An Open Letter

To All Patrons of the Theatre,

Don’t arrive late. It’s just rude. I know that sometimes there are circumstances beyond your control Sometimes there are accidents or bad weather. Maybe you should plan a little extra time for travel to account for the unexpected.

If you do arrive late, shut your mouth as the usher shows you to your seats. Don’t continue to discuss the unexpected event that made you late, hoping that those around you will overhear your conversation and assume that you are not really late, since it wasn’t your fault. That just makes those around you dislike you even more.

And speaking of late, don’t wait so long to order your tickets that you won’t be able to sit with your entire party, and then yell across rows of people to the rest of your friends. It’s just rude. As you wait for the show to start, get up and go talk to whomever you want to, but don’t make everyone listen to your life story. Especially when you have a voice like yours (yeah lady behind me the other night, you know who you are)! And extra especially if you realize right before curtain that you left your cell phone in the bathroom. Nobody needs to know that it was in your hand, and you don’t know where you put it. The mental images that conjures are just wrong. Then, as the lights are dimming and the gentleman is telling everyone to turn off their cell phones and enjoy the show, when your cell phone rings (loudly) don’t pick it up and have a conversation telling that person that you thought you lost it and your daughter is off looking for it in the bathroom! Just turn it off and wait until intermission to apologize to your daughter for making her miss curtain while searching a bathroom. Especially if your daughter is sitting several rows of people away from you.

When you bring children to the theatre, please be mindful of what they are doing. The person in front of you does not keep turning around to look at your child because he’s so good looking. It’s probably because your child is doing something annoying – like kicking the seat in front of him. So when the patron in front of your child politely asks them to stop kicking the seat, don’t look at her like she is rude for talking. And when the musical (or other event) is over, don’t stop the kind beautiful woman who was annoyed by your child and say “I’m sorry he was kicking your seat. He just doesn’t understand that he’s not at the movies.” Because I’ve got news for you – That’s not okay at the movies either!!!

And speaking of when the musical is over – it’s not over until the house lights come up. This is not a football game where your team is up 54-6 with 40 seconds left. It’s not over until the performers are done with their bows. Don’t start walking out at the end of the finale to beat traffic. Be respectful of all the time these performers put in to give you a few hours of entertainment. Because I’ve got news for you – it may be dark where you’re standing, but the actors can still see you. And it hurts a little that you don’t care enough to stand for a few extra seconds and clap for their talents and efforts.

Sincerely,

A Patron of the Arts (who has at least a little class)

Boutique

It's time for our annual holiday boutique. For the last several years my sister and cousin and I have had a holiday boutique. While my cousin is unable to be there this year, and Steph no longer sells Pampered Chef (she will be hosting a catalog party for the boutique), we have been able to add Kate's photography, Mom and Barry (the brother, not the father)'s yummy baked goods - think delicious caramels...- and a friend's cute little girl fun stuff!

I'm really excited about it this year. In years past, I've been set up to sell Mary Kay at the boutique. While I will still have that available, this year I will be selling my new handbags and accessories. I've just started making bags, wallets, and accessories to sell online. It's my new business - The Busy Bean. Visit my new website to see what I'm making! www.thebusybean.com. Okay, right now there's really only one post there with the first bag I designed and made, but I'm working on finishing a few other styles and getting those pictures up as well. I've also finished a necklace and bracelet - with more to come.

While these will all be available at the boutique, I'll soon open up an etsy shop to sell them as well. The goal is for me to do this and teach piano, and be able to stay home with our girls. Being home for six weeks when Kelsey was born really made me realize how important that is. While it's great that they are always with family while I'm at work, I think it's still important for me to be with them more. And if I'm home, then Brad will get to spend more time with us all as well.

So, wish me luck, and tell all your friends about me - because all women need more handbags, right? And who wouldn't want a unique bag, instead of the same old store-bought, mass-produced bags everyone else carries? Come see the debut on December 5th!

Gone, Baby, Gone...

The mullet's gone. Yes, my child had a mullet. It wasn't intentional, just the way her hair was growing. And it was so long in the back I just couldn't bring myself to cut it! Until today.

And yes, she was cute before, but now she looks even better.

On another note, I meant to post this a week ago, but time just gets away from me. On General Conference Sunday, my family gathered at the Aunts' house to watch conference and do some humanitarian projects. We made games for the Humanitarian Center and blankets for Primary Children's Hospital. While we were there, Lottie finally let go. She's been walking with assistance for so long, but wouldn't really go more than a step or two on her own. Then that all changed...

Kelsey McKinley

I guess a week and a half is too long, and I should have put up some pictures of Kelsey long ago, but I just spend too much time cuddling her to get on the computer.

Kelsey was born last Wednesday (missed Aunt Della's birthday by 17 minutes... so sad for Aunt Della) at 12:16 a.m. She weighed 7 lbs 13 oz and was 21 inches long. For being 1 1/2 pounds more than Lottie, her delivery sure was a lot easier.

They induced me on Tuesday at about 4:30, I got an epidural when the contractions got uncomfortable, and at 9:30 I was still only at 4.5 cm. Yeah, I'd been almost that far along for three weeks on my own! But from there it went pretty quickly, I was ready to start pushing at midnight. My doctor got there at 12:10 a.m. and told me to start pushing. I was expecting this to be a long process, since I pushed with Lottie for about two hours. So, he said "Give me a big push" and tried, but started coughing. Gave him another good push, then he said "Okay, now another big push for the shoulders" and I was in shock! It couldn't be that easy, right? Instead of pushing I ended up coughing again. One more push and it was over, so I pretty much coughed Kelsey right out.

