Rules:
Link to the person who tagged you and comment in the comment section on their original Quirk post.
Mention the rules on your blog.
Tell 6 unspectacular quirks about you.
Tag 6 or more by linking to them.
Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogs letting them know they've been tagged.Here Goes:

1. I can't just sit still and watch tv. I have to be doing something with my hands or else I get terribly bored and start wandering around. Often I read a book and watch tv or type on the computer while watching tv. It's really bizarre.

2. I learned how to can food, quilt, crochet, sew my own clothes, cook, garden, milk cows/goats, and even make my own candy when I was a kid. I can't clean an animal, I don't know any metal working, I can't make my own candles, and I don't know how to spin (not exercise... making wool into yarn), but I have picked up a few survival skills over the years. I'm pretty confident that if my other crazy hippie friends and I joined forces we could survive some hard times.

3. I have an incredible memory. I can recall facts that I have read only once (did you know that orangutan means "man of the mountain" in Malaysian, and that they survive on a diet of bugs and fruit?) and can memorize long passages of literature reliably in a short period of time (I still know the Marc Antony soliloquy from Julius Cesar that I memorized in 10th grade). It usually takes me an average of 2 days to memorize all 150 of my new students' names at the start of the school year. This is tremendously useful when a disagreement arises between myself and another person, since I can often recall with crystal clarity what they have said/done on multiple occasions. I guess that's not so great if you're the other person, come to think of it.

4. I lived in California until my parents split up when I was 7. After a short layover in Utah, I moved to Houston where I lived (except for summers) with my dad until I was 17. Because of that, I claim the right to use both "dude" and "y'all" in conversation without any hesitation whatsoever. That's a hard one to explain to people who don't know me well. Ironically, I have now lived in Utah longer than I lived in either Texas or California, so I guess I should start talking about "hun'in fer elk in the moun'ins" and praying for "mo'sture" at meal times.

5. I love doing geneological research and spent a lot of my time in college looking at microfilm and pouring over census documents. I have literally thousands of family names on record and have stories to go with many of them. I had anscestors on the Mayflower, in the Revolutionary war, the Civil War, and in France during WWII. I'm related to some pretty famous (and infamous) people, too. It's kind of cool knowing where you come from.

6. I have double jointed toes and when I'm sitting in a chair I often curl my toes completely underneath my feet. This is hard to explain, but it basically looks like all my toes have been cut off where they join the foot. For some reason, that freaks a lot of people out the first time they see it. It's really comfortable, though. I also sleep completely face down on a regular basis, which used to freak out roommates and my spouse.

Fighting the good fight...

So about a week ago I blogged about my New Year's resolutions which are to get off of sugar and caffeine. So this is just an update.
The caffeine battle is proving to be easier than I thought it would be. I've slipped up a few times, but I went most of last week without a drop of caffeine. I'm even getting pretty good at cutting back on the caffeine free stuff.
Sugar, however, is proving much more difficult to kick. I blame my birthday. Why do we always celebrate with food, anyway? Why can't we celebrate by doing something super fun? But anyway, I had like 3 birthday cakes this year. What is up with that?
I've decided to help with my food goals I'm also going to try and start exercising. I'm no good at going to gyms and stuff, and I'm even worse about jogging- I just don't like all the preparation that goes in to going out to run. It's way too complicated.
I do, however, enjoy getting jiggy every now and then, so my goal is to start doing dance for about 20 minutes a day or so. I've heard that helps increase endorphines which helps with carb cravings. We'll see. I did it today and had a great time, so I am pretty hopeful. In the mean time, the sugar is being cleared out of my house and I'll keep working on that.
Anyway, I know I have a lot of friends and family with diet and/or exercise goals this year. I'd love to hear what you all are doing. I really believe that group support is one of the keys to sticking to a goal like this. Feel free to leave a comment or email if you want to chat and/or compare notes.

