Heard at our home this morning

Mom: Solace, why are you going crazy?
Solace: Because I like the experience of crazy.

Thoughts from a former dater...Freshman year of college examined...

So, as mentioned in the last blog I just posted, my friend Laura wrote about her embarrassing moments this week. One of her embarrassing moments was about a blind date, and it got me thinking of the blunders of my dating life. There were a number of funny dating stories that came to mind. I just thought I would share a few for those of you that might be interested (this might be one of those long blogs...)



First I would like to just start out by explaining that my dating philosophy was simple: Date a LOT! And I shamelessly flirted and schemed to get asked out a lot. Most of my dating life, from when I turned 16 until I married Wes was spent dating a LOT-at least 2 dates a week I would say-no joke. SO, this basically just means that I have a plethora of dating stories to pull from. Those of you that are reading this that were in my Young Women's group on Omaha are already aware of the extensive pool of dating stories I have as you heard about a different one each and every dating lesson...That being said, enjoy some of my favorite dating blunders & funny stories. And those of you that I dated, or that double dated with me, or that know any other stories, feel free to mention them in comment form (I know this is opening a can of worms for Heidi, Andrea, Kirsten, and probably many others, but oh well).



Blunder 1: Not recognizing excellence?!



As a freshman in college, I was clueless sometimes. I was a small fish in a big pond. Nonetheless, my crazy tactics seemed to get me attention. I was taking a lot of generals that year and had huge classes with people from lots of different majors! In one history class, I sat down one day and this huge tall guy sat right next to me (no one sits right next to someone they don't know in a huge lecture hall). I kinda looked at him funny, and moved over a seat. He followed me and said in a thickly accented voice, "Hi!" Again I looked at him funny and said in my most annoyed voice "Um...hi." and moved over again. Again he moved over and said, "I play basketball." I looked at him and said, "That is a sad line! Does that seriously work?" Then I stood up and walked to the next row. He again followed and said "Really I play basketball! It's not a line. DO you like basketball?" At this point I was dumbfounded at this guys persistence in trying to use this retarded, obvious line on me and I kinds lit into him about how bad that line was and how he was going to have to try it on dumber girls to get it to work, then I told him I was going to be moving and that he should not follow me. He looked shocked and dumbfounded as I left. The next time we had class the teacher had the guy come up so he could congratulate him on the great job he had done over the weekend in helping the Utes win the big game. Turns out the guy was Hanno Möttölä ( a huge star that year, google him if you wonder who he is!). This is particularly mortifying if you know what a HUGE Utes fan I am , and if you know that I actually attended and was a fan of the basketball team. Whoops...



Blunder 2: Yet another Freshman moment...



SO, after the Hanno Möttölä incident, I took a LOT of harassment from my dad (if you know my dad, you can imagine...). Later in the basketball season, the Utes made it to the Final Four, and I got ticket to the games. My dad and I went to San Antonio to watch out Utes play, and had a blast. We were total nerd super fans and even went to the team hotel and hung out and went to the parties with the team and all that crazy fan stuff. We immersed ourselves in Utah Final Four madness and loved every minute. Fast forward about a week to me being back on campus. I was walking from a theatre class to my car. As I walked past the bookstore, I noticed this guy come out and he looked at me and I noticed he started following me in the parking lot. This freaked me out a bit as I was sure this was not someone I knew. About halfway across the parking lot, this guy kinda catches up with me and was like"Hey-didn't I see you in San Antonio?" I said snottily, "Um...no, I don't think so." He said, "I was sure I saw you there. Weren't you in San Antonio?" I said basically blew him off at that point. Then a friend of mine caught up with me and said "Wow, I had no idea you were friends with Andre Miller! That is awesome!" Yeah, Turns out that guy was, in fact, Andre Miller (THE superstar of the basketball team that year). Google him-he's still pretty famous...

Blunder 3: Missing the REAL Excellence

This is a true story! I have decided my life, in particular the story of me and Wes is a big romantic comedy of errors. It is one of those ones where the boy and girl keep almost meeting over and over until the end when they FINALLY bump into each other and eventually things work out ant they live happily ever after. Just a few near misses from our lives...

Miss one...Wes and I both lived in the University of Utah Village as small children, though we never crossed paths somehow. In my movie visions, I see us as toddlers, barely missing each other on the playground, I see his mom calling him in for lunch right as I walk out my door to play and things like that-I see me going to the same church house, but I am leaving as he is arriving...things like that.

