Challis Adventures

October 2010

2010-10-22T04:33:00.006-04:00

What a fun month so far!

Oct 1 Jane, Dan, and I went to a playgroup at Bear Creek Park. Later that evening we watched "I Am Legend" which we probably wouldn't have if I had known it was about zombies. I still get shivers thinking about it. Ugh cue church hymns!

Oct 4 was Danny's birthday. We went out to a Middle Eastern Restaurant called Fadi's.

Oct 5 I managed to go to the optometrist with Jane AND Dan. We were all ready to go by the end, including the optometrist!

Oct 7 was a Relief Society night thingy where my amazing obstetrician gave a FAQ session. It was fun.

Oct 8 was a playgroup at the Mary Jo Peckham park. Later we swapped babysitting with the Harwoods and went to Cafe del Sol. Then we went to a carnival.

Oct 9 we all walked to the library together. It was really fun.

Oct 10 our family night was reading Mark's letter. He's on a mission in southern California, near where Danny served. It's always fun to read what's going on with him. Go Mark!

Oct 12 Jane, Dan, and I all went to the doctor. It was a huge ordeal. But now Jane has her flu shots and Dan is up to date on his immunizations. Way to go mom! Then later we went to the pumpkin patch with some friends.

Oct 14 we went to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Houston. On the way home we ate at Costco.

Oct 15 Jane, Dan, and I went to a playgroup at Westgreen Park. Later we went out to eat at Randalls, hehe.

Oct 16 Danny sucked it up and watched a tooootal chick flick with me: "The Age of Innocence." I had read the book earlier this year. The movie was surprisingly awesome. Of course Danny hated it. We ended up having a really awesome analytical discussion in the end. I decided I either think May is the most awesome or most despicable character, depending on my mood.

Oct 20 Mommy, Jane, and Dan were sick. Oct 21 Danny got sick too. So we all stayed home and coughed up phlegm together.

Oct 22 and we're still coughing up the phlegm.

And that's it for this month so far. I will get some photos, I hope, but not of the phlegm.

We're back!

2010-10-01T15:43:00.002-04:00

After a long hiatus from this blog, I finally figured out that my own personal blog was not fulfilling my need for posting about events that go on in my family's life, and that rather than try to reshape katesamericanlife, I should just revamp this blog.

So, here are the new blog goals:

1. Post a minimum of once/week
2. Post a short description of the outings taken with Jane each day
3. Post photos from the outings
4. Post a short description of my dates with Danny
5. If anything else comes up that merits the term "adventure", post about that.

Really, this blog is not that much about readership. It's more of a tool to force myself out of the house, actually. I haven't been that great at getting out with Jane, and the last few weeks of pregnancy/recovering have been really harsh on Danny's and my dating life.

But enough with the excuses, and on to the adventures.

Fun Date with Danny!

2009-05-16T10:44:00.005-04:00

Danny's Christmas present to me was a season's pass to the Hale Center Theatre in Orem. It only does comedies and musicals. It's really, really fun. It's a theatre-in-the-round, and all of the productions we've been to have been professional, fun, and very entertaining. Not to mention with some of the best costumes ever!

We need ideas for ways to take advantage of our pre-children days!

It's a Girl!

2009-03-05T11:30:00.000-05:00

We found out last Friday that I am pregnant with a baby girl!

Ultrasound photos to come!

BYU Dance Labs are HOT

2008-12-05T00:52:00.003-05:00

Danny and I went to the Dance Lab tonight. It was really fun. When I have kids that go to BYU, I will definitely encourage them to enroll in Social Dance 180, and then shake rattle and roll at the totally free Dance Lab.

The best part was that they played a wide variety of songs and dances. We cha-cha-ed, fox-trotted, did some triple swing, and some (ugh) waltz. You know, waltz looks great when the BYU dance team does it. It looks retarded when Danny and I do it.

You should check out my other blog, http://katesamericanlife.blogspot.com because I thought the post today was really interesting!

Blog Goals

2008-11-30T16:47:00.001-05:00

My new blog goals are to write every day on this stupid thing, post pictures, and get people reading it!

I feel kinda frustrated. This Thanksgiving Break sucked because I was sick with the flu. Sucky. Oh well. Danny has been really nice to me the whole time. He is my angel :)

Hopefully I will get better in time for school tomorrow.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T13:51:00.001-05:00

Ugh sick. I think that I am starting to experience morning sickness. I really hope that it's not happening.

This morning I felt totally absolutely disgusting. It doesn't help that on top of it all, I have an ear infection. Well, a self-diagnosed one at least. It's T-day and therefore all of the urgent care clinics are closed. Danny went to the store and got me some Tylenol. I feel a little better now.

Ugh until it's time to eat later tonight.