Now, my sister-in-law Kate is pretty much awesome. She's our family photographer, and we're lucky to have her. Visit her blog here - Kate Johnson Photography - remember that if you ever need great pictures taken. I was going to have her take pictures next week, but then I found out on Friday that she was going to be out of town for two weeks. So, Saturday morning I sent her a text and by that afternoon we were taking Kelsey's pictures! I love the way they turned out! Here are just a few...


With the teddy bear Grandma Glo and Grandpa gave her



Here's a cute one of Lottie that Katie snapped while I took a break with Kelsey. I can never get Lottie to smile in pictures for me, but Katie has a way of catching her at just the right moments to really catch her personality.


And finally here's me with my two girls. Brad was at Priesthood Conference while we did this, so he didn't get any pictures with her, but we'll catch that later.


Kelsey is so sweet. She doesn't look at all like Lottie, yet. I have a feeling they'll look more alike as time goes on. Kelsey does have my darker hair, and doesn't have Brad's eyes and eyebrows like Lottie does. I may be biased, but I think they're both adorable.

Non-stress?

Why is it called a non-stress test when they only do it when you're stressed?

I've been pretty sick for the past week and a half. My family shares everything - even the stomach flu. And that's miserable enough, but worse when you're 9 months pregnant! Yesterday, for the fifth day out of the last eight, I couldn't keep anything down. After being at work for a while, I noticed that the baby wasn't moving like she usually does. Little Laverne & Shirley is really quite active. So I focused for an hour and only felt her move once.

My doctor sent me to the hospital for a non-stress test. Luckily, I work with my brothers, and Barry drove me to the hospital. Brad dropped Lottie off at his mom's and met us there. They strapped the monitors on me and I waited. We heard the strong heartbeat immediately, and it continued throughout the test.

So, they sent me home with a lovely prescription for the nausea. And when they say that it may cause drowsiness, they are right. I slept almost through the whole night last night, for the first time in a long time.

Now I just have to focus on getting better so I can actually deliver a baby. I was almost hoping they would just induce me yesterday while I was there, but they won't do that while you're sick as long as the baby's okay. Now it's back to waiting. I'm scheduled to be induced on Wednesday if I don't have the baby before then.

By popular demand...

So, here are a couple new pictures of Lottie. I didn't take many pictures during August or yet in September, so they aren't the most recent.

We went swimming on the 24th of July with Debbie and Ainsleigh. Lottie has a lot of hair, but normally it just lays flat doing nothing. However, put a little sunscreen in it and you get...

Whenever we do Lottie's laundry, she likes to help. Mostly she helps by crawling into her empty basket. But if you put the clothes from the washer onto the door of the dryer, she

will push them in for you.

And to prove she's growing up so fast, we were waiting for Uncle Patrick and Aunt Katie to get home one night and she just had to sit in my seat and learn to drive. A minute later when she grabbed my phone and held it up to her ear with one hand still on the wheel, I knew we were in trouble.

I'm trying to upload a video, but it seems to be having issues. I'll work on that and get it posted too.

Maybe pregnancy insomnia is sort of a good thing. If I could actually sleep at night, I don't think I'd ever post. 4 a.m. seems to be a good time for me to blog. Two more weeks, then I get "baby's not sleeping" insomnia. Don't think that will be as conducive for blogging though.

Seriously, so proud

Last year, just before Lottie was born, Brad walked in the graduation ceremony at BYU. He wasn't officially a graduate, because he still had his 200 hour internship to complete, but he walked, planning on completing his internship over the summer and having his diploma mailed.

Well, ask anyone who's done it, but an internship while working full-time to support a family is no easy task.

It's already taken him longer to complete his classes than usual because he had to work full-time. He's put so much effort into taking care of me and Lottie that his own personal interests have been put second. There are so many things that he wants to accomplish, but there just seems to be no time.

His work schedule isn't the easiest. And when he's home, he seems to spend all of his time on his own "honey-do" list. I've never had to make one for him, he just gets things done. Of course, top on the list is spending all the time he can with Lottie. I swear, if it wasn't for him that girl wouldn't be as smart as she is. She loves to play and walk and go up and down the stairs, and he is the one who never fails to have the energy to do it with her - even after a full day of work standing for eight hours straight.

Add to all of that the internship. This summer (only a year after planned...) he finally finished his internship with Select Health. Part of that was to complete a journal of activities. So many people (myself included) would probably have just done the hours, whipped something together to get just a passing grade, and submitted it. But Brad put a lot of time into actually turning in a journal he could be proud of. Enough to get an "A."

And yesterday, his diploma was mailed. He is officially a college graduate. Sure, he may have picked the wrong University to attend (Go Utes!) but he did it. He didn't let anything stop him, and that makes me so proud of him.

I was talking to my mom one day, and she shared with me what she worries about with her children. Each of us has different struggles. One thing she said was that she didn't worry about my family financially because she was sure that Brad would do whatever it took to make sure that we were cared for. I don't doubt that either.

I'm so glad that he has the drive to finish what he starts. He truly can teach our children by example. I don't ever have to worry that they'll do something they see their daddy do, because I would be proud to have my children do exactly what their daddy does.

And so fitting that he finished classes and walked right before his first child was born, and actually has the diploma now just before child #2. So really, we could just pretend these pictures were taken now... since we both still look the same!

*Disclaimer - I just couldn't resist one stab at BYU... But while we all know that the U of U is a much better school, I am still quite excited that BYU beat Oklahoma. I even cheered for them and explained to my sister why it was so exciting that they won that game.