The stuff we did that was more important than the other stuff we didn't do.

Hey, I am a blogging slacker again. Surprise. In my defense we have been really busy doing real stuff. Instead of the fake stuff we usually do. Jessie's been hard at work at his new job, and Madeline and I have been hard at work pretending to be hard at work. And then we went to a wedding. My cousin got married on Friday so Madeline and I trekked to Logan for the festivities, and Jessie came up later to also be cool. It was actually the first temple wedding I have attended (minus one or two sealings of previously married people), so that was a good experience. And Madeline got to touch the temple, which made her day, because there is nothing we love more than temples. (Seriously, yesterday we just sat and looked through pictures of temples on lds.org and Madeline had a blast. I'd click to the next one and she's pointing and jumping- look Mom! A temple! Woah! And another temple! And the next one is a temple too! And she was still shocked when the next one was...a temple! We looked at about 60 temples before she got tired of it.)

So a good time was had by all at the temple, and the wedding breakfast, and the reception. Which I am obligated to blog about, because my Aunt Wendy was a little nervous hanging out with me. She kept saying, "You're going to blog about this, aren't you? I just know this is going to be in your blog." So here I am, Aunt Wendy, blogging about you. And that emabarrassing thing you did. And that other thing. No, but seriously, my Aunt Wendy is a cool person, so maybe we'll devote an entire blog to her one day.

Jessie came up for the reception, and we didn't want to drive back late, so we stayed overnight with my grandma. But first we got pulled over by the Smithfield police. Which Jessie was really excited about- so much so that he had to turn around and drive through Smithfield again because he thought it would be cool if they pulled us over again. I wish I was kidding about that. (Well, we actually turned around because I had to go back to Richmond and give my grandmother her car keys, but he really was excited at the prospect of getting pulled over twice.) You can all rest easy though, because it was just a fix-it ticket, so no fines were levied and no resisting arrest ensued. Jessie basically relies on fix-it tickets to tell us when to change our tailights. He's maybe gotten quite a few, but if I told you how many he might get angry.

So anyway, sweet partying times at the Warner house. We also had a baby shower and some old friends for dinner, and home teaching and playing horsie, so it was a pretty jam packed weekend. Good times.

A little basketball and an embarrassing moment.

So, I guess I'm a bit late, but I need to achknowledge that March Madness has been amazingly fulfilling this year. My bracket has taken some serious blows, but since that's because a lot of lower seeded teams have been awesome. I always love an underdog. Of all the upsets, obviously Kansas was my favorite. But I'm pretty stoked about Cornell too, since I called their victories.

Anyway. Since every post this week has pretty much been basketball, let's insert a story about Cami and Jessie and their silliness and embarrassing moments. This weekend was our stake conference, and my brothers offered to watch Madeline so we could go to the sdult session Saturday night. (Okay. I coerced them. With bribes of basketball on a big screen television.) So we got all ready to go and headed off to our meeting- a touch late, naturally, because of the Kansas game. So we were hustling, trying to make it on time, and we kind of ran into the chapel. And I'm thinking that it's a little weird there's not a flood of late people coming in with us, because Mormon standard time would dictate we would be in good company. We got about fifteen feet into the chapel when I realized the chapel was entirely full of men. And the stake president was speaking. So I froze and dragged Jessie back out into the hall. Turns out we thought the meeting was at six when it was really at seven, and we had just crashed the last few minutes of priesthood leadership. Awkward. And caused an awesome distraction in those last few serious minutes of the meeting- you know, when the stake president is bearing his testimony and the spirit is strong and hte only way it could get better is if two univited people come waltzing through the chapel, followed by a hasty retreat. Sometimes we are awesome.

In which I use insurance and easy in the same sentence.

I hate to interfere with the beauty of March Madness and post about anything else. But I had to report one of the craziest experiences of my life. due to Jessie's new job, we need to cancel a bunch of old insurance policies. And I've been dreading it because I hate dealing with insurance. I've ranted about it more than a few times, I think. I figured it would be painful and require a bunch of annoying paperwork. But while I was on the website for my health insurance, looking up the customer service number, I saw a link for Live Help. And I figured maybe that would save me a little time, because all I wanted to know is what letters I had to send and when I could officially cancel. So I started chatting with this insurance agent, and in less than five minutes, my insurance was cancelled. No paperwork, no sitting on hold, no hassle whatsoever. And I sat and watched television while I did it. And I didn't have to call someone, which we all know makes me kind of hyperventilate (despite working two years as a professional telephone operator.) So so so so easy. I was kind of in shock. But I liked it.

(Okay. I couldn't let the whole post pass without stating that I am loving March Madness. When I'm not dying of stress and suspense. The Florida/BYU game nearly killed me. About twenty times. Jimmer Fredette was this close to being lynched. But I'm loving it. Best month ever.)