Picking an OB/GYN

2008-11-13T12:11:00.002-05:00

I don't know why. I guess I'm sexist. I don't want a male OB/GYN. I just...don't. Unfortunately, there were only 5 options on the list of OB/GYN's that are covered by my insurance, as opposed to 20 or 30 male doctors. Weird.

Danny and I strongly believe that any man who decides he wants to look at womens' vaginas for his living is a little bit strange. I'm sure many (if not most), are competent, caring, knowledgable, wonderful doctors. But you can still be all those things and still be a bit strange.

So...I started calling the female OB/GYN's.

"Um, our OB/GYN's choose not to practice OB right now. Sorry."

2 down, 3 to go.

"Dr. Grover is full, but our other doctors aren't..."
"Um, are they male?"
"Yes."
"Well...um...I'm sorry but I think I'll keep looking."
"No problem! Good luck."

3 down. Now I'm worried.

I looked online and the only two left work at the same clinic in American Fork. It's kind of ridiculous that I would have to drive all the way 30 minutes north instead of using facilities that are literally 5 minutes from my house, but distance is not my priority. I want a woman doctor.

When I called the clinic, the answering-thing that directs you to press numbers for different services said that one of the female Doctors is on leave until Fall 2009.

1 more.

I got the answering machine

Now what?

CNM - Certified Nurse Midwives - are covered through the BYU student health insurance.

Obviously, not all midwives are the same. Law midwives don't have to complete nursing school. CNM's do. Basically, the only difference between a CNM and an OB is that CNM's can't perform C-sections.

Now, I'm not all into the whole alternative medicine, no-pain-killer births. I mean, if you are, that's your prerogative. I just feel now that I will want the option of having an epidural, of birthing in a hospital or clinic, of modern medecine. Danny feels strongly the same way.

I looked online at the CNM options. There was a female CNM listed at the Central Orem Health Center. I googled her name to find more information. I also looked up her peers at ratemd.com. They had great reviews. The one complaint for their clinic is the wait time. All of the posts agreed that the doctors there were friendly, helpful, caring, and knowledgeable.

I don't care if I will have to wait. Maybe later, when it is my 7th or 8th child (hmm...can't see that far), I will feel differently.

The perks to having this CNM is that she is the only CNM at her clinic. An OB/GYN is always available. I will deliver there, not at home. I will have all the benefits of both the care and modern medicine. I feel very good about this decision. Especially knowing that she is also a certified nurse.

I won't have my first appointment for another 5 weeks. I think that's okay. If there are problems, I can change that. Probably there won't be. I will be 10 weeks pregnant by then.

Which is silly, because the baby will only be 8 weeks old. How can I be 10 weeks pregnant when the baby is only 8 weeks old??? Weird.

I know that the best way to research this would be to ASK people, but unfortunately I don't think other people seem to share in this, my number one top priority. So. I don't want people to be insulted when they tell me to go to Dr. so-and-so or Dr. so-and-so, but I have already ruled them out because of their gender. I think I'm allowed to be picky about this. And even if I'm not, seriously who's stopping me?

I am Preggo!

2008-11-13T12:07:00.002-05:00

Wow. That was fast!

I keep waking up famished. I am dizzy and tired. I have very mild cramps, nowhere near as bad as my regular menstrual cramps. My tummy feels funny. I have to pee all the time. I get heartburn. I also get hungry more often. I don't have any morning sickness, but that's probably because my mom and grandma didn't, either.

So far we haven't even told everyone yet. It was funny the way we told our parents:

"Can you get a piece of paper and a pen? We want to tell you our Christmas list."
[groans from parents]
"Okay. We want two more wii controlers, some gift certificates...a crib..."

Hehehe.

Wow. This is amazing.

The Sco'ish Fe'ival

2008-07-19T20:14:00.003-04:00

I, following suit of my dear friend Strong Bad, have now taken up a hobby of not including the middle consonants of things. Actually, I think it adds to the whole affect of it being "Sco'ish". Anyway, we went to the festival in Look Park, in NoHo Massachusetts, and it turned out that we got there just as everyone was leaving. I mean, seriously, guys. What's a little bit of rain? Nothing to be frightened or ashamed of! But no, everybody left. Probably because we got there. It was sad. But then Danny and I ran around in the sprinklers, and froze on the way home because of the AC. So it was worth it. And the fun drive with my family. Especially to have Danny there, and to feel completely myself. It was great.

What a great birthday for Papa! Hopefully, next one we'll give him "The Big Green Egg." More on that later.

I did put back the envelopes that I took. And the lady I worked with took the change I left there as she cleaned out the closet. So it was a lose-lose situation that made me feel good inside.

