I'll admit it's a tiny bit awkward to step forward to dance together and having my belly reach Sam first, but that wasn't enough to keep us off the dance floor. We're celebrating our 1.5 year anniversary today, and we're glad there'll be another one in the family by the time year 2 comes around.

I don't know how to wrap this post up, so I'll just end with a picture of how we're teaching our baby, in utero, to be green.

month of loves: books

I've been making my baby registries online this week and have been thinking about what books I feel are essential to have around. Here's a starter list I came up with. I'd love to get more suggestions for great books for very young children.

Very Hungry Caterpillar (my mom has some uber-cute onesies and sleepers set aside for me with embroidered pictures from this book on them. I can't wait!)

Where the Wild Things Are

Harold and the Purple Crayon

Plenty of Dr. Seuss

Animalia (I'd never hear of it, but Sam really liked them)

Winnie the Pooh

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

Are you my mother?

month of loves: ice cream

We went to TCBY last night with a buy-one-get-one-free coupon for a regular cone. I wasn't very impressed with their flavor selection. There wasn't anything very interesting. The weirdest thing there was something called rainbow cream which looked like a mess of bright colored frozen yogurt swirled together and tasted like vanilla. Weird.

I ended up getting rocky road. It's not a flavor I get very often and I liked the almonds and chocolate chips in it. Also, a regular cone is really big, so I certainly got my ice cream fix for the day. I didn't feel so bad eating such a huge helping knowing that it has a lot less fat and calories than ice cream. Too bad it just doesn't taste as good.

In the end, I'd probably have been just as satisfied with a few spoonfuls of Haagen-Dasz.

month of loves: life with sam

The other day, I was thinking about how great Sam is (I think that pretty often, but it was especially on my mind that day). He works so hard for our family. He's patient and talented. He works hard on his callings. He makes me laugh and helps out around the house. And people always tell me how kind or funny or easy-going or talented he is. Best of all, he loves me a lot and is always considerate and gentle. So, on this day, I was trying to think of something to get to thank him or surprise him, but nothing seemed appropriate.

When he came home that day, I told him how I'd thought about him all day long and tried to think of something to get him, but couldn't, so decided just to tell him how much I appreciated him instead.

Fast forward a couple days, and Sam walked into the apartment after work with a big box in his hand. It was a new garbage can! That may not sound so great, but I didn't like our old one very much and had been wanting a new one for some time. He said he too wanted to let me know how much he appreciated me, saw the trash can in the store, remembered I wanted one, and got it for me. He's so wonderful.

And so is our new garbage can-- which, as I've already mentioned, Sam is very diligent about emptying.

month of loves: places

This one's for all you people who think about Washington or Oregon the way Texans think about Texas.

Sam and I took a long vacation after we graduated last April. We spent the first week in Ohio with my family and spent the second week with our dear friends Allison and Ben (and daughter, Adele) in Washington, and my brother David and his wife and son, Marcelle and Jonas, in Oregon. And, we loved it.

Neither of us had been to either state and we were excited to be able to go. Some of my favorite days were the ones we spent enjoying the great outdoors.

In Washington, we hiked up to Wallace Falls. It was a nice, easy hike with two or three (Sam and I can't remember) waterfalls on the way up. The day was perfect and sunny. The trees-- and everything else-- dripped with moss. The air was fresh and earthy. It was heavenly...marvelous ...soul-healing in the way that only being in unadulterated nature can be. It's the type of place I could go to every day and always leave feeling satisfied.




In Oregon, Sam and I wanted to head to the coast. We got there via a scenic drive through evergreen forests. Then we just drove along the coast, stopping at little beaches and coves whenever we wanted enjoying a delicious meal provided by Marcelle (including a homemade baguette-- mmmm!) Every time we'd round another bend, I just wanted to laugh. The beauty of it made me so happy! Just thinking about our trip has got me grinning.




