David's New 'Do

On Friday morning, David gave me another chance to prove my awesomeness. This should be prefaced by another story. While Davy and I were dating, David was growing his hair out, when one night he was working on trimming it a little bit because it was totally sweet, yet out of control.(Yeah, that's right, I used the word "yet.") So, I offered to help. The more I helped, the worse his hair looked, not to mention, the shorter it got. The ordeal finally ended when David very nicely said, "Abby, you're a really nice person...but you can't cut hair." Hahaha. He really did say that. (I don't care what you say Love, you did say that to me and I married you anyway.)

So, fast forward four years later. To last Friday morning, when David and I were going to the temple. David was trimming his sideburns, likewise sweet, yet totally out of control. I was watching him as he started to trim the hair on his neck. It looked really hard because he couldn't really see what he was doing, and the job involved him bending his arm back in an awkward position with the buzzers.
So, I thought, "I could do that!" Now it's important to note that when red flags, and smoke bombs should have been going off in both of our heads because of adverse memories from the last time I made David fashionable...nothing happened. I thought to myself, "I've changed. I can do this now. Last time was a fluke."
WRONGO!!!! The same thing happened again. Except this time it was better because, I didn't realize that the buzzers were set at a ONE until they were halfway up the back of his head. (David still wants to know what the buzzers were doing halfway up the back of his head when I was only being allowed to trim his neck. I don't really have a good answer for that one other than those Buzzers are the spawn of Satan and they have a mind of their own. )
As soon as I saw what I had done, I had a mixture of thoughts. 1) hide every mirror in the house, he'll never know. 2) uh-oh. 3) laughing hysterically 4) trying to act repentant about the stripe of baldness up the back of his head...while laughing. Hard to do.
It did take him a while to find a mirror because I wasn't helping. When he saw my pride and joy, he said, "well, there's really no way to fix THAT is there?" (No "Good Job Honey, Give me Five, You're the best, Wow, you really have changed!") Followed by, "I guess I'm buzzing my head today."
So that's the story for why David's hair is shorter than his five o clock shadow right now. The moral of the story, is: remember everything your spouse has ever done wrong, and NEVER give them another chance. And if your spouse says things like "you're a really nice person but..... Don't get mad. Simmer and boil about it for four years, and then get even.
By the way. David you still owe me five bucks for the haircut. (As we always say, the worst part about a five dollar haircut is the 25 bucks it takes to fix it.)

Mckinleys first violin lesson

I taught Mckinley her first violin lesson on Monday. Don't get me wrong! I do know that my daughter is a three year old. I'm really not the type of mother who forces her child into doing things like playing the violin when she is three. However, Mckinley has been very interested for quite a while, and the other night she said she wanted to come to orchestra with me to play her "biolin."
We had to special order new strings for her violin because it is so tiny. (It's a 1/10 size violin.) But she has been so excited to see her violin and practice the little things I've taught her. I actually don't teach Suzuki method violin, and really have no idea how I'm going to teach her because she is so young, so if anyone has any ideas, I would love to hear them.
I have taught very young students in the past, and found that it is really so challenging and takes so much patience, especially if the child does not know how to read. Although, it is also very fun because children are actually very eager to learn new things at this age. Her first lesson was really funny because I wanted her to be practicing things with her bow hand, while she wanted to be playing "music." You can tell by the pictures who won the argument. (Her bow hand is totally incorrect.) But that's ok. We have plenty of time to practice, practice, practice.

"Some say you should practice until you get it right, but the ones who know, say you should practice until you can't get it wrong."
-- Marjorie Bagley, Arcata String Quartet.

The Pulse Reader

Last week, I went to a Pulse Doctor. I know how weird it sounds but it was actually really interesting! A pulse reader is a medical doctor trained in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Specifically, this type of doctor has been taught to feel your pulse and instruct you on how to become healthier by this information. I thought this would be worth a shot because I have been trying to get pregnant since June with no result, and while I can certainly attest to the value of Modern Medicine, I know that there is credibility in a the wide range of natural or homeopathic healing also.
The consultation itself has a sort of "fortune telling" air about it because of the broken English of the Doctor and the fact that you don't offer any information before the Doctor reads your pulse. As he is reading your pulse, he jots down "notes" which look like scribblings and pictures because he is writing in Chinese. You put your wrist on a pillow and the Doctor feels your pulse and then you switch to the other wrist.
After feeling my pulse, the Doctor began by telling me that my menstrual cycles are not regular because of hormonal irregularities and sleep disturbances. At this point, I told him that I was having difficulty getting pregnant and was not sure why, as I didn't even have to try with my first baby. He also said that there is something wrong with my Eggs. ( I still don't know what, because I couldn't understand what he was trying to say.)
After this, he asked me if I had any lower back pain. I thought he was asking about some kind of back injury, which, I don't have. He drew a picture of a kidney bean, which I interpreted to be a picture of an Egg? and he said I was missing Yang there. (I sort of laughed at this because I knew I had lost some Yang somewhere along the line. I wonder where I put it?) I didn't really understand what he was talking about until after the consultation when I was looking again at the picture he had drawn and "Kidney" flashed through my head. (I don't know how I could have forgotten the kidney stone I had last year, but if I need to have some more Yang in my Kidney to not have that experience again, sign me up.)
Another reason that this is so interesting is because everyone that I have talked to has been amazed at how accurate and actually personal his interpretations are. It made me really think how closed my mind is about a lot of these remedies. Chinese medicine has been around for so much longer than what we call Modern Medicine and it seems likely that if it was completely unaffective, it would have been discarded long ago.
So now I am taking some herbs to see if they will restore my Yang, and help me get pregnant. Wish me luck!

Gentlemens Tea Party

I'm very sad that I have no pictures of a recent "Men's Tea Party" that I attended, but that's life, I guess. I guess it wasn't technically a tea party, but I think it was close enough to qualify.
Last Sunday, we invited David's old missionary companion over for dinner. The night ended up being a Chilean night where we had "Once", meaning we ate Chilean food and drank Cafe. (I believe that this drink can be made by burning toast as black as you can get it, and then putting this piece of char into a blender, hitting frappe, and then adding hot water to the mixture. You can buy it at the store under the name of Pero or Postum.) We ate Completos also which are like hot dogs, but you add tomatoes and crushed avocados, ketchup and the special Chilean Mayo. I felt like I needed to go tracting after eating such a monster sized hot dog. It was really yummy though.
The night was filled with David and Curtis recalling memories of their time in Chile. It was so much fun to be able to hear some stories about this turning point time in Davids life. I'm excited for the next time.

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Originally uploaded by abbyholmgren

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There's nothing like June in January!

We had such a fun time visiting some family members in Arizona over New Years. Last summer David's parents moved to Gilbert, Arizona and we hadn't been able to visit them until now. It was really fun to pack up our stuff and head South to enjoy warm weather and fun in the January sun. As we were driving down, we stopped in Vegas, took a wrong turn and ended up in Cocaine town. Seriously we were scared. I debated whether I should jot down my last will and testament just in case we got shot. So after we bought some paraphernalia, we got the heck outta there and ended up on the strip, which was fun for like five minutes. They close down almost every road because of the famous First Night celebration there. So we had to ask for directions for the best way out. When David asked a gas station attendant how to get to Phoenix, he just looked at him in shock and said, "you want to go to Phoenix when you are in Las Vegas, on New Years Eve?" We held to the rod in spite of the peer pressure,(everyone is your friend in Vegas on New Years Eve.) and got back on track. We took the Scenic route and actually drove on the old Route 66 for a while into California. It was dark, but sweet nonetheless.
We rung in the New Year right as we got to Kae and Brad's house and David jumped into the pool to celebrate. (Kae and Brad's pool wasn't heated at all, so the temperature of the pool was 58 degrees. But he did it anyway.) The next day we spent almost the whole day in the swimming pool and hot tub at Grandma and Grandpas. (Theirs was heated.) A highlight of the trip was that we got sunburned in January. For dinner, we had Hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill. I love eating dinner in my swimming suit.
Mckinley was so excited to get to play with Mica while she was there. They had so much fun together and Mckinley wanted to be with Mica and Isaak the whole time we were there.

We also had the fun opportunity to pick oranges and lemons while we were there. I had never done this before and it was so neat to me to see them on the trees. I loaded my handbag up with oranges hoping that my bag would smell like them forever. Such a fabulously fresh smell.

The next day, we had some more fun swimming in the morning. David and his sisters played horse off the diving board. In this picture David is a "HO." hahaha. Kae played too and I was so worried about her the whole time because she is four months pregnant. But she didn't let that stop her from showing her skills.

At some point during the diving challenge, David felt the need to prove that he is a real man by doing a bellyflop on purpose. It was a ten as far as bellyflops go, it even sounded painful. Afterwards, he had a big red welt on his chest.
Later in the afternoon, we went to Isaak's baptism. Way to go Isaak. It was a very special day for him. After the baptism we went back to Kae and Brads and ate Uruguayan? food and played rock band, and yes I did participate. I can't deny that I did actually play. There are pictures to prove it. David is convinced that these aviator glasses are the secret sauce to playing the guitar, and I actually have to agree. I'm a groupie now. I even have his autograph.
It was such a fun trip. We were really glad to be able to go visit. It always feels a little lonely when you don't get to see all of your family at Christmas, and I know that David was especially feeling a little bummed about not being able to be with them, but this trip was the next best thing. Thanks for a fun time, everyone!

New Years Resolutions

A little late, I know. But my New Years Resolutions are written down and I am working on keeping them. I think that 2009 is going to be a pretty good year.
So here is my list:

1) Floss my teeth daily.( I always have this as a resolution and I always inevitably realize I didn't keep my resolve when I'm sitting in the dentists chair regretting every soda pop and sour patch kid I've eaten for the past six months....But not this year!)
2) Prepare a nice Sunday dinner every sunday, with the table set. (The Chicken Pot Pie dinner we had last
Sunday doesn't count.)
3)Ration sugar to one treat per day. (This is practically going to be an identity change for me.)
4)Have a Baby!!!! We will see, but I'm really hoping.
5) Go to the Temple monthly.(Check out some new Temples this year.)
6)Read Scriptures daily.
7)Get my house decorated and keep it clean.
8)Pay off at least one Debt.
9)More quality time with McKinley.
10) Read at least one Book per month.

That's the list! Pretty typical for me, as I like to incorporate healthy living, religion and family goals into my resolutions.

something new that we also did this year, David and I both wrote down 5 fun things that we wanted to do this year, and then we drew out of a cup six winners. Some of them may not happen, but this time of year is about setting goals, not being too caught up in reality, right?
The six winners were:
1) Go to Arizona to visit Davids Parents for New Years: Check.
2) Go to a Ballet: Guess who picked this one?
3) Go on a shopping spree. (It may be a 20 dollar shopping spree, but it will be fun, fun, fun!)
4) Lake trip, with SKINNY DIPPING! Yup,we really are going to do it!
5) Hike the Narrows. (This may conflict with my plans for being pregnant.) If it does, maybe we will go to Mexico!
6) Go to Disneyland. This is Mckinley drawing out a paper. She drew out the shopping spree one.

I always love this time of year because there are so many things to look forward to in the upcoming year.