Rebecca's Place

5 Sep 2008

My Jordan

I am crazy about my son.  He's 19 months old now, and he's kept me pretty busy, so I'm afraid I haven't written much about him.  He's absolutely delightful!  He has cottony blond hair, and these big blue eyes that are to die for.  When he laughs, everything wrong in the world becomes muffled.  It's magic.

He's definitely a "mama's boy".  No one can fix things for him or comfort him like I can, which is great for my self esteem as well as exhausting in every way.  I see so much of my Eric in him, though, how can I help loving being loved by him.  He has been such an incredible blessing in my life, and my heart still flutters when I watch him sleep, or when he hugs me without being prompted. 

Although Jordan doesn't talk yet, I'm still somehow able to understand him, at least a lot of the time.  I know what he needs, I know what he likes and doesn't like, and I know many of his desires and his frustrations.  Weird how things like that come naturally to a mom--even a lost and confused mom like me.

I've memorized him from every angle, so well that I can picture him perfectly in my mind.  Yet I can still spend long moments at a time looking at him and marveling at everything about him.  He has such cute hands, and the back of his neck is adorable when he's watching something intently.  Everything about Jordan is this beautiful energy that often brings me smiles and tears of love.  There is an intensity about him that I know is going to take him far . . . though I hope never too far away from me.

7 Feb 2008

Some Favorite Quotes

If you know me, you know I love to quote movies.  I have hundreds and hundreds of "favorite" movie lines, but here are a few I can think of right at the moment.  (Sorry if they're not exact.  Some of these shows I haven't seen in years, and I don't have time to go through my DVD's and check right now).

"It was magic?  That explains everything!"

-- Cinderella III

"You set your heart too much on frivolous things, and then crash down into despair when you don't get them."

"I know.  I can't help flying up on the wings of anticipation.  It's as glorious as soaring through a sunset... Almost pays for the thud."

-- Anne of Green Gables

"I'm forty, I'm not married, I don't fly jets, and I don't have a dog?!  I grow up to be a loser."

-- The Kid

"I've just had an apostrophe."

"I think you mean an epiphany."

"Lightnin' has just struck my brain."

"That must have hurt."

-- Hook

"Take a letter.  Dear ... Mr. ... Hodgeson.  The shipment of floor wax we received from you yesterday ... was rancid."

-- Thoroughly Modern Millie

"What is this?  A center for ants?  How can we be expected to teach children to learn how to read good if they can't even fit inside the building?"

"Derek, this is just a small--"

"I don't want to hear your excuses! The building has to be at least ... three times bigger than this."

-- Zoolander

"Yuh mother and I send yuh tuh duh finest Catholic schools, and look at yuh.  A disgrace.  You look like you just stepped off duh runway at Minsky's!"

"I'm a modern thirties woman."

"It's duh music you kids listen to tuh-day.  Bing Crosby, Cab Calloway.  Don't think I haven't heard duh lyrics tuh 'Minnie da Moocher'."

-- Oscar

"...The Castle of Aaaaggh."

"What is that?"

"He must have died while carving it."

"Oh, come on!"

"Well, that's what it says."

"Look, if he was dying he wouldn't bother to carve "aaaaggh."  He'd just say it!"

"Well, that's what's carved in the rock!"

"Perhaps he was dictating."

-- Monty Python and the Holy Grail

"We must haff a wowwy."

"A wowwy?  What's a wowwy?"

"You know, a wodge gazzewing of mice fowe a weason."

"Oh, a rally!"

"Sat's what I sait.  A wowwy."

-- An American Tail

"...Too many notes"

"I don't understand. There are just as many notes as I require, neither more nor less."

"I believe I'm right in saying this, that there are, in fact, only so many notes an ear can hear in the course of an evening."

"This is absurd!"

"My dear young man, don't take it too hard.  Your work is ingenius.  It's quality work.  And there are simply too many notes, that's all.  Just cut a few and it'll be perfect.."

"Which few did you have in mind, Majesty?"