So thank you again to Allison, Ben, Adele, Marcelle, Jonas, and Dave for giving up your homes and beds to us so we could enjoy your company and God's great creation.

month of loves: scripture

Zechariah 7:9

9 Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Execute true ^ajudgment, and shew ^bmercy and ^ccompassions every man to his brother:

Doctrine and Covenants 82:23

23 Leave judgment alone with me, for it is mine and I will ^arepay. Peace be with you; my blessings continue with you.

I found these scriptures when I was studying compassion in the scriptures about a year ago. It was a wonderful topic to study, especially while working in a residential treatment center. That was a job where nothing makes you more successful than kindness.

These scriptures, however, didn't immediately make me consider how I treat others. As I read them, I thought about how I judge myself. The Lord commands us to show mercy to others, to forgive everyone, and to leave judgment to Him, including when we judge ourselves.

Of course we should try to be obedient and we need to recognize when we need to repent, but the Lord doesn't want us to be critical of, degrade, or belittle ourselves anymore than he wants us to do it to someone else.

I know this isn't a new idea, but reading my thoughts about it in my journal reminded me of how much it meant to me at the time, and hopefully, it will mean something to someone else.

month of loves: art

Laocoon and his sons

Compare this to other works of the period --mostly very static-- and you can see why this piece with all its movement and emotion is so far ahead of everything else and why it was so influential for the Renaissance artists alive when it was unearthed.

And don't you love how the snake is just about to bite?

month of loves: books & people

Well, I've missed two days of my little project, so I'll do a double-header here to make it up.

My people for today are my parents. You can't really say enough about such wonderful parents, and if I tried, this post would never end, so I'll just write about how my concept of "parents" intersects with my concept of "books."

Our home is filled with books. I know a lot of people say that, but I don't think I've ever been in another house that has anywhere near the sheer volume of books that inhabits our house. Thankfully, an awful lot of reading also went on in our house so I knew the books weren't for show but because my family valued what was inside the books. I have many fond memories of stories and reading in our home.

I loved it when my dad would tell us stories. He made up stories about us children where each of us had a corresponding animal character. As animals we did things like escape from zoos, play tricks, and cheer up sick children in a hospital when the adults weren't looking. We called them Mischief and Ugg stories since those were the names of my two oldest brothers' (Michael and Doug) characters. Mine was a bird named Feather McGee.

Daddy also had great voices when he would tell or read stories to us. His voice for the troll under the bridge in The Billy Goats Gruff was terrifyingly low and growly and I'd always squeal when it came roaring up in the story. It didn't help that Daddy would tickle and bounce us through books-- reading with him was always a very physical experience. I loved how he could read Dr. Seuss so fast! I now realize that by the time child number six came along, he had read those books thousands of times, but I thought it was more because he just had an amazing talent for tongue twisters. We also had a wonderful game that went along with The Gingerbread Man which could be another post in itself, but the point is, Dad made reading and stories so much fun.

Daddy being his usual silly self










Mom after a trip to the British Library

Of course, Dad wasn't the only one who read to us. One of my favorite parts of our road trips across America from Ohio to Utah or California was reading aloud. In our old vans, you could turn the passenger-side captains chair all the way around so it faced the back. Mom would sit there and read to us, and we'd each take turns reading, too. I vividly remember sobbing into the driveway at Grandma's house as we finished up Watership Down. Even once I was a teenager, we still read together. I have a firm conviction that Harry Potter is much better read aloud and shared with family than read alone.

I also remember countless hours of my own reading to my mom. I loved the American Girl dolls-- I still do-- and they had wonderful books to go along with the dolls. I don't think I would have enjoyed the dolls nearly as much had I not read every single book written about them. I loved that I learned about history through them, and I loved that the girls were nice-- something I didn't see much of in late elementary school. For me, the best way to read the books was to sit on the floor in Mom's sewing room and read them out loud to her while she sewed. Often, she was making clothes for my dolls. Either I had chosen a dress from the catalog and Mom created a pattern for it and made it for me, or I designed the dress. But she would sew and I would read and in between, we'd talk. It was a marvelous way to bond.

