If you can't afford a vacation, ask someone else for one.

Today Jessie and I decided to try something new. We're finally giving in to those persistent telemarketers (to whom just about everyone we know seems to refer us) and going to listen to one of the spiels about timeshares in hopes that we'll get a free vacation out of it. We figure that we're not likely to take a vacation in the next year unless someone gives it to us for free, so why not try and mooch one off of annoying salespeople? We've actually had friends (hi Liz and Joe) who have done it and told us it's worth it, so we're a little more confident than we would be otherwise. Also, as said friends pointed out, it's really easy to say no to a $30,000 timeshare when you don't have $30,000.

Madeline's going to be super-excited about this venture, because it means she gets to play with Grandma Lundstrom. (It's so weird to call my mom that. To me, that name refers to Leona Lundstrom of Logan, Utah.) She's recently decided that she likes to throw fits when she's left with other people. Madeline, not my mother. She's supposedly too young to have developed a fear of strangers, but I'm skeptical. The more she recognizes Jessie and I, the more she seems to know that other people aren't her parents. She's a pretty smart little girl. Too smart, sometimes. I'm fearful of what tricks she'll pull on us as a teenager. She'll probably be sneaking out of the house and running off to join the circus and we'll never even know.

Maybe a ghoul lives in my attic.

My house makes really strange noises. A lot. Even as I write this, I can hear things blowing down the now-boarded-up pipe in the spare bedroom, and it sounds like someone trying to crawl down into the house. The trees are growing all over the roof, and anytime there's the slightest wind, there is a lot of random loud banging. Also, I am fairly certain we've got a nest of birds in the attic and that various other animals use our roof as a track for Olympic training. It often sounds like there's someone coming up the walk on our rickety wooden bridge when there actually isn't. The sad part is, I'm fairly used to all these noises now, so if someone tried to break in or a giant tree fell on the roof I probably wouldn't bat an eye. The only noise I respond to anymore is the distinct cry of a certain four month old, which incidentally, I can hear anywhere in the house, sleeping or waking, no matter what volume she's pitching a fit at. I love selective hearing.

Madeline likes movies better than doctors. Strange.

Well, we survived the doctor's visit today, and I would like to inform my mother, the doctor did NOT yell at me for giving Madeline rice cereal before 4 months. I actually like Madeline's doctor. She's very easy to talk to, and thinks Madeline is a pretty doll, which earns her extra points. Actually, all the nurses thought Madeline was gorgeous. Which doesn't surprise me in the least. I knew all along she was the prettiest baby ever. :-) It was hard to watch her get her shots, but she was pretty brave and only yelled at me once or twice for subjecting her to pain. Actually, she disliked having her stomach and ears looked at almost more than she disliked the shots. She told me pretty loudly that she did not approve and gave me a much more reproachful look than a four month old should be capable of. I laughed when the nurses asked me if she hass started rolling from side to side like she might be getting ready to roll over. She rolled across the entire living room yesterday. I can't get her to hold still. Except to watch Chronicles of Narnia. We decided to push our luck and take Madeline to a matinee last Saturday, because Jessie has been wanting to see Prince Caspian since it came out.She was so quiet the whole time that it stunned me. Granted, she was asleep about half the movie, but the other half she was as attentive as I've ever seen her. I think we have a future movie buff on our hands. It must be because I let her watch t.v. with me so much. Normally I'm not too bad, but with the Olympics on, we watch a lot. Jessie and I are addicted. I stayed up way past my bedtime last night to see if the men's gymnastics team would medal. I'm glad they did. I'd hate to be tired for nothing.

And the French fell, and the fall thereof was great.

I like the French. I do. In fact, I probably like France a lot more than most Americans. I'm always trying to convince Jessie that French is just as cool and useful a language as Spanish (which is probably not true, at least here in Utah, but you'll never hear me admit that to him.) However, last night I was proud to be bashing on those arrogant, trash-talking French. As many of you may have deduced, I'm talking about the Olympic men's 400m freestyle relay, in which our mighty U.S. men put those overrated European blow-hards to shame. It's because of races like last night that you should never, ever, ever trash talk your opponents, even if you're 99% sure you're going to beat them. (This is a skill I'm still trying to learn in Speed Scrabble, but honestly: I'm practically untouchable.) So I'd just like to give a shout out to the Olympic team, especially my new hero, Jason Lezak. Because as much as I love you, Michael Phelps, and am rooting for you to break all the records, we all know it was Lezak who pulled it out. Go team.

I would not wear skintight revealing attire even if I was in the Olympics. Ugh.