Miss two...and this is the big one, Wes and I were in the SAME institute choir freshman year of college and never knew it. (Does anyone else notice that this blog makes me look like freshman year was a total bomb for dating?! No offense to Tim, Kevin, or anyone else I might have dated that year...) We went to practice at noon everyday together, hung out at the institute and performed together and NEVER noticed one another. I seriously did not believe Wes when he told me he was in choir with me, I thought i knew everyone. So, I pulled out my choir contact book, and sure enough, there he was...And another crazy part of that story was that at the end of the year, people did "last will and testaments" to leave to each other-usually funny little inside jokes and stuff. No joke, Wes and I are mentioned in the same sentence, our names right next to each other for dying our hair goofy colors that year...Evidently we had all the same friends and everything...NUTS!!

Miss three...meeting and not realizing the cosmic connection...OK, well, maybe we did notice the attraction, but it took us both a few months and a relationship each between meeting officially and our first date. I guess we just were distracted by other people momentarily, but thank goodness we fixed that!!

SO, this blog took a total turn, and ended up not getting in as many of my blunder of dating as I expected. It also only covers a small portion of my Freshman year and ignores all my other years of dating completely. It is also too long, so that being said, I will have to save this dating storied for a later segment. Feel free to comment and if there are anymore particular stories you feel should be aired on my blog in my next dating segment, feel free to comment and let me know...seriously, I could write a book about my dating life-it was fun, and crazy, and insane...

Embarrassment...

OK, so my friend Laura posted a tag about her most embarrassing moment and after you read it, you are supposed to comment on it then you are it (meaning you have to post your most embarrassing moment too)! This was a very interesting thought to me. I have, in fact been avoiding reading the whole post until this morning as I have been reflecting on what I might write as my most embarrassing moment...I have all these stories I tell about slightly embarrassing moments in my life when people ask, but let's be honest, the REALLY embarrassing stories are not ones I like to repeat-even years later...

That being said, this is probably my actual most embarrassing story that I rarely tell...I don't know why it embarrassed me so much, but it did, and I can still feel my cheeks filling with blood and getting red as I begin to type this...silly!!

OK-when I was a teenager, I got a ticket for an accident I had. In order to get it off my record and avoid a huge jump in my insurance (which my parents paid at the time), my dad used his great skills as a lawyer to make a deal. SO, instead of the ticket on my record, I did as many deal-making Americans before me had done, and I went to traffic school. This consisted of all day on a Saturday in a room in the courthouse with guards & security everywhere, and with other bored, uninterested law-breakers and a very boring teacher. It was like a day of prison...

There were crazy rules of the day to be sure you satisfied all of the required hours, nay minutes of traffic school-one such rule was that you couldn't leave the room for any reason except at designated breaks. This is never a good thing for me as I have had bladder problems since I was a small child. Needless to say, minutes into our morning, I had to pee like crazy, and could not leave the room until our first designated break hours later. I sat there as I should holding it for hours, and as the break was coming up, I was on the brink of a serious problem, so seconds before the teacher officially let the class go, I bolted for the door, convinced the guard to let me out just a second early, and bolted for the bathroom. I rushed into the bathroom and into the stall, and happily made it! Yeah!!!

I was so happy about the whole thing I literally let out a loud audible sign of relief in the stall (I may even have mumbled a "Nice..." under my breath). Then I opened the door of the stall to a FULL room of men standing with their backs to me (thank goodness) at urinals, all of them were of course looking over their shoulders at me with shock and laughter. It was mortifying, and I wished I had been graceful or funny and said something like "sorry, the ladies room had a line" but instead, I turned bright red, ran into my prison and hid in the back of the room. First thing back in class the teacher called me up to demonstrate something and no joke every man in the room started to laugh hysterically...

So, there you go. My embarrassing moment! Now that you read it, feel free to comment and them you can consider yourself tagged to post your most embarrassing moment as well!

Interesting...

So, I just took this quiz that I stole off Heidi's blog, and found that evidently I am Pocahantas...Interesting since she might be my least favorite of them all, and I don't really see the similarities, but oh well...at least the written part of their analysis as to why I match Pocahantas is pretty good...

You Are Pocahantas!

Free-spirited and wise. You have a strong passionate spirit that touches and changes all who know you. The wisdom and common sense that you have is really what guides you through life. Even so, you also have a very playful side that loves adventure and excitement.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

Especially for Kris (Hope you like pictures!!)