Later on, in high school, when I was assigned Shakespeare to read, Mom and I would sit down together and read the plays out loud, each taking several parts. As we went along, we'd talk about the play so I could be sure I had the storyline right. I'm sure that many of the points I made in essays about the plays came from our discussions, so I can credit Mom with my good grades. And it kept Shakespeare from being scary. I ended up taking two classes on Shakespeare in college, just for the fun of it, and my brother Steve would organize Shakespeare readings on Sunday afternoons at BYU. (One of those resulted in a wedding where Steve met his own fiance, so kudos to Steve and Mr. William Shakespeare!)

As I currently ponder my future motherhood, I've thought a lot about the kind of parent I want to be. Books, stories, fun, and imagination were so central to my childhood that I can't imagine being a good parent without them. My collection of children's books is small at the moment, but I imagine it will grow as my children do. And I am great supporter of libraries.

So, here's my plug for the day: if you're one of the few people who read this, take a minute today to read! Even better, call your grandchild, niece, mom and read to them. I'd love to hear your reports!

month of loves: ice cream

This week we went to Piccomolo Italian Ice Cream i.e. gelato. Yummy yummy yummy. It's not our first trip, but I did try two different flavors this time. I went for Turtle Cheescake and German Chocolate.

Usually, I go for fruit flavors with gelato. It's so much creamier than ice cream, but has the strong flavor of a sorbet which means that you get wonderfully creamy, delicious fruit, and that is hard to come by in almost any other context. In fact, my favorite thing to get at Piccomolo is strawberry and pistachio together. It's absolutely wonderful. My sister-in-law got the raspberry this time and it was equally amazing.

So back to turtle cheesecake. It was carmel-y at first, but then you tasted the cream cheesiness and there were little bits of crust in it. Alone it was good, with the chocolate it was better, and the chocolate alone was best. It was nice and dark chocolate.

Here's the moral of this post: when you're eating gelato, get a fruit flavor. Or mix the fruit flavor with a nut or chocolate flavor. But don't go for anything else-- it's just fancy ice cream.

month of loves: life with sam

There are two chores around the house that I really don't like doing: taking out the trash, and making the bed.

And Sam happily does both without ever needing to be asked.

I love life with Sam.

month of loves: places

I waffled on this one. I wanted to talk about London, but debated whether I should just talk about London, or talk about the UK, or talk about Europe. I went for the middle, so today's post is about the UK, though I could even say England, since I've never been anywhere in the UK outside England (which I hope to rectify at some point in my life). And I'll attempt to make this simple so here goes.

I love the parks of London. Seemingly endless, beautiful, sometimes manicured, sometimes overgrown, and always peaceful.


I love the Tube, or the London Underground, as it's officially known. It's reliable, fast, efficient, and can get you close enough to walk to anywhere you want to go. I like London's bus system for the same reason, but it's not as fast, and I have many memories of riding it home on dark Sunday afternoons feeling really hungry, so maybe I just don't like it as much for all those associations. I love the whole process of getting on the Tube like I know what I'm doing. I swipe my Oyster card, sit down, open a book, "alight" when I reach my stop, never getting confused in the station of how to get out. It's such a great feeling.



I love the art you can find in London. Here are a few memories: an amazing exhibit of Pre-Raphaelite art at the Tate Britain, seeing/hearing Bach's St. Matthew's Passion at Easter and Handel's Messiah at Christmas in St. Paul's Cathedral with the Queen in attendance, the crazy and cool sculptures at the Tate Modern, Tom Stoppard's play Jumpers, watching Shakespeare at the Globe, beautiful and soul-healing music at Noontime concerts at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, the Impressionists and Dutch painters at the National Gallery, and the occasional really good busker.


I love the nature in England. You have lush green forests, nice big hills in the Lake District, and the Atlantic, as well as lots of lovely rivers running throughout the whole thing.




Finally, love the people I met there. Some were as Anglo-Saxon as they come, while others were fairly recent immigrants, but they were all kind, welcoming, and loving.