Short Work

2008-07-11T09:04:00.002-04:00

So I only have to work 3.25 hours today, but Kate has to work all 8 (sorry Kate). I'm going to get bored and lonely pretty fast, so I'm planning on running to and from work to drag that out a bit; also because it's fun. Kate is at work by now and will probably be reading this within 5 minutes (her job has a lot of down time in front of a computer). I'm going to leave for work now. I LOVE YOU KATE!!

They call me "Breck Girl"

2008-07-08T16:52:00.010-04:00

This is hilarious. One of the ladies who works here told me that I remind her of "the Breck girl" from the old shampoo ads. This is what wikipedia says about it:

"In 1930 Dr. John H. Breck, Sr. (June 5, 1877 - Feb 1965) founded Breck Shampoo of Springfield, Massachusetts. In 1936, son Edward J. Breck assumed management of Breck Shampoo and hired commercial artist Charles Gates Sheldon (1889-1961) to draw women for their advertisements. Sheldon's early portraits for Breck were done in pastels, with a soft focus and haloes of light and color surrounding them. He created romantic images of feminine beauty and purity. He preferred to draw "real women" as opposed to professional models."

Hilarious. Here are some pictures of the various "Breck" girls that exist:

One of the original Breck girls from the 1930's.

Cheryl Tiegs, 1968

Cybil Shepherd, 1968

Diane Harris, 1978

Envelopes: Episode II

2008-07-08T12:36:00.003-04:00

So, in fact, I took two envelopes. The most crucially urgent things to be mailed are mailed. I left $.30 in the box where I found the envelopes.

But tonight, when we got to the grocery store, I will be sure to buy some envelopes and replace the two I took tomorrow. I know what I did was wrong. Still. It was urgent!

Envelopes

2008-07-08T11:13:00.000-04:00

Right now I feel a little bit stressed because I need envelopes. I am sitting here at my computer, temping. They are very slow, and freely let me wander the internet. Although I would really like to be exploring the new. familysearch website for some reason, I just don't feel right about doing that here. Instead, I am stuck here saying, "hello!" and answering phones. That ring. About. Once. Every. Hour. And writing for my blog. And figuring out finances and stuff. That I don't feel bad about.

In truth, I'm not sure why I'm so worried about not feeling good about doing family history research here. There is nobody else around. The only other thing for me to do is browse the internet. Which is what family history work is. But I will follow my feeling. Sigh.

I need 4 envelopes. Two are urgent, one is not, the last I know how to get. I don't know where I will possibly go to get them during my lunch break. I need to mail three checks. The last check is a tithing check, so it is a specific envelope that I will get at the Bishop's office on Sunday. The reason it's a specific envelope is because his address is already printed on it; one less thing to worry about. But these other two checks I had better get in the mail PRESTO PRONTO. But the only envelopes available to me here are not technically available to me. They belong to the company I'm working for. It would be stealing to take these envelopes. So I won't. Augh. How will I get these envelopes?

Cambridge

2008-07-07T15:45:00.000-04:00

I like this place. As in, I really like Massachusetts. It's not that bad of a place. It's not really the same as Utah, which I find I actually do miss a lot. Probably just the familiarity of it. Realize that I have lived four entire years in Provo, Utah. So it's a huge change to be here, and we aren't that close to family.

Except, we are closER to family that we have never been close to together. It's so neat to be able to be with Danny, here - where my parents and sister Dot can get to know him better. I really like it a lot.

I'm temping - actually, as we speak. It's EXTREMELY slow here, and they told me that I could just amuse myself with the internet. Cool. That's basically me getting paid for what I usually do! I like that!

We got an apartment in Provo!!! Hooray! More about that later.

California Same-Sex Bleaugh!

2008-06-27T12:42:00.000-04:00

I can't believe that people are actually trying to make something like same-sex marriage legal. It's really, REALLY sad. When I hear about it on the radio, or read about it on other blogs, I get really angry inside. Maybe it's just because I am hyper sensitive about this issue, having just gotten married a month ago. I know what marriage means to me, and how important it is. It's disgusting that people could try to make something so blatantly against God's laws LEGAL. Those stupid lawmakers and politicians are going to have some major problems on their hands when they discover that people justified wicked acts because of policies THEY enforced. Mostly, I just feel such deep sadness for the children. What a cruel thing to do - life is hard and confusing enough without completely destroying gender roles.

If you agree with me, and are against same-sex marriage in general, but especially in California, you can go to this website and read more about why to support the proposition to define marriage as between a man and a woman in California this November.

http://www.protectmarriage.com

I got this from their website, and I agree with their points:

Top Ten Talking Points about Same Sex Marriage*
1) Collective Wisdom- All the collective wisdom of human history, not to mention biology, logic and common sense shows us that marriage is designed to be between a man and a woman. For Christians, the Bible is unequivocal on the subject – one man, one woman, for life.
Okay, so I don't believe that the Bible is unequivocal on the subject - think POLYGAMY. However, modern revelation is. And anyway, the law of chastity never included sexual relations between men and men, or women and women.

