Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Are You Pregnant?


Here's what I hate (there are two things):
1) When people ask if I'm pregnant (this has happened already).
2) When people ask when we plan on having kids (happens even more often).

Here are my responses:
1) I feel like this is a polite way of asking why I've gained weight.  How rude!  If I were pregnant, believe me, you'd know.  You'd know because I really, really can't wait to have kids and I'd probably tell anyone who stops to listen when I am.  If you're important to me and I haven't told you, then it's probably a pretty good indication that I'm not.  So quit asking me.
2) Intrusive much?  This is absolutely none of your business.  You are not my husband, and you are not the Lord, so trust me, I won't be counseling with you about it.  Please do not try to tell me when we should have children (I don't care if your opinion is to have them right away or wait 10 years to have them)...I don't want to hear it.


For us, it has been very difficult in trying to understand when the Lord would want us to have children.  It has been difficult because we feel we are ready and that we could handle it (or at least make it), but we feel that the Lord is telling us to wait just a little bit.  It's even harder, though, when people who have no idea what's going on are giving unsolicited advice concerning whether we should "begin our family immediately" or "take our time, finish our degrees, establish our careers, have some vacations, and enjoy each other for awhile".  


Let me do some reassuring for all who are concerned.


Here is a statement issued by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (this is the church we belong to and we fully support and adhere to its doctrine).  My emphasis is added: 

"Children are one of the greatest blessings in life, and their birth into loving and nurturing families is central to God’s purposes for humanity. When husband and wife are physically able, they have the privilege and responsibility to bring children into the world and to nurture them. The decision of how many children to have and WHEN TO HAVE THEM is a PRIVATE MATTER for the husband and wife."   

Yes, we want kids.  Yes, I personally wish I was one of the nineteen women I know right now who are pregnant.  Yes, it is hard for me.  No, we are not putting pregnancy off for selfish reasons.  Yes, we've got it figured out for right now what we are supposed to be doing.  No, we do not need outside opinions.

So quit being rude and leave me alone about it.
 

Monday, July 12, 2010

"Friends call me Speed."

So Kyle found a turtle in our driveway today as he was leaving for work.  He called me out and we debated what to do with him.  Neither of us have ever had any experience in turtle-rescuing before.  I decided to Google it and promised to text Kyle at work once I had any information about what to do.  

So Kyle left and I went inside and immediately Googled "what to do when you find a turtle in your driveway" (I couldn't think of anything better to search).  Surprisingly, I got a lot of helpful sites to look through.  I learned that the turtle we found was most likely a box turtle.  Here's what he looked like:


The website informed me that it was completely normal for box turtles (who are in fact terrestrial) to make appearances in driveways and flower beds during the summer, especially after it rains.  So that explained why he was here.  Now what?  The website further counseled not to move the turtles unless they are in danger of being stepped on or run over.  Our turtle was in our driveway, but Kyle was easily able to drive around him.  I knew he wasn't going to go into the street because he wasn't pointing in that direction.  I checked a few other sites and again was warned not to move the turtle unless absolutely necessary.  This was for two reasons:


(a) the turtle knows where its going and is capable of getting there.  If I were to pick it up, I might make him confused or disoriented and actually prevent him from getting to his destination.  Even worse, if I decided to keep it, any eggs or babies it might have (if it was a girl) would die and it would keep the turtles from reproducing.


(b) turtles, like any other animal, could carry diseases.  More importantly, however, the turtle could get something from me and carry it back to his turtle friends and kill them all.  Supposedly this isn't uncommon at all.

So I decided not to move the turtle but to keep an eye on it instead.  I wondered if he was really a she and looked into how to tell the difference between males and females.  I went to go outside to check and take a picture for the blog, but the turtle was gone (which is why I had to post a picture from online)!  He really was terrestrial!  Now I know why when my Grandpa's in a hurry he says he's "off like a herd of turtles."  They're not really too slow at all!

This reminded me of a movie Kyle and I watched last night called Swan Princess.  I won't go into detail about it here (or at least not this post), but it reminded me of the turtle character from the movie.  I couldn't find the clip of him I wanted from YouTube, but for those who haven't seen it, this one might suffice in showing you just how great of a character he really is!

His name is Lorenzo Trudge-Along (his friends call him Speed).

Sunday, July 11, 2010

My Dreaming Husband

Kyle and I have a sort of unspoken agreement concerning bad dreams.  If one of us has a nightmare or dreamt something unsettling, that person wakes the other, asks him or her to sleep close (I always ask him to "snuggle me" but he probably would never put it like that), and then the dream is relayed.  I'm usually the one that has the bad dreams.  I always dream someone is chasing me, usually to torture or kill me.  I often have to come up with something crafty to avoid them--usually disguises.  It never works, though...I somehow always get caught and am sentenced to die.  Just as they're about to kill me, I wake up.  And then Kyle gets woken up, too.

But not today.  I got up at about 5 AM to use the bathroom and couldn't get back to sleep once I came back to bed.  I tried for about an hour but just couldn't get my mind to let me go back to sleep.  Finally, when it started to get light out, I figured it was a done deal...I wouldn't be going back to sleep any time soon :(  As I got up to come to the living room, Kyle shot up out of bed making all kinds of frightening noises...sort of like he had no idea where he was or what had just happened (or what I was doing out of bed).  He told me he had had a bad dream.  So, of course, I came back to bed and held him tightly until he calmed down and asked him to tell me about it.  The conversation went something like this:


Kyle:  "Well, we were on vacation."  (we're planning a camping vacation to the Indiana Dunes in early August).


Me:  "In the tent?"


Kyle:  "Yeah.  And we took Tiger with us.  And he wanted to stay with us but you wouldn't let him.  And he stayed outside all night...(jumbled speech here)...and I wanted to go find him but you said we'd just find him in the morning.  And I didn't want to treat him like a wild animal because he's our baby."


Me:  "We'd never make Tiger sleep outside our tent...if he came camping.  But he wouldn't come."


Kyle:  "I know.  But the next day when we found him, he was so awful.  He was all ratty and his fur had been bitten off and he was scratched up and...one of his legs fell off!"  (I almost lost it here)


Me:  "Oh no...then what happened?"


Kyle:  "Well, the next night you offered to let him sleep in the cage.  And I really wanted that because I didn't want to let him go outside again.  But we couldn't get him in the cage!  He'd almost get in because we'd put treats down for him by the cage door but he'd eat them and run away."


Me:  "That sounds like something he'd do."


Kyle:  "Yeah...that's how I knew it was him."


So after Kyle went back to sleep, I came to the living room to tell Tiger about how his leg fell off when he came camping with us.  He seemed pretty shaken up by the whole thing and didn't want to listen.  


Or maybe that was because it was 6 AM and he was confused as to why I was up so early and sitting in HIS living room.  Or because I had taken him away from watching the morning birdies (goodness...there are so many birds at our house at 6 AM!).  Who knows?  All I'm sure of is that Tiger's not going to be coming camping with us any time soon, especially if left up to Kyle and Tiger!