Someday I'll go back!

month of loves: scripture

Doctrine and Covenants 121: 41-45

I'm so grateful that my father used these scriptures as a guide in his life. His example taught me how I should treat others and he often referred to these verses. As such, I knew what to look for in a man that I wanted to marry. I knew how he would honor, regard, and use his priesthood. Sam has proven to be the same kind of man as my father (and as his own father, another great example of a man who honors his priesthood responsibilities).

I know that many people don't have the privilege of being surrounded in life by men who try to live their lives with gentleness, meekness, love, kindness, and knowledge, but I have. My grandfathers, father, uncles, brothers, and my husband are all men who strive to have their "bowels... full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and ... virtue garnish [their] thoughts unceasingly." What a blessing for me! I love having a priesthood holder in my home to provide blessings when I need them and to counsel with me, and to be able to do the same for our children when they come.

I'm so happy to have the gospel in my life, and I'm glad Sam and I can share and live our faith together. It makes our home a peaceful and happy one and brings us endless joy.

41 No ^apower or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the ^bpriesthood, only by ^cpersuasion, by ^dlong-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned;

42 By ^akindness, and pure ^bknowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the ^csoul without ^dhypocrisy, and without ^eguile—

43 ^aReproving betimes with ^bsharpness, when ^cmoved upon by the Holy Ghost; and then showing forth afterwards an increase of ^dlove toward him whom thou hast reproved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy;

44 That he may know that thy faithfulness is stronger than the cords of ^adeath.

45 Let thy ^abowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let ^bvirtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy ^cconfidence wax strong in the ^dpresence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the ^edews from heaven.

month of loves: art

"Procession of the Nobles" by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

I think we played this piece in my high school band and I absolutely loved it. It's so majestic and does an excellent job of creating a mental picture of nobles marching with a heck of a lot of pomp. I decided to write about this piece today after Sam reminded me of a rather ridiculous situation surrounding it.

The summer before Sam and I got married, I was working at Henkel, which owns Duck Brand duct tape. My office building housed the world's largest roll of duct tape and sponsored a Duck Tape Festival each fall. Anyway, during my lunch hour I would go sit in my car in the shade and listen to books on CD, or classical music on the local classical radio station. One week, I heard, during lunch each day, an advertisement for an Oriental rug company that was having a sale. In the background, it had this wonderful music that I knew I knew, but couldn't put my finger on the title.

The first day, I just thought about it and played it over in my head, trying to figure it out. The second day, I called Sam and sang it for him over the phone to see if he knew it, but, alas, he didn't. A few days later, when I heard the ad again, I memorized the phone number on the radio ad and called it.

Some one answered and asked how they could help me. I told them I was sorry, that I didn't have a question about rugs, but had a rather odd question about an ad I heard on WCLV. The man told me to go ahead, and I asked my question. After a few seconds of baffled silence, he said, "Let me get _____. He does all our ads."

A second man came on the phone and I explained my situation again. I heard this song on his advertisement and wanted to know what it was. He told me he was sorry, but he just wrote the ad and e-mailed it to the radio station, and they chose the background music. I thanked the man and apologized again. He said, "You really don't have a question about rugs?" No, I said, I was sorry.

So, that evening, I went home and went to the radio station's website and found some phone number I could call. I called, explained again, and someone gave me the email address of the man who chose the music for the ads. I emailed him with my request and patiently waited.

The next day, after work, I saw a reply to my email and eagerly opened it. Procession of the Nobles, he told me. He'd played it in high school, too. He was glad I liked it and agreed it was a wonderful piece. Joyfully, I went to BYU's classical library, found the piece, and played it nice and loud. My parents had been kept up-to-date on the saga and were equally as joyful that I'd finally found my missing title and could hear more than just the 30 second clip on the Pearl Rug ad. I also called Sam-- this occasion was worth using up minutes before free nights kicked in at 9 PM. He too was empathetically excited.

So there you have it. Why else would I have gone through so much, inconvenienced so many, and made myself sound like a fool so often, than if I truly loved a marvelous piece of music?

*I tried to find a place to hear the whole song online and had no luck. Here's a one minute snippet from Barnes & Noble. Just scroll down till you see the song title. If anyone has a better way of listening to the song, feel free to leave a comment.

month of loves: people

The people I love for today clinched their place in the blog today with a last minute surprise. I was certainly meaning to include them at some point, but they sealed the deal for today!