Resolution

So every year since I was 22 I've had pretty much the same New Year's resolutions and they're always bust by the end of the year, so this year I'm making a new one.
My resolution this year is to cut out as much chemically altered food as possible from my diet. I really feel like a lot of the bizarre health problems I have tie back to what I'm putting in my body, and if the old adage "you are what you eat" is true, I'm a combination of high fructose corn syrup, partially hydroginated soybean oil, caffeine, and aspartame. That does not bode well for me in the long run, I'm thinking.
First on my list to go- sugar and caffeine. Yikes. I know. That means no chocolate, candy, cake, cookies, pie, tarts, crisps, crumbles, or parfaits. It also means no Diet Coke.
I'm pretty committed to this, though, so stay tuned for updates. So far I've been doing pretty well with the Diet Coke thing. I've caved a few times, but I've been using Caffeine Free. Luis says it tastes the same. I say "yeah right." He clearly has never really been a Diet Coke drinker. It's closer to the real thing than tap water, though, so I'm sticking to that. My plan is to switch to Caffeine Free and once I get the buzz out of my system, to move to natural sodas and then to get off soda altogether. Sigh. Today I bought my first Hansen's and it was ok. It's no Diet Coke, but then again, what is?
Sugar is another story, though. I'm working with no game plan, here, and quitting cold turkey isn't working at all. I'm thinking I can do the thing where I make Sunday a "safe" day and eat whatever I want if I haven't slipped up during the week. That's worked for me before, but obviously without lasting results. Have any of you quit sugar successfully? I'm like the biggest carb addict on the planet, but with my PCOS sweets are like the LAST thing I should be eating.
Anyway, I'd appreciate any advice and support you have. It's going to be rough, but I think the health benefits will outweigh the struggle. At least that's what I'm hoping.

This is Kind of Creepy...

This is not a picture of me. Take a closer look. Confused? This is my Great-Aunt Grace. Grace was my maternal grandfather's oldest sister, which makes her my mom's aunt. This photo was taken circa 1955. All those little kids are mom's cousins.

The first time I saw this photo I seriously freaked out... I mean, Grace passed away in the 70's before I was even born!

The really scary thing... Grace couldn't have kids, which eventually drove her insane.... Just when my life couldn't get any more bizarre, now I have this to mull over.

I think this was the plot for a Twilight Zone episode.

Hi Ho! Hi Ho!

So those of you who know me really well know that I have a total love-hate relationship with work. I love that I have something to do during the day besides stay home and obsess about the whole infertile thing, yet I hate actually doing any sort of paid work. If I could get paid to be like an Indiana Jones-esque super-bad archeologist or like an internationally famous fashion designer, then I'd probably be psyched to get up and I might even stop hitting the snooze button 6 times in the morning, but let's face it... English teaching and owning a small business are neither exciting nor glamorous. Since those are kind of my only options right now, I do the best I can, and trust me... I'm really happy about some of the perks, like owning 2 houses (one of which is like the coolest house ever) and having summers off. But days like today, I'd really rather sit through a root canal than think about going back to work after the weekend. That's why I'm wasting my time on my blog rather than grading the humongous stack of papers that's piled up in my office. Thus, I bring to you my top 10 lists for the day:

Top 10 things I hate about my job:
1. Office politics that could be literally taken out of an episode of "the Office" including the egotistically oblivious boss and the incompetent, lazy peers
2. grading papers. It's like doing the dishes, only takes longer and is more boring.
3. showing up to work at 7:30. Granted I get out of work at 3:15, but it still sucks
4. dealing with puberty, every day. If you thought it was bad the first time around, try reliving it 150 times a day, 180 days a year.
5. my paycheck. Granted, I get paid a lot more than a lot of people, but I have to go through hell to get it... leading me to
6. dealing with other people's bratty kids. You know that little pain in the butt you have to deal with in your primary class? Guess what. His teacher has to deal with him 5 days a week, and he hates school a lot more than he hates church. Of course, it's not his fault. His parents made him that way, which leads me to...
7. Watching all the horrible things that people do to their kids. It breaks my heart sometimes.
8. Grading papers. I have to do it more than once a week, so it's on the list twice.
9. I can NEVER leave my work behind. I can't go out in public without seeing a student. I can't enjoy my church services, because someone is always watching me. I can't even just hang out in my garden, since I live next door to like three of my students. It's like living in a fish bowl.
10. There is ALWAYS something else I could/should be doing to be a better teacher. It's exhausting, and I'm on a constant guilt trip.