I'm pretty excited for the Olympics to start. I've never been as big a sports fan as my brother (love you Curtis) but there's something about the Olympics that I just love. Maybe it's the same reason I love March Madness. It's a one-time shot in the biggest competition ever, where underdogs can get gold medals and every event is life or death for the people in it. Then, of course, you've got the patriotic angle, so you've got a personal stake in athletes you've never heard of before, and you won't even be accused of being a bandwagon jumper. My favorite event has got to be gymnastics. So the last Olympics, when the good old US of A did so well in the individual competitions, I was extremely pleased. Swimming is great too-except for the Speedos. Goodness, I hate Speedos. I know they're supposed to be aerodynamic and everything, but they are SO UGLY. That's right. I rarely use caps to make a point, but I feel very strongly about this one. I was watching a story this morning on the news about the new aerodynamic Speedos that all the athletes had to have this year, because they supposedly make you super fast. Even the star swimmer of Japan is wearing them instead of the top Japanese brand he's supposed to wear to support national pride, which, and I quote from the newscaster, "is akin to LeBron James wearing Puma with Nike's blessing". Apparently they're super hard to get into as well; you have to wear little plastic sleeves or oil and Band-aids on your fingers and toes to get the swimsuit over them, and then you unroll it like pantyhose. As a big opponent of pantyhose, I have to wonder if they really want to win that badly. At any rate, I'm just glad they'll be something good on for the next few weeks. I've been watching way too much Judge Judy.

Let them (aka me) eat cake.

Sometimes I randomly makes desserts for no good reason. Is that bad? I don't think it's so weird when I just randomly make brownies. They're pretty ordinary. Besides, sometimes they're the only way I can get my chocolate fix, since I've been doing so good about keeping sweets out of the house. Although Jessie doesn't help. He constantly picks up snacks and ice cream and candy when he's at the store. This is good for our relationship, but not so good for my diet. Anyway, back to the desserts. Right now I have a strange urge to make a cake. There is pretty much no good reason to do so. No birthdays, celebrations, company, etc. But I just really want cake. I bought some for my brother's birthday, just so I could tell him I ate it, but I was to lazy to actually bake it, so now I have a couple boxes of cake mix and some frosting just sitting around in my kitchen, taunting me when I get cravings for junk food. Maybe I'll make up an occasion. With a new car and Jessie's raise, I'm sure I could think of something. Or maybe I'll use Madeline's 4-month mark as an excuse.

Speaking of Madeline, I can't believe it's already been four months. It seems like I've been on full-time baby duty for my whole life. It's hard to imagine working a normal job now, or not having a baby to consider whenever I go anywhere or do anything. I wonder if all moms get this sort of tunnel vision after having kids. I mean, really, the next big event in my life is taking Madeline to her 4 month appointment so I can see how big she is now. And so she can get shots. I really, really, really hate watching her get shots. She was pretty brave last time, and only cried for about a minute- but she's older and more aware now, and I'm afraid she's going to realize that I'm letting the nurses treat her this way and hold it against me. We'll see how she fares. With any luck, she'll fall asleep right after and wake up with no recollection of the trauma. I, on the other hand, will probably not be so lucky.

Madeline's awake; Jessie's working; I'm trying to stay alert

I think I am finally coherent today. It's always good when it takes you until 4:00 to be fully awake. The culprit is, of course, Madeline. I thought we were past the days when she woke up every night every three hours, but she has recently indicated an interest in returning to these patterns. After almost a week of this behavior, I broke down and began feeding her rice cereal. This is an incredibly cute thing to watch, by the way. She never had a problem with the new flavor or eating off of a spoon; she just went right at it like a ravenous wolf, amazing both Jessie and I. (Especially since she won't touch formula. Silly girl.) The rice cereal helped for a while, but last night she had another repeat and decided to wake up every hour, in what is hopefully just another phase. All the books I've read on this say you should just let her cry herself back to sleep, but I'm finding this virtually impossible because a) it breaks my heart b) I get back to sleep more quickly if I just feed or cuddle her and c) she has the loudest scream on the planet and wakes up Jessie if I let her scream for more than a minute, from anywhere in the house. The last thing we need is Jessie falling asleep at work. ;-) So instead, I walk around like a zombie several mornings a week and am thinking about instituting a daily cry myself at 3 am every morning. Ah, motherhood. On the plus side, Madeline gets cuter every day (during the daylight hour, that is.) She very clearly recognizes Jessie and I and smiles so big when she sees me that it makes me forget I'm tired (sometimes).

On another topic: Congratulations to my sweet hubby for getting a raise at work! He's pretty much the best worker you've ever seen, so it didn't surprise me at all. Apparently his boss is just as obsessed with Excel and organizing as Jessie is. That's all I can figure.