It is rare for me to post two days in a row, but here I am, posting again. It's been raining for three days now, and it's going to keep raining for another week. It's dark when we wake up, dark when we get to work, and dark when we get home. Boo. We need more sun. It occurred to me this morning that I will most likely be watching a lot more cartoons in the next few years with the onset of offspring. Last Saturday I was flipping around trying to find something to watch on TV, and I realized, there really aren't any cartoons for kids nowadays like there were when we were little. Tom and Jerry have modernized, cartoons like Mucha Lucha may try to have a moral, but it's nothing compared to the Wuzzles or Zooblie Zoo. Even Tailspin had witty jokes, a moral, and fun storylines. All of the parents now are stupid (i.e. Jimmy Neutron) or non-existent (i.e. Spongebob) and the kids are mean to each other. Why does it have to be like this? What in heaven's name are my kids going to watch? Useless fluff? Teletubbies? If anyone knows of a site where I can download/buy 80 episodes of Bill Nye the Science Guy, sign me up! Will my kids ever see the crayon factory episode of Mr. Roger's or learn how to spell with Snuffleupagus and count with the Count? Just something I've been wondering about.

I was reading at the end of Mosiah this morning in the Book of Mormon, and I stumbled across a verse that describes perfectly what's ahead for the USA. King Mosiah is trying to convince his people to accept the reign of judges instead of kings. The people get to elect these judges, and they will each be accountable to each other. Mosiah says that the voice of the majority of the people is almost always for good, but (and here's the kicker) when the voice of the people opts for iniquity, that's when the judgment of God will come upon them. Perfect! We elect Clinton for two terms, and God allows earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, and terrorist attacks (think Oklahoma City and NYC). In 1996 the voice of the people cried out for an iniquitous man, even after we found out what kind of man he was. Now the choice is between a God-fearing, if flawed, man and a deceiver. If we choose the deceiver, I fear for our country. Clinton's reign was the beginning of the end, but we managed to halt the downward spiral temporarily with Bush. Now we will see if America has a deathwish.

OK, depressing blog today, but Buck up, little camper, we already know who's going to win in the Ultimate End.

I'm trying to think up a cute costume to wear for our Halloween party this year. I'm going to be about 7 months pregnant, and when you weigh about 150 it really shows. In searching on the web for maternity halloween costumes, I kept running across really tacky ideas like the pregnant nun or the pregnant cheerleader. I, myself, however am thinking about going as a Troll doll...you know, the kind with the jewel in their tummy and the shocking-colored hair. They have cute little round tummies, just like me. It shouldn't be that hard to find something to make up the outfit with, either, I hope. It's either that or paint a pumpkin on my tummy or go as a cow. My options are severely limited this year. It seems like most costumes are made for 110 pound midgets. Nothing for the woman with some girth on her.

In other news, we got the car registered today. And we only had to pay 10% of what it's worth in order to pass the safety/emissions test. Still, I'm grateful that it works, and that we don't have to buy a car this month. Maybe Santa will bring us a new car for Christmas!! I've been very good this year...I swear!

We're going to see Jekyll and Hyde tonight at the local community theater. I'm hoping they do a good job, as this isn't Dylan's favorite thing to do, and I don't want him to be able to use this in any future cultural-event arguments. I'm also looking forward to a night at the theater. I love sitting in the dark and losing myself in a play or musical. There's something about it that tops movies in a big way. Especially Jekyll and Hyde, the raw emotion felt by this one man is powerful, when done correctly. Much like Les Miz. You can just feel Javert's anguish as he is spared by Valjean and eventually commits suicide. Something about that song "Stars" wrenches at my soul every time I hear it. He's so sure of himself and his place in this world until a convict shows him mercy. Then there is suddenly no place for him. What power is in the words "I am reaching, but I fall, and the stars are black and cold as I stare into the void or a world that cannot hold. I'll escape now from that world, from the world of Jean Valjean, there is nowhere I can turn, there is no way to go on..." Where Valjean turned to God, Javert could not. So powerful. Jekyll and Hyde is the same way. This man was the original bi-polar schizophrenic. It will be interesting to see how the evening goes.