Top 10 things I love about my job:
1. Summer Break, baby! Isn't this why MOST teachers become teachers? At what other job can you get paid a year's salary for 180 day's worth of work?
2. I don't have to work weekends. Ever.
3. I don't have to work holidays. How many people still get like Columbus day off? That's right. Pretty much just teachers. Heck. I still get SPRING BREAK!!!!
4. Respect. I tell people what I do and automatically I get props for doing what I do.
5. I get to correct people's grammar and spelling, and they know it. Disclaimer: all my blogs are first drafts. Don't judge my editing skills based off of my writing here.
6. I get to use correct grammar without looking like a total snob. Try starting your sentence with a preposition and you'll see what I mean. Only English teachers and butlers are allowed to start a sentence with the words "For whom..." without being total weenuses.
7. I know how to use semi colons. That's right. You heard it.
8. I get to hang out all day with people who are so nerdy they actually make me look cool. Major plus. Seriously. You should talk to some of these guys. Did anyone ask for a Dungeon Master?
9. I'm the popular kid in Middle School this run around. The first time I did it I was a total bottom feeder in the popularity fish-tank. This time, I'm seriously like one of the most popular teachers in school. Kind of sad that I care, but I do, and I am. So take that.
10. People, at least a few of them, will remember me for the rest of their lives. Try finding another job where you have that much impact on another person's life. It'll mess with your head if you think about it too much. I read an email once that asked you to name everyone on student council your Senior year of high school. Then it asked you to name all of your teachers in high school. The point was that you can probably remember your dorky teachers a lot more than all those cool kids that you thought were so important.

Top 10 jobs I really wish I could have, but doubt I could ever realistically pull off
1. archeologist
2. professional crafter
3. best selling author
4. librarian
5. gardener
6. costume designer or set designer for a major motion picture
7. college professor, which is like being a teacher only with a lot more power and vests
8. professional musician
9. host of my own travel show (I heart Anthony Bourdain!)
10. domestic engineer

Top 10 things I'm most likely to do instead of grading papers
1. buy stuff
2. cook
3. watch tv
4. take a nap
5. craft projects
6. redecorate my house or work in my garden
7. listen to the radio
8. talk on the phone
9. go somewhere. anywhere.
10. play on the internet

Well. That's that. I have to grade 2nd period's work now. What would you do if you could do anything?

The LONGEST blog post of all time.

So we got back yesterday from our whirlwind tour of Mexico. Here's a map of our Odessy.

On the first day we drove from Provo to El Paso. My in-laws picked us up at the airport at 11. We wanted to drive all the way to Chihuahua that night because there was a big dramatic showdown a week earlier about how I had to risk my job and demand the 19th off so we could spend all day on the 21st in Guadalajara for Grecia's birthday. I refused, so we were literally rushing the entire day on the 19th to get there so we could leave Chihuahua on the 20th to be in Guadalajara the next day. We only stopped to pee and I purposely dehydrated myself so we'd have to make fewer pit stops. The weather was good and Luis was speeding most of the way

We got there any my MIL decided she'd rather go shopping at the WalMart and Sams Club in El Paso (more on WalMart to come), which took literally 2 hours, making it WAY too late to consider making the drive, so we stayed at the Econo Lodge in El Paso on the night of the 19th.

We woke up late on the 20th, as usual, and my in-laws woke up even later. While we were waiting we walked to a K-Mart and bought me a pair of sunglasses and Andrei some headphones and a bag of balloons for the rest of the trip. We finally got on the road around 12 or 1 and made it to Villa Ahumada in time to enjoy the world's greatest burritos. If you're ever in Villa Ahumada, Chihuahua, Mexico, stop at a little place called Restaurante La Arizona. Order the Asadero and Frijoles burrito and the Chile Relleno Burrito. You will NOT be disappointed.

We got back on the road around 4 and made it to Chihuahua around 6 or 7. We stopped by my SIL Karla's house before going to Mama's place and played Guitar Hero for like 2 hours (it was her Christmas present from Luis and my Suegros). Andrei fell asleep in the car on the way to Mama's house and we put him peacefully to bed on a big mattress in Grecia's old room.

We woke up on the 21st pretty early and got on the road. It was a LONG day in the car filled with balloon fights and videos, and we finally arrived in Guadalajara around 8:30 or 9:00. Once again, Andrei fell asleep in the car and we put him peacefully to bed in Abuelita Esperanza's guest room. Abuelita is Luis's paternal grandmother and she reminds me A LOT of my Grandma Black. Because of that, I truly love her.

The next morning we woke up and made the rounds. We had to take Papa to the airport because he had business in Toluca and then we went for Grecia's belated birthday meal at La Enramada. That's a restaurant in GDL where they have live Mariachi performances and comedians on a big stage in the middle of the room. We had to wait an exorbatantly long time for the rest of our party to show up and to get the food ready, and I was so tired I didn't feel like parenting, so I just let Andrei run amuck in the "kid's room" while the grown-ups enjoyed their food in relative peace. Apparently the new trend in fancy Mexican restaurants is to put a bounce house in the back room and ditch the kids back there. I have mixed feelings about that, but it was nice to not have to worry about the little monkey for a few hours.

By the time we left there wasn't much else to do for the day, so we went back to Abuelita's house and just chilled for the rest of the evening.