2) Creating Same Sex Families- When you create a same-sex “marriage” you are also creating a same sex “family,” and so the question now becomes what is in the best interests of children.
In "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" it is made clear that children have the right to be born into a family with a loving mother and father. Same-sex marriage is clearly against that.

3) Social Experiment- Same-sex “marriage” subjects children to a vast untested social experiment.
People who engage in homosexual acts are more promiscuous. We know that promiscuity leads to poverty, wide-spread STD's and infectious diseases, and instability in the home. Not to mention the problem of how frequently people who engage in homosexual acts discuss their sexuality with others. I don't want my children around people like this.

4) Socializing Children- Children need to grow up understanding the proper human relationships between a man and woman, a mother and father, and a husband and wife.
They won't learn this in school. They definitely won't learn this from the media. We are responsible to teach them in the home. Now Satan is trying to take THAT away from them.

5) Dads and Moms Matter- Children need both a mother and a father. The two most loving moms can not be a dad and the two most loving dads can not be a mom and children need both.
Amen.

6) The Research is Clear- The research is crystal clear - children always do better in families with a mother and a father.
We know that children do better with a mother and a father. We know that homosexuality in society causes promiscuity and many other problems, but we don't know how it will affect our children. The inference we can intelligently make, however, is that children, mothers, fathers, and society at large, will all suffer.

7) Loving and Civilized Societies- A loving and civilized society always comes to the aid of fatherless and motherless families. But a loving and civilized society never intentionally creates fatherless and motherless families as a matter of law and public policy.

8) If Marriage Means Anything- If marriage can mean anything then marriage means nothing.
Marriage means everything to me.

9) Relationship Buffet- No society ancient or modern has ever sustained itself with a buffet-like mentality when it comes to marriage and family.
...because marriage and family are the most important things we have on this earth.

10) Slippery Slope- Establishing same-sex “marriage” as a fundamental right will undermine current polygamy laws and create a new legal precedent for “anything goes” forms of marriage.
Five people getting married to each other? A person marrying a dog? It's a mockery of something extremely sacred. I can't stand for that. You shouldn't, either.

* Credit for these talking points goes to John Stemberger, Florida Family Policy Council, which
depends on the outstanding work of Glenn Stanton with Focus on the Family.

Nobody should know exactly how long this took...

2008-06-24T15:21:00.000-04:00

At first I thought...houseofchallis
but Danny was kind of meh about that one.
Then I thought challispalace, but it's taken.
Then I thought thechallispalace, but a "the" in a blog name is crappy.
Then I realized I need to change my google account as well. Man, it's kind of difficult having a maiden name change over to a married name. I was always kate.vasicek and now kate.challis is taken. Dang. So I went through a ton of things like:
kchallis
katrinachallis
katrina.challis
katherinechallis
katherine.challis
k.challis
k.chall
kchall

To no avail. Except katrinachallis, but wouldn't it be rude if my name was actually Katrina Challis and somebody named Kate stole it? I think it would be, at least.

So...I finally went with kalzbeta, which is a cross between Katrina and Alzbeta. (The real ancestor's name is Alsbeta, with an "s". More on that later). I made it up several years ago. According to me, it was very clever.

Back to the naming of the blog. houseofchallis was not good, but may darofchallis - dar being the Arabic word for household? Or beitchallis? But that looks too Jewish. And baytchallis looks silly.
Dardechallis - combining Arabic and French?

The cleverest one I came up with was "notredardechallis" - clever because if you pronounce "Challis" the French way, it would rhyme with Paris (paree), so the whole phrase would be a lot like, "Notre Dame de Paris", except "Our Household Of Challis". But darde looks too much like the French word for Turkey, which is dinde. I don't really like that word very much.

So then I remembered a book Danny and I read by Loren Eisley. It's called The Immense Journey - very creative book about the world. Eisley is a naturalist, but also a poet. We didn't read the whole thing, just the last chapter really. It's in the evolution section of the HBL Library at BYU. So then I thought, theimmensejourney - except "the" is problematic, as we have previously discussed.

immensejourney
challisjourney
journeyofchallis
dannyandkatesexcellentadventure (too long)
challisfamily (taken)
challisfamilyadventures

...and finally, challisadventures

I think it works out in the end. It's catchy, and will last a long time. For all of those girls out there looking for tips about what to pick as an email address, you definitely should avoid using your maiden name. Pick your married name (even if you don't know the guy yet), because otherwise somebody will steal it right from under your nose! Grumble grumble kalzbeta is a good email address, except I'm a little worried people will write kalzebeta instead of kalzbeta. Augh over analyzing everything!