Today's people are my dear, wonderful, and talented friend Anna Jo and her equally as wonderful boyfriend Jeff. A little background: Anna Jo moved to Amherst in 7th grade and we both started running track that spring. The rest is history. We both ran throughout high school, and that kept us in close proximity as our friendship developed over books, trees, art museums, being fledgling Transcendentalists, and watching 80's movies.

But what has always impressed me about Anna Jo is her sincerity and kindness. I never heard Anna Jo criticize or gossip, which to me is an amazing feat when even the five-year-olds in primary make sarcastic jokes. I love that Anna Jo is funny and interesting without ever doing it at someone else's expense. Currently, Anna Jo is inspiring elementary school students as an art teacher and is applying for art therapy graduate programs. Between my great-grandmother, and this amazing woman, why wouldn't I name my daughter Anna?

And as for sealing the deal, today I got a note in my mailbox that said I had a package waiting for me in the office. Neither Sam nor I remembered ordering anything, so we eagerly opened the box and found this adorable lady-bug costume inside! In all the packaging, we only found a little tiny packing slip inside with Jeff's name tucked away on it. We were so surprised! I don't know Jeff as well as I'd like, but he has always proved to be extremely considerate of others. These are two amazing people with great taste in significant others and in baby costumes.

So there you have it. Two lovely people who are easy to love!

month of loves: books

So, maybe this is a little vain, but for the book topic today, I thought I'd write about the books I've made. I decided to take the bookbinding class at BYU after seeing the products of several of my friends' semesters in the class. I finally got a spot my last semester and loved it. It was so nice to have a creative outlet to help forget about all the other stresses of school and work, and I could be artistic without having to have a talent for drawing, painting, or sculpting. I certainly wasn't the most creative person in the class-- the art majors and a few other people who had a lot of time on their hands and great ideas did some incredible things with their books. But that was also what made the class so fun. I got to see other people's books and ideas and think about what I could do.

Unfortunately, that semester was a busy one and it was all I could do to get the bare minimum done. And afterwards, we moved away from BYU which had a marvelous stockroom full of bookbinding materials. So I haven't been able to fully explore all the book ideas running around in my head, but there are a lot of them! Someday I'll splurge and buy a big, heavy duty paper cutter and figure out how to sharpen the blade often, and that'll make projects much easier.

In the mean time, I thought I'd try a Japanese binding. It's a very simple binding that we never did in class; my teacher just gave us a set of instructions and said we could try it out on our own. Finally, without working, I had enough time to give it whirl. I found some great cheap paper at Archiver's ($.14 a sheet!) for the cover. I already knew I wanted to bind it with the hemp twine I've had since junior high. I bought some acid free Elmers-- a step down from the glue I like to use, but readily available. I used some cardboard that some art had been shipped in and regular printer paper. Here's the result!




The binding was technically simple but manually VERY hard because my holes were so small (I only had an awl to punch them, and not a drill which is what every instruction and website I found suggested). The knot is supposed to be hidden, but that was never going to happen with tiny holes, so I tied a bow instead. And the covers are a bit warped since I didn't check the grain of the cardboard before I made it. But for so little money and effort, I'm generally pleased with the result.

Check out past projects here: http://hmcosby.googlepages.com/home

And if you ever want to commission a book from me, I'd be pleased as punch!

month of loves: ice cream

What a great excuse to go to an ice cream shop with my wonderful husband once a week for a month! When we discovered, as we pulled into the parking lot, that neither of us had brought our wallets, we briefly considered just going home, but Sam reminded me, "It's for the blog."

We went to Baskin-Robbins tonight. I counted to make sure there really were at least 31 varieties offered, just because I was curious. The three flavors I tested, in order of deliciousness (least to most) were Strawberry Cheesecake, Love Potion #31, and SuperFudge Truffle (the last two were the flavors of the month).