On the 23rd, we basically had a repeat of the previous day, only Andrei got to swim in Abuelita's pool for an hour and we ate at a different restaurant. This time we went to Carne en Su Jugo, which isn't the name of the restaurant but the name of their most popular dish, which is kind of like pork stew with beans. It sounds gross but may be literally the most delicious food on the whole planet. I'm not sure, but it's definitely a top choice for me. This restaurant also had a "kids' room" and this time Andrei got to play with his "tio" Ernestito. Ernestito is the only son of Luis's uncle Ernesto, so that makes him Luis's first cousin and technically a generation older than Andrei. The joke is, though, that he's only 8 and Andrei is like 2 inches taller than him. He goes to a bilingual school, too, so he and Andrei had a good time running around like maniacs and practicing their English and Spanish together.

Side note: Luis's middle name is Ernesto, and it's the name most of his maternal family calls him. His maternal grandfather's name is Ernesto, and Hector's son's middle name is Ernesto. Luis has a paternal uncle named Ernesto, who is Ernestito's dad. Did you catch that? 1 family, 5 men with the same name. I love Mexican culture, but I'll never understand why they latch on to one name and give it to everyone in the family. It makes get-togethers VERY confusing...

After dinner we went back to Abuelita's house and enjoyed a typical evening of Farias family fun- that, of course, means that everyone comes to Abuelita's house, sits around, eat sweet bread and drinks, and makes conversation until the older generation starts to randomly fall asleep in the middle of their small talk. I hung out in the kitchen with Ana, Karely, and Ernestito's sister Paulina making cakes for Christmas.

Christmas in Mexico is VERY different from in the U.S. The celebration is usually held on the 24th, not the 25th, and it usually involves A LOT of food, pinatas, alcohol, fireworks, and random hilarity. Often there is a family dance. We celebrated this year at Tia Chela's awesome house in Bugambilias (that's Spanish for Bougavillias), an exclusive gated community on the edge of Bosque la Primavera (that means the Springtime Forest- a wooded mountain out of the main pollution/traffic area of the city). Tragically it's our last Christmas there, since she's selling her house and moving to a condo downtown. Boo hoo.

We had a large meal and a show (traditionally put on by the ladies in the family), followed by 2 GIANT pinatas and hours of socializing with the family. Andrei earned the nickname "Party Boy" because he was still going strong and running circles around the grownups at 1 a.m. I mean literally running circles. He was on a scooter. We're thinking of making him a t-shirt and boxers next year that actually have "Party Boy" stitched on to them.

The weird thing about Andrei is that the later he stays up, the earlier he wakes up; this is a phenomena that my in-laws refused to believe existed until this year, but he's been doing since he was a baby. He woke up on the 25th at 5 a.m. ready for Santa's bounty. We forced him to go back to sleep, but it was a fruitless effort and we finally succumbed to his pleading and let him open his presents around 8. When I say "open" I of course do not mean literally open. Luis's family does not gift-wrap anything, and they don't do stockings in Mexico, so he actually just walked over to the table where they were sitting and picked them up. Woot! I hid some in the closet of our room just to add a little excitement this year.

We were hungry and the rest of the family was sleeping like most regular humans do after staying up till 2, so we decided to walk around and try to find some place for breakfast. The only place open was a little torta shop so we had bionicos (that's chopped fruit mixed with yogurt, honey, and granola) and tortas (that's Mexican-Spanish for sandwiches made with thick bread and some sort of meat). Then we walked over to the condo where Mama and Ana were still sleeping and woke them up. Aren't we great relatives?

The rest of the day is eloquently chronicled in my previous post titled "San Juan de Dios."

On the 26th we got BACK in the car with my FIL (Ana and Mama didn't want to go) and drove to the coast. It was a peaceful trip, except for the fact that Andrei was on edge from a general lack of sleep and nutrition. We spent a few hours at the beack in Manzanillo and slept about an hour away in the city of Colima, which is a charming little town where I would some day like to retire. It's cleaner than most cities in Mexico, has year round warm weather, fruit randomly growing around the city, and gorgeous public parks. Most of the buildings downtown are over 200 years old. Luis lived there when he was like 7 or 8.

The next day we went back to the beach after swimming in the hotel's AWESOME pool, and spent the remainder of the day on the sand and in the surf. The beach at Manzanillo has weird sand that is super sticky and flecked with gold. It makes everything it touches bronze colored, which makes for really terriffic photos. We had dinner at "La Boca" which is an inlet with a lot of resorts and restaurants. We ate our meal literally about 20 feet from the beach on a table literally sitting on the sand. We drove back to Guadalajara that night, and Andrei fell asleep in the car (can you see an emerging trend?).