-- Amadeus

"I am a princess.  All girls are. Even if they live in tiny old attics.  Even if they dress in rags.  Even if they aren't pretty or smart or young.  They're still princesses.  All of us.  Didn't your father ever tell you that?  Didn't he?!"

-- A Little Princess

"One bunch snubs ya if you don't do right, the other bunch snubs ya if you do.  What a zoo!"

-- Freaky Friday

"I have a headache"

"It might be a tumor."

"It's not a toomah!  It's not a toomah!  At all!"

-- Kindergarten Cop

"I've got a dirty thumb."

-- Robin Hood

1 Feb 2008

More Cami-isms I Don't Want to Forget

"It-dih work" (It didn't work)

"Prince Monster" (President Monson)

"Owussat?" (What was that?)

"Alligator" (Elevator)

"Once air wusser snowman... tall, tall, tall... Inner sunny mountain... small, small, small" (Once there was a snowman... tall, tall, tall... In the sun he melted... small, small, small)

"Water's poking me" (It's raining)

"Round the world ball" (Globe)

"Gargerwhale" (Gargoyle)

"July Elevent" (Cami's Birthday)

"Fairywary Second" (Jordan's Birthday)

"Remember Fith" (Jaycee's Birthday)

"Tinkerbell, Tinkerbell, tinker all away, oma falla liss to live inna white an dripped in sleigh-ay!" (Repeat very loudly at least 25 times, and you've got Cami's version of Jingle Bells.)

19 Jan 2008

My DVD Player

You know, I love movies.  But I'm also very very picky about movie content. I don't want to see or hear all they yucky stuff that Hollywood seems to feel the necessity to add to just about everything.  Well, about a year and a half ago, I found one of my most favorite possessions.  It's a special DVD player I bought from a company called ClearPlay (www.clearplay.com) that edits movies for you.  It's definitely worth the investment.  After purchasing the player, you buy a monthly or yearly membership, and periodically download movie filters onto a memory stick on your computer.  Then you put that into a USB port on the player, put in a DVD, and -- ta-dah! -- it's edited for content as you watch.  (You can adjust the filter settings as you like.)  There are a few thousand movies, I think, that are filtered, and they add updates all the time.  So if you don't want to miss out on the movies, but would rather go without the trash -- look into it.

1 Oct 2007

Cami-isms

As Cami experiences more and more of life, she does her best to talk about it in a sophisticated way, and she tries to get as close to the right words as she can. Sometimes they come out pretty cute. Here are some of her linguistic treasures.

"Thirty Bubbles" (Fruity Pebbles)

"Chicken-eat-da Banana" (Chiquita Banana)

"Honeybee" (Sunny D)

"I gotta work" (Play on the computer. You can tell what she hears from me a lot when I work at home.)

"Click-a-da-Cups" (Play on the PBS Kids website. Her first internet experience was counting cups with Count Dracula. She's really good at navigating the web now.)

"Ah lie foo" (I love you.  This one went away a little while ago.)

"Need-a watchin' en-enna movie" (I want to watch a movie.  "En" is filler sound for Cami.  When it seems like there should be a word there, but she doesn't know what it is, she fills the space in with that.)

"A big mean en-enna dane-jriss dime-a-shore" (A big mean and dangerous dinosaur)

"Statulee Liverty" (Statue of Liberty)

"I wanna hode jew" (I want you to hold me)

"...Teach me all en en enna do to live in him Sunday" (Teach me all that I must do to live with him someday - I Am a Child of God.)

"Ark house" (Our house)

22 Sep 2007

Can You Name Your Top 10 Favorite Music Artists?

I think these are mine…

1.      Shakira

2.     Metallica

3.     Collective Soul

4.     Madonna

5.     Aerosmith

6.     Evanescence

7.     The Offspring

8.     Creed

9.     Skid Row

10.    Jimmy Eat World

Of course I like hundreds of artist, so this list is tough to make solid, but I tried.  A top 20 would probably be easier to make.

If you think you can do it, send it here.  I'm interested.

Feb 2007

My Little Contribution

Between full-time work, wife, mom, and housekeeper, I don’t have a lot of time to write or draw anymore, so I don’t have a ton to contribute to my own page right now.  Most of my creativity goes into my job.  Whatever time and creative juices I can squeeze out off the clock these days have gone into designing this website.  So for now I just try to make little entries as I find time.  One of these days I’ll get back into talent development.

