A Young Man's Fancy

I can't ever think of that quote, "Spring . . . when a young man's fancy turns to thoughts of love" without remembering a certain speech our mission president's wife gave us while I was on my my mission. I'm pretty sure she meant us to think of Christlike love--but as soon as she opened with that quote, everyone started laughing--because romantic love is one thing a missionary shouldn't be thinking of!

However, it seems appropriate for this week's post, since Andrew apparently has his first crush. It's kind of sweet, actually. This week he came home and said, "Mom, can I make a bracelet for someone in my class?"

At first, he wouldn't tell me who. He finally confessed it was a young lady named Alyssa (I've volunteered in his class and can vouch that she's a nice girl. In fact, I distinctly remember Alyssa telling Andrew, "I like you, Andrew. You're funny.") Apparently she chases him at recess, and, since this is an exercise that Andrew usually despises, I think it's worth noting that Andrew doesn't seem to mind so much that Alyssa chases him.

I asked him, teasingly, "So does this mean she's your girlfriend?"

Andrew hunched his shoulders. "I don't know."

But he didn't say no! So there you have it. (I'm wondering if it's purely coincidence that Alyssa looks a little like Andrew's cousin Emi--same dark hair, fair skin and freckles. Except Alyssa is a little stockier and sometimes wears glasses).

Of course, he's now making bracelets for his entire class because I convinced him that the other girls might feel sad if they were left out. He made bracelets for all 10 girls, but then when he went to hand them out, the boys wanted them too. I love that kindergartners aren't as concerned yet about gender distinctions--like the fact that most boys don't wear bead bracelets.

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We tried to take pictures of the kids in their Easter clothes last Sunday to make up for our missed Easter pics. This is about as good as it got.



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This past week has been a busy one--mostly for me (in a change from last week, where it was Dan's busy week). I think Thursday night was the only night I didn't have something going on. Tuesday was Young Women's, Wednesday I went to a dinner on campus for Phi Kappa Phi (they're trying to start a branch at the local university, and since I was inducted as an undergrad, I get to be a faculty representative. Or something.) Friday I had my writer's group, and Saturday my book group had dinner at the pastry pub. Needless to say, I didn't get as much work done as I'd hoped! However, this week was a lighter week--next week starts my crazy week as my students turn in final papers and we head into finals weeks.

We had a lovely weekend. Friday morning we got the start of our garden in (we planted some zucchini, summer squash, and carrots). I'm still sore from all the bending over that the pre-planting weeding entailed, though.

Saturday morning we went down to SG and had breakfast at the Golden Corral with Bubby and Poppy. I think this is Andrew's new favorite restaurant, since he can get anything he wants (including gummy bears!) for breakfast. Then Dan and I went to the temple while Bubby and Poppy generously watched the kids. We had a lovely lunch afterward at Capriatti's, Bubby and Poppy's new favorite sandwich joint, and then had to hustle back home so I could attend a baby shower for a friend. (Like I said, a busy week).

The weather has been glorious and spring like, but the heat in SG (it was nearly 90 degrees yesterday) has me wondering how we're (I'm) going to survive the summer.

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Which brings me to the final point of my post.

Some of you already know this, but I think I'm finally ready to make it official: we're expecting baby #3 sometime at the end of August. And in case you were wondering what we're having, well, I think this picture says it all. (Even Andrew could tell what it was).



It's been rough getting here. We had two miscarriages last year. I won't go into all the details here, but if you're interested, you can read some of my reflections on them at Segullah: here, here, and finally, here. (I know, it's weird that I can post something so personal in a large forum like Segullah because I feel relatively anonymous there--but here, where everyone actually knows *me* it's much harder to post really personal things). I'm grateful for all the prayers that have helped us get this far!

In completely unrelated news (then again, maybe it's not so unrelated!), I chopped my hair. Here's a picture, for the few people who haven't already seen it on Facebook: