1. This morning when I got out of bed, I stepped right into the diaper garbage. The cold, gushy substance oozing between my toes was definitely not my favorite way to start the day, but Dan sure laughed at my howl of dismay.

2. Violet's favorite thing to do is write all over her face and clothes with pens. Oh, and she has figured out how to open drawers. And, of course, she has to test the law of gravity with the entire contents of the drawers!

3. We are all "played" out. We have gone to several plays the past couple three months, including "The Jungle Book," "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat," "The Robber Bridegroom," "A Midsummer Night's Dream," "The Miracle Worker," "The Mikado" (last night), and now "Esperanza Rising," (tonight). Dan has had to cram in all of these because he is supposed to turn in his Honors Portfolio on Monday, and he has to have gone to 12 plays, seen 12 foreign films, attended 12 classical concerts, seen 12 museum displays, read 12 classic books, and then 12 of some science stuff. It has been crazy how much we have done. Oh yes, after the play we'll probably be watching another foreign film. That will be two this week. (And the hard thing is that it has to be on a big screen, so we'll have to go up to campus and use an empty auditorium.) Talk about procrastination. But, all in all, it has been fun. And funny.

4. Oh yes. For those aforementioned honors activities, Dan has to turn in two papers for each category, doing a critical analysis of the great work. Since he is working on his thesis, guess who he has recruited to do this for him? Yep. Yours truly. Give another laugh for Dan's procrastination. I'm trying to :).

P.S. In Dan's defense, he has actually done a few of these already. Plus, as his "editor," I am merely "helping" to "formulate" his papers. Man, editors do the majority of the actual writing in the world, and we don't get no respect (Now is where you picture Michael Scott and his sweet-awesome rap song).

Dan's younger brother Matt just left on his mission this past Wednesday. He is called to serve in the California Fresno Mission, speaking Spanish. He is going to be an awesome missionary.



Violet will sure miss her Uncle Matt!

At the Roberts' Ranch in Lakeshore, there have been some new baby foals.

Here is a picture of our poor Pontiac. She doesn't look as bad as she is because this is after Dan tried to straighten out the hood. I guess it pretty much crunched up everything inside.

The biggest turn of events this past week is that we are no longer going to UC Berkeley for Law School. We received a call from the University of Chicago on Tuesday, notifying us that Dan was accepted to their Law School, and that they were going to offer us some scholarship money.

So, after ruminating about everything, we have finally decided to abandon our beloved Berkeley and go to Chicago. It is pretty crazy because we had everything figured out at Berkeley--all our finances, where we were going to live--we even knew the bus route that Dan was going to take from our apartment to the law school! Now, we don't know anything except that we have committed to go to Chicago. The deciding factor was that the overall quality of education at Chicago is supposed to be better, even though they don't have quite as good of an IP program that Berkeley does. I am pretty forlorn about the climate change, but I am sure Chicago will be fun nonetheless. I just made Dan promise that we'd get to live in California after law school for at least a couple years to soak up the sunshine we'll be missing out on.

I took some pictures of Violet on Friday out on the lawn, and I think they turned out quite well. Here are a few of them.

This is the current status of our lives: we have no car. That's right. Dan wrecked it. Completely. It is totally un-drivable and probably not worth fixing. I don't really like talking about it, so maybe he'll tell you later exactly what happened. I still haven't seen it, as it was towed away. In the meantime, we'd appreciate it if you kept your eyes and ears out for a great deal on some type of vehicular transport.

I know everyone says your baby grows up so quickly, but that last month flew by faster than all the rest. I can't believe Violet is seven months!

She's not quite crawling yet, but she does get around on the floor by rolling and "swimming." When she does crawl she goes backwards instead of forwards. She still only weighs fourteen pounds (according to the scale at my parents'), still fits into most of her 3 month size clothes, and I think that is because she is SO active. She is always squirming around in my arms, grabbing everything and putting it in her mouth.

She is getting slightly better at sleeping during the night, and I'm grateful for that. She is a little sweetheart and she gives me "kisses" when I say "Loves?" and put my cheek close to her mouth (her idea of a kiss is slobbering all over your face, but I love it).

One of her favorite things to do is bang on the piano at my parents' house.

Last month we were getting her 6 month pictures taken, and for the last pose the photographer wanted us to turn her backwards so she could look over her shoulder at us. Well, it really hurt Violet's feelings to be turned away from us, so when she looked over her shoulder at us this is what we got:


Isn't that the sweetest little break-your-heart sad face?

Violet has a new toy: a Johnny Jump-Up. At first she couldn't figure it out...she'd just get mad when I'd leave her in there. She still doesn't quite jump, but she has figured out how to spin around. It is pretty cute. Here she is:

A ~ Each person has to list 6 facts/habits about them.

B ~ After part A, go to 6 people's blogs and leave a comment letting them know to read your blog, and that they have been tagged. List at the end of your posting who you have tagged.

1. I LOVE bubble baths. I would take one every day if I could, and now that I don't work/go to school I take at least one per week :). Oh, and when I'm in the bath, I love putting my ears under water and listening to my stomach grumble. It is very entertaining.

2. I always cut my sandwiches into four triangles rather than two rectangles. And I would take a grilled cheese over any other kind of sandwich almost any day. Unless you have avocados in the other sandwich. Then it may be a toss-up.

3. My ultimate goal in life is to be the biggest English grammar snob ever. Just kidding. But being 100% confident in speaking flawless English is right up there, along with visiting every continent, serving in a public political position (how 'bout that alliteration?), serving a mission with my husband, and getting published in something other than local newspapers and magazines and poetry websites :).

4. I can't bear to have a clock in my bedroom. The monotonous ticking sound makes me take at least 5 times as long to fall asleep, and then it haunts my dreams.

5. I have never bought a watch costing more than $5 or 5 Euros.

6. I'm not that great at sports, but I did run a marathon.

I tag Michelle Andelin, Traci Brown, Caci Chapman, Catherine Hess, and um...I don't think any of my other blog buddies would do this tag, so I guess I'm breaking the rules of this game.

This morning Dan informed me that in Mexico they don't even celebrate Cinco de Mayo. It is purely a United States tradition. He said it would be like the Mexicans having a Battle of Bunker Hill celebration. Anyway, we enjoyed eating some Mexican food at my cousin Christine's place. I tried to make some Mexican rice, but like many of my attempts to cook something new, it didn't turn out that great. I got the jalapeños in there, but that was pretty much the only redeeming quality of the whole dish. Too soggy and not enough salt.

Tomorrow, Dan and I will go separate ways. Since Dan is going on a river rafting trip with his family, Violet and I are going to go to St. George with some of my family. That way Violet and I won't feel too bummed about not being old enough to go river rafting :). We are all excited about our adventures, but since I'm taking the camera you'll probably only get to see pictures of my meanderings in Zion National Park, and none of Dan's doings in Dolores Canyon. I think we're both hoping that we come back with a slightly greater chance of developing skin cancer. Just kidding. Oh, the price of beauty.

Violet is increasingly mobile! Watch as she gets herself out of her bouncer and climbs under Daddy's chair (It happens every morning at breakfast)!

She starts out contentedly playing:


Then she gets bored and starts squirming out:


Little by little:


And...plop!


Then she swims around on the floor under Daddy's chair:


Isn't she sweet?

96 words

Speedtest

Beat that, Nate :). You probably will, actually. You'll get like 105 I bet.