show off

There was this girl at the gym and she was stretching and she was swinging her right leg back and forth like a pendulum or a metronome or something like that. I'm pretty sure I saw her toe touch her ear.

Show off.

a love not meant to be

I am in love.

I am in love with this cake plate. Look at it!! Just look at the punchy color, at its wavy-ness, at its adorable cake-plate-iness. I was blog browsing, and whilst perusing design sponge or cup of jo (I can't remember which), I saw this.

It calls to me. It says "Andrea, you love me. You want to take me home and make lots of cakes and love me forever. Also I cost a million dollars. That's not a problem, is it?"

And I'm like "uh....it kind of is a problem. Because I'm married and my husband might collapse if he knew about our secret love and he would SURELY collapse if he knew I was even THINKING about taking you home with me. Which, by the way, I am not." (that was for Paul. So he doesn't worry.)

Unless, when I am checking my pants pockets before doing laundry, I find a million dollars. If that happens, I am totally buying this.

Until then, our love can never be.

Sigh.

Also you can find this at www.iacolimcallister.bigcartel.com. I won't be jealous if you are also shot in the heart by cupid's cruel arrow.

I mean, how could you not be?

this is what we look like

Well, this is what we look like when we spend lots of time getting ready and then we have our super amazing talented friend Seth take our picture. We're just about ready to be approved for adoption, and we figured it might be good to have some recent pics taken of us.

Seth did an amazing job. You can see more of his work at kendraandseth.blogspot.com, or smootshoot.blogspot.com. Need an amazing picture taken? You should totally pick Seth. I mean, Paul hates having his picture taken (and when I say hate, I mean HATE), and Seth was able to coax this fairly positive expression out of him. How about that!!! See how Paul totally doesn't look like he wants me dead for forcing him to do this? That's all Seth, man.

I think this is the pic we'll use for our adoption profile. I feel like it's a fairly accurate representation of us.For example, we're clothed. And most of the time, we do make a habit of wearing clothes. We're smiling. Again, most of the time, true. Unless Paul is trying to make me eat vegetables, in which case probably neither of us is smiling.

Well done, Seth. We couldn't have done it without you!!

duck duck goose and the constant love of God

Sometimes when you're three, it's hard to concentrate.

Especially at church.

See, we Mormons really, really like church. We like it so much that we go for three hours every week. For the first hour, everyone meets together, in what is called sacrament meeting. We take the sacrament, listen to talks, and sometimes, if you're me, you make faces at the cute babies around you.

The second and third hour, the moms and dads and other adults get to go to classes kid-free.

And that's where I come in.

Paul and I are fortunate enough to have the calling of hanging out with everyone under the age of four. Now, being called to help out in nursery isn't everyone's favorite. There are these urban legends of people crying or throwing tantrums when they get asked. For me, though, it is maybe one of the best things in the world. Right up there with eating chocolate and getting a pedicure, only a little messier and louder.

I mean, what's not to like about nursery? We have snack, we play, I try to teach them stuff like don't throw that chair and please keep your shirt on (literally and figuratively) and sometimes you need to let someone else use the rocking horse. It's awesome.

As fun as snack and playtime are, the most important part of nursery, really, is to teach these little people that there is a God who loves them, who cares about them and who will help and comfort them. A God who knows what is important to them.

Imparting this life-altering information can be kind of a challenge when you're working with people who have an attention span that lasts about as long as it takes to say "bacon".

So, we get creative. We try to use pictures, stories, games, anything that will keep them engaged and hopefully drive home the message that not only is it inappropriate to climb on the table, but Heavenly Father loves them and will help them if compulsive table-climbing is the pressing issue in their lives.

So, one Sunday when I ran out of ideas, a new one popped into my head: duck duck goose. We played the game, but when "goose" was uttered, instead of jumping up and running around the circle, we would give the child a hug and say "Heavenly Father loves YOU, (insert kid's name)!!".

And it worked. Like a charm. They loved it. They giggled, they laughed, their little eyes lit up and they wanted to play over and over and over again. Elizabeth, one of the other nursery workers, pointed out that our modification could make any future experiences they have with duck duck goose kind of interesting. She's right, but I guess there are worse things.

It's great to see these tiny adults-in-training respond, but I wonder sometimes how much of what we teach is getting through. I remember one time when my brother David was little and mom asked him what he learned in nursery and he indicated that the main message was "sit down and be quite or you're going to hang with mom".

I mean, you can't really blame them. They're three. I'd rather play with toys than learn how to sit in a chair and not run screaming in circles around the room. I get it.

So yesterday, my heart was warmed to the core when we played the game and little Addy said "I be the teacher", and proceeded to go around the room, saying in her cute little Addy voice "duck, duck, duck..."

And then, while hugging the girl she had selected, bellowed:

"GOOSE!!!! HEAVENLY FATHER LOVES YOU, ELLA!!!"

And I immediately melted into a puddle of Andrea goo.

a good day for soup

This is one of those days when you don't make your bed because it's all gray and rainy and you just want to get wrapped up in blankets and drink hot cocoa and have soup and grilled cheese. There's just something about soup and hot cocoa and grilled cheese that makes an unmade bed kind of delightful.

this is beauty

Go to http://mingmakescupcakes.yolasite.com/ for more mouth-watering recipes. I think I am in LOOOOOOOOVVVVVE!!!!!!!

gym showers are gross

I took my first gym shower yesterday.

I know, I know, I was all like "THAT'SSOGROSSIWILLNEVERDOTHAT", but I had to babysit right after class, and I didn't want to have to go back, so after a little hyperventilating, I decided it just made more sense to shower and get ready there.

Not being at all sure of the proper protocol, it took me a little time to figure out what to bring. Blow dryer? Makeup? Have a vanity table delivered?

By the time I was done with my workout, I had spent an hour giving myself a pep-talk. You can do this. You can shower in the same room as other people. It probably won't be weird. Stop thinking about the shower scene in Carrie. I bet those stories about fungal infections are just old wives tales.

Honestly, I wanted nothing so much as to stop someone, some well meaning girl, and tell her I am a gym shower newbie and ask for advice. I kept waiting for the right moment, but everyone was kinda not dressed. Call me old fashioned, but I like people I introduce myself to to have a shirt on.

I wasn't sure if the whole disrobing thing happened before or after entering the shower area, so I erred on the side of modesty and trotted into the dimly lit, shower-head lined room in my full workout regalia only there wasn't anywhere to put my clothes so then I tried to play it cool and was like "oh, good, I was really hoping I could rinse out my gym clothes. Two birds with one stone, know what I mean?"

And I took the fastest shower ever. Really, I think I showered so fast that I actually went back in time. And then I raced back to my locker, where I would gladly have changed inside my locker, were that possible.

This is not something I would like to repeat. Although I do feel a certain sense of accomplishment.