June 2006

Old Papers

I love writing - academically, religiously, personally - and have done a lot of it.  I've included here a few of the academic papers I have written in the past.  It's just a hobby, but one I love.  I hope you enjoy these.

The Forgotten Man

Educational Testing

Beethoven & Bernini

     (with music & slideshow)

Aug 2004

About Me

I was born in 1976 in San Francisco, CA—the second of seven children.  I loved being a child, always on the lookout for adventure and usually in trouble because of it.  I graduated from high school in Modesto, CA in 1994.  I served a mission for the LDS Church in Raleigh, North Carolina from December 1997 to June 1999.  I graduated from Brigham Young University in Provo, UT in 2003 with a bachelor of arts degree in Humanities with a literature emphasis and an English minor.

I’m fairly quiet and shy, and often like to keep to myself.  I live in my imagination a lot.  But if I find a comfortable situation I can be quite outgoing.  If you ask Eric, he would tell you I’m stubborn.  I do consciously try to be open and compromising, and sometimes succeed at it.

I love music—lots of different music from every era.  Rock and pop, both soft and loud, oldies (1960’s), hymns.  I love musicals and showtunes, and I love classical music—especially Mozart.  I love to sing, whether I’m any good or not.  I like to read and I love to write.  I’ve always loved drawing, though I’ve never really excelled at it.  I enjoy speed, particularly roller coasters.  My favorite outdoor activity is biking.  I could ride for hours, and I enjoy being out in nature and appreciating its beauty.

My favorite color is yellow.  My favorite candy is Skittles.  My favorite movie is a toss up between Beauty and the Beast and Hook.  My favorite food is a Skippy Super Chunk Peanut Butter and Smuckers Strawberry Preserves sandwich on wheat bread (always eaten in a perfect circle from the outside to the center).    My favorite drink is skim milk.  My favorite TV show is I Love Lucy.  My favorite book is Harold and the Purple Crayon.  My favorite singer is Shakira.  My favorite hymns are “Redeemer of Israel”, “Be Still My Soul” and “How Firm a Foundation.”  My favorite painting is The Forgotten Man by Maynard Dixon.  My favorite flower is a dandelion.  My favorite fruit is an orange.  My favorite vegetable is broccoli.  My favorite animals are cats.  My least favorite animals are pet birds.  My favorite meal is breakfast cereal—any time of day.  My favorite smells are pencils and wet pavement.

When I don’t have something specific to do with my hands, I fidget with whatever happens to be within reach.  Eric says I make funny facial expressions when I talk and he tries to imitate them, but I don’t think he’s doing it right.  I laugh embarrassingly loud when I’m tickled, and my jaw shivers when I’m cold.  A great deal of what I say in life probably came from a movie line.  Animated Disney movies have always been my favorites.  I particularly enjoy scary movies that make you think.  I would rather watch an action movie than a “chick flick.”

I don’t like country music or ironing clothes.  As a child I preferred riding skateboards and playing swords, rather than playing with dolls or playing house.  I would rather mow the lawn or change the oil in the car than wash the dishes or vacuum.  I’ve always been a tom-boy, although I definitely have sensitive feminine emotions and cry in movies like Anne of Green Gables, Beauty and the Beast, and Return of the Jedi (such a good ending).

I love to analyze—books, movies, music, lyrics, art, language, behavior . . . pretty much everything.  I’m fascinated with the English language and pay close attention to the way other people speak.  I love speaking in different accents.  If I could meet anyone in history, I would want to meet Walt Disney.  I love to play games, whether I win or not.  But when I do win, I’m pretty happy about it.  I love education and strongly believe that it’s essential throughout life.  I’m always looking for things to learn.  I want to know everything someday.

It’s very important to me, and I always try, to give people the highest respect, no matter who they are or how they live.  I never truly understood love until I knew Eric.  I never truly understood beauty until I knew Cami.  I love life, I love the Lord, and my family makes me happy.