For his birthday, Ender got a kids digital camera. He and his siblings have had a hay day with it!! They have literally taken hundreds of pictures. Some are of stuff around our house-25 are of the carpet, but here are some of their favorites:

XiaXia visiting. Spence & XiaXia
Solace chilling
Army's funny face.
Ender in one of his birthday outfits!
Army in his beloved new "Jorj" outfit.
Solace laughing at mom's big ol' belly...
Army is angry-what's with the bottle top?! Seriously!!!
Dad showing off Solace's design for her egg dropping experiment.

This is the egg in the inner part of the protection.

Solace and her tower.
Ender's favorite (artistic) self portrait.
Army again-he is a favorite picture subject.
Grandma (see we have had a lot of visitors!!)

Aunt Angie with hard boiled egg for breakfast.

Army happy at breakfast (let's face it-he's happy at all meals).
Ender fakes grumpiness...
Solace eats breakfast.
Ender's homework assignment (all the things around his face represent his favorite things).

Angie

Angie, Army & Solace
Angie and Solace
Mom is silly!
Mom's BIG belly.

Ender's talk (non-video format)

Here is Ender's talk from Church. He gave it in Primary on the 20th. My mom helped him as I was stuck at home and Wes was stuck at work. He showed the pictures and read the words (with XiaXia's help). I will put the words above each pictures...(Oh-his talk was supposed to be along the theme "I will Follow the Prophet", and he wanted to talk about his Aunt Cathy, so this is what we came up with.):

In general conference this month, we sustained a new Prophet, President Thomas Spencer Monson. I know he is a true prophet and that we should listen to his words.

In the last Conference President Monson told a story about a boy he knew that had died and what he had told the boys mother. Then he bore his testimony and said:"I expressed to Mrs. Patton my personal testimony as a special witness, telling her that God our Father was mindful of her—that through sincere prayer she could communicate with Him; that He too had a Son who died, and one day we would see Him face-to-face."This is my great aunt Cathy.


My Aunt Cathy died a couple of weeks ago. We were very sad.
I remembered what President Monson had said and I know we will get to see Cathy again
I know we have a living prophet and that we should listen to his words. I am grateful for him.

One more thing to do before I die

Wes and I will be buying an island sometime before we die...likely in the Philippines. I will post a link to some like the ones we are looking into very soon...

Baby update

Well, It's looking good for Solace and Heidi to win...induction is still set for May 13th (15 days)!!!! I am so glad to have an end in sight. I also do not have to be so strict on my bed rest anymore since I am officially over 36 weeks now. But obviously it is better to go as long as possible, so I will still be trying to take it pretty easy until the induction on the 13th! I spent only one (partial) morning dealing with my kids and man, I cannot wait for Kris to come on Saturday! Thank goodness for all my great family!

Ender's first Primary talk

This is Ender's first Primary talk. It is hard to hear over the screaming child and the broken microphone, so I will post the actual talk later!

Baby J #4

No, she doesn't have a name yet...

This morning I am going in for an exam and appointment as soon as I get the kids to school and Angie to the airport. At this appointment they are going to make sure I am "favorable for induction." And if I am too far dilated, they will send me in to have a baby today we think. But the plan for now is to be induced on May 13th.

BTW-for those that might be thinking that I picked that day so my kid would have a 13th birthday like me, you are mistaken (although I do think it is super awesome...). The reason it is the 13th is that he wanted to do it 2 weeks before the official due date, and he said that many of his partners would not be willing to induce me that early so we had to schedule it the day that week when he was the one on call that would be doing it, and that happens to be the 13th...

So, unless I go sooner than that naturally, looks like baby is coming on May 13th...which according to the guesses on the side of my blog taken long ago in this pregnancy, means that Solace and Heidi (Seabury) Jacobs will have the winning guess...Nice work Solace! (If I go earlier Ender is still in the running as he has mentioned a few times...)

To Do...

If you ever read this blog, you know that my aunt Cathy passed away last week. You probably don't know that my sister Andrea rewrote the words to Tim McGraw's song "Live Like You Were Dying" to apply to Cathy. Cathy really did a lot of thing she wanted to do after she found out about the cancer. That being said, around the same time Cathy died, my friend, Laura posted on her blog 100 things she wants to do before she dies. I thought her list was awesome, and started to think what my list would include. I also thought of all the things that would have been on that list had I written it 15 years ago that would not be in it now (as I have either accomplished them or decided to move on past them). So, here are a couple lists for you to check out if you so desire. One is the things that would have been on the list 15 years ago, and the other is my 100 things I would like to do before I die. Some of the things are really specific, some more general, and not all realistic, but all things that appeal to me as something I would like to do if I could.