Welcome to March Madness!

It's that time of year again. If you don't know what time of year that is...shame on you. We must not be real life friends. So, to enlighten you, it's time for the best sports season of the year. March Madness kicks off tomorrow, and my goal is to indoctrinate Madeline so she will love basketball and let me watch all the games instead of Curious George or Mary Poppins. I finalized my bracket tonight, and I'm pretty satisfied with the results. At least, I'm fairly certain my entire final four won't be toast three rounds in, which is pretty much what happened last year. There's a lot of pride and glory on the line in our annual Lundstrom family pool, and I'm hoping to redeem myself. I haven't performed well since my sophomore year of college. But that's the beauty of March Madness- there's always next year. So if you need me, I'll be spending some quality sports bonding time with my daughter.

The Shoe Problem

Madeline has a shoe problem. She changes her shoes every five minutes. There are a few rules: She can only wear matching shoes when we are leaving the house. Shoes on the wrong feet are better than shoes on the right feet. Shoes that are too small are best. Anytime she cannot get a shoe onto her foot in less than half a second, because said shoe is too small or on the wrong foot, she screams loudly. The death screams she usually saves for when she is stuck in a small place or has pinched her finger in a door. (I guess she figured out that these get my attention a lot faster.) Yesterday we had three full fledged meltdowns over shoes, where Madeline was sobbing like I'd cancelled Christmas and then torn apart her doll. I've decided that one more day of this may force me to gather all of Madeline's shoes in a garbage bag and leave them on my sister's porch, returning them to whence they came.

Jessie's big news.

So I've been not mentioning this for the past two weeks, so as not to jinx it, but prepare yourselves for awesome news: Jessie is getting a new job! Today is his last day at his current job, and on Monday he starts at a company called @task (pronounced at task. Confusing, eh?). His last job was pretty good to him, and he did good work, but it was time for a change. His official title at the new job will be Corporate Marketing Specialist. Which sounds cooler than Stay At Home Mom, but I still contend I have the more awesome job. Because I can take naps and my boss sings Mary Poppins to me and gives me hugs when I'm feeling sad. Take that, Jessie.

Anyway, we're pretty excited for the change and grateful there was an opportunity for Jessie to find a job with a little more room for growth, even though the job market isn't great. You can't complain when some people are struggling to find one decent job, so at the risk of sounding much too mushy and serious for this blog, we feel very blessed. And as a bonus, Jessie gets to come home early today and help Madeline and I get over our cabin fever (sickness having kept us from going anywhere or doing anything for a week, and we're itching to go cow-tipping or something.)Can you say family date night?

Sick Day

Yesterday was a sick day. It qualified as a full-fledged, official sick day because Madeline and I stayed home from church. Which is about our only real obligation in life, and the thus the only thing we can sluff. Madeline has been a snot factory all weekend, and I woke up with a sore throat, so we decided not to spread the joy to all the two year olds in the ward. Of which there are a trillion. Because then we would have a mob of moms calling for our heads.

Madeline wasn't cool with the whole sluffing thing. She saw Jessie get all dressed up and kept asking to go to nursery. She was so excited and cute I almost wanted to let her go. It reminded me of a time when I was in second or third grade. I got sick on Halloween, which we all know is a major bummer. I was supposed to be Pocahontas, and even though I'd been puking, I got all ready to go and begged my mom to let me go to school. She didn't. I was pretty upset. But now, fifteen years later, let me say this: Good call mom. Sorry I was a twerp. And thanks for letting me go trick or treating anyway, even though that mostly meant laying in the back of the van while my siblings picked up the candy.

Staying home sick wasn't as much fun as it was when I was a kid. Madeline was cranky, we were both bored, and I felt guilty I was watching Mary Poppins instead of dragging Madeline out of sacrament meeting. I guess you know you're old when you would rather be in sacrament meeting than singing I Love to Laugh. We did watch some church videos though. My mom recently gave us a couple of old tapes from my childhood, so Madeline could experience the joy of a Children's Songbook Sing Along, and a little nugget called Lorenzo's Songbook. If you have never watched Lorenzo's Songbook, you are cordially invited to my house for a life changing experience. I don't want to give anything away, but here are some teasers: 1990. Pioneer dog puppet. Banjo music. Over zealous and peppy young children. Old primary songs. Okay, that pretty much gives it all away. But it's great stuff. The movie even shut down on us after the television started eating the tape. Seriously. I was totally feeding old video film back into a case yesterday. I am so old school and awesome. Madeline loved it. She watched it with her stuffed dog, which she named Joey, after my parents dog.