I've been called many things in my life...miser, cheapskate, tightwad, but I think I hit the ultimate epitome of spendthrift this weekend. My hair has just been getting longer and longer, and it's driving me crazy. Thrifty person that I am, I didn't want to pay anywhere from $15-$50 for a haircut that's just going to grow out in a few months anyway. So what do I do? I rig up two mirrors in my bathroom (which was a feat in that tiny space) and start chopping away at my hair with the kitchen sheers. How did it turn out, you ask? Rather well. I took about 3 inches off, and gave myself little whispy bangs on the sides of my face. I will say that I did better than the Hair Cuttery did last November. My husband thinks it looks "cute" and laughed and hugged me when I told him I did it myself. He doesn't mind that I'm a cheapskate...see that's how we have a savings account right now. Almost all purchases go through me. He's great about it. The only problem with my hair is that no one can tell, since I broke my hair dryer on Sunday and I can't style it for work. Once again the cheapskate in me came out, and when I was telling this story to 40 cent (a coworker) she volunteered to give me her old hair dryer since she bought a new one. I love this!!

We went to see The Village over the weekend. I'd highly recommend it, and I hate scary movies. I won't sit through them. I don't know how Dylan convinced me to go, but we did and I loved it. It wasn't that scary, more of a thinker. Shyamalan's a genius. I only jumped two or three times and I'm a scardycat. We discussed that movie for more than an hour afterwards. We haven't discussed a movie like that in a long, long time. And just for the record...our car is the bad color! Nooooooooo!!!!!!!!

So there's this great girl here at work named Maja (pronounced Maya) who comes from some Eastern European country. She is literally the nicest girl I have ever met. She barely has an accent, she's blond and cute and so sweet! I'm not just saying this because every time I pass her desk she gives me european chocolate. I'd say it if she didn't give me any chocolate. Still, the chocolate definitely helps our relationship. :) She says it's for the baby, and I'm to come by her desk any time to get these chunks of pure heaven. She says she has more chocolate than she could ever eat because her family keeps sending her care packages with loads of the stuff. I'm considering adopting her. It'll give Seamus someone to play with. :)

Today is Wednesday, and that means it's huge, long, boring meeting day! I'm used to meetings that last several hours with everyone repeating what everyone else has already said, but today's meeting was just ridiculous. It started promptly at 8am and lasted 3.5 hours. That's an hour and a half longer than it was supposed to last. Stupid meeting. Seriously, if you're going to have a meeting for that long, bring donuts. You need something to keep the troops happy. And for heaven's sake, air condition the room! The thing that made the meeting nearly unbearable was this baby of mine who decided to take that time and sit on top of my bladder. This means that every 30 minutes I was hopping up to go to the bathroom. 15 men and me, and I have to work my way to the door in the middle of someone's soapbox speech. My boss was laughing at me towards the end. I suppose they've all had wives who've gone through this, and someday they may have enlarged prostates, and then they'll know EXACTLY how I felt. Mu ha ha ha. Eventually I pushed on my stomach and got Seamus to move off my bladder. Ah, sweet relief. He'd give it a good kick for good measure every once in awhile, though.

The one good thing I will say for nearly-4-hour long meetings is that it makes the day fly by. That's half the work day right there. How just another 2 1/2 hours until I get to go home. Yay!

LDS General Conference was this weekend, and what a fun time that always is. Saturday I was on my own, though, since my husband had to work all day. That was lonely. I just sat and did my cross-stich as I listened to words of wisdom from our prophets. It's amazing how big the church is getting, and how many temples we have...130 by the end of the year. Incredible. There was nothing huge, although I did like the talk about keeping Testimony Meeting for the testimonies, and not the thank-timonies that it always seems to regress to in my ward. Then there's the story-testimonies, the travel-log-testimonies, and my personal favorite, the I'm-a-horrible-person-testimonies where the giver starts naming all of their faults. Seriously, people, go to the bishop for that, we don't need to hear all of your sins in one sitting! So, yay for keeping it short, sweet, and a profession of your beliefs and knowledge concerning the gospel.

Saturday night we had a Halo party (it's an X-Box game for those of you non-gamers out there). We had a bunch of people over and linked up our X-Boxes and proceeded to shoot each other dead for about 5 1/2 hours. Fun, fun, fun. I'm definitely getting better at the game, which makes it more interesting to play now. And I get brownie points with Dylan when I play (especially when I win) since it's really his thing and I'm "making an effort" to take an interest in his likes. Yay for me. Sometimes it's frustrating when you get killed over and over, and have to wait 20 seconds to respawn, especially when you get killed by the same person over and over. But then you get your revenge, and oh, how sweet it is. There's nothing like stalking and meleeing someone on a rocket launcher level. It's just adding insult to injury. Then you can shoot their measly carcass with the rocket once they're dead. Mu ha ha ha. I know I'll never be as good as some of the people we play with, but I'm better than when I started, and better than some of the people who have been playing for quite awhile. Yay for me! I wonder if our son will like Halo...