Things that would have been included on 15-yr-old Beckee's list (& how I did on them)


1. Date, and Date a lot (done and done)
2. Get Driver's Licence & get a car (Done & Done-though I would not have added this, I probably should have included here that I should not total my car....)
3. Fall in love with someone in love with me (Thank goodness for Wes!! Check that one off!)
4. Get married in the temple (Check)
5. Be a lead in a musical (done in high school-Adelaide in Guys and Dolls)
6. Be a lead in a non-school related musical (Done-Nellie in South Pacific in Sandy 2001)
7. Move to New York and make it on Broadway (OK-so, not so much...)
8. Live in California, near the beach (I totally count the summer in San Diego with Angela for this!)
9. Go on a mission (not so far...)


100 Things I would Like to Do before I die


1. Have lots of kids (my definition of lots changes by the day)
2. Raise my kids to be strong members of the Church
3. Survive Residency & Fellowship
4. Live in Hawaii someday for at least a year.
5. Publish a cook book (I have one I self published, but I want to do another)
6. Open a restaurant
7. Buy a house (we are in process of accomplishing this one)
8. Design and build our own house with Wes.
9. Go to all 50 states (I have been to many, and am well on my way...I just might have to take a southern US trip sometime...Check out my map...)

10. Visit all 7 continents (so far I have North America, South America, & Europe)
11. Finish writing my book.
12. Start my own Children's theatre.
13. Write a journal (I am totally counting this blog as accomplishing this at least somewhat)
14. Pray daily
15. Joins a book club-actually read each book and attend the meetings
16. Read at least one classic novel a year (2007-The Scarlet Pimpernel. AWESOME!)
17. Get rid of all debt
18. Do something significant and nice for each of my parents and each of Wes's parents (besides having their adorable grandchildren)
19. Get a graduate degree
20. Invent and sell something awesome.
21. Finish my Wii Zelda game.
22. Be a better mom every day (OK-who knows how to measure my progress on this one...)
23. Learn to play the piano much better.
24. Teach my kids all to read and to love reading.
25. Travel a lot!
26. Plant a successful garden
27. Be able to stay home with my kids and teach them. (so far so good)
28. Go on a cruise
29. Read the scriptures daily
30. Play sports with the kids & Wes
31. Plant and maintain fresh herbs in my kitchen.
32. Go to the Philippines with Wes
33. Design my own pearl creations while in the Philippines.
34. Get Wes a replacement wedding ring
35. Make at least on real scrapbook
36. Catch up and maintain all the kids' baby books.
37. Give away a Book of Mormon to someone.
38. Go on a mission with Wes
39. Serve in all 3 auxiliaries in the church (Relief Society, Young Womens, and Primary...technically I have, but I would like to again...)
40. Go to a Luau
41. Perform in at least one show a year.
42. Go to Disney World with my whole Enderton family
43. Fix a broken computer
44. Teach the kids the primary songs
45. Give all my kids unique, interesting, meaningful names that are not too weird and outlandish.
46. Get family pictures taken at least once a year without driving Wes crazy
47. Have a clean house.
48. Someday I want one of those horribly expensive, awesome washers and dryers!!
49. To go to all my kids' temple weddings
50. Have lots of grandkids
51. Spoil my grandkids rotten!
52. Ride a horse and NOT almost kill myself
53. Have a big walk in closet with all kinds of organizational shelves and stuff built in.
54. Get Armour to eat vegetables...and like them!
55. Tell Wes and the kids how much I love them every day!
56. Get better at rollerblading
57. Learn to Surf
58. Go scuba diving
59. Go Whale watching with Wes
60. Make memory books for each of my kids.
61. Go watch the newest Broadway shows every year (once Wes is a full fledged radiologist and we can afford it)
62. Finish the Wheel of Time series of books.
63. Learn patience
64. Potty train Armour soon (then I'd only have one kid in diapers)
65. Greek Island cruise
66. Spend a significant amount of time in Greece and learn Greek.
67. Learn to cook all those Greek family recipes from XiaXia and Mom.
68. Give each of my kids personal time.
69. Learn to golf
70. relearn to knit and crochet-make something
71. Figure out how to use my sewing machine
72. Pack up my stuff to move (this is obviously an immediate goal)
73. Grow my testimony always
74. Finish reading the Twilight series
75. Give hugs and kisses all the time.
76. Meet someone famous and not even notice. (I guess technically I did this with Julia Roberts...)
77. Be a lead in a musical again
78. Cook something gourmet
79. Make cool birthday cakes for my kids' birthdays.
80. Play pool and bowling outside my living room (meaning not on Wii) more often!
81. Own and have room for a pool table/game room.
82. Avoid bed rest in the future.
83. Go on a European tour.
84. Have lots of parties and fun in our own house!
85. Own a GREAT BBQ.
86. Be active with the kids and Wes-even when Wes and I are old.
87. Lose weight
88. Eat healthy, but still enjoy treats I love
89. Try new foods
90. Eat at a really fancy restaurant
91. Go to Six Flags
92. Live on a beach
93. Go on an African Safari
94. Be on TV for some sort of major positive accomplishment
95. Rid the world of AM talk radio
96. Serve others
97. Own a new car someday that is not a piece of crap we are just babying through (OK-so our Elantra would fall int his category, but I don't usually drive that car...)
98. Keep in touch with old friends better and be more thoughtful.
99. Spend as much time with my family as possible!
100. Have this baby safely and quickly as I am losing my patience with bed rest and thinking of all the packing and preparing for our move I really should be doing...