The next morning we left early and drove to Chihuahua. It was an uneventful trip and we were glad to be out of the car by the time we arrived. At this point Mama switched from obsessing about Luis's lack of sleep (the previous theme to all of our family conversations) to Andrei's lack of appropriate clothing (she thinks that in the chilly town of Chihuahua the frigid 60 degree weather was putting Andrei at risk for the flu and repeatedly scolded both Luis and myself for not foring him to wear sweatpants, sweat socks, and a parka at all times). This was a theme she repeated the entire week, often with unintentionally hilarious results.

Our time in Chihuahua was uneventful and I spent most of it either cleaning Mama's house (by my own choice), pushing Luis to help his mom with some home repairs (like fixing a leak in the plumbing and reattaching her pantry door), playing with Andrei in her community park, or sitting around Karla's house eating, laughing, and playing. I love Karla, by the way. She is the happiest, silliest person I've ever met, and I think she's intoxicatingly charming. Karla's husband Hector (yup, another repeat name... are you really surprised?) got baptised this year after 6 years of waiting. It was a joyous family reunion to say the least.

New Years was weird and uncomfortable, and there was an incident with the Ponche that I still haven't quite forgiven Mama for. For details, email me. But we all survived, even Anrei, who ate dinner on the 31st at 10 o'clock and fell asleep on my lap in the living room at 10: 35. We even got to rock out on some Karaoke classics like Selena's "Como La Flor," which is one of my fav. songs ever. If you don't know it, check it out here. My favorite part was when Karla did my makeup. She's a professional beautician, and girlfriend knows her stuff. It was fun to feel pretty for once, after spending the past few months feeling simply ucky.

We rested on the 1st and didn't really do anything except for hang out and buy Andrei some shoes. Luis packed Andrei's bags and didn't pack any shoes, meaning that Andrei only had an old pair of slip-on's that were a size too small. He spent the first week complaining about them so Luis bought Andrei a pair of flip-flops at the WalMart in Colima, which Andrei left at La Boca when he had to take them off to wash the sand and dirt off his feet before entering the car. We then bought him a pair of clear shower flip-flops at the WalMart in Chihuahua. Andrei ran around for like 5 days in those until my MIL got pissed off and told Luis to stop being cheap and just buy him some dang shoes. That's probably because he looked ridiculous. He thought they were magic crystal power sandals, though, so we were cool with it. Mama was worried that he was too cold, though, despite the fact that he almost always had socks on with his sandals. Classy, I know. Luis didn't want to, since Andrei has like 20 pairs of shoes here in UT, but Mama insisted and footed the bill, so it was cool. This was hard since Mexican WalMarts are basically grocery stores with a VERY small selection of housewares and clothing tacked on. They only had like 5 choices of boy's tennis shoes, the cheapest of which cost 250 pesos, which is like $20. She also bought him the most ridiculous pair of PJ's ever because they were fleece and she was still obsessing over the cold thing. Andrei wore them for 5 minutes and then took them off and put on his regular t-shirt style PJ's. This is when the unintentional hilarity ensued as Mama spent the next 48 hours arguing with our 6 year old and trying to cajole him into wearing the pj's. He did, long enough to take a photo. It was really funny.

We left on the 3rd and drove as far as Moab. It was a long day seeing as we left at 7 a.m. and had to spend almost 2 hours in line at Juarez to cross the border. I did most of the driving, which is weird because in 7 years of relationship with Luis he's ALWAYS done the driving. I can literally count on 1 hand how many times I've driven him some place. I was tired of being copilot, though, and the driver's seat looked so comfy and ample, so I thought I'd give it a go. It was fun, and made going through the immigration checkpoint outside of Gallup NM a lot easier. It was midnight by the time we got there, though, and we weren't sure how the roads were, so we stopped for the night at the Motel 6. It would have been the best night's sleep I'd had the entire vacation, except for the noisy baby in the next room and the paper thin walls.

We got back to Provo around 12 on the 4th and had to rush to unload suitcases from the rental car before returning it to the airport in SLC at 1. We barely made it, and were REALLY happy to be back in Provo at 3.

So there you go. I had a pretty good time, all things considered. I loved San Juan de Dios and the beach, and had a great time with Luis's sisters. I'm glad to be back, though. I missed potable drinking water, clean air, adequate roads, and American Diet Coke. Mexican "Coca Light" tastes like soap and tears.

Hope you all had a good winter break, too!