Anyway. I think we're on the mend now, which is great news. But in our sickness-induced boredom, we started another puzzle, so you probably won't see us for two weeks while we finish it. (We're not extremely slow. I just gave us extra time for the inevitable eventuality in which Madeline smashes all of our work.)

A happy story. If by happy you mean not.

It's been one of those days. Where I tell you about how naughty Madeline has been, rather than wasting brain cells coming up with a creative and original topic to blog about. Don't worry, it's a pretty good one. I kept Madeline in this morning instead of going for a walk because she was starting a runny nose, and I think she wanted to punish me. I was sitting on the couch reading a book, when I reflected on how quiet Madeline was being. I hadn't heard chairs scraping across the floor, or bowls being pulled from the cupboard, or cereal being dumped. Naturally this was worrisome. So I hightailed it into the kitchen. And lo and behold: Madeline had poured out three quarters a gallon of milk onto the floor. And was laying on her stomach trying to lap it up like a dog. Because apparently, "Please Mom, I want a drink" is so outdated.

Oh, but wait, it gets better. It went under the refrigerator, so I had to strain and push and move that monster so I could mop up milk. Turns out we haven't done that since we moved in, and it's pretty disgusting under there. So glad I got tackle that project today. And when I was pushing the refrigerator back into place, a really nice decorative plate given to us as a gift fell off the top. And broke. At that point I pretty much wanted to sit down and cry and call a mother's strike. But then Madeline would get to run amok through spilled milk and glass shards. And a trip to the emergency room would be icing on the cake. So now, despite my efforts, I have sticky floors, half a plate, and super glue all over my hands. You just know bedtime is going to be early today. (For me. Madeline and Jessie can stay up as late as they want.)

Cami's Super Amazing Olympics Wrap-up

So. The Olympics are over, which is sad. Sad for me anyway. Madeline is pretty grateful, because she's not a big fan of skiing. Or Pretty much any winter sport except figure skating. I know you're all dying to know what I thought. Wait no longer. Here are my thoughts on a few things from the Olympics. Since I have pretty much failed to blog about them ever. Because I was busy watching them.

Canada: Seems like a pretty cool place. It made me want to watch polar bears and whales. Although I think they did themselves no favors with the closing ceremonies. If I was judging Canada based solely on the closing ceremonies, I would conclude they are a bunch of very unfunny people obsessed with hockey, maple leaves, and reindeer. Also that their women mounties moonlight as hookers. So I'm going to just remember the opening ceremonies, which made Canada seem much cooler.

Ice Dancing: Is not as wacky and irrelevant as I might have supposed before watching it. turns out it's pretty cool. Except for the weird Russians that like to make everybody mad about their costumes. Really, I thought the ones where they used ropes to swing each other around were worse than the aboriginal hooplah. I don't know much about ice dancing, but it seemed like cheating. Also, I love Davis and White, but Meryl didn't seem to be an ice dancing name to me. So I refer to them as Team Betty.

Speed Skating: Francois Hamelin is the evil brother who likes to take out Americans and gets rewarded for his evil machinations. I fully supported Ohno whacking him out of the race. He deserved it. Granted, this does mean Ohno deserved to be disqualified. But he wasn't getting a medal anyway, so might as well take out the Bad Evil Canadian. No offense to the other good Canadians. But to assure you I am an equal opportunity hater, Ohno was really driving me nuts as well. Never blame your loss on the judges. You just look pathetic.

Figure Skating: Plushenko is an egotistical dirtbag, albeit a talented one. I agree with Dick Button that his crazy arms are distinctly ugly to watch, and he is a villian. Hope he enjoys his platinum medal and the it gives him lots of frequent flyer miles. Kim Yu Na is great. South Korea should beat up Russia.

Skiing: Lindsey Vonn is good at crashing. And Julia Mancuso got screwed on the Super G. Still, Julia, no reason to start a cat fight. Also, Bode Miller vaguely reminds me of someone and it drives me nuts that I can't figure out who it is. I thought it might be Jessie's old roommate but Jessie doesn't think they look alike at all. So maybe I'm crazy.

Bobsled, Skeleton, and Luge: I couldn't watch these too much, because it terrifed the heck out of me.

Snowboarding: I learned that the key to winning a snowboard competition, whether it is snow board cross or half-pipe, is not falling down. This is why I would never win a snowboard competition. I also learned the having long shiny hair will help you win snowboarding medals.

Curling: I admit, I only saw one curling match. And promptly stopped watching it after the announcer called it a 'labor of love'.

Hockey: I didn't watch a single hockey game. I am not Canadian. I don't understand it. I don't know why people love it. I can't really get behind any sport where they only score every two weeks.

I know there are some other events I'm missing. Don't hate me because I'm forgetful. They were all very impressive, I'm sure.I'll miss you, Olympics. Here's to London.