Drama Geek questions...perfect for the likes of me...

Well, it's not really easy to know what to post after all the serious posts of late, but I am still sitting here in bed and a bit bored, and a friend posted this on her myspace so I thought I would do it as well... Perfect for a drama girl...if you are a drama geek too, feel free to steal it...

LAST SHOW ADDED TO YOUR RESUME: Sacred Heart Follies

LAST SHOW YOU AUDITIONED FOR: Sacred Heart Follies

LAST SONG YOU USED AT AN AUDITION: Honestly, I cannot remember what I sang last...I think maybe Dancing all the Time from Big the Musical.

WHAT WAS YOUR VERY FIRST SHOW: Um...good question...as a kid I was in a lot of little elementary school shows, but probably my first real show was A Midsummer Night's Dream...I played a dad...very sucky...HATED every minute!!!!!

HAVE YOU EVER HAD A DANCE SOLO?: Yes

HAVE YOU EVER HAD A SINGING SOLO? Yes, quite a few.

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN THE LAST PERSON TO TAKE A BOW? Yes

HAVE YOU BEEN TO NEW YORK? Yes, quite a few times

HAVE YOU BEEN TO LA?: Yes

HAVE YOU BEEN TO LONDON?: No.

WHAT'S THE SCARIEST PART OF AN AUDITION?: Waiting to go in...

WHAT'S THE BEST PART OF AN AUDITION? During the song or script reading when I can just go with it and perform.

NAME A SHOW YOU WOULD NEVER DO AGAIN (For Free): I think Saturday's Warrior-I totally burned myself out on that one!!!!

NAME A SHOW YOU COULD DO FOR YEARS: Really I think most any musical.

WHAT ARE YOU AUDITIONING FOR NEXT? Um...we'll see what is goingon after this baby is born, and after we move and then we will see...

DO YOU KEEP IN TOUCH WITH PAST CAST MEMBERS?: Very few.

ON A SCALE OF 1-10, HOW IMPORTANT IS GETTING PAID?: It would be really nice...

SOMETHING EMBARRASSING OR UNEXPECTED THAT HAPPENED TO YOU WHILE ON STAGE?: I am pretty sure I have lost a costume or two that was fairly embarassing...

EVER BEEN NAKED ON STAGE?: No

BEEN KILLED?: Yes-as Nancy in Oliver in 7th grade.

PLAYED DRUNK ON STAGE?: Yes, I was surprisingly good at it (it was in South Pacific)!

PLAYED SOMEONE HALF YOUR AGE?: Hmm...no...not even close...

PLAYED SOMEONE TWICE YOUR AGE?: Yes, more than tewice my age, but I was in high school, so twice my age was only like 28...(I was 18 when I played Adelaide in Guys and Dolls and she's like about 40, right?!)

FIRED A GUN? Not that I recall.

DRIVEN A CAR? No

BEEN DRENCHED? Oh yeah-South Pacific baby...I'm Gonna Wash that Man Right Outta my Hair...showering on stage-a classic moment!!!

BEEN IN A DREAM SEQUENCE? Don't think so...

BEEN KISSED? Yes, on and off stage...