The SuperFudge Truffle was indeed super, fudge-y, and packed with truffles. Here's the description from the B-R website: "Chocolate Fudge ice cream is combined with chunks of chocolate ganache and toffee truffle pieces." As a chocolate lover, this ice cream is a dream come true. But it's not the flavor I ended up getting because I promised myself I wasn't going to buy an ice cream with a chocolate base during the course of this escapade (we'll see if that actually happens).

So, I went with my second choice in deliciousness, which wasn't a poor substitute by any means. Here's the description: "Cupid’s White Chocolate and Raspberry ice creams swirled with a raspberry ribbon and loaded with raspberry-filled chocolate hearts and chocolate chips." My test of this flavor convinced me immediately that it would be the flavor I bought because it was so different from usual ice cream flavors.

The first thing I noticed was the raspberry "ribbon" --so tart and flavorful. It was wonderful to have bursts of pure raspberry flavor throughout the cone. Raspberry puree was the second ingredient after cream, so I know it was the real thing. I liked the base ice cream because it was a white chocolate rather than vanilla, so the raspberry wasn't competing against anything else for the main flavor in your mouth. And thankfully, those chocolate chips were nice and dark, so they too set off the tartness, and, well, I think chocolate added to most any ice cream enhances rather than detracts from its awesomeness. Finally, it truly was loaded with those chocolate hearts. They reminded of those chocolate-covered raspberry sticks except with liquid. And the heart shape was extremely cute.

All in all, this was one of my more delightful forays into non-traditional ice cream flavors, and I highly recommend going and getting a kid scoop of your own (it was so rich, that was the perfect size). You may just find me there enjoying a scoop of SuperFudge Truffle.

month of loves: life with sam

Sam suggested this topic. He had made me laugh yet again and said, "You should write a blog about 'weird things Sam does around 9 pm.'" I agreed, but have decided to include things he does at other times of the day, too. Here's my love of the day.

Whenever I'm reading on our bed, he *almost* always enters the bed creatively. I stress "almost" because between that and the fact that I read on the couch more often than the bed, it leaves the element of surprise in the action, and still makes me laugh. Anyway, here are a few of the ways Sam comes to ask how my book is.

-- Otter Slide: a leap and dive from the foot of the bed to the head
-- Belly Flop: a flying leap, landing almost spread eagle
-- Slow Scoot: a regular climbing on to bed, but not stopping until he is uncomfortably nestled next to/ on top of me
-- The Lean: Sam stands next to my side of the bed and leans over until his head and body are between my face and my book

Needless to say, no matter how much I'm enjoying my book on a Saturday morning, I always enjoy the interruption of it more.

month of loves: places

I like this idea of choosing my own topics. Then it's totally up to me how specific or general I want to be. Today's place, Huntington Beach, CA, is fairly small compared to a few others I have in mind.

My grandparents live in Huntington Beach so all my memories there involve that special "you-can-have-anything-you-want" luxury that only goes from grandparent to grandchild. I love Huntington Beach because no matter what time of year I go there, the weather always seems to be exactly the same, just a little warmer or cooler. But there's always moist, salty air, sunshine, and cool breezes.

I also love Huntington Beach because I get to play in the ocean. I've played on both sides of the Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico, and in the Caribbean, and though they may have been warmer or clearer, none provided as much non-stop wave entertainment as the Pacific. As a kid, I loved watching the surf roll out and seeing all the sand crabs burrow while the little sand piper birds would run back and forth trying to eat them. Once I got big enough to feel comfortable heading out farther, I learned how to boogie board and body surf. There is nothing like feeling you are always on the edge of a disastrous crash, and my best rides were always just ahead of a falling wave. I especially love body surfing when you catch a wave with your hands and feel your whole body being raced through the water.

I love just being on the beach. I love the feel of the sun on your back while you sit on hot sand. I love the incessant sound of the waves. I love the occasional dolphin sighting and watching the surfers. I love eating corn on the cob cooked in salty ocean water over a cracking fire. I love the sun setting over the waves and seeing to the very edge of the world.

Mmmm. I like thinking about the warm beach on this cold winter day. I